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CONTENTS:
From The Editor
Inside The Pro Tour
Inside Foos Special Offers
Inside The Numbers
Upcoming Events
Foos Sites

*Order your 2003 Texas State DVD...Only $25 at http://www.insidefoos.com

Archer and Moreland Continue Hot Streak at $25,000 Texas States

The Inside Foos Productions crew made the 1500 mile trip to the great state of Texas this past Memorial Day weekend to cover the sport's largest regional event, the Texas State Championships, held for the second straight year at the Holiday Inn Select in Irving. This year's tournament, which offered $25,000 in cash and prizes (up $5000 from last year), emphatically lived up to its billing as the tour's "fourth major" with a well-attended, super-competitive three day foosball extravaganza.

Tournament Director Steve Murray had guaranteed optimum playing conditions for the 2003 event, and he delivered on his promise in a big way with a spacious ballroom housing 40 brand new, individually-lighted Tornado tables, and a pit area to rival any major championship. Murray, David Radack, Ben Kennon, Mike Simons, Stefan Glenn, Marcos Reyes, Richard Wight, Rex Bennett and the rest of the staff are all to be congratulated for their efforts in helping make the 2003 Texas State Championships a truly first class event.

The competition at this year's event was also first class, with a field nearly equal in talent to just about any major championship. Thirteen of the world's top 20 foosers were in attendance, including the two highest ranked men (Mares and Moore) and the top four rated women (Head, Tielens, Fuchs and Murray). Former open world champions Louis Cartwright, Adrian Zamora, Gregg Perrie, Becky Cherry, Mike Bowers and Tracy McMillin also helped to make this one of the toughest regional fields ever assembled. The competition in Open Singles and Doubles was especially fierce, with a large majorirty of the matches being decided by one final game.

There were several notable performances in the open events at this year's Lone Star classic including Terry Moore who played flawlessly in his four game Open Singles victory over defending champ Rob Mares, and Tom Yore and Dusty Bambanek who defeated Adrian Zamora and Christina Fuchs to claim their second Texas State Mixed Doubles title in a row. Vancouver's Moya Tielens also won a second straight singles trophy in Texas, while Cindy Head and Dawn Foust earned their first title together in the competitive Women's Doubles event.

But for me, the highlight of the weekend was the Open Doubles competition where 2002 Texas State champs Mike Archer and Brandon Moreland somehow held off the hard-charging Tony Spredeman and Amedio Gilmore in a very exciting two-set final to win their second straight Texas title. In that entertaining final match, Spredeman and Gilmore, fresh off a 3 game sweep of Rob Mares and Dana Marr in the loser's side final, won the first set in equally dominating fashion, 5-3, 5-3, and 5-4 to force a second and deciding set.

Playing outstanding team foosball, Tony and Amedio continued their scorching run by coming back from a 4-2 deficit to win game one of the second set, 5-4, and it appeared as if they were headed for the 2003 Texas State title. But in game two, Brandon Moreland clamped-down defensively on Spredeman and Mike Archer slowly began to control the five-rod and execute his pull shot with precision and intelligence. Mike and Brandon seized the momentum, winning that game, 5-3, and the next two, 5-3 and 5-4, to claim their second straight Texas State title. Proving himself to be a great clutch player, the explosive Moreland scored the last two points of the third game from goal, and then followed that up by scoring the final three points of the fourth and final game (two from forward, one from goal) to help secure the title for his team. Heading into the Nationals as the hottest pair on tour, Mike Archer and Brandon Moreland must now be considered one of the favorites to bring home hardware from the upcoming July 4th event.

On a video note, The Texas State DVD, which is ready and available for shipment now, features that exciting doubles final and much more, including an incredibly entertaining winner's bracket singles match between two of the sport's most talented performers, Rob Mares and Tony Spredeman. These two quick-handed and aggressive players put on a show reminiscent of a great boxing match where both fighters stand in the middle of the ring and throw one punch after another. Top tour pros Terry Moore, Trevor Park, Gregg Perrie, Steve Murray, Richard Wight, Dana Marr, Matt Steward and Eddy Gartman also make appearances on the DVD with several of the featured matches going right down to one final ball. Getting to watch the game's two most exciting young players, Tony Spredeman and Brandon Moreland, going head to head in the doubles final is probably worth the price of admission alone.

The Texas State DVD also includes a new feature, "The Inside Foos Tournament Hot Shot", which showcases the most creative and exciting (in our opinion) offensive play that we see during the course of tournament action on table number one in the pits. The "Hot Shot" featured on the new Texas State DVD took place in a winner's bracket doubles match and caused spectators to literally jump out of their seats in astonishment. You can order our most economical DVD ever for just $25 at http://www.insidefoos.com. If you've already ordered the Texas State DVD, shipping will begin later this week.

