Svetlana (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kaleidoescape) wrote,@ 2004-09-03 01:16:00 |
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Penny Arcade Exposition 2004
[You might be a little bored reading this since I'm writing a very long description, more for myself than any of my, what like two ? readers.]
So, I went to the Penny Arcade Exposition 2004 or PAX04 for short this weekend. I was lucky enough to be one of the 20 drawn (out of like, 1500) to be in the Omegathon. A contest of which the prize is over 15,000 dollars worth of gaming stuff!
I feel like I have to note that the plane flight in itself was exciting for me. I've been on planes before of course, but I could remember nothing about them except the fact that it had happened. To see the streets of Los Angelos, followed by the beach, the ocean, the California mountains, a sea of fluffy clouds below and finally the snow-capped mountains of Oregon and Washington was a thrill all in itself. After finally arriving in the hotel, I found that I was much too excited and restless to sleep. I headed down to the pool instead. As a result, I only achieved five hours of sleep that night, the night before PAX.
I also have to note that as we were driving the clouds cleared up to show a beautiful blue sky; the weather held at nice and sunny, only partly cloudy for the next two days, and then just as we were leaving, the clouds showed up again; it was as if the clouds themselves parted for Tycho and Gabe and their Exposition. Oh yea, and it was realy weird when we were driving... the speed limit was 60, andpeople were actually gonig 60. As my brother said, in California we go as fast as the person in front of us, and that person is usually going 90. XD
The next morning we got into our rented car, and after getting lost at least twice because of the scary GPS we finally saw some stereotypical geeks walking down the street (recognizable as gamers from over 100 meters away by their attire and pale complexions) and ten minutes later found the parking. It was approximately 8 or 8:30 AM. We made our way to the crowd of people. Of course I know that girl-gamers are rare, but I was nevertheless dissapointed to see only 3 or 4 females in the crowd. It really is amazing how similar gamers look from afar. Almost everyone looked the same, except for the few cosplayers. Geeky gamer shirts, long hair, glasses, hissing at the morning sun, (though the loud construction right nearby seemed to bother no-one,) and most holding some type of electronic device. That, or trying to stay awake in those early morning hours (okay, maybe 8 isn't so early for you, but it sure is for me). BTW, I was wearing black and red plaid pants and the life baby tee from GameSkins, and my brother Stas was wearing the same shirt (well not a baby tee obviously) so we matched. That was when my brother (his much superior blog here: Mindhive) and I decided that we were really hungry and wandered off towards some random direction. Unable to find food for a few minutes we finally found a crowd of gamers holding Subway. "Just around the corner," they said, and to my surprise and enormous amusement all of them including my brother threw up their arms and cheered for the food. We got some Subway and headed back.
As Frodoelf said on the forums:
"Did anyone else notice that everyone you passed at Pax looked vaguely familiar? Like we all have a sort of 'geek' look to us and therefore recognize our own kind? It was strange and comforting at the same time."
When we got back around 9 o'clock, the line was taking up almost the entire block, and we were, of course, at the very end of it. However in just a few minutes an Enforcer came up and called any Omeganauts out of the line. So I got to cut ahead of everybody. I recieved my Omeganaut tag (I was #11) and goody bag and wandered around for a few minutes. After a few minutes I returned to the entry hall to find the rest of the Omeganauts already assembled in a little circle. It was a great surprise to find out that there were two other females in that group apart from me, and a relief as well.
Just a few minutes later we were called to the table-top area for Round 1: Diceland. There, the epitome of a geek (I'm serious, this guy had everything, the clothes, the thick glasses, the lisp even!) briefed us on the rules of Diceland. Luckily, the most experienced of us in this game had only played like four times or soemthing, so I (I'd never played) had a chance. The Geek led us through a demo game which I got to play. I was blue, I think. Lani Ming was burgundy and she won. The Geek had us play another demo game which I was not part of, and finally at 10 we were ready to begin the first found of the Omegathon. Yet we were missing one person, Robyn Sanderson. Now there were only 19 of us. I heard that she showed up late and was really upset, but that might have just been a rumor. 3 tables of 5 people were set up, and one table with 4 (lucky bastards), and the game began. We each drew a random team. Lani Ming was at my table, and she again got burgundy. I got green. She won again... it seems burgundy is a good colour. Somewhere in the middle of the game I got an all range shot and killed like three dice so I managed to stay in. At our table the person that had blue didnt' get a single kill. He was eliminated. I'm afraid I dont' remember who that was though. I heard that blue lost at every table, but I don't know if that's true. When game ended The Geek gave us each a Diceland game and wished us luck. Then a bald man in a PAX shirt (I later realized that he was Tycho) told us that Round 2: Halo was delayed until 4:30 and would be followed DIRECTLY by Round 3. The time was approximately 11.
