I'll keep it consistent with the rest of my blogs and issue a warning real quick, my blogs are usually quite long and in depth, this one will continue that trait. I like to do a blog every couple of events to sort of chronicle my life as a Professional Gamer, so I will start where I left off from Post-Columbus all the way to my current situation.
Pre Raleigh :
So I was still a F/A at the end of my last blog, a lot of shady shit went down trying to figure out my team situation. The first team I was serious about teaming with was Active Rush, I ran games and it went well so I told them I was down to join up. Unfortunately the next day I get an AIM from Clutch asking me to join up with Darkest Hour along with Legend and Twylight. I felt guilty about bouncing on Active Rush but I just felt this was an opportunity I couldn?t pass up, so I took it. After a week or so of teaming Clutch was offered a spot on Classic and took it, so it was Legend, Twy and I looking for 1. We started playing with RyaNoob(when all the Warriors drama went down and he split) and things felt really good. However a few nights later when I?m out at my buddies I get a call telling me I am dropped and Goofy will be joining DH along with Ryan. Now I?m pissed because it is like 1 week or so til the deadline. I end up joining with Brake and NK on Warriors and next thing I know Goofy is leaving DH to join back up. I was still pretty upset about what DH did, so when they expected me to join back in place of Goofy I said no and stuck with Warriors. However a day or two later I find out Goofy no longer wants me on the team and Ryanoob rejoins. ?Jesus wtf? is what I?m thinking at this point, since I was out of options. Then 2 days before the lock Goofy and Noob leave yet again to join DH, so I end up rejoining Warriors and we pick up Snakebite. A really rough road but I guess it all worked out in the end because we raped =D. Next stop was Raleigh!
Raleigh 2010 :
So Pre-Raleigh we fly to Kenrys dad?s house to chill for a bit and had some fun. On Thursday we drive down to the venue and get dropped off and right away I?m stoked because of how sick the area is, I knew I was gonna have a blast once I saw the city. Friday we get down to the venue and do the usual, check in, pro meeting then get to warming up for our match. First up is tD WBR2 on the Feature Station. Now we started feeling really good before this match when we were warming up, so we were super confident going into this series. Now I?m sure most of you already know how this series ended but I?ll take it from the top. We win game 1 pretty easily and game 2 by a fair margin. Up 2-0 we start to choke and lose really close games 3 and 4. Next up is Pit TS game 5, halfway through the game at 35-30 or so Brake dies with a snipe our s1 and I pick it up. From here til the end of the game I caught fire and was droppin domes like crazy. I?m sure many of you have seen the game but if not I suggest you check out the VoD for it, the last shot on Hysteria to tie it was crispy as shitballs. Anyway we win that game as well as the series, so we were all stoked as hell about it the whole night.
So we show up Saturday and play Final Boss WBR3. We lose 3-1 and had a real good series, small mistakes cost us 2 of those games but we did get really clutch game 3 to win by like 3 seconds. Next up was Darkest Hour in Placement. We lose the first 2 games and start to realize we need to step it up. We win game 3 and 4 easily and then it comes to game 5 Narrows TS. At one point we are up around 40 to 25, overconfident we start to play stupid and give up our lead. Next thing we know it?s a standoff 49-49. I?m thinking screw this let?s be aggressive, so I say ?let?s do 3 cannon while someone watches us with snipe?. We lift and the crowd behind us starts to ?ohhhh? and ?ahhhh?, Twylight later told me that he thought one of us had fallen off when this happened because none of them heard us cannon. So 3 of us go over and charge their lobby, I find myself in a 1v1 with Legend half shield their back lobby but I came out victorious and we won the game.? This close game got us really pumped again and we were ready to check out our bracket for the following day to plan out the rape fest that was gonna go down.
Sunday we show up to play Ambush for top 8. We lose game 1, win game 2, lose game 3 and win game 4. All I?m thinking at this point is ?No fucking way we are getting top 12?. Game 5 Construct TS we just start destroying off the start and never looked back, the final score being like 50-35. At this point me and Snakebite are psyched about getting our first top 8, but we weren?t ready to stop there. Next up was Purgatory and we gave em a hot 3-1 sandwich. Top 6 felt even better but I really wanted top 4, that was my goal before the tournament. We play sQ for it and lost 3-0, the first 2 games we had on lock but we made small mistakes and choked the games away. We beat BtH in conso and finished 5th, overall I was happy but I was still kinda mad about choking for top 4. Sunday night we partied it up and had a great time, we all decided we were sticking together so I was already looking forward to D.C.
? Pre-Washington D.C. (Red Bull LAN baby):
This time we decided we really wanted to get a LAN in. Luckily Walsh aka. The Man hooked us up with the Redbull LAN last minute. We all flew out to Santa Montica California to Redbull HQ for a 3 day LAN with Carbon and sQ. All I can say is this? Redbull Is The Shit, bottom line. They put us up in an awesome hotel right on the beach and had an amazing set up at the Headquarters for us to game at. I had also just turned 21 before this weekend so I knew I was gonna have a great time, and to add to it my ninja? DMAQ came through to chill for the weekend. The first day they threw an awesome party for us with a DJ, open bar and all the Redbull Workers attended, then watched us game for a bit in the theatre where we were set up in. After I had a few Redbull Vodkas/Jack and Redbull Cokes I was ready to game. The next 3 days were amazing practice and we got what we wanted out of it. Huge thanks to Walshy and Zach(Sayper) for hookin it up and Sam from Redbull for making it such an amazing weekend. Everyone make sure you check out the Redbull Rap that we all laid down, straight fire sonnn lol.
[url]http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Article/halo-gamers-rap-song-021242911854165[/url] Washington D.C. :
So I fly out to D.C. on Thursday, and Kenry picks me up along with his Mom. She let us crash at her house for that night and was insanely chill, I love you momma Kenry =D. Friday morning I head to the venue to do a rehearsal for the seminar I was doing Saturday and WOW was all I could say when I saw the venue. I mean the view was beautiful and it was one of the sickest venues I?ve ever been to. I do the rehearsal then meet up with the team to check in. Next was the pro meeting followed by a little nappy. We get to the venue 2 hours before playing Str8 to warm up and that?s when I heard I won the Matador bold player. I was really stoked cause I wasn?t sure if I was gonna win it or if Neighbor was going to. Before our series they gave me the award on the main stage and I was extremely proud to receive it. I got the sick custom back pack, a crispy G and more beef jerky than any one person should ever receive lol. I had so many sticks that I decided to hook up a lot of the spectators with some complimentary jerky, I hope you all enjoyed. Huge thanks to Matador for the award and for the jerky, my friends and family were loving life cause of the jerky for the next week haha. Anyway we play straight after and I?m really pumped to put on a great show for everyone on Friday Night Kickoff. I was so certain we were in for a great match but it turned out to be a slaughter. After losing that series we gamed a bit more and spent the night talking about what we needed to do for Saturday.
Saturday we get to the venue and have to play Aries' team first. We still played pretty awful this series but I was playing amazing individually, I remember pulling off a couple crazy plays this series and talking a whole lot of smack. We win the series 3-2. After this series I did the Breaking Out seminar with Strongside and had an awesome time. It was really cool to do something like that and I enjoyed giving out some advice to try and help up and comers, thanks to everyone who stopped by for it. Next up was Heaven and Earth for Placement Round 2. We wanted to win this because we knew we would have to play them again later in the tournament, however we received yet another spanking. They swept us 3-0 and we were still playing like straight doo doo butt. After which we talked about it, got pumped up and all came to the understanding that things happen for a reason. That?s when we looked at our bracket and saw our first match the next morning, CARBON. We realized that we literally had the road to Nationals in our hands, all we had to do was rape on Sunday. We decided to switch the seating up, a decision which helped us immensely the following day.
Sunday we get there early to warm up. We get called to main stage to play Carbon. The crowd was pretty small since it was so early but there were a couple Warriors fans out there. I did hear the cheering during this series and I just wanna say I appreciate all our fans and it really does mean a lot when I hear people supporting us. Especially momma Snakebite, we would go nowhere if we didn?t have you shoutin out there Tracy =D. Also thanks to Paul senior aka Paulo you?re the man! So we lose game 1 to Carbon but after the game we get pumped up and realize what?s on the line. We win the next 3 games and take the series. Game 2 on Narrows TS I had a nice trip, picked up snipe and blained Walsh 2 seconds too late for the over then sniped SK when he cannoned for the double. This would have been the sickest killtac, I still need to see if Lenox has the VoD.
