33 Vancouver tech companies gather for "the biggest foosball tournament in Canada" (PHOTOS)

On Thursday night, 33 Vancouver tech companies gathered at Microsoft’s Vancouver office for the inaugural Microsoft Vancouver TechFoos Challenge. Teams included Hootsuite, Slack, United Front Games, Quietly, Bench, ACL, Trulioo, and more.

Microsoft officially opened the doors to their new downtown Vancouver office on June 17 with the help of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and local government officials.

“To call it impressive would be an understatement,” Trudeau said of the space.

The 142,000-square-foot space occupies the entirety of the top two floors of Pacific Centre’s Nordstrom building at 725 Granville Street.

See also

• 21 photos of Microsoft's massive new office in downtown Vancouver
• Trudeau helps Microsoft open new downtown Vancouver office

“Our new space allows us to host events that bring people together,” Craig Cook, Microsoft’s Principle Group Engineering Manager and driving force behind the foosball tournament, said in a release. “The tournament was about finding out which Vancouver tech company would walk away with our hand-crafted trophy, but also about building community within the industry that stretches beyond conferences, tech fairs, and meetups.”

Teams arrived, in costume, vying for the title, and as the double elimination event progressed, four teams soared to the top: VisionCritical, SAP, Global Relay, and Microsoft. In the end, it was SAP and Global Relay in the final, with the latter coming out on top.

Championship trophy / Image courtesy of Microsoft

“We went to the world championship in Dallas in 2014, won our event, and brought home two tables,” said Vancouver Foosball‘s Cam Burrows. “We started the league with those tables and used the loonies they’ve generated to buy more tables. We’re pretty sure this is the biggest tournament in Canada in the last decade, if not ever, and it’s really cool to see where it will go from here.”

Global Relay team / Image courtesy of Microsoft

SAP team / Image courtesy of Microsoft

Cam Burrows and Dylan Phuong / Image courtesy of Microsoft

Intergalactic team / Image courtesy of Microsoft

Microsoft Vancouver team / Image courtesy of Microsoft

Vision Critical team / Image courtesy of Microsoft

The crowd with the Hootsuite mascot / Image courtesy of Microsoft

Hothead Games warming up / Image courtesy of Microsoft

See also

• 21 photos of Microsoft's massive new office in downtown Vancouver
• Trudeau helps Microsoft open new downtown Vancouver office