Well I just got back from the Miami, Florida qualifier a few hours ago, and it was a blast! After two days of gaming, the results are in and the top two gamers go to the WCG USA Finals in California.
WCG Miami Qualifier Results:
- 1.
2.
Fk.SaddleS3.
FrinkX4.
HnR)HurtThe brackets for the event can be found on the WCG site » Here.I took pictures of almost all of the players, but I only got one picture of gamers playing, I was too busy playing myself. The pictures from the event can be found » Here.
I was able to get most of the replays from the event, but not all because they were scattered amongst the many computers that were used throughout the event. The replays can be found » Here.
My journey:
I left my house in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida at about 11:00 on Thursday to drive down the WCG event. Half way down I picked up
PuertoRican and we stayed at a hotel, splitting the price. On the way down we missed our exit off of the highway, so we got off at the next exit to turn around. I was coming to a stoplight that was red, but for some strange reason (most likely rain of some sort) there was water on the ground so my car hydroplaned literally 50 feet. Luckily for me, there was a big Ford F-150 stopped in front of me so that I would plow into it, having it totally own my car.
Because I had such great luck that day, I almost got into another accident where the nice lady behind me decided that it was a good idea to cut the corner and turn right into me. Of course when I used my horn to aware her of my presence, she immediately slammed on her breaks. Luckily, most of the mysterious water had evaporated and I was able to successfully come to a complete halt. After yelling at her for a couple minutes, I got back into my car and we drove for 3 more minutes and arrived at our hotel.
This WCG event was held at the » Scorpico Internet Gaming Center which was run by a very cool man named Cesar. With his fair prices and awesome computers, we had many hours of glorious gaming! Even though they close at 24:00 every night, he lets people stay until 05:00 because he loves gaming so much :). I probably got about 5 hours of sleep each night because I was having so much fun there.
After washing up, we went to the glorious Scorpico gaming center. We both practiced a lot on the WCG maps for the next two days, meeting a couple of the StarCraft players when they came in on Friday to confirm their registration.
On Saturday the event officially started at 11:00, but unfortunately Counter-Strike people are really really evil and we weren't able to start until 1:30. To make the situation even better, the WCG admin decided it would be most efficient if only two games were to be run at once. My game happened to be second to last, so I got to stand around for a little while longer. Each player played a total of two rounds on Saturday. I won my first round 2-0, but then had to play Fk.SaddleS the next round and lost 1-2.
On Sunday we were told to arrive at 9:00 but of course the super-cool WCG admins didn't show up until about 10:00, and we didn't start until about 10:30. I was one of the first games and I won 2-0. I then won my next match 2-1, and then unfortunately lost 1-2 again vs Saddles, ending the tournament.
All in all, the tournament was very fun! With a few mishaps on the journey down, and a few administration difficulties that were easily solved, the tournament ran quite smoothly. Oh, but wait, it isn't over! Those crazy WCG admins still had another trick up their sleeves. They still had to raffle out the prizes! They gave away all of the little things like mice, games, keyboards, but finally they got to the good prizes! They gave out 5 flatscreen monitors and one computer. 4 of the 5 players in the winning counter-strike team happened to win 4 of the 5 monitors. Then the raffle for all the other participants / observers took place, no interesting prizes except for a free trip to San Francisco for the Grand Finals of the WCG 2004. The crazy admins chose two people and then had them play Rock/Paper/Scissor best of 3 to see who wins it. The guy who won had the courage to go Rock ALL THREE TIMES, displaying his immense skill in the art of Rock/Paper/Scissor. It was very exciting.
Well, that ends it. I was lucky enough to get home in one piece, not even a single close encounter with another automobile! If you still have the chance to go to a WCG event, I suggest you take the opportunity because it won't be here forever!
Links
WCG - World Cyber Games USA
Scorpico - Online Gaming Center