We now look ahead three weeks to the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency and the $55,000 National Championships, which is always one of the more popular stops on the tournament schedule. At last year's event in Atlanta, Frederic Collignon made the most of his first nationals appearance by winning Open Doubles (with Todd Loffredo), Open Singles and Masters Singles in yet another awe-inspiring performance. Rob Mares and Minneapolis native Debra Pflipsen earned Mixed Doubles honors in 2002, while Moya Tielens won Women's Singles, and Doubles with partner Stephanie Ohashi.

The National Championships are also home to the exciting Masters Singles competition, which takes a collection of the world's top Tornado-style players and puts them into a 3-out-of-5, single-elimination bracket, with the winner taking home the prestigious Green Jacket, cash, the Masters Cup, and the number one seed in singles at the World Championships. My Pick for the 2003 title? Tough to call, but don't count out that hungry kid from Wisconsin. As of this writing it is not known whether the defending champion Collignon will make the trip across the Atlantic to Minnesota for this year's event.

Thanks for your continued support, and we'll seeya in the land of the lakes...

Jim Stevens
Editor
http://www.insidefoos.com

PLEASE SEND ALL EMAIL REPLIES TO: newsletter@insidefoos.com

2003 TEXAS STATE CHAMPIONS

OPEN DOUBLES: Mike Archer & Brandon Moreland
OPEN SINGLES: Terry Moore
MIXED DOUBLES: Tom Yore & Dusty Bambanek
WOMEN'S DOUBLES: Cindy Head & Dawn Foust
WOMEN'S SINGLES: Moya Tielens
SEMI PRO DOUBLES: Randy Price & Louis Adams
SEMI PRO SINGLES: Kevin Munro
ROOKIE DOUBLES: David Molony & Larry Easter
ROOKIE SINGLES: Mike McKinley
DYP: Trevor Park & Jim McKenney
3500 LTD: Steve Fisher & Tommy Ackerman
VIFA DYP: Spirit Mollice and Ray Simmons

INSIDE THE PRO TOUR...

Clearing out the notebook...

Mike Archer and Brandon Moreland have proven once and for all that they are a team to be reckoned with on the major pro tour...

Beginning with the 2002 Texas State event, Michael and Brandon have been in three straight Open Doubles finals in tournaments with payouts above $25,000, winning two of them...

The underrated Archer continues to get the job done with his subtly-effective offensive and defensive 5-row, and intelligent shot-selection on the three...

In Las Vegas, Mike defeated the great Collignon in both Open Doubles and Open Singles, after Frederico had lost a grand total of just three matches in the previous twelve months...

Brandon Moreland has become one of the most intimidating offensive goalie to come along in quite a while...

And with those lightning-fast hands and tremendous anticipation, he's proving to be no slouch defensively either...

At this point of the season, Brandon must be the front-runner for 2003 Male Goalie of the Year honors...

Your list of other early award leaders would include Moore and Archer for Forward of the Year, and Tielens and Head for Female Forward. The other categories are probably still too early to call...

The hustling Mike Yore followed-up his fifth place Open Singles finish in Vegas with a solid fourth-place result in Texas...

Don't tell Mike, but his brother Tom, a four-time tour champion, says that Mike's the better singles player...

Tony "The Tiger" Spredeman and the vastly-underrated Amedio Gilmore played awesome foosball as well, winning seven straight tension-filled games in a row down the stretch, before succumbing to Archer and Moreland's final match onslaught...

Seven-time world champ and Foosball Hall of Famer Steve Murray continued his comeback to the pro tour with a hard-earned fifth place finish in Texas with Richard Wight...

Steve still has that fiery table persona and highly productive five-row, and possesses as much experience as anyone this side of the great Loffredo...

A big congrats to the two newest Texas Legends of Foosball, Eddy Gartman and Charles Britt...

Britt, from Dallas, became the first-ever two-time winner of the Masters Singles title, claiming the title in both 1990 and 1992...

Gartman, who comes from a long line of Pasadena, Texas foos-stars, was the 1992 Male Goalie of the Year on the pro tour and continues to this day to be one of the sport's best goalkeepers...

Hard working Photo Journalist Robert Ismert was on hand every day at the Texas event shooting footage for a documentary he's producing on the sport of foosball...

To add an historical perspective, Robert interviewed Tornado table designer Bob Furr, Hall of Famer Mike Bowers, and your's truly, among others, for his project which will also include scenes from local Dallas area tournaments, Texas States, and the upcoming World Championships...

TRIVIA TIME: In the 1997 Masters Singles final Don Swan defeated Terry Moore in three straight games to earn the coveted Green Jacket. How long did it take Swan to win the first game, and how many minutes total did it take him to win all three games and the title?

The Tornado pro tour now heads for the upper midwest and the Minneapolis Hyatt Regency for the $55,000 National Championships, July 2-6...

