Hover Boards

Competitors file into Bally's Las Vegas Ballroom where Michael Rosen, commissioner of Major League and Recreational Air Hockey ( an organization similar to the USAA) has overseen the setup of eight regulation Dynamo air hockey tables.

"It's similar to the way the National Football League and American Football League existed," explains Rosen. "They eventually merged."

Chris Curry

Denang "Blade" Brown, 47-year-old male stripper from Atlanta, Georgia, shows up for the air hockey championships in Las Vegas every year.

Chris Curry

Danny Hynes of Houston took first place in the 2011 Air Hockey World Championships in Las Vegas. He's won the championship eight times.

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More About

• Phil Arnold
• Brunswick
• Phillip Crossman
• Chris Green
• Mark Robbins

Rosen's dressed up the ballroom in trophies and video cameras streaming live webcasts of games. Red Bull energy drink is the Saturday sponsor. Rosen even attempted to break the world record of longest game of air hockey to be played and according to him, Guinness is currently investigating the 25 hour match and considering it for entry in its book of world records.

"We want to bring the world's fastest table sport to households across America," Rosen said.

Denang "Blade" Brown, (also known as "The Menace") a well built, 6 '7'', 47-year-old male stripper with weekly appearances at a club called "Jay's Place" in Atlanta, Georgia, arrives with dreadlocks past his shoulders, dark ski goggle sunglasses concealing his eyes and green, black and red wrist bands – making him appear as if he just walked off the television screen from a Mortal Kombat video game.

He discovered air hockey in an Atlanta bar after hours one night. Vacationing in Houston in 1996, he found himself at Houston's famous, since gone, Sam's Boat on Richmond, when he saw someone wearing an "Air Hockey Champion" T-shirt.

"I'm the air hockey champion!" Blade boasted to the man. "No," said the man, "I don't think so." "No," said Blade, "I am the air hockey champion!" "I'm telling you, you're not," the man kept saying.

The man finally invited Brown over to Shooters, a favorite air hockey bar for Houston's locals off of Silber and I-10 (it's since been replaced by a Dave and Buster's).

Turns out, Brown's opponent was Danny Hynes who was, at the time, ranked number four in the world. Hynes introduced Blade to Phil Arnold and a couple of other players who were nationally ranked. Then Hynes played Brown, who went down in flames. It only made Brown want to better himself, he says.

Hakim [no surname] and Sudarshan "Dash" Narasimhan are there from Singapore. With "only five air hockey tables in all of Singapore," according to Narasimhan, there's not much of a following for their sport, but they believe with a little help air hockey could be huge there. The duo spent their time getting all of the top ranked players to sign their mallets.

Players range in age and levels of dedication. Steven Accrocco, the 12-year-old son of top ranked player Brian Accrocco, of Houston, followed his father to the championship where he was competing with players two and three times his age.

"He's gotten pretty good," says the father about his son. "He beat me for the first time the other day and I was really trying." The pair practice at night in their newly transformed air hockey room that used to be their dining room.

Javier Pulido, who made the journey by way of Venezuela and spoke no English, holds his own against Keith Fletcher, a top skilled player from Colorado. Their match lasts seven games and both players score six points apiece in the final, sending the set to a match point situation. Fletcher pulls out a straight cross sending it into Pulido's goal winning the set, putting him at 13th place overall.

Pulido lost the set but the crowd acknowledges the high caliber of his play with a standing ovation at the end.

Arnold's first day of championship play doesn't go as he wanted. Two losses send him to a spinoff where he will be competing for 17th place with five other players.

Day Two seems better after beating Brian Quezada from Chicago, four games to two, but soon Arnold meets up with nemesis Mark Robbins of Colorado. The pair have been rivals for 35 years and Robbins, a left hander, has been ranked the number one air hockey in the world four times.

Arnold's tactics don't seem to bother Robbins. The "walk-away," a classic Arnold move, doesn't fool Robbins for a second. (In the "walk-away" Arnold pretends to call a time out and walks away from the table, prompting his opponent to assume a time out has been called and walk away as well, leaving an open, defenseless goal for Arnold. All Arnold has to do is run back to the table and send a cross-shot back to goal.)

Arnold's other "go-to" is his martial-arts routine. Again, as before, Robbins remains unbothered. In short order, Robbins gets control of the puck and beats Arnold shot after shot. Arnold begins talking to himself. "C'mon, Phil," Arnold screams out in game four. "Be great. Play great."

It takes just four straight games for Robbins to beat Arnold. But it's not completely over. According to the rules, in a spinoff, if a player has been beaten by a player earlier in the series, that player must win two sets. One of Arnold's wins came against Robbins the previous day, so Arnold has another chance.

After a 15-minute break Arnold returns to the table. In this set Arnold remains composed and focused. Twice in the series Arnold is called for going over centerline, but his flow is back. It's a win for Arnold in five games.