The Road to Southern California Regionals pt1

It all starts with me having a good time and me leaving with a good time well spent. My trip to Southern California Regionals was totally worth the time and I'd gladly return to compete once again.

What is Southern California Regionals?
For those of you reading that are unfamiliar, SoCal Regionals is a fighting game tournament consisting of multitude of none other than fighting games and players from all across the nation that come to compete to see who's the next big thing in the scene. The majority of them are from California North and South that make up the bulk of the event along side other surrounding areas such as Seattle and Vegas. On to the meat of things shall we?

The Plane Ride-Friday 6:40am
Well there's not much to say about this to be quite frank haha. I went straight to sleep the second the plane lifted off the ground haha going to and from! Pretty comfortable but of course not the best of conditions. Sleep is sleep and I love to get me some good rest.

Oh man...I'm in Southern California?! SWEET~11am
After I arrived I went to the park and ride to get to the shuttle to the lovely Atrium Hotel.

Afterwards I made it to the hotel which I thought was a pretty nice place for what it was. The funny part is...the hotel is literally across the street from the airport! I literally facepalmed when I got off the shuttle when I saw how close everything was haha. I also met a player from Seattle named Mike I believe it was (a really really solid Bison player too). We talked it up for a bit before parting ways in the lobby and I made it to my room. 

3pm-5pm

All was good and I ended up taking a nap where afterwards I met up with Latiff and his cousin to eat some brunch at Ihop. Good times indeed! Afterwards we went into the Utah players room for some Street Fighter 4 AE casuals with Iperu(El Fuerte), 801strider(Abel, Makoto, Sagat), Scott(Cody) and Andy(Ken, Chun Li).

Left to Right

( Hiro(Blanka), Iperu(El Fuerte), Latif(Viper), Scott(Cody), 801strider(Abel, Makoto, Sagat) )

Later on down the line Filipino Champ, Ricky Ortiz and Hiro came in the room as well to get some games in. I learned a great deal from playing the Utah crew. Just to add, those guys are really strong players.

Afterwards I was able to hitch a ride with the Utah crew to the venue to register. Along the way to the venue Andy insisted that I was now honorary part of the Utah crew and praised my Ibuki gameplay. Naturally I was flattered on all fronts and took him up on that offer! So I was honorary Utah/Texas it is haha!

Got to the venue while it was empty and had to wait a short while to register where I met Alex Valle and another person doing sign ups for the event. Valle and I had a brief reunion, its been years since we've talked to each other since last I was in California and he was in Texas. Mind you this dates back hella ages ago haha. So we did the rounds and pounds and on my way out I caught Huey playing Blazblue!

 We briefly exchanged words and me and the Utah crew were out in search for some dinner. I don't recall the joint but it was really really tasty food. I thought it was quite ironic that half of the food was fried chicken...(insert black stereotype joke about fried chicken here) I lol'd and just ran with it because even I thought it was funny lol.

(Me, Scott *across from me*, Andy*next to Scott*, Iperu, 801 and the rest of the crew)

9pm-3am

After dinner back to the hotel where we played a bit more casuals with some other folks, I ran a streak on one of the setups and lost it to Andy's Chun, but I won the rest of the set afterwards haha. I got clowned a bit on that one but good games none the less. Utah crew and I hit up the Arizona crew's room and played some casuals with them as well. Watched a pretty long intense set with 801strider and Latif's side characters. I could tell those two were going at it intently thinking that if they played each other its going to be hell to pay on either side.

I was impressed at the reactions of both of them just playing side characters. Pretty intense stuff if I do say so, and that aside I got to kick it with Mr.Snk! Dude is so chill and its always a blast hanging with him! We had great conversation about random stuff and of course fighting game talk had to occur I mean, we're gamers right haha! It got really late 3am to be roughly exact, so I split the scene and hit the hay. I knew Saturday would be quite a long day because well...THE TOURNAMENT STARTED THAT DAY lol.

Before going to bed I thought about my game plan and strategies for the tournament in each game. I took the time to prepare myself mentally for the challenges ahead...I felt extremely confident in my abilities to put not only myself but my city back on the map at this event. I thought to myself I could definitely achieve this so long as I focus...

That's enough for now kiddies part 2 coming soon!