Str8 bloggin

Phew! I don't even know where to start this thing off. This has been such a busy year for me and it didn't slow down after Columbus. As I type this I'm actually eating dinner with the team at the Str8nctuary right now. So I guess I'll start this blog off with them. Snipedown is in Chicago right now for the Dr Pepper Ultimate Gaming house which will be a great experience. Bryan and Kyle are both at the house with me and we started our hardcore Dallas practice a couple of days ago.
Summer LAN:

Last week the whole team attended the Summer Lan hosted by SQ which was a lot of fun. For me this was a huge chance to get back into the swing of things since I hadn't played in about a week because I was in LA for G4TV and Dr Pepper. Each day there were money bets going down, grudge matches, and tournaments where teams were randomly picked out of the hat. I got a chance to, for the most part, test my skills against the other guys and also have a blast getting to know everyone on a personal level. Thanks to Mr and Mrs. P and shout out to all of the people who were at the LAN, watching on Justin TV, and following on twitter.
Los Angeles, CA:
I previously mentioned the trip to LA for Dr Pepper and G4TV. Cali has always treated me right and I really dig the opportunity to go out there and do some "real work" once in a while. So I hopped on my cross-country flight to LA where I had car service and guy holding a sign with Tsquared on it to take my bags. G4 and DP always hook it up big when I go out there, which is probably the reason I like Cali so much. First up was G4 where I filmed a couple of the Pro Tips and did a pretty hilarious interview. It's always fun going hanging out with the G4 dudes and checking out the TV sets from other shows.
Ben Winter (producer) and Big Daddy T!

The next morning I had to wake up early and head down to the Orange County fair which was about an hour away. Waiting for me was the sickest Dr Pepper truck I've ever seen. Inside there was Free Dr Pepper, a DJ, booth babes, and more importantly a VIP booth with a gaming set up where I gave some tips and got games in with the kids. Shout out to everyone who was at the booth and to Miguel from Str8 camp who showed-speaking of which I haven't told anybody about yet about Str8 camp.
Back home....

STR8 CAMP!
So the 3 days after Columbus I had to spend in NY MOVING THE REST OF MY STUFF TO FLORIDA! It was horrible, I was as tired as I've ever been. The last thing I wanted to do after working hard at a tournament was pack up the rest of my crap. So going into Str8 camp I was a little groggy and a little pissed off. I really wasn't sure how the camp was going to go and I hadn't met everyone in person yet that was coming. Well, as soon as the first member got there my mood changed immediately. Last blog, I wrote from the airplane-that same day I surprised the team and got us 4 tickets to the NBA Finals game 4 Orlando Magic vs LA Lakers. Jason, the first Str8 camp member headed with us to the game which was a blast (even though we lost).
At the game


Friday the rest of the Str8 campers arrived and we kicked off 3 days of intense Halo. Everyone learned a lot from the whole experience, and I even learned a couple of things about myself (which I didn't expect to happen). I wish I had enough time to give the every detail from the trip because it was such a memorable experience. I'll link you to a blog which may be able to give a different perspective. Shout out to Jason, Miguel, Yates, and Bud from the 1st Str8 camp. I hope you all had a blast!
Gaming




Lammies Killionaire!

The whole gang

The next Str8 camp creeped up on us but we were seasoned vets after the first one. Things didn't go according to plan for this Str8 camp- a couple of people got delayed and missed flights but that didn't stop these kids from gaming. I've never seen 4 people go with such little sleep or food and drink more Dr Pepper in my whole life. The first camp we were all on decent sleep schedules but this time we all played so much Halo that we didn't go to bed until 7AM on Monday....Str8 camp was supposed to end Sunday. That very morning I had a photoshoot with Entrepreneur magazine. I wasn't really sure how the pictures would come out:

Intense gaming



Unlimited Dr Pepper baby!

Coach of Str8: Lammie

Coach of Ambush: Bullzeye


The highlight of my weekend had to be watching the Coaches vs Campers show down. Lammie and Bullzeye took on Bforce and Oakley only to find out there is a reason they coach. Jk Lammie ;) But seriously, watching the coaches go down was pretty hilarious. Shout out to Ryan, Sam, John, and Matthew from the 2nd Str8 camp

New gamertag: T2 the RIPPER

Mac crashing:
I'd just like to throw this out random information- my mac crashed on me and I'm extremely angry =|
So if you are a student of mine-or if you've sent me fan mail-please contact me via email again!

Working out:
I've maintained my promise of continuing my workout regimen with Legit. I suggest everybody do the same and get into shape! It helps your K/D ratio!

Possible Str8nctuary stream:
If your interested in what goes down in the Str8 house- or you want to see us on Justin.TV post in my blog. If there is enough people...well we may just have to do it! =)

Dallas:
Well ASTRO got us started our Dallas preparations and lets say we've started on the right foot. We've now got the OFFICIAL MLG Tournament set up in the Str8 house. Not only that but we got hooked up with some swag, tons of extra cables, and ASTRO's for the house. Now this will all be extremely useful for the 3 LAN's we have coming up in August.
Lan #1 August 6-10
Lan #2 August 13-17
Lan #3 August 21-24
Other then that we will just be hanging out at the house playing on the T1 8-)
Everybody is already playing so I should wrap this thing up!

I want to say what IS UP! To Lammie, Kill3n, Rlau-Hokum, and Hi Mom-I know your reading this!

-T

I'm actually writing and POSTING this blog while flying back home using GoGo in flight on Delta which is pretty freaking insane. Just thought I'd share that with everyone since I never knew you could even get online while flying. ANYWAY lol.

Columbus:
Man what a tournament. I'm extremely proud of how my teammates played and I couldn't have asked for anything more. Everything we talked about and practiced we came through and did. Congrats to the top 8 teams and Pistol and the Jets for doing so well without playing that much with each other. An extended Happy Birthday to Bryan (Legit) who just turned the big 19!
Columbus was a surprisingly nice city. I couldn't believe the amount of nice people, hotels, restaurants, bars, and things do around the city. I'd say it was one of my top 10 favorite event cities I've ever attended. Dr Pepper made this event even more special by hooking us up with a sweet azz suite with a full MLG set up (8 viewsonics and 360s) right inside our room. Thanks to all the guys from DP and the MLG staff who made Columbus such a smoooooooth event. Special shout out to Detach who took over the hard job of pro player manager for the weekend.
Lil T2 making his appearance in the DP booth [IMG]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/t2isrippin/4621_81941228869_6278093869_2005680.jpg[/IMG]
Rob and J
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Halo celebrations trash talking etc:
I feel like this has been getting a little to much negative attention lately so I'm going to address the issue on hand. First off, I'd like to start off by saying I apologize for my cursing while being on the main stage (mainly after the Instinct win). By no means was I trying to come off as a badass or anything like that. If you have never been on the main stage or in my shoes then I guess you would never never fully understand.

There is a lot that goes into a celebration then people would think. How easily people forget just a couple of weeks ago Str8 was getting bashed like no other. People were saying we've lost it, front running fans lost faith in us. All of the sudden Instinct's the team to beat. Why did I celebrate the way I did? That had nothing to do with it.

The reason is I care about this game more then you can imagine. To me it's not about winning money or fame. I like playing because I love competition. Saying the F word where I'm from isn't that big of a deal, especially in the heat of battle. Does that make it right for me to say it while being filmed? No it doesn't. But at some point you forget that the camera is even there. If you let the camera effect you then it very well could make you nervous. How am I supposed to know what I say makes it online or on ESPN? In comparison, NBA players don't know when they are WIRED or if their lips are being read. Should they hide their emotion?

I've been kicked off teams, handed toilet paper to after losing, back stabbed over and over again by players I thought were friends, and I continue to get told that I'm garbage by plenty of people. Maybe next time I should smile and say nothing, but sometimes you have to let it all out. I'm 21 years old and am allowed to say anything I want, but then again I am old enough to take responsibility for my actions. Thats why I apologize for what I said, but I'll never apologize for my celebrations. I was completely shocked to see that this has become that big of a deal and I'm continuing the ongoing battle of choosing my words wisely (if you know what I'm saying ;)
If your going to call someone a douche that you've never met before then you should reevaluate your online muscles. If you ask anyone who has met me, I'm for the most part, one of the chillest there is. Try not to judge people by the way they look, talk,or dress. In the end I'm sure you wouldn't like that very much either.
[IMG]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/t2isrippin/4673_88699992361_728857361_1964406_.jpg[/IMG]

Trash talking at events: Halo and any competition in general will have some sort of trash talk. What you have to know is most of us are all good friends with each other. When Elamite said "we don't have to be playing 100% to beat these guys," he is joking. We all hang out with each other after the tournament and continue to be good friends. There is a big difference between Xbox Live trash talking and what goes on at the tournament. I feel like XBL has a huge problem and people will say things that they would NEVER say in person. Thats why I want to clarify things before it gets out of hand. Each and every one of us needs to be respectful to one another, but the occasional T-Bag is necessary at times (everybody knows that). Just make sure you keep it fairly clean, because trash talking can be fun, but it can also get quickly out of hand.

