[inFeZa]

Originally Posted by Dox

There's nine of us yo!

already picked up street talk

[ToR.Arnor]

if someone discovers my hidden easter egg ill buy them a cookie

[Thrasher]

You mean the munchies packet? I'll take that cookie thanks.

[ToR.Arnor]

Originally Posted by Thrasher

You mean the munchies packet? I'll take that cookie thanks.

[Thrasher]

You Tube

You Tube

[FS.Kezz]

Best of luck everyone!

[Sent1nel]

Including our Halo team, that makes how many Australian's actually competing? 7 on our end? 4 on NV? 1 LighT? :O

/execute new_australia

[ToR.Arnor]

Originally Posted by Sent1nel

Including our Halo team, that makes how many Australian's actually competing? 7 on our end? 4 on NV? 1 LighT? :O

/execute new_australia

Nv = 4 players + their manager competing so 5, Kiwi/KnighT is actually from New Zealand (which is pretty much Australia any time we want to conquer it...)

so all up 12 (not including Kiwi) @ MLG thats equal to the total we sent to WCG in 2011!

Quick Comments

	Tileä:	I actually go by Tilea now instead of Kiwi/KnighT v.v Hopefully this is my last namechange (this is my 4th this year) TT
	Dox:	four plus one is five

[Benji]

Originally Posted by ToR.Arnor

Nv = 3 players + their manager competing so 4, Kiwi/KnighT is actually from New Zealand (which is pretty much Australia any time we want to conquer it...)

so all up 11 (not including Kiwi) @ MLG thats one short of the total we sent to WCG in 2011!

deth, yyj, rossi, glade = 4, so +1 on your total

[moonbies]

good luck dudes, i hope you rep SEA to the fullest

[ToR.Arnor]

Added blurbs for Dox and Tilea

[SFTAElessar]

wow this is great gl hf guys i will be proud no matter what Respect times a googolplex

[Dox]

I've had about 5 hours of bad sleep on planes since I woke up at midday on Tuesday, so here's a very rough and exhausted recap of the journey so far.


Tuesday, 30th October
Stay up all night for the 3rd day in a row. Had been training my body to adjust to Dallas eating/sleeping hours so I wouldn't be jetlagged.

Wednesday, 31st October
In a taxi to the airport at 5:00AM. Caught up with Andy just before 6:00. I was travelling with 4 Frag Labs laptops, which put my suitcase WELL over the 15kg limit. They charge you like $9 for every kilogram over, so I was looking to face some hefty fees. Fortunately the chick allowed us to remove two of the laptops and carry them as hand luggage, which reduced the total fee to only $45 or something.

Andy & I chat about all the people we'll get to meet / see again in Dallas (players, casters, etc) and a heads up on some of the personalities we can expect to encounter. The guy sitting next to us seemed to pay very close attention to everything we said, and spent a lot of time sneaking glances at Andy. I think he was a fan.

We arrived in Sydney 30 minutes ahead of Yoon & Dan's expected arrivals (10:00AM). So we decided to park our asses at the luggage carousel until the guys arrive. Dan was delayed by 30 minutes, whilst Yoon was nowhere to be found. Turns out he'd arrived in Sydney and made quick detour into the city to collect something from someone. MOVING RIGHT ON.

Whilst sitting around at the carousel, some airport security sniffer dog trainers decided to use Andy as sniffer dog bait, by planting random fruits and stuff all over his luggage while the dog had to locate it & bark to draw attention. It was pretty funny because most of the people standing around didn't realise it was just a training exercise, so Andy looked like some sort of smuggler. I know right? How weird is that. We travel with Yoon and yet Andy is the one accused. Ha.

Andy, Dan & I rendezvous with Rossi at the international terminal, to find Brad at the front of the check-in queue. He wanders off without noticing us so I tweeted something along the lines of "emogun" to him and he comes back. He explains that he has to go outside and wait for the new iM shirts to be dropped off 'cos they had them sent away to add the new sponsor logo to it. We all check in and stop at the food court for a bit. Tim arrives, but goes immediately to the gate for boarding. Rossi & Andy eat Oportos, Dan just has a boost juice and I slay a whole freaking Caesar Salad 'cos I'm the Rabbit King and I **** up all your gardens.

Finally we get a call from Yoon - he's at the check-in counter and he's chasing flight details. He also hasn't completed his ESTA (Visa waiver) so we relay info to him so he can fill out the necessary paperwork. He joins up with us and we make our way to the gate for our departure. Yoon stops off to buy the worst bacon & egg burger of his life, whilst the rest of us hang out with the iM SC2 & Halo guys at the gate. I'd been awake for 26 hours at this stage and my eyes were bloodshot, so I refused to take off my sunglasses. Security kept getting really angry about that.

Many of us were at the point of delirious insanity due to tiredness by now, so it was just a giant fest of giggles. Until they paged us to let us know our flight had been delayed by like 40 minutes. Grrrr.

