[ToR.Arnor]

They've packed their bags and they're on their way!

Seven of SEAs Greatest Heros and One Mythical Creature venture across the Pacific Ocean to the home of the Cowboys (Zi is so excited right now!) Thats right the boys are on their way to Dallas, Texas to compete in MLG's Fall Championship!


Team Immunity
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/TeamImmunity

Tim "Mafia" He
Mafia is a man who needs no introduction, Runner Up at WCS Oceania, MLG Dallas will no doubt be the perfect forum for Mafia to show to world his ability to slay nerds, before taking on the world's best in WCS Globals later this month

Ray "Light" Zi
Of the 3 players Immunity is sending, Light is the Dark Horse, he has been noticeably absent in the tournament scene since finishing 4th in WCS Oceania, while quietly training on the Korean Server. Arguably the best non-zerg in the region, Zi is The Protoss hope, the "Light" in the darkness that is Zerg Dominance

Bradley "tgun" Seymour
Having missed out on the Championship Bracket by one set last time around (MLG Anaheim 2011) tgun goes to Dallas will be looking to impress in his first international appearance since joining Team Immunity!



Gamecom Nv

Daniel "deth" Haynes
The Dark Horse of the Nv Brood, spending most of his time studying for final exams, training on the Korea Server, and spending time with the infamous "NOM", he did however compete in the MLG Online Open Bracket where he made it to the Lower Bracket Round 5 before being defeated 2-1 by bbSiphonn


Andrew "mOOnGLaDe" Pender
aka The SEA King, aka The Prince of Persia Zerg aka Andy Bean, WCS Oceania Champion, WCS Australia Runner Up, WCG 2011 Top 16 and IEM World Championship V Top 4, having placed 5th/6th in the Invite-Only Qualifier (falling to the Canadian Superstar "Scarlett") and missing out on Group Play by one set, mOOnGLaDe has already proven he can compete with MLGs best, a Top 8 finish for him is more than achievable for a player of his caliabre

David "Rossi"Rossi
After a shock early exit in MLG's Online Qualifier, Rossi is eager to prove to the world why he is renown as one of the Top Terrans on the Server, Good luck my Calzone friend!

Yojun "YoonYJ" Yun
Rumoured to be his last major appearance prior to his retirement, the legendary YoonYJ is ready to go out in style!


Derek "Dox" Reball
Team Manager of GameCom Nv, recently hanging up his cape to focus on managing his team, Derek has no doubt spent some of the extra time preparing for MLG with some unorthoDox builds...


Light Esports

Tileä "Tilea" Flavall

Kiwi born and American raised "Tilea" aka "KnighT" returns for his fourth MLG appearance, this young pink haired wonder flew half way across the world to take 2nd at WCS New Zealand, of all the SEA participants he has the most experience, good luck Tileä!


UPDATE

Nv's Blog
Part 1- click here
Part 2- Click Here
Part 3- Click Here
Part 4- Click Here
Part 5- Click Here

IM's vlogs
Part 1 (Ray and Brad)

Part 2 (Ray and Tim)

Catch all the results here

LP Brackets
MLG Brackets
Breadfan's Progress report!
Also check out soundwave's MLG hype thread

[Another]

hoping for some big performances ! will be watching all the SEA games i can

[NOM]

Man I am so proud of these guys, I hope they enjoy themselves :3
btw deth never had exams ha,

Quick Comments

	nGenLight:	Cheeky
	Maynarde:	Also reknown = renown, and rumored = rumoured

[Tileä]

Good luck, Australia.

[ToR.Arnor]

Originally Posted by Tileä

Good luck, Australia.

Are you attending as well? ^_^

Quick Comments

PiG:

He's in France at EWSC!

[TidaL]

I wish PiG was going...

glgl and put us on the global map!
Go SEA

[TAriiChard]

Good luck my friends!!! GO F#%K SHIT UP!

[DeNile]

Go Go SEA put us back on the map

[nGenLight]

Love the Oxymoron. I am the DARK HORSE.

[sl0th]

all the best guys, looking forward to this
kewl thing is all the streams are free at SD quality
does anyone know if KnightLight will be attending?

[PiG]

Haha oops got my kiwis confused in that comment ^^ lol!

All I can say to you guys competing is...

You Tube

You Tube

You can do it!

[x5_dot]

Are open brackets normally streamed? What's the go with that?

Go Nv and iM!