I used the time to get to know some more of the Omeganauts, to practice Halo a little bit, to play Soul Calibur II, and to enter and play in the Soul Calibur II tournament. I am not good with the X-box controller, though, or really allt hat good at Soul Calibur II at all, though I really enjoy it, so I got killed by someone playing Necrid on my first round. They said they would ban Necrid, but they banned Spawn instead. I met Kyle and hung out with him until the Tournament, mostly in the console room. I hung out in the Expo room at some point too, and played a little bit of Fable. If you like Harvest Moon, you'll find Fable a wonderful adventure, but I found it rather boring. Well, I only started so I don't know, maybe it gets better. I played a bit of Myst IV: Revalation. It was alright I guess. The graphics and soundtrack were fantastic, but I don't know about the puzzles, since I didn't get that far before Kyle stepped in. They were also showing the new MMO coming out, Matrix Online. I picked up a glowy Nvidia thing and an Nvidia poster too, next to Doom 3. The coolest thing I picked up were a couple free Soul Calibur II manuals!
Finally it was time for the Tournament. Round 2: Halo, a 16 player deathmatch-- that is an ffa, a free for all, an every (wo)man for her/himself. There were a ton of people watching us, and I'm usually nervous when people watch me, but I wasn't thinking about the people at all at that point. After a few very anxious minutes, in which they set the game up, and in which we all took the time to build a nice collection of butterflies, the round Finalyl began. A 16 player Deathmatch. Only the top 12 would continue to Mario Kart. I grabbed a camouflage right at the beginning because I got lucky enough to spawn right in front of it, however as soon as it wore off I was shot down. I respawned again and again running around frantically, trying to grenade people and take a dvantage of assists. At almost the end of the round I was 13th. The big guy next to me informed me of this, as I was too busy getting shot down to see it. I found that camouflage again and grabbed it, quickly throwing my grenades every which way, and shooting like a trigger-happy cadet. I just barely managed to pull through to 12th when Sean reached the 50 frag cap. He was at 15 frags ahead of second place. The game ended and the crowd cheered. Our Entire TV made it, all four of us. I quickly made a pact with the big guy next to me. I told him I was no good at DDR, so if he (who was confident of his driving skills in Mario Kart) pulled me through Mario Kart he woulnd't have to worry about beating me in DDR.
We moved immediately on to Round 3: Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Unfortunately, I didnt' get to choose my partner. I was instead paired to the girl next to me. She told me she couldn't drive. Now I began to truly worry. When playing at home I couldn't even beat the Crown Cup on 100cc, and this would be on 150cc! After what seemed like forever, we all finally managed to connect properly, and ran a practice round. The map was the Cruise ship. I thanked the stars it wasn't Rainbow Road. The girl and I did not come in the top four. I begged her forgiveness if I didn't manage to make it in the actual game. A few minutes later the actual round. Beep, beep, beep, Go! I watched the screen as we mangaged to get the blue sparks! Five seconds later I realized... that wasnt' us! I was looking at the wrong screen! Why didn't the girl next to me tell me?! If I lost she lost too! Disheartend I regained my bearings and did my best. We got mostly lucky and didn't get a shell up our ass or a banana under our wheels, yet at the end, it looked like we were coming in 5th. Not good enough. We passed through a double question mark. Three mushrooms and a star! "Press it!" I cried. Vroom, vroom, vroom ! screamed the mushrooms, and then da da da da da went the star. Right at the very very end, we knocked into the 5th player, sending them flying, and literally 2 or 3 car lengths in front of them passed the finish line, just barely passing into 4th place!! The crowd screamed! They cheered, and it felt like they were cheering all for me, though most likely it was all for the other people. Our entire TV had again managed to pass and she high-fived each other like a bazillion times.
BTW, here's what Tycho posted about it!:
"My favorite moment - at least, before the final round, which is rich with favorite moments - was probably in Double Dash, where Tina Clifton and Svetlana Tchistiakova (chee-steeya-ko-va) snared one of the unlikely victories that virtually defines the game. Twelve players left, co-operative racing mode, the last two cars - four people - get dropped. They had been fighting for fourth place with another car for three entire laps, when they grabbed a star coming up the last stairs on Daisy Cruiser and went on to the next round. The place Goddamn exploded."
We left the console room, all of us giddy with excitement at making it past day one. Even the losers didn't seem all that dissapointed, though maybe they were, since some disappeared like right after. Round 4 would commence at 12 the next day.
I left the console room, and spent went to get food with a guy I met playing SCII named Kyle and a guy named James... I think. It's hard to remember when I ate, because I ate so many times. Normally I eat poorly because I'm broke and I have no time, but I had so much food over those two days. Anyway, we got some food, came back, and entered a Counter-Strike Tournament. I played some DDR while we waited, and realized that I fucking suck at it. I also spilled some Bawls (A very very highly caffeinated Guarana beverage, in fact it even has a warning right on the bottle about the amount of caffeine in it) in my goody bag. >.
Eventually I found my big brother again. He told me he was tired and wanted to go to the hotel and sleep. I told him I wanted to stay. I think it was around midnight when I finally entered the console room to play more SCII. At that point I found out that someone had actually brought the game for Gamecube, along with a Wavebird controller. Of course I had to play. Around 2 AM I started yawning, and I realized I had to make a choice. Stay, and play SCII or go and sleep. Well, I decided taht I'd come to PAX to have fun, not to win the Omegathon. Oh, I remember some guy had a kick ass like, ARCADE controller! It was so cool. Anyway, at this point I really started drinking Bawls because I remember they started giving them out for free. I remember killing like four guys in a row with Link. So I ignored the fact that I needed sleep and DDR practice, and continued playing SCII on the Gamecube until the guy that had brought it got tired and took it away, at which point I played it a little bit on the X-box.