Str8 camp:
So like I said I'm actually in the air right now heading to Orlando for the first Str8 camp. I'm pretty excited but also nervous at the same time. I met 2 of the dudes heading over and they were both extremely nice and seemed stoked about coming out to the Str8nctuary. We are going to be doing some really cool stuff this weekend (that I want to save for later) but I know everybody will like it. I'm going to keep this part short and simple before I go around giving out any surprises.

Gaming-Lessons:
Like always, GL usually slows down a tad right before the tournament due to the intense training and competition. Expect everything to pick up full speed with lessons, gear, and articles to be cranked out at a high speed pace.

Str8 Fans: You guys were RIDICULOUS in Columbus. It was by far the craziest/sickest crowd I've ever seen in my MLG career. Thanks for making everything exciting and shout out to all of you who watched our matches on main stage and at the Dp booth. Oh and we are undefeated when "FoXy" our number 1 fan is at a Halo 3 tournament. So thanks Megan! If anyone thinks they are a bigger fan then her, I have her contact info readily available.

Columbus pictures:
Send me CBUS pictures if you have any of the team or from the DP booth! I want to upload them to my next blog! Email them to Tsquared@gaming-lessons.com or post an uploaded link in the blog comments.

BONUS:
In my opinion you have to celebrate after all the hard work paying off. So I surprised the team and bought tickets tomorrow for Game 4 of the NBA Finals (Lakers vs Magic). I can't wait to go to the game with the guys and kick it in our Magic jerseys. Happy birthday Bryan and good job to all of you guys for bringing the heat in Columbus. I've only been to like 4 NBA games and all of them were regular season so I'm really excited. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and upload them to my blog.

The return of Lammie:
As Str8s coach Lammie proved to me and the rest of the league that he is one of the best, if not the best in the league. His halo knowledge is unmatched and he will continue to improve tournament to tournament. Plan on him being a part of the team for the rest of the season. Congrats buddy, you earned it.
[IMG]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/t2isrippin/4662_190478170060_511620060_7206179.jpg[/IMG]

With Columbus creeping up gaming is getting pretty intense right now. As most of you may know my T2 is Rippin account got hacked and I've figured out the person who did it. Thanks to the 500+ people who emailed me or messaged me on myspace with info leading to who it is. After the tournament I plan on going after this person to the fullest extent. Ip flooding, account hacking, stand by, and other forms of cheating are so illegal, its ridiculous. People don't realize that what they are doing can get them in serious trouble, and eventually you will mess with the wrong person. I decided to spend a couple of hours trying to fix the problems with hackers but in the end the reality is....they just want attention. So congrats guys, you are all uber cool for haxing ze accounts.

New Gamertag: Air Squared

Team LANs: Our team set up 2 LANs prior to Columbus the first one being with Final Boss and the second, a 4 team LAN, with Str8/SQ/BTH/TC. The first LAN went pretty well and we took the overall score was 35-25 Str8. Thanks to FB and coach Moo for the good times.

The 2nd LAN was a blast but we didn't get in as many games as I thought. I ended up getting extremely sick the day before the LAN and could barely even talk let alone breath. Probably the swine. The first 2 days we played really well only dropping about 4 games. We played to our full potential for a couple of those series and that was all I really needed to see from the team. After the LAN I knew we were ready for Columbus. We will be coming into this tournament twice as prepared and deadly. Thanks to SQ for hosting the LAN and all the teams that played. Sorry if I got anybody sick, probably shouldn't have been spooning that hard...

Str8 camp: Is coming up and I'm pumped. The weekend after Columbus we will be having the 4 guys over and the team will be at the Str8nctuary for the whole summer. Eric is wrapping up school and Kyle just finished a couple of weeks back (I've been done for a while ;) I can't wait to get everybody under the same roof, gaming hard, going over strats, and having a blast while doing it.

Gaming-Lessons: I've taken a break from lessons, but that doesn't mean the site isn't still hoppin' The GL staff will be at Columbus and we will be having tournament interviews, articles, and footage posted on the site. Be on the look out for the dudes with the blue GL shirts.

Upcoming events: After Columbus the team is going to be doing some events (possibly in the LA area) with Dr Pepper. When I get more info I'll let everybody know. It's kind of depressing going to the gas station and seeing the T2/MLG bottles disappearing. I guess I never realized how cool it really was to go to the store and see yourself there. Probably because I'm always so hung up on practicing and doing so much other stuff.

In Columbus: Str8 will be taking pictures, signing autographs, and playing in the Dr Pepper lounge through most of the Columbus event. Last tournament it took me about 30 minutes to get to the bathroom because I was signing so many autographs and taking pictures, which was cool. It became a little overwhelming though, so I think in Columbus I wont be walking around the venue as much as Meadowlands. Friday is a great day for me to sign autographs but come Saturday and Sunday I'm going to be as incognito as possible. Be sure to save any pictures and upload them from the tournament. I'd love to add them to my facebook when I make one after Columbus.

I'd write some more but MLG playlist is calling my name.

P.S

[IMG]http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/t2isrippin/image001.png[/IMG]

-T

HealthSquared

So outside of gaming I've started up an "09" season resolution to get back into shape.  I'm already in decent shape right now but since the move I haven't been able to go to the gym every day like I used to in NY.   I can't frickin hide my game gut anymore since I'm living in Florida now! Legit picked up a bench/workout station from the store which is going to be clutch since we already have a perfect push up and iron gym.  Not really sure if it was a coincidence, but I noticed a huge change in my game in the 2007 season, which was the same time I started working out heavily for the first time.   After watching MTV, and seeing I was all skin and bones, I vowed to add on some mass.  After lifting, and going from 6'3 145 to (still 6'3 somehow) and 185 ,I found myself more pumped up in my XBL/Lan/tournament celebrations, my confidence had increased, and my energy level rose in result of better sleep quality.  There is no doubt in my mind working out (of any kind) can make you a better Halo player.   So as a result of wanting to get better at Halo and become healthier I'm going through with the "T2 workout plan." If I learned anything from working out it has to be the fact that everybodys plan or way of lifting is the best way.  I figured I'll take my own route and mix it up day by day.  If anyone wants to get down on the T2 workout plan or start their own 09 resolution, post on the blog!

(Day 1)
Stretch
5 sets of push ups
Incline/Decline bench (light one day, heavy the next)
Lunges and/or squats (Legs suck)
500 ogre twitches
Possible mile+ jog outside if I'm up for it.  I'm definitely hitting up the pool though.
---------------
(Next day)
V ups on pull up bar
5 sets of pull ups
Curls (inner/outer bicepts)
Shrugs
SirSamurai650 shoulder exercise (kinda reminds me of the YMCA dance)
25 Gandhi hops


Eating:  
For me it was always DIET DIET DIET.  What I've realized (personally) is that I can't go through an immediate change in my diet.  Food is just too good.  Its simple for me now, just cut out a majority of the bad foods that your eating and replace things on a small scale [don't literally weigh your food lol].  I'm talking brown rice instead of white rice, turkey burgers instead of regular burgers (occasionally), wheat bread, canadian bacon, mixing egg whites in with regular and add some green peppers, and luckily Diet Dr Pepper tastes just as good as regular.   All of these little changes add up in the long run.  To be honest with you, I still eat out all the time but I'm not ordering bacon cheddar fries and quesadillas with triple sour cream like I used to.  Steaks, fajitas, chicken breast all of those things hit the spot at restaurants and it barely effects me. Obviously you want protein in your diet and can get some powder/bars if desired.  However, I'm done with all the supplements and crazy diets because they just don't work for me.  The best thing for me is continue my lifestyle change (with the little things) and don't over exert myself by cutting out foods and drinks that I love. 

So for all of you out there who looking to get back in shape or are just looking to start out REMEMBER:  Everybody is different and no workout plan will give you immediate results.  If it does, thats exactly what it will be....immediate results and nothing more. You have to slowly change your daily habits in the way you workout, eat, drink, sleep, and game.  I can't stress enough how important it is to get on a schedule, no matter what that schedule is.  I know for a fact that once I get back into it, there will be a huge fire lit under me to go out there and kick some ass and take some names.  Today is the day! Hopefully other people will get involved too!