Quick Comments

ROCCAT_Savior:

I think there are some seperate streams for them, but they generally focus on koreans. not 100% sure tho

[ToR.Arnor]

Originally Posted by dot89

Are open brackets normally streamed? What's the go with that?

Go Nv and iM!

I think if you pay for a event pass you get access to more stream channels etc (particularly for open bracket?)

[Tileä]

LighT (five teammates, our owner and myself) will be at MLG.

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	Nice!
	syfSoundwave:	Good luck!

[x5_dot]

Originally Posted by ToR.Arnor

I think if you pay for a event pass you get access to more stream channels etc (particularly for open bracket?)

Just checked. Its $35 for an event pass http://store.majorleaguegaming.com/p...l-championship

Not sure I can afford to spend that for a 3 day event which I won't be able to watch much of :S

[[TOG]Chrisau]

Looks like it's gonna be sweet - best of luck!

[Heady]

Originally Posted by dot89

Just checked. Its $35 for an event pass http://store.majorleaguegaming.com/p...l-championship

Not sure I can afford to spend that for a 3 day event which I won't be able to watch much of :S

That is for people who shows up in Dallas

Here is the stream pass link for $15
http://store.majorleaguegaming.com/p...onship-hd-pass

The last few MLGs had extra streams for premium viewers to watch alternate open bracket games and I see no reason they won't do so again (they have plenty of casters lined up).

If you can't watch all the matches then the pass gives you acess to vods which should make it worth it if you have particular matches you want to see but are afraid you may miss (eg: nv and im's games).

[[TA]LoSt]

Looks like it's time to organize a TA event pass so we can watch our boys in action!

I've pretty much said it to everyone anyway but GL guys!

[jayaiwhy]

I might be able to do a live report through twitter if I'm free during when they play some of their games

https://twitter.com/jayaiwhy

dat plug

[Dox]

Originally Posted by ToR.Arnor

Seven of SEA

There's nine of us yo!

[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!

[PiG]

That sucks! Hope all your baggage comes through! Rest up and smash it up this weekend!

[FaDeBadger]

Originally Posted by Acies

Here is the stream pass link for $15
http://store.majorleaguegaming.com/p...onship-hd-pass

Imo chuck this link in the OP too.

[NvRossi]

holy crapola i was so dead for that lobby photo!

Dox pretty much covered everything! We're at a different hotel to the IM boys but i just spoke to mafia and he mentioned as he walked out of the lobby he saw Flash and a bunch of Koreans heading in to Checkin...PRETTY SICK

Other then that everyone woke up fun at around 10AM and nobodys suffering from Jetlag at the Nv Crew.

we're all now getting our internet fixes on in our lappies in our room, feels gooooood

Quick Comments

Maynarde:

<3

[Dox]

Aight so, here we are for more.

Friday, 2nd November
Managed to stay up until 7:30AM after writing that horrendous blog. Man I was so spaced, I don't even remember writing half of it. I got out of bed at 10:00AM and called up the airline. The guy I was on the phone to was amazing. Really on the ball. Within 35 minutes, he'd located our luggage and arranged for it to be couriered directly to our hotel. It should be here in the next 3 hours.

After sorting that out, I went over to see if anyone else was awake in their rooms. Everyone was already up and preparing some breakfast in the form of mini-cereal containers from 7-11 the night prior. Unfortunately there were no spoons in our hotel rooms for some strange reason, so I called the concierge and they sent up like a lifetime of cutlery and some spare chairs so we can seat 2 people at each desk for practice.

Yoon was really sick when he woke up, so we're trying to look after him at the moment. He's gonna head to a sauna later on today and try to sweat it out.

After enjoying some sort of Apple Fruit Loops, we'd run out of milk, so I offered to venture out into the world and find some more. Dan came with me and each time we crossed the street, we were always looking in the wrong direction for traffic. This is gonna take some getting used to!

I have to say, Dallas is much more appealing and charming in the day time. It's a really beautiful (yet quiet) city, kinda reminiscent of Perth. At night time it's a bit dark and depressing with all the hobos representing the face of active society, but in the day it's really pleasant.

We decided to just pick a random direction and walk to do a bit of exploring, and found a lot of nice/interesting places. It also seems that Dallas is pretty much sponsored by Samsung. There are enormous Galaxy S3 ads everywhere, hehe.

Unlike Sydney, we managed to walk 3 blocks without finding a single 7-11, so we turned and went in the opposite direction. We knew there were a few 7-11's down here since we went that way the night before. We discovered the Dallas tram system which is really modern and awesome. Their trams are like 5 times bigger than Melbourne ones, and look like a sleek monorail.

