By Javier Moreno

July, 10 2000 |

I decided a while back, (like in Feburary) to head out to Chicago. It was either that or ECC2K, but everyone wanted to go to Chicago. So I'm like "why not?" and took the trip. Now, my trip started on Friday, but I hadn't slept since Wednesday night. Work sucks, sometimes. Ok, so at 6:30 Jumpsuit Jesse and I arrive at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, TX. This is where the madness begins.

It turns out my flight was delayd, by 45 mins, because there was some sort of problem with a machine that monitors cabin pressure. So we take off, and arrive at 10:30am, about 45 mins late. Joey Cuellar(MrWizard) and Tommy (waterb0y) were waiting for us, so we do the male bonding thing, then take off to the baggage claim. Now, we were supposed to meet up with our other Houston people, Chris Wong (cmutt) and Adrian Ross. That didn't work out right, so we had to wait for them to get the car, and to pick us up. I thought we were gonna get a van, but all we had was a Blazer. Right there, I knew we were in for a looooooooong day.

So somehow we fit 6 plus LARGE luggage, I might add, all the way to the Red Roof Inn. Of course, Chicago is already a shit-induced maze of freeways, so naturally we get lost a few times, going on wrong streets, etc. We finally make it around 12 noon, and checked in. We brought a super gun, and we were expecting to play it on the hotel TV, but there was some cable system that hooked up to it, and wouldn't let us dot it. So we bitch and moan for a while, so we give up. Wizard and waterb0y go to sleep, while we need to go to our next stop, which is NikeTown and to go pick up Alex Valle and his girlfriend, Tammy. Everyone wanted to go to NikeTown, so we go there first. Mind you, this is about the same time Valle arrives. I thought I was not gonna have any trouble picking them up, but it turns out we ran into one little thing: traffic. Man, worse traffic I've seen, maybe save the 409 in LA. So it takes us 45 mins to get to downtown, then drop everyone off, then go pick up valle and gf 2.5 hours LATER than planned. We eat chicken (Popeye's) then picked up Adrian, Jesse, and Chris, so the blazer was packed once again. On the way back, Tony Cannon (Ponder) calls me, saying they are gonna take a cab to the arcade, because there are too many people as it is. It's cool, I thought we were gonna chill, but then Hsien Chang calls.

There are still 6 more people to pick up, I am dead tired already. We decided to cut all the BS with the TV problem, so we get a 20" TV. So it works, I drop off a few at the arcade, go say hi to John Choi, Cannons, Seth Killian, and etc. then take off to O'Hare. Hsien calls back, saying he is gonna wait for Mike Watson(watts), and Dan Lee(scan). Ok, so I decide to go to Midway 1st, where Eddie Lee and David Sirlin are waiting. I go pick up them first, then it starts to rain. Great. But I ride it out, and hit O'Hare. Luckily, I picked up Dan Thompson (SpiderDan), Watson, Scan, and Hsien all about the same time, about 45 minutes apart. Then we head straight out to the arcade, about 11:30 pm. The time it took to pick up all these 6 people? 4 freaking HOURS.

We all get there, now there is soooo many people playing all the games right now. And I haven't touched one. So I meet the rest of the people, Mike from Corpus Christi, Texas, omni, Tin, etc, etc. Arcade closes at 12 midnight, so we ALL go back to the hotel. Most walked, some rode. It takes about 30-45 minutes to get ready and settled in. Many people wanted to chill, but some of us (me, JsJesse, Valle, his gf, Arturo Sanchez (Sabin), Eddie, Dan, and Sirlin)went to the IHOP about 5 miles away and ate. I get back, watson, scan, waterboy and Scott (from SHGL) wanted to eat. Dan went with me to find them a place to eat, but couldn't find one. So we had to go BACK to IHOP, and watch these people eat. I'd like to add, that Scan and Watson eat like maniacs. They kept ordering side order after side order, and just kept eating. So they finally get done, and we go back to the hotel, to sleep. At 4am. I am one tired mofo at this point.

I get up around 10am, getting ready and stuff. Most of us, get to the arcade about 12 noon, and sign-ups are happening around. I look around, and I see many people getting their practice while they still can. I look around for individual people, and I happen to see the fabled Lisa, (otherwise known as C K ). She certainly lived up to Jesse's descriptions being so, how should I put it, good looking. There was another girl though, who apparently got everyone else's attention. There was this girl, dressed in black, wearing her hair in the Chun Li style (the buns). Anyways, she could draw (as I found out later) quite well. Maybe she can draw for us... Her name turns out to be Erika, (thanks, Derek!), and so many people were trying to hit on her. I found some sort of enjoyment by looking at all these guys trying to put out their game, but all failing. Enough of her, back to other things.