Advice Str8 from THE Clap:
Just remember, whatever you decide to do, you have to stick to it. If you jump in place 500 times a day for a month, you'll see progress. As to diet, I highly suggest 4-6 smaller meals/snacks as opposed to giant meals 2-3 times. Chicken breast/burger/steak/etc (a protein serving)+ "random veggie/fruit/etc" should be the goal. Don't measure your food just eat at 1pm for example and don't eat again until 4pm (period, nothing but water in between)

-T

2009:

The 09 season has begun! I'm not going to give an in depth Meadowlands write up (yet). Anyway, I'll be the first to admit that I may have taken too long of a break, but the condition mentally and physically I was in after Vegas I think it was well deserved. After winning the Championships at the end of November I spent a lot of my off season visiting family members and friends that I haven't spent time with in years. Around mid January I started gaming again, but not to the extent I wanted to. Now immediately after winning the Championships I was already pretty busy with interviews, G4 , MLG, working on the new Gaming-Lessons ideas, and other random things. I finally started to hit my groove after practicing for about 2 weeks, but for some reason every time I started to get good again I would get sent out to do some more promotional things. I'm all for promoting and doing TV because I really enjoy it, but I feel like my skills were suffering a little bit because of all the juggling I had to do. Usually I'm always the one getting on and gaming, calling the teammates to get on, but with so much traveling I was the one who could barely practice.

Mid February I headed to Orlando for practice at Legit's. We wanted to get a higher quality of practice to make up for the weeks we missed. I planned on staying there until the tournament but was informed I had to fly back to Syracuse to do some more G4 and ESPN filming. Well the fact of the matter was I didn't want to go back. I was having so much fun in Florida. ESPN AND G4 both were totally down to come to Florida if I could host them. I've always wondered what it would be like if I moved in and got a place with my team. After all, it makes total sense. We all have crazy sleep schedules, we all share the same goals, do the same job, and most of all we are like brothers. My lease in Syracuse was running up in a couple months so I was getting emails from my friend who is a real estate agent. That sparked a whole thought process in my head and I immediately hopped on craigslist, found a ridiculous 4 bed, 4 bath, furnished home in Orlando, 10 miles from the airport. I pitched the idea to the team and didn't expect everyone to be so excited about the house. Normally I get really excited about silly ideas and they always get shut down (mainly crazy beginning strats that never work). This one was different, the timing was right, everyone was on the same page, we all loved the house. The very next day Bryan and I drove 45 minutes to check out this place and immediately I thought ENTOURAGE BABY! Internet at the Str8nctuary is a check. Today we finally found an ISP to come out here and hook us up with DSL while the T1 gets installed (10 more days). I can't wait to start gaming, too bad I came down with a horrible sinus infection after Meadowlands. I don't think it will effect me that badly though.

For pics of the Str8nctuary check out my myspace www.myspace.com/mlgtsquared

I'm sure you guys are interested in how Str8 is going to bounce back after Meadowlands. Well its simple, we are going to practice even harder then 08. When I moved to Florida I gave the 2008 National Championship check away to my Dad, which at the time, meant everything to me. But to be honest with you, I was tired of basking in the glory of the 08 season and realized after this tournament that none of that matters anymore. I wouldn't doubt if our team meshes even better this year then last, and personally I feel like this will be my best season individually. Now that we have internet at the house and minimal outside activities, I'll be on pretty much every day. Some people may think that I'm saying that just to pump up the team or something but for those of you who know me, I never lie about the truth :)

Upcoming events:

Gaming-Lessons.com relaunch:
It's ready to go. You can go to the site right now and purchase sick Gaming-Lessons shirts amongst other things. Lessons, team lessons, Str8 camp, friends list spots, gametime, and more will be available for purchase within the next 24 hours. Expect big things from the site, I know I will.

Ultimate Gaming House:
Be sure to check out the first episode of the Dr Pepper Ultimate Gaming house on the front page of the MLG site with my teammate Legit. Rumor has it Squared is heading out the 2nd winners house so be sure to send in your videos! Shhhh you didn't hear it from me ;)

G4TV:
Unfortunately E3 falls on the same days as Columbus so I won't be heading out for G4 like I did for Comic-Con. However, with new maps brings new tips. Be sure to check em' out. There hitting the tube and internetz everywhere.

ESPN:
If you were at Meadowlands you saw a camera crew following Walshy and me everywhere we went. I don't know how much I can say about the show but its going to be huge for MLG (and ESPN hopefully too). I know they have been pumped about the competitive gaming scene for a while now and I can't wait to see how the show comes out.

Top secret big news:
Is secret

Str8 from the booth (Favorite pics. I'm going to try to do this every tournament, hopefully I don't forget or get to busy):





Don't see your pic? Check out the DP facebook (copy and paste link):
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=813573&ref=name#/pages/Dr-Pepper/ 6278093869

Finally! Time to blog! I've been wanting to write down some of my thoughts and give everybody a little bit of insight on what has been going on since MLG Toronto. I guess I'll start where my last blog left off. I read all of the comments (35 pages worth, 10 comments per page) and I never got the time to respond to them. I want to say thanks to all of the people who had such nice posts. They helped me through a difficult time and it meant a lot to me. To all of the people who had mean things to say, thanks for the fuel =)

Preparation T:
After the team change happened, Snipedown (Eric) ended up flying up to my place. We all got together, practiced, and hung out for a good 5 days or so. Right from the beginning we hit it off (man that sounds wrong). When you make a new team, it's important that you all become close to one another.

Well....maybe not THAT close....
Anyway, we could tell after just a couple games of watching Eric play that he had an enormous amount of potential. We were all really excited to see what we could do as a team on LAN. About a week before the tournament, we got together at Elamite's(Kyle) house and “boot camped” against Breaking Point. That same week, Eric had his first couple days of his Senior year in HS. We didn't get to LAN as much as some of the other teams, but I think we took a lot from the practice we had. Kyle's mom ended up doubling as Ari Gold from Entourage, which the premiere was badass btw, and had a butt load of interviews set up for us. The best part was she scheduled them around our "gaming hours." So thanks to Mrs. Elam for being our manager for 3 days, and I'm sorry for screaming out random curse words at the TV when I would lose snipe or rockets. I snapped some pics from the LAN lol here they are:

Breaking Point

Str8 Rippin

Kyle getting interviewed by the news:


Setting up for the LAN1 (Dr Pepper sent us some extra Xbox 360s and Viewsonics)

Setting up for the LAN2

Bryan and his hand sanitizer

ACE!


Toronto:
So in my last blog I wrote about the team change and how we were going to be ready and focused for Toronto. Most of you know the details of the tournament so I'll keep this short. First off, Canada is always a blast. This tourney had a pretty crazy atmosphere with about 40,000+ people walking around the venue. The level of competition for Toronto was pretty high, especially with all of the drama that happened before hand. A lot of people had doubts about our team going into the tournament, but it was overshadowed by the tons of support we got in messages, emails, and comments. We had our backs against the wall a couple times but stuck together. We remained a team even while down 2-0 against FB and in a tough game 5 against a Legendz team that we were supposed to dominate. I'm really proud of my teammates, and I feel that with every game we kept getting better and better. It was definitely a great feeling afterward, knowing that the hard work we put in paid off. Thanks to all of the fans at the tournament and to Astro for all of the help they gave us with our headphones.

Post Toronto/ESPN
After the win I took a small break and went to the Yankees/RedSox game at the stadium the Tuesday after with my Dad. I'll have to get the pictures from his camera so I can upload them to the blog later. Shortly after coming back from NYC, I found out that I was heading back to go to the ESPN headquarters, in Bristol, CT, for their show First Take. Honestly this was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me in my gaming career. Going on ESPN? Are you serious? I've been watching ESPN since I was born, honestly. So I flew down to Bristol and met up with Jason from Dr Pepper. From there I went through a small amount of prepping and got ready to go the studio. Okay, now listen, if you've never been to Bristol before to see the ESPN studio. IT'S HUGE. When we went through the gates I felt like I was driving around a small city, with only 1 thing in mind….sports. I'm walking by anchors, athletes, and memorabilia that I see on TV all the time. I felt like a little kid again. As I get to the green room I started to calm my nerves and focused on the upcoming segment. I found out Dana Jacobson was interviewing me, which was awesome because she’s got a great personality and was stoked about the segment. When the interview hits you will see, she was all about pro gaming! I don't want to give away toooooo much because it will ruin the show when it starts.
PICS:

On the First Take set


Dana Jacobson and me

What a blast! The segment should be airing this week. I'll let everyone know what day it shows so they can check it out!

