Game Championship Invitational Experience (pt. 2: Da' GOOD Shit!!!)
OK. Before I start this, for anyone who see and reads, I know this is VERY long!! Sorry about this. I don't often go on and on, but when it comes to stuff like video games and comics, I tend to do that. (It's the geek in me, I guess.) Anyway, here's the second part of all this and now that my random anger and hatred for pop and TV culture are pretty much out of my system, I can actually get to the heart of the whole thing and like a lot of sporting events, it had a lot of heart!!
First, I do feel compelled to compliment the event staff for the whole setup. The look of the interior itself was SMOKIN' HOT!! SWEET!! Everything that I've always drueled over and MORE!! PC's to the left of me! Consoles to the right!! Multi-colored lights! Even a few stand alond stations we could play a few games on if we wanted. I'm in heaven! And to give these guys credit they did give some damn good incentive for us to stay as they were handing out free and unlimited bottled water and Mountain Dews all night long, nonstop. (After all Mountain Dew was sponsoring the whole thing and you know they've got money to throw away on us!)
Now to the first round of games. For all the games there were even announcers to call the action and they were all good. The guy calling this first round of games, was the guys that stood ou from all the rest of them. He was a guy from England who was a former Halo champion himself. I really liked him a lot because it was like listening to a young, British, Howard Cosell. Talked non-stop, knew what to say most of the time and you could tell, he was really into it! Sometimes a little too much. Occasionally, with a bad joke or two, but hey, this kind of thing takes talent. Bottom line, the announcers really brought it all together.
They start off with the semi-final rounds of "Halo 2". I don't remember names of many players so I won't be referring to many of them specifically. To sum it up, this round was wasn't too exciting but it was a good way to warm things up and it was still intense. For anyone not familiar with this sort of game, picture this if you will. Imagine looking through the eyes of a soldier, who's stuck in a VERY complex battlefield. You and your opponent are hunting each other down and any second, you could either be riddled with a swarm of bullets all at once in a violent exhange of gunfire, or your opponent could sneak up on you and put a round in the back of your head, killing you instantly without even you realizing it!!!! That's where the heart of the intensity lies!! For this, the players tend to play with more caution. It was more like watching a game of strategy than action, though there WAS action! Often the rounds started off close, neck and neck until one came from behind and began to own his opponent. The next game was "Battlefield 2" a game played on the P.C stage pitting 2 teams of 8 guys each against each other, in an all out army battle. Soldiers and tanks and choppers! OH SHIT!!! Now besides that fact that this was a lot more intense, with everything blowing up and getting shot up every few seconds, what got me about this game was the artwork. As game systems are advancing, the artwork, the environments are getting so much more fucking real to the senses, it's sick. It reminds me of why I wanted to get into video game development in the first place. I wanna be a huge part of creating something BIG. Something you can get into, easily. Something that let you escape from reality for just a while, so you can live a story that's being told right in front of you. Sound corny? Well, maybe it does but that's what it's all about for me, ever since I was a kid, playing my first "Atari" system back in the early 1980's.
The real action came later on in the night with the game that was the highlight of the night: "Dead or Alive". One of the most intense action games to this date. The was the game that got the most energy from the crowd because it is an, all out, fast action, martial arts, bone crunching, slobber-knocker!! (That one's for you Jim Ross!!) For anyone who doesn't know this game very well, go to this site to learn more about it and even see some fighting clips from the game itself:
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1175/Dead-or-Alive-4/
I can only show this because even if I could give any explanation on the action I couldn't do it any justice, if I tried. So the best thing is to see for itself. I guess part of the excitement also stemed from the fact that these combatants were competing for a $10,000 check for a grand prize, and there ain't no second place either. The highlight rivalry for the night was between 2 rivals. One guy, calling himself "Master", who was taking on a guy he taught how to play the game. They used the same character on each other so it all down to skill. It was the best of 9 rounds or whoever won 5 rounds first, and the whole time it was neck-in neck. And I even thought the student, whom I was rooting for was going take the match, but he kept getting cornered and that's where "Master" did his best work.
