MLG H3 Rosters Still Going Bananas

The MLG front office has put an embargo on several blogs from players involved in this past week’s fuster cluck of roster moves.  Ogre 1, Neighbor and TSquared are usually pretty good about writing blogs after events, and Ogre 1 has a blog submitted that’s waiting for aproval.

That being said, there are some more developments.  As some keen B-Net observers noticed a new tag possibly associated to Neighbor who’s been running MLG playlist games with members of Final Boss.  Major League Gaming officially announced the worst kept secret in the league this afternoon when Neighbor officially filed for free agency and then immediately was signed by Final Boss.

A less publicized move, but one that’s still raising eyebrows is Mackeo joining up with former rivals Triggers Down.  Earlier this season a tD Mackeo tag would have been a joke as Mackeo and TD had major beef.  But as they say, “politics makes strange bedfellows”.  

In a less dramatic, but still very important move, Str8’s coach XXX (AKA: Triple X) announced via the MLGpro message board that he is now coaching Instinct.  Trips was kind enough to give us his coaching resume in the post: 1 time MLG Halo Champion (2006), 1 time MLG Halo 2nd place (2007), 1 time MLG Shadowrun Champion (2007).  7 total tournament wins for 3 teams as a coach.  He’s beginning to get a reputation as a coach who can turn a top 4 team into a top team.

This finally solidifies the top 4 teams for Toronto:
Str8 Rippin – TSquared, Elamite Warrior, Legit & Snypedown
Triggers Down – SK, FearItSelf, Hysteria & Mackeo
Final Boss – Ogre 1, Ogre 2, Strong Side & Neighbor
Instinct – Roy, Lunchbox, Walshy & Soviet
(new players in bold)

This whole thing feels like baseball at the trade deadline where the top teams are trying to improve for the stretch run.  All these roster moves means that Toronto will be dripping with story, and really put the focus on Major League Gaming.  I haven’t ever heard this much MLG chatter this far out from a tournament before.

The problem is all the confusion over passports.  The MLG site is stating definitively that everyone needs a passport to cross into Canada, however, there seems to be some contradictory information floating around the message boards.

Meanwhile, while Major League Gaming is putting on their Young and the Restless mask, Evo 2k8 is ramping up.  This weekend the Evo Europe qualifiers take place at the Battle of Destiny.  Last weekend was Evo South America in Brazil.  This week Evo announced that they’ll have several new releases for exhibit as side games.  They include: Street Fighter 2HD, Street Fighter 4, BluBlaze and Tatsunoku vs Capcom.

I have a feeling 2008 and 2009 are going to be good years to be 2D fighting fans.

(edited @ 12:45: added information regarding XXX joining Instinct)

MLG Toronto

My new business partner, who calls himself the Messiah of the Backbreaker, called me up last night and asked if I was interested in making a little road trip to North Buffalo for a little Halo LAN.  So August 22-24 I’ll be in the Great White North with a couple hundred of my close friends watching the most hyped Halo tournament in MLG history.

I’m also considering changing my handle.  I’ve been using Paulie Danger as a go-by for years.  Before I was Danger, I used SARS, and my first (or the earliest handle I remember) is Digital Monk (AKA: DigiMo).  But I think when I get back on XBL I’ll be changing my handle to The Apostle (AKA: St. Paul).

I’ve even got my logo, courtesy of the St. Paul Saints baseball club:

And yes, I have two StP hats in the mail.  But it’s okay, I’m not a poser because I’m actually a fan of indy baseball, and the Saints are usually a good team.

Chaos in the MLG Halo 3 Ranks

I’ve always been the “anti-MLG guy”, but in all honesty, Sundance and Sepso have paved the way for guys like me that want to run competitive console based gaming tournaments.  (So thanks, Sundance.)