Here's what some guy said about it:
[reffering to a pic on the Lunch Group Omega thread]"that chick in the yellow played soul calibur 2 all fucking morning on sunday. like 2 am till fucking 6 am. shes a machine."
I think around 4 or 5 I finally realized that I had become a zombie, and even SCII had lost its flavour (well especially on the X-box controller which I don't like), and I stumbled out of the console room. I found Kyle and James playing I think Dungeons & Dragons. I decided that it had been a bad idea to stay awake after all, and looked around for a place to sleep. I realized that I should have probably grabbed a cushioned bench like some people did. And then I realized... that they were sleeping on top of all the benches, what if I slept underneath one? It would be dark and quiet since no-one would disturb me under a goddamn bench. I quickly followed through with my plan. After about ten minutes of just laying there I realized that there was WAY too much caffeine in my system for me to sleep. It sucked. My muscles and my mind were zombified, but my heart was racing. At one point I remember some guy poking me all of a sudden and saying, "I like your pants." I answered with "Mmmthanks... good night." After a few minutes more of just laying there I decided it was useless and went to find the guys. They had dissappeared so I jsut went to the LAN room. They were all playing CS, and I joined them for a few minutes, but I was a total zombie at that point so there wasn't much I could do. I did kill like three guys in a row at one point, but apart from that my game totally sucked. I remember playing DDR a couple more times when it cleared up. Most of the time DDR had a really long line though. I think I was also taught to play Poker by James and Kyle. BTW Kyle, if you're reading this, then that was a really mean trick you pulled with my purse. And if you're reading this James, the sugar is still in there. o.o;;
Anyway, around ten or something I found James again and told him that there was no way I was going to stand a moment longer. I hadn't slept at that point for over 27 hours, and my body is just not used to that kind of strain since I get all the sleep I need during the summer. I curled up next to the wall on his like Jacket or soemthing, and just fell asleep. An hour later I awoke. It's strange but that hour gave me more energy than I had thoguht it would. I now felt as though I had slept half a night. I immediately got up and went to practice DDR. I practiced a game with Josh E., one of the Omeganauts. He was really cool. He had shirts for his groupies, lol. He was really nice though, and we agreed that we wanted one of us to win. Here's a pic and video of me practicing with him: Sveta and Josh DDRing
12 o'clock came around, at least I *think* it was 12. Round 4: Dance Dance Revolution. I got incredibly lucky yet again, and was paired off with Josh, who I had a chance with. I watched as the big guy who's name I dont' remember (Sorry) lost, the other girl still in (who I had driven through MK) won, and that arrogant Kevin guy RIPPED OFF HIS PANTS (he had shorts underneath, duh) to kick this quiet guy's ass. Finally it was our turn. I don't remember the exact score (BTW, the person witht he most perfects would go on to Doom), but I was a mere 5 perfects behind. Well, I hadn't slept or practiced DDR. All I had done was play SCII. But that's okay. I don't think I would have managed to deal with the pressure of Doom anyway. Especially since I've never played it w/o a mouse (I know, I suck >.<"). Oh yea, I think this is around the tiem I met the other Kyle.
I think this is when I went to lunch with team JoshEEE and some of the gamers I had met throughout the event. I missed the Q&A but that's okay. We ate at some terribly expensive place called Rock Bottom, but it was good, considering I hadnt' slept for like... I don't even know how long at that point. The food made me a bit stronger. We called ourselves the Lunch Group Omega cuz we had two Omeganauts (including myself) in the ranks. Here is our thread on the PA forum: Lunch Group Omega
I don't remember how long it was until Round 5: Doom. We all filed into the LAN room. The four people sat down, to play Doom. The same guyt hat reached the 50 frag limit when 2nd place had 35 in Halo and got first place in MK, was assured to play in the next round with his 15 frags in Doom, two above Josh E and Kevin who both had 13, and were battling it out for 2nd place. It dissapointed me that Tina (the girl) had 1 frag. I think even I could have done better. Just as Josh was about to get another kill... the game crashed! They decided to have a deathmatch Kevin vs Josh to ten kills. That was soon reduced to five, as the game seemed to be lasting forever, each player killing themselves with the rocket launcher, and then regaining those points by killing the other player. Neither passed zero kills for the first ten minutes. Kevin started rocket launcher camping. Josh called him a camping bitch or something, and decided to play the same game. Unfortunately Josh got impatient near the end, and stopped camping, got killed and finalyl lost.
I honestly can't remember what happened next. All I remember was that it was time for Round 6,the top secret round. No one knew what the game would be. The Omeganauts and their groupies were assured a spot in the first three rows of the theatre. All the Omeganauts had congregated in front of the theatre entrance, including the finalists, Sean and Kevin. After a while of waiting, they told us that they were experiencing "technical difficulties." And, they gave us a clue. This game could be played by ANYONE, however, it would require your innermost, basic gaming skillz to win.
After quite a while longer of waiting they finally let the Omeganauts and their groupies in. We found our seats and looked upon the stage. They had a huge screen set up, a couch, and a strange thing on a table under a cloth. Someone said Mousetrap because of the shape, lol. A few minutes later, the truth was revealed.