The final round was between "Master" and this woman, who named herself "Kasumi-chan" She was good and a huge favorite to take the competition. She had just beaten, (and I mean brutally!) a breakdancer from Philly, using her favorite character...well....."Kasumi". I found myself, rooting for her for 3 reasons. One, there still doesn't seem to be openly that many female game players or game developers, so to be honest, guys like me wanna see the ladies represent!! Second, against Master, who was extremely skilled and a lot more aggressive, she was a 10 to 1 underdog and I always relate to the underdogs automatically!! Finally, because,...well, as good as "Master" was, he also came across as a bit too cocky, and that tends to GET ON MY FUCKING NERVES TO NO END!!! Guys like that I relish any opportunity to see them get their own asses handed to them!!! Unfortunately, with all his talk of "I'm the best!" and "No one can beat me" along with that shit-eatin' grin, I had to admit, he backed it up WELL!!! And I had a bad feeling it wasn't gonna go well for my dear, Kasumi-chan, because she let herself get intimidated and showed it during the interview. You CAN'T DO THAT....EVER!! Especially, when facing a prick like that. It's like a shark smelling a bloody, open wound!! She took an early lead winning the first round and the crowd went crazy!! But his agressiveness got her cornered and killed for the next 3 rounds. She managed to take the fourth, to which we all got up and clearly cheered again but the cocky sum bitch finished her off agressively and quickly to win the title. That was the only true buzz-kill for the night as far as the games were concerned. My only small comfort was that he didn't get near as good a reception from the audience as Kasumi did. Might wanna listen to the fans, son.
Anyway, it was a few more rounds of Battlefield 2 for another round of fiery violent, military death, where a team called "20ID" ended up cashing in and winning a $40,000 prize. After that, there were only 2 games left. Counterstrike, another 8-player team game pitting terrorists vs. anti-terrorists. The unique thing about this was that each team had coaches, yelling and screaming at them behind their backs. Understandable, since he could see all the action. (Consider him the team commander, if you will.) One of these guys, who looked more like typical coach, white-collared shirt w/ black tie and pants, short greying hair, and a face that
was changing back and forth from Caucasian white to bright red, depending on how intense, and pissed off he was getting. It was like seeing Mike Ditka, back in his coaching days in Chicago, about to have another conniption fit followed by an all out heart attack right on the field!! Nonetheless, to his and his teams favor, (and probably his healths as well) his team, Complexity won the match, and a $50,000 reward!! The last match was a car racing game but to be honest, I cant get into those games so I wont waste my words on that, except to say that they didnt exactly save the best for last. Bad move fellas!
Overall, the event was a hell of an experience to say the least. It had a lot of good action, a good atmosphere and some decent hospitality, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But being in such a contrived setting, where the staff is desperately trying to make you have fun, or at least pretend you are kept me from truly enjoying the experience, and they WILL be hearing from me about that. Still for once, I feel the need to say this. In a society, where jocks, models, or people, who look have an ideal appeal are worshipped daily, while everyone else is seemingly looked down on and ignored. It brought back memories of high school and even today, where if you play video games a lot, youre looked at as a total loser with absolutely no life, still living in your mamas basement, fat, out of shape and just plain unappealing.basically the usual stereotype we gamers are given. (I blame Hollywood and TV at least partially for that! BASTARDS!!!) It actually amazes and stokes the hell out of me when I can finally be in a place, where we can clearly see a lot of gamers atypical of that role, (like people, who do have lives, and some who are physically fit and appealing), and even the ones who may not be, (at least to pop culture) even if it is for one day, take the front stage and get the fucking respect theyre due!! That night, the geeks were the gods!!
