Mackeo Wapes

I haven't blogged in awhile. I'm going to try to give a little background so you can try to understand where I'm coming from a little so were going to go back a few years. This is what I like to consider my all American boy self, and the most well rounded I was very well balanced, excellent in school, excellent in sports, excellent with friends, and yes excellent at halo as well. The order pretty much did first things first in that exact order I was getting everything done in that list no questions asked. 4.0 GPA and I'd sneak in a solid 3 hours of gaming every night. 9th Grade: Priorities 1st. School 2nd. Sports 3rd. Girls 4th. Friends 5th. Halo Fast Forward to 10th grade and the priorities had quickly changed. Suddenly, my priorities began to blend, I was no longer taking sports as serious in that my competitive drive was being filled by halo now, school was very important still and I still managed a great GPA. However I remember a period of time kid you not where this was my schedule. Go to School at 7:30 A.M-2-30 A.M I had wrestling class at 1:30 so I'd wrestle from 1:30-6:00, I would then precede to game from 6:30P.M-2A.M, wake up at 6A.M and do homework for an hour and a half. I did this for about a month before the stress had overtaken me and I had finally to give up my passion for wrestling. (I was a really good wrestler, and now kinda wish I would have kept going, I had a decent chance to become a state champ had I continued.) When I quit midway through the season everyone was shocked, little did they know I was pursing a different dream, to become a MLG Pro Gamer. I then began to game non-stop with Victory along myside, on our i JL i tags standing for Justice League. We ran hardcore and were the highest levels in it by quite a margin. My halo career continued magnificently right on to junior year. 11th Grade Priorities: 1st Halo 2nd School 3rd Friends This was the era of "The Agency" My mind had found its goal, and I shoved the lever into full speed. "Top 3 at Meadowlands 2007" This was great time in my life I knew exactly what I wanted to do and was doing it. All of my time was spent maintaing a 3.5 Average and you guess it on halo. literally I don't think I've ever been so inspired to do anything in my life. My best friends were no longer average names like Bryan, Alex, Paul. They had been replaced by names that resembled Gods, and War efforts. Victory X, ElamiteWarrior, SK Halogod v2. They were my family. Our goal of top 3 was achieved quite easily. I still don't really know why I broke up that team, greed gets the best of us. However by the time Naded had joined the team I began to reset my priorities a tad which I felt was for the better. They resembled my 9th grade a little bit more. 12th Grade priorities 1st. Cross Country (captain) 2nd School 3rd Girls/friends 4th Halo Fun Fact: Just because halo is further down on the list does not necessarily mean your playing worse, I tend to think it makes you play better. So the off season began after 2007, Me and my boy Victory were looking for 2, I had just finished cross country which was definitely one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. ( I had to miss toronto due to CC State Finals) I was feeling great I had tons of friends, smoking school, and averaging about 7 miles a day. + I had halo. I had really liked lunchbox and Roy and thought they were great people(not so sure about their halo skills) ha jk Jason and Justin. So as the event neared I know this is going to sound stupid but I was sorta forced to go on spring break with my senior class. (I really just wanted to game hard and prepare for the event.) Well guess what Spring break was alot more fun than I could have guessed, it did give me a completely different outlook on what I had been giving up for halo the past year or 2. I was then rushed into the str8 lan before the tourney. It was alot of fun, and yes it was kinda weird because I hadent played in 2 weeks and felt outta the halo loop. However I was performing pretty stellar like. The tourney came and passed we placed 3rd, altho we felt we coulda placed better. This is where things start heading down hill for me for a little while. Prom Night: Ends up kinda being gay. Prom Morning: Victory Leaves (makes me an unhappy camper) I'm now pissed at the world, screw girls, screw Victory, screw everything. Graduation:Moving on, when I'm not to excited to be. I have to make a choice which college I go to Either A. Western sorta the safe route, I have alot of friends going their, less hard of a school, more time to socialize, get better grades, and more time for halo. B. Miami University Great school, don't know anyone, gotta be ready to grow, adapt, and work my ass off. I end up picking Miami for the fact its such a great school and a great opportunity and a fresh start for me. The one downside was that I was going to have to miss the welcome weekend due to Toronto :( I basically then go into hibernation mode for the summer even tho that prolly the worst thing I could be doing and I just start playing halo aton because its somthing to do, not because I wanted to, because everything else had been going