We walked into the 7-11 to discover so much cheap stuff. Like a 2L bottle of wine for $11, etc, and the biggest Slurpee on the planet for $1.75. We picked up a 1L bottle of Water for $2.00, when you'd pay like $3.00 for a 500mL in Australia, haha. We bought a pack of cigarettes for Yoon - only $5.28. The Indian cashier was really excited to meet some Australians, and he was having heaps of fun teaching me what all the coins were whilst comparing them to the Australian ones. He was so friendly and polite, he asked us to come back and see him again before we leave!

That reminds me, our shuttle driver from the airport lastnight was also super friendly, he took my name and number and gave me his personal mobile - telling us, "Call me anytime you wanna go somewhere, I'll come and get you within 5 minutes." He was so nice. He was being really shy about asking for tips, saying like, "If you enjoyed the ride, you're welcome to tip! I tried to be fast as possible for you guys. " So we tipped him $20.00. The tipping culture of America is really fascinating, it's something I can appreciate.

Anyway, we're gonna head out and do some shopping because clothes and electronics are like 80% cheaper here (ie. $250 pair of jeans in Australia are like $40 here) and I want to pick up a camcorder to record lots of footage and capitalise on the limitless bandwidth we have here. Yoon is passed out on the bed, so we're gonna let him sleep. Hoping to catch up with the EG boys for dinner tonight!

When we get back, we're all gonna set up our gear and do some team practice sessions in the hotel. Hoping to catch up with the iM fellas for dinner later tonight as they're staying at a different hotel.

Oh and the weather here is really pleasant. If i had to guess, it's about 22 degrees with zero humidity. It's just perfect.

Here's some more random pictures from Dan's phone.

Andy sleeping on the airport terminal floor


Yoon sleeping whilst waiting for us to get through the LAX replacement flight queue


iM & Nv at the Sydney international airport waiting to board


Rossi & I talking on the plane to LA. Only 3 hours to go!


This is the "random floor" we found at LAX whilst charging our laptops and phones.


Making our way to our replacement flight. Stop looking at my ass!

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	Feel better Yoon :(
	jayaiwhy:	invite me to one of them eSports celeb dinners :D
	Another:	dat ass
	nirvAnA:	omg that slurpee
	TCPLemminks:	Must have been the pills
	NOM:	now i really want to go to the US now :P

[Another]

thanks dox, awesome to read up about it, hope you keep blogging, best of luck to everyone in nV and iM !!!

[Dox]

Just got back to the hotel after a bit of tourism, don't have time to write a blog, but YoonYJ just burst into the room Kramer style (he was missing when we got back to the room) and runs in holding his phone,

"GUYS LOOK AT THIS, I SAW A SQUIRREL OUTSIDE"

He rushes over and shoves his phone in our face, and we're watching a video he recorded of a squirrel sitting outside whilst yelling, "LOOK AT THAT MOTHERF*CKER!"

Such good value. Shall be back soon with more blog adventures from today.

EDIT: Apparently we're heading out to a private party with a bunch of MLG participants tonight! Pretty pumped.

Quick Comments

	Nv.GTR:	Oh, my God, this man is my exact double! That dog has a fluffy tail! Come here, fluff!
	Stallion:	i love yoon ahhahaha
	NOM:	I would do the same haha

[Dox]

We finished our shopping trip! Our luggage still hasn't reached the hotel. Worrying. We're heading to the party now, we'll be watching the MvP finals LIVE!

Oh and our luggage just arrived! BBL!

Quick Comments

NOM:

:D YAY Burito is safe!!!

[ROOT`iaguz]

The Indian cashier was really excited to meet some Australians, and he was having heaps of fun teaching me what all the coins were whilst comparing them to the Australian ones. He was so friendly and polite, he asked us to come back and see him again before we leave!

Apu?

10 charrr

[fur]

Sounds awesome guys. Now kick ass and take names tomorrow!

[ElectricAngel]

Aussie Aussie Aussie!.. and NZ hehe get out there and kick some world wide butt! Good luck all competing! Ill be watching the stream! and spamming the chat with awesomeness! #IBelieveInDox

Quick Comments

Dox:

<3

[CleighMoores]

Holy crap! That drink is HUUUUGE!
Good to hear you're all (mostly) faring well over the international trip, hoping to see the Aussies blaze some trails over the weekend

[Dox]

Aight, so - it's now 7:30AM on game day. It's 10:30PM back home! So I'll give you a recap of yesterday.