Vancouver superstar Moya Tielens enters the 2003 Nats having won the last four Women's Doubles titles on the major pro tour...

>From the History Department: The Twin Cities area was home to one of the sport's greatest all time teams, Jim Wiswell and Doug Furry, who dominated the doubles category in the late 1970's...

"Wiz and Furr" won a number of major open titles including the $100,000 Super Doubles event in 1978 and the $250,000 World Championship a year later...

And that's back when $250,000 was really $250,000...

More History: The last time the tour was in Minnesota, Terry Moore swept the open events, winning Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles at the 1998 U.S. Open...

Even More History: At the 1994 U.S. Open in Minneapolis, unseeded Chris Dube and Merv Srock staged one of the biggest upsets in foosball history when they defeated Dave Gummeson and Steve Mohs to win the Open Doubles title...

At the time Srock, the goalie, was still rated as a novice (non-pro) player...

With that victory nine years ago, Chris Dube became the only player in the last 20 years to win a major U.S.T.S.A. title shooting a pull-kick...

However, Pull-Kicker Thor "The Hammer" Donovan did win three titles in 1993-94 on the short-lived Dynamo/Striker tour...

TRIVIA ANSWER: Swan won the first game 5-0 in an amazing one minute and fifteen seconds and followed that up with two more hyper-speed wins to earn his only Masters title in an unbelievable 14 minutes total. Making it all the more bizarre, Swan had been swept in three straight games by Moore in the Open Singles championship match held just a few hours earlier...

Top-rated Rob Mares has won three National titles and one Masters championship in the last four years and, along with Todd Loffredo, will try to become the first three-time winner of the Green Jacket in Minneapolis...

Good luck to everyone headed to the Twin Cities...

NEXT MONTH: Information and insights from the 2003 National Championships.

INSIDE FOOS SPECIAL OFFERS...

Inside Foos has been the official video production company of the Tornado Professional Foosball Tour for more than 10 years. Our videos and DVDs are digitally recorded using a multi-camera set-up and feature the play-by-play of "The World's Only Fooscaster" Jim Stevens, with expert commentary provided by some of the sport's top players.

NEW -> The 2001 World Championship 10-hour DVD set is now available for only $50. This five disc set features Johnny Horton's exciting Open Singles win over Robert Mares along with possibly the greatest match of the past ten years, the Open Doubles final between Collignon & Loffredo and Park & Cartwright, and much more! To order go to http://www.insidefoos.com/2001Schedule.php and scroll down to the 2001 World Championships. Order the 8 hour version for $50 and you will receive the upgraded 10 hour DVD automatically.

NEW -> Own the exciting 2003 Texas State DVD for only $25. Watch Mike Archer and Brandon Moreland face-off against Tony Spredeman and Amedio Gilmore in a brilliantly played Open Doubles final. Also includes other Open Doubles and Singles action. Go to http://www.insidefoos.com to place your order. Allow 7-10 days for delivery.

Get the 2003 Texas State DVD free with the purchase of any 2003 DVD full-season Package! Stay up to date on all the pro tour happenings by owning the entire 2003 season on DVD! Order a 2003 DVD Package and receive The Hall of Fame Classic, The Nationals and the World Championships, along with the added bonus of the upcoming Texas State Championships, all for one discounted low price. Go to "Special 2003 DVD/Video Packages" on the home page at http://www.insidefoos.com to place your order and save $50 off individual event pricing. DVD sets are shipped 4-6 weeks after the completion of each event.

Now Available: The Classic World Championship DVD Package 1994-98.
This 10 DVD set of Pro Tour classics includes all the World Championships held from 1994 through 1998. It contains such classics as Tom Spear and his masterful 1994 singles performance, Tommy Adkisson's 2nd career singles win in Dallas and the first of Loffredo and Collignon's five world titles together. While the picture quality doesn't approach our current standards, there is a lot of historical footage and interesting commentary in this economically priced DVD set. Get all five world event sets for the low price of $100. Individual titles are $35 each. Email worldclassics@insidefoos.com for ordering details or call 877-833-3603. Limited sets available ORDER NOW!!!

Buy the 2002 National Finals DVD and receive the 2002 World Finals DVD Free! Just place an order for the 2002 National Finals DVD (see: "Economy DVDs" on the insidefoos.com homepage), and receive the World Finals DVD (valued at $35) at no charge. You'll receive the 2002 National Singles and Doubles finals, the Masters Singles final, along with the Open Singles and Doubles finals from last year's worlds all for only $35.

The offers listed above expire July 15, 2003.

All 2002 Events are now available on DVD. You can now own the 2002 Hall of Fame Classic, National Championships and World Championships in high-quality DVD. Just go to the http://www.insidefoos.com home page and scroll down to place your order for individual events or season packages.