G4TV/X-Play
After landing at 10PM I had to wake up at 8AM to start filming the newest version of the X-Play tips. I'm not a morning person but I was pretty darn excited about the segments we had to shoot. The reason I was so happy was because these tips are more of an intermediate/expert level and I GUARANTEE if you watch them you will learn something. The tips before were really basic because you have to remember, there for noobs man! So the producer of the show and the camera crew got here. They told me that I needed to have the Panasonic AX-200 projector for some of the shots. There was only 1 problem. I didn't have the AX-200. I let my Dad borrow it for the NFL games at his restaurant & bar. No way was my Dad giving us the projector when the Giants game was on. He gave us a couple of excuses but after an hour we somehow we pried it from his fingers. Expect some new camera angles, intros, improved tips, and the AX-200 projector to go to use on these new segments. I have a couple of solid one liners too, hopefully everyone likes them!

Pre Dallas:
Our teams practice currently consists of watching Entourage on my Panasonic projector and drinking Dr Pepper.



/product placement Haha just kidding. But in all seriousness we have been putting in a lot of hours individually and plan on starting up a pretty hardcore practice regimen as a team within the next few days. We're going to have another LAN, this time at Eric's, so when it's going down, someone from our team will keep everybody updated.

To all of the Str8 fans BE SURE to show up at Dallas. We need your support! Go Str8!

Post Orlando:

As most of you probably already know there has been some crazy team changing after Orlando. I wanted to write down my feelings and I'm not sure if I'll ever actually publish this blog in its entirety.

After Orlando I planned on writing a super happy go lucky blog just like after San Diego, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time.

Orlando had its ups and downs especially with an early loss to Ambush. On Sunday we had to go through the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th place team just to get to the finals. We got to our series versus Triggers Down and even though we didn't win, I feel we played our best, and I walked away happy with how hard everybody tried. Obviously I wasn't happy with our placing but we left everything out there and that's all that matters to me. We gave it our best and on that day it just wasn't good enough.

The week after the tournament was the first time I stayed for a couple days in the city of the event. My friends and family that I haven't seen in almost a year live there so I took that opportunity to spend some time with them. I didn't stay long because I feel guilty about not practicing for a couple days and it drives me nuts knowing other people are playing when I'm not. The break I took was well needed for what was about to come. Shortly after settling into my apartment, I found out that FB had asked Kyle to leave our team and join theirs. I assumed this would happen after we won San Diego. History repeats itself and I saw the same thing happening to our team to what happened with Team FFA. I knew Kyle is great friends with FB and an awesome player and would no doubt be their first choice-- on top of that it would break up our team, which is the biggest threat. Addition by subtraction. Mason came to me asking who we should pick up... emotions were running high but I told him not to panic and to trust him. I found out that Kyle declined and my respect for him skyrocketed, not like it was lacking before. I was just so happy to finally see someone who valued friendship as much as I do. So many times in this league I thought I had friends but in reality they were just snakes slithering behind my back. I think of my teammates as family and would do anything for them and Kyle showed me the care and respect that I've always wanted in a real friend. Plus why would we ever want to change anything? Halfway through the season we are the number 1 ranked team in the world, we have the Dr Pepper sponsorship, our 2 biggest rivals in Halo were seeded 4th and 6th, and we are all getting along better then ever.

The next day I found out that FB again has asked one of my teammates and best friends to join, Mason. Now this was getting a little ridiculous because you don't step on people's toes like this. When people are faced with adversity you see their true colors and obviously FB was hitting below the belt in my opinion. Mason ended up declining the FB offer and I was looking forward to practicing with our team shortly. I was waiting for them to ask Bryan to team but it never happened, instead they went for FearItself on Triggers Down, and eventually Snipedown, then Mackeo.

As soon as the dust was settling and it looked like it was going to be FB Mackeo instead of Walshy, I get a call from Kyle telling me Mason was leaving for FB. Why would he leave after begging Kyle not to join and even saying himself that he wasn't going to leave? I thought it was some sort of a sick joke. So I called Mason 4 times and got no answer at all. I got this gross feeling in my stomach and fell to my knees. My best friend had just stabbed me in the back. My father always told me never hate someone who is just trying to improve their situation, and if he feels like he's improving then so be it. Maybe Mason thinks we suck, maybe he think he carries, maybe we weren't as good of friends as I thought, or maybe he just flat out thinks FB is the better team. I couldn't figure out why he would ever leave the team.

In a couple of hours Mason ended up calling me. It wasn't the most constructive conversation but I said how I felt. It went something like this.
Mason: Hey
Me: Tell me the deal just get the news over with
Mason: Yea well Gilbert Arenas is offering me............
Me: *EXPLICIT BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*
[end]

Right then I felt like my boy, my brother, had pretty been purchased from me, ripped right out of my hands by the team that I've been competing against for so long. I thought to myself. How can I ever beat FB? We beat them 3-0 with EASE and go on to take a semi-respectable 2nd. We are having the best year of any other team and it's been the most fun of my life...but yet they still win in the end? How can I ever be the best knowing that no matter what even if I win, I lose. I hope that makes sense to people. This is how seriously I take this Halo thing. That's how seriously the team changing becomes. I've been competing with these guys for 6 years and have never found the right mix of players to beat them, until I met Bryan, Mason and Kyle. Never was I on the number 1 team, never could I say that I was on the best Halo team in the world. It was always "T2 is garb why do he be gettin' all these interviews when FB da team to beat" or "Man T2 ain't even that good, why was he on MTV?" All I ever wanted people to do was respect me as a player and this was my year.

So after the whole big mess with Neighbor leaving. Bryan, Kyle, and I start thinking about who to pick up, which sucks because there are so many emotions that still haven't settled. The first person who pops into our mind is Snipedown, because of how ridiculously ill he was in Orlando. I knew that it would hurt the guys from TD, maybe not like how it hurt us, but I'm sure they grew close to him in the weeks of being his teammate. But after being screwed over so hard it was about time for us to watch our own backs. Snipedown ended up declining which wasn't surprising and we were left pondering what to do.

The next day I heard rumors of the FB and Neighbor thing running into some problems, I guess the offer that was there from FB's boys wasn't looking so solid anymore. Hey what do ya know! Mason our best bud calls back upset wanting to team again. He somehow convinced me that money wasn't a factor in wanting to join back up and felt bad about the situation. Well actually this time he seemed sincere. Talking to him for a while it seemed that he really felt he made a mistake and I forgave him for that. I felt like I was talking to the Mason I deep down inside knew. We took him back hoping that this would strengthen our team and I felt that it did. We ended up practicing against Instinct and split games with them 5-5 which was good considering all of the emotional stress we were going under.

After practice I get a call from Kyle about 30 minutes later hearing that Mason was leaving our team again to join FB. It's sort of like you and your GF splitting up...being back together for a day then her leaving again. I thought to myself What the F David Blaine. What the F! I was like alright dude lets be serious.....how could you double time your boys like that. But my good friend Mason came through with a text. "Im letting you guys know that I am going to join FB. I wish you all the best luck." Thanks for the text man, 2 years of friendship and I get 1 text. Maybe next time I'll get an AIM message or better yet a myspace message.

Kyle seemed to be more upset than anybody because I just laughed it off. I could understand though, Mason begged Kyle not to take that spot on FB and he was the one that wanted to give him another shot on our team. Kyle went through the most stressful weekend that you could ever imagine. Seeing Kyle so upset got me pissed and if I don't get revenge on FB for myself it will be for him and Bryan.

Teammates aren't just people you play on Xbox Live with. Being on a team to me is like a relationship. We all need to be there for each other no matter what and learn from one another. I've spent birthdays, highs, lows, holidays, weeks and months with these guys. I hope they know that they can come to me for anything and I will drop whatever I'm doing for them. All I ask is that they do their best and give 100% in every game we play. Mason was my best friend but I guess my best wasn't good enough for him.

To Mason: I don't know what to say to you, we've been through a lot. Maybe down the road we can become friends again but I just don't see it happening anytime soon. I know you made your decision hoping for the best outcome and whatever that outcome may be I want you to be truly happy with it. You were like family to me and it sucks things have to be the way they are but hey that's how it is. It may seem like I'm bitter in this blog and that's because I am. We shared a lot of great moments in life and I will never forget those. Good luck with your team, besides in Winners Bracket Rd 4, bad luck.

Addition of Snipedown: After Mason left for the 2nd time we went straight for Snipedown again. We knew that Mackeo was going to be an option and I would have loved to team with him if Eric (Sdown) would have declined. To my surprise Triggers Down asked Kyle to join which Snipedown didn't take to his liking. He told me that we had a new teammate and I was PUMPED to see him on our team. I see the same drive in him that I have and I hope over these next couple of tournaments we become a great team and even better friends. As you can see from the upcoming Entourage clips we already have hung out and had a blast. I can't wait for everybody to get together before the tournament and start our LAN practice.

