Heinz's Blog

Anaheim was awesome!!! It really feels great to be the first team in Halo 3 to go back to back. I'm really proud of my teammates. I think it's only fair to everyone to blog once or twice before each event now since people want to hear from us more, so here you go! Before I get started I just want to say thanks to all my relatives for coming down and saying hi :). Especially little Jack who gave me a lucky quarter before the finals haha!

I have to say the worst feeling to start off the event is dropping the first game to a top 16 team. It's a real wake up call. It's happened at Columbus, Dallas and now Anaheim. Thankfully we don't have to play another Friday night match this year. On a side note I was sadly surprised to see how poorly Active Rush placed. I was rooting for Hokum since I got to talk to him a lot this event - he's a real cool guy. Next was Status Quo and we're such good friends with these guys that it's hard to have to play them. That said, we 3-0ed them pretty handedly :). Just had a rough start on Heretic CTF then it was smooth sailing for us. After SQ was Classic. Like SK said in his interview, we thought Classic was going to beat Instinct. I don't know why, guess it's just a hunch, but anyway we 3-0ed them too and this series was fairly easy as well. Nothing against Classic but we just had 3 straight gametypes that we're very good at to start the series and we took advantage.

We had to wait to play Str8 Rippin the next day in the Winners Bracket Finals and we knew it'd be a good match. We ended up beating them 3-2 in a very close series and I was playing pretty well. Then, they beat Carbon and we played them again. As everyone knows it was 6-5 and it was by far the most fun series I've been in (a bit better than Str8 @ Orlando 08 haha). The only thing I didn't enjoy was the way I was playing. I felt I could've helped my team a lot more in some of the games, but we won so it's ok! It really was awesome to be the first team to win back-to-back Halo 3 tournaments, but my team and I won't be happy unless we win Orlando. You can expect us to be more prepared for Orlando than any other tournament this year.

On to some other stuff. I've been reading the forums since Anaheim and noticed a lot of people talking about Str8 at their "best" and Triggers Down at our "best". From personal experience I can tell that Str8 wasn't playing their best and neither were we. I feel like there are a lot of improvements we can make to our game. I mean, both teams were playing well, but we lost 5 games to Str8. How is there not room for improvement? That goes for us and Str8. Like us for Columbus, they did not have a lan. And to be honest our "lan" in Washington was a benefit, but not so much in gameplay as in a team bonding experience and chemistry (if you haven't already, check out Triggers Down HALOween in the gameroom!). I guess you could say it helped, but it wasn't the deciding factor in our win. Some people over analyze everything on the forums lol. We just play halo :).

That was Anaheim. It was great, but it's time to forget about Anaheim. We'll be preparing as much as we possibly can for Orlando! I'm gonna be gaming so hard ... Pistola and I are going to win games at this years National Championships lol. It will be the best Halo you've ever seen. I want to thank all the fans that showed up to root for us at Anaheim, even though there were still some boos lol :(. We won't let you down! Thanks for reading everyone!

Hey people, just want to write a quick blog about Dallas and a bit of other stuff going on around the MLG community recently. Dallas was a really exciting event. I'd like to thank our small fanbase for sticking with us! Hopefully there are more of you guys come Anaheim. It's always great to take 1st place and I think this one was better than Meadowlands because we didn't have to go all the way through losers bracket to get it. We were playing really well at Dallas. Our team shot seemed like it was amazing and I think that links from our communication which was superb. I felt like I knew where everyone was at all times and it made it a lot easier to move around the map, which I think helped me have a great tournament.

As for my teammtes, I think they all played amazing. Everyone did their part and that's what you need to win an MLG event. Hysteria was playing real well (granted he wasn't playing his best, which is scary to think about since he was still playing so good). Jacob does a lot more objective than most people think. He is one of the best at knowing when and how to run the flag, which really helps us and makes us one of the more dominant flag teams (except for Narrows, we need to work on that haha). About SK, he was shooting great. I feel like he plays his best at tournaments and makes sure we do not forget about the little things in game. Some of the stuff he does gets taken for granted, but we appreciate him haha. Now Pistola. Back...to back.....to back MVP awards. That speaks for itself. But I must say he really stepped up his communication this tournament. That impressed me and it was definitely a key to our tournament win.