Anyway next up was Warriors vs. Purgatory round 2. I know they were extremely confident but we were able to win 3-1 to get us top 8. We realized at this point since Str8 had been knocked out by sQ that we needed to win one more match to make nationals. Unfortunately that match was vs. HaE and we were down 3-0 from the placement match. We get right into it and lose game 1, down 4-0 we win the next 2 but then lose the following game to bring the overall series to 5-2. The next game is Guardian Ball and we go down 180-80. At this point I feel us starting to play as though it?s over and we?re done, I scream ?We?re not fucking losing this, we?re not getting top 8 we are going to Nationals, let?s go!? We get 4 alive, break their set up and start clawing our way back. All of us just turned up the heat and clutched it out, we end up winning the game by around 20 seconds. Next was Narrows Flag and we win easily, followed by Construct TS which we won by a decent amount. I couldn?t believe what we were doing and we had so much momentum going into game 11 which was Heretic TS. Right off the bat we get a huge lead and once again never looked back, final score was something like 50-35. After this game we all went nuts, none of us could believe what we had just done to get into Nationals.
Still wanting more at this point we got ready to play FB. They win game 1, we win game 2 and game 3 is Construct King. All the way through it was back and forth, however we choked on a few crucial plays and this time unlike Raleigh they were able to pull out the win by 1 second. Game 4 was Pit Flag but thanks to Fear going OFF with the snipe and putting up +18 they were able to win the game as well as the series 3-1 . If anyone hasn?t seen that VoD I suggest you watch it? disgusting. So we play Instinct in conso and get 5th again. We get the official report that we?re in nationals and we were all just loving our lives . However I was yet again pissed that we choked for top 4. Sunday night ensues as most do at MLG events and we party our asses off, I love being 21 btw lol. Post-D.C. To Now :
Since D.C. we took about a week break from Halo and then began practicing on XBL. Unfortunately we were not able to get a LAN in however we feel confident going into Dallas. I also hope to get into the All Star Classic so I can have a shot at pulling some crazy tage clips off on main stage haha. I'll wrap this blog up with some shout outs, first up is NK and Snakebite's awesome families for hookin us up with places to stay and just for being awesome people. Shouts to Walshy and Redbull for the amazing experience in Cali and to our coach for Raleigh/D.C. Charlie aka Th3 Lord. Shouts to my boy Special Sauce and to my brother Joey Bizz the new coach of Warriors for Dallas. Again thanks to Matador and MLG for the Bold Player Award. Also shouts to my teammates as well as DMAQ and Nexy. Finally thanks to all of our awesome fans who supported us on our way to making Nationals, keep it up ladies and gents I love you all =D. Warriors top 1 at Nats baby let's gooooooooo!!! Pce everyone thanks for reading and see you at Dallas.
Hello again everyone. I'm back with another blog but this time recapping from Columbus last year all the way to Columbus this year, so it's gonna be epicly huge. As I've said before I really like to keep my blogs as detailed as possible, so I hope you enjoy the looong read :P.
Pre Columbus 09 :
Okay where did I leave off in my last blog... oh yeah, I had joined Virtuosity and was teaming with Jetty, Painless and Gated. Now I had known of this all Buffalo team for a really long time, all the way back to the GB days and I had always wanted to get a shot on the team so I was really excited about the opportunity. Before Columbus we had a LAN against North of 49 at the Jetty house. This was really important because it helped us transfer our playstyle from XBL to LAN and really get everything down. We ended up winning the LAN by a pretty hefty margin, so we were all feeling really good about the team and how we'd do at Cbus.
Columbus 09, Friday and Saturday :
So we drive down to Columbus Thursday, met up with my teammates and then get all situated in our hotels and such(I was staying with my ninjas Fugo and Tusick, Joe was with HaE and my teammates had their own room). Early Friday we meet up with our sponsor Rage(super cool dude) from pT and get our team shirts/wristbands, then head down to the venue to check in. Once we get in to the venue we start warming up and everything is feeling good, we hadn't lost anything since the LAN. This time we also made sure to get some splitters so we didn't get shafted on the headphone issue. Friday was WBR2 and was fairly easy. We knew the most strenuous day was Saturday, so we made sure to eat dinner fast and then get to bed at a decent time. We got to the venue pretty early Saturday and got a few games in when we could, won our WBR3 match and went on to play my friend Raiden's team WBR4. We won game 1, but then lost game 2, so it went to game 3 Guard TS. It was close throughout but our communication was extremely hectic and we were much too loud, we ended up losing 50-48 and getting knocked into LB. After this I took everyone to the side and pointed out that we needed to just stay calm with our callouts because that was our playstyle and was what worked. Everyone agreed and we headed into the Losers Bracket. Immediately we started destroying, as soon as we got to full screen and calmed down we started to click. We ran through losers 2-0ing all the way til we made it out. Next up was Champ Bracket.
Our first match was against my friend Drew Frenzy's team, who we had LAN'd a bit in the hotel on Thursday and split games with. We came out on fire and 3-0'd them fast. Next up was none other than Raiden's team again, but this time it was full screen and we weren't screaming like moo moos. We mop them up pretty handily, 3-1. I remember slaughtering this series and talking a lot of trash. Next up was Fearris, Thrust, Zoo and Violence's team. They went in pretty confident but we knew how good we were playing and had no doubt we were gonna win. We 3-0'd them pretty badly and only had one more match to play that night, and it was against High Society(the team that knocked me out in AM at Meadows). I was so pumped and ready for this series, I wanted nothing less than top 16. We go up 2-1 and enter game 4 Construct KoTH. This was the game that I went absolutely bananas, +15 with two nice triples(one of which got me the Robbie B chant =D) and we end up winning by a lot. We had got top 16 and I was soooo psyched but I wasn't ready to stop there. We ate a quick dinner, then headed back to our hotel rooms to get ready for top 12. I got back to mine and Fugo/Tusick(who were my teammates from Meadows as well) were messin with me all night since I got top 16. Bastards kept me up til like 2 a.m. watching wrestling and making fun of it lollll.
Columbus 09 Sunday :
We all head down to the venue fairly early and get warmed up. We play Dynasty for top 12 and get called to our station. Game 1 we get spanked 3-1, we win game 2 and lose game 3 by a decent margin. Game 4 was our worst gametype, Guardian Oddball. I've never gotten destroyed so bad at a tournament, we lost like 250-70. We were just playing like absolute asshats, it was really embarassing. I was still stoked about top 16 and we all wanted to get 13th. Unfortunately we lost in game 5 conso vs. HaE for it, although I was pulling off some crazy montage stuff during this series. I'll never forget on Narrows Flag, their flag is on their cannon I'm sniping on mine, 2 of them are going for the return and I body shot them both twice before they can return, then cannon across and no scope Hokum top mid for the triple, cannon back with the flag and cap it. I wish I could have saved it. Anyways we end up finishing 14th and the remainder of the event is spent how I always do it, having lots of fun partying it up. I chilled with Pow and Perplexity from HaE for a long ass time and they told me they thought I was sick and wanted to try something when I got home. I didn't know what to do cause I thought Virt was really good so I put it off til I got home. That Sunday night was one of the funnest and craziest nights I've ever had at an event, as many people know or might have heard =D.
Post-Columbus 09 :
So a few days after I get home from the event HaE wants to run some games. Drew, Pow, Plex and I run games one night and it was just not in the cards. There's a possibility we could have been sick but we'll never know because we got cheated about 12 times in a row and everyone got off lol. I sort of stopped pursuing it after that and decided to just stick with Virt. Now the issue was that Gated had to quit because he was starting college and his parents wanted him to focus on that. So we ran games with people and decided to pick up NK. We planned to practice a fair bit on XBL then attend a 4 team LAN at Nerd Palace in Jersey. The 4 team LAN was amazing practice, Relapse won the most games with us in second, N49 in 3rd and Obi's team rounding it out. It really got us prepared for Dallas and I'm eternally grateful to Slob Murph and NPL Sticky for hooking it up and making it an insanely fun weekend. The problem was that NK really thought we should have won the LAN and that we should have stomped on everyone. About a week after the LAN I get a message from Jetty telling me NK is trying to shade out and go join Relapse... and I couldn't believe it. Turns out the roster restrictions wouldn't allow it so we end up sticking together against our will... so Dallas was going to be interesting.