OK. Before I start this, for anyone who see and reads, I know this is VERY long!! Sorry about this. I don't often go on and on, but when it comes to stuff like video games and comics, I tend to do that. (It's the geek in me, I guess.) Anyway, here's the second part of all this and now that my random anger and hatred for pop and TV culture are pretty much out of my system, I can actually get to the heart of the whole thing and like a lot of sporting events, it had a lot of heart!!
First, I do feel compelled to compliment the event staff for the whole setup. The look of the interior itself was SMOKIN' HOT!! SWEET!! Everything that I've always drueled over and MORE!! PC's to the left of me! Consoles to the right!! Multi-colored lights! Even a few stand alond stations we could play a few games on if we wanted. I'm in heaven! And to give these guys credit they did give some damn good incentive for us to stay as they were handing out free and unlimited bottled water and Mountain Dews all night long, nonstop. (After all Mountain Dew was sponsoring the whole thing and you know they've got money to throw away on us!)
Now to the first round of games. For all the games there were even announcers to call the action and they were all good. The guy calling this first round of games, was the guys that stood ou from all the rest of them. He was a guy from England who was a former Halo champion himself. I really liked him a lot because it was like listening to a young, British, Howard Cosell. Talked non-stop, knew what to say most of the time and you could tell, he was really into it! Sometimes a little too much. Occasionally, with a bad joke or two, but hey, this kind of thing takes talent. Bottom line, the announcers really brought it all together.
They start off with the semi-final rounds of "Halo 2". I don't remember names of many players so I won't be referring to many of them specifically. To sum it up, this round was wasn't too exciting but it was a good way to warm things up and it was still intense. For anyone not familiar with this sort of game, picture this if you will. Imagine looking through the eyes of a soldier, who's stuck in a VERY complex battlefield. You and your opponent are hunting each other down and any second, you could either be riddled with a swarm of bullets all at once in a violent exhange of gunfire, or your opponent could sneak up on you and put a round in the back of your head, killing you instantly without even you realizing it!!!! That's where the heart of the intensity lies!! For this, the players tend to play with more caution. It was more like watching a game of strategy than action, though there WAS action! Often the rounds started off close, neck and neck until one came from behind and began to own his opponent. The next game was "Battlefield 2" a game played on the P.C stage pitting 2 teams of 8 guys each against each other, in an all out army battle. Soldiers and tanks and choppers! OH SHIT!!! Now besides that fact that this was a lot more intense, with everything blowing up and getting shot up every few seconds, what got me about this game was the artwork. As game systems are advancing, the artwork, the environments are getting so much more fucking real to the senses, it's sick. It reminds me of why I wanted to get into video game development in the first place. I wanna be a huge part of creating something BIG. Something you can get into, easily. Something that let you escape from reality for just a while, so you can live a story that's being told right in front of you. Sound corny? Well, maybe it does but that's what it's all about for me, ever since I was a kid, playing my first "Atari" system back in the early 1980's.
The real action came later on in the night with the game that was the highlight of the night: "Dead or Alive". One of the most intense action games to this date. The was the game that got the most energy from the crowd because it is an, all out, fast action, martial arts, bone crunching, slobber-knocker!! (That one's for you Jim Ross!!) For anyone who doesn't know this game very well, go to this site to learn more about it and even see some fighting clips from the game itself:
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1175/Dead-or-Alive-4/
I can only show this because even if I could give any explanation on the action I couldn't do it any justice, if I tried. So the best thing is to see for itself. I guess part of the excitement also stemed from the fact that these combatants were competing for a $10,000 check for a grand prize, and there ain't no second place either. The highlight rivalry for the night was between 2 rivals. One guy, calling himself "Master", who was taking on a guy he taught how to play the game. They used the same character on each other so it all down to skill. It was the best of 9 rounds or whoever won 5 rounds first, and the whole time it was neck-in neck. And I even thought the student, whom I was rooting for was going take the match, but he kept getting cornered and that's where "Master" did his best work.