Pong! (This was actually the number one guess, with tetris coming in second, that I heard.) It was going to be a two out of three game, each round lasting to 15 points. Pong, on the original analog controller! You know, the one with like, a turny knob! Kevin (greeted with cries of "rip off your pants!") and Sean sat down to play Pong. What's more is that they put a mic to it... and the ping pong of the ball bouncing off the paddles and walls was in SURROUND SOUND! It was the most exciting game of ANYTHING let alone PONG that I've ever watched in my life! The ball would start bouncing faster and faster, and people would gasp at ever time a paddle hit it and finally when someone made a point there would be insane cheering! People were yelling out the funniest things like "This map sucks!" "Stop Camping!" and "Round 2, Fight!" (Team JoshEEE yelled that one out.) Everyone (including me of course!) stood up and cheered like crazy when Sean won. It was amazing. BTW, Sean was the same guy that hit the 50 frag limit in Halo when 2nd place had only 35, the same guy that came in first in MK:DD, and DDR, and the same guy with 15 kills in Doom when the 2nds had 13. He was amazing throughout the day. The only game he didnt' win was Diceland; and I mean come on, that game is jsut totally random.
Then, Tycho and Gabe came up on stage. Apparently some guy was supposed to do something else but Gabe forgot about it. They didn't have time to say anythign more because the crowd screamed for them to play Pong! So Tycho and Gabe sat down to play pong. Apparently Tycho called Gabe a little bitch or soemthing for forgetting whatever-it-was, but I didn't hear it. Their game wasn't as as exhilarating as when the finalists played, but it came close. I remember someone yelling out to Tycho when he lost a point soemthign like "You have more hair," and him promptly flipping off the audience and someone else yelling, "Do it for your unborn son!" also to Tycho. At one point Gabe tried to hit the ball off the side of his paddle, and quickly zipped down only to have the ball miss him, and someone yelled, "Good thing you ducked or that would've hit you!" Oh yea, Tycho won.
So they both stood up again, and now a man came up on stage with a mic. This was the most amazing part of the entire night. It was breathtaking. The man said, that a couple years ago, before PAX, he had met a wonderful girl. He asked her to come up on stage. "I want you on my team," he said. He bent to one knee, and gave her the ring. "Will you marry me?" could barely be heard over the audience which was now standing up and fuckign screaming! The woman could say nothing through her tears and only nodded vigorously. He stood up, they embraced and kissed, and she showed the ring to the cameras. It was über-geek-romantic. I said that to Tycho later on (in fact here's a pic of me saying it: über-geek-romantic) and he responded saying that it was a genre that was "born on this stage."
Afterwards, all the Omeganauts and their groupies and whoever else managed to tag along went to Dairy Queen. We actualyl ate them out of food. lol. After sitting there for half an hour, Sean and Kevin and their gang got up to go. I shook Sean's hand. Then Kevin is all like, "handshakes for everyone from me" so I say, "you're not as cool, you lost." Everyone there was like... "burn!" But he deserved it. He was so arrogant. This is the guy that ripped off his pants for DDR.
Afterwards we all headed back to the second Kyle's hotel. They had like, twenty people in a room, all hanging out. There was this yummy Irish Cream Liquor that tasted liek a mix of coffee and cream soda. They also had some other alcohol but it wasn't as good. They ordered Pizza and I got two slices. The best thing was that they had Lunch Money. That's a card game in which you are (very scary) little girls trying to beat each other up for lunch money. It is a wonderfully illustrated and truly frightening game.
Well, after that it was time to go back tot he hotel. At that point I hadn't slept for 40 hours (except for that hour in the middle), and I was completely zombified. Kyle offered to drive us to our car (only a few blocks away) but then his car died and we had to call a tow truck but that only took like ten minutes (the guy was very fast I was amazed, tow truck drivers here are like bastards). Well anyway, the night ended with me having a little argument with my brother, trying to explain to him that I COULD NOT move, and finally dropping like a stone into my bed. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. The next few days my throat was entirely hoarse from cheering so much.
We flew home the next day (never having seen the Space Needle but that's okay). I slept most of the way, and then came home and slept more. I just unpacked my goodies like today. This was the best birthday present ever (sorry Marisa, the party has to come in second).
I was shocked to learn that there were exactly 1337 (a number supernaturally appropriate!) pre-registrations for PAX, and that by the end there were around 3060 people there. Gabe and Tycho had been hoping for a mere 2000. I learned most of all, that gamers were geeks, but most were really cool and nice. There were a couple people that stole like, a PS2 and had tried to steal posters and controllers or something. The fuckign bastards. There was also a fight in the Console room but it was quickly broken up by the amazing enforcers. But most of them were really nice. For example, the first Kyle told me abotu how he had forgotten his memory card in the DDR machine and when he came back no one had stolen it, but instead had put it up on top of the machine. Next tiem I have to remember to bring my Magic: the Gathering Cards. And being female, I had a distinct advantage. Guys just gave me candy and fed me and let me cut in line... it was great. I didn't even have to be zexy. ^~ PAX04 was phenomenal. I hope I will make it to PAX05.