shitty. San Diego we end up placing amazing which I did not suspect to, I was not playing some of my best halo at all prolly some of my worst, I missed Victory and really felt that we could yes be the team to beat with Me Victory Roy and Lunch. So we end up making the trade. However, we had quite the disappointing Orlando tournament for us, no one performed to their ability. Then the whole FB Fiasco happens, Really don't know why I left Instinct a team we had built together and felt so confident with, yet again Greed grabbed ahold of me and I left. Altho everything else in my life seemed to not be going amazing atleast I was getting good offers from halo, what I was focusing on. Well guess what, the team I joined FB and left my good ole buddy ole pals at Instinct I got booted from a day and a half after. My world was turned up side down. It was all I was currently doing during the summer and I had just laid myself out on the line to be destroyed. I then ended up abandoning victory to try to save somthing of this terrible summer and joined triggers down. I continued to game non-stop drinking energy drink after energy drink, getting little sleep gaming non-stop. Altho true, I really didn't feel like playing, and I was just mad at life and Final Boss more than anything. Toronto ends up being a disaster, I played pretty average, I had the weight of knowing I was going to be thrown into college unprepared, and a whole new world when I had closed myself out of everything. Toronto ends horribly and I have to drive that night 10 hours to Miami University. On that way I wanted to still have halo apart of my life, but I really missed my good friend Victory, I knew that this season was shot, and I was going to have to focus on my school, and if I was teaming with Victory atleast their would be somthing salvageable. I get into college life, back into school, guess what its fun, my mind gets off halo for awhile maybe a bit to much, we end up losing game 5 for top 4 to ambush which was really disheartening in Dallas. I had been excelling greatly at my grades but I had been falling to the devil of partying and slacking off. By the time Vegas came rolling around I was super far behind in school, was pretty upset with myself and had began to start sealing myself off from the world again. Vegas was approaching and I couldent get myself to care about much of anything, I felt crappy about school mainly and that corresponded on my halo and all other parts of my life. The str8 lan came and I had 0 Motivation I was checked out, I didn't want to play halo I didn't want to go to school I was so overwhelmed and saw no way out. It was like a dark cloud was over me. I could only see one solution, and that was to withdraw from my first semester at Miami. I couldn't believe that was even on my mind if I had looked at myself from 4 years ago I would not have believed it in a million years. However, even if I withdrew I didn't want to play halo, I just wanted to lie in a corner. luckily the str8 members pushed me to game and woulden't allow me to lie in a corner even tho I wanted to lol. Vegas came and I had basically blocked school outta my mind for the time being. I played a pretty good tournament, then real life came back and hit me like a sledgehammer. I felt like lieing in a corner again after talking it over with my mom and dad they let me come home and I had withdrawn from my first semester at Miami. I then had 2 months of nothingness, baiscally to dwell on what I had screwd up on, which I felt like definitiely didnt help me. Luckily my dad is very caring father and talked with Miami to see if their was anything they could do because some complications had happen while I was their. We worked out a deal where I could make up the credits during 2nd semester which was going to be a pretty rough 2nd semester. Now my life involved school again at home, where I had a good base. It's been tough but I started to plant many seeds none of which had grown yet, my life started to come together again. Exercise, School, Girls, Friends, Halo all began to bloom again, I'm still on a journey but it's crazy how far I've come in these last few months it feels like all parts of my life are beginning to return and each day I can see my improvements. I'll tie this back to halo now. When I felt like lying in a corner, I could not play halo. Period. I was not engaged, nor did I care about it. Now that I am getting back into a normal life, when I start to play halo it's fun again and I care about what others think. I want to succeed, and see the seeds I plant bloom. I'm still growing and am not outta the dark yet, I've got to continue working hard and I do think that a more well rounded life is essential for me. I wanted to write this blog just because I feel like this has been a tough last year for me and I just felt like getting it off my chest somewhere, I figured what better place than the MLG? Looking forward: I'm really excited with my new team Final Boss, practice is a t on of fun and I think we stand a real chance at meadowlands and I hope to see you their. P.S GO FINAL BOSS!!!!! P.S.S Thank you to my mom and my brother during those rough times.

