March 27, 2017
By Ryan Greenspan
When you think of the south of France on the Mediterranean Sea, normally you’d envision sunshine and topless beaches with mega yachts dotting the horizon. You could even imagine French people happily walking the streets with long baguettes hanging out of their grocery baskets and bustling cafes serving up endless buckets of shellfish and hot espressos. This weekend, however, that picturesque vision was sadly shattered by gale force winds, finger numbing cold and sideways rain. If I were to compare it to the Las Vegas NXL seven days prior, I would say it was a 180° spin with a swift kick in the butt.
Located about an hours drive from the city of Nice on the [often times] beautiful Mediterranean coast, the Millennium Series has revisited one of their regular event venues after departing from their Barcelona event for the first stop last year. The Millennium Series is Europe’s version of the NXL, the largest tournament series on the continent, averaging over 150 teams per event with four events located around Europe.
Dynasty, at one time, dominated the European circuit years ago with back to back to back championship seasons. However, with rising costs of travel and budget cuts it became less and less financially viable to send a full pro team out to Europe. Houston Heat has just realized that burden and has opted to sit this season out. Instead, for the past several years, Dynasty players have found homes scattered across different teams from all over the world. In my opinion this is some of the best exposure for the team and its sponsors. We are usually represented on up to three different teams with six or more players attending the events. Myself, marcello and Yosh are guesting with a team from New Zealand called the Expendables. They are a top contending team over in Australia’s premier league, the Australian Super 7s. They wanted to gather up as much experience as possible so they have committed to braving the round the world travel in order to compete at a higher level in Europe! Kyle and Blake will be playing the season with the ML Kings from the Czech Republic.
Kyle and the Kings narrowly missed the cut to move onto Sunday and will have to rethink some strategy going into the next event in Germany. The Kiwi boys, however, helped by the Dynasty guys went on to smash the competition in their division and take home a second victory for the season, this time in the SPL which is the semi-pro league of the Millennium Series! The final match, which is viewable on the FaceFull and Millennium Series Facebook pages, was a nail biter! There were some last second heroics from our very own Yosh Rau to get a three pack and hit the buzzer with SIX SECONDS left on the clock! The lucky 15s (England) played a hell of a finals match, so hats off to them for taking it down to the wire against us! Local favorites, the Ton Tons, who had some help from X-Factor’s Archie Montemayor were no match for Impact who made quick work in a 6-1 match. Alex Goldman made his way down the snake almost uncontested each point and mopped up the Tons. Justin Cornell ended the match with a five pack and Impact went on to win their first event of the season.
Weather aside, the Millennium events are always a lot of fun. The players in Europe have a different vibe than in the US. There is more of a vacation vibe that I er from many of their players. There is always a concessions area that serves beer where on any given day throughout the event you’ll find a good amount of players hanging out telling war stories and having a grand old time, win lose or draw. Next stop on the European tour is Germany!
The Boys Take The Podium