Finally, links:
Stas's PAX Blog Entry
Stas's Posted PAX Pics
[You might be a little bored reading this since I'm writing a very long description, more for myself than any of my, what like two ? readers.]
So, I went to the Penny Arcade Exposition 2004 or PAX04 for short this weekend. I was lucky enough to be one of the 20 drawn (out of like, 1500) to be in the Omegathon. A contest of which the prize is over 15,000 dollars worth of gaming stuff!
I feel like I have to note that the plane flight in itself was exciting for me. I've been on planes before of course, but I could remember nothing about them except the fact that it had happened. To see the streets of Los Angelos, followed by the beach, the ocean, the California mountains, a sea of fluffy clouds below and finally the snow-capped mountains of Oregon and Washington was a thrill all in itself. After finally arriving in the hotel, I found that I was much too excited and restless to sleep. I headed down to the pool instead. As a result, I only achieved five hours of sleep that night, the night before PAX.
I also have to note that as we were driving the clouds cleared up to show a beautiful blue sky; the weather held at nice and sunny, only partly cloudy for the next two days, and then just as we were leaving, the clouds showed up again; it was as if the clouds themselves parted for Tycho and Gabe and their Exposition. Oh yea, and it was realy weird when we were driving... the speed limit was 60, andpeople were actually gonig 60. As my brother said, in California we go as fast as the person in front of us, and that person is usually going 90. XD
The next morning we got into our rented car, and after getting lost at least twice because of the scary GPS we finally saw some stereotypical geeks walking down the street (recognizable as gamers from over 100 meters away by their attire and pale complexions) and ten minutes later found the parking. It was approximately 8 or 8:30 AM. We made our way to the crowd of people. Of course I know that girl-gamers are rare, but I was nevertheless dissapointed to see only 3 or 4 females in the crowd. It really is amazing how similar gamers look from afar. Almost everyone looked the same, except for the few cosplayers. Geeky gamer shirts, long hair, glasses, hissing at the morning sun, (though the loud construction right nearby seemed to bother no-one,) and most holding some type of electronic device. That, or trying to stay awake in those early morning hours (okay, maybe 8 isn't so early for you, but it sure is for me). BTW, I was wearing black and red plaid pants and the life baby tee from GameSkins, and my brother Stas was wearing the same shirt (well not a baby tee obviously) so we matched. That was when my brother (his much superior blog here: Mindhive) and I decided that we were really hungry and wandered off towards some random direction. Unable to find food for a few minutes we finally found a crowd of gamers holding Subway. "Just around the corner," they said, and to my surprise and enormous amusement all of them including my brother threw up their arms and cheered for the food. We got some Subway and headed back.
As Frodoelf said on the forums:
"Did anyone else notice that everyone you passed at Pax looked vaguely familiar? Like we all have a sort of 'geek' look to us and therefore recognize our own kind? It was strange and comforting at the same time."
When we got back around 9 o'clock, the line was taking up almost the entire block, and we were, of course, at the very end of it. However in just a few minutes an Enforcer came up and called any Omeganauts out of the line. So I got to cut ahead of everybody. I recieved my Omeganaut tag (I was #11) and goody bag and wandered around for a few minutes. After a few minutes I returned to the entry hall to find the rest of the Omeganauts already assembled in a little circle. It was a great surprise to find out that there were two other females in that group apart from me, and a relief as well.
Just a few minutes later we were called to the table-top area for Round 1: Diceland. There, the epitome of a geek (I'm serious, this guy had everything, the clothes, the thick glasses, the lisp even!) briefed us on the rules of Diceland. Luckily, the most experienced of us in this game had only played like four times or soemthing, so I (I'd never played) had a chance. The Geek led us through a demo game which I got to play. I was blue, I think. Lani Ming was burgundy and she won. The Geek had us play another demo game which I was not part of, and finally at 10 we were ready to begin the first found of the Omegathon. Yet we were missing one person, Robyn Sanderson. Now there were only 19 of us. I heard that she showed up late and was really upset, but that might have just been a rumor. 3 tables of 5 people were set up, and one table with 4 (lucky bastards), and the game began. We each drew a random team. Lani Ming was at my table, and she again got burgundy. I got green. She won again... it seems burgundy is a good colour. Somewhere in the middle of the game I got an all range shot and killed like three dice so I managed to stay in. At our table the person that had blue didnt' get a single kill. He was eliminated. I'm afraid I dont' remember who that was though. I heard that blue lost at every table, but I don't know if that's true. When game ended The Geek gave us each a Diceland game and wished us luck. Then a bald man in a PAX shirt (I later realized that he was Tycho) told us that Round 2: Halo was delayed until 4:30 and would be followed DIRECTLY by Round 3. The time was approximately 11.