Strap up, Make sure the Seat belt is tight. Your about to embark on an Emotional Roller Coaster.

(Long Read, but I think it's worth it)

I'll start from the beginning. Pretty much where my last blog left off. So anyways, about that practicing, it slacked for a couple weeks after meadowlands. To be honest we were down right terrible, 3 weeks after the tourney we had gotten on one time. It really did seem that everyone on the team had lost interest to play, people were moving onto bigger and better things. Finally, after a 3 week break, I sent out some phone calls to my good friends, that I shared such a close bond with, I hadn't talked to them in a while. It really seemed everyones drive to play was gone. I was scared for us, but sadly, I was in the same boat, I really didn't care that much anymore. That night we got on Victory said something about Triggers Down. I kind of blew it off as "Yeah, Okay", I quickly realized it was more serious then I thought. We then talked about it for a while and we had a re-dedication by everyone on the team. We got on the next couple of nights and played, everything seemed cool. I told the team I had prom that weekend so I'd have to take off Friday and Saturday, but not to worry that we would continue to practice non-stop after that. Now, fast forward quickly 2 days, I wake up Sunday morning after my prom trying to decipher the night as a whole. Anyways, back to the story I'm going to return my tux at the mall and my boy Jason you guys know him as (Lunchbox) is calling. I pick up and hear to my horror "Cam Left". I knew immediately that this was no joke. "It" had happened... when I say IT I mean, my significant other for 2 1/2 seasons had left me. I didn't know where to turn, what was my next move. The next couple of days I just collected my thoughts with Lunch and Roy as to what we were looking for in a teamate. They really wanted hokum, for they had teamed with him the previous season. I was basically pretty easy about it, I wanted someone that was known to be good, to risky going for fresh blood. I then herd some chatter about some kid name "Snip3down". Anyways he somehow ended up in my party that night, we were planning on making the final decision that night. After talking to him, he was just what we were looking for, someone that was skilled, excited about the game, and eager to learn how to play it. My main worry when picking up a new player every time is how willing of a player are they to learn, and change their playstyle. I was worried at first but then, by the lan I realized he was willing to learn.

The Inferno Lan: So as I'm driving home with the entire inferno team in my car, it honestly starts storming like mad. We hear that theirs a tornado warning. Someone says "How funny would it be if we lost power" everyone starts dieing laughing, "Yeah that would be funny" Suddenly, my phone rings, it's my dad, "Hey Joe, I got some real bad news we lost power, oh and by the way, a tree fell on Paul's (Slim) car." My heart stops. We had almost no practice before the lan and the lan was not a very long one, we were basically banking on the lan for it to pull us through. I deliver the news to Inferno somehow before I even told Slim that a tree had fallen on his car he had known. LOL funniest thing ever. Long story short, my Dad's good friend Kathy let us play at her house for the lan. The lan was a success for us, we had refined our strats much more, Snip3down was surprisingly taking ego blows and learning how to play better as a 4v4 teamate. (Victory's one fault we felt was he woulden't do as much stuff as a team).

San Diego: Friday

Kianeto Photo Shoot: I wake up to my alarm blaring at 8:30 A.M, I quickly take a shower and hurry down to the lobby where I'm meeting Walshy to be apart of his Kianeto Photo Shoot. This was by far one of the coolest experiences I've ever had, at a tourney, and in my life. So I sit down next to a bunch of my favorite other colleagues and past teamate's SK, Fear, Hokum. It turns out that this was a much bigger deal then we had all thought. we were being pampered like kings. Their was a professional make up artist, and a professional hair stylist who worked on each guys hair for 10 minutes, kid you not. After giving the photographer my zoolander "magnum" pose I went out to eat with a bunch fellow comrades.

Friday Night: I look down at my phone ringing it says Kyle Elam (Elamite), I smile and answer, "He quickly tells me to round up the boy's and meet them in the Dr.Pepper lounge for a little scrim scrim. I'm elated to see what the new Instinct is finally made of. We walk into the Dr. Pepper lounge to a death stare by Str8, I could tell that they meant business and that their mentality was definitely different then Meadowlands thats for sure. It was a little intimidating to be honest, ton's of people gatherd around cheering on str8 on home court advantage. They had played 9 games against Chilled Reality before us, they were warmed up and ready to game. Us on the otherhand haden't played in a couple of days, none of us were warm. I'll stop here. All the excuses in the world couldn't save us from the beating we got from them that night. I was straight up embarrassed, I've never lost to a team so bad in my life. Period. Except 1 time in Charlotte. Anyways I am horrified, Kid you not, horrified. I try getting my mind off it, but I can't. So what do I do? I do what anyone would do if they broke up with their boyfriend/girlfriend. I went to the sunshine deli and got a milkshake and talked with Roy. I headed back to the room. As I lay in bed forcing myself go to sleep, I thought about alot of stuff. It also didn't help that it was my first tourney without Victory, or a family member. I thought we were placing 9-12 almost for sure, what I'd do if that happend. Would I quit halo? Make a new team?

