Sep's EVO log, uhm... dawg (you try rhyming "log" with something)

Evo Championship Series
#1

I don’t think my log will be that interesting, but I did meet a lot of interesting peopleone of which I met with my elbow and another I almost hit with my car. So here we go.

THURSDAY:

From conversations during the previous day, I had agreed with blooper that I would pick him up from his house around 2 PM. I woke up at 1 PM, having not yet packed for our trip. I swing by his place around 3 PM, we have a quick lunch of Jack-In-The-Box, and then we leave for EVO.

Our initial plan was to leave at night to avoid traffic congestion, but my mom talked me into leaving in the afternoon (because she would worry about me driving at night or something). We head onto the 210-E, and we met by traffic.

About an hour later, we travel the 20 miles or so to the I-15, where we merge onto the interstate…and then stop. The next 15 miles would take an unbearably long time to traverse because, as it turned out, stupid people don’t know how to follow directions.

As we arrive on the I-15, the first thing we noticed was a huge fucking sign that read: “PREVENT OVERHEATING! TURN OFF YOUR A/C FOR THE NEXT 15 MILES!” It was a hot day, and we were at a high altitude (thinner air means your car is more likely to overheat). We turn off our A/C, but I guess no one else does. We pass at least ten overheated and stranded motoristsand we point and laughed at them.

The rest of the drive is pretty uneventful. We stop at Barstow because I had to urinate, and we stop again at Baker because I had to urinate. As we leave Baker, I accidentally head toward the wrong freeway, so blooper, my navigator, tells me to bust a U-turn on the freeway entrance while there’s a huge loop directly to our right. I end up not listening to his directions for the rest of the drive.

We arrive at the MGM Grand at around 8 PM and check into our hotel room. We then have a quick dinner at McD’s, where I run into the least competent employee ever. The guy was obviously rollin’ on something, as he allegedly took orders from customers, sporting his uniform visor sideways (so gangsta!) along with an absent expression.

As I approach him to make my order, he asks if he can help me and then, before I can respond, he turns around and walks away to salt the fries or something. He comes back around five minutes later, and I make my order, get it, eat, and then leave.

After dinner, blooper, another friend, and I decide to check out the Strip. We head over to Excalibur and into its arcade, where we see a bunch of claw machines. blooper tells us that he’ll “own” us at those, so we watch him play. After he spends around $3 failing to grab a stuffed animal, we decide that we had enough of the claw and move onto another game. I elbow an old lady in the face, and we decide to call it a night.

Back at our hotel room, we memorize the phone number for Sapphire’sVegas’s premiere titty bar (it’s 796-6000)watch some UFC, play some Lumines, and then fall asleep to “Who’s the Boss” on Nick at Night, ready for EVO.

#2

Nothing like Tony Danza’s Italian Machismo to lull one to sleep…

#3

FRIDAY:

Having slept a whole 3-4 hours, blooper and I awaken at around 7:30 AM to get ready and leave for EVO (the schedule said we had to be there by 9 AM, so we were leaving an hour early to make sure we got there on time). We leave around 8:15, and we get to GVR’s grand hall around 8:30plenty of time to get our badges and be ready for pools.

Around 11 AM, we make our way into the hall to see that pools have not yet begun. My pool is #27, scheduled for 3:30 PM and blooper’s pool is #9, scheduled for 10:30 AM. It’s 11. Hmm.

We leave the grand hall and have breakfast at GVR’s Grand Cafe, where I get a steak and eggs for $18the price for which I would expect to pay for the best steak and eggs I’ll ever have in my life. It was okay.

After brunch, blooper leaves to play in his pool (the one with AneurysmX/Choi [I’m not really sure which] and Mago; GGPO, blooper), and I walk around. I snag a DOA4 wristband and then run into RoninChaos, who introduces me to Dataika and Philth. Dataika tells me that he saw someone wearing a shirt emblazoned with the hammer and sickle, so I tell him to go take it from its wearer. A REAL Communist would fucking share, anyway, and, if the wearer refuses to give up his shirt, he wouldn’t be a real Commie and wouldn’t deserve to have the shirt anyway.

I leave to find blooper, who, at this point, has lent his stick to Mago, who used the same stick to beat blooper into disqualification from the semi-finals, and then I walk around a bit more to catch Ronin playing in his 3S pool.

Ronin picks Ryu and then SA1 (Shinkuu-Hadouken), to which Dataika asks, “Why didn’t you pick the Truth?” I don’t remember Ryu having a super named “The Truth,” and I laughed. It’s now probably 2 PM, and we’re nowhere near pool #27. I try head over to the chairs to sit down, but I’m intercepted by ytwojay.

I talk with Jay for a bit, then I sit for a few hours. Around 5 PM or so, I get to my pool, where we have switched over to single-game matches; of course, no one bothered to tell me about this until after I lost my first game, so I qualify into the losers’ bracket, beating out, among others, bolesaw and Rushdown (who was DQed).