I checked MLGpro.com for the first time in a few days and was greeted on the front page with the news that team Final Boss has dropped Walshy.  Final Boss was the most dominant Halo:CE and Halo 2 team on the planet.*  When MLG was in it’s formative days, Walshy and the Ogre twins were the league’s collective face.  On the USA Network show, Final Boss got half the coverage.  So for about 20 minutes an episode you basically watched someone from Final Boss go bananas.  They swept the 2005 Pro Circuit, and were finally beaten deep in the 2006 season by Carbon only to rebound and win the the ‘07 season.

Final Boss releasing Walshy opened the flood gates for basically every top team in the league to do some roster jockeying.  As of 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, nineout of of the seventeen teams in the league had at least one open roster spot.  The top 4 teams are going nuts.

Str8 Rippin (1st place) lost Neighbor to Final Boss (4th place).  Rumors of Snipedown on 2nd place Triggers Down leaving for Str8 were all but confirmed by Snipedown on the MLGPro board, but have not been reflected in the official rosters.  This leaves Triggers Down who are fresh off a win in Orlando without a 4th.  The team that shouldn’t be overlooked in all of this is Instinct who worked the free agent wire like crazy who picked up the original Captain Clutch, AKA: Walshy and Soviet.

This marks the first time top tier MLG rosters have been juggled like this ever.  Final Boss has made 2 roster changes in four or five years, and until now the biggest roster news ever was Carbon dropping Ghandi last minute a few events ago.  Ghandi, by the way found himself onto 8th place team PSF who are (like a lot of other teams) looking for a 4th for Toronto.

One of the Ogre Twins’ girlfriends, who goes by TheAMY has posted several posts on the MLG board defending her boys, and rightfully so.  If the Phillies traded Chase Utley people would be upset, but they’d still be Phillies fans.  This, my friends, is the nature of sports.  We want esports to be recognized as professional competitions, this is what we’re in for.  These are teams, not friends (though being friends with your teammates helps).  That essay aside, this basically resets the season in time for Toronto giving teams one last chance to find their groove before the Dallas playoffs.

The moves aren’t done yet, there are some high profile F/A’s out there to be had.  And since MLG awards points to players more than teams, there are some points to be picked up for Dallas seeding.  And trust me, if you’re Nice Like Rice sitting in 16 spot, you’re looking to move up a couple spots.  There are three harsh teams at the top of the ladder.

But let’s look at what’s going on:
1st Place: Str8 Rippin – T2, Elamite Warrior, Legit, Snipedown(?)
The knock on Str8 comming in to the ‘08 season was that they under performed.  Many people gave credit to their run this year to Neighbor being sick.  If you lose the all-star and replace him with the mercenary (Snipe’s looking at his third team of the season), can you keep on over performing?

2nd Place: Triggers Down – SK, FearItSelf, Hysteria, ?
Some say Snipedown was the reason tD won Orlando.  Heading into Toronto the question is, can they pick up a 4th that can fill that void?

3rd Place: Instinct – ROY, Luncbox, Walshy, Soviet
Without question Instinct became the team to beat in Toronto.  They picked up the biggest free agent in MLG history, and added another gamebreaker in Soviet.  If this team can gel in time for TOR, then we could quite possibly see a performance on par with Str8 marching through San Diego undefeated.  But can a team with 2 new players mesh that quickly?  And after playing with the same three dudes for years, can Walshy adjust to three new players around him?  FB has their own call-outs that only FB truly understands.  Can he adjust to a new set of call-outs in time to make this work?

4th Place: Final Boss – Ogre1, Ogre2, StrongSide, Neighbor
The Ogres and StrongSide turned themselves into the Evil Empire by dropping Walshy.  Some would argue that they’ve been the Evil Empire for two or three years.  The nay-sayers are saying that adding Neighbor is a lateral move for FB, a team that’s under performed since H3 replaced H2 this season.  A fith place finish at Orlando left FB on the outside looking in.  Will Neighbor bring the right chemsitry to put MLG’s New York Yankees back on track?

