June 21, 2008: I'm Bored!

Yes, that's right. I am bored. It's not necessarily because there's nothing to do. I mean, it's my first time in Los Angeles, there are a hundred and one things to do here for a tourist like me. I'm bored because San Francisco doesn't have another match until Wednesday when we play Los Angeles, so we've had the last couple of days off. Yesterday, however, was a monumental success, and I really want to give you a good story, so...

Yesterday was the day that the untelevised franchise matches would be played. New York was playing Dallas, and we were going to play Carolina. It was almost like doing an online match, because while the call time was similar, there wasn't that 6 hour wait interrupted by such things as tech rehearsal and dinner. We were joined by LA's chavisan, who needed to do some work at the CGS offices. So we once again tumbled into the white van, and off we went to the CGS offices.

The outside is brick, and it's in a sort of secluded part of LA, kinda close to Beverly Hills but not really. Inside, the furnishings are somewhat sparse, but not in the sense of "we can't afford nice things," but "we just got a bigger office so we need more nice things." By the time we got there, the match between New York and Venom was well on its way, and was actually really close. The space where the action was happening was quite small, however, so we were unable to stand and watch. The spread for the gamers was pretty simple, but nice: Pizza, Mountain Dew, and cookies and candy in the back. I had already eaten a very filling lunch, however, so I just grabbed a Dew and set about taking a bunch of pictures. Everyone was just chilling out, and every so often you'd hear a loud yell from New York or Dallas. The loudest one of course belonged to New York after Cheppelle won the first round of his matchup with Master, giving New York the franchise victory outright. This is the second time that I can distinctly remember Cheppelle clutching it for his team, so good for him. Master did end up winning 5-2, but New York had the franchise match. Then, after Dallas and New York had cleared out, it was our turn to do battle!

First match was Forza, and I'm sorry to say I didn't pay a lot of attention. It wasn't because I was not interested, but rather that I had found my way into a small room near the playing area, where djWheat, Kam-ra, and others were recording and keeping track of all action. I was there for both the Forza match and for CSS, and CSS was interspersed with me talking with the World's Loudest Human about the game, about CGS, rulesets, other games they might want to bring in. It was a great time, even though we lost those two matches 4-3 and 10-8 respectively. I got out to the playing area for FIFA, so I was able to see what I believe to be the first 0-0 ties CGS has ever had. So to penalty shootouts we went, and great job by stermy^ to basically guess right twice, stopping Anomaly and reducing the deficit to 2. Then...came probably the two most intense DoA matches I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live.

First up was Chris vs. Ryan. I had predicted it to be a 5-4 win for Chris, and everyone pretty much accepted that at most, a team was going to come out with two extra points. But Chris just played so awesome, and it seemed that he was the more patient one, and with some help from the game's 5-0 (Ryan got hit by a police car on the map, Gambler's Paradise), Chris came out with a 5-1 win that pretty much shocked everybody. Landodger Mike writes that he almost got trampled, and I can very much agree that pandemonium was but a smidgen away. I almost fell out of my chair! Then finally was the game to remember: Vanessa vs. Mystik. I was surprised that Vanessa decided to play with Hayate, as I've seen her destroy people with Hitomi and Kasumi. I had a somewhat mediocre view of the action, but everybody got worried (stermy^ especially) when Mystik went up 3-0. It was like we were saying to ourselves, "No way we can lose like this..." They traded the next two rounds, and all of a sudden, Vanessa has a sliver of health and is down 4-1. We're all teetering on the edge of...well, I don't know, but Vanessa won that round and we yelled. When it became 4-3 we yelled louder. When she tied it, we screamed because we had won the franchise match by at least 1 point. And when she finished the epic comeback 5-4, pandemonium erupted. We had won! Come back and won!

The van ride was just hilarious, because the whole way home clowN is moaning and yelling, "Oh thank god...oh my god....we won....I'm so happy..." The team had all of Saturday off, so we fully intended to have a lot of fun. I got back to the room to upload photos and upload my match recap, and then it was fun time by the pool...or so I thought. Someone went and pooped in the pool, so no one could go swimming. I ended up spending a few hours just out by the grill instead, as LA staff and Jason Lake, as well as Lake's friend Crazy Nails, were cooking food. Paradox showed up and cooked food. Then Chimera's Source team showed up and they were cooking steaks! It was just a fun afternoon. The evening was no different, as I ended up playing DoA and Guitar Hero with Sack, Miximup, and Grt into the wee hours of the morning. Hence, why I didn't do this earlier. I was asleep all day! Thus, my Saturday was a lovely and hazy mess of sleep, laundry, and hilarious conversationing with Kat and Redeye. The team starts up practice again tomorrow, so I'll have plenty of camera at the ready! Stay safe, and happy fragging!

Previous Blogs!

June 19th, 2008 - Live Televised Edition
June 15th, 2008 - Man, what a Weekend!
June 10th, 2008 - I suck at Guitar Hero.
June 9th, 2008 - Rebound meets Jason Lake, plus Team Staff Adventures!
June 8th, 2008 - Mario Kart with Fatal1ty!