Saturday: I woke up after a much needed 11 hours of sleep. I had a new outlook, I was going to do what ever, and I mean whatever it took for my team to do good even if it ment scream my lungs out, and completely embarrass myself in front of thousands of people. I suddenly was looking at this tournament as survival, I think something happened to my subconscious while I was sleeping. We warm up against FB in their lounge, I feel like were playing better then friday but not unstoppable, surprisingly we 6-1'd FB. This was not the usual FB That I have feared in tournament play for years, I could tell. Saturday comes and goes, except for a little upset that happend when people didn't "Believe the Hype" I was on the top of my game against Carbon in WB R3 we win by a pretty decent margin, I suddenly start feeling confident with my team again. At that moment I knew it was going to be a good tourney, I was so excited for the Classic series, that I couldn't fall asleep, I luckily managed to finagle 3 hours of sleep out of it though.

Sunday: Although, we intended to sleep in as a team, we all had mysteriously woken up on our own at 7:30 A.M, by 8:00 we were on our way down to the Boss's office (FB's Room). We prepped for the Classic match, my shot was off, but I was thinking pretty smartly, and my awareness was very high, making sure we finished the important kills, EVERYTIME, no excuses. I expected to see the usual revived Final Boss when you think their outta the tourney, come storming into the finals. Warming up against them I could tell the usual "Final Boss Spark" wasn't their, Unfortunately, I knew then that this tourney would not be theirs, however, I love seeing them win.

Classic: Pit Flag, not much to say about it other then it was 3 1/2 minutes of embarrassment and us getting 3-0'd, Fastest in MLG history. Game 2 Gaurdian Slayer a good gametype for us we end up losing in a heart breaker mis communication 50-49 loss. Their's a moment of silence as I can see my team is stunned, I suddenly go into that panic mode I was having friday night, If you saw me anytime on sunday after this moment, I'm sure you think I'm atleast partly deranged. I still had a feeing of inner confidence, I knew we were better then a 15 minute, 3-0 series with classic. I whisper a few words into Eric's ear (Snipedown), and load up the next game. I begin screaming every call out as loud as I can, Roy and Lunch do the same, We then go from playing as 4 individuals, to 4 teamplayers. Game 5 Narrow's TS, one of classic's best gametypes, It was over before it started, our momentum was an unstoppable force that would be slowed by nothing.

Str8 Rippin: Dr.Pepper Lounge from friday, rematch, we played them tough, but they were to much. This was their tourney and they knew it, no one was taking it from them. They had somthing to prove from Meadowlands, and they did it. I do feel however the outcome could be different come Orlando, Snip3down is an amazing player, but he's still learning how to play 4v4 with us, and our mental state has to be a little different I think.

Triggers Down Preview: Between all of this, we were able to watch Triggers Down face FB, TC, and CbN. Not going to lie, we were not that impressed with what we saw. Once they beat CbN, and I knew we were facing them we were pretty confident we would beat them, and get some Vindication against our most rivaled team.

Triggers Down: Game 1 starts off on Narrows Flag, I quickly hear tD shout out loud "4 Down, 4 Down" I think to myself "Oh Shit, Maybe I was wrong about tD". We lose game 1 and our inner confidence as a team is still their, no one is down, we know we got this. We win games 2, 3, and 4 by a decent margin. I Am blasted into a Euphoric state. YES! YES! I made it to the Finals!!!!!!!! I've been waiting to not have to watch the finals, I've been so close so many times, and of all tourneys! I definitely had the most anxiety I've ever had at a tourney this weekend, and boy am I happy its over.

STR8 RiPPIN: We tried, attempted, kept it close, nope. We weren't quite ready, this was all Str8, and congrats to them.

To my Team: Let me just say I am so happy with how we did, and proud of us, you put up with me critiquing every little thing, to the point of annoyance, don't worry, we'll get their.

Instinct in Orlando: We still got alot of stuff to work on, refining strats, getting even more accustomed to Eric, and being really fine tuned for the tourney. I'm so excited for Orlando, and we will be sure to give it our best shot.

Thank you everyone for reading, and I love all the Instinct fan's that showed up in San Diego, I truly woulden't of made it through the event without you, and San Diego truly was an Emotional Roller Coaster.

The ironic thing in all of this is that a teamate left our team only weeks before the tourney, I felt, I had one of my weakest tourney's, although I was prolly more intense then I have ever been at a tourney, and each player on my team manages to get their highest placing. It's funny how things work out.