To my teammates: I know sometimes I take Halo and Xbox Live practice to the extremes but it's because how bad I want to win. That feeling of winning a tournament, when we walk around together in the venue and have everybody congratulate us, there is nothing better than that. For those minutes, hours, or days I feel amazing. I want that feeling all the time and I want it to share it with you guys. I'm glad this team change happened because it shows me who my true friends are, who really has my back. Bryan and Kyle I know now that you guys respect me as a player and care about me as a person. I'm going to practice non stop and try as hard as I can every game and when that time we play FB comes people are going to be scared to come within 100 feet of me. I don't care if another SCREAMO band is playing again in Toronto, if I have a giant blister, or if my controller turns slow. FB used to be the dynasty, this is our year.

MLG San Diego


Man what a tournament. I'm finally recovering from the west coast to east coast time warp and we are starting to get ready for next tourney. Tuesday, I'll be flying out to Florida to stay with Legit and LAN with him until MLG Orlando. But before we hop into the future, let me go back to why I'm writing this blog. MLG San Diego. The week before the tournament Mason flew from Seattle to come to my place for a little golfing. A lot of people don't know this, but his school won states 2 years in a row. Pretty much I'm Phil Mickelson and he's a Hawaiian Tiger Woods. My Dad thought he could hang but he just couldn't stop my Happy Gilmore like drive. Heres some pictures from the ownage.

Neighbors hole in one at 6

Squared sizing the green and violating dress code all in one fluent motion



The next day, The Influence (Defy, Lowkin, Talent, and Twylight) came up to Syracuse where we LANNED at my apartment for the next 3-4 days. We set everything up and started running games. Right from the first series I knew our team had a different mentality then before. Our loss at Meadowlands was the shot in the face we needed to jump start our team. We knew we could play better and personally, I couldn't wait to come out and prove everybody wrong. The LAN was weird, individually Influence was solid, all of there shots were really on, but we overcame that somehow and dominated harder then any LAN I've been apart of. I can always tell when we're on because Bryan and Kyle's communication spike to all time highs. Even though the total games was lopsided, Influence stayed positive the whole time and I was impressed by how hard they tried every single game. Our coach, xXx, came up for a couple days too which I thought was a big step for our teams chemistry. I think that both teams took a lot from the boot camp and I was shocked to see their team not get into the top 8-12. The overall series ended at 101-9 in favor of us after 10 series. Heres a couple of pictures from the LAN.

DP coming up clutch

Intense gaming!
Str8s corner equipped with motivational T2 poster
This is what happens when you give Mason sour patch kids

Team cuddle- I mean huddle, in the new whip!

The T2 mobile


Thursday: Mason and I flew out on the same flight to San Diego, and I could tell I wouldn't want to leave. Best. Weather. Ever. Anyway, we rolled up to the Town and Country resort where the tournament was held. When we checked into our hotel room we got a little surprise from our sponsor, Dr Pepper, they hooked us up with 2 connecting suites and 4 Viewsonics. In the other room we had a table full of food and 432490932 cases of Dr Pepper. We were practically handing it out to people who walked past our room.

View from our room

1-2-3
Grub


Friday: This was a pretty busy day for me. I have a lot of promotional things to do with MLG, Panasonic, and Dr Pepper. I headed over to the Panasonic booth to kick things off with some Play a Pro where I signed autographs and took on 1v1 challengers for a good hour or so on the AX200. I swear playing on the projector is more intense then playing on a main stage match. All of the games were super intense because every time you die the crowd gives it to you. There's always this guy that says "yo T where's my 1v1?" Hopefully hes at Orlando saying the same thing , it's almost tradition now.

Signing autographs at the Panasonic booth


After that I did my first MLG press conference, which was pretty sweet. Smiley, Xena, Sepso, Ogre2, and myself all were being questioned by the media for a good 30 minutes. Ray Lau got clutch and snapped some photos from the conference.

Rlau photography


After that, I headed over to the Pro Lounge for some ESPN Game Up filming that airs shortly. Be sure to check it out on ESPN.com. To wrap the day up, we spent about 3 hours at the Dr Pepper booth taking on challengers. Kyle ended up setting up a scrim against Instinct who is always fun to play against. I had no idea that the games were being watched by so many people. Later on that night MLG published an article about our matches and how we looked really strong this weekend. We took Instinct down 8-1 (I think that was the series) which was a good sign of things to come. However, playing solid in the Dr Pepper booth is completely different then the tournament. We knew that they would come out much more aggressive if we played them in the tournament. And thats exactly what happened.

Saturday: Today the only thing that mattered was beating Triggers Down. You don't want to look over other teams such as Inferno, but lets be serious, nothing would be sweeter then beating these guys. Our series on main stage with Inferno ended in a 3-0 and I felt near the end of that game we started to hit our stride. The first game, CTF Onslaught, was pretty intense and I was looking forward to it because its nothing but BRing. I feel this is a great first game type because it gives you a great chance to warm up. Sometimes 5-10 minutes before the series starts isn't enough. After winning that game we were pretty confident with the next 2 gametypes and took the series 3-0, which is important if you were to face the same team again later on in the tournament. Our victory was short lived because soon after FB ended up losing to BtH. I couldn't believe it because we were banking on playing FB in the winners bracket semis but some things don't go as planned. It was pretty unlucky for both TD and FB to have to play each other so early but thats the way things go. This set up for a crazy Sunday where anything could happen.

Sunday: Our first match was against BtH and we needed to make sure we didn't take them lightly. Beating FB 3-0 isn't an easy feat and these guys pulled it off. We came out strong in the first game and never looked back, taking the series 3-0. After that I realized we hadn't even dropped a game all tournament, which was pretty cool, but insignificant. What really mattered was playing on main stage in the winners bracket finals. Where we should be. Looking at my teammates I could tell nobody was taking this tournament from us. We were facing Instinct who came out with a lot of confidence after winning their previous match. The first game, Narrows Flag, was pretty crucial. I knew this was one of Instincts stronger maps and they play it really aggressive. We won and took the next slayer to go up 2-0. In game 3 we started playing sloppy and let the perfect tournament slip away. Luckily we still had a 2-1 lead and the mentality to brush it off to take down the next game to secure our spot in the Championship match. After relaxing for an hour or 2 and watching the losers bracket unfold it was already time to play for 20 grand. Instinct pulled out a tough win against Triggers Down and the finals were ready to go down. I was pumped for these next games and my team wanted to take them out fast. If we dropped the first game it would have been 3-2 and what seemed to be a big lead would have slowly drifted away. Legit dropped 20 kills in game 4 and from there the gametypes played in our favor. With a 4-1 lead and them with their backs against the wall I knew it was our tournament. I remember every kill of game 7, which is funny because I don't even remember what game 6 was. This last game I just remember doing heat checks the whole game to see what I could get away with. There was about 3-4 times I challenged when I shouldn't have just to see if I was on fire or not. Our hard work had payed off and we took San Diego by storm with only dropping 1 single game. It was a great feeling for those couple of days but then reality set in that Orlando is right around the corner. For next tournament we need to keep that same teamwork while still improving individually. With Orlando only 3 weeks away it makes us realize that theres 6 tournaments this year and winning 1 doesn't really matter. Overall though, I'd say the best feeling after was the fact that we retook the number 1 seed after our disappointing finish in Meadowlands. Hopefully we can keep it up and give our fans something special.

After the tournament Dr Pepper ended up taking us out to an awesome restaurant right on the water. Somehow we ended up having 18 or so people instead of 8. When it came to ordering I was looking to try something new. I'm not big on seafood but I was talked into ordering the lobster and filet. Yup I was totally peer pressured into ordering the most expensive thing on the menu. Luckily Mason and Kyle followed suit-haha! Heres pics from the dinner Sunday night with Richard and Jason from DP.

Str8 and Dr Pepper
Lobster, Filet, and bunny ears
Str8 and KillaOR



My new thing this season is to take pictures sent to me by fans and put them in my blog. I've gotten some really good feedback from Meadowlands so I'm going to continue to do it all year. Sorry if I couldn't get all the pics up!



Hey guys...smile next time!


This tournament was a small stepping stone to what our team wants to accomplish. I'd say we have even more to prove in Orlando then we did at San Diego. The bracket seems to be a lot more favorable this time around and I hope we come through with the same result. I want to say thanks to everyone who cheered for us at the tournament and through the MLG/ESPN live stream. Also thanks to Dr Pepper and Panasonic for a great tournament. I can't wait for Orlando! GO STR8!

