Team SEWA World! - pacmania-the epic tale of a new life for darts

dart_talker writes "Rhen Fuentes (Pacific Darts Association) and Michelle Fuentes organized the event and Jan Turner (The Dart Shop) served as the Tournament Director. I must say that they did a good job putting on this event on such short notice, the time allowed to make the event happen was just one of the many factors that made “Pacmania I” a challenge. The size of the venue and the timing of the events were other issues that had a major impact on the flow of the event. Overall there can really be no complaints about the size of the venue as you get what you can on such short notice and make the best of it. The interesting twist in this event was that on Saturday the finals of the “OPEN SINGLES CHICAGO” and the “OPEN SINGLES CRICKET” were hold back until the end of the day in hopes that Manny Pacquiao would be able to watch them. This resulted in these events not being played until after 10pm, but it did not impact the standard of play as it was a hard fought win for Nico Depaynos of Walnut Creek, CA over 2nd place Rob Heckman of Vacaville, CA. in the “OPEN SINGLES CHICAGO.” The “OPEN SINGLES CRICKET” final was also great display of darts with Darin Young of Freeland, PA taking a win over Scotty Burnett of Sacramento, CA. Despite the match being played late Manny was not there for the match due to his training regimen.

That is not to say that Manny did not make an appearance on Saturday. He came to play in the Mixed Triples), but could not advance past the first round. The event was won by Stacy Bromberg, Andrew Bennett & Joe Slivan over 2nd place Julie Heckman, Scotty Burnett, Frank Hernandez. More notable was the crowd following Manny. There were easily 50 or 60 people (not to mention the TV crew) that had no other interest other than to see and watch Manny, and this created a major log jam rendering the boards near Manny unplayable. This was also the case when Manny played his Men’s Doubles with his partner Chris White. The event was won by Nico Depaynos & Sammy Cruz who defeated the 2nd place team of Frank Hernandez & Scotty Burnett.

Most notable for me over that entire weekend was the level of darting talent that came out for the event. No mater that the total entries for any one event did not exceed 128 players, there were many players participating in the events that represented almost every skill level on both days of the event. This would not be the case during Pacmania-II. Also notable during Pacmania-I was the fact that even after Manny lost his match he would find the time to just shoot some darts against the other dart players. All in all I think that everyone left that event with the feeling that it was a great event and there were more fantastic Pacmania events to come. Granted everyone had their own personal take on what could be done to improve future Pacmania events with hosting the tournament in a larger venue be at or near the top of their list.
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