Some more interesting things to keep in mind as MLG gets ready to head up to North Buffalo (AKA: Toronto).  Believe the Hype, the 9th place team at Orlando disbanded.  Instinct left a lot of points on the table by releasing Mackeo (2800) and Victory X (2700), FeaR (2075).  Those three guys alone could jump into the Top 8.  An enterpising coach of one of those two semi-pro teams (Nice Like Rice & Dirty Ghetto Kids) could immediately become players by picking up any combination of those three guys.

It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on the MLG boards over the next couple days.

I Can Has Lol?

Vote early, vote often.

Red Cross + K-Mart = More Math Symbols /

This post will include two rants.  The first will be my condemnation against the commercial men’s fashion industry.  The second will be more of a social commentary.  So please be forewarned that this post will go in multiple directions.  Keep your arms in the tram, and do not pet the fat people.

Why is it so god damned hard for me to find decent clothes in a 2XL?  Everything in my size seems to have palm trees on them.  I have pretty simple tastes.  I like a thick black leather belt, I like plain, comfortable blue jeans, and I like short sleeve, button down shirts, polos and plain t-shirts.  That’s all I’m looking for.  I don’t want to look like a freaking mafia hitman circa 1985.

And try to find a pair of jeans in a store for anything bigger than a 38″ waist.  Sorry, I likes me some Wendy’s every once in a while.  I’m a little bigger than the average man – and yes, I mean that in more ways than one.  But why are you making the fat guys bend over to reach for the 44/30’s and 50/32’s off the BOTTOM SHELF?  That’s just damn mean if you ask me. SRSLY.

And I’m not really that big.  I have a 44″ waist.  I’m not a waif like these emo kids that are oh so fucking popular anymore.  Real men have curves, bitches.

Not a good look, man.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system.  The entire K-Mart thing today was a little bit of an exercise in humility.  I had a voucher from the Red Cross for clothes that was only good at K-Mart.  So I took the voucher to the customer service desk hoping that I’d get…I don’t know, maybe a gift card to give to the cashier.  Instead the girl at the counter said, “Just give it to the cashier when you’re ringing up.”

Then there was the entirely emasculating “fat guys don’t get cool shirts” and “bend over to get your pants, fatty” experience when I was trying to find clothes.  But the real mind fuck came when I was ringing out.  A young girl was talking about going to prom with another cashier when I handed her the 2-part voucher with “Red Cross” on it.  She didn’t know how to ring it out, so the line behind me was starting to stack up while she got instructions.

It was tough to stand there without saying, “My apartment burned down.”  I couldn’t help but think that as a strong and healthy, able bodied thirty year old man that I should be able to stand up on my own two feet.  I shouldn’t need a hand out from a relief agency.

But that small indignity is over.  I survived, I am one step closer to putting the apartment fire completely behind me and I can now say that I have first hand experience with the excellent work the Red Cross of America does.

Once I find a new place to rest my head I will have overcome this whole thing.

How to Be Cool (On a K-Mart Budget)

You know, for the most part house fires turn into a “Sorry ’bout your luck” situation.  But because I lived in Chester and not any of the smaller communities, I did get some Red Cross assistance.  Part of the assistance was a clothing voucher good at K-Mart.

So today I have to head over to the big red ‘K’ and do some shopping.  Fortunately, I don’t have expensive tastes.  I need a couple pairs of shorts, a couple pairs of pants, and some t-shirts and polo shirts.  Since I have the fashion sense of a a Republican farmer, I’ve called my friend Maura for assistance.  She’s a roller derby girl, former pro-wrestler and nearly a professional karaoke singer.  She has a little more style than I do.  Hopefully between the two of us we can pull together something.  I’m not looking for clothes that will get me laid, I’m just hoping for clothes that won’t cock-block me.

Despite it’s flaws, I love baseball

I had to leave for work after the second inning of the All Star game yesterday.  But I was keeping tabs on it when I could thanks to sports radio.

