... has many uses
Over the years, this game called Equal Offense has proven to be a valuable instructional tool. Equal Offense is also a competitive game. At one point, it was promoted as a national tournament format by Pool & Billiard Magazine. Most recently, Equal Offense has made it to the Internet.

Pool "NUTS" Meet
Sven Davies, a student studying Applied Mathematics and German at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah and Jari Kokko, a student studying Computer Science at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland - both "Pool Nuts" - met for the first time over the Internet in the fall of 1992.

Equal Offense on the Internet
Together they dreamt up a way to play Equal Offense over the Internet and held their first Tournament January 22, 1993. The first tournament consisted of 10 players from each University and each player played 5 innings each for a total of 1000 points. Later it was decided to have 5 player teams play 10 innings each to give each player more play, and to make it easier to form teams.

Programming the Virtual Billiard Room
In order for Internet Equal Offense tournaments to take place, an elaborate program was needed to allow multiple teams to log into the same area - a virtual Billiard Room. This program was designed and created from a basic Talk Server - a program that allows conference like communication. Jari Kokko took on this responsibility and has developed what was called the Internet Equal Offense Server. The IEO Server is no longer. Due to the popularity of the World Wide Web it was retired. Those pre-web days communicating quickly over a text bassed interface are sometimes sorely missed.

Started with only two teams
Initially, Internet Equal Offense tournaments were held between Jari’s Finland Team and Sven’s Utah Team, and there was some concern about how to assure that the scores were accurate. When the Silicon Valley Armada - the first California team - began playing in May of 1994, video taping was used to assure that the scores were accurate. Afterwards, the tapes proved to be interesting, but useless in showing the validity of the scores that were entered. It was decided that the Internet Equal Offense was to be a goodwill game providing players from around the world the ability to compare there skills with others of the same interest.

No Video Conferencing or on-site Referees
Although video conferencing and on location referees have been considered, the logistics and cost make verifying results impractical. Internet Equal Offense will remain a strictly promotional and good will game for the present.

Interest comes from all over the world
IEO began to gain in popularity and soon teams playing from California, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Florida, Canada, Finland, Japan, Egypt, Slovenia, Germany, Belgium, South Africa, India and Spain have found an affinity for the idea behind Internet Equal Offense.

Graduation and new job
In 1994 Sven graduated from Weber State with a double Bachelors - Applied Mathematics and German. Right after graduating he was hired by the Billiard Congress of America to assist in their growing League and Program Department. During that time IEO began to get more official recognition. IEO tournaments were sanctioned by the BCA and participation grew.

IEO in BCA Rules Book
The BCA Official Rules and Records book contained for the first time information and rules on IEO in 1995. It was also during this year that IEO received local and national press in magazines and newspapers accross the United States. At this point it was also established that the top teams of every tournament would be recognized with a listing in the results area of the BCA Official Rules and Records book.

Organizers meet for first time in Germany
In the Winter of 1995, Jari and Sven meet for the first time in person in Munich, Germany. There they met to disuss the goals and plans for Internet Equal Offense as well as terrorize the pool scene in Munich. Jari finished his schooling soon thereafter and begin working in Finland's booming computer industry.

IEO gets new Web Interface
Min-wei, a great pool player, was getting his Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Iowa when he first started playing in IEO tournaments. His programming skills and interest in the sport prompted him to create the IEO Web Interface to post results. The Web had become so popular and the IEO Server was too difficult to use for most people getting on the Internet. A change was needed.

IEO Grows
Internet Equal Offense continued to grow and in October 1996 the largest tournament - 19 teams (95 players) - was celebrated. Unfortunately participation began to fall from that moment as Jari was busy in his new job, and Sven, who had been recently promoted to PR & Marketing Assistant, was busy with new job responsibilities. The time could not be found to maintain IEO, but tournaments contiued to take place.

Organizers meet in Finland
In 1997, Sven again had the chance to travel and visited Jari in Helsinki. It was not certain what was going to happen with IEO, but both agreed that it should continue to be promoted and developed. Helsinki's pool scene was terrorized between sauna breaks.

IEO's growth slows
Later that year, Sven was asked by Billiads Digest magazine to come work with them in Chicago as their On-line Coordinator. In August 1997, he moved to Chicago to begin work. Unfortunately, Sven's new position and Jari's frequent promotions left even less time for IEO. This was apparent in the October 1997 IEO tournament where only four teams played and the results were somehow lost.

What does the future hold?
The future for IEO was bleak. There were no tournaments scheduled and the IEO home page wasn't being updated.

Re-birth and continued enthusiasm
It wasn't until Spring of 1998 that IEO was revived with the IEO Project Team. This small group of IEO players believe that the reach of Internet Equal Offense tournaments is huge and can play a big part in bringing countries and people together. The IEO website received a new look and there was renewed enthusiasm towards the sport.