Some teams I was surprised with:

Carbon - I knew Carbon was going to improve from their consistent 8th place finishes, but I didn't think we would be playing them in the finals. I feel like Walsh has really stepped up his game and I'm happy he found a solid team who all have confidence in each other. They all played very well, especially Defy.

Under The Influence - I saw their last game against BtH and it just seemed like they wanted it more. Congrats to them for all getting their first Top 8 placing, especially Talent.

Status Quo - I thought they would have placed much better. From lanning them several times, I knew what they were capable of, but they just couldn't get it done. Unfortunately Clutch tore a ligament in his hand and he played poorly because of that. I think if he'll have a great bounce back tourney at Anaheim though, with BtH. I think Status Quo will rebound, too and I hope so haha. They're a great bunch of guys.

Believe The Hype - Basically the same as Status Quo. I think they'll be better with Clutch in replace of Soviet, especially with a lot of time to prepare. I'd like to see Cloud back around the top.



On to other things...

I'd like to thank all the people that are submitting their controller design ideas to the thread I created. It's nice to see all the great artists there are out there. Here are some of the best I've seen so far and thanks to them and all the others!

Must_Be_Faith

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5786756&postcount=18

Whitefall

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5788364&postcount=106

adamt4050

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5788473&postcount=120

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5788485&postcount=121

PossessedRabbit

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5789307&postcount=187

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5791311&postcount=277

Sequel

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php=5789480&postcount=197

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5789544&postcount=204

And an honorable mention to Capitan_Si_2!!!

http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5790030&postcount=230

Remember the winner(s) get a prize!!!

One more thing before I go. I do NOT have a MySpace. Someone is going around posing as me, so if you are thinking about buying anything from me or are just messaging me, don't do it on MySpace because it's not me. I do have a Facebook and AIM account (Dumass Ketchup), though. Feel free to hit me up. Thanks guys!

Ok I started writing this blog a few weeks ago, but never got around to finishing it until now. This is a long, long, read, but I think it's worth it.
So I finally decided to sit down and write about this past year. Each event was different in a lot of ways. Different ways of getting there, different things to do at each event, hanging out with different people, different expectations, surprises (good and bad), upsets, disappointments, roster changes, things that could have happened that never did, and anything else that comes to my mind while writing this. Some of this might come out a bit cheesy, but it's all the truth. I hope everyone enjoys it...

Meadowlands

After a long off-season, it was finally time for everyone to show what they were capable of. I remember being really excited, but really nervous at the same time. I didn't know what to expect of it. Since this was Meadowlands, I didn't have to fly anywhere, which avoids so much hassle. My dad and I picked up my friend Megan from the airport, had a funny 2-hour drive (at my own expense) over to the Meadowlands Expo Center. My team for this event was Believe The Hype, which consisted of Nexus, MudVayne and Cloud, and myself. I had joined them just a few weeks earlier, and I felt pretty confident heading into the event. At the time though, I was hoping for a Top 16 finish. I just wanted to be a pro player. That was my goal, but it definitely changed over the course of the year.

Everyone remembers how in Meadowlands EVERY team had to play through the Open Bracket; so everybody was playing on Friday. I didn't mind, but it almost didn't matter. Cloud got to Meadowlands at like 5:00 P.M. The deadline for signing in was like 5:15, if I remember correctly, so we almost started off in the Losers Bracket. Anyway, we didn't, and eventually went on to win both of our matches on Friday night. I realized that I hated split-screen for Halo 3. It was horrible and I just couldn't do it. I remember being so worked up about it because it wasn't letting me play to my full potential. The next day we ended up losing in Winners Bracket Round 5 to Be Like Myth's team. This wasn't what I expected, but we played the last round of AM in the Losers Bracket (which was full screen) and we made it out.