The final round was between "Master" and this woman, who named herself "Kasumi-chan" She was good and a huge favorite to take the competition. She had just beaten, (and I mean brutally!) a breakdancer from Philly, using her favorite character...well....."Kasumi". I found myself, rooting for her for 3 reasons. One, there still doesn't seem to be openly that many female game players or game developers, so to be honest, guys like me wanna see the ladies represent!! Second, against Master, who was extremely skilled and a lot more aggressive, she was a 10 to 1 underdog and I always relate to the underdogs automatically!! Finally, because,...well, as good as "Master" was, he also came across as a bit too cocky, and that tends to GET ON MY FUCKING NERVES TO NO END!!! Guys like that I relish any opportunity to see them get their own asses handed to them!!! Unfortunately, with all his talk of "I'm the best!" and "No one can beat me" along with that shit-eatin' grin, I had to admit, he backed it up WELL!!! And I had a bad feeling it wasn't gonna go well for my dear, Kasumi-chan, because she let herself get intimidated and showed it during the interview. You CAN'T DO THAT....EVER!! Especially, when facing a prick like that. It's like a shark smelling a bloody, open wound!! She took an early lead winning the first round and the crowd went crazy!! But his agressiveness got her cornered and killed for the next 3 rounds. She managed to take the fourth, to which we all got up and clearly cheered again but the cocky sum bitch finished her off agressively and quickly to win the title. That was the only true buzz-kill for the night as far as the games were concerned. My only small comfort was that he didn't get near as good a reception from the audience as Kasumi did. Might wanna listen to the fans, son.
Anyway, it was a few more rounds of Battlefield 2 for another round of fiery violent, military death, where a team called "20ID" ended up cashing in and winning a $40,000 prize. After that, there were only 2 games left. Counterstrike, another 8-player team game pitting terrorists vs. anti-terrorists. The unique thing about this was that each team had coaches, yelling and screaming at them behind their backs. Understandable, since he could see all the action. (Consider him the team commander, if you will.) One of these guys, who looked more like typical coach, white-collared shirt w/ black tie and pants, short greying hair, and a face that
was changing back and forth from Caucasian white to bright red, depending on how intense, and pissed off he was getting. It was like seeing Mike Ditka, back in his coaching days in Chicago, about to have another conniption fit followed by an all out heart attack right on the field!! Nonetheless, to his and his teams favor, (and probably his healths as well) his team, Complexity won the match, and a $50,000 reward!! The last match was a car racing game but to be honest, I cant get into those games so I wont waste my words on that, except to say that they didnt exactly save the best for last. Bad move fellas!
Overall, the event was a hell of an experience to say the least. It had a lot of good action, a good atmosphere and some decent hospitality, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But being in such a contrived setting, where the staff is desperately trying to make you have fun, or at least pretend you are kept me from truly enjoying the experience, and they WILL be hearing from me about that. Still for once, I feel the need to say this. In a society, where jocks, models, or people, who look have an ideal appeal are worshipped daily, while everyone else is seemingly looked down on and ignored. It brought back memories of high school and even today, where if you play video games a lot, youre looked at as a total loser with absolutely no life, still living in your mamas basement, fat, out of shape and just plain unappealing.basically the usual stereotype we gamers are given. (I blame Hollywood and TV at least partially for that! BASTARDS!!!) It actually amazes and stokes the hell out of me when I can finally be in a place, where we can clearly see a lot of gamers atypical of that role, (like people, who do have lives, and some who are physically fit and appealing), and even the ones who may not be, (at least to pop culture) even if it is for one day, take the front stage and get the fucking respect theyre due!! That night, the geeks were the gods!!
phoenixgirl:
ok, im a dork becaus ei have had comicon in my head and i was thinking that is where you went because i started reading this thing backwards.its sounds like you had a great time.....i am not much of a gamer myself...i did play city of heroes for a while, but i lost interest, i have a short attention span when it comes to games...my husband on the other hand plays CoH and just recently got completely into D 7 D online.......but you know what, us geeks are actually the majority!!!!! 