Under_The_Mayo
Master of Quanculations
Under_The_Mayo`s account of the cancelled Expo Tournament in Veracruz, Mexico.
(And an assessment of the difference between the American FGC and Mexican FGC.)
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The Expo Tournament, the only major in Mexico (as I understand it), was scheduled for December 27-30. AE, UMvC3, MK, and Smash Bros. Various international players were announced to be in attendance such as Tokido, Fuudo, Filipino Champ, and several others. First we were told that the Japanese players were not coming. Then we were informed of a delay, followed by the cancellation of the entire event.
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My name is Mayo, and this is the story of the trip to my first Mortal Kombat major tournament, which was cancelled two days after I arrived. This article talks about the travel, the cancellation, and MK play. So if there is a part that doesn't interest you, please feel free to skip ahead to the information you`d prefer to read about. This was written not just to inform about the events surrounding the tournament, but also to present the experience of my trip for those who know me socially in the community.
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(THE TRIP)
Gerardo and I waited outside in the cold on Christmas morning for the bus at 6:30am. I hadn't been to sleep. We were up all night eating turkey, playing MK, and then getting drunk and playing Wipeout HD (a game I`m very good at and have played for years). We arrived at the bus station and boarded at 8:00. It was a 12 hour ride to Mexico City, and I still got no sleep because of the never-ending movie program they had on the bus. Wild Hogs, Disney movies about Leprechauns, all dubbed in Spanish. The view of the mountains was a bit inspiring, and a bump in the road caused my above-stored water bottle to fly out and knock a stranger in the head. Amusing.
Mexico City is a frightening place late at night. And by late I mean only 10:00. We walked to the hotel, passing a prostitute that offered her...services. "Te la chupo" became the running joke for my friend after that. We still had another 12 hour bus ride to the tournament in Veracruz on the 27th, and we spent most of the night practicing on my PS3. So there was little sleep to be had.
The next day we hopped on the metro to meet some local tournament players.
(This...is ridiculous.)
We arrived at the downtown tech plaza, and it`s quite a sight to be seen. Four floors of games, card games, comic stores, computer repair, etc. All across the walls people are playing Marvel, MK, Dance Dance Revolution, Rock Band, and Gears Of War. Downstairs all the Naruto freaks are doing their card battles. Old school Killer Instinct cabinets, KOF, Marvel 2, Xmen COTA, 3rd Strike. This place is a paradise. For everyone that mourns the days of the old arcades, it`s very much alive in Mexico, but as a hybrid of old school games and current gen consoles. Here`s a quick video.
[video=youtube_share;mmuiBUfCdIY]http://youtu.be/mmuiBUfCdIY[/video]
We all went upstairs, about 8 of us, and we threw down on some MK. I met some fantastic players who were on their way to the major, using Cage, Jax, Shang, and Smoke. They didn't have Kenshi OR Quan, so I rocked the Sheeva and Sektor. We went out for some classic Mexican cuisine (Kentucky Fried Chicken), and then walked around for a bit. There`s a real charm to be found just by seeing the absurdity of some of the stores on the street. By "stores" I mean a guy sitting on a blanket selling only knives and leg braces. Words escape me when trying to express what it`s like seeing that.
Now... I have to confess to some name dropping. The players here know the top MK players in the states because they follow all the majors. With the urge to impress my new friends, I had to flaunt my association with the community. "Yeah, I was on the Tom Brady S1lent show." "Yeah, I totally know Shujinkydink and DetroitBallin." My brief email exchanges with 16-bit were exaggerated. But my most disgraceful moment came when I said, "Oh, Reo? Yeah I talked to him just last night." In reality, I saw him on the MKU shoutbox saying he was bored. I recommended he get a prositute, and he said no because he would kill her. That is the extent of my communication with Reo, and I milked it for all it was worth. I feel a bit dirty after that. Apologies to Reo.
(THE CANCELLATION)
Back at the hotel, we got notification that the tournament had been pushed back by two days. Gerardo left in the morning to change our tickets, and then we slept all day. We went out for a nice dinner (KFC), and got another notification that the entire tournament had been cancelled. It took everything in me not to go into a blind rage and take out my taser and start shocking random strangers on the train. We contacted the other players, and made arrangements to stay with them for the duration of our trip, and to exchange our tickets once again.