Next up was Championship Bracket, Saturday night. We were ready to play, and let me tell you that the free Astros really, really, helped. Meadowlands was one of the loudest events of the season. So anyway, we lost in the Open Bracket, which gave us a bad seed. In Winners Bracket Round 1 we ended up playing Ambush, which at the time was Eli, Gun Shot, Silent, and Snipedown. I remember nothing from this series except that we beat them 3-2 and Game 5 was Onslaught TS 50-48. Next up, we played Classic in WB Round 2. This was when Classic had a lot of hype from their great performance online, so we knew this would be a good match for us. Once again, I don't remember much from this series. I do remember Game 3, which was Pit King. They won this by 2 seconds and MudVayne / Soldier187 were the last two alive in the last five seconds. I remember Soldier assassinated MudVayne to win them the game. They won that series 3-1, so we got dropped into the Losers Bracket. For Top 16 we played Status Quo, which is nothing like the new SQ (I mean, they had Braaake). We 3-0’ed them real quick and got Top 16. After this, I went out to eat with my dad and we talked about how I got Top 16. It didn't really sink in yet because we were still in the tournament.

On Sunday, I realized that we were going to play XiT Woundz for Top 12. I had tried to team with them for Meadowlands, but things just didn't work out and I left the team, so I was excited to play against them. Another vague memory, we ended up beating them in the series 3-1. Now we had gotten Top 12 and exceeded my expectations. We still weren't done though. Next up we played Triggers Down for Top 8. They completely destroyed us. This made me realize the difference between the top teams in the league and the Top 12. There was a lot of room for improvement in my team and I. We were out of the tournament and the team that we had beaten Round 1 (Ambush) placed higher than us. It kind of pissed me off to see a team that we were better than place higher than us because of brackets. Oh well. We played our Consolation matches and I remember Cloud saying to make sure we win these. I am so glad we did. We ended up getting the 9th seed for San Diego, and this pretty much set up my Halo 3 career.

San Diego

Between Meadowlands and San Diego was a long two-month period. It was baseball season, and it was also the end of the school year, which meant finals. In New York, finals are in June...which sucks. If San Diego had been a week later, I wouldn't have been able to go. I remember being really stressed the entire time I was there knowing that as soon as I got back, I had a bunch of tests to take. Well, I got on my flight Thursday afternoon and it was the longest flight I had ever been on. It was a 5 or 6 hour flight and we also had a layover. We finally got there around 10 P.M. and my dad and I got something to eat. My coach, Bullzeye, called me and said him and a bunch of people were going to see The Incredible Hulk, so I decided to go with them. It was a lot of fun and where I met In The Clutch, who is now one of my better friends. On Friday, I pretty much just hung out with people and played in the pro lounge; nothing special going on since we weren't scheduled to play.

Saturday came along and it was time to get ready to play. This time we had Silent instead of MudVayne on our team and we were all pretty confident. Also, knowing the brackets and who you play really helps. WB Round 1 at San Diego was...ridiculous to say the least. It was extremely loud (we didn't have headphones), and of course, the team we were playing brought their families because they were a local team. Game 1 Pit CTF 3-2. A kid on the other team went +24, haha. Game 2 was 50-49 and the end couldn't have been closer, seeing how a guy rocketed me right after Dan (Nexus) got the 50th kill. Game 3 was easy though, and we 3-0’ed them. Next up was Fatal Images, the 8th seed, which consisted of Severince, Tizoxic, Foulacy, and Naded. We knew we were going to beat them the whole time, and none of the games were really that close, as we 3-0’ed them.

WB Round 3 was next. We knew if we beat Fatal Images we played Final Boss, the number 1 seeded team and the best team in Halo history. Most people would be a train wreck after realizing they had to play FB during a tournament, but when the gametypes for this series came out, we said to each other we can beat them. It happened to be that Games 1, 2, and 3 of this series were our best gametypes: Onslaught Flag, Construct TS, and Guardian Ball. We just had to get past Fatal Images, which we did. Sitting down, I remember feeling no pressure, because if we lost, hey it's FB; No one beats them. That was an advantage going in. Onslaught Flag was the first game and we came out strong and beat them 4-1. Everyone seemed surprised except for us. Then, Game 2 Construct TS, we beat them 50-41. This is when everyone started to come over and watch. I remember MudVayne, who was at the station across from us, saying to me, "Come on Richie. I know you guys can do it." Next up was Guardian Ball and it was never really close. We got an early lead and held on. We had 3-0’ed FB, who at the time were the reigning National Champions and the Meadowlands Champions. It really was a wild experience. Cameras were flashing and everybody was coming up to us and saying congratulations. It was a lot of fun, not to mention it just clinched us a Top 6 placing and lots of recognition, right Sundance? Believe The Who!? Haha, just kidding. He knew who we were, he was just setting an example for lots of people. Some people call it a hyperbole.

