Meeting new and old friends

I came to Paris only really having talked with GinoDacampo before, so I was a bit nervous if I was just gonna hang around him all weekend, not to offend Gino, but he probably also want some space from me. Luckily the FGC is filled with friendly people, that all want to meet and talk with new people, so I got to talk and make many new friends. Firstly I got too meet Shivryuken a Laura I have played online more then a few times. I also got introduced to Gamachan, Tyrants little brother, a super diamond Balrog player. Both these guys are really nice and I hanged with them for a good amount of time Saturday at the tournament. I also got to talk to more people from the Scandinavian FGC, I meet Atrosh a Master Birdie from Sweden, he was there with his friend Brick the famous Swedish Gief player. I have to give a big shout out to these two guys, can not say enough nice stuff about these two guys. Actually I'm going to stop saying people are nice now, because as I said in the start, there is too damn many nice people in the FGC. If I mention somebody, they are really nice people. Atrosh and Brick was hanging with Brick's girlfriend Stephanie a photographer that I have seen at many of the same events I have been too, she has even taken some pictures of me. But I never really got to talk to her, she always seems so busy, hard at work. After the tournament was over Saturday night, we all got split up, and I just followed my Swedish friends, Gino and two french people a guy called Victor and a girl that hanged with Steph in their quest for KFC, gotta say, that was probably the worst meal I had the whole weekend. Sunday evening I went with the swedes again and a really nice girl from France that hanged with Steph(I'm so sorry I did not get your name :(  but I remember you played el fuerte in street fighter 4!) that night we went to a french restaurant and my wallet experienced a 9-1 match up, it was brutal, but oh so good. If it wasn't for the french girl, we would have been so confused at the restaurant. This is just some of the nice people I got too meet and talk to at the tournament, there was more people but I felt these needed a shoutout. Generally the event itself was kinda annoying, they took away casual set ups Sunday evening, so we could not play. We weren't allowed to bring in our own food or drinks, and had to buy them in their store. But the tournament expiriance was made awesome by all the good people at the event.

Tournament

So lets just say this, straight out of the gate. I am very disappointed with my performance at this premiere. I went 2-2, 2 wins and 2 losses. My first game was vs Colddoge, the streamer that used to play Alex, but now playes Kolin. Having to play a Kolin in your first tournament, wasn't a pleasant expiriance. Having played very little Kolin's online and not having practiced for it. So when I found out, he had switched to Kolin, I used my time before my pool started to do some training mode against her, finding some punishes for the most common option I had seen people do. As my pool starts, and we sit down to play, I feel more comfortable in the match up. The first game I win pretty convincingly, second game Colddoge wins pretty convincingly and now it was down to the last game, and I barely edges out a win. Now that the tense game was over, I thought I could get 2 minutes to just catch my breath and get my berrying. But my next opponent was sitting right behind me, having watched all the games, and the TO told me to sit down and keep playing. My next opponent was Foodysan, I had never heard of him, but apparently he is a really good Akuma player. I got into the game taking it a bit slow on the character select screen, trying to figure out what I am gonna do against an Akuma. One of Uriens only bad match ups. I came in with a plan, but I sadly could not stick to it, the games went out of hand, and he ended up just taking round after round so I lost the first game. I took a break after the first game and went back to character select screen but it did not help, I lost to him 0-2. Foodysan played the match up as he should, but I was frustrated at myself, because I knew what he was gonna do, but did not do what I wanted to do, to counter it. So I ended up losing it, simply because I was bad. That is always a bad feeling, now I am in losers. Thankfully I asked the TO for 10 min break and he allowed it. When the break was over, and I had gotten a Red Bull I sat down to play my next opponent, it was a elderly man with the tag Freeflyer, he was there with what I think was his wife, sadly I did not ask him, or had a conversation with him because I was too focused on the tournament. So we start and he chooses Laura, first thought was "Fuck, I'm done" the game starts and he just goes at it on his buttons, like the kid from the Daigo gif, I could not stop smiling, and it eased me off. It was a quick 2-0, I said well played and shook hands. After this was over, what I feared the most happen, Colddoge had made it through his losers bracket and I had to play the runback. I hate the runback, because I know he was salty and thought about the L, and I was still thinking about my L against the Akuma. We sat down and played, and he had completely changed his playstyle, he played in the best way I can describe it, as a complete asshole. Doing a lot of unsafe stuff, that caught me off guard, and I lost focus. It is on me, I could not stop him, and I ended up going down 0-2. Now I was out of the tournament and was a spectator. Salty about my two losses. The worst feeling is, I felt I played bad, and was the reason I lost. But that just means, I have to go back and get better, I need to learn to use all of Uriens options better.

Trip to Paris

I traveled to Paris Wednesday morning, arriving around 16. This meant I had two days to explore Paris before I had to play in the tournament. It also meant I had three days where I could not practice for the tournament, I tried hard to find some locals, but to no success. So I decided I would make the most of it, and explore Paris and buy some gifts. Thursday I went to the Supreme store hoping to get a look at it inside, and maybe buy some clothes. But when I arrived at the store, there was a massive line outside, I went to the back of the line and asked what was going on. Supreme had just released their new summer clothing line, and unless I had bought a ticket online, I would not get into the store this week. So since there was no chance of visiting the store, I walked away found a nice cafe and had some lunch. Most of the week I ate very well, and had a lot of different dishes Paris had to offer.