Please call Toll free 877-833-3603 if you have any questions.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS...

At last year's National Championships Frederic
Collignon became the 12th different winner of
the prestigious Masters Singles title. Here is a
list of all of the previous Masters champions:

1988 Steve Murray
1989 Tom Spear
1990 Charles Britt
1991 Gregg Perrie
1992 Charles Britt
1993 Dave Gummeson
1994 Rob Mares
1995 Todd Loffredo
1996 Louis Cartwright
1997 Don Swan
1998 Terry Moore
1999 Todd Loffredo
2000 Ron Sipiora
2001 Rob Mares
2002 Frederic Collignon

NOTES:
-Pull Shot shooters have won 8 Masters titles, including the first 5.
-Roll-Overs have earned 5 titles, and the Push-Kick and Euro-Pin 1 each.
-Pin shots have won 4 of the last 5 titles, and 5 of the last 7.
-There have been 7 different Masters winners in the past 7 years.
-No one has ever won in back-to-back years.

At this year's Hall of Fame Classic Rick Macias
became the first male player from the state of
North Carolina to win an open title in more than
14 years. Here is a list of the states whose players
have won the most U.S.T.S.A. open titles since 1992:

1. Colorado         53
2. Illinois            50
3. Oklahoma     47
4. California      37
5. Florida            34
6. Alabama        32
7. Ohio                 26
8. Texas               17
9. New York       12
10. Washington 10

NOTES:
Terry Moore won 11 times while living in his homestate of California and 34 times since moving to Illinois.
Todd Loffredo earned 24 titles while living in Colorado, 8 while in Ohio.
All 32 of Alabama'a wins belong to Cindy Head.

In 2002 Frederic Collignon was victorious
six times on the major pro tour. Here is a
list of the best individual seasons in recent
open history:

MEN
1. Terry Moore                1997   eight titles
2. Todd Loffredo              1991    seven titles
2. Terry Moore                1998   seven titles
4. Frederic Collignon     2002   six titles

NOTES:
Terry Moore won a combined 15 open titles during the 1997 and '98 seasons.
Frederic Collignon's 6 titles in 2002 are the most since the pro tour was shortened to three major events.

WOMEN
1. Liz Hill                          1992   six titles
1. Cindy Head                 2000   six titles
1. Moya Tielens               2002 six titles
4. Tiffany Billirakis       1992 five titles
4. Cindy Head                  1999 five titles
4. Liz Hill                           1995 five titles

NOTES:
Cindy Head won a combined 11 titles in 1999 and 2000 while playing in only 5 major tour events.
Moya Tielens won every major Women's Singles and Doubles title during the 2002 season.

UPCOMING EVENTS...

June 13-15th

$6000 Heartland Open
Staurolite Inn
Brookings, SD
Loyd Mandel
605-352-5827

June 20-22nd

$3000 Nationals Warm-up
Speed's
Dallas, TX
Spirit Molice
817-798-2397

June 21st

Blinky's Nationals Warmup
Blinky's Bowl
Waterloo, WI
http://www.wfpfoos.com
Dan Doubler
wfpfoos@hurleycomputers.com
920-988-9891

July 2-6th
$55,000 U.S.T.S.A. National Championships
Hyatt Regency

1300 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, Minnesota
800-544-1346 for info 612-370-1234 for reservations
*An Inside Foos Event*

July 18-20th
$4000 DFW Metroplex Championships
Pugsley's Library
Dallas, TX
Mike Archer
214-335-9373

July 18-20th
$3000 Omaha City Championships

Big Red Keno
Omaha, NE
Loyd Mandel
605-352-5827

July 31-August 3rd
$15,000 Kentucky State Championships
Holiday Inn North
Lexington, KY
Mary Moore
ifpfoos@aol.com
859-268-8502

Also Check Out These Informative Foosball Sites...

http://www.vifa.com    For info on the major pro tour and VIFA leagues. The Official Site of the U.S.T.S.A., V.I.F.A. and Table Talk Magazine.

http://www.natsa.org   For complete schedules and results.

http://www.foosball.com   For anything and everything pertaining to foosball.

http://ocfoosball.com Orange County, California foosball site.

http://foosballworld.com/ifp.html   Independant Foosball Promotions.

http://www.dfwfoosball.com Dallas/Fort Worth foosball.

http://pub86.ezboard.com/bfoosball6358   Foosball EZ Board newsgroup.

http://www.sdfoos.com   San Diego, California Foosball site.

http://www.nwfoosball.com   Northwest Foosball site.

http://www.ottawafoos.com   Ottawa, Canada site.

http://www.britfoos.com   U.K. foosball site

http://www.atlantafoosball.com

http://www.tulsafoosball.com

http://www.foosballohio.com

http://members.shaw.ca/vancouverfoosball

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