This past weekend, I traveled to Los Angeles and the Santa Monica area to compete in the finals for the After Hours Gaming League!
Courtesy of IBM, I flew into Los Angeles on Thursday evening and my buddy Xav picked me up from the airport. It was already a crazy beginning to the trip when Southwest had e-mailed me at 6am that my flight at 5pm was delayed 2 hours already. After I was all "WTF" for a few hours, another e-mail came saying that the flight was back to it's original departure time, lol. Computer error possibly? When I got to Los Angeles, Xav and I picked up his wife Nicole (both are former teammates of mine from IBM) and we went to Chosun Galbee for dinner to meet up with one of my teammates, Brian a.k.a. thudbang, and his brother and sister-in-law. Oh, and I should add that Kalyn drove all the way from Tucson to join me on this trip! So all of us enjoyed an amazing dinner at the Korean BBQ restaurant, which I think was one of the best meals we had all weekend...and the price was really great for what you got! Thursday night was pretty chill since the rest of the teammates from IBM wouldn't be arriving until Friday. So Xav, Nicole, Kalyn and I grabbed a couple brews at Smith House and called it a night shortly after.
On Friday, Kalyn and I ventured out to Santa Monica Pier on our own, figuring the rest of the weekend we'd spend with the IBM team and doing AHGL stuff. It was really nice to go to the beach, just the two of us, although the water was way too cold to go in. We had lunch at Ocean Avenue Seafood, where Kalyn tried a raw oyster and almost puked LOL. I gave her mad props for trying one and then I happily consumed the rest. :)
The second game featured Zai (IBM) versus Razed (Epic). Zai opened with a Robotic Facility while Razed attempted quick Dark Templars, but Zai's build was very safe and he was able to take out the sneaky DTs and even the series 1-1.
The third game was between VDeezy (IBM) and JDub (Epic). JDub is arguably their best player and his superior macro abilities showed when he was able to outmacro and outplay VDeezy. Epic then went up 2-1. However, the first 3 games went exactly as we had envisioned.
The fourth game was a pivotal match between thudbang (IBM) and USKC (Epic). Although thudbang was arguably favored in this matchup, USKC held his own and had a key auxiliary attack in the game where he killed many of thudbang's drones. The losses began to pile up, USKC got ahead, and he helped his team secure a 3-1 lead.
On to game 5 between Kuma (IBM) and Spraypaint (Epic). It was now up to Kuma to extend the series. However, Spraypraint executed a very aggressive 4-gate with Warp Prism build while Kuma attempted DTs and just didn't have enough units to defend Spraypaint's drop. Epic won the series 4-1 and I was left on the sidelines, not able to play nor showcase my skills, but only to watch as our team had fallen so quickly to Epic's great play.
After the AHGL Finals, Day9 treated everyone to pizza and bowling in Santa Monica. For fun, IBM played Epic in a bowling matchup and stomped Epic to the tune of a 500-300 victory. ATrain rolled a 184 for good measure. It helped that Kalyn drove because she brought my bowling ball and gear with her in her car. :)
IBM Basketball Championship
This past week was a big one for me. After coming up short in bowling and the AHGL, I had one last chance to prove that I was still championship material. The IBM Basketball League finals were this past Wednesday. My team had lost in the winners bracket and was forced to win the losers bracket to have a chance at the final game(s). Because our tournament was double elimination, we had to beat the other team twice on championship night while they only had to beat us once. They had beaten us once during the season and again the playoffs, so it was time for me to draw up a new strategy. Their best player, Adam, is a very difficult player to guard. He can shoot the ball from deep behind the 3-point line and is tall and skilled enough to work his way inside. My new strategy was this: instead of having my star, Ryan, or our muscle, Cooper, guard Adam, I would defend Adam instead. In the previous two games, Cooper and Ryan could guard Adam, but it left us really weak in the paint since we are an undersized team compared to them. So on this night I guarded Adam and played some really hard-nosed defense. Adam was cold from outside and had trouble scoring inside when Ryan could help at the second level. On offense, my teammate Matt really helped with by shooting almost lights out and the our whole team just played great. We won the first game 54-30 and then the second 64-50 (we were even leading 41-21 at the half). And so I finally won a championship this year! It was my first year as a captain in the IBM Basketball League and I was really proud of my team, but mostly it was just a lot of fun to play with all my friends this season. Hopefully everyone can get back on the same team next year and we can make a run at a repeat title!
