The Bonkler

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Evo (and Vegas)!

Evolution Fighting Championship

So a while ago, a friend and I decided to participate in the Evolution Fighting Championships held every year in Las Vegas. It’s the biggest fighting game tournament in the US.

We decided to enter because (against all odds) Melty Blood: Actress Again was one of the games that was featured, a game that the 2 of us were… alright in.

(In case you’re wondering, he plays H-Shiki and I play F-Miyako)

With 2 other friends (that just wanted to play in Vegas), the 4 of us got into my family mini-van and drove from Dallas, TX to Las Vegas, NV in one go.

Road Trip!

So yes, another road trip. (In addition to the one I posted about, I’ve also recently driven to and from Pittsburgh to hunt apartments)

This one was pretty crazy though, since to get to Vegas Thursday night (MBAA started Friday 7/9), we drove starting from Wednesday midnight. All in all, it took 22hrs. Luckily, the time shifts were on our side this time.

(Sharp-eyed readers will note that in the picture above, one of my party members actually ran out of the car and is taking a picture of us, while I’m taking a picture of him)

The above picture is from Hoover Dam. I might be wrong about this, but to enter Las Vegas, it seems like you have to cross it.

It takes forreeeevvveeerrrrr.

Seriously, the speed limit is around 5mph most of the way, and there are security checkpoints.

Eventually, after an entire day of driving, we got to our room at the Caesar’s Palace, and were greeted with a giant window with a great view:

View at the Caesar's

Room itself was pretty nice but expensive. I really liked the small TV in the bathroom though, nice touch.

That night, since the World Series of Poker was going on at the same time, we went with our poker-fan buddies over to the Rio to check it out.

The Rio

As you might expect, lots and lots of poker players.

Lots of poker players.

(Sharp-eyed readers will note that Phil Ivy is in the picture on the left in blue, my poker-playing buddies tell me he’s famous)

Also got a shot of the main table there, which looks a lot like it does on ESPN (except that I was there!)

WSOP Main Table

But enough about poker, what about Evo?

After breakfast on Friday (takin’ advantage of the Buffet of Buffets, great deal, btw), we headed over to the ballroom where Evo was being held for casuals.

Got sidetracked by this:

Marvel vs Capcom 3 Demo

They had a whole bunch of demo stations where people could play Marvel vs Capcom 3.

Tried it out. I used Team Handguns (Dante, Chris Redfield, and Deadpool). Pretty interesting game, reminds me a lot of Tatsunoko vs Capcom (unsurprisingly).

Best part of Evo though? Definitely the huge BYOC (Bring Your Own Console) area.

Evo BYOC

(Sharp-eyed readers will note that there inexplicably is a guy with a horse head on)

Melty players deep in thought.

Sat down and played lots of Melty casuals with people. It was pretty cool to meet the Melty Blood community, assigning Melty Bread names to faces.

The guy in pink goes by Chelsea. He came with another player, Garu (who won Evo MBAA, btw) from Japan to show America what’s up.

Totally unrelated, but I beat him in Arcana Heart 3 with the power of my Scribblenauts Loli, Eko. Also a really nice guy.

At 5pm, Melty Blood finally started. We got into our pools and got ready to play.

MBAA Qualifier Pool 3

I was in pool 3, and here you can see Mizuki valiantly attempting to keep order.

Ugh, my first match was against Zar. Quick trip to the loser’s bracket.

I got a crapload of byes, but in the end, I went 1-2. (Stupid Aoko).

And that was that.

I did get a lot of casuals in on Saturday, too though.

Unfortunately, I overslept and missed the Melty finals Sunday morning, but I did catch the Super Street Fighter 4 finals (which is probably the highlight of the Evo finals), which was packed:

SSF4 Finals

Lots of awesome players from everywhere in the finals. Like this one Adon player that goes by Gamer Bee from Taiwan. And a Korean Akuma player called Infiltration.

I was totally rooting for Gamer Bee vs Daigo for Grand Finals, but alas, it ended up being Ricky Ortiz vs. Daigo.

SSF4 Grand Finals

You can see everybody going crazy here with the announcement of the Grand Finals.

Daigo totally had that last game though.

Daigo Wins!

What else did I do in Vegas?

Saw Shaq.

Shaq!

(Sharp-eyed readers will note that Shaq is huge.)

He was in town to film his show “Shaq Vs.” where he boxed with Shane Mosley and ate hot dogs against Joey Chestnut (at Serendipity 3, right in front of Caesar’s Palace!)