I got no sleep Saturday night. I got up and walked around at like 6 A.M. and called my friend Megan and my mom to tell them what happened. I went to the venue early and watched a bunch of the early series for Top 12 and Top 8. In WB Round 4 we were to play Str8 Rippin. I don't remember this series really well at all, only because it was so fast. They beat us...so badly. I've never really thought about it, but I'd say San Diego Str8 Rippin was the best team all year. That was their tournament. In Losers Bracket, we played Carbon for Top 4. I don't remember much from this series except a little Gandhi smack talk which is always fun to hear, and Game 5. Game 5 was Amplified TS. This was the first version of Amp TS and the spawns were dreadful. We lost 50-44 and it was disappointing to go out on such a lame map (at the time). We then played Consolation against Classic, and Nexus and Silent were just arguing the whole time, so we lost. We didn't win one series on Sunday, the worst way to get a Top 6 finish. Oh well. I did exceed expectations again though, as I was aiming for Top 8. San Diego was the nicest place I have ever been, and I look forward to going there again.

Orlando

Orlando was the most fun and craziest tournament of the year; but before Orlando, I got dropped. Dan and I both got dropped by Cloud. Cloud and Silent decided to team with Eli and Gun Shot instead, and they ended up getting Top 12. Sick. My team ended up being myself, Nexus, MudVayne and iGotUrPistola (Ambush). I felt like this team was a step down from my San Diego team, and I was just hoping for a Top 8 finish, probably Top 12 though. Anyway, Orlando was going to be fun regardless. MudVayne and I went down there early to my friend Megan's house. It was a lot of fun. Megan had set up a lot of things for us to do, including something called Airboating. We did all that stuff, got something to eat, and then went to her house and played Halo literally through the night. I've never played that much Halo, honestly. We got up around noon on Friday and headed to the venue. Once again, Friday was just hanging around with people and playing in the pro lounge.

Saturday rolled along and it was time to prepare for the tournament again. Even though we had gotten 6th at San Diego, with the roster changes, we once again had 9th seed. This meant Round 3 we were to play the number 1 seeded team again, this time it was Str8 Rippin. They truly were the one team I did not want to face. Round 1 was easy; we played my friend Deke and we 3-0’ed them. They did tie us one game though, and I credit that to Dan's math skills, or lack there of haha. Round 2 was against Fatal Images, and this was one of the two easiest series of the season. It took 20 minutes to 3-0 them. In all fairness, they went through a big (unexpected) roster change a week before, but anyway, we beat them.

Next was Str8 Rippin. I'll admit that I was nervous going into this round. Like I said before, they were the one team I didn't want to face. Well I knew it was coming, so whatever. Game 1 they completely destroyed us. I forget the gametype, but not the feeling of "here we go again, ****ing Str8.” I was trying though. Next up was Amplified TS. Not nearly as bad of spawns as San Diego, it played out better. Nexus and I had big games and we ended up winning this one closely. Maybe it was a fluke win; I'm sure Str8 was thinking that; I kind of was too. Game 3 was Construct King, and they destroyed us again. I remember, haha, after the Amp TS game MudVayne said something to Tsquared because T2 had gone -10 that game, and then in Constuct King, Mud went -16. I just remember xXx and T2 saying stuff to MudVayne and I couldn't help but laugh at the irony. Anyways, the next game was Onslaught CTF. This was our best gametype. We ended up edging them out 5-4 with a great spawn trap at the end, another close win. So, we somehow got to Game 5 vs. Str8. It was our worst gametype, Pit TS. What do you know? This game seemed to take about 45 minutes, but I remember the last 15 kills or so pretty well. The entire game was played on our end of the map, and they kept trading kills and then some. The score eventually stopped at 47-37. T2 came down our needler with rockets and with help from Pistola, I killed him. Then I killed a guy our top turret with help from someone. Now it was 47-39...still a long way to go. It became a standstill until two guys rushed our green and we ended up killing them somehow, so it was 47-41. The score somehow got to like 47-44 ish, and everyone realized Overshield was coming up...****. We had to go for it obviously, so both teams rushed it. Nexus ends up getting a double kill burning OS. The best thing he did all year. MudVayne was down there also. I hit a guy their training with snipe and Mud finished that guy off. I quickscoped T2 in the courtyard for another kill. Pistola, for some reason, is behind them. He spawn snipes T2 for his one kill in this whole 13 kill ordeal. So now it is like 49-47, and as MudVayne dies, Nexus assassinates Legit (I think) for the 50th kill. We pulled off the comeback. I remember jumping up, going crazy, and tackling Nexus to the ground haha. I don't see another comeback like this happening any time soon. It was a lot of fun, and it gave us another Top 6 placing.