Myself, Tony (inkblot) Cannon, Mike Watson, Tin, Tony Carmona, John Choi, and Jason (DocBoM) Marynik all went to go eat at this little Chinese place in the same plaza. The food wasn't all that, since I only ate one plate. That, and Chinese food doesn't sit too well with me. I get a call on my phone, and it is Adrian, saying my first match is up in Alpha 3. Whoa. My first match is against some older guy, about 45. He was carrying a crate (I think) full of Street Fighter guides. I beat him two straight, then wait for my next match. I look around, for people I know, but I get bored. So I just look at people playing the various games. I watched Hsien get a good 19 game winning streak, impressing those people from Nebraska, especially. I look at Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and I see crazy combos that cannot be comprehended by mere words. I go to Super Turbo, and there are LOTS of people playing. I don't like waiting for lines, so I wait till my next match. My next match is against Ari (fLoE) Wentraub, and he had the ghettoest Gief I'd ever seen. But I was too scrubby, so I lost that match 2 straight. I was up like 20 mins later again, and I had to face Kurt Weinburger (pez_man). I think that match went all the way, but I pulled out with the victory. I was again soon after, and I don't know his name, but he was skinny, and had a chia afro, and he beat me with V-Sakura. So that was it, for now....

Jason Wilson decided to take a break, so people can eat, and freshen up... so Choi, Valle, Tammy, Sirlin, myself, and Jason Marynik all went to some place near our hotel, called George's. I dropped them off, because I had to do a few things at the hotel, then go but some stuff at the convienence store. I went to pick them back up, they were still eating. It turns out that it was a jewish restaurant, and we were like the only minorities in there. We were also the youngest! The food wasn't all that, according to them, because it was all bland and tasteless. So we all go back to the arcade, and the SFA3 reentry is starting. I put my in, but I lost immediately to some guy with yet ANOTHER V-Sakura. Man, what a day. That was over pretty quickly, so I eagerly await SFA2 and ST, since they were being thrown at the same time. My 1st match was in Super Turbo, against Seth Killian. The evil Chun vs. the ghetto Honda. I actually picked Ryu first, and had only meager success against him. Then I picked Honda, I did even worse! It came down to three games, though and I am quite happy about that. But I still lost, and IMMEDIATELY, they called my name for Alpha 2. I died against SOMEONE, I just wasn't sure who it was. So I wait, for my next matches by watching some of the ST matches. Some of them were pretty close, too! I watched Jesse do a spectacular combacks vs. Thao Duong... then my match in A2 was next. Sure enough, I had to play Kurt W. again. He played Rose, the cheap character, and beat my Ryu to knock me off the tournament. My esteem is kinda low, after doing so bad in the A2 tourney.... then my name is called for ST. I lose to Jae Purvis, and his patient Ryu. Oh well. So much for my day in tournaments. But A2 was stopped after a while, so ST can go on and finish.... I watched some incredible matches in there, like more comebacks from Jesse to unsuspecting players, Mike Watson killing people left and right with da Balrog, and John Choi with his myriad of players. I got to watch all the ending matches, from 5th to 1st... and let me just say, it was amazing. I saw John Choi lose to an offensive Dhalsim (Jason Deheras), Jesse making yet ANOTHER comeback against Wilson and his Bison, and Alex Valle of all people beating out Watson. But we all know what happened... Choi is out, Jesse is out from Watson, Deheras is out from Watson, and Valle (2nd) is out from Watson. The ST finals were something else to look at, and I am personally hoping there will be some videos on Shoryuken showing those finals. Oh yeah! I forgot.... during those finals, the arcade people shut everything down... pissing everyone who was there off. I started the "boooooooooo" chant, and everyone along went with it. After 3 minutes, they restarted the machine those guys were on, and it was on! After the tournament, we decided to chill for like 10 minutes, then it was off to IHOP once again!

The ratio of people to cars was astounding! So to get to IHOP, 5 people went with Derek, about 6 with Tin, and 11 with us in the Blazer. Yep, ELEVEN people. It was me, Chris, Adrian, DoCBoM, Scan, Watson, water0y, Krazystep (Mike Ochoa), Scott, and Jesse. In one BLAZER. Ugh! We get there in what seemed like forever... I remember there were like 3 cars with people outside, and we looked like bunch of immigrants, person after person coming out of that blazer. We all get there, and we all sit at one table. We all wanted to be seperated in groups, that way no one lags when it comes to money. The waitress said she couldn't do that, so she brought another waitress to reinforce that. Watson and I said that is stupid, so the manager comes out. She says the same thing, but we reiterate that we are gonna group it off, but it won't be completely seperate. The manager agrees, so we get some satisfaction out of that. We can tell the the waitress we had, was really stressed out, and looked like she was gonna have a breakdown or something. So we eat, and I get a call from Houston, so I take it outside. When I came back we eat, then we leave. Before we leave, we decide to give the waitress a BIG tip for all her trouble... and I went back to where she was at to thank her for being so patient with us. She said the same, that we handled it pretty well. So I said goodbye, and BACK into the packed blazer.