X-Play tips:
As most of you know I have been giving tips for X-Play on G4TV. Some of you love them, most people think they are useful, to the people who really know me-I'm sure you get a good laugh out of the inside jokes, and well the rest of the people, are arrogant and close minded. To those of you who have enjoyed the tips and found them useful (along with the many who get a good kick out of the show) I want to thank you. For me, doing television is a great way to express myself in a manner that not a lot of people see in interviews or at tournaments. A lot of people think that I'm as serious as serious cat, but thats not the case.
MLG is a competitive gaming community and I expect most of you to know, for the most part, a good amount of the tips I'm giving. Well guess what! those tips aren't for you!!! Thats what indepth gameplay footage with commentary and high end lessons are for. If you have a problem with that and don't enjoy the videos, don't watch them. If your Mr. KnowItAll then why aren't you on Str8 Rippin or Final Boss? Exactly. Tips are tips, hiding spots are hiding spots, and stupid noobs are stupid noobs. As for my hair or random screaming on camera....sometimes I can't control it and I get a little excited when I get assassinations. Obviously the long hair was bad luck at Meadowlands so I decided to shave it all off Orlando style. If that doesn't work I have read some posts on the forums about a possible jesus return...it could happen. Anyhow Ray Lau snapped some pictures in the middle of the shooting for the X-Play tips. Here they are:

Filming usually consists of 3 crew (Producer, Camera, Sound) and myself. Panasonic stopped by and dropped off the AX-200 Projector, as you can see in the back. It was pretty sick because in some of the shoots we had the projector in the backround while I was playing.


"Something about Mary hair"



In my last blog I asked for "Fan pictures" and I got great feedback from it. It went so well that I'm actually going to dedicate a whole blog to it from now on after each tournament. Heres what some of you sent me through myspace or private messages: Thanks to everyone who sent me the pics!








Ink: I've gotten some messages about the my ink on my arms so I'll explain. I got them back in October after my 20th birthday in LA during E4All. The first I got was the "Nothing to lose" tattoo on my left arm (which is my dominant arm). One of my favorite quotes that I apply to everyday life, including gaming, is "fear the man with nothing to lose, because he has nothing to fear." When the MTV show hit I felt a lot of pressure to live up to the hype as one of the best gamers in the country. I was always worrying about what other people said about how I performed and started to buckle under the pressure of what people always said about me. "T2 is garbage, da only reason he got dat 250k contract is cuz he does interviews." All that stuff really got to me after a while and I went back to remembering how I first got here. I didn't have a lot of money growing up and getting video games on Christmas or my birthday was really all that made me happy. I didn't get an Xbox until a year after it came out and the only game I could afford was Halo. I busted my butt off to get good at this game, came all this way, and was letting what other people said affect how I was playing. So whenever I get depressed and put my head down I just look down and remember I have nothing to lose.
The other one is pretty self-explanatory, its been the biggest part of my life for the last 3 years (more to come). Neighbor and I made a bet that if we won Orlando I had to get a Str8 Rippin tattoo. I wouldn't doubt if my right arm ends up with more video game related material because its really what I love.

Str8 Rippin:
A little team update here. I feel our team is going to hit our stride pretty soon. Everybody is just about finished with school and we have started practicing hardcore this week. We are going to be lanning sometime before the tournament and heading to some local tournaments for extra practice. I would say our brackets is pretty similar to Orlando 07. We face Triggers Down in the round 3 Saturday night and if we win that round we would face the winner of FB and Fatal Images on Sunday.

-T

Wow what a crazy tournament. I've never seen so many people, surprises, and passion in one venue after 6 years of Pro Gaming. We came into this tournament confident that we would be playing in the finals against a very good team, but I guess we forgot about the other 31 amazing teams in the Championship Bracket. A lot of teams would be happy with a 5 place finish, but when your coming in as the number 1 seed thats not the case. Were going to take this tournament, learn from it, and use it to turn our season around. Right when I got home, I turn on my X-box and see 9 friends online... 2 of them being my teammates. I'm assuming they weren't to happy either. With all that being said the reason I'm writing this blog is to show everybody a couple of highlights in my Meadowlands experience.

The first thing I did when I got to the venue is check out the new additions. I stopped at the Panasonic Projector Booth to play some people on the AX200 and that was some of the most fun I had all weekend. Heres a couple of pictures fresh from the booth.

Judging from my face, I probably have Snipe/Mauler in Guardian.

Intense gaming on the Projector

Str8 Fans were there! This must have been BEFORE the tournament. Haha kidding.


If you took all of the pictures and signatures that I've ever done at every tournament and combined them, you would get MLG Meadowlands 2008. It was AWESOME seeing so many Str8 Rippin fans at the venue and talking with all of you guys. Sorry-and girls! I just wish we could have done better for you all.
If any of you have pictures from the tournament that we took uploaded it would be awesome if you could send them to me. I think it would a be a cool idea after every tournament to have a spot on my blog dedicated just for you.

I'm going to keep this one short and sweet because we have a huge announcement regarding a team in the next couple of days. So stay tuned. I'll sign out with my montage preview that took oh-so-long. Hope everybody enjoys and see everybody at San Diego!

What a great way to kick off the season. Yesterday we wrapped up beating Fatal Images, who was the first team to defeat us in Ladder play about 2 months ago. As of now our team is undefeated in the Playoffs (only 2 losses when Elamite lagged out) next week we face UTI in the Winners Bracket Semi-Finals. Even though our main goal is to come into the first tournament with a high seed its not our top priority. Our team tries to focus on getting better each time we practice and improving your team is much more important then any seed.

As some of you may know last season we had Lammie as our coach, and this year he will be competing in the circuit for Halo 3. Good luck to Lammie and whatever team he play with in 2008! So here I am ready to announce the newest addition to Str8 Rippin: Coach xXx. As coach of the East coast All-Stars for 2 years in a row we feel hes the best option out there. Adding him to the team will hopefully give us that little edge we need

Just when things look like they couldn't get much better, Panasonic Projectors made it official that they will be sponsoring me for the upcoming MLG season. This news is much bigger then the actual fact that I will benefit financially from the actual deal itself. This is my first endorsement/sponsorship that I've ever received, crazy right? After 6 years of dedicating my life to professional gaming I finally did it. A major company like Panasonic getting involved with gaming is one of the first step to this sport blowing up. It just goes to show everybody that theres no handouts in life and you have to work for what you receive. I'm very grateful for all of the people at Panasonic to be interested in MLG and the fact they took the time to realize the dedication I have put into gaming means a lot to me. Heres a list of all the press that the Press release received:

Games Industry Biz
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=33806

The News & Observer
http://www.newsobserver.com/1566/story/983000.html

MSN Money
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=BW&date=20080305&id=8285156

MCV
http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/35526/PANASONIC-PROJECTOR-SYSTEMS-COMPANY-PARTNERS-WITH-MAJOR-LEAGUE-GAMING-TO-SPONSOR-PRO-GAMER-TOM-TSQUARED-TAYLOR

Business Wire
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080305005123&newsLang=en

Morning Star
http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/BW/20080305005123_univ.xml

Gaming Nexus
http://www.gamingnexus.com/Default.aspx?Section=FullNews&I=7827

Yahoo! Finance
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080305/20080305005123.html?.v=1

Game Pad
http://game.blogdig.net/archives/articles/March2008/05/Panasonic_Projectors_to_sponsor_Tom__Tsquared__Taylor.html

The Bit Bag
http://www.thebitbag.com/2008/03/05/panasonic-sponsors-mlgs-tsquared/

Digital Media Net Forums
http://forums.digitalmedianet.com/cgi-bin/displaywwugpost.fcgi?forum=dmn_news&post=080205153543.htm

About Projectors
http://www.aboutprojectors.com/news/2008/03/05/panasonic-and-tom-tsquared-taylor-promote-pt-ax200u-projector/

Finanz Nachrichten
http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2008-03/artikel-10272464.asp

vE3tro
http://ve3tro.com/?p=461

PR Inside
http://www.pr-inside.com/panasonic-projector-systems-company-partners-r471951.htm

CES Bloggers
http://cesbloggers.com/2008/03/05/panasonic-projectors-to-sponsor-tom-tsquared-taylor/

My montage preview is about 75% done and I will keep everybody updated on the status. I got to get back to practice but I'll be sure to respond to everybody's comments.

-T2

So I came to the conclusion that this 2008 season is going to be one to remember. MLG just recently released their v4 gametypes, and even though I haven't played them, I'm really excited and confident this version will stick until the first tournament. Along with the release of the new v4 gametypes, the news regarding MLG on ESPN2 was HUGE. We haven't even seen half of the announcements and I'm already more pumped up then ever!! The stops for the 08 season has a new flavor and its going to be exciting traveling to new venues and city's.

2008 season stops:
Meadowlands: This has always been a great turnout. My guess is that the venue remains the same as it has the last couple of seasons. There are 4-5 great hotels in the area and the vibe you get when your there feels like your living in a "Halo city." Every time you walk down the road you recognize people carrying controllers or talking about their upcoming matches.... its hilarious.

