Sometimes I can't Believe They Pay Me...

by Crazy Ivan

When the only part of your workday that stinks is the commute, you know you've got a pretty cool job.

That was certainly the case today.  Kid Myach and I did a party out in Jersey today.  The party was about 2 and a half hours but the drive home was about 3.  A good hour of that was spent creeping along at the speed of touch on our way into the Lincoln Tunnel.

But why focus on the bad part when there was so much good part?  The party itself was as awesome as any Myachi party I've ever done.  The whole family was awesome, all the kids there were cool (and had sick skills), there was plenty of room to play and there was free Mountain Dew.  Anybody who knows me probably knows that I'd have done the party just for the free Dew.

So first let me set the stage.  The kids whose party it was had met a couple of the Myachi Masters in the Toys R Us in Totowa a while back.  I believe they'd met Bones and Bamboo and at least one of the party-goers had met Animal, Noodles and Mav as well.  But most of what they know about the game they know from the various tentacles of our online outreach.

Anyway, Kid and I show up mad early (traffic was easy on us on the way out) and when we drive up to the house we see 15 dudes in the drive way all playing MYACH and Fu.  Four of them are already wearing Myachi shirts and before we can even get out of the car we're getting surrounded.

So after a brief barrage of "can you show me this trick?", "how much is this Myachi worth?", "is there a name for this trick?", "you have anything to trade for this?", "which Myachi Master is the best at ...?" and "what am I doing wrong on this trick?" type questions, we got the party started.

Now, honestly, it was fun enough that I could give a play by play account of every contest without running out of stuff to say, but there was one moment that stood out like no other, and I think it typified what an awesome day it was.

Among the many games we played was a 7 on 7 Fu battle with Kid Myach leading one team and me leading the other.  We were playing where everyone had a Myachi and only one life.  Once all the members of one team were out, the other team won.  The idea was that we would do best 2 out of 3.  My team all wore Myachi beanies (so we were the "Beanies") and Kid's team went hatless ("Team Beast" for some reason).

Kid's team marched all over us in the first round and were poised to do it again in the second.  In the second round i got knocked out pretty early and my teammates were dropping like flies.  After a few minutes we paused the game for a second and realized that only one member of our team remained.  Kid's team still had 4 players, including Kid Myach.  Kid has a bit of an advantage, of course, since he's at least two and a half feet taller than anyone else there.

So this dude (Rex) is surrounded.  4 players against one and they still had 2 of their 3 best strikers on the floor (not including Kid).  So Rex goes into full-on berserker mode and blows up with a rampage that would make Wolverine jealous.  He fakes left, spins right, cuts behind Kid Myach and takes out one member of their team.  Before he can turn back, his own brother (who was on Kid's team) grabs hold of him and yanks him back, knocking the Myachi off his hand.

But the game isn't over.  It was clearly an illegal tackle so Rex gets to pick his Myachi back up and the tackler has to do 30 seconds in the penalty box.  This makes it a two on one game and by now that seems easy to this guy.  He held off 4 players long enough that nobody thought he was at a disadvantage when he only had to face two.

Not surprisingly, he took one of them out quick.  That left him facing off one on one against Kid Myach... and the clock was ticking.  By that time his brother only had about 12 seconds left on his penalty so if he couldn't take Kid out quickly it would be two against one again... and it would be the two best Fu players at the party that weren't him.

The one on one was classic.  Kid was doing a lot of high throw defenses and eventually that did him in.  He went to toss the sack from right hand back to left and Rex cut in between, altered the angle of the Myachi and took Kid out with only seconds left on the penalty.  Then we were treated to another one on one match up as his bro came out of penalty.

I can't possibly explain how good these guys are at Fu, but they've clearly played each other plenty of times before.  The final match was amazing and despite the fact that Rex had been giving it his all for the last 30 seconds while his opponent was resting in the penalty box gave him a clear disadvantage.  Despite that, he eventually managed a total victory and kept our team alive.

So, to sum all that up, this dude was taking on 4 players, including one Myachi Master (and one of the tall ones at that) and won.  It was the biggest Fu comeback I've ever witnessed.

that Yellow Jacket.

There were a lot of other games and a lot of other great moments, including several other heroic saves and incredible tricks from a number of the party-goers, but I figured if I was going to share one that was the one to share.  So if you guys are reading this, thanks for having Kid and I out for the party.  It was way more fun than anyone should be paid to have.