In the house of a local tournament champ, we met so many other players. Players from everywhere that had traveled to compete in SF, Marvel, MK, and Smash Bros. We got some bottles of tequila and just played all night. It was, without a doubt, the house of Kenshi. Which just made me more upset about the tournament, because I really started to feel like I could have really well. So we had our own mini MK tournament, but the xbox account screwed up and the DLC players weren't available anymore. I lost against the Jax using Sub Zero, then I fought a Kung Lao with Sektor and barely lost the first match so I switched to Quan. I should have known better than to do that. I may be the Quan scientist, but I am by no means a Quan player. I simply have always loved him since MK4 and I love to do his bidding. I got destroyed. My friend Gerardo ended up taking it against the Jax player in an epic battle using his Cyrax.
Everywhere I go in this country I`m armed with pepper spray and a taser, which my new Mexico City friends refer to as my X-ray. Someone approached me holding my spray asking, "So, is this the safety cap?" I told him it was, and turned around to pour my next tequila shot. 10 seconds later I heard an entire room full of people coughing. I turned back around and saw the guy laughing drunkenly on the floor. "What happened???" I said. Then I started to cough and I saw a small red streak of pepper spray on the floor. We had to evacuate the entire house for over half an hour. Everytime we tried to go back in the coughing just started up again. We were on the verge of vomiting, hunched over the stair rails, waking up the neighbors at 2am to the sight of 15 guys who looked like they had come down with the plague.
The following days were filled with constant gaming, as the DLC characters returned, and lots of Mexican food.
(THIS, is a huarache with sheep meat. Eaten three days in a row.)
(THE COMMUNITY)
The final night was a big house party. Not for games, just for drinking and talking and music. We all vented frustrations about the tournament. All the Mexican players are very concerned about how this looks for their community. They desperately want to have a fighting scene that is respected, and while I`m pissed about the money I lost making the trip, I feel much worse for them. They`re great players and they deserve to be able to show it in a real competition for their games. I`m trying to work with them to set up a tournament in another city some time next year.
One thing I really want to say is that I think the attitude of the Mexican community is so much better than that of the American one. There is a shared love for all games here. The top players of Street Fighter meet someone like me and just think it`s really cool that I´m an MK player. It`s just not possible to harbor the hate/disrespect for other fighters when you spend your time at a public plaza, your game and players seated right next to people playing a different game. After some casuals I can sit with some people and watch them play Smash Bros. There`s no hate for other games here because everyone is united. I think we could learn a lot from them. Without the hate and the trolling, the experience of playing competitively is so much more lively and enjoyable. Great Marvel players from downstairs come up and just play a stupid Sektor vs Cyrax match of random jump kicks and sweeps, and then can watch a high level Kenshi vs Smoke and just admire it. Then we can do the same for them.
(Sektor and Cyrax, together at last.)
I can`t fully express how refreshing it is to see so many people sharing games in a community. It`s a nice break from all the boards where an article about a game, or a streamed match, only provokes people to rant about how whatever game sucks, how their game is a "real" game. Constantly insulting other players. I've never understood it. I don`t play other fighters, but I can appreciate the dedication people put into mastering the games they love. I think it would be nice to be united like they are here, instead of so insulary and juvenile. I can`t listen to an MK without hearing someone dismiss Marvel or SF4 as terrible. I can`t watch BlazBlue finals without constant trolls declaring a game as "dead". I can`t read about MK on Shoryuken without having to sift through 30 comments of hate. So maybe we could all learn something from the community here in a country whose scene is generally looked down upon.
The warmth and friendliness of the players here, combined with their hospitality of reaching out to players for various games who had traveled so far, and providing shelter... It changed the whole mood of the trip from "I want my money back and to go home right now," to delaying our trip back home just so that we could stay here a bit longer with our new friends.
There`s word that this cancelled tournament will return in March, and I`ll certainly make the trip again because I`m desperate to play. And now I know that I`ll have a community of players to reunite with upon arrival. But the management of this tournament has left many people extremely upset and worried for their scene. We hope that something can be done to make it right. The Japanese players were sent trophies and 1,000 dollars for the "inconvenience", while the players in this country were completely shafted, even lied to in the minds of some. This is obviously unhealthy for the growth of a scene.
There is a lot of confusion about why the tournament was actually cancelled. They cited security issues in the city, but any issues with that were known long before. And if established security concerns were the reason for the cancellation, then there`s no reason why it should be announced 2 days before the tournament after all the players have already made the journey. Understandably, no one really believes the official story. Will things be made right by rescheduling for March? Can we, the players, put together our own event free of the bureaucracy of the organizers, in a location and manner where we don`t have to worry about security concerns? We hope so, and we will try our best. Because the players here deserve it. And because the players in the US and across the shores deserve to see them play, even come play them personally if possible.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Under_The_Mayo -- MK Scientist, Quan Chi Mathematician, Kenshi-Playin' Bastard
