Tourney Diary: Zamees
Zamees’ France Trip
Day 1
After a grueling 15-hour trip, I finally landed in Nice. I met up with the Canadian dude, Halfie. Off to the taxicab we go! The taxi took us on a 10-minute trip to the hotel, and Nice is beautiful. It’s right in the middle of two mountains. I took a few pictures of the scenery and then passed out in bed for about an hour.
Later on I went exploring around the city, just checking out some of the sites. It’s amusing how much the streets look likeMidtown Madness and Midnight Club 2. I took a look at the map after my exploration and realized I probably walked about 10 miles or so. Lots of hot French chicks. I need to learn some French. At least a few pick-up lines.
I met up with Halfie for dinner, and we hit up some nice Italian restaurant. Great food. Afterward, we went back to the hotel to get ready for a night of fun. We headed down towards the strip, which has some restuarants, bars, and clubs. One club was packed. I walked up to the door, and the bouncer says, "2 guyshants, NO!" I'm thinking, “What does he mean NO?” So Halfie explains to me that because we're two guys, he's not letting us in. We ended up going to a pool hall, where Halfie destroyed me. I got a royal ass-beating by Halfie, and only pulled out the one game where he scratched on the 8 ball. Definitely a fun night.
Day 2
Nothing big planned for the day until 6:00 P.M. So I just took this day to relax. Had a nice breakfast right next door to the hotel, and then got some sun out by the pool. The pool’s on top of the hotel, and makes for a great scenic view of Nice. I'm anxiously anticipating this tournament tomorrow morning.
Oh my God, does Microsoft know how to throw a party or what. This was by far the best night yet. Began by meeting the competition in the lobby. These were all great guys. Very friendly and very fun to hang out with. I enjoyed hearing all their XboxLive stories, and looked forward to kicking their butts the next day.
We all jumped aboard a bus and head over to Cannes, which is a bit east of Nice, and the location of Microsoft’s evening event. There was LOADS of food. The party continued on with some press releases. A playable version of Fable and a brand new Halo 2 video that was pretty amazingn were shown, as well as a few other reports by some of the top guys over at Xbox. I saw some dude interviewing people and figured they needed to interview me. I mentioned to them how I would in fact be the world champ and destroy the competition. They wrote that off and figured I'd be good for last place. Inside rooms opened up where they had about 50 Xboxes set up with a bunch of different games available to play. I headed upstairs where there were a few more games available, and one of the girls running the tourney part of the event somehow talked me into singing karaoke with her. I attempted to get a bit more info on how the tournament would be run the next day, but everyone was keeping their mouths shut. Around 2:00 A.M., me and Canada jumped on the last bus back to Nice. All the other guys were fast asleep preparing for the early morning tourney.
Day 3: Competition Day
I woke up bright and early—I think it was 6:30 A.M. We had to be on the buses at 7:30. Even with my lack of sleep, I was functioning pretty well. I met up with a few of the competitors downstairs and off we went to the competition. It looked to be some sort of convention center, very nicely set up. They had a small room off to the side set up with 10 Xboxes and 10 small TVs all ready to go with Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. I found out the rules included solo infinite respawns: PERFECT, just what I wanted to dominate ‘em all. Once all the competitors got together, we had about 45 minutes to practice and get the feel for the game. We spent about 20 or so minutes on the first map, and people were getting all excited about their wins during practice, but I didn't care too much. I was just trying to find the most PKM-like gun.
Finally, the Galil Arms emerged, 100 clip, so no need to reload, and lots of stopping power. We did a few more practice rounds that I didn't much care about, brought out the pistol for one of them, just for fun, and then we were led away for a 30-minute break before game time. This was filled up with a bunch of pictures from all of the press there. I headed into my meditation state and got myself pumped up. Mainly, I was asking for all the powers that be to grant me the skills I need from CDN, Loco, and Vino, our top three solo players on The Fam. I was also psyching myself out, letting me know these are the newbies that I eat for breakfast in a normal solo game. Game time arrived, and one of the camera dudes began doing a few interviews as they explained the rules to all of the people watching. He asked who I thought the strongest competition was, who the biggest wuss was, and who was gonna take it all. I confidently told him to put all of his money on me.
Round 1 began, and I was had a horrible game. But four minutes later they showed the winners. The top five moved on. They were Netherlands: 14, Canada: 13, Zamees: 12, UK: 11, Germany: 11. I believe everyone else had 10 with the exception of Sweden who pulled in a three, claiming he brought the wrong gun. Now it was time for me to pull it all together and whip up on those fools. Round 2 began, and through the first 45 seconds, I got ZERO kills, while the two leaders had four. In trouble, I calmed myself down and started taking those fools out left and right. There was an announcer who was calling out all the kills and mentioning the leaders at the same time. Once I heard him say my name, I was definitely feeling it. With a minute to go I was tied for the lead with Germany at 11. Time ran out and the screen popped up "Zamees Wins the Round." I completely dominated them all over the last minute. I ended up with 17 kills, while second place scored a crappy 11. Jumping for joy, I turned around, fists raised high to be congratulated. Everyone was taking pictures and all and I was totally pumped up.
After the tourney, everyone just hung out playing all the games that the publishers had available. I got a chance to check outSteel Battalion Online, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Counter-Strike, which rounded out my top three games to see. After a few hours of checking out the games, the awards ceremony began. The European Xbox dude went through his little speech, and then it was time for me to receive my trophy. After that, the award for best innovation and best technical achievement went to Ninja Gaiden and Fable. Best of show went to Rainbow Six 3, which seemed to be the most hyped game at the X03. I was congratulated by Ed Fries (VP of Games Publishing) and a few hundred other people as I walked around. I ran into my interview reporter and cameraman from the night before, and they were stunned that I was able to function today. They of course wanted an interview with me this time—too bad it was only German TV, I was looking forward to seeing it. After the events had ended, everyone jumped back on the buses to head back over to the hotel. I pulled in a picture of the man himself, Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of the Dead or Alive series just as we were leaving. I called this an early night, due to the fact that I hadn't slept at all the day before. It had been an amazing day; I had ruined all the competition.
Day 4
This was my free day to roam around the city of Nice and see some of the attractions. I walked over to some ruins of a castle and trekked my way up to the top where I got some great pictures of Nice. In the afternoon, I met up with Halfie, and we jumped on the train over to Monte Carlo. It was definitely a great experience playing in the prestigious casino. There were some of the nicest cars parked outside. I need to become a high roller like them. I just spent a few bucks on the slots as everything else was WAY too expensive to play. The trip basically ended there, and everything was amazing. I'm looking forward to them sending me back here next year to defend my title. It would be awesome if they did, but there’s no word of that yet. Thanks for everything, XboxLive.
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