First of all, I just want to congratulate the staff members of SRK who put in a lot of effort into this event. Tom, Tony, Chris, Joey, James, and Seth, you guys did such an AMAZING job. I couldn’t haven’t been happier.
Ok, before I get into my log, I would like to tell a little bit of my fighting game journey.
I broke onto the fighting game scene at a very young age, but I wasn’t as competitive until Marvel vs Capcom 1 came out. I knew very little about the tournament scene, nor did I even know they even existed. Me, a typical scrub, thought I was invincible, I thought no one can beat me, boy was I wrong. The arcade I went to, held a mini tournament for MvC1 and I got my ass handed to me on a silver platter. From there, I realized I knew very little about MvC1.
Then Marvel vs Capcom 2 came out and competition around Boston was pretty scarce. There were not many people around to play or it was very awkward for me to communicate with them, then finally, I met Seiya, the Ong brothers, AK, JFong, and Gamblefiend. We trained vigorously for the upcoming tournament in New York CTF. Team Boston came out and showed NYC that we had game. Little known fact there, Gabe Ong beat Justin Wong in that MvC2 tournament and many of Team Boston placed somewhere in the top 10.
I was hooked, the adrenaline, the nervousness, the drama. I just couldn’t get enough. After that CTF tournament, I came onto IRC #Capcom and started trolling how East Coast would have dominated West Coast. I went to b5 the following year and met many people from SRK and #capcom. I never realized how much of a family I felt when we were all in a room together. From talking smack online, to bonding in real life, it was quite shocking I must say, only because you never know what that person is in real life. I have met people from the likes of Choiboy, Omni, MrWizard, Viscant, and Floe. These wasn’t just gamers I was meeting, I was meeting real friends with a real bond.
Now flash forward 9 years later, Evolution 2010, Caeser’s Palace, Las Vegas. After getting checked in, I proceeded to call up skisonic, whom I met earlier at the airport. We meet up at the Galleria Bar and proceed to get smashed. I met a couple of old and new faces there, it was pretty nostalgic.
Friday comes along and I’m at the registration desk, I was quite amazed how many people were in line to sign in for registration. It took a total of 5+ hours to finally get almost everybody in. The auditorium was packed, where meatbuns was giving out free t-shirts to everyone who registered. There were several stations set up with Marvel vs Capcom 3. Mad Catz even had a booth there. Friday was ran smoothly.
Saturday also ran smoothly, the semi-finals for super street fighter 4 was very exciting. By the end of the night, there was an award ceremony for two very well known members of the community. Seth Killian aka S-Kill was the first to receive the “Cannon” award. Seth was very touched by this award and gave a heart felt warming speech, by the end of the speech, everyone was chanting “Thank you Seth”. There couldn’t have been any one better to receive this award. Once again, Thank you Seth!
The second person to receive the “Cannon” award was Joey Cuellar aka Mr.Wizard. He prefers to let his actions speak for himself. Very humbled by the award, with just two words, “Thank You”. Lol. No Joey, Thank you for being the man with the plan.
After the award ceremony, there was showing of Bang the Machine, which I personally felt lived up to it’s hype. It pretty much described how the street fighter community has evolved. The documentary mainly shot in the west coast, it showed how the rivalry has evolved from Nor. Cal vs So. Cal., to East Coast vs West Coast, to USA vs Japan, to USA vs the world now. I personally could related the film, because I’ve been around the community for 10+ years.
Sunday, the big day, where all the finals went down. Most of the results are on the front page, so we all know what happened. Being right near the stage, seeing events unfold, I couldn’t get anymore excited. But the good news kept coming. The Cannons announced that Evo is teaming up with Gods Garden, Ono giving us teasers on the new upcoming game, and the tournament being televised on July 20th. Finally, we have a voice and it’s all thanks to all the wonderful community members who have contributed so much for us to be here.
I can’t really put into words on this whole experience. I remember b5 in Folsom California. The few hundreds that came out for that event. Maybe 300 tops. Now 9 years later, 4000 + people turning out to the event. Being on stage and when Tom asked the audience “if this is your first evo, please raise your hand”, an astonishing 90% of the crowd raised their hands. Words can’t describe it… Now we have G4tv showing up and records the event. The room is packed and the crowds were roaring. Finally we have been heard and soon the world will be watching…
