If I'm being honest, I think it was the worst feeling tournament experience that I've ever had when travelling to UNI. I was pretty sour about my placement at Michigan Masters, but somehow this one felt even worse. I'll go ahead and mention that the UNI bracket experience wasn't one that I thought was bad. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to play on stream in R1 pools like it was initially suggested that I would be able to do, but that's the nature these events.
Ultimately, I ended up tying for 65th out of 1100-odd entrants at the current largest tournament in the world for UNI. I think it's important to present that in this way because it's still a feat worth talking about, even if I currently don't really think that way.
I'll also get my tournament losses out of the way now, because I feel like I lost to two players that I respect and I don't really want to describe that in a way where I use the other things as an excuse for why I lost to them. First:
- vs jct/Waterloo Hilda (Hilda) [1-2]:
This set is a bit of a blur, honestly, but as far as I can recall I think our set went like: 0-1, 1-0, 0-1. The things that stuck out to me were how strange his neutral choices were compared to any other hilda I played. He played the 66x 22x whiff game really well and I hadn't really been able to control the GRD cycle as well as I wanted because of that.
Offensively, I also recall autopiloting my pressure in a way that he felt comfortable green shielding against me and I didn't react to that in time to punish him. Additionally, he fielded 5[C] which I blocked... but didn't parry for a full punish, an important part of snagging control early. I think that I blocked more of the mix early, but he gained success late in part of being able to control the GRD cycle well.
I was upset at my loss, but I understood that he played me like a fiddle to do it.
- vs WindGodDude (Seth) [1-2]:
When I looked at the bracket really early, this was actually a potential opponent I really dreaded having to run into. Seth is one of the least common characters that I've played against and while I know of some answers to parts of his pressure/gameplan, I haven't practiced against him enough to really feel comfortable.
The first game I lost, I know I generally ate shit on mashing and getting hit by 5C late staggers for a bunch of damage. WGD didn't really feel like he did a lot of sophisticated stuff, but I'd have to think it's because he didn't really feel like he needed to. In the second game, I think I ended up hitting him with CH 5B a bunch which is like 3100 a pop at least, then I wanna say he got hit with IW in the corner at some point and died. It's the nature of things.
The last game, I barely even remembered what happened but I think I lost in two straight rounds. I didn't feel upset about this one because WGD is strong and I don't really understand how to fight Seth. I tried to play it on the ground and just autopiloted stuff I use online + vs what I used vs TTK Touma months ago.
---
Outside of the tournament proper, I should also mention some of the fun things that I was able to do as well before I forget them, lol.
- On Thursday night, I got to hang out with Fox (Gun) and Shinobi before we went to get dinner with French Bread. I greatly enjoyed talking with the team through RyoRca-san and sharing a bit of the experience of North American UNI alongside Fox and Shinobi. I was a bit intimidated, but I hope I did it well lol.
- On Friday afternoon, I spoke with Besteban about UNI and Climax of Night. Esteban is a fantastic dude who asked really good questions and I'm honored to have been able to speak on behalf of the community. I'm looking forward to his release on Hold Back to Block and I hope everyone else is too!
- On Friday night, it was honestly really fun being a part of the UNI crowd that stayed around to watch and phone record matches from Semi-Finals. Watching high level players play and discussing various cool things about it is always fun. (As an aside, I always feel like I enevitably piss you off so if I did, I'm sorry Mia/Glaceon! orz) Transitioning over back to the stage and sitting down to watch Top 8 qualifiers was also great.
- Friday night (cont:), it was maybe a small gesture, but after Top 8 was solidified, I'm happy that I got to walk and talk with you, Rei as we went to grab alcohol at Fat Tuesdays. I was basically on my last legs, but being able to unwind in that way meant a lot to me. You're super cool and I hope we can drink and play at a less hectic event next time.
- Saturday morning, sitting in and playing against Pfhor, Lukada and jct before Top 8 was fun. Probably the most fun I had playing the game the whole weekend, lol. Side betting during top 8 and talking to Fox (Gem), Rei, Taicus, Tari and Coma was really enjoyable. Seeing my boys Suika and Cookie kill it on the mic was amazing!
- Saturday afternoon, it ended up being pretty fun being able to commentate matches and give insight along with brandon, cookie, silent and later suika. Playing with Nekomiko and boogie was also a pleasure. I got to see Alyssa at her art booth and chat for a while, I love seeing her so it was always fun!
- Saturday night, ramen with Squish, Redblade, Isaac, and silent was a good cooldown from a busy day.
- Sunday night, curry with TG, Magnets, ZachCat, Phaze and the other guy whose name I don't remember was really fun, too.
- UNI @ food court was generally cool to see and I'm glad that people enjoyed it as much as they did. UNI suite was also very lively and it was amazing seeing all of the faces around and that the French Bread team stopped in to see everyone!
- Everyone that I met or got to see again from the UNI side. You guys are great and are a large part of why I even continue to want to do stuff like this. Thank you.
---
Now, with all that said. Thursday was one of the worst flight experiences I've ever had, as being up at 3:30am (eastern) for the flight, delays, more delays and then arriving by myself in Vegas fucking sucked. I'm glad that I met up with Cathaticus and Koover at the airport, but still ended up having to navigate by myself to get to my various destinations.
I got there at the Mandalay 12:30pm pacific, though my sponsor and hotel room (in the Tropicana) wouldn't be available until 6pm. After waiting in line with all my shit to get my badge, I ended up parking in the food court by myself until I saw Gamegenie555, where at that point I set up UNI. Later, I ended up seeing Rikir and Fox (Gun), plus some others and so that was generally what started UNI at the food court.
https://twitter.com/EnginoJuushichi/status/1157052551725850624
Nevertheless, I still had obligations to go to dinner which got pushed back to 7-ish so we stayed there until like 6ish, then after trekking to Fox's hotel (Mandalay) thinking I'd drop my stuff off and go to dinner with FPan, we ended up having to meet up with Shinobi downstairs. I found out then that my sponsor was in badge line back past the foodcourt, so I had to have them wait as I tracked Zankoku down to get my room key. I went back to meet with them, but they were already at the Luxor, so I took all my stuff and cabbed there to Shinobi's room before going to dinner.
Then I trekked back to Shinobi's room, got my stuff, then finally went back to my own hotel room at roughly 11:15 pm. I then preceeded to sleep like shit and wake up multiple times before scraping like 6 hours of sleep.
Friday morning linecon -> playing round 1 pools (12pm) happened. But, because of the line situation, I was extremely hesitant to leave and pay x amount of money to go back to the Tropicana to rest and I interviewed with Esteban at 4p before my 6p round 2 pool. From there, I stayed around until all of the T8 qualifiers were done, so another full day.
Saturday morning was okay, I met up with TG and sleepy to eat at the Luxor buffet for breakfast. Watched top 8 and when I went to go play afterwards, I was interrupted in the middle of a money match to be asked about exhibitions. Lost said MM in the last game, then scrambled over to manage that. Found out hiari forgot about his exhibition so I had to figure out how/where to contact him.
In addition to that, because of how our schedules kinda ended up, I didn't really get to hang out with any of my Sugoi Factory teammates, many of my friends from the Midwest and by and large, I ended up having to trek to and from places largely by myself when carrying a bunch of shit in an area I had never been to. Oh, and I ended up feeling like I wasn't playing well all throughout Sunday. I basically didn't want to do anything except stay in my hotel room the whole day, but that would have made me feel even worse than I already was.
So yeah, it was a bit of a word vomit but that was my EVO experience this year. Bit of a downer, but I'm looking forward to the next event nonetheless. See you next time!