San Diego: Now this stop has me doing the Lammie hop. I have always wanted to go to San Diego and love the west coast. Cali is by far my favorite state so I can't wait to see what this city has to offer.

Orlando: 2007 Orlando anybody? Each time a tournament is here I feel like our team has home court advantage. My family and friends always make the drive from South Florida and head to check out the theme parks and watch their favorite team play! Plus who doesn't like Islands of Adventure the Monday after the tournament?

Toronto: Probably the biggest surprise is MLG added this city into its schedule, compared to having its own individual tournament. I honestly think this is an awesome idea because the Canadian fans were so grateful and the city has SO much to offer. Once in a while I'll glimpse over at the forums to see the feedback and sometimes it disgusts me. For those of you who are complaining about not having a passport...go get one, drive, or just don't come. There will be plenty of other people to take your place so feel free to be lazy and annoying. Toronto rocks.

Dallas: Dallas has never been one of my best tournaments but hopefully this year that changes. Maybe I'm still lagging from the 44 hours of driving we all did going to the first MLG Dallas 4 years ago.

Str8 Rippin and Halo 3:
The last 3-4 months have been the hardest of my life with all of the traveling, media, and the main reason...getting used to Halo 3. Everybody has had such a head start on this game because of the fact that the top Halo 2 teams were still competing on the circuit for H2. This has been one challenge that I gladly accepted because I love making people eat their words when they say the top Halo players won't excel in Halo 3. I am expecting the people who have been around since Halo 1 to still be on top, along with the people who have natural FPS talent in Halo 2.
Right now my team is full steam ahead and we are aiming for the top seed for the opener. Taking the top spot in the playoffs is going to be a tough task since there are so many good teams, but I'd love to see Str8 Rippin on that number 1 spot once the ladder is over. Practice has been going great and we have finally started to use some of that same teamwork that made us flourish last season. Mason is the best support player in the game, Kyle is the new age Rambo, Bryan sleeps a lot but he dreams of us while hes playing, and I'm only good vs Triggers Down on my host....deadly combo.
On the other hand GB is really frustrating at times because of the disputed games and lack of customer service. So I hope to see improvements on that while MLG's online tournaments grow. Our team has 4 losses in which one of them was total scam by the other team. Most of you know what happened so I don't want to go in detail but I'm in the middle of working on getting that loss removed and hopefully our record will be restored to what it should be.

Montage Preview:
My montage preview was all set and ready to go. I had sick clips, an editor, music, the whole 9 yards. Too bad all of my clips were deleted when I was told by TD that "reformatting" my 360 cleared my "hosting record." Hysteria must have still of been sour about red rocks - no worries man Isolation isn't a problem now!!! Haha just kidding the TD guys are awesome. Anyway, I'm working hard to put some stuff together and hopefully have a preview out shortly. I have some new clips and I can't wait to get these out to the public!

Panasonic Projectors:
If you haven't seen the sweet advertisements for the projectors or read my other blogs then you are missing out. The people over at Panasonic Projectors were kind enough to send me a projector and a screen last month that I have hooked up, but my camera is missing! So once I get a hold of that then I will be sure to show everyone my new set up. G4TV will be heading over next week so I wouldn't doubt if I do some of my next tips while playing on the projector. Stupid noobs will be demolished and I will be fraggin' like a pro!!!

Gaming-Lessons
Ha wow Gaming-Lessons is still around? It's been a while since I have even spoke about it but I've been working on the DL with the MLG staff and am in the middle of getting ready to launch the new Gaming-Lessons site. This means new articles, features, and yes lessons from of the best Halo 3 players in the world. Maybe I'll get back into the lesson mix? Who knows!?

Oh by the way happy Valentine's day...and my gift to you....
[IMG]http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5196/songokouka5.gif[/IMG]


-T2

Wow. Thats the only thing I can really say. After waklking around CES today and seeing all of the other electronics, gizmos, and gadgets you will never be able to fathom how huge this convention is. My feet are killing me and I feel like I just walked through Islands of Adventure. The event is tiring but is filled with so many new things that you don't want to stop. I got a chance to get some pictures of my favorite things at the event along with doing even more media at the Panasonic booth.


Look alikes of CES-

David Ortiz-Big Papi



Mario



Ray Lau as Sparrow



Detach!!!!



Its Bumblebee in RL!!


Panasonic's 150 inch HDTV (1080p)-Largest HDTV in THE WORLD



HUGE truck



2008 Str8 Rippin Trophys

Whats up everyone, Day two just finished here at CES in Las Vegas. Once again, I'm at the Panasonic Projectors booth gaming, and there has been a lot of media here. I've been interviewed by a FOX News Affiate, Mediapost, and a few others. The most notable one would probably be ESPN.com. They came by the booth to check out how Fight Night Rd. 3 looked on the AX200 projector and to ask me a few questions about the 07 and 08 MLG season. It was really cool for them to come by because it's the second time that they're paying a lot of attention to MLG. If you haven't seen the awesome MLG article on ESPN a few months ago, you should check it out here.

I met with Aaron Boulding, the ESPN video game analyst, and we had some intense Fight Night battles while hitting on some important topics. The shoot was really fun and I had a great time with these guys. Heres some pictures, courtesy of Ray Lau:

Talking strat with the ESPN.com producer.


Playing some Fight Night with ESPN.com's Aaron Boulding


Intense concentration!!


Overall the vibe here at CES is awesome. Whether its playing COD4, RidgeRacer 7, Assassins Creed, or whoopin' up on Aaron in Fight Night, everybody seems to love playing on the projector. My first CES has been a blast so far and its only going to get better and better. Stay tuned because tomorrow I'll be posting more pictures, gaming news, and videos while showing you the hottest products here, as my 2008 CES expierence continues.

Back to blogging !! I finally have my laptop charger back and am coming at you from Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. This has to be the biggest thing I have ever seen-and no, that's not what she said-its seriously the most amazing expierence any Tech lover could ever have. Panasonic was nice enough to fly me out here to live the game (some more) on their new AX-200 projector with gaming mode. All day I have been taking names playing COD4, Ridge Racer, and Fight Night at the booth while enjoying the overall expierence the show has to offer. Heres a couple of quick pictures I took, nothing fancy. I'm saving all of the good stuff for tomorrow and Thursday ;)







CES

Side of the "Live the game" Panasonic booth


Playing COD4 on the AX-200

My plan- to head to Vegas as many times as I can before I turn 21-JUST so I can be prepared for when it does actually happen. Haha I'm super lucky to have the opportunity to head back for my 6th time. If you didn't see it on the front page of MLGPRO, I will be attending CES, taking place January 7-10th, with Panasonic to play (and hopefully destroy) people on the AX200 projector. Yes gaming on a projector -it sucks. Wrong! silly noobs this has game mode duh! I'll be on the strip staying at the Planet Hollywood hotel (always have been a fan of Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock cafe). If your attending CES be sure to swing by because its going to be a blast! Booth #9045.

Speaking of Vegas- I just got back from the Spike TV video game awards which was an amazing experience. Neighbor and I walked the red carpet, took pictures, did interviews, the whole 9 yards. At the show they showed sneak peaks of upcoming games like Iron man, Rainbow 6 Vegas: 2, and Afro Samurai. As for the actual awards - Halo 3 took best multi player game and most addictive game. Surprisingly Bioshock took game of the year and Call of Duty 4 took the title for best shooter. When I heard them announce the winners I was like...wtf charles? I wouldn't necessarily say Bungie got snubbed on the awards but I defiantly think Halo 3 should have taken 1 of the 2. I'm not taking anything away from the other 2 games because they are both amazing and this has been one of the best couple of months, release wise, that I have ever seen. Oh well you win some and you lose some.

Here's a photo I was sent of Mason and I on the red carpet.


The shirt, as Lammie would say, is lightish red.....

UPDATE**Gamertag**
I've changed my gamertag from Itst2forreaiz to T2 is RIippin (T2 is RIPPIN is how it looks).

UPDATE**Str8 Rippin**
Our team scrimmed Carbon last week with hopes of it being on "Bungies favorites" in which our team took all 3 games. You can view the games on my Halo 3 fileshare (Gamertag T2 is RIPPIN ). This was the first time our team has ever played together so for us to do so well was a huge plus. I only have about 500 games logged and there is still a lot of catching up to do, but the more I play, the more I enjoy the game. If it wasn't hard enough learning a new game, controller, and system- then being 2+ months and hundreds (even thousands) of games behind everyone is good enough for me. This has definately one of the biggest challenges I've faced in pro gaming but hopefully my team and I can silence any of the doubters out there that think Pro's from Halo 1 and Halo 2 will be all washed up.