I used the time to get to know some more of the Omeganauts, to practice Halo a little bit, to play Soul Calibur II, and to enter and play in the Soul Calibur II tournament. I am not good with the X-box controller, though, or really allt hat good at Soul Calibur II at all, though I really enjoy it, so I got killed by someone playing Necrid on my first round. They said they would ban Necrid, but they banned Spawn instead. I met Kyle and hung out with him until the Tournament, mostly in the console room. I hung out in the Expo room at some point too, and played a little bit of Fable. If you like Harvest Moon, you'll find Fable a wonderful adventure, but I found it rather boring. Well, I only started so I don't know, maybe it gets better. I played a bit of Myst IV: Revalation. It was alright I guess. The graphics and soundtrack were fantastic, but I don't know about the puzzles, since I didn't get that far before Kyle stepped in. They were also showing the new MMO coming out, Matrix Online. I picked up a glowy Nvidia thing and an Nvidia poster too, next to Doom 3. The coolest thing I picked up were a couple free Soul Calibur II manuals!
Finally it was time for the Tournament. Round 2: Halo, a 16 player deathmatch-- that is an ffa, a free for all, an every (wo)man for her/himself. There were a ton of people watching us, and I'm usually nervous when people watch me, but I wasn't thinking about the people at all at that point. After a few very anxious minutes, in which they set the game up, and in which we all took the time to build a nice collection of butterflies, the round Finalyl began. A 16 player Deathmatch. Only the top 12 would continue to Mario Kart. I grabbed a camouflage right at the beginning because I got lucky enough to spawn right in front of it, however as soon as it wore off I was shot down. I respawned again and again running around frantically, trying to grenade people and take a dvantage of assists. At almost the end of the round I was 13th. The big guy next to me informed me of this, as I was too busy getting shot down to see it. I found that camouflage again and grabbed it, quickly throwing my grenades every which way, and shooting like a trigger-happy cadet. I just barely managed to pull through to 12th when Sean reached the 50 frag cap. He was at 15 frags ahead of second place. The game ended and the crowd cheered. Our Entire TV made it, all four of us. I quickly made a pact with the big guy next to me. I told him I was no good at DDR, so if he (who was confident of his driving skills in Mario Kart) pulled me through Mario Kart he woulnd't have to worry about beating me in DDR.
We moved immediately on to Round 3: Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Unfortunately, I didnt' get to choose my partner. I was instead paired to the girl next to me. She told me she couldn't drive. Now I began to truly worry. When playing at home I couldn't even beat the Crown Cup on 100cc, and this would be on 150cc! After what seemed like forever, we all finally managed to connect properly, and ran a practice round. The map was the Cruise ship. I thanked the stars it wasn't Rainbow Road. The girl and I did not come in the top four. I begged her forgiveness if I didn't manage to make it in the actual game. A few minutes later the actual round. Beep, beep, beep, Go! I watched the screen as we mangaged to get the blue sparks! Five seconds later I realized... that wasnt' us! I was looking at the wrong screen! Why didn't the girl next to me tell me?! If I lost she lost too! Disheartend I regained my bearings and did my best. We got mostly lucky and didn't get a shell up our ass or a banana under our wheels, yet at the end, it looked like we were coming in 5th. Not good enough. We passed through a double question mark. Three mushrooms and a star! "Press it!" I cried. Vroom, vroom, vroom ! screamed the mushrooms, and then da da da da da went the star. Right at the very very end, we knocked into the 5th player, sending them flying, and literally 2 or 3 car lengths in front of them passed the finish line, just barely passing into 4th place!! The crowd screamed! They cheered, and it felt like they were cheering all for me, though most likely it was all for the other people. Our entire TV had again managed to pass and she high-fived each other like a bazillion times.
BTW, here's what Tycho posted about it!:
"My favorite moment - at least, before the final round, which is rich with favorite moments - was probably in Double Dash, where Tina Clifton and Svetlana Tchistiakova (chee-steeya-ko-va) snared one of the unlikely victories that virtually defines the game. Twelve players left, co-operative racing mode, the last two cars - four people - get dropped. They had been fighting for fourth place with another car for three entire laps, when they grabbed a star coming up the last stairs on Daisy Cruiser and went on to the next round. The place Goddamn exploded."
We left the console room, all of us giddy with excitement at making it past day one. Even the losers didn't seem all that dissapointed, though maybe they were, since some disappeared like right after. Round 4 would commence at 12 the next day.
I left the console room, and spent went to get food with a guy I met playing SCII named Kyle and a guy named James... I think. It's hard to remember when I ate, because I ate so many times. Normally I eat poorly because I'm broke and I have no time, but I had so much food over those two days. Anyway, we got some food, came back, and entered a Counter-Strike Tournament. I played some DDR while we waited, and realized that I fucking suck at it. I also spilled some Bawls (A very very highly caffeinated Guarana beverage, in fact it even has a warning right on the bottle about the amount of caffeine in it) in my goody bag. >.
Eventually I found my big brother again. He told me he was tired and wanted to go to the hotel and sleep. I told him I wanted to stay. I think it was around midnight when I finally entered the console room to play more SCII. At that point I found out that someone had actually brought the game for Gamecube, along with a Wavebird controller. Of course I had to play. Around 2 AM I started yawning, and I realized I had to make a choice. Stay, and play SCII or go and sleep. Well, I decided taht I'd come to PAX to have fun, not to win the Omegathon. Oh, I remember some guy had a kick ass like, ARCADE controller! It was so cool. Anyway, at this point I really started drinking Bawls because I remember they started giving them out for free. I remember killing like four guys in a row with Link. So I ignored the fact that I needed sleep and DDR practice, and continued playing SCII on the Gamecube until the guy that had brought it got tired and took it away, at which point I played it a little bit on the X-box.