The semi’s don’t start until Saturday, so I just chill for a bit and get some food or something. I don’t really remember what happened next, but whatever it was involved a lot of complaining with Dataika about how much Chun and Yun suck.

I’m going to bed now, so I’ll continue the rest tomorrow.

#4

nice read so far.

#5

FRIDAY (part deux):

So, anyway, having eaten dinner already, I decline going to In-N-Out with Dataika and Ronin. They leave, and I pay homage to Sleepy Daigo for a few minutes by falling asleep on three chairs (this is after I put my shit away in my car, lest it get jacked). I wake up around the time EVO is supposed to show Street Fighter Generations to see that the showing of the movie is postponed until Sunday. blooper asks me to take him back to the MGM, so I do that and return to GVR.

Upon my return, I get myself a Fatburger and an ice cream before returning to the grand hall. Right before I get there, I run into Ronin, who, having just eaten and is supposedly full, asks me to show him where to get ice cream. We go back to the food court, where Ronin gets an ice cream and a free bottle of water by hawking his e-cred.

We get back to the grand hall, where Dataika and Dios <-X-> are waiting. Dios is eating a Fatburger and complaining about healthy food or something (“Fuck that low-fat shit. I want some fucking GREASE!”), as well as how it would suck to hear, “Hadouken! Hadouken! HEAD SHOT!!” with MLG there. He then finishes his food, and we enter to grand hall to watch Bang the Machine.

Meanwhile, Dataika and Ronin ask us to save them some seats before ninja vanishing and returning later. I think Dios is just about to complain about how we have too many mods in GD when I tell him that I’m Septimus, and then we change the subject to something more boring. Ronin then comes back and asks for the aisle seat, saying that he doesn’t want the people sitting in the row to get a face full of his ass should he have to get up; we immediately comply.

After the movie (it’s good), we walk outside to the hallway, where, during our conversation, I mention that I 'bowed some old lady in the face the night before. Ronin tells me that I “kept it real, son,” and I say word to that. At this time, it’s around 1 AM, so we decide to hit up the Strip. We pile into my car, and I take them for a ride.

Our first stop is the MGM. As we’re in the parking lot, looking for a space, we happen upon this girl who has the craziest ass I’ve ever seen. Ever. I’m not even really into ass, but, damn, that shit was NICE! Since there aren’t any available parking spots around, I just end up following her around until she gets into her car while Dios almost takes a picture of her with the flash on.

That ass was nice.

After we park, we walk around and crack some jokes (this is pretty much what we did all night) before heading to Excalibur and Luxor. The conveyor belt to the Excalibur turns out to be an obstacle course. We dodge the hobo that’s in our way only to encounter some crazy drunk, who’s holding his lit cigarette right over the conveyor at around face level (his whole arm was right over the belt). We either dodge him, or he lifts his arm to avoid us, but right after we pass him, he starts yelling profanity. Not wanting to find out whether or not the dude is intending to murder us, we pick up the pace and fast-walk into the casino.

While walking through the Excalibur, I end up getting a donut from Krispy Kreme’s while Roninwho, we decided, looks like Will Sassogets himself a big fucking bottle of liquor from the gift shop (and some donuts). We also decide that this Merlin fortune-telling machine is following us around because, well, it sure seems like it’s following us. We high-tail it to Luxor.

There, Dios takes a picture of Ronin taking a swig of liquor from his brown paper bag in front of a statue of Isis (I’m not really sure it’s Isis, but I don’t care). Dios doesn’t, however, take a picture shortly later of Ronin grabbing the breast of another statue of Isis (again, it might not be Isis; deal with it). We walk around some more, and these two drunk girls approach us as we’re near the spa, asking if that’s the way to McDonald’s. We stare at them blankly and walk past them. They ask us why we’re looking at them like they’re crazyit’s probably because they ARE crazy. Around 4 AM, we decide to call it a night.

While walking back to the MGM, Dios comments that “even the McDonald’s here looks pimp” and takes a picture of Ronin’s assnot necessarily in that order, but I don’t think the order of this sequence of events is that important. We then return to my car, and I drop Dios off at GVR before setting out to drop Ronin and Dataika off at the place where they’re staying.

Sometime during the night, we pass by a fitness center, and Dataika cracks a joke about Ronin’s weight (I don’t really remember the joke itself, but I’m sure it’ll show up in another log). At any rate, we also pass by this Jose (something or other) place, whose sign reads:

So, anyway, we get to the street where I’m supposed to turn into their hotel, and Ronin goes, “Turn over there. You see that sign over there?” The sign is fucking huge, and it’s almost the only thing I see.

So I drop off Ronin and Dataika and get back to the MGM at around 5 AM. I’m about to head back to my room when I happen across blooper and my other roommates, still gambling on the floor. I chill with them for a while and then head back to my room. On top of the cabinet that houses the TV is a row of beers. By the time I would wake up the next day, these beers would be completely gone. I get in bed and go to sleep.

