Many non-Sydney players have been visiting us for countless times, so it was appropriate we returned the favour. A number of us decided to make a trip down to Melbourne prior to Ozhadou Nationals 5, as well as record some real-life footage for the documentary we have been preparing for the OHN5 DVD. Here’s the log I wrote:
Day 1 (Thurs)
Flight/bus travel
Thursday finally arrived and I was really looking forward to fly to Melbourne. I took the bus last time and it was horrid, but flying wasn’t any better. Daine and Jack decided to splurge on a taxi to the airport while I went alone on a bus as I’m tight.
Arrived at the airport and went to the Quantas terminal (what a noob). That was just an omen of things to come. Upon check-in I was “bomb-checked” by security hahahaha and arrived late to find Jack blasting Daine for throwing away food he just ordered. Apparently Daine took 2 bites and decided it didnt suit his taste so he just junked it Shocked What a princess …… Later during the trip Daine revealed he too was bomb-checked, so apparently the criteria for being singled out by security is tall and hunky guys.
The flight itself was nothing special except for the fact that the 2 homos I am travelling with wanted either the window or aisle seat, leaving the middle one for my fat ass and thighs. Great. Before takeoff the plane actually moved while everyone was still not secured to seats. I love dodgy airlines. Towards descend Jack hallucinated that a cute chick in the back row was checking him out when in fact she was looking at his weird glasses.
Touchdown to crappy Melbourne weather and the funnies start soon enough. We bought bus tickets to the city and handed one to Daine while he waited for checked-in baggage. When it was time to go, Daine couldn’t find it and went into panic mode. Rest of the passengers were either pissed off or trying hard not to laugh. Jack and I faked concern but it was all too funny. It was unfortunate that the ticket was found and the drama ended but we couldnt stop laughing throughout the bus trip.
Bluehouse
Dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went straight to Russell St to have casuals. Met Akira, Lok, Alex, Hong and Toxy for the 1st time and caught up with old faces like Ho, Kechu, Mav, GSM, Juris and Lee (I hope I didnt miss any names) Hong’s Dudley was just mad and went on win streaks always. He has more control than me and of course technical execution and mixup variation. I am inspired by his dudley play as it is much more polished and complete. Time to relearn this game! This was just the 1st day of casuals and we have already discovered how big a gap there is between us two states. Juris’s turbo Dudley is equally crazy where he just goes berzerk mode and hound you with offence from the start.
Night
Dinner time and we went to a place called QV which I guess is the equalivant of Sydney’s QVB and had a meal while discovering that Akira is a joker and full of technical knowledge. Some of the Melb guys call him “Textbook” which stems from him