Explanations and a Tournament Review (and a SURPRISE)

Oh dear... It seems I've forgotten to update the blog. Again. I really need to keep a better handle on this thing

In all honesty though, the reason I haven't updated anything here is because there hasn't really been anything TO update. I'm no closer to achieving the mid-goal of completing 50% of The List than I was a couple months ago when I started this blog. The reason for this being:

1. I'm poor,
2. I'm poor.
3. I have a job.

I'm not really able to devote all the time I want to completing The List because of other responsibilities I have, mostly to save up enough money to be able to move out of my parents' house one day and hopefully figure out an actual career instead of scraping by with the menial position in the office I work in. But that's another blog post for another blog.

In order to help spur myself back into the swing of actually getting through this monster of a List, I have decided I'm going to live-stream my efforts to complete most of the list. Obviously, some of the games listed are simply too long to live-stream, in which case I will capture some video of my gameplay and record my reactions during play and put those up on ze interwebs. More on that in later blog posts.

I recently wrote an article regarding my experience at a (albeit small) tournament held by a local video game group here in Puerto Rico and have decided to put it up here.
Some explanation before the actual article: I am part of a group of individuals called ArcadeBox who wish to dedicate ourselves to providing a live-streaming service to all (though concentrating mostly on video game tournaments). As part of this group, I went to a tournament event held on Saturday November 19th in order to meet other like-minded individuals and discover a new comic book store here on the island (even though it is an hour drive, it's worth it). So, here's the article:



Ultimate Fighting Madness!
Tournament Hosted by Online Gaming Madness


This past Saturday the 19th of November, Uriel(ArcadeBox member and colleague) and myself had the pleasure of going and contributing to Ultimate Fighting Madness, a tournament held by Online Gaming Madness in Comix Megazone in Arecibo for cash prizes.

We met up with the members of Online Gaming Madness who turned out to be a group of like-minded and friendly individuals, after introductions Uriel went off to speak with other tournament players while I decided to hang back from the crowd and introduce myself to Aer0blue, the person responsible for maintaining the stream of the event. He was a very friendly and offered for me to sit in with him during the stream.

Once introductions had been covered I noticed that people began crowding the store, I would look away for a moment and ten more individuals would pop up, seemingly from nowhere. The level of excitment and anticipation for the event could be felt from across the room. Old players and new mingled with each other, engaging in conversation on the games they were going to compete in and the merchandise that lined the walls. This displayed the advantages to having Comix Megazone be the venue for this event, it allowed players to browse through the selection while they awaited their chance to compete, in this way gaining the store a broader clientele and providing an air-conditioned, decently sized locale for Online Gaming Madness to hold their event. A perfect win-win situation if I ever saw one.

The venue itself turned out to be a rather impressive sight. I had not been to many comic book stores on the island and those I had been to left much to be desired. Comix Megazone provided a comfortable atmosphere for those awaiting to compete and a distraction until set-up had completed. Players occupied themselves by browsing the store, I found myself purchasing a good number of comic books after going around the store and viewing their selection whcih was fairly impressive although limited due to the owners of Comix Megazone being away at a local convention and taking most of the merchandise with them. The locale also provided a chance to expand the viewership from just players to regulars at the store who decided to take an interest in the activities going on inside.

Players who had become restless while browsing the store were invited to play casual matches against each other as a sort of warm-up. Nearly every game station in the store was fully occupied with their own little crowds of spectators watching the matches and eagerly awaiting their turns to play. A short while after, Reyanaldo Rosa Urbistondo, leader of Online Gaming Madness, announced that the tournament was about to start and requested all those who wished to compete to form a line and put themselves down on the list with the game they would play. A line that nearly went around the store immediately formed and after all players had been inscribed to compete, the tournament was under way.

The stream was well monitored though it did run into a few problems mostly due to the fact that Aer0blue had to rely on the wireless modem of the store instead of having a hard line to the Internet. This normally would not present a large problem, but unfortunately in Puerto Rico we have to deal with a limited amount of bandwith for a multitude of reasons we will cover in future articles. Uriel was invited to aid in commentating for the tournament and Aer0blue enlisted the help of online viewers to alert him when the stream froze or if there was a problem with the quality at any time. The viewers were more than happy to provide that information and kept the commentators as entertained as they kept the viewers.

Overall, it was a great opportunity to be able to participate in this event and meet more people with similar ideas to ours regarding the gaming community as a whole. We look forward to being able to work with OGM on any future events and bring you, our readers, updates on these.


Games played during Ultimate Fighting Madness:

Super Smash Brothers Melee

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Mortal Kombat IX

Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3



So, that was the review. Now for the "surprise" portion of this post.
I was chosen as many others were this past weekend to participate in the Beta testing of...

Star Wars: The Old Republic


Needless to say, I was damn excited about being able to take part in the Beta testing of the game. I'll be putting up a review of my experiences later on in the week as the Beta may have been extended until tomorrow morning. Which, if that is the case, I'm definitely going to disappear from the world later tonight.

It's totally been extended. GOOD-BYE WORLD!

Cheers!

Games in Progress:
Mass Effect (Yes, I've already played ME and ME2, doing another playthrough for ME3 release)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (At the third dungeon)
Dragon Age: Origins(At Ostagar though I think I might leave to do other missions)