This time, I got some sleep on Saturday night. It didn't matter though. We played Triggers Down the next day, who was on fire. It seemed as if we always played the team that was on fire (Classic at ML, Str8 at SD and tD at ORL); kind of annoying. They beat us pretty easily, and we waited for our next match. It was Chilled Reality (CallMeGod, Soviet, Perplexity and ArtofWar), who had beaten Carbon earlier. We won the first two, they won the second two, and then Game 5 I went on a Killing Frenzy, going like +11, and we won. That clinched us a Top 4 finish. We weren't done though, next was Str8 again. They came out much better on Sunday, and beat us 4 straight times. So our tournament was over. I exceeded expectations once again though, placing 4th this time.

On the Monday after Orlando I went to Universal / Islands of Adventure with Megan, and we caught up with a lot of people, including Omega. If you want to laugh your *** off, find Omega. He is a really funny guy. After that we got something to eat and went to the movies. Not too many things were showing, so some people went to watch one movie (I forget the title of it), while Omega, Megan and I went to watch Wall-E, haha. That was pretty much it and I got my flight back to New York on Tuesday. Orlando was the best event of the year, hands down.

Toronto

Toronto was a weird experience. Before Toronto, I got offered to team with Classic in place of Naded and I accepted. A day later they took Naded back and apologized to me for the misunderstanding. I got back on Ambush, but MudVayne flipped out when I had left. I didn't really feel like teaming with him. I wanted to pick up Cloud, even though he had just dropped Dan and I because I knew it would be best for the team. Cloud is such a sick player, especially at events when his attitude doesn't suck. Anyways, I got my passport and my dad, my brother, and I flew to Toronto. It's a pretty nice city and the hotel where the tournament was held was very nice. We got there and it was nice to see everyone again. It was Friday and it was the same boring stuff, minus team photos which was pretty fun.

Saturday came again, which meant Championship Bracket started. In Round 1 we played Joe Fries! Haha. We 3-0’ed his team and moved on. Round 2 was AntiGravity, which was Eli, Gun Shot, Severince, and Tizoxic. It became routine for Nexus and I to play Severince and Tizoxic Round 2 and beat them. This time they did take a game though. Round 3 was Triggers Down. Not nearly the same tD as in Orlando, but still solid enough to beat us. It went to 5 games, and of course Game 5 was Pit TS, our worst gametype. We lost, and for the first time since Meadowlands, I was playing in Losers Bracket Round 4 for Top 8.

I got up Sunday and headed to the venue early. Instead of warming up, we decided to watch a match for Top 12, the match where we would play the winner (Status Quo / End Result). This...almost ****ed us over. Status Quo ended up winning vs. End Result, and we were to play them. SQ came out on fire, winning the first two games of the series. Now I really, really did not want to lose to them. Game 3 was Construct King and I made sure we weren't losing. I got like 215 seconds in hill that game. Next was Onslaught Flag. They were up 4-2 with the fifth cap on their stairs, but Nexus clutched it and returned it. We ended up capping three straight times and winning. Next was Game 5 Guardian TS, which wasn't really close at all. Most people don't understand what would have happened if we lost that series. Instead of clinching a Top 7 seed for Dallas, we would've had 8th seed and had to have won the Dallas Open. That's a lot harder than sitting safe at 7th and only playing on Sunday at Dallas; But we won, so no worries.