Dallas 09 Friday and Saturday :
We had a new sponsor for this event, which was eMg. They were really awesome and hooked us up with our hotel, really nice jerseys and free Papa John's all weekend. Friday we play our WBR2 match and have a really close call against XBL Jesus' team aka King Armous and crew. We 2-0 but both games are very close. Saturday we go in and know we have to step it up, we win WBR3 easily and then play QoP WBR4(the round we lost at Cbus). We lose game 1, but stomp them game 2. Game 3 is Construct TS and they steadily gain the lead by more and more. Before we know it it's 41-26 but then we all enter clutch mode. 4 down them and lock down top control, they keep lifting individually and we start coming back hard. Next thing I know it's 49-49 and we have rocks and top control while they are all basement. I hate being passive so I'm like F it I'M GOING INNNNN HOT!!!. I drop open skinny and see them throw a few nades past me, I soar in and rocket a guy for the win. That game was so intense but we knew we had to step it up. We play my friend Demize's team WBR5 and we still aren't clicking the way we should be. We win 2-0 but the games are very close at 50-49 and 3-2. Anyway we talk it over and realize we need to get it together fast. We win our WBR6 match and find out we have to wait to play another AM team for top 16 later. I'm absolutely exhausted so I go take a nap for a bit and we head back to the venue for our top 16 match to find out it's against DbA. We 3-0 them easily and then get ready to play for top 12 the next morning. We eat dinner while we talk about what we're gonna do against Ambush and then got a good nights sleep.
Dallas 09 Sunday? :
We head down to the venue and get warmed up, next thing you know we get called to play Ambush and it's on the main stage. This was my first main stage match so I was extremely excited. Game 1 we get a free win basically because Tizoxic was MIA and never showed up. He got there for game 2 which they won. Next up was Lockdown Oddball which went down to the final 30 seconds, however we made a really good push, broke their set up and milked ball for the remaining time to win it. Game 4 we won by a fair margin and had beaten Ambush for top 12. We were all really excited to play for top 8 and found out it would be against FB. Yet again we would be playing on main stage and I was ready to poop on kids. Unfortunately we get 3-0'd pretty badly, although I thought I played pretty well that series. I give OG2 the nasty out BR no shields game 3 which was prolly the only highlight lol, we just played awful that series as a team. Once again I didn't want to settle for anything less than 9th, but NK was pretty upset about how we played against FB and I could tell he wasn't really trying his all in conso. We end up getting 12th and were pretty content with it although we really wanted to get top 8. The rest of Sunday was spent doing my thaaang yet again and it was a pretty enjoyable night, Dallas is definitely one of my favorite cities.
Post Dallas 09 :
After Dallas we as a team decided to drop NK. Most of this decision was based on the fact that he tried to bail on us right before the tournament for Relapse. We looked into a few F/As but we were mostly looking into Gilkey. He really impressed us when we played him on Ambush and he was also a local so we thought we'd be able to get some solid LAN practice in with him. He held off for awhile because he was trying to get on sQ, but when we did run games we were really good. After a couple weeks he accepted the offer and we made our roster official. The problem was that as time went on, our XBL practice got worse. Playstyles changed, there was too much complaining and overall it was just a waste of time. This did not change during anytime that we were a team so I am going to combine both Anaheim and Orlando 09 into one group. During this time, especially Pre-Anaheim I gamed the least that I had ever gamed since Halo 3 came out.
Anaheim and Orlando 09 :
I flew into Anaheim on Thursday and holy bologna was it beautiful. I had never been to Cali so it was crazy to see the overall environment of the area. I love palm trees and those of you that have been to Disneyland know what that street looks like and it was awesome. For both Anaheim and Orlando we were sponsored by Xdao, who were really cool and helped us out a lot. Anywho in Anaheim we play Team Classic first. As I said earlier we barely gamed at all before this tournament, and I played so rarely that it got to the point that I had to go from my regular 5 sensitivity to 3 sensitivity because I couldn't control it and wasn't used to it. We end up losing 3-1 but I actually played very well this series, especially game 3 +12 with most ball on Heretic. So we find out we play Swagger Like Us in the morning and for some reason we are insanely confident.
Saturday morning we show up to play sLu and we get stomped on by them 3-0. One note I will make was that at this tournament I noticed the most sporadic shot registration that I have ever seen. So much to the point that I actually made a thread about it in the pro forums and everyone agreed. For those of you that don't know there is now a rule that if you ask your ref to reset the router before a match, they will. Anyways, we got pooped on by sLu and had to play an AM team next. We play Extreme Z's team and beat them 3-1. Next up we play Gimme My Money and end up losing 3-2, even though we were playing absolutely terrible. This was prolly the most frustrating event of my life, between the routers, the 3 sensitivity and the awful 18th place finish I was ready to quit. Ohhhhh but the nightmare wasn't over yet.
Next up was Orlando 09. This tournament was pretty much a repeat of the last one, we sucked and it showed. We played one match this tournament against Brake and Goofy's team and we lost it 3-1. There's not much more I really need to say about this tournament other than that. The only good parts were that the pro lounge was amazing and my friend Kinkster who I hadn't seen since Dallas 08 came and chilled for the weekend. Going into the off season I had no idea what I was going to do, and for the first time in my life I was honestly considering quitting. This amazed me because I realized how much work I had put into this, yet it was so disappointing to go from improving placings(top 16 then top 12) to back to back 18th place finishes. Regardless of what I was going to do, it was time for a change.
The Offseason and Transfer to 2010 :
Shortly after getting back from the tournament I get messages from a bunch of people that wanna try something. However for the most part I wanted to stick it out with Jet and Pain because I knew what the 3 of us could accomplish with the right 4th. Then Poweezy messaged me and said he wanted to try me, him, Perplexity and Twylight. I really thought this would be a good team so I let Jet and Pain know I'd be leaving and I became a F/A. We ran games a bit but we weren't as good as we should have been so that team didn't work out. Then out of nowhere Pow, NK, Gilk and I start randomly playing playlist and we were sick. After a few days of playing together we decide to team and get to practicing. Yet again after a few weeks, we start performing worse and XBL practice becomes a complain fest(which I hate). Then Pow calls me one night and tells me his hand is still hurting a lot from when he broke it about a month prior and he wasn't going to be able to game. So that team falls apart and I'm back to being a F/A. From here my only two real options were to either run games with Goofy and Brake, or with Thrust, Arkanum and ZooWoo. Initially I was leaning towards Goofy and Brake since I had played against them in tournament and knew they were good. However after running with Thrust's team first and seeing how sick we were, I decided to just join up with them and get to practicing. For the most part our XBL practice was good for the first couple weeks and we were getting better/more consistent. Then it started to get to the point where at times we wouldn't call out, would complain a lot or flat out wouldn't try. Although overall I was confident and ready to do amazing with Category 5.
Orlando 10 Thursday and Friday :
For this event my friend Ryan decided to come with me because he wanted to see how these tournaments actually were. So we flew to my friend Kinkster's(Chrissy) house Wednesday and then drove down to the venue Thursday. I was so psyched for this event because I felt extremely confident in my team and I also had my friends Chrissy and Ryan there to support us. We got all situated in the hotel since my home boys Whodini, Fisher and Randa were staying with us, then I met up with my teammates. We chilled for the night and got psyched for our match vs. Classic the following day. Friday we headed down and got situated with our passes and jerseys as well as the pro meeting/photoshoot. We got into the venue and went straight to the pro lounge to warm up. Overall we were doing okay, splitting games for the most part but what I noticed was that our inconsistencies from XBL followed us to LAN. There was a bit of complaining and our communication was extremely sporadic, sometimes we weren't talking enough sometimes we were saying too much. We got a decent amount of this ironed out but then it was gametime and we got called to main stage to play TC.
We get situated and begin game 1, Onslaught Flag. Right off the bat I can tell I'm a little shaky because of the atmosphere but after a minute or two I get comfortable and start pooping. It was a good game throughout yet there were multiple opportunities where we needed to pull flags and didn't. We outslayed them but lost 5-2 or 5-3. Game 2 is Narrows TS and we play really well, all of us are baiting and switching and hitting good flanks, we win 50-40ish. Game 3 is Construct King and I play really well, my brother told me I was on the stream the whole time for this game and I went +5 with most hill, however as a team we got spanked and lost around 250-150. Game 4 we lose 3-1 solely because of OV, every cap they got was due to OV. If anyone cares to watch my VoD from this series I almost get a really nice triple on Pit so check it out if you'd like. Anyway we weren't too down about what happened so we hung out, ate and then got to sleep at a decent time.