Now here’s the thing.  I love baseball.  I really do.  This is inspite of the fact that in the last season and a half I’ve been to 1 game.  Wilmington Blue Rocks home opener last year.  It was cold as balls.  But summer doesn’t officially begin for me until I’ve been to a game.  I need a dog and a Coke on a warm spring afternoon to really feel like summer’s here.

I’ve been to hundreds of baseball games in two countries.  I’ve umpired, played, scorekept.  I’ve played probably a dozen different video game baseball titles.  And it doesn’t matter what I’ve got going on in my life.  I can always (and I mean always) sit back and enjoy a game.

Last year when my dad and I were starting to rebuild our relationship, the first thing we did together without my mom was take in a ball game out in Lancaster.  The last thing my mom, grandpop and I did as a family before he passed was go to a Blue Rocks game.  And most of my memories with my grandmother involve either Transformers or baseball cards.

So I think when I say this, it comes with a bit of authority on the topic.

Baseball is the great game.  It pulls us through all the emotions of the human experience, and can help us hide from those emotions as well.  It changes just enough to stay modern but is classic enough to not be a fad.  From Abner Doubleday to Derek Jeter, the game is essentially the same.  You hit a ball, you catch a ball, you throw a ball and you run a little.

I take a deep sense of solace in knowing that the game I left a few years ago will be the same game I pick up this year.  It will be the same game today as it will be in forty years when I’m hopefully teaching my grandkids the love of the game.

LOLCats At it Again.

A new LOLCats page is up for all you people who like to stay up on popular internet things.

My favorite has to be Wilford Brimley.

E3 on G4 (with other combinations of letters and numbers)

I am without question, or shame an Xbox fanboy.  I have been since Halo: CE, which consumed much of my college days.  I went through no less than four controllers for the OG system including a MadCatz Micro and an AirFlo II.  I love my 360, and last Thursday the first thing I did when I was back in my apartment was turn on my 360 to make sure the smoke didn’t RROD it.  Forunately for me, it fired up.  Still smells like the buisness end of a charcol pit and it hasn’t been out of it’s carrier since Thursday night.  But I know when I settle in somewhere and fire it up, it will glow it’s loving green at me again.

That all being said, I watched the replay of the Microsoft press conference from E3 on G4 still dreaming I had a T1 after watching D3 (that’s Mighty Ducks 3 for the uninitiated).

The two announcements that really had me itching were the updates to the dashboard and the resolution of the current state of BNet.  I came away feeling empty and sad, though.  First, the dashboard I think is going to hell.  The new avatar system: if you want an avatar, buy a Wii.  Otherwise, just fix the minor flaws with my current dashboard and go away.

And, well, the Bungie thing went to hell on them.  I am hoping we see a Halo based tac.shooter in the COD4/Tom Clancy vein.  But a new property that allows them to explore their more quirky side would not be a dissapointment, either.  Matter of fact, I almost wish Portal was a Bungie property.  The cake is a lie, indeed.

The Portal expansion is sort of exciting, and Rock Band 2 seems like it will be a huge hit, particularly with the no-swap forward compatibility of RB1 songs.  Now if we can just get Harmonix and Red Octane to sit down and put to bed this preipheral war, I’d be thrilled.  I hate that I’ll need 2 giant plastic drum sets to play Rock Band & GH4.  That’s full of fail.

Apartment Hunting: Day 2

I spent the back half of the weekend looking for apartments.  So far, no luck.  I want to be close to my firehouse.   But unfortunately, the most viable option seems to be a cut & run scenario that ends with me landing out in Lancaster county.

Sunday was spent driving around just seeing who had “For Rent” signs.  Today started at the local Red Cross chapter.  The Red Cross is amazing.  I got a $50 food voucher and a $130 clothing voucher.  That, unfortunately, was the highlight.  I don’t want to sound unappreciative, because the Red Cross came through huge.  But this apartment hunting thing blows.