It was midday. Our luggage still hadn't arrived. We were all still wearing the same clothes we departed Sydney in. Ugh. So we decided to venture out and try to find somewhere to buy some clothes. We stumbled upon a man at the front of our hotel named "Joe", who offered to give us a ride to the end of the tram line. They call it a "trolley" for some reason. And it's free! Joe was very enthusiastic when telling us about the night life of Dallas, and all the hot spots where "all the hot women" hang out. And Thursday nights? Ladies night. Joe was crazy, man. I think Rossi has an assortment of amazing Joe quotes to share.

So we took the "trolley" to uptown, and the driver explained to us that this particular tram was restored 40 or so years ago, using parts from Melbourne trams!

This particular tram was called "The Green Dragon." I was okay with that.

Rossi decided to take over the tram while the driver was occupied! At the end of the line, the tram stopped on a big wooden platform. The driver stepped outside and pressed a button, which caused the wooden platform to rotate 180 degrees, pointing the tram in the opposite direction and allowing us to come back the way we came. The passenger seen below remarked, "I wish my car had one of those, then maybe my wife could parallel park!" We were all cracking up. The people here are so cool.

We said our farewells to the driver and went to a nearby place called "Village Burger Bar" - the food was amazing. We got like, 2 big batches of Fries, Sweet Potato Fries, Onion Rings, 4 burgers, two milkshakes, 2 cokes and a bourbon & coke for like $25.00 or something. Everything here is so damn cheap!

Dan has a reallllllllllly awesome photo of Rossi drinking that milkshake. I'll post it when he uploads it. NSFW, just sayin'.

So once we finished our meals, we somehow unanimously and silently agreed to walk back Downtown. It was like a 90 minute walk and we took a lot of cool photos and saw a lot of nice places along the way. We worked off our burgers tenfold!

So that ends our adventure to Uptown. But there is still a lot more which happened yesterday. Unfortunately I'll have to cut myself short as I need to get ready to go out and get some breakfast with the guys. More later!

BONUS ROUND: Tootsie's Cafe - ft. Zain

Quick Comments

	Dingobloo:	The pictures of food make me mad hungry :(
	Fairyking:	Everything is so cheap because the amount of synthetic crap put in it!

[Dox]

Okay so! We went back to the hotel to see if our luggage had arrived. Still nothing. It was time to go out and actually buy some clothes. Just as we were walking out the door, Joe mentioned he was scheduled to drive up to the shopping mall at 5:00PM, so we sat around and waited 10 minutes until it was time to leave. I was really starting to ******* stink, so I went to buy some deodorant before we left.

Joe told us more interesting stories on our way to the mall. One particularly interesting story is the highway we were on - they called it highway 666. And there were some sports stars who were racing down the highway a few years back and someone pulled up in the middle of both of them and shot them both in the head. Just 'cos. Apparently it happens a lot here, so you have to be careful not to make any hand signals out the window and stuff, in-case people interpret it wrong.

I don't have any photos of our shopping trip because my phone was dead, so I left it at the hotel to charge. Sufficed to say - it was 3 hours of the Nv team shopping and trying on clothes. I don't think your body is ready for that much sexy.

I was really excited to buy some awesome jeans at a significantly cheaper price than Australia. I bought two pairs of great jeans for $60 each at Abercrombie & Fitch. Really love that store. They would have been $200+ in Australia. Also bought a pair of really comfy shoes from Foot Locker, as I'd begun to hate the shoes i was wearing since I'd pretty much been in them for 4 days straight and they smelled vile. Again, a $60 pair of shoes which would have been at least $140 in AU. Finally we went to Diesel and most of us picked up some new alpha male manly shirts. For the first time in a few days, I felt clean. We made one last stop at Gamestop (essentially the USA head branch of EB Games) and checked out the price differences. It was pretty obscene. Most games capped out at $40 maximum. Even Assassin's Creed 3, which was released just a few days ago - I picked up for $35. And Assassin's Creed Revelations (I have some catching up to do) for $11. The girl at the counter asked me for ID because they're not allowed to sell MA games to people younger than 18. Pretty crazy.