Here's what some guy said about it:
[reffering to a pic on the Lunch Group Omega thread]"that chick in the yellow played soul calibur 2 all fucking morning on sunday. like 2 am till fucking 6 am. shes a machine."
I think around 4 or 5 I finally realized that I had become a zombie, and even SCII had lost its flavour (well especially on the X-box controller which I don't like), and I stumbled out of the console room. I found Kyle and James playing I think Dungeons & Dragons. I decided that it had been a bad idea to stay awake after all, and looked around for a place to sleep. I realized that I should have probably grabbed a cushioned bench like some people did. And then I realized... that they were sleeping on top of all the benches, what if I slept underneath one? It would be dark and quiet since no-one would disturb me under a goddamn bench. I quickly followed through with my plan. After about ten minutes of just laying there I realized that there was WAY too much caffeine in my system for me to sleep. It sucked. My muscles and my mind were zombified, but my heart was racing. At one point I remember some guy poking me all of a sudden and saying, "I like your pants." I answered with "Mmmthanks... good night." After a few minutes more of just laying there I decided it was useless and went to find the guys. They had dissappeared so I jsut went to the LAN room. They were all playing CS, and I joined them for a few minutes, but I was a total zombie at that point so there wasn't much I could do. I did kill like three guys in a row at one point, but apart from that my game totally sucked. I remember playing DDR a couple more times when it cleared up. Most of the time DDR had a really long line though. I think I was also taught to play Poker by James and Kyle. BTW Kyle, if you're reading this, then that was a really mean trick you pulled with my purse. And if you're reading this James, the sugar is still in there. o.o;;
Anyway, around ten or something I found James again and told him that there was no way I was going to stand a moment longer. I hadn't slept at that point for over 27 hours, and my body is just not used to that kind of strain since I get all the sleep I need during the summer. I curled up next to the wall on his like Jacket or soemthing, and just fell asleep. An hour later I awoke. It's strange but that hour gave me more energy than I had thoguht it would. I now felt as though I had slept half a night. I immediately got up and went to practice DDR. I practiced a game with Josh E., one of the Omeganauts. He was really cool. He had shirts for his groupies, lol. He was really nice though, and we agreed that we wanted one of us to win. Here's a pic and video of me practicing with him: Sveta and Josh DDRing
12 o'clock came around, at least I *think* it was 12. Round 4: Dance Dance Revolution. I got incredibly lucky yet again, and was paired off with Josh, who I had a chance with. I watched as the big guy who's name I dont' remember (Sorry) lost, the other girl still in (who I had driven through MK) won, and that arrogant Kevin guy RIPPED OFF HIS PANTS (he had shorts underneath, duh) to kick this quiet guy's ass. Finally it was our turn. I don't remember the exact score (BTW, the person witht he most perfects would go on to Doom), but I was a mere 5 perfects behind. Well, I hadn't slept or practiced DDR. All I had done was play SCII. But that's okay. I don't think I would have managed to deal with the pressure of Doom anyway. Especially since I've never played it w/o a mouse (I know, I suck >.<"). Oh yea, I think this is around the tiem I met the other Kyle.
I think this is when I went to lunch with team JoshEEE and some of the gamers I had met throughout the event. I missed the Q&A but that's okay. We ate at some terribly expensive place called Rock Bottom, but it was good, considering I hadnt' slept for like... I don't even know how long at that point. The food made me a bit stronger. We called ourselves the Lunch Group Omega cuz we had two Omeganauts (including myself) in the ranks. Here is our thread on the PA forum: Lunch Group Omega
I don't remember how long it was until Round 5: Doom. We all filed into the LAN room. The four people sat down, to play Doom. The same guyt hat reached the 50 frag limit when 2nd place had 35 in Halo and got first place in MK, was assured to play in the next round with his 15 frags in Doom, two above Josh E and Kevin who both had 13, and were battling it out for 2nd place. It dissapointed me that Tina (the girl) had 1 frag. I think even I could have done better. Just as Josh was about to get another kill... the game crashed! They decided to have a deathmatch Kevin vs Josh to ten kills. That was soon reduced to five, as the game seemed to be lasting forever, each player killing themselves with the rocket launcher, and then regaining those points by killing the other player. Neither passed zero kills for the first ten minutes. Kevin started rocket launcher camping. Josh called him a camping bitch or something, and decided to play the same game. Unfortunately Josh got impatient near the end, and stopped camping, got killed and finalyl lost.
I honestly can't remember what happened next. All I remember was that it was time for Round 6,the top secret round. No one knew what the game would be. The Omeganauts and their groupies were assured a spot in the first three rows of the theatre. All the Omeganauts had congregated in front of the theatre entrance, including the finalists, Sean and Kevin. After a while of waiting, they told us that they were experiencing "technical difficulties." And, they gave us a clue. This game could be played by ANYONE, however, it would require your innermost, basic gaming skillz to win.
After quite a while longer of waiting they finally let the Omeganauts and their groupies in. We found our seats and looked upon the stage. They had a huge screen set up, a couch, and a strange thing on a table under a cloth. Someone said Mousetrap because of the shape, lol. A few minutes later, the truth was revealed.