Orlando 10 Saturday and Sunday :
Our first match Saturday was against Warriors. We get going and game 1 is pretty even throughout, then out of nowhere they get control and cap 3 times in a row to win. We lose this series 3-1 and I can tell we aren't playing anywhere near where we should be. We now had to wait to play an am team, which ended up being the Yellow Dragons. We play them for top 16 and win 3-1, not a blowout but we beat them pretty handily. We were all feeling pretty good, especially me. That was the first series I had won since Anaheim against Extreme Z's team. We had a decent amount of leisure time that night and didn't have to get to the venue til about 10 a.m. so we decide to chill at the pool. We hang out for awhile and talk about our match vs Active Rush in the morning, then I got to bed at around 2ish.
We wake up and head to the venue pretty early to get warmed up, before you know it it's time for our match. We get on the feature station and start with Heretic Flag, our worst gametype. It was an okay game but they ended up getting the W with better execution and counter capping. Game 2 we win by a hefty margin and move on to game 3. They get a massive lead of like 120+ seconds but we bring it back, however it was too little too late and they take game 3. We 3-0 them game 4 and psych ourselves up for game 5 Narrows TS. We start off well and I get rocket control, but I make a mistake in trying to work the ramps instead of flanking and lose them. This game was a prime example of how our inconsistency screwed us, every time they had a flanker we wouldn't commit to either ignoring him and pushing or focusing him down. This caused us to get pinched multiple times and we lose around 50-35ish. We were all extremely upset about this, we really felt we should have won this match but we were just too inconsistent of a team. Anyway we played hard in conso and got 13th. Sunday night is Sunday night and by now you get the gist of what I was probably doing haha. I wasn't exactly sure what our team was going to do but I was fairly certain Zoo was going to get dropped.. but that was it.
?
Post-Orlando 10 and The Power LAN :
So I get back from Orlando and we have a talk about what we want to do. The big issue with Zoo was that his communication during the event was very poor, he zoned a lot and had long periods of silence. So we decide to drop him and immediately Thrust and I are interested in picking up Dersky, however Arkanum isn't so sure and wants to try other people. As time goes on we sort of just split apart mutually since we were set on teaming with Dersky and Arkanum wound up going to Active Rush. Now as a t03 we talked over a few options, but Pow was back and I knew he really wanted to team. So we ran games and were doing very well, so we made it official. Over the next month we were extremely inconsistent with our practice schedule, all 4 of us had periods of days where we didn't get on. We knew we had to get practice in some how so we made arrangements to LAN Power memorial day weekend at Thrust's house. Pow flew to my house a few days before and we gamed it up, then got ready to head to the LAN.
We drove down Friday and got there at around midnight. We squeezed a series in and lost 7-4, however we didn't really sweat it as all of us were absolutely exhausted. The rest of the LAN played out with us splitting series' with PwR and us trying to hammer down our playstyle so that it was consistent. It wasn't until the final games of the final series that all 4 of us put in our all and showed what we could really do at our best. We won the LAN 50-49 and were extremely glad we had the opportunity to iron our problems out before the event. I thank Thrust and the Grandes for having us over and being amazing hosts. Next up was a couple of days relaxing at my place, then driving to Columbus.
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Columbus 10 Thursday and Friday :
We get to Cbus on Thursday and meet up with Thrust, our coach Faction and our friend Rentek. A million thanks to Rentek for helping out Pow, dunno what we would have done without you Joe. Thursday night we hang out for awhile and check out the city for a bit, did a little freestyling on the streets cause we're straight gangstas ya deeg, then crashed at the hotel. We headed down to the venue Friday afternoon and let me just say that the Columbus hotel/venue/city is such an amazing event, I hope they have it there every year. Anyway we get checked in and get our passes/jerseys and attend the pro meeting. I'm really excited about how MLG is going to advance in the coming years and I'd like to thank all of the current sponsors. For those of you who are looking for a really convenient bank to work with electronically, check out PNC bank and what they have to offer: http://www.mlgpro.com/sponsors/pnc. Okay so we get in to the pro lounge and begin warming up and for the most part we're feeling really good. Barely dropping games and everyone's shot seems to be on point. We keep playing all the way til our match vs. Final Boss.
We get called up to main stage and get set up. Game 1 is Narrows Flag and man was it bad news bears. They came out extremely fast and we were not ready for it. When they had lobby pressure we would panic and yell callouts instead of staying calm and coordinating a break. This lead to all 4 of us running around like chickens with their heads cut off and to them 3-0ing us in like 5 minutes. Going in to game 2 Pit Slayer we just said to each other to calm down and play our game. This game was much better and was an even game throughout, eventually it gets down to the wire and it's a 2 minute 49-49 standoff. The weird thing was that both teams were in the most bizarre positions. 3 of us were in their flag, 1 of us their cut while they had a guy in green with rocks, 2 in mauler and one first BR. So we decide to just all bum rush the first BR guy. Unfortunately we don't execute it properly and instead of all going together we bait and switch. This gives the rocket guy(Pistola) time to jump plat and he rockets me. So we lose that game 50-49 which was rough, but we got over it and moved on to game 3 Construct KoTH. This game we had good tempo throughout, consistent communication and teamwork and really good decision making, we win this game around 250-200. Game 4 is Heretic Flag, not one of our better gametypes. We're able to keep it respectable but their execution was too good while ours was sub-par, they win 5-1. Overall we weren't too bummed by this series but we knew if we had been playing our best throughout we could have brought it to a deciding game 5. Also check out this funny little clip from the stream, at 5:00 I rip FiS and talk some smack, then Pistola cleans me up and says ?I GOT ROBBIE DUMBASS? lollllll. I can't help but laugh every time I hear it. Afterward we play a bit more in the pro lounge, then head back to the hotel and get ready for Saturday.
Columbus 10 Saturday :
We go to the venue early enough to get some games in before we have to play Ambush, then get called to our station. Game 1 is Pit Flag and flew by easy, quick 3-0. Next up was Narrows Slayer and lemme just say this was a mess. We start to play and we get up around 25-20 when the game just ends... which was pretty weird but we have to replay it. This time around it's pretty similar, we keep a good lead throughout but then I make a horrible decision. At 47-41 I miss a one shot callout which I should have cleaned up behind mauler, instead I only get one shot off on him to pop his shields again. Dersk has our fresh snipe at our cannon door and I just tell him to cannon and clean him up cause it's an easy kill. The bad thing was that his cannon was a bit delayed and the guy recharged top mid, this lead to Dersk getting team shot on his way back from the cannon and our snipe falling off. They then got our lobby and pulled off a 50-49 comeback. I was so down on myself for this and I was extremely furious that it cost us a game.
Construct KoTH is game 3 and I am slaughtering these kids the whole game trying to make up for Narrows. However as a team we seemed out of our element and weren't playing well. It was a close game throughout but they held the lead the whole time all the way to the last hill. With about 20 seconds left Dersk and I spawn Mid-Gold, he lifts and gets back smacked by Sneak E who starts to go Closed Gold, Thrust spawns basement so I go up Gold and Sneak E doesn't hear me lift. I bank a nade off the ground and one shot him, go around Closed Gold and bank a nade in hill, kill Frosty then kill Batmayne for the triple kill while Thrust lifts C3 then gets the last 10 seconds to win the game by like.. 3. I've never been so pumped at an event haha as I got the trip I stood up and just yelled ?TRIPLE KILL, THAT'S HOW YOU GO CLUTCH BABY LET'S GO!!!!? We had so much momentum after this that we 5-0'd em game 4 pretty badly. Our confidence individually and as a team was very high at this point and we were ready to rip Str8 for top 12.
We get called up to play Str8 and game 1 is Narrows Flag. We play really well this game and 3-0 them pretty fast. Game 2 is Heretic Slayer and is close for most of the game, then they took off at the end and pull out the win 50-40ish. Game 3 was Contruct KoTH and they beat us pretty badly, 250-150 I think. Game 4 was Onslaught Flag and was insanely epic. We went up 3-0, they brought it back 4-3 then we tied it up 4-4. We made so many clutch stops on what would be their final cap but we were much too hectic and every time we pulled our final cap we let a guy sneak and stop us. Eventually they were able to 4 down us on spawn kill and get the final cap so we lost the series 3-1. Later that night we ended up going to the Dr. Pepper station and scrimming Str8 for like 15 games, we did really well and felt confident going into Sunday.
