Jolt
Uprise
Let me just go ahead here and throw up a warning: I sometimes become wordy, this might be one of those times.
Kumite In Tennessee 2016 was my first ever tournament experience. My group and I traveled a little over 4 hours from Alabama to Memphis and the event was nothing but a blast.
For a first time experience I had a lot of accomplishments:
I got to play with DJT (my first ever tournament match whhhhhhhatttttheeeeeeee)
I got freed up by Michelangelo's A-List
Beat Tyrant's HT Jacqui in a FT2 (and he's gonna have to hold that, because I'm never playing him again )
Played a FT3 with Kitana Prime (who is no doubt one of the coolest in the community)
Also met several other big names for photo ops (Hayatei, Sonicfox, etc) and at the very least introduced myself to a few others (Dragon & Biohazard) and played a few people in casuals. My girlfriend ("Lady Jolt" as we like to call her....she hates it ) basically ran a small KOTH any time we were doing casuals, that way as many people could get games in as possible. Ultimately it became a FT2, winner stays on type deal. Everyone was pretty cool with it and people were glad to get a chance to play on monitors when many others were being occupied for longer sets.
I think over the course of the whole weekend, there was MAYBE one or two people where I thought "Ehhh, that guy might be a dick" for the most part everyone was really cool. I mostly went into KIT 2016 as a learning experience to see what things were like.
I found out that the high level players truly are mortals and I both respect and appreciate that. It gave me renewed confidence that I CAN play the game and I CAN win matches. I just need to work on making quicker adjustments.
Seeing all the stuff that happens OFF STREAM completely shifted the experience for me. I got to see a lot of hype matches, some KILLER pop offs, meanwhile people at home didn't even know some of the matches HAPPENED.
I didn't meet everyone that I wanted to (never got my Special Forces mirror with @Youphemism ), but I'll be sure to do a better job of that at Final Round.
My group for sure decided that KIT will be a yearly event for us. I'm very happy to be (in my own mind) a legitimate member of the FGC now. I'll be at Final Round and after that, who knows? Hopefully our Alabama monthlies will pick back up because I WANT to be a part of this.
In the future, I'll play to win. I'm not going to be timid about it. Now that I know what the scene is like, I think it's a part of me. Anything I can afford to be at, I'll be there.
Thanks for taking the time to read the thoughts of an average dude who couldn't even make it out of pools Final Round will be different. I intend on going in far more prepared this time around.
Special thanks to the Uprise boys for the moral support and encouragement, I would have done even worse without you and now we get to all be on the FR grind together.
Edit: Did I even post this in the right place? If not, my bad.
Kumite In Tennessee 2016 was my first ever tournament experience. My group and I traveled a little over 4 hours from Alabama to Memphis and the event was nothing but a blast.
For a first time experience I had a lot of accomplishments:
I got to play with DJT (my first ever tournament match whhhhhhhatttttheeeeeeee)
I got freed up by Michelangelo's A-List
Beat Tyrant's HT Jacqui in a FT2 (and he's gonna have to hold that, because I'm never playing him again )
Played a FT3 with Kitana Prime (who is no doubt one of the coolest in the community)
Also met several other big names for photo ops (Hayatei, Sonicfox, etc) and at the very least introduced myself to a few others (Dragon & Biohazard) and played a few people in casuals. My girlfriend ("Lady Jolt" as we like to call her....she hates it ) basically ran a small KOTH any time we were doing casuals, that way as many people could get games in as possible. Ultimately it became a FT2, winner stays on type deal. Everyone was pretty cool with it and people were glad to get a chance to play on monitors when many others were being occupied for longer sets.
I think over the course of the whole weekend, there was MAYBE one or two people where I thought "Ehhh, that guy might be a dick" for the most part everyone was really cool. I mostly went into KIT 2016 as a learning experience to see what things were like.
I found out that the high level players truly are mortals and I both respect and appreciate that. It gave me renewed confidence that I CAN play the game and I CAN win matches. I just need to work on making quicker adjustments.
Seeing all the stuff that happens OFF STREAM completely shifted the experience for me. I got to see a lot of hype matches, some KILLER pop offs, meanwhile people at home didn't even know some of the matches HAPPENED.
I didn't meet everyone that I wanted to (never got my Special Forces mirror with @Youphemism ), but I'll be sure to do a better job of that at Final Round.
My group for sure decided that KIT will be a yearly event for us. I'm very happy to be (in my own mind) a legitimate member of the FGC now. I'll be at Final Round and after that, who knows? Hopefully our Alabama monthlies will pick back up because I WANT to be a part of this.
In the future, I'll play to win. I'm not going to be timid about it. Now that I know what the scene is like, I think it's a part of me. Anything I can afford to be at, I'll be there.
Thanks for taking the time to read the thoughts of an average dude who couldn't even make it out of pools Final Round will be different. I intend on going in far more prepared this time around.
Special thanks to the Uprise boys for the moral support and encouragement, I would have done even worse without you and now we get to all be on the FR grind together.
Edit: Did I even post this in the right place? If not, my bad.
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