Another foosball posting. I played in my first rank-counting foosball tournament tonight at the Starlite. Here, we paid an entry fee of $10 and played on a ladder for a piece of the pot. I started my first tournament as a "Rookie", bypassing the "Beginner" level, and was teamed up with Rob Shin ("Master") and came 3rd or 4th overall (2nd in the losers side, so I guess that's 4th place) -- which earned us our entry fee back. What I've learned is that my defense is only good against Amateurs and lower. The Experts and higher are too good at reading my defense. That said, I've learned that I'm a much better shooter from the back than most of the guys there. My push and pull shots are pretty tough for them to defend against, and I definitely turned some heads. At this level, foosball is a very intense game -- and there's a lot of pressure on the defense to stop shots. Nevertheless, I'm pretty confident that with a little more work on my defense, I can play around an Expert level easily. We'll see how that goes. I should also mention that because of tonight, I am now a "ranked" player. Woohoo for me. You can probably see my name on the Vancouver Foosball website in the next couples days... or not, depending on when they decide to update the page and put me in.