Columbus 10 Sunday :
Sunday we play Active Rush for top 12, which is who beat me for top 12 in Orlando 10 and also who my old teammate Arkanum had went to. We were very confident this match and it showed, we went in game 1 and crushed em 3-0. Heretic Slayer was up next and was nearly a steak followed by a 200-100 win in Guardian Oddball. This match was a really sweet win and gave us quick confidence for our top 8 match vs Team Classic. We played them about an hour after our Active Rush match and got right into it on Heretic Flag. Man my shot was really on point this series and we went up 3-1 quickly, then outta nowhere we started playing less aggressive. Once we stopped pressuring them they started running over us and ended up winning 5-3. Game 2 was Amp TS, we won fairly easy I think it was 50-40ish. Game 3 was Construct KoTH, we only lost by around 40-50 seconds but Dersk had an off game here. Next up was Pit Flag and I told Faction to make sure to be on top of OVs since that was what cost us the game in Orlando against Classic. Overall this game was going back and forth, 1-1 then 2-2, then it gets around 17:20 and I remember saying, ?Oh shit guys OV.? Next thing I here is, ?Yo Ghost has OV our plat!?. We almost stop this cap but they are able to keep getting touches until they finally get it, winning the series 3-1. I was really pissed about this loss because we really had a good shot at winning this series, and all of us were not going to be satisfied unless we got top 8.
Once again I didn't stop trying my hardest until my placing was final and I really wanted 9th. So we play conso, first against Str8 which is a continuation of our tournament match apparently(they start up 3-1). It went to game 11 which they were able to pull out 50-41. Next up we played Illuminati for 11th and 3-1'd them. Sooo... I got my best placing but I was not satisfied at all. This was my best performance at any tournament in every aspect of my game so not getting top 8 was really a killer. Anyway I just looked forward to Sunday night. I chilled with the sQ guys for a bit then Rentek and I met up with my friends Kinkster and Reaction to get some dinner. Afterward we chilled with just about everyone, including my favorite Brit Baxter and my new favorite foreigners the Aussies. These guys are awesome and lemme tell you they know how to have a good time haha. That was prolly the funnest Sunday night just because of the crazy arm wrestling matches that went down at the bar on the second floor, especially when the Aussies went up and everyone was chanting ?AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE, OYE OYE OYE!!!? lolll. Overall I'd say Columbus 2010 was my 2nd favorite tournament behind Columbus 2009, which says something about Columbus =P.
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Post-Columbus to Present :
After Columbus I decided to part ways with Category 5. My aim is to get onto a team that I know has proven they can place top 8 and that I feel that I can really bring a lot too. So as of now I am still a F/A but I hope to have my team situation figured out very soon. As for my personal life, it's still pretty much the same routine. I game, I workout, I party, I watch anime and I also got my first tat on my right arm. I gotta go back to get it filled in and get the text above it so hopefully it'll be done and healed by Raleigh. Other than that there really isn't much, so I'd just like to say thanks for reading this massive blog and I hope you enjoyed it. Shouts to all my friends and previous teammates. Special shouts to everyone who has really helped me out and hooked me up over these past couple years: Razzoh, Rentek, Slob Murph, Revival, the Grande family, the Jetty family, Stubbonez and a HUGE shout out to my brother Joey Bizzle aka Joey B aka Joey Mamaluke aka the Duke of Bizzleham lollll for helping me out a shitload. That's it for now, pce out everyone.
What's up everybody I found some free time and figured I'd write up a blog on everything that has gone down since my last blog. I know my last one was pretty long but I don't write blogs very often so I like to keep them as interesting and detailed as possible. This one is pretty long as well but i hope you enjoy.
The Offseason Up Until PGL Toronto :
Okay so where did I leave off in the last blog.. ahh of course I was saying my team was Source consisting of Myself, Decliner, Tusick and Megah. Well after a few more weeks of that team things just weren't working out like we wanted and we decided to drop Megah(no offense to Thomas though he is a very skilled player we were just looking for something different). So we ended up trying out a bunch of different 4ths and eventually settled on picking up Fearris. We gamed for almost a week straight and I was feeling very confident in this team. Scott brought a lot to the table, he doubled our teams points giving us a much better seed, had a very good knowledge of the game and had a really chill mess around attitude so we meshed very well with him. The only problem was that after only a few days of scrimming I had to leave for a weekend for PGL Toronto with Virtuosity(Jetty, Painless and Krew at the time) because Gated couldn't make it. I told my team that no matter what happened even if we won the PGL tournament that I would be sticking with Source and we had all agreed to not be shady whatsoever and stick it out together until the opener. So i left that weekend to go to PGL.
PGL Toronto FFA and 2v2 :
Now this was the first time i had LAN'd since Dallas and I love the city of Toronto so i was very excited for this tournament. We drove down Friday to the venue at the Rogers Center(Skydome) and got set up for the FFA which was taking place Friday and was to help seed the players for the 2v2 and 4v4. The top 3 also got paid out so i was looking forward to this. I made it to the finals(top 6) Along with Gilkey, Moniz, Darkscorpion, Krizen and ShameFactor and as I was walking up to the main stage some kid stopped me and said "Hey are you Robbie B from the Montage? Dude I just saw it on MLG it was awesome!" I proceeded to thank him and went on to tell a lot of people about that little encounter. I thought I would just let you all that haven't heard of it know that that's where that little statement "Are you Robbie B from the montage?" comes from haha. Anyways I got 5th in the FFA and helped to get my team some good seeding in the 2v2 and 4v4.
PGL Toronto 4v4 :
So we play our first match against some kids and steamroll em 2-0. Next up is Dyno's team who i vaguely knew from XBL. They were talking a lotta smack but we go on to 2-0 em easily and i get 3 triples this series. Next up is the match we were looking forward to, it was against North of 49. Now everyone knew they were sponsored by AMP and they were expected to do very well seeing as they had dominated the other PGL events in the FFA, 2v2 and 4v4. We were on a side station but man there were there a lot of spectators, anyways the first game was Construct Slayer. We keep a good lead all game and it gets to the point where it's 49-47 us and we have them trapped back gold. I see one of them slip down from open ramp to laser and right away I think back to the XiT disaster in MLG Toronto where my team choked up a 49-43 lead game 3. I think to myself we have a 4v3 back gold and we only need 1 kill, so i tell everyone we need to rush NOW but Krew is R1 while me and Jet are C3 and Pain is O3. I just say lets go figuring Krew will be right behind Pain if he jumps to O street. Me and Jet get 2 one shots and one weak but both die and the crowd goes nuts. It's 49-49 and then I see Pain still open street, he decides to rush in and clutches the last kill, at first I thought we lost but then I hear him yelling YEAH BABY and I see we won. Next we play Narrows flag and we win 3-0, i went +14 with a lotta blains I was tearing it up this game.
Our next match is Sunday against eR, we lose 2-0 but I got a nice triple on Guardian Oddball and gave up the over exterm bottom gold so I could go get some ball time(dammit why aren't I a stat whore lulz). For some reason we end up having to play a shit ton of games in LB and after winning 2 series have to play N49 again. We 2-0 them and I do really well both games getting a cross map stick on Guardian when it's tied 19-19(look for it in Montage 3) and going +8 with most hill game 2. Next up is Get Vicious for top 3 which is for the money. Game 1 is Guardian slayer and there is A LOT of shit talk going back and forth but we end up winning by like 7. Next is Narrows Flag, now this game has been the cause of a lot of hate for me that I get from clueless douchebags. Many of you may have heard about it because I end up going -21, basically it was 15 minutes of me trying to spearhead rushes top middle and getting ripped apart. The previous night vs. N49 I was controlling the snipe most of the game and was picking off domes and dropping shields like crazy but this game didn't play out at all like that. Through most of the game I knew I wasn't doing well stat wise but it didn't really matter to me because I knew what needed to be done to win Narrows CTF and you NEED top middle. So yeah that game happens and they're talking all sorts of shit going into game 3, needless to say I wasn't effected because I knew we just weren't playing as a team that game. We win Pit TS by like 10 or so and after winning 4 series straight on main stage we're in the money. Next series is against Brake, Sheer, Micro and Shotmakerz. We lose 2-0 to them in really gg's, the Flag game was like a 22 minute game and I gained a lot of respect for Shotmakerz after this series. Anyways after the series is over I'm shaking hands with all of em and Kevin and Shaye (Brake and Sheer) tell me that they heard Scott had left Source to start up DGK with Acid. I wasn't really too bummed cause we had only teamed for like a week with him and because I had just made 200 dollars so I just planned on getting a new 4th and preparing for Meadows if it was true.