After that, we made our way back out of the shopping mall in search of a "conveniently located" subway which Joe assured us was right across the street. Fast forward 90 minutes of walking, sweating and frustration. We'd checked everywhere and asked multiple people who all had differing ideas of where the train station was. No dice. We found the train tracks and looked as far as we could see in both directions. No train. **** that. By now we were so sore, tired and blah that we just didn't care any more. We caught a taxi. Joe assured us that a taxi would be really expensive, because in America, you pay a $2.50 hire fee for the cab, in addition to your fare. And the hire fee increases by $2.00 for each additional passenger. So for the 5 of us, the hire fee was $10.50, which was roughly about as much as our total fare. So that's why Joe insisted we catch the train. Turns out we got back to the hotel for about $2.00 more than it would have cost if we got the train.

Joe is now dead to us.

We arrived back to the hotel at around 7:30PM... still no bags. We're really devastated now. There's supposed to be a NOS MLG Launch party at a bar in 30 minutes and although we have new clothes, we still feel kinda clammy from all the walking. And then...

The phone rings. Our luggage has arrived. We sprint downstairs and I can't describe what happened next. Lets just say I have some bruising in my lower regions because humans and suitcases aren't especially known for their sexual compatibility. But I was so happy. I shaved, showered, brushed my teeth and put on some clean socks for the first time in days. It felt amazing. Everyone else did the same thing, and we got ready to hit up this party.

8:00PM. We arrive at the bar. We see a lot of nerdlingers. We see Hwangsin and a bunch of GoSu guys. We see the vVv crew. We see a weird, fat, neckbearded man in a top hat hiding away in a dark room with fighting games. We walk away carefully from that room, avoiding any sudden movements.

We take a table at the main bar area and wait with anticipation for the MvP finals stream to come on. Nothing but football. Lots of football. And now it's 8:30. Still nothing. People start leaving. Apparently they couldn't get the stream working. We fire up the bar's free wifi on our phones and manage to get the stream working fine. Confusing. We decided to leave and we boarded a courtesy bus back to the hotel with MaximusBlack and a bunch of other SC2 fans. Well, that sucked.

ToD started tweeting Andy, inviting us to hang out in his room and watch the stream. We head over to his hotel because the iM guys are there, and we figured we might as well have some dinner in their company. (They already ate dinner at Hooters - Ray's choice since he'd just arrived in Dallas)

As we walk towards the hotel, we can see the whole building has been illuminated to display the MLG logo. It looked freaking awesome. And every now and then, it would also show this - the number 10. No-one seems to know why...

We get to their hotel and we see a bustling bar full of eSports personalities and competitive players. As we're queuing up to have our ID's checked, I turn around and see who's standing in the line behind me. JP McDaniels, Apollo and Sundance Giovanni. I start nerding out pretty ******* hardcore and resist the urge to take out my phone and take creepy photos of them. It's cool though, Apollo doesn't even realise I stole a lock of his hair. Sucker.

Anyway, the bar had a 21+ restriction and Rossi/deth aren't old enough to get in. So I took one last glance inside where I could see Seltzer and DJWheat chatting away, and departed to find dinner somewhere more suitable for the guys. We say our farewells to the iM guys, before making our way to a great Italian place downtown, where Rossi bought an enormous, delicious looking steak. Myself, Dan & Andy shared an 18 inch pizza consisting of meatballs, jalapenos, capsicum, onion, chili flakes, and all sorts of other goodness. I've never tasted such good pizza in my life. It was amazing. And so filling. I could only eat 1 and a half slices and then I was done.

The three of them ordered cokes with their dinner (they're like $2.00 and they constantly refill your drinks without asking) whilst I asked for a Lemon, Lime & Bitters. The guy had no idea what I was talking about. They'd never heard of such a thing before. We described it to him and told him how to make it, and he came back with a pretty damn good Pink Lemonade, Lime & Bitters. It's gonna become a thing in America now. You just watch and see!

After stuffing our faces with more great, cheap food, we made our way back to the hotels. I sat down and wrote some instructions on how the guys could patch their SC2 clients, since the "torrent" nature of the updater wasn't supported by our hotels' Wifi, then I went back to my room to pass out. I really wanted to write another blog, but I was just too tired. I accidentally fell asleep when my girlfriend was waiting for me to call her, but I woke up a few hours later so we could catch up. Slept from 4:30AM until 7:30AM.

Now it's MLG day.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

american food looks amazing

[Dox]

So. Woke up at 7:30AM. Wrote my blog. Ordered some breakfast from room service. Had a "Southern Scramble" which was basically a Mexican style omelette with peppers and salsa sauce and Tortillas. It was amazing. Andy got an "American Breakfast" which is pretty much an English Breakfast with a few small changes. Rossi grabbed some Pancakes. Yoon & Dan went to Subway.