Next up was Carbon for Top 6. This time they had Cpt. Anarchy in place of Gandhi. I don't remember much from this series except for Game 5, which was Amp TS. We played them Game 5 Amp TS in San Diego, which sucked. I didn't want the same result. Let’s jump right to the end. It's 48-47 Carbon. I am Gold-side Blue and all of Carbon is Pink-side Blue. I dodge a few nades while someone gets a kill for us, tying the game. I go under the base to find Ghostayame. I am pretty sure I would've been able to kill him, but no, from Pink 2, Cloud throws a plasma grenade. It ****ing stuck me, so I end up trading with Ghost and the score is 49-49. Now I'm like wtf. Somehow though, Nexus gets an assassination. Whatever works right...We won 50-49 for Top 6. It's always fun playing Carbon, they are really cool guys. After Carbon was Final Boss. All I remember from this series is winning Game 1 Nar CTF in 2 and a half minutes and also losing Game 5 Pit TS which we sucked at all year. We then played tD in Consolation and ended up beating them 6-5 for 5th but it didn't matter much. I remember being so tired of Halo after that tournament. We played a total of 33 games, which is a lot for one tourney. We did clinch a Top 7 spot for Dallas, though.

The Monday after the tournament, I was still in Toronto and I got to see the Hockey Hall of Fame. Compared to how Cooperstown is and how nice the Baseball Hall of Fame is, the Canadians sure do know how to entertain when it comes to hockey. Toronto was a unique event -that comic-convention was crazy.

Dallas

Dallas was a bit different from the rest of the tournaments. This tournament, the Top 7 teams didn't have to play until Sunday in the Championship Bracket. It was nice to not have to play until Sunday, especially since I was sick. Friday I felt like crap, but Saturday I was feeling better for the most part. On Friday I got in pretty late and said hi to some people before going to sleep really early. Saturday was a lot of fun. I hung out with my teammates, minus Cloud because he was coaching Gotta Love The Sun, my coach Bullzeye, my dad, and friend Megan the whole day.

As the night went on, it got even better because all of the pro teams began to play. This was the most exciting thing to watch all year, in my opinion. All of the pro teams 8-16 fighting for that 8th and final spot in the Dallas Championship Bracket, and of course, Las Vegas. There was so much hype before the event of who "wanted" it most, but none of that mattered. Of course everyone "wanted" it, but it came down to who practiced and who played like they wanted it. There are two series that I remember distinctly. The first was Under The Influence vs. Impulse. It went to Game 5 and Twylight and Clutch kept going back and forth with shouts of "Superior!" to one another after each game and while they were being serious, Dan and I thought it was hilarious. Twylight's team went on to win that one. The other series I remember is the finals, AntiGravity vs. Legendz. Legendz lost WB Round 1, so they had to come all the way back from Losers Bracket Round 1 (all 3 game series) and win, which they did. That's really amazing. It was a great series to watch; from Eli getting two kills Game 1, to Gandhi's sick snipe on Construct, and Best Man's funny comments after the series ended - for Fatal Images / AntiGravity to get 8th place all year and then choke while it counts. It really must suck, but Legendz earned it. They got to play tomorrow and in Vegas.

The teams were set for Sunday and Vegas. Going into Dallas we knew we had to play Triggers Down. Apparently there was a lot of trash talk between Nexus and tD before this event, which I was never really apart of. So a lot of people were excited to see us play them as if it were some sort of grudge match. A grudge match is between two evenly matched teams, but the re-occurring trend for me all year was that at each event (except San Diego), it was like mandatory to play Triggers Down and lose. I didn't beat them all year (Conso doesn't count Nexus!!!). Anyway, we played them and got off to a hot start beating them 3-0 on Pit CTF. Then, momentum swung. We were up like 33-22 or something on Amp TS and they came back and won. They got so fired up and ended up taking the next 3 games. Next up was Carbon and it was a quick, almost routine 3-0. It was the other easiest series of the year next to Fatal Images at Orlando. I only say that because they were such a different Carbon at Dallas. Looking at them, it seemed like they didn't care and playing against them felt the same way. I was surprised. If they played this way at Vegas, there was no way they were sticking together. We all know how that turned out - good for them. After Carbon was Classic. I'll be honest with you, I was pumped to find that out. There was no way we were losing to them. It went to 5 games, but we pulled it off and clinched Top 4. After Classic was tD again and they did what they normally did and beat us. They are the only team we lost to that tourney. I wish we could've played Final Boss at Dallas and see how we would've done, but whatever. Anyway, 4th place - not that bad.