Finally it became time to board our epic 13 hour journey. I'd checked out the airline website in advance, and was happy/excited at the enormous buffet of in-flight entertainment options - including wi-fi, personal tv, usb port and power points. We had none of this. Just those crappy small tv's that hang down from the aisles and one big one up the front. This was like an 800 passenger plane, but it was only operating at like 30% capacity, so everyone was able to sit where they wanted and stretch out for the most part.

I finally slept 2 hours, then woke up to the sound of dinner being served. Chicken or Pasta? I went with the chicken, and it was a great choice. Really delicious roast chicken with veges and gravy. And an awesome chocolate pudding... thingo.

My phone had already run out of battery before we boarded the flight, so my entertainment consisted of the 3 hours of battery life my laptop provided. Rossi, Yoon & Dan were in similar boats. Andy had a laptop, an iPad, an iPhone and a PSP to keep him entertained for the whole trip. Spot the frequent global traveler!

After eating, I slept for another 2 hours. Rossi and I were seated near eachother so we kept eachother entertained with conversation for a good portion of the flight. By the time breakfast rolled around, I was the wide awake one, whilst everyone else snoozed. The breakfast options were scrambled egg + sausage or yoghurt + fruit. I know well enough that you never accept something as delicate as scrambled eggs on a plane. I took the fruit and it was amazing. Almost everyone else took the scrambled eggs and died soon after. No-one could finish their meals, haha.

After 2 days of salad, fruit and roast vegetables and a few decent naps, I was wide awake and roaring to go. For the first time all flight, I checked out our progress - 3 hours left. I lifted up the window shade a peek and got to see something really awesome. When we left Australia, we left the sun behind. And we travelled half way around the world to face it once more. So we got to experience this really surreal orange/purple express sunrise over the North Pacific as we zoomed towards the sun, and it raced ahead to meet us. By the time we arrived in LA, the sun was already up, and although it was only 10:30AM in LA, everyone back home had already moved on to November. We'd time travelled back to the 31st.

Thursday, 1st November
Okay, so that flight was shit. We were just happy to have it over and done with. The hardest part was behind us... right? We'd been warned back in Sydney that they weren't able to give us our boarding pass for the connecting flight because it was full, and that we'd have to sort it out when we arrived in LA. Didn't seem like a big deal. We went through customs for the second time in 24 hours, collected our luggage and wandered off to submit our luggage for our connecting flight to Dallas (via Houston). There seemed to be a giant clusterfuck here because people were going all over the place and no-one had their boarding passes. Fortunately for us, we had a cool guy who sounded just like Covetous Shen (D3) pull us into his office and handle everything. We went on our way, before advancing to the LAX security gates. Ugh what a nightmare. They throw away your water bottles. You have to take your shoes off. You have to take off your coat. You have to pose in front of a camera in a giant phone booth and wave your arms around. And then you have the joy of re-dressing yourself on the other side.

Let me tell you. Flying domestic in Australia will forever feel like a blessing after this experience. Everything is so messy/archaic/disorganised/unnecessarily clunky.

We reach the other side with 25 minutes before our connecting flight to Houston! Fortunately we didn't miss it despite our late departure from Sydney. We part ways with the iM fellows as they have a direct flight to Dallas (not via Houston) and we park our asses on the terminal floor near some powerpoints so we can charge our phones/laptops. And then Rossi overhears an announcement. Flight to Houston delayed by 3 hours. Not a huge problem, except for the fact that we could no longer catch our following flight from Houston to Dallas. We're instructed to go to gate 71B to arrange a solution.

We get there within 10 minutes. The queue is horrific. Like, about 200 people deep, with 3 people servicing the counter at a time. Each person takes between 15 and 30 minutes to process. So we take turns holding a spot in the queue for 3 hours whilst others take breaks, get food, run to the bathroom and guard the pillar of laptops we set up for charging behind a trash can. It was more glamorous than it sounds, trust me.

We finally get to the front and we've got like 5 minutes before our (delayed) flight to Houston is about to depart. Looks like we're not catching that one. The United Airlines chick hooks us up with direct flights to Dallas on American Airlines. We joked that they weren't capable of resolving the issue themselves, so they just palmed us off to a different carrier. Also her co-worker had the most ridiculous drawn-on eyebrows. They had to be seen (and no, never unseen) to be believed.

She assured us that they would retrieve our luggage from the Houston UA flight and transfer it over to the AA Dallas flight. But I checked 10 minutes before departure and our bags weren't on the manifest. Super. She also sent us to the wrong Dallas airport. There are two. Fort Worth and Love Fields. Love Fields is in the city, 5 minutes from the hotel/MLG venue. Fort Worth is like 40 minutes drive away. It's the equivalent of Avalon, for those of you in Melbourne. So now we were going to the wrong airport and we had to race back through security AGAIN and remove our smelly shoes AGAIN (so Dan sprayed mine with chocolate scented deodorant) before we could board our flight. We reach the gate and everyone is shattered. SO tired. SO hungry. SO delayed again. We had to wait an additional 30 minutes before we were finally in the air again.

3 hours later and half of the Amazing Spiderman movie complete, we're at Dallas Fort Worth. We walk down to the luggage carousel and wait for our bags.

Nothing.

We wait until every single person is gone.

Still nothing.