P.S Look at my past blog to notice some remarkable similarities between it and San Diego. Shout out: Puss (Best Coach)

Meadowlands... where do I begin. Its where 6months of trash talking on the forums, online garbage, and predictions were ended. Going into the first event all the old time favorites felt like they had somthing to prove, Carbon was predicted top 24 time and time again and Final Boss outside of the top 4. If this were to happen anytime other then this event you would be laughed at or accused of joking around. But people figured since it was a new game, and teams appeared to be slacking it was possible.

Feelings. What I felt going into Meadowlands was quite different from the rest, Halo 2 talent would transfer over almost identically, but practicing the game would definitely up your chances. Any team that was solid at halo 2 I did not want to face, for I knew they would be good. Some teams laughed at Carbon and saw them as a easy bracket, but I still felt their intimidation from Halo 2 and refused to believe they would be a push over. I'll be quite honest, the one team I did underestimate was Final Boss, I thought they would be good, but this tournament would not be theirs. They would need to practice up more and make a push in San Diego, in short I was wrong. I felt Str8 would be the best team at the first event, but right when I arrived, I could tell that their mentality was off and I sensed bad news for them.

Instinct. Now at the Str8 lan I'd have to say we had a rough start. We had not played as much as most other teams, and I, Myself had not played in 2 weeks due to me being on vacation. As a team we had not played in 2 weeks because of me, but by the 2nd two days I saw us coming together and splitting games with str8. I saw glimpses of us dominating. But, we got lazy easily, we'd win a couple think were awesome, and then get it shoved back in our face. I get upset really easily when I know how good my team can play and were not playing to our potential. I had a couple of talks with my team when we'd get in a slump where I'd be completely upset and we'd reset our focus and get back to dominating.

Tournament time. Now at the tournament going into it I would of been satisfied with nothing less than top 3. On Friday and Saturday we lanned with FB up in their room, we were on fire to say the least. When we played everything was clicking, times like this at the lan with str8 would mean we were doing a little better then splitting games. Against FB it was different, it felt easier then str8 to be honest. It felt like our strats along with Str8 were at a different level. We ended up 8-0 against FB in their room, it left us feeling very confident and excited. We also lanned against MoB Deep, they were good and we 6-0'd them. Saturday came, and we ran through our WB R3 pretty easily. Sunday we began warming up against Team Classic figuring we would play carbon if we beat Final Boss. I could tell we were playing fairly decent, although they smoked us in Onslaught CTF, we 3-1'd them in warm ups.

Final Boss. Now it was our biggest match yet, we were playing Final Boss, my team was very confident we'd beat them on how we'd been playing against them in past days. Yet, I could tell that day we were not playing at the same level as the days before we were still playing well. We start off the series us getting dominated on Onslaught Flag, we kept our heads in it because its what we expected. The next 2 gametypes were 2 of our best, Pit team slayer, and Construct king we won them fairly easily. We then had Pit Flag, it was an intense game the whole match. It was tied 2-2 in over time and with 12 minutes left Final Boss managed to score the final flag and win 3-2 over us, it was a heartbreaker. Luckily, guardian team slayer was next another one of our good gametypes, we won it. I was happy, but I felt we'd win from before hand so it did not feel quite as good as beating FB normally would feel.

Champs. At that point when we beat FB it was the first time I felt like I could really win a tournament. It felt locked in as long as we played well. I knew Team Classic was good, but not of our caliber. Although I was confident going into the series, I was not going to let up I was going to try harder then ever because I could taste a tournament victory and I was not going to let it slip away. The first game starts up and although I'm more focused then ever and am playing very solidly, I could feel my team getting sloppy and getting away from our strategy. It seemed like as a team we were unfocused. The series quickly ended with us getting 3-0'd, me steaming mad. I hate to say it but this was the most mad I've ever been at a MLG Tournament out of my 3 years in the league. We go from playing like the best team their, us working like a well oiled machine, to us playing like a 9-12 team that did not deserve to be in this position. I got so angry because its like we could taste victory yet we gave up before the match even started. It was embarrassing losing so badly to Team Classic in the winners bracket finals especially when I knew thats not how we play. I feel bad now because at the time I was so mad that it got the team down and the Final Boss rematch was over before it even started.

