Great work if you can get it

Just back from a 'work' trip to the Mountain View, California, headquarters of my company, Symantec (formerly Veritas).

I've been there for work several times since moving to the UK, but this time was a little different; this time was for a corporate Foosball tournament (that's table football in the UK). Yes, I spent the work week in California just for that.

When the idea was first put forward, of an international tournament for the engineering groups, I guess I thought it sounded a bit wasteful, financially speaking. Especially since we've been laying off engineers recently. First prize would be a pair of massive plasma televisions. Second prize, a pair of Xboxes. There would be a local tournament for each office, and the winning teams would fly in from around the World. China, India, Israel, Belgium, and the UK were to be represented, as well as teams from sites around the US.

But really, I have to admit they made quite an event of it. There was a large projection screen showing an overhead view of the main table, an internal website with live updates, posters around the campus, a photographer, food, and beer and wine. A couple of hundred employees were on hand at any given time during the finals matches. Quite the production, and probably good for employee morale, I'd guess.

As for the results: The Roseville, Minnesota team were unstoppable. In the photo above, they're in the grey shirts with their backs to the camera, playing against the Belgians in the final. The one guy, Sam, had a couple of moves that were impossible for anyone to defend -- it was so fast you could barely see it happen. (Ya can't stop what ya can't see.) His deft passing and lightning fast shots put them head and shoulders above the other teams.

Unfortunately for my partner Stuart and I, we drew Minnesota in the first round (see photo, left). Thus, we were out of the main competition by 11am the first day. We didn't embarrass ourselves -- nobody else equalled our 6 goals against them until the Belgians in the final. In the end, though, the Minnesotans never lost a game.

Apparently Sam bought one of these tables and practiced his shots in his bedroom. Honey, can we get one?

It's supposed to be an annual event. Next year we'll have Sam's moves figured out.