I talk to the guys at the bag service counter. This whole process took 2 hours because LOTS of rude Americans insisted that their missing/damaged luggage was more important than the 5 of us, and kept pushing in line. They were really rude. Made me very angry. They tell us that there is no way that UA would have gone back onto the plane and retrieved our bags for us. "People just don't do that." So our bags must have still been in Houston, because he said they'll end up wherever our bag tags said. There were no more flights to Dallas from Houston today, so we just had to give up and go back to our hotel without any clothes or supplies. My first priority tomorrow morning is calling the Houston airport and checking on the status of our bags. Hopefully we can have them flown into Dallas and delivered directly to the hotel.

In the meantime, we're all gonna have to do some clothes shopping when we wake up in the morning because we don't have anything to wear, haha.

We get in a shuttle bus and this awesome mega friendly African dude manages to cut our journey shorter by doing like 130/km all the way to the hotel. The whole time we were listening to a Christian Rock Radio station, so all the advertisements were mega surreal. There was one which was advertising lawyer services for "people who commit crimes but aren't bad people, they're just finding their way." And another company which offered to provide you with ID theft protection by taking all your bank details and life security. It was like the most obvious scam I've ever heard. Hilarious stuff. And lots of "I love jesus" songs on the radio. Good times were had.

After checking into our sweet ass hotel, (12:15AM local time, 4:30PM in Sydney) we decide to finally venture out and check out the Dallas city - hoping to find some food. Our hotel concierge points us to a bar down the road which does some great food. We walk in. Sit down. Grab a menu. And proceed to get kicked out because Dan & Rossi aren't 21 (legal drinking age in America) and Yoon left his passport at the hotel. Andy & I remain inside and tell the guy that all we want is food, not alcohol. I explain that we've just arrived from Australia after the most horrific journey, and he agrees to let us buy some food to take away. We order an assortment of cheeseburgers with fries - each cheeseburger a "wild card" of assorted condiments and cheeses. Unfortunately there was two Halloween parties going on at the same time and they were keeping the chef busy. We'd have to wait 40 minutes for our food. Andy & I sit at the bar while the rest of the guys swing by 7-11 for supplies (toothbrushes, breakfast, etc) and head back to the hotel.

After 15 minutes of sitting at the bar, the Texan bar owner insists on buying the two of us drinks for being so patient with the food. Andy asks for his best American beer whilst I decide to be boring and take a bourbon and coke. I'm not sure what bourbon he served me, but it wasn't any of the usuals. It was really nice, extra bitter. Loved it. Andy enjoyed his beer too. There were a girls dressed up for Halloween in the bar - including one of the bartenders - but besides that the streets were empty except for a few hobos. Our food was finally ready and we each tipped the Bartender $5 for his generosity and willingness to help. We get back to the hotel and enjoy the most delicious burgers & fries of all time. This stuff was lean, man. I know you're thinking of those tiny McDonalds cheeseburgers, but these things were the size of Hungry Jacks Double Whoppers, with heaps of toppings and delicious sauces. Everyone had something completely different, and everyone loved their food.

I'm grateful for how cheap food and water is here. Yoon really loves how cheap cigarettes are.

I left the guys to finish their meals as I headed back to my hotel room (we have 3 rooms, with a 2/2/1 arrangement) and provide some sleeping pills for Yoon.

Now it's 3:40AM and I've just finished writing this. I'm dead tired. In 1 hour I'm gonna Skype call my girlfriend for a bit, then get some much needed sleep.

Our journey so far has been over 14,000km and 40 hours. If I can secure our luggage in the morning, all will be right in the universe once more.

Quick Comments

	FvRphoneheha:	Rabbit King? KING IN THE... LAND DOwn under.... i'm not so good at doing references D:
	x5_dot:	holy shit
	Maynarde:	Yep, american airlines ssssuuuucckkk good food and cheap smokes though <3 hope it picks up
	nirvAnA:	such a good read, sounds epic already and its just the beginning
	TAEdgE:	awesome read dox haha
	NOM:	Hope you get he luggage back. :( my lucky scarf was n his luggage as a surprize
	FS.Kezz:	Brilliant writeup for just the journey to the event, best of luck with everything Nv!
	KAshadowz:	awesome writeup
	ArchEnemy:	Thank you so much for the update, awesome read! :D

[FvRphoneheha]

Sounds like it's been a rough ride Dox. Hang in there man, best of luck to you, Yoon, deth, Rossi and Glade, and the iM boys

[NOM]

Originally Posted by Dox

What a nice hoodie. I wonder who's it is.

[Dingobloo]

Hope you get your luggage sorted, sounds absolutely hectic.

[NvPinder]

Haha, I've actually never heard of anyone have a solid run through LAX to a connecting flight... Retarded shit!

Makes a good story for the start of the journey tho, defs jelly. Have fun guys, soak it all up and enjoy !

[ETL.Santi]

im just wondering what airline did you use to fly to LA?

also good luck in the tournament I hope you rest well and dont play bad because of how you feel.

[Thrasher]

Awesome post dude!

[cRSenSei]

Thanks for the read dox love hearing the stories (even though you went through lots of shit) keep 'em coming if you have the spare time!