Pong! (This was actually the number one guess, with tetris coming in second, that I heard.) It was going to be a two out of three game, each round lasting to 15 points. Pong, on the original analog controller! You know, the one with like, a turny knob! Kevin (greeted with cries of "rip off your pants!") and Sean sat down to play Pong. What's more is that they put a mic to it... and the ping pong of the ball bouncing off the paddles and walls was in SURROUND SOUND! It was the most exciting game of ANYTHING let alone PONG that I've ever watched in my life! The ball would start bouncing faster and faster, and people would gasp at ever time a paddle hit it and finally when someone made a point there would be insane cheering! People were yelling out the funniest things like "This map sucks!" "Stop Camping!" and "Round 2, Fight!" (Team JoshEEE yelled that one out.) Everyone (including me of course!) stood up and cheered like crazy when Sean won. It was amazing. BTW, Sean was the same guy that hit the 50 frag limit in Halo when 2nd place had only 35, the same guy that came in first in MK:DD, and DDR, and the same guy with 15 kills in Doom when the 2nds had 13. He was amazing throughout the day. The only game he didnt' win was Diceland; and I mean come on, that game is jsut totally random.
Then, Tycho and Gabe came up on stage. Apparently some guy was supposed to do something else but Gabe forgot about it. They didn't have time to say anythign more because the crowd screamed for them to play Pong! So Tycho and Gabe sat down to play pong. Apparently Tycho called Gabe a little bitch or soemthing for forgetting whatever-it-was, but I didn't hear it. Their game wasn't as as exhilarating as when the finalists played, but it came close. I remember someone yelling out to Tycho when he lost a point soemthign like "You have more hair," and him promptly flipping off the audience and someone else yelling, "Do it for your unborn son!" also to Tycho. At one point Gabe tried to hit the ball off the side of his paddle, and quickly zipped down only to have the ball miss him, and someone yelled, "Good thing you ducked or that would've hit you!" Oh yea, Tycho won.
So they both stood up again, and now a man came up on stage with a mic. This was the most amazing part of the entire night. It was breathtaking. The man said, that a couple years ago, before PAX, he had met a wonderful girl. He asked her to come up on stage. "I want you on my team," he said. He bent to one knee, and gave her the ring. "Will you marry me?" could barely be heard over the audience which was now standing up and fuckign screaming! The woman could say nothing through her tears and only nodded vigorously. He stood up, they embraced and kissed, and she showed the ring to the cameras. It was über-geek-romantic. I said that to Tycho later on (in fact here's a pic of me saying it: über-geek-romantic) and he responded saying that it was a genre that was "born on this stage."
Afterwards, all the Omeganauts and their groupies and whoever else managed to tag along went to Dairy Queen. We actualyl ate them out of food. lol. After sitting there for half an hour, Sean and Kevin and their gang got up to go. I shook Sean's hand. Then Kevin is all like, "handshakes for everyone from me" so I say, "you're not as cool, you lost." Everyone there was like... "burn!" But he deserved it. He was so arrogant. This is the guy that ripped off his pants for DDR.
Afterwards we all headed back to the second Kyle's hotel. They had like, twenty people in a room, all hanging out. There was this yummy Irish Cream Liquor that tasted liek a mix of coffee and cream soda. They also had some other alcohol but it wasn't as good. They ordered Pizza and I got two slices. The best thing was that they had Lunch Money. That's a card game in which you are (very scary) little girls trying to beat each other up for lunch money. It is a wonderfully illustrated and truly frightening game.
Well, after that it was time to go back tot he hotel. At that point I hadn't slept for 40 hours (except for that hour in the middle), and I was completely zombified. Kyle offered to drive us to our car (only a few blocks away) but then his car died and we had to call a tow truck but that only took like ten minutes (the guy was very fast I was amazed, tow truck drivers here are like bastards). Well anyway, the night ended with me having a little argument with my brother, trying to explain to him that I COULD NOT move, and finally dropping like a stone into my bed. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. The next few days my throat was entirely hoarse from cheering so much.
We flew home the next day (never having seen the Space Needle but that's okay). I slept most of the way, and then came home and slept more. I just unpacked my goodies like today. This was the best birthday present ever (sorry Marisa, the party has to come in second).
I was shocked to learn that there were exactly 1337 (a number supernaturally appropriate!) pre-registrations for PAX, and that by the end there were around 3060 people there. Gabe and Tycho had been hoping for a mere 2000. I learned most of all, that gamers were geeks, but most were really cool and nice. There were a couple people that stole like, a PS2 and had tried to steal posters and controllers or something. The fuckign bastards. There was also a fight in the Console room but it was quickly broken up by the amazing enforcers. But most of them were really nice. For example, the first Kyle told me abotu how he had forgotten his memory card in the DDR machine and when he came back no one had stolen it, but instead had put it up on top of the machine. Next tiem I have to remember to bring my Magic: the Gathering Cards. And being female, I had a distinct advantage. Guys just gave me candy and fed me and let me cut in line... it was great. I didn't even have to be zexy. ^~ PAX04 was phenomenal. I hope I will make it to PAX05.
Finally, links:
Stas's PAX Blog Entry
Stas's Posted PAX Pics