We get back to the hotel, and scan and watson decides to play blackjack. I am alright with this, so I go tell people in the other rooms that we are playing, and only the Cannons showed up. So it was the Cannons, waterb0y, and myself to play (which was enuff). Thanks to Cannon Quality Control ;copy , we were able to leave the room with a surplus in our hands. Also it could be because Mike Watson is a crappy dealer. Anyways, I head back to my room, and some people in there were playing Super Turbo and Alpha 3. We stay up for a little while longer, until all the people that were next to us told us to shut up. That was enough for one night, so we all went to sleep.

Since I was gone from both Alpha 2 and Alpha 3, a few of us decided to stay behind in order to let Chris return the TV we bought from Best Buy. SpiderDan, Adrian and myself then got to the arcade about 1pm. I got to see both the a2 and a3 finals, in which they were pretty good matches. I expected to do much better today, since the day before was a waking nightmare for me. Third Strike finally starts around 4pm (estimated), and we are off! Even though I do not like this game as much as the previous (2nd impact), I felt confident enough to where I can perform decently. My first match was against Tony Carmona, and it was a close set, as it came down to the final round of the set, where I pulled off the win. Tony was disturbed at it, but I can understand his situation. I then go watch Hsien play. All camera were on him as most people saw his performance the day before. He seemed to have little trouble with the opposition, and easily advanced. Soon thereafter I was called up again for my match, against some Hugo player. I recall this guy was from Nebraska, but wasn't too sure. I played Ryu my 1st match, and I beat him soundly. Next, he played Hugo again, and this time he beat ME soundly. 3rd match, I decided to bust out Chun Li, and see if that would have worked. Apparently, he didn't and proceeded to work me in the final match. ARGH! I could have won that one if I stuck with Ryu. Oh well.

At this time the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tourney started, and I was the 3rd match up. My opponent was Tony Cannon (Ponder). Nothing much to say here, except I got reamed in 2 straight. My Ryu/Cable/Commando experiment had gone horribly wrong. So I suck. Sue me. 3 months playing a versus game. Don't expect miracles out of me. Since I am in the loser's brackets in both games (big whoop), my turn comes up quickly. Two in 3rd strike, in which I do win, and I get called for mvc2 in the loser's. I get to play Ari again, and he cheated his way to victory. Not really, but he still beat me. And I find out one thing... I need more mvc2 comp. It's almost non-existant in Houston, since the players here INSIST on using people who die to Cable, and never learn. Enough ranting. I play another in 3rd Strike, winning against some asian who thought he was good. He really became mad when I beat him. Oh well. The next battle was against Psi (Alex K.) and he killed me. So that's it for my tourney results. I sucked BAD. I got to watch later 3s matches, like Hsien vs. Alex, Hsien vs. Eddie, and Eddie vs. Alex. Good matches, although I wasn't worked up about it like I was at the time of 2nd Impact. That was over soon, and just about everyone who was left watched the MvC2 quarters, semis, and finals. Very methodical by the players, and that's where I saw my site-mate Inkblot bust out the Juggernaut cancel for 2000% percent (figure is overly exaggerated)!!!!!! He did well enough to get 3rd, with Arturo Sanchez and Eddie Lee getting it on in the finals. Arturo won that match, and finally, I thought the tournament was over.

Since Twin Galaxies were still there, about 1am, they decided to throw an awards ceremony. Everyone got their money for the tournies, the high-score competition, and also the overall place finishes. I thought that Twin Galaxies did a good job in making this happen, and highlights of the ceremony was Derek saying "SHORYUKEN DOT COM!" and random jokes from the crowd. We finally got out of there, and all went back to the rooms to drop off all the stuff. Everyone wanted to go to IHOP once again, but SpiderDan has asked me to take him to the airport early, so I opted for sleep. So I said goodbyes to the majority of the crowd, and went to sleep. So next day, I dropped Dan off, got a TICKET in Chicago, and went straight to work. Bleh. I was tired.

Besides that last part, I really had a good time with all the people this time around, I met new faces, got reacquainted with old faces, and of course, the atmosphere. This is where I give my thanks out. But I should thank NO ONE. I picked up LOTS of people, stayed in traffic for 8+ hours, dropping people off at the airport and stuff, etc, etc. They should be thanking me! But in all seriousness.... I know these people will do the same for me. Bye now!