Profiles in Mania: Downtown

by Crazy Ivan

Myachi's '05 trip to Silver Dollar City was a bit of a strange one.  Over the previous summer the whole team had rocked it out at Dollywood leaving us (and Dollywood's management) wondering how we could do even better the following summer.

Eventually we decided that for '05 we would split the team up.  Half of us would go back to Dollywood and the other half would go to their sister park in Branson, Missouri.  There wasn't much Myachi Mania in Missouri at the time, but I'd just spent the Christmas season in St. Louis so it seemed like a logical place to go next.

It was there that Kid and Animal met this kind of shy, very unassuming dude who distinguished himself quickly by having mad skills and the familiar love for the game we can only describe as "Myachi Mania".

A familiar figure to fans of the Myachi website or the Myachi online forums, Downtown has been a mainstay in the Myachiverse for a number of years. After first learning the game, Downtown did what most maniacs did back in the early days of the movement: he got online.

Back then, Myachi Maniacs were few and far between, spread from California to Florida to Ireland to Missouri. While there were a few schools and even a few towns with significant Myachi presence, the vast majority of Maniacs were the only jammers in their town. That left the web as the only real place to go to learn new moves and interact with other Myachi Maniacs.

"DOES ANYONE WANNA SEE MY DOUBLE WOLVERINE?!"

Downtown took full advantage, quickly earning a mod position on the Myachi forum and taking it upon himself to help out new jammers as they arrived.  In a time when the forum was far more sparsely populated (and still had that "new forum smell"), Downtown took it upon himself to be not only a stalwart, but also a mediator in disputes.  Always seeking the middle ground, he fast gained a reputation for being even-handed and fair; qualities that would later earn him a spot as a forum leader.

But his contribution to the game was not limited to his forum presence.  Of all his contributions to Myachi, Downtown might be best known for his signature film shot, often called the “Downtown Shot”. Appearing first in one of his You-Tube videos, this is a shot where the Myachi is filmed from below the hands leaving the appearance that it floats between fusions and 360s. While it is now a mainstay of Myachi Shred videos, when he first did it, it was revolutionary.



His skills have improved vastly over the years (and if you don't believe me, just watch a few of his early videos and a few of the latest ones on his You Tube channel) and his dedication to the game, sport and community has never waned.  Computer problems have gotten the best of him from time to time, but even when he disappears for a little while, we all know he's never that far from his Myachi.