UPDATE**Montage preview**
My montage is still a go, I have an editor, and will be releasing a preview on January 1st on the MLG Gameroom and make it downloadable off of the www.gaming-lessons.com website (which is in the middle of a makeover...more info on that in the near future). The Jan 1st launch date is subject to change...the only reason why is because Xbox Live magically deleted my Halo 3 clips that I had saved during the update last week. However, I'll do my best to try to get this out by then but I'm not going to risk quality just for a launch date.

Other then playing Halo 3 I've been going to the gym everyday still and have changed my workout plan to get more definition. I'll be writing a detailed description of my diet and workout schedule along with more blogs in the future. Like I said I have huge things going on with Gaming-Lessons, TV, Radio, and Halo 3 so stay tuned for that. Hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas!!!


-T2

Sorry I haven't been able to blog a lot lately. With the season ending you would think that we would have some time to relax and take a breather during the off season. The MLG season can be a lot more tiring then people expect. You travel around the country and at multiple points this year I wasn't home for months at a time. As soon as I got back from MLG Canada I unwrapped my fresh Halo 3 and put it into my 360. For the last 4 days or so I have logged over 170 games and have learned a lot from the people who have been playing the game since it first came out. Halo 3 records your last 25 games and holds them on your 360 to save which is the perfect opportunity for me to save my clips and finally start making a montage. Now I've never been big on montages just because online play doesn't really matter unless your placing well at a tournament. But this feature and some of these clips that I've saved of me playing, just from these last coupe of days, are toooooo good to pass up. I already have 5 clips that I've uploaded on my fileshare and have 10+ clips that could go in that 6th slot but I wont release those until I purchase more space on my fileshare.

UPDATE!

My gamertag is now T2 is Rippin if you had problems viewing the fileshare it is now fixed!! To check out my file share go to bungie.net>my stats>find player and then type in T2 is Rippin(the L is an i).

Or go here http://www.bungie.net/stats/Halo3/FileShare.aspx?gamertag=T2%20is%20RIPPIN(click or copy and paste into your browser).

Feel free to post comments or critique the clips via my blog.

-T

After intense practice for the last couple of weeks I've had about 2 days to relax before I head to Vegas. Right now I'm in NYC getting ready to head to the Mecca Electronics show to promote the Panasonic Ax-200, the first projector to ever have game mode. Now before you get your panties into a bunch and cry about the normal projector screen lag, know this. There is NO way I would ever risk the frustration of playing Halo on a laggy P.O.S projector before a major tournament, or for even casual play. But this is state of the art technology, theres seriously NO lag at all so it makes my gaming expierence much more enjoyable. If you want to refer back to my previous blog with more details on the Ax-200 then check it out here.
http://www.mlgpro.com/?q=node/156042

You can see the specs and purchase it HERE

I'm stoked to do something relaxing like this before the biggest tournament of my life. I'll be showing off the projector to sales reps from major companys all over the U.S and pretty much teach them that they stand no chance at any video game!!! I think the main thing that has changed for me this last 2 tournaments hasn't been just the practice that we have been putting in, but the mental training I have been doing. Its great to go back and remember what playing video games with your friends was like...because honestly I don't really have time to play casually anymore. I picked up a book with mental exercises called Mind Gym. This book is great and explains how mental training is more important then even the physical training (physical training which is simply just playing hours and hours of Halo 2). A lot of athletes have read the book and applied the exercises to their sport and I'm trying to do the same for gaming, because I eventually think that it will be seen as a sport.

Speaking of sports and entertainment ESPN posted an article about Pro Gaming, MLG, and myself which can be found on the ESPN.com website. This is a huge step for MLG, my team, and gaming as a whole. Theres been over 150 comments and obviously you are going to get some negative mixed with the positive. However, I feel that gaming is finally shaping up to be something that will no longer be frowned upon in regards to a profession. Each and every day more and more people are learning about the league and what we are doing here and its great to see how far we have come. I mean only a couple years ago we were bringing our own Xbox's and carrying our TV's to events. I'll keep this short because I want to leave room for future blogs about this. But hopefully we see MLG and the $100,000 Vegas finals on ESPN in the future.

Good luck to all the teams this weekend and thanks to the fans for voting me into the All-Star classic for 3 years in a row!!
-T2

This blog isn't going to be about basking in victory for Orlando. It was fun for a night but then you snap back to reality and realize that nobodys going to remember the team that won that one tournament that one year. Everybodys going to remember the best Halo 2 team that ever played the game.


This very well could be the last H2 tournament ever. For me, this is time prove to everyone else out there whos ever talked down on me or kicked me off a team. I get a sour taste when I think about how the last 3 championships have gone. Getting kicked off FJ weeks before the tournament by some of my best friends, then again in 05 with the old Str8 Rippin....but this isn't the old Str8 rippin. I've sacrificed a lot for this game and put in so much time that I have never been so focused or determined to perform for one event. I know that everyone is going to come with their A game and teams will be 10x more focused then last tournament.


This blog isn't really about me but more of a reflection on my feelings and thoughts. Knowing that your a pivital part of a team instead of just another player looking to improve his stock on the circuit is the most reassuring feeling you can ever have. Ever since I've played Halo I have never felt the security I do playing with these guys. So Mason, Bryan, and Kyle thank you for everything you guys have done for me, it means a lot. And if your reading this, stop and get on Xbox Live to practice because we have a tournament to win.


Also shout out to Lammie- Thanks for sacrificing a lot in coaching us. We sucked in the beginning of the year I know but you kept faith in us.

Str8 fans- Your a big part of why we won last tournament. Last year at Chicago/Orlando we had toilet paper being handed to us now were dishing poo poo platters for you guys.

MLG Staff- They worked hard all year on bringing everybody these wonderful tournaments and are working hard behind the scenes on making a great TV show out of it. Mainly Ray Lau for being my brother from another mother and ALSO being my mother at the same time.

Bluestrike- For those of you who don't know him he is the mastermind behind www.gaming-lessons.com He handles all of your questions, does the website, runs mute Radio and is a saint. I'm so glad that you responded to my email over a year ago about article writing.

PS Str8 Shirts are OUT people. This is the link to buy them www.gaming-lessons.com/apparel

So PLEASE PLEASE after this blog no more PMs or myspace messages!!!

Whats up everybody I’m writing this live from the Panasonic booth at CEDIA in Denver, Colorado. The reason I’m here is for the launch of Panasonics new AX200 projection screen with “GAME MODE.” This is a really good break for me because I’ve been practicing 12 hours a day or so in preperation for Orlando and even though I’m casually gaming here its good to get your head clear, hang out and meet new people. Back to the convention and the projection screen because I’m stoked about being at my 2nd electronics show ever. I was at Digital Life last year and I definitely enjoy being around new products and just the overall vibe here – it’s pretty exciting.

Playing with Brian from Kotaku.

As soon as you walk in there’s amazing gaming and home theatre set ups that you could only dream to have. The 2 booths where I am is where its at though. On one side we have the AX-200 which is where I’m taking on challengers that want to play me on the 120 inch projection. I’m also talking to a lot of press and letting them test their skills against me. The number of times people have killed me is at -1…very similar to Victory Xs Beaver Creek game. The game feels very smooth on the projection screen, which is largely due to their feature, “game mode”. In this mode it reduces the lag/delay by 60% which is a HUGE difference. On normal projection screens or even HDTV’s you notice an enourmous amount of lag and in all honestly I can play Halo on this and enjoy my experience. The snipe shots actually register, when I press jump it actually jumps and I was amazed at the difference between the projectors normal mode vs game mode.

My Reggie Bush impersonation…football season starts today.

I tried some Gears on the 720p projection screen and that too looked great. Ontop of that you can expand and contract the screen to fit the size that you desire. So say I want to play Halo at 20inches I could do that, or I could expand it and play Wii Sports or Geometry Wars at 120inches. Also, what’s really cool about it is I can switch between consoles with ease. Theres enough ports to support my Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and high-def (or normal cable). I’m actually pretty pissed that I just spent $1,200 on a new 42in. HDTV when I could have gotten this 120in for under $1,599. It’s perfect for any family room, furnished basement, or gamer like myself.

It’s not an electronics expo without the giant rotating HDMI cable.

At my new place in NY I have 14 foot high ceilings with a pretty sick fireplace so I’ll probably do my casual gaming right up there and even maybe move it over (its weighs like nothing) to my bed and broadcast movies and TV on the ceiling while I lay down. They sell this stuff called super goo which is a clear paint which makes it so that you can put the projection on it. I’m heavily considering just painting my whole place with it. Heres some more pics from CEDIA and I’ll post some more pictures Denver, including some of my place when I get home.

YEAHHH!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!