The guys practiced until 10:00AM, and then we made our way to the venue for 10:30AM check-in. It's REALLY hot today. It didn't bother me, but wearing hoodies outside wasn't an option for the others. Fortunately it's nice and cold inside the venue.

So when we approached the venue, we could see a huge line of players and spectators awaiting entry. I took a bunch of photos while we were in line, and Yoon's sickness has started taking a toll on him. He was acting totally crazy. Going around thrusting random strangers and stuff. It was hilarious. As we reached the front portion of the queue, I turned towards the back of the queue and saw DJWheat walking towards us. I just kinda gawked at him and watched in awe while he walked past. This happened again later, inside the venue.

We finally got inside, walked to one of three desks and grabbed our competitor passes. They had one admin managing each game and the whole process took around 1 minute for all 5 of us. Pretty cool. I was bounced around between a few desks until a very helpful girl pointed me in the right direction to obtain my Team Manager's pass at the VIP desk. Even after I get knocked out in the first round of the Open Bracket, I'll have unrestricted access to the players, which is nice.

Once we checked in, we were told the doors aren't opening until after 1:00PM, and the tournament won't start until 5:00. So we left, went back to our hotel and now the guys are practicing like mad. Everyone is loving the 0 ping. It seriously changes everything. Banshees and Infestors are now death machines. And the guys are loving their Frag Labs laptops. Especially Andy, who struggles with FPS loss on his home PC despite the specs being really good.

According to twitter, the iM guys are heading to the venue now, hoping to get in the doors as soon as they open at 1:00 and snag some PC's to practice on. (First come, first served.) We're comfortable with practicing in our hotels for now. We're also hoping to take a nap from like 2pm until 4pm or something, just so we can be a little bit rested before the matches begin. Considering the Open Bracket begins at 5:30PM, we anticipate a very, very late night ahead of us. I've heard some horror stories about open bracket players finishing at 4:00AM and coming back to play again at 10:00AM the next day. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

Anyway, I haven't played a single game since I got here, so I think it's time I sharpened my skills and made the most of our ping while I can. Gonna ladder for a bit. Shall blog again tonight after the Open Bracket has concluded. There will be broadcasted matches, so please keep an eye out for us and share the hell out of stream links, photos, etc. Make sure everyone you know is informed. And cheer for us.

Quick Comments

	Maynarde:	Got my HD pass MY BODY IS READY FOR AUS MLG STREAM ACTION
	nirvAnA:	my favourite blog series this year and it hasn't even begun

[Maynarde]

Where're the Nv players?? Let's see if you can spot them.

http://twitter.com/MLGLee/status/264.../photo/1/large

Quick Comments

	TCPLemminks:	They're in the middle, 3 red hoodies and Yoon
	Another:	the bright red hoodies make it too easy ^_^

[TCPLemminks]

I think you gave Yoon the wrong pills Dox....
Then again I heard he plays better when he's high.

FPS drops may be a graphics card problem, regardless of specs.

GL guys I look forward to hearing good news when i wake up^^

[Another]

looks like you guys are having an amazing time, jealous.

thanks for the blogs dox they are awesome. hope you can keep updating while the guys are playing ^_^

[Fairyking]

Good luck be rooting for you guys! Specifically Light and Glade :P

[mGGNemesis]

Loving this blog and all the efforts capturing the action and details

[Thrasher]

Yea seriously! Usually when I hear the word blog I get that "oh here we go" feeling but this is a good read. Definitely makes me want to watch the games now.

[x5_dot]

It's Tilea!


Image from here

Quick Comments

Tileä:

Oh god. I always look so bad in pictures T_T

[VoxMSI.Rogue]

Holy shit is idrA smiling?

Quick Comments

	syfSoundwave:	Might be Machine :P
	Another:	pretty sure its machine

[Dox]

We were supposed to be leave Dallas 15 minutes ago, our flight just got delayed.
As a result, we're gonna miss our connecting flight. So we're going through all the same bullshit we experienced on the way over. And our bags are already on the plane...

******* nightmare. Siiiiiiiiiiiigh.

Still got three more days worth of blog to finish writing, it's about half done.

[NOM]

:P another pic haha

Quick Comments

Tileä:

I should put a bag over my head to hide from cameras /o\ D:

[Baldie]

.10 char.