SD_GeNo - Video Games

Back in December 2017, my uncle and I went to our first Tecmo Super Bowl tournament: CT Tecmo IX in Southington, Connecticut. We'd been casual fans of Tecmo Super Bowl for years, but that was our first time trying our hand at tournament play. The event was held at Blackstone Irish Pub, which was not a traditional venue for a gaming event, but a welcome one as the food and atmosphere were both awesome. The tournament started around noon and from then until midnight it was non-stop play, chowing down on pub food, and pounding back beers (for everyone but me, since I was only 16 at the time).

That day I placed in 51st out of 51 players, but I didn't show up to win Tecmo Super Bowl - I was there to win the Mega Man 2 race. In this year at CT Tecmo, a side event was introduced for Mega Man 2 where competitors would speedrun the game side-by-side to see who could complete the game the fastest. I competed against three other players (from left to right in the image): Arnco EM, the event organizer and amazing Tecmo Super Bowl player, BigDaddyDrums, a top Castlevania II: Simon's Quest speedrunner, and Kevin Cabarello, an insanely good Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! player who later that day demonstrated to us that he could beat Tyson blindfolded, under the influence, on command. I was up against very skilled and seasoned gamers, who had 16-year-old SD_GeNo pretty nervous. I'd only practiced my Mega Man 2 run for a single week before then, so my confidence level was low. Nonetheless I went in and gave it my all, and made my way out with a very close second place. Had I had more time to practice a clean takedown of the final boss, it would've been a win for me. Despite that, I wasn't disappointed in missing 1st. I was thrilled to feel like I had what it takes to hold my own against that set of great players. From then on I kept improving my time and kept competing in the annual CT Tecmo Mega Man 2 race, maintaining a 4-year winning streak from 2022 to 2025. You can see my first win from 2022 in the steam VOD below.

Side note, from 2022-2025 I've been running the steam for CT Tecmo which has been a blast. It's great being able to broadcast such talented players and to have community members hop on the mic to share their Tecmo wisdom and very colorful commentary.

My uncle and I went back to CT Tecmo in 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 - with me being away at college in 2019 and a few years being cancelled due to COVID. It's been awesome becoming part the community, and while it's not the kind of crowd I typically put myself around I am thrilled to hang out with those guys to celebrate our love for Tecmo Super Bowl, Mega Man 2, the NES, and other retro games.