Michael Phelps As Aquaman

He's the fastest swimmer alive, he beat Mark Spitz' number-of-gold-medals-in-one-Olympics record by winning his EIGHTH last night, he's double jointed (hey ladies!) so he can flip around like some sort of marine animal...if he can just get the fish-sonar working, the world may just have their first real life superhero.

Click for hi-res.

Today in Rockefeller Center: The Virtual Open Finals

For the past two days in Rockefeller Center, the Lexus Sponsored Wii Tennis "Virtual Open" has been bringing out the Tri-State gamers with dreams of victory, a sort of nerd doppelganger of the US Open. I'll be checking out the championship match later today, expect analysis and hot pics this evening.

Unlike the excellent and independently produced Wiimbledon, The Virtual Open Finals have not been decided by simple bracket competition, but by a qualifying round where you play the "Returning Balls" mini-game. WHAT?! If I had known that, I woulda gone! I can return serves till the wiimote runs out of batteries, it's that goddamn SERVE that eludes me. But enough about my personal failures.

Geekanerd is admittedly a bit biased against this very corporate event, since we all had such a "ball" at Wiimbledon. It's worth mentioning that the Wiimbledon Champion, Russ Yagoda AKA Luigi, seems to be absent from the Virtual Open finalist board. But the real tragedy is that Geekanerd's own Wii Tennis Prodigy Albo (1st Runner Up at Wiimbledon) was unable to compete, due to a top secret training exercise in the swampland of the southern United States. The unfortunate timing of this excursion has cost the Geekanerd crew our chance at winning an Lexus IS F (what's that? - Ed.) which we would have tricked out to look like the Batmobile. So you'll forgive us if our coverage of this event seems reserved. I already had the decals all ready to go.

Related: Geekanerd's Coverage of The Virtual Open
Geekanerd's Coverage of Wiimbledon (including video)

Video: The 1st Annual New York State Yo-Yo Contest and International Yo-Yo Open

Yesterday, Geekanerd was on the scene at the First Annual New York State Yo-Yo Contest and International Yo-Yo Open, sponsored by YoYoNation.com. It was the best thing I've seen, done or eaten in like, two months.

To kick off our video coverage, here's the International Open's bronze medalist, Sebastian Brock, who I hereby proclaim an honorary Geekanerd for having competed in a Kyle Rainier-era Green Lantern T-Shirt.

There are parts of this clip where it looks like the footage is sped up. It isn't. Perhaps Mr. Brock draws his ability to manipulate the yo-yo with such breathtaking speed and control from a power ring of his own. Someone should look into that.

Video of the International Division competitors and a highly dangerous yo-yo stunt, after the jump...



Since this was in part a International Yo-Yo Open, check out our highlight reel of 1A Division Yo-Yo professionals from many lands. These are champs from around the world, battling for dominance in NYC. Do their individual yo-yo techniques reveal anything about their respective cultures? Discuss.


Music was a major part of what made the top performances so exciting. Here are a couple more routines with particularly gorgeous choreography; the first is by Augie Fash, a USA Yo-Yo champ fresh from an engagement at the OzFest Sideshow. After that it's Long Island's Jovanni Crespo, who came in second in the New York State Contest, 1A Division.


Learning Corner:
The uninitiated may be wondering what 1A Division means. It's one of several performance styles, and the one that adheres to what most people wold think of traditional yo-yoing. Other styles include:

• 2A & 3A, which use two yo-yos at the same time
• 4A, which uses a "off-the-string" yo-yo, and features a lot of launching the yo-yo into the air and then catching it with the string (or not, as was often the case on stage).
• 5A, which uses a counter weight on the other end of the string, instead of attaching the string to your finger.

All of these non-1A styles were classified as "X-Division" (sounds like a new Marvel title), and to demonstrate a little 4A action, below is young Andrew Bergen performing the routine that won him first place in the X-Division of the New York State Contest.




Host Pat Cuartero of YoYoNation.com kept the energy level up throughout the day, despite having spent most the night previous organizing the event. In between rounds of competition, he thrilled and terrified the crowds with this potentially tooth-shattering stunt; using a yo-yo to knock a quarter off a guy's ear. This is exactly the kind of thing my mom used to tell me not to do all the time. I'm glad someone is doing it.

Related Tags: Geek Sports- Geekanerd's Coverage and Domination of NYC's Wii Tennis Championship, and News on the Upcoming Wii Bowling League

Wii Bowling League Coming to New York

Steve Bryant, half of the duo behind the recent smash-hit Wiimbledon event, has gone in with Internet media guru Tim Shey to create Wii Bowl NY, a new Wii Bowling League. Details are slim at the moment, and the website isn't up as of this writing, but Bryant does have a few words for us as to his plans for the league...

"We expect it to be like a corporate softball league -- weekly games, three-person teams, played at various bars around the city. Probably start in September once everybody's back from vacation."

They aren't the first out of the gate with the idea, but they did a great job with Wiimbledon and established sponsorship relationships with Nintendo and Reebok for that event. So count on it going down with style. Something else to think about is that they've also registered the domain http://www.wiiloveny.com/, so this may be the first of many new Wii events for the Big Apple. In the meantime, you can join their Facebook group and stay tuned to Geekanerd for more info.



Related: Geek Sports: Geekanerd's Video Coverage The International Yo-Yo Open

Wiimbledon Video and Giveaway!

Here's the Wiimbledon video we promised ya'll!



Also, by getting 2nd Place in the tournament I won FOUR Wii Sports Packs which promise to "improve inspiration" for your Wii sporting. We're giving them all away in groups of two ('cause who plays sports alone?) in a random drawing picked from everyone who e-mails us before Wednesday. So hop to it!

Related: Wiimbledon 2008 Video and Photos!