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Evolution 2002 Log (Page 2)
Page 2 of this long log...hehe, i said "long log"...uh, yea...
Me vs. Nanoboi
I don't remember that much of my next match. I believe it was Lawrence "The Law" Carr from New York. Everything in that match is a blur because I was tired and starving. All I know is that I won and went on to the next round. But I was a bit intimidated because Xecutioner was behind him, giving advice.
By now, I'm hella hungry. But we were informed since the bracket was winding down, we had to stay because matches were being called. I find out I'm playing Randy Lew, number one in Pac North…the same guy I've played before at SVGL tournies. I knew I wasn't going to win, but I was going to try my best. He was beating me pretty convincingly in the 1st round. But with just Cyclops at the end, I was making a comeback. I ended killing his Cable AAA wth about 2% Clops left. He finally beats me with Commando. In the 2nd round, I killed his Sentinel and he killed my Storm. So it was Cable/Commando vs. Cable/Cyclops. Randy calls Commando and I hit him with an AHVB!!! And another one…let's pause for a moment......I had two meters left...any knowledgable MvC2 player knows that I could've easily taken out Randy's Commando and win the match. However, I had the feeling I was gonna screw up. Steven, Alex, and Matt knew I was gonna screw up…and guess what…I fucked up. I forgot what happened the rest of the match. Randy beats me, and I'm peaced out of Evolution. That was the best I've done against Randy, but winning one round would've been great. The worst part is that I ran out of tape, so Alex couldn't film my match.
Bang the Machine!!!
It was probably around 8 PM that I finished. I went 12 hours with just a bagel and ghetto Jamba Juice. I was hella hungry now. So we walked to Subway and got some sammiches. When we got back to UCLA, it looked like the tournament was done for the day. It was casual play now while the organizers were preparing for a showing of Bang the Machine, which was a documentary about the Street Fighter tourney scene. After the directors forced everyone to put camcorders up in the front desk, the movie began. All I can say is the film was way too good. It was funny and even dramatic. Great job on the coverage of B4 and U,S, vs. Japan.
Impulze's room
We leave UCLA around 11:30 and get a ride to a different hotel where Steven said we were gonna play at Impulze's room. Impulze and his roomies were also Pac-North players. We played MvC2 and talked about random tournament stuff. Despite all the fun, I was damn near sleeping. I had such a long day. I could barely keep my eyes open. I remember falling asleep on the couch for a minute. Time really flew by because Mr. Fix-It told us it was already 3 AM. So we decided it was time to leave since Matt and Alex had tourney play in the morning. Steven, of course, was hungry and wanted to walk to Subway. We told him it was way too late, so we went home instead. I took a shower and went to bed at around 4:00.
Saturday (8/10/02)
We woke up around 8:00 in order to get ready for more of Evolution. Yes, that was only 4 hours of sleep. We leave the room at about 8:45 and take another 30-minute walk to UCLA. Upon arriving, we scatter to whatever cabinet that was open so we could play before the actual tourney starts.
Alex's mathces
Alex got the Purple bracket, which to many, was dubbed as the "Bracket of Death." There were so many top players tossed into that bracket, it was insane. Just from my video, I saw RowTron, ShadyK, Sin, Golden Nizmor, Kuan, Soo, and probably a few others. If I had this bracket, I'd lose so fast.
I watched Alex's first two matches, and he did very well against his opponents. His next match was against a top play from Hawaii, Golden Nizmor. Yup, the same GN who got 5th last year. The neat part was Alex had to play GN on the big screen. GN completely murdered him in the 1st round. It wasn't even a contest. The next match was somewhat better. Alex killed GN's assist very early in the round. But GN was too good and beat Alex's entire team with Sentinel. In the losers' bracket, Alex had to play Alex "Sin" Salguero, an extremely good So Cal player. Alex did pretty well against Sin but still lost. Oh, and Sin ended getting 4th overall in MvC2.
Matt's matches
Our silly friend, Matt, plays Strider/Cable/Doom. I think it isn't a good team to play, but he insists he likes it. Also, everyone tells him to play Magneto, but he refuses. Oh well. I told he will not get any wins in the tourney. Surprisingly, he gets two wins before losing to Nestor and some other guy. I don't know how, but he did. Oh well. After Matt and Alex were done, we found Steven and went to Burger King with Eric Wang and a couple others to Burger King.
Hawaii's room
We got back from Burger King to see what was left of Saturday's brackets. They were almost done, so we pretty much left in 10 minutes. We walk back to our hotel, where we were planning on playing with the Hawaii and Salinas players. It was convenient because they were a few doors down from our room. Once again, I was seriously tired. While playing in team Hawaii's room, I could barely focus on what I was doing. Alex and Matt left after some time. Twenty minutes after, I went to go find them. They apparently were just in our room. I found out it was already 4:00 AM!! I decided to go to the swimming pool and sit in the lighted area under the palm trees. It was such a beatiful and peaceful place. I sat there for about half an hour, just thinking about anything. Aaaaah, so nice there. On top of that, the weather was awesome. It was neither cold nor hot…just slightly warm with no wind blowing. It was perfect. It was, dare I say it, way too good. I got back in inside and take a shower and go to bed around 5:00. Funny thing is that Steven was still in Hawaii's room playing MvC2 until around 5:30.
Sunday (8/11/02)
We wake up around 8:00. All I remember is Steven already awake, ready to go. He was pacing back and forth around the room while the rest of us were still sleeping. We finally do get up at around 8:45. Once again, we make another 30-minute walk to UCLA. I had my camcorder ready to film as much of U.S. vs. Japan 2 and the finals. I was worried that I'd run out of battery and/or film. Since things were a bit behind (due to some theft of equipment), I went downstairs for some Panda Express. Oh yea, it was yummy. Back upstairs, I found a stool and got ready for the show. People sitting, some with camcorders as well. Every match was going to be projected on the big screen. Everything gets started around 1:00 or so.
US vs Japan
First up were the U.S. vs. Japan in Third Strike and Alpha 3. To keep things short, most of the A3 matches were very close. Team USA did pretty well, until BAS played and owned everyone. Third Strike was one-sided. Japan once again slaughtered Team USA, 22-3. Highlights were Tokido's amazing Urien and Mester's kick-ass Yun. I've never seen 3S played like that. Kudos to everyone in the U.S. vs. Japan invitational. I taped a lot of good stuff.
Finals
To save film and charge my battery, I decided to not record the Super Turbo matches, except for the finals. There were lots of great matches during the finals. I can't recall any specific ones but they were good. Unfortunately, time was running out and UCLA wanted to kick all 500 of us. It was 10:30 on a Sunday night and there were still the MvC2 finals. Everything was fine until it was the actual final match between Justin Wong and RowTron. They had to determine the World MvC2 finals in ONE MATCH. Everyone knows that a simple error can cause the entire match. However, I do understand why it was done, but too bad it had to go that way. What's worse…is that I ran out of tape halfway through the last match between JWo and Row, so I missed the last 2 minutes of their match. Right after Evo ended, parents came and took us all home in the middle of the night. We stopped at a rest stop for about 45 minutes where we just chilled while dad got some sleep.
Post Evo
This was the best thing I did all summer. My parents just dropped us off In LA and that was it. We were on our own for four days. I got to see some of the best players in the world go at it. It was just a great trip overall. And I got 6 hours of footage to show for it!