Orifice Politics

This is my latest painting "Scary Monster". It's acrylic on canvas, and I opted for the finger-painting method. It's not quite yet done as I need to add one more thing, but I figured I'd toss it up here for some preliminary browsing.

Comments/questions/tomatoes?

Now to FINALLY cover everything for EVO 2010. This year was held at Caesar's Palace. The convention space was excellent because of the increased interest, but it was a pain in the ass to access. The 100+ degree temps and humidity didn't help, either. All in all, a fun time was had.

( As usual, pics and vids of ze con! )

I missed out on most of the qualifying rounds and finals because I seriously didn't want to deal with Strip traffic and the severe heat. So we just stayed at home and watched the stream. Needless to say, they were AMAZING. I know the women's invitational got a lot of flack, but I thought the players did a great job. French player AAA Kayane played a mean Chun Li, but Texan Burnyourbra was awesome. Major props from a fellow female fighter.

The HD Remix finals went to Snake Eyes and his Zangief, making him the first Zangief to ever win the tournament. And the Tatsunoko vs. Capcom finals were won by EG Marn and an unusual team of Zero/Alex. They beat out a badass Yatterman No. 1/Batsu/Yatterman No. 2 team played by Kbeast.

The real talk was about Justin Wong losing to the Taiwanese newcomer Gamerbee. I won't get into it since it's been driven into the ground at this point, but wow. I was so happy that an Adon player took him out, because Adon seriously gets no recognition. Gamerbee eventually took 5th place in the tournament, leaving Daigo and his legendary Ryu to battle it out with Ricky Ortiz and his Rufus. Ortiz put up a great fight, but Daigo won it again.

And with that, another EVO has come and gone. Now to wait around for next year, though I do need to contact them about a few things.

Until next year, people...

Um, all of them? XD Seriously, I take just about all the pictures you see on my journal. So I'll just pick another out of the collection. :3


This was taken at the Bellagio's Conservatory.

( 21 More Days )

This is a bit of a tough one. I take photos all the time, and I'm automatically happy when they turn out how I want. That said, here's one from a set that I took while visiting Texas:



( 23 More Days )

This year's tournament was AMAZING. It was held at the Rio Hotel (meaning it was easy as hell for me to commute), and attendance was significantly increased from the years before. While the MvC2 hype was not nearly as bad as the year before, the SF IV crowd more than tripled in size. There were well over 1,000 entries in SF IV alone! And all while the fighting was going on, our mini-arcade in the corner was a success!

( Photos from the event. WARNING: It's very photo and video heavy. )

All in all, I was very happy with the tournament. The Rio was pretty pricey, but the staff was cool, it was convenient for me, and I had a total blast. The only real downside was that I didn't get much use out of my Venom stick. I'll have to change that this coming weekend.

And so another EVO hath passed. Despite all the setbacks and the gross miscommunication about registration, it was a good time. Lots of fighters were played, asses were kicked (including my own), and fun was had by all.

We got to check out some Street Fighter IV, and I must say it's a ton of fun to play. The graphics and animation are smooth, everyone was balanced for the most part (El Fuerte felt kind of weak), and the controls were responsive. If you guys see SF IV in an arcade or have a next gen console, definitely check it out.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was a bit of a letdown. I wanted to jump in line to play, but the same guys kept going over an over. However, after watching a few matches, I realized that it was very unbalanced. Ryu and Chun-Li are horrendously overpowered with easy combos/supers, and the killing blow was the absence of Ken the Eagle from Gatchaman (you know, G-Force, Battle of the Planets, etc.). Whether that was intentional or not is still unknown, but it's odd since he's in all of the promotional game videos. I'm seriously hoping this game gets tweaked, because it looks stunning visually. And the Nana wants her Gatchaman fighters!

On our side of things, that is, the SNK section, we had several Neo Geo games running. Everything from Matrimelee to Samurai Shodown to KoF Ultimate Match received lots of attention. I tried my hand in a NeoWave tournament and got booted out by a Young Geese. Eh, at least I gave the guy a run for his money... even though the tourney was free. XD

Sadly, I didn't get to play BlazBlue, but from what I saw, it looks very pretty and GG-esque. Wish I coulda spent some time with it. :(

( and now for our pic heavy section along with a bonus video! )

With EVO 2008 behind me, it's time to plan for 2009. I've been wanting to host at least two tournaments, but now I want to add to that. As my goal for next EVO, I want to run:

-A low-tier only Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament. I think this would be far more entertaining than the usual high-level play.

-An all-female tournament. The game of choice is still up in the air, but I was thinking Guilty Gear. There were more girls at this one than at earlier cons, so I'm hopeful about it.

-A Jojo's tournament. Of course, I still need to hunt down a copy of the game, but I think this would be a fun and whimsical tourney. Just beware that Vanilla Ice.

That's all for this year's EVO report. See ya next year! <3

The temperature outside is barely 60 degrees. AND it's doing this:



What the hell, Nevada? On Memorial Day weekend when it's supposed to be over 100 already. But hey, at least I could turn off my AC... AT THE END OF MAY!

Here's the giant post we've all been waiting for. Y-con 2007 has wrapped up and now I eagerly await 2008. First, here's my batch of photos from the con and a couple from the city.

( Pictures! )

( Now a synopsis and my thoughts on this year's con. )