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.
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.
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.
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.
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