Sometime during the night/morning/whatever, I’m awakened by someone snoring and can’t get back to sleep, so I go to the restroom and sleep on the flooragain, a la Sleepy Daigo. Again, I’m awakened when someone needs to use the restroom. I go back to the bed and, luckily, I fall asleep for a few hours.

#6

The joke I told Ronin was: “There’s a place that Ronin will never fuckin see in his life.”

#7

that’s some cold shit right there, Dataika, but it’s funny as all fuck!

#8

frog, dog, quahog, nog, mog, bog, fog, cogswell cog, mcgoug (er…that bad race from andromeda), rog, balrog, synagogue, pog, crog (possible 80’s cartoon villain name), sog, hog, jog, bog, blog. You didn’t try hard enough!!!

#9

These evo logs are too good.

#10

SATURDAY:

I awaken around noon, since semi-finals don’t start until 1 PM, take a shower, and notice that everyone else is still asleep. Since blooper didn’t qualify out of his pool, he decides to not go to GVR, so I make the trek alone.

Upon my arrival, it’s around 1 PM, so I check to see if semis have begun yet. Nope. In fact, there are still something like ten more pools to be played in 3S. I take this time to wander around the food court, where I intend to get a $2 ice cream. Instead, I run into Ronin and Dataika, so I sit and talk with them for a while before heading back to the grand hall to see if my time to play is up.

Nope. However, pools, by this time, have ended, and there’s a big sheet of brackets being displayed by the guy holding it down on some random table. I notice him and walk over, peering into the losers’ bracket to see with whom I should be playing, only to discover that I’m not on the list!

I frantically peruse the list over and over, skipping over the part that says “CvS2 Brackets.” Brilliant. Eventually, the guy holding the sheet asks me what game I’m playingand shows me that I’m an idiot. 3S brackets aren’t drawn yet, so I go to the front of the hall and sit/lay down/not really.

MLG having taken up a large chunk of the hall, the spectators for SRK’s players are forced to crowd around a tiny section of the hall to watch their friends compete. I, luckily, have a chair, so I end up standing on it for augmented spectation (a chair is like Game Shark for crowded spectating). Unfortunately, some other people with chairs decide to stand right in front of me, so I still don’t see much. I decide to give up trying to watch when my bracket is finally called.

Of the 128 (or more like 130) people James Chen call, about 8 go to our designated area, so I end up waiting for a while. When my scheduled opponent finally arrives, we are told that the first match of losers’ bracket would be one game, and then we head off to find an open machine (or to line up for one). Game time.

After we configure our buttons, the match begins. I end up as Player 1, so I immediately pick Alex (the cursor defaults on him, and he’s my character anyway). My opponent picks Chun Li. Fucking great. Immediately, I feel discouraged about his one-game match against a Chun player, and I even blurt out, “Oh, no,” as my opponent selects his character. Oh well. My consolation is that every decent 3S player is at least used to fighting Chun.

Round 1. My match with Chun is pretty close; I realize that I could very well take itexcept for the fact that I’m losing by a marginal amount of life. I get hit by a bunch of shit, and I’m about to lose when I score a knock-down on Chun. I dash over and input the command for a Powerbomb on my opponent’s wake-up when, all of a sudden, SUPER FLASH! Shit. But, wait! Right after the super flash, Alex grabs Chun out of her SA2 and powerbombs herand stuns her! Holy shit. Seeing this as my chance to take the round, I dash up, hit Chun with a hard Flash Chop, and then backdrop her to take the round. Awesome.

Round 2. Again, it’s a pretty close round, and I’m thinking to myself that I just might be a bit better than my opponent. Again, I get hit by a whole bunch of shit (possibly including a super) and have a bunch of my moves stuffed, but it still comes down to both of us with low life. I get hit by some sort of air reset and quickly input the command for my super. As Alex lands on the ground, I do Boomerang Raid, stuffing whatever move my opponent uses and winning the round. Match point.

Awesome. I report my victory to James Chen and await my next match. I would not be so lucky this time.

Before EVO, I participated in the final FFA ranbat with my Alex and lost to Lambo5’s Oro. I logged onto SRK and made a thread, asking for match-up advice, and the most useful response I got was to just use Chun (the second-most useful response was to just use Ken), so I made a plan that, if I face an Oro at EVO, I’d pick Chun after losing with Alex.

Just my luck: my second match ends up being with an Oro player, but I, in a stroke of pure genius, decide to tough it out with Alex instead of switching to Chun (I feel your pain, Viscant). So I lose. I don’t get completely destroyed, but I lose nonethelesswhich is even worse because that would indicate that my Chun might have had a chance. Oh well.

After being disqualified, I deposit my controller in my car (hell if I’m going to carry it around and risk it getting jacked) and return to the food court for a Fatburger and/or pizza and/or ice cream (I had a lot of each of those things, so I don’t really remember which one I got). Ronin and Dataika are still there, so I chill with them for a bit. We (not really me, since they already decided this while I was playing) decide to catch The Wedding Crashers in the movie theater in the basement.

To be continued…