Vegas Nationals

Vegas.....Vegas can be summed up in four words. No practice, no fun. I'll elaborate. We knew we needed to lan before Vegas in order to get the practice we would've needed. Unfortunately, Pistola wasn't able to lan. We were stuck playing the playlist every other night or so because of that, and the fact that there were no other teams on in the offseason. Some people say the playlist is practice, but it really is like playing against a bunch of laggy practice cones. I didn't think it was good enough.

I get to Vegas and meet up with Cloud and Clutch. Thank you for going Clutch, Vegas would have been half as fun. We get into a cab and get to the Hard Rock, which is a really nice place, see some people and say hi. Eventually more people show up including our teammates, so we head down for the photoshoot. We do that and then finally go into the venue. Wow the venue was small. Really small, but the Ultimate Gaming House made up for that. They should try and have something like this for every event; it was amazing with all the food, arcade games, station to warm up and the view of main stage. Friday was a pretty boring day as nothing was going on besides the all-star activities. We salvaged some practice by lanning Str8 before the night was over, but it didn't help much.

I got about an hour of sleep Friday night and I got out of bed around 6 and started thinking about our matches later in the day. We play Final Boss Round 1. If we win...Triggers Down. If we lose...Carbon. As simple as that I thought. With all the practicing we didn't do, I would've been happy matching our seed, 6th place. So it comes time to play and I felt ready. We get on main stage and it was really exciting to play. Game 1 was Onslaught CTF. We get an early lead, but FB manages to cap in return. Eventually the score is 4-4. The whole crowd, everybody, was cheering for FB. Screw that. It's loud and I remember the turning point. I told Nexus, last guy alive, to go back to our flag to kill a guy who was weak. Maybe he didn't hear me, because he didn't do it. He ran up to Top A or B, whichever and got team-shot and destroyed. FB ended up capping and winning 5-4. It probably wouldn't have mattered if Nexus had killed that guy, but it would've been nice to see what happened. Either way he went -15 Game 1 and we lost ;). Pit TS was Game 2 and it was Side and Neighbor sniping the whole game. Game 3 wasn't close and they swept us 3-0. Next up should be Carbon.

I was a little unhappy with the way we played and decided to walk around. I noticed that Carbon and tD were still playing. No way is Carbon beating tD. We 3-0ed Carbon at Dallas and got wrecked by tD, and now they were playing Game 5 at Vegas? As I'm watching, I just keep seeing the score go up and up as Carbon kept pulling away from tD in Narrows TS. Well, they ended up winning. I was happy for them because they are all cool guys and it was a great upset. At the same time, it meant we were playing tD for Top 6. So here we are again, a routine tourney playing tD. No need to get into this series. They 3-0ed us no problem and we got Top 8. We beat Legendz in conso for 7th, but who cares. When it mattered most, we did the worst. It sucked. Congrats to Str8 for winning Nationals, though.

Off-season

I think I left Ambush right away. I didn't want to be on a team that didn't practice. So Mackeo and Victory wanted to team with me and vice-versa and we joined up. Obviously we needed a 4th. Eventually Final Boss disbanded and StrongSide was available. We decided to pick him up and I really was excited to start playing with this team. The problem was, we never played together. For about a month, the only teammate I played with was Victory. It started to get annoying, but I was like whatever we'll practice eventually. We even had a LAN setup. It fell through of course. So that pissed me off even more.

This is kind of funny. One night I'm about to get off and I get a message from SK saying let's play. I said no thanks I'm tired. He sent me a message saying "listen to your heart". I laughed and sent him the next line "when she's calling for you" haha. If you don't know the song, get out. We ended up playing and talking, whatever. I got off and then Pistola and SK messaged me on AIM the next day, which is when I knew something was up. They asked me to team and I accepted seeing how I knew they would always play, which my current team didn't. I'm glad Mackeo and Victory understood, and it seems like all of us are happy with our current teams. They have FB, Side has Status Quo and I'm on tD.

Speaking of Status Quo, we just lanned with them which was a lot of fun. I'll have another, miniscule blog compared to this about it. Something I've learned while writing this blog compared to essays for school is that it is about 10 times easier writing about something you like, which is why this is so big and detailed. Anyway, that was my 2008 season. If you read through this long, long, long write up, thanks and it's probably time to go to sleep haha. 2008 was a lot of fun, but with all the changes in the format and rosters, it looks like 2009 will be even better. I will probably start blogging more so if anyone enjoys this please say so. Later all.