[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.