PowerPlay Magazine

For the 5th consecutive year a delegation from the PPM office have visited the meeting in Slovenia. Once again there were fun and games and good food provided by the event organizer alfandrej.

One meeting in Maribor back in 2010 and then four in Ljubljana. PPM office has always sent at least a couple of representatives to these meetings and this year was no different.

Our delegation consisted of PPM founder Ivan aka tuttle, Dario aka Ludisplitjo, Patrik aka Daltik and myself. We picked up SLY in Maribor along the way and we arrived in the early afternoon. As soon as we arrived we were given our own name tags with our avatar and team logos on the other side. Name tags were produced by punex. The food was already on the table so we wasted no time and started enjoying the hospitality.

The weather was quite bad as it was overcast all the time with occasional showers. But that didn't stop us from kicking off with a soccer tournament. There were four teams of 3 players each. It was no ordinary soccer of course as it was played on sand which makes controling the ball and running quite difficult. Me, Daltik and MRadojojkovicxD formed a team that seemed like the underdog at first sight. However, we were able to win the tournament with some luck and stellar play from our MVP MRadojojkovicxD who scored the only goal in the final and assisted on the only goal in the semifinal. Our prize was a specially made plaque by jabcek.

But the fun was far from over. Everyone took part in the annual shootout contest. We were shooting at a small empty goal (about 75x50cm) half the length of a beach volleyball court. Everyone had 3 attempts in the first round, but after that any miss would mean elimination from the competition. So it came down to a battle between Beeblebrox and punex. They matched each other's goals and misses for several rounds, but in the end it was punex who had the sharper foot and took home the first prize which was a Ski Jump Mania polo shirt. Beeblebrox received a bidon for his efforts.

Up next was a special challenge invented by tuttle. A shot over the full length of the beach volleyball court. But not only that. The shot had to go above the volleball net. Everyone was given 2 attempts. Tuttle offered 1000 credits for scoring at the first attempt and 500 for scoring at the second attempt. The challenge seemed almost impossible, but there were several close calls from some of the early contestants until Daltik proved that it was indeed possible to score. He did so at the second time of asking and if he wasn't from our office, he would have won 500 credits. But credits were indeed handed out because Mrki fired a perfect shot over the volleyball net and into the tiny goal at his first attempt and thus won 1000 credits. Something must have been in the air (besides the rain) because tuttle also buried his second attempt.

What happened then was quite spontaneous. I don't know whose idea it was, but several guys decided to donate a total of 1400 credits in to the one who "swims" accross the court. The challenge was accepted by jabcek and MRadojojkovicxD. If you can't imagine how swimming in the sand looks like, you can see it in the video below. MRadojojkovicxD has shown a great deal of sportsmanship when he let his opponent catch him so that they could both share the prize.

Once again we had a great time in Slovenia despite the weather and I wish we could have stayed a little longer. Already looking forward to next year!