San Diego. I feel San Diego will be a completely different tournament. I see Team Classic being good but I think all the excitement of their first tournament together will be gone and that other Halo 2 teams will catch up I see them taking 5th or 6th in San Diego. I also think Str8 will have something to prove and show their true colors, this may be an arrogant statement but I think the Instinct and Str8 were both at least top 3 in Meadowlands had we played to our full potential. Looking ahead to San Diego we plan on lanning with another team and remaining focused the entire time so what happend in Meadowlands does not happen again in San Diego. I also predict Str8 to come into the tournament with the right mentality this time and be competing alongside us among the top teams for the title.. All in all Meadowlands was a fun first tournament to kick off halo 3. See everybody in San Diego.

This tournament was the worst feeling I've ever had after a loss, I never want to experience the pain and anger I felt again I will be practicing harder then ever for San Diego and making sure my team does the same.

In the communities uproar over the past week and the endless cofusion that has left everyone following a 300 plus page thread, minute by minute, I feel it is my responsibillity to explain the events which are the cause of the clamor. The hope is that this blog, in short, will clear the air. If you want to know the what, then just skip to the bottom of the page. It tells you the action. If you wish to know the why, then read on from here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As competitors we attempt to be the best. As a teamate we strive to build relatioships which will strengthen our ability as a team. But as teamates are people themselves, we are troubled when we must make sacrifices to move the team ahead and leave a friend behind. Of course there will be trouble when the goals of the team are not met. conflicts with the personal worth strain the relationships of the individuals of a team. As a competitor I strive to improve. If I did not have that hunger, then I would not be a competitor. There are few ways to better yourself beyond your given talents. In this game you can improve your team by practice, by aquiring new talent, or both. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the desire to topple, to mix up the top three, to knock those giants Carbon and Final Boss from their tower, is in the spirit of competition. They are my aim, but again the spirit to beat them is not of malice, but of bettering myself. It is a way of saying to those whose play I so much admire, "Yes, I too exist." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So in attempting to put my writing on the wall and our teams, or any teams inability to surpass the third spot we began seeking alternatives to just practice and dedication. When I say we, I speak mostly of myself and Victory, for I would be veiling something if I did not state that me and him are of closest connection. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is unfortunate, the number of teams that break up and field roster changes, for in doing so we lose those teams identities. We are all apart of this community and it sometimes alarms or saddens us to find some of our favorite players, as friends and opponents, have somehow changed form through a team change or new assosiation. It sucks. However, when Victory and I realized that two players who we held in such high report were on the market once again, we jumped at the opportunity to team with them. They outplayed us in Jersey, and plainly put, are two of the sickist Halo players period. I speak of Naded and Legit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The problem we created was of timing and assumption. First we have our team, our top four team of myself, Victory, Halogod and Elamite. In hoping to better ourselves we forgot the worth of our own teamates. We made this mistake partly because of the excellence in which we do hold Naded and Legit. Another huge mistake was assuming that Naded and Legit were not individuals but a duo-unit. And we made the mistake of losing our wits about us in the excitement and passion of being able to play with them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So Tuesday we sacked half of our team, The Agency, for the half of another team, Perfect Storm. We played and enjoyed the company of our new allies but it was not until early this morning that we really realized what we were missing. We had, in some sense, lost our identity as a team in hopes of bettering ourselves, but it turned out to be something foreign and strange. Surely we played wonderful with Legit and Naded, but we were certainly no longer The Agency. Perhaps we were something better, perhaps something worse. I don't know. However, I do know that we overlooked what we sacrificed to play with them. Elamite and Halogod are as much The Agency as myself or Victory. They are top notch. And it is only now that we realized how much so. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So we are now reaquiring Halogod, cause he is our boy and we made the mistake of giving anyone even a shot at having him on their team. We are losing Elamite, our most sociable and happy teamate who is so fun to be around and play with. In turn, we are picking up Naded. For whatever reasons this is our course of actions and so let them speak loudly. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In short, we lost our heads. Now regained we look forward to seeing everyone in Chicago with their A game and hope to be recognized as The Agency. We lost Elamite. Hopefully it is not insurmountable loss, but with Naded we don't feel it will be. We welcome Naded as our own and feel that everyone else should do so also. We regard him ours and look forward to having the pleasure to show how much so he is. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time will tell, though. We hope not to make any more hasty and stupid decisions before then but beware! And as for our showing in Chicago, we have set ourselves up for failure in some way, as to take top four is the farthest thing from given. However once again to aim for gold we must take risks and sacrifices and so we hope for the best. We'll see you all in Chicago.