The Rest Of The Offseason :
So I get back and find out the rumor is true and Scott had left to team with Acid. I didn't really hold anything against him though it was all good. At this point Virtuosity contacted me and told me they were thinking of dropping Krew and wanted me to take his place. Brake and Sheer were also interested in starting something with me but I told both of them that I had given my word to stick it out with Source until Meadows and both teams understood completeley. A few weeks before the event we contacted Fugo about teaming and found out he had a pass as well. We ran games and the first night was awesome, we destroyed DGK and another good team so we decided to team. The next few weeks of practice were inconsistent at times sometimes we were on fire and other times we weren't but overall going into Meadows I was extremely confident. This was the first time i was going to an MLG event with somewhat established players(besides Mando on AbR for Dallas) and had a good seed.
Meadowlands 09 Thursday and Friday :
Me, my brother and my buddies PJ and Joe drove down to Meadows the thursday of the event. We didn't get there until like 11 p.m. and we met up with my team at the hotel. Friday afternoon we ended up getting a 4v4 LAN going against Built To Spill (Trojan, Voodoo, Massa and Docta). We play one series and lose 3-1 I think but the side we were playing on was kind of whack. What I noticed was how ON I was already though, I was 4ing kids with half shields consistently and was just on fire. We switch sides and play them and go 5-0. The one Narrows CTF game i went +24 and pulled off some sick snipes, I still regret not having my memory card. Anyways our confidence was high now and we went to get signed in and what not. The day goes on and we find a LAN at the Holiday Inn against TmA, so we play them and 3-1 pretty badly. We were feeling great at this point and went back to the Venue for our match. We got a bye round 1 and 2-0'd the team Round 2 easily. Decliner and both I drop 16 kills going +9 and +7 respectively. I also do very well the flag game and I can tell this is going to be a good event for me.
That night we have dinner at Outback for Raidens birthday and then go on to make the biggest mistake of the tournament. We spend hours trying to get a LAN going in our room and finally get enough monitors and boxes to LAN against Raidens team and Sieges team. By this time it's like 1 in the morning and the Hotel staff is kicking out everyone in excess of 4 people per room so we have to be really quiet and can barely call out. We play like one series and it's just the biggest waste of time ever, we end up wrapping it up and don't get to bed until like 3:30 a.m.
Meadowlands 09 Saturday and Sunday :
We wake up like an hour before our WBR3 match and we already knew we were playing Crossfire. I decide that it's more important for me to eat breakfast and make sure I'm energized as apposed to warming up(I don't really need to warm up). It was just me and Brendon in our hotel room so I tell him and we decide to go down to the lobby and eat breakfast. Alex(Tusick) meets us down there but none of us had heard from Nick(Decliner) yet. About 30 minutes before out match I get a phone call from Nick telling me his mom never woke him up and that he's gonna shower then meet us at the venue. We all meet up about 10 minutes before our WBR3 match at the Astro station and find out that they are all out of splitters and we won't be able to use our A40's.
We get called to our station, get set up and have to start game 1 Construct TS right away. We start of with an 11-7 lead with top control and I have rockets. I'm in lobby going to C3 meanwhile Nick is already in there getting pressured from C street. I say "Nick come to me I got you", I shoot a rocket at the guy C street but he doesn't hear me, he jumps out to challenge the guy getting hit in the back by my rocket. The street guy then gets at a weird angle and my 2nd rocket doesn't kill him, so they get rockets and top control. This was just one example of where not being able to hear each other really screwed us and there were many more instances where our teamwork suffered because of it. We lose the slayer 50-42ish and I go 17-10-13 while everyone else goes neg. Game 2 is Pit CTF and much of the same thing ensues, there is very little teamwork and we're having trouble baiting and switching or getting organized pushes going and we lose 2-1.
We were really pissed because we knew we should have won the series but we were determined to make it out through losers. The first thing we did was go to the Astro station to get some splitters so we could use our A40's and then talked about how we would take each series game by game. We go into LBR4 and we 2-0 quickly, we were a completely different team with our headphones and I could feel the drastic difference in our teamwork. We play LBR5 and I go massive in game 1, 20-10-8 in Guardian TS to win 50-43. Afterwards we play Narrows CTF and beat these kids in literally 3 minutes. LBR6 is up next and is the first full screen game, this was all Nick's series though. We win the first game Pit TS, we lose the Narrows CTF game 2-1? Brendon had an off game and went -9. Game 3 is Con TS and the other team starts to talk A LOT of shit and is t-bagging/smacking my dead body when they kill me. It's like 49-41 us and I put like 3 or so shots in a guy in sword then drop down, I screen look and see Nick is about to kill him so i scream "YOU KIDS ARE GOING HOME" right before he kills him lol. Nick went huge this sereis. Next up was LBR7 against High Society.
Now we knew HS was a very aggressive team but we felt confident we could win. Game 1 was Narrows TS and the game was going back and forth until it got into the 40's where we took a 46-41 lead. Now at this time the game clock was at about 10:00 so i assumed they would get snipe to Aries or Gregor and slow it down but instead they just bum rushed our lobby again. They got us spawn trapped and went on to win 50-47. Game 2 was Pit CTF and it started very fast. Within the first 2 minutes they had our flag pulled and on their side but Nick got a clutch double to stop them while they were in their base about to cap. We then went on to hold em off and counter cap. The next 10 minutes they must have pulled the flag like 8 times, they capped once but I was able to stop them 3 times with some nice ass nades and Brendon stopped them once with two nice snipes through the shield on our S2. At 15 minutes the score stood 2-2 and we went into OT. About 5 mins into OT they got a flag inched about halfway through camo but were 3 dead. Their last guy got them needle spawns with about 5 seconds left before our flag returned. Nick was the only one in position to hold em off and made a mistake of trying to throw a nade when he didn't have one instead of rushing through camo. They get a touch and he kills the runner but the spawners go on to kill Nick and get the final cap. I had the only negative game of my entire tournament at -1.?
The rest of Saturday consisted of me watching all of my friends that were still in the tournament, mainly my niggies Kash and Seb who placed top 28 with SHK and all the members on both Envy and Virtuosity who placed 26th and 18th respectively. After the tournament was over we went back to our room and hung out for awhile. We had a shit ton of fun for a few hours just laughing our asses off and talking about how crazy the tourney was playing out. Later that night we got in a prank war(thanks to our shenanigan causing coach Evan aka Infamous) with Saucey and some other kids who were like 6 rooms down from us which was pretty loltastic. Then we LAN'd for the rest of the night, well at least me, Venom, Siege, Curry and Mando did. We left Sunday morning for Buffalo after saying peace out to everyone, and that pretty much concluded that weekend for me. Meadows was a pretty big disappointment overall because I know how much potential we had as a team and how it was a dumb mistake that resulted in us placing top 48. Also because I played amazing that event but I was ready to move on and redeem for Columbus.
The Aftermath :
Right when I got back from Meadows I had to finish leveling an account, so I played MLG as soon as I got my shit hooked up and I was tearing it up. I pulled like 4 or 5 montage clips that first day and I was just getting myself psyched and ready to prepare even harder and redeem at C-bus. Then some shit went down. Me, Alex and Brendon are in a party and Brendon says he doesn't really wanna team with Nick and feels we should look for a new 4th. At the time I agreed but the real reason why I think was because I just wanted someone to blame for our placing when it really came down to not preparing for WBR3 then running into a hot HS LBR7.
So we dropped Nick and started running with a few people. We were doing good but the attitude of the team was different and I realized we should just team with Nick again. I approached Nick late one night and asked him if he would want to team again, he said he would want to team with me and Alex again for sure but was pissed at Brendon and didn't want to team with him anymore. I knew Alex still wanted to team with Nick so now i was put up to an ultimatum between Nick/Alex or Brendon/Alex and the way things were going it seemed like it would eventually be just me and Brendon. So I chose to stick it out with Nick/Alex and we went on to run with Insaiyan. After a few weeks of teaming he told us he was set with us and wanted to team so we knew it was for good. Then one night IT happened, DUNN DUNN DUNNNNNNN.
I had spent one weekend just leveling like crazy and I got a total of like 6 hours of sleep over 3 days. So after the weekend was done(cooincidentally the same weekend Virtuosity was having issues with Moe) I ended up sleeping for an entire 24 hours straight. During this hibernation of mine my house was called like 8 times, my cell was called 5 times and my sister AIM'd about 100 times asking for me to get online. Even though they were being told by my brother and sister that I was sleeping they for some reason thought I was being shady and running with Virtuosity behind their backs. Well at one point my dad wakes me up for like the 4th time at like 11:00 p.m. and is like "Rob tell these fucking kids to stop calling the house" and I say no I'm too tired and to tell my sis to relay my message to Decliner that I was not getting on at all and I was exhausted. I start to fall asleep again and 10 minutes later I hear the fucking phone ring again except this time my dad answers it and bitches out Alex. At that point I was steaming mad and was ready to get up and get online just to flip the fuck out on them. That was when I started telling myself that if something happened with Virtuosity I would contact them about joining.
Well the next morning I get on my comp to see that I have like 50 missed aims, and the latest of Nick's aims he's telling me that Bryan was being shady and running with FJ. I also find out on the forums that Virtuosity was having issues with Moe but nothing was set in stone yet. So I'm like fuck this my team was being extremely immature the entire previous day and now Bryan is running with other people I'm asking if I can run with Virtuosity. I PM Jetty and tell him everything that was going on and how I feel asking if I could run with them. About 15 minutes after he aims me and we talk about it and he tells me they would all be interested in teaming with me for sure. So I tell him I would let my teammates know that afternoon and he says he would do the same for Moe. Turns out Bryan wasn't running with FJ Nick had just jumped the gun but I still felt this was an opportunity I couldn't turn down. I told them I would be joining Virtuosity and they were all very cool and understanding about it. Good luck to you guys.
So now Virtuosity consists of myself, Jetty, Painless and Gated, all Buffalo boys that are feeling extremely confident for Columbus. We are planning on having a LAN against Flatline Memorial Day weekend. Also my friend Josh(Revival) will be staying at my house the week before C-bus and I think we might spend a few of those days at Jetty/Painless' house gaming it up, so I'm 100% Virtuosity is going to be more than prepared come tournament time. Shout outs to all of my friends and all the people I have met at events, apologies to anyone who I can't add but there's only 100 spots on a friends list and I know a lot more than 100 people. Also shout outs to all my fans thanks for your support and keep a look out for my next montage as well as Virtuosity on MLG, we'll be rising up the rankings in no time ;) Thanks for reading and sorry about there not being pics in this blog, some scumbag stole my camera at Meadows. Pce out janks.
Well a lot of people have been posting up blogs recapping their 08 seasons and i felt mine was pretty interesting so i thought i would share it all with you mo fo's. Its a pretty long read so if your expecting it to be short sorry but i wanted to give it some depth. Enjoy.
Pre Halo 3 :
Before Halo 3 my main concerns were my job, chilling with friends and partying, but thanks to some dumb decisions that lead to a jail cell and 12 months probation, i decided i needed to go down a different road before things got even worse. Leading up to Halo 3 I had very little knowledge of MLG or how it worked. The only reason i even knew of it was because i had seen its show on USA a few times. The only competitive game i had played was Socom, which was the main title on Gamebattles.com, i loved the concept of competing with others in online ladders to prove who was the best so i was immediately hooked with Socom. Towards the end of the Socom 3/Combined Assault ladder i was considered by many other top players at the time a top 10 sniper and top 10 gunner(which was very good), while at this time MLG had just acquired Gamebattles.com and this is when i really began to learn about it. With my ability in Socom in the back of my mind i felt i had the natural talent to become a top player in another game, except this time with the goal being to gain money in return. I already had a 360 and a copy of Halo 2, so i began to play it more frequently, especially now that i had knowledge of the MLG gametypes, THC playlist and the button glitches. I began to become very good very quickly, with the goal to have a decent knowledge of the game before Halo 3 came out.
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Halo 3 Release :
Well i was just playing some H2 the night of the release and was bored, so i figured what the hell i'll get it now. I drove over to a GameStop that was doing an all night release, when i arrived there was no line thank god, i walked in grabbed a copy and left. I started playing and noticed considerable differences immediately even with my limited knowledge of H2. I quickly started learning what was different and how you had to play differently, most notably that the short game of H3 was no longer as skill based as in H2. So i went over to GB and signed up on the team ladder, i didn't know many people so i decided to get a couple Socom friends that played Halo to join as well. We played together for the first couple of weeks on GB and got ourselves a decent record at best, but i noticed that i was doing the best almost every game i played in, i won't forget my first GB match in H3 on Isolation vs. the number 1 team at the time, i went 19-9 (Lol even though there were no MLG rules yet and it was AR start =P). I was also on almost every day and noticed that i was much more committed than anyone else on my team, so i decided to try something else with this guy i had met, BorderlineBenny aka FiveStar BR.
GB Ladder / PCL 1 :
So i finally had some people who were also in Halo 3 for the long run, looking to actually do something and compete in events with it. I played damn near every day and went through a few team changes, eventually landing me my team named Rise Of Randoms which included Myself, FiveStar BR, cKaSh and KillOut(yea i know who the hell are these janks, especially this Robbie B scrub). We mashed practice in as much as we could, amassing an extremely ugly 120-60(or something close to that) record on the PCL 1 and a terrible Rep as cheaters even though we didn't. We managed to beat a couple good teams including NLR twice, so i was as confident as someone with a 120-60 record could be and wanted to keep this team til Meadowlands.
The Months Leading To Meadowlands :
The months after the PCL 1 was done little had changed, we were still getting on everyday to practice. I had begun leveling accounts with my teammate Benny and we had found a system (that i'm not willing to share) of gaining a massive amount of customers, so if we weren't practicing we were leveling... basically it was H3 12 hours a day. We both made enough money to pay for Meadows and we were also getting better by the day. Eventually we decided that Killout was our weakest player and replaced him with one of Benny(5star's) locals who had placed 5th in an ffa at the TGN Kentucky tournament, finishing behind players like Venom, Elamite and Strongside, his name was WeapoN. With Weapon we found we were much better and even more confident as a team, so we finalized this as our roster for Meadowlands.
Meadowlands 08 :
I arrived in New Jersey the Thursday of the event with my brother Joe and let me tell you i was excited.? We saw a little bit of the city and met up with my teammates IRL for the first time which was kind of awkward but still fun. Anyways straight to the action, warmups on Friday. I had never played splitscreen or LAN, so i didn't really know what to expect, the first team we matched up with were my Buffalo arch nemesis' Virtuosity. We hopped right on and lost all three games we played against them. Feeling kind of demoralized we moved on to another station, and won every game we played from there on. LAN was like a dream for me, and i liked the way splitscreen felt for me as well. So WBR1 we play some Janks and have to go to game 3 Guardian TS, i hit some clutch snipes and we in the series 2-1, next its WBR2 against a name i recognized, SA1NTLY's team. We're playing Con TS and quickly get out to a lead, at one point its 38-24 or something, anyways they get lobby control and we just keep lifting up and it turns into a nightmare, they win 50-48. The king game we win easily, next is Narrows TS, we lose by like 4. Lets just say Friday night was a loooooonnnng night. Saturday starts, LBR2 we go in with new strats and a new mindset, and quickly 2-0 the team. With new found confidence we continue to LBR3 and 2-0 that team. We were really coming together as a team, LBR4 is against Lammie's team, we 2-0 them pretty fast as well. We have momentum and confidence. We're making it out of AM! LBR5, Rise Of Randoms vs Florida Jackalopes. I remember turning to Kash laughing, Florida Jackalopes who the hell are these scrubs? Then they sign in and i see Eleven, Killer N, Mando and Tupac. Anyways we keep the games respectable at best but they win 2-0. Top 64 first event, i'm not totally disappointed but i really wanted to make it out, the Meadows competition was just too hard.
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Orlando 08 :
None of us went to San Diego except Kash who went with a team that got screwed over by a no shower. So we all decide to keep the same team and just mash in practice during the month leading up to Orlando. By now i had also met a customer whom i leveled that also wanted to sponsor me(thanks Jesse), so i no longer had to worry financially about getting to events. We arrive in Orlando and its much the same as Meadows, we play in warm ups and are working teams hard. WBR1 comes, we 2-0 the team. WBR2 comes against Fr1lock's team, i'm expecting us to do pretty well this series and take it down. We lose the first, win the hill game, and lose the third. Once again, a long Friday night ensued but we had been here before and knew we could do it, just had to get our heads on straight. Saturday starts, LBR2 starts we 2-0 the team. Then it's LBR3, we win the first game barely with Benny(FiveStar) doing really bad, game two is Pit KoTH and i go huge, +16 with sick snipes and 3rd in hill time, we barely win the series 2-0. At this point i know we need to do something differently because i knew this wasn't going to fly in the later rounds. We all decide to get some food to try to replenish energy. We start talking about how were going to proceed, when Benny says he's thinking of quitting H3.. I came close to yelling "WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT" but instead we all just talked him out of it and said it's not over lets clutch it out of AM. LBR4 is a disaster, me, Kash and Beau(WeapoN) do well but Ben did bad and overall we weren't playing well as a team. We lose 2-0 in the series and get top 12,584 at Orlando, i was furious, I just didn't understand it, i knew Benny was capable of being a great player and he did well in WBR1/2 and LBR2 idk why he suddenly lost his spirit. Anyway it was time for a change.
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Toronto 08 :
This was the first time since the beginning of H3 that i was a f/a. I ran games with Ability(Vile, Deke and Cancer) and i really wanted to make that team since they had just gotten 27th at Orlando, but that didn't work out. Beau(WeapoN) had a sponsor and was teaming with Active Rush, but something happened and he got dropped so we became a t02. We ended up running with Beau's friend FoX who was a t02 with FuzzyBunny who i learned was quite well known in during the beginning and middle of H2. Anyways we hit it off from game one and were amazing and decided this would be our team for Toronto. We all get to the hotel and do some 2v2's in the hotel room to warm up for LAN/splitscreen. Warmups come and we're whoopin on teams. We play DbA and absolutely wreck them 3 games in a row, which was especially satisfying because we could never beat them online. We also split games with JRG's team so we were already feeling really good about how our team was playing on LAN. We get a bye WBR1 and 2-0 the team in WBR2. Saturday is WBR3, we play these kids who look like randoms but are actually pretty good, we win 2-0 but the games are close. Next is WBR4 against XiT Woundz.
Toronto 08 : WBR4 vs XiT and The Aftermath
Now this is a series i will never forget, we went in with so much confidence to the point where we were all positive we were winning it. First game narrows TS, we win 50-41 everyone goes positive. Next game is Con King, they win by 50 seconds or so, Powwow goes +23 with 2nd most hill time.. absolutely insane. Third game is Pit TS, we start off strong and gain a big lead, we are up by around 10 kills the entire game. Towards the end FoX trades kills with someone and makes the score 49-43, one kill from upsetting the 4th seed in AM. What ensued was pure mayhem, Luck gets OV, we are trying to organize a push once FoX spawns, we get ready then OV pushes green we all focus on him, Powwow has snipe in sword and pulls off 2 kills, OV finishes another guy 49-46, im in court so i rush up sword to pressure Powwow, he pops out and rips my face 49-47, Luck/Bon push through Green/Camo respectively, FoX is the only one in position to fight and almost out BR's Bon in a 2v1 but luck saves him 49-48, Bon is 1 shot running down Camo, Beau spawns needle pit and messes up the jump to needler, he then gets up and only gets 2 shots in Bon's back instead of what would have been 3 to 4 before Samurai charges through Camo to save him. I spawn court and see Powwow on our sword ramp so i scream "I GOT HIM" but before i can kill him Luck/Samurai finish Weapon and Powwow pulls off a clutch snipe on Fuzzy to win 50-49. IMO the clutchest comeback in H3 except maybe the Str8/Ambush Pit TS game, all i can say is Powwow is amazing. LBR6 comes and even though me and Fuzzy give a pep talk to get the pit game out of all of our heads it doesn't work. I am the only one who doesn't go neg in the first slayer and i pull a 12-15-12 performance. Then me and Fuzzy dominate the 2nd game but it's not enough, we lose to some scrubs. This was the best tournament of my season, i managed to go even/positive every single game of the tournament. Top 64 again, all that was left now was getting drunk and walking around Toronto which i must say is an awesome city.
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Leading up to Dallas 08 :
After Toronto i continued teaming with Fuzzy and FoX under the new team AbR (All Bout Redemption) in reference to the XiT disaster. We picked up Vile and were absolutely amazing, he was just a better version of WeapoN with points, i still wonder how we would have done at Dallas. But unfortunately there was a lot of fighting and at one point dedication issues played a part. After dropping and picking up FoX over and over again, we ended up officially dropping him about 2 or 3 weeks before the event. At this point Sheer told us Mando was a f/a, so i messaged him and he was willing to run games, we absolutely slaughtered from the get go and decided to team. I found it kind of funny that a random like me was teaming with Fuzzy an amazing H2 player, Mando who knocked me out at Meadows and Vile who's team i didn't make before Orlando. Anyways this was our team, AbR was heading to Dallas.
Dallas 08 :
We arrive and for the first time we actually LAN the night before the event. Mando drove down with a lot of peeps from Florida and they all brought their gear so we had a full 4v4 LAN going on. Right from the start i was impressed by Mando's skill talk about a 4 shotting machine, his sniping was good as well. So Friday comes and we go to warm ups, we don't lose a single game out of like 15. WBR1 and 2 are a bye and we 2-0 the team in WBR3. Going into saturday we knew we had to play Virtuosity WBR4, my Buffalo boys. I knew they were good but i was confident we could take this series, we win 2-0. WBR5 is the first full screen round so we were getting used to it, we play my boy Whodini who upset Reload After 4. We proceed to 3-0 them in fairly respectable games. We hadn't dropped a game all tournament. Next up is WBR6 against Impulse, Batmayne and CMG were chillin in our room earlier that day and we were messing around in 2v2's, me and Vile were doing work on em and this kind of boosted my confidence going into this series. Game one is Narrows Flag, i do kind of bad going -7 but i make a clutch move at the end that gets us our last cap, we win 3-1, Fuzzy went off this game with a sick triple. Game 2 is Con TS and i am just going off on them, we get a pretty good lead of about 8 kills and are getting really pumped up and start talking trash, when the ref warns us and says one more time you forfeit this game. This kinda kills our momentum and as this happens we get 3 downed and someone spawns us open ramp and we get 4 downed. They end up coming back and winning 50-47, I went +5 with 10+ assists, Vile went -10 which really hurt us. The next two games were Pit KoTH and Guardian OB, we lost both by decent scores, we just weren't playing with the same intensity. We really felt if we could take it to Amp TS game 5 we woulda won, but shoulda coulda woulda doesn't matter. By the way Fuzzy played really well the whole Impluse series.
Dallas 08 : Losers Bracket And The AfterMath
Next up is LBR9, we play Virtuosity up 2-0 first to 4. They win the first game Narrows TS 50-48. We win the 2nd game pit TS 50-49, this series is way too close for comfort. Next game is Con KoTH, the game is going back and forth and is forced to the last hill, they have hill control down 10 seconds with about 20 left in the game, i get a kill basement and lift up C3 with low sheilds, i meet jetty up there and jump around like the shinobi ninja that i am and give him the shit sandwich after he misses his beatdown, recharge and kill Krew saving what could have been a hearbreaking loss. We win the series 4-1, i went big this series. GG's boys y'all are gonna do great in 09. Next up is WBR10 vs GLTS. Game 1 is Narrows TS, they come out insanely aggressive, they go 4 for 1 off the bat and get every power weapon. After getting up by like 15-20 in the first 3 mins they end up winning 50-30ish. Next is Con King it goes to the last hill, theres about 20 seconds left and they are up by 10 with control, we break there set up and get it so were 2 alive and they're 3 dead. Down about 5 seconds, the last piece of shit gets em gold spawns and they nade the balls out of our 2 guys and win it. I went -7 with 2nd hill time and most assists, Vile went huge with +5 most hill time and Fuzzy had an off game -13 with least hill, GG's GLTS. I really wanted top 16 but i was happy with what we got. Afterwards we went around Dallas a little and had dinner at Dicks(Hilarious Restaurant). Had a nice H3/H1 drunk LAN party going on in our room, got to chill with Karma a little, and had Mando get trashed and climb an elephant LMAO.
After Dallas To Present Time :
After Dallas we had some problems as a team and broke up, i teamed with Fuzzy for awhile and ended up continuing AbR with Decliner and Tusick. An argument occured on XBL while Fuzzy was staying at my house regarding his dedication after he would leave my house. Some really fcked up things were said between Fuzzy and Decliner/Tusick, anyways it came to the point where it felt like the team wouldn't work out and i would have to choose between Fuzzy or Decliner/Tusick, and i chose to continue with Decliner/Tusick. Me and Nate are still on good terms though, i'm sure he's gonna do well in 09. Also good luck to PoV, Vile, Haggie and Venom are gonna beast it out at Meadows as well as Mando what ever he ends up doing. As of now i have been focusing on getting back in shape and working with my new team. Our name's Source which consists of myself, Decliner, Tusick and Megah. Hopefully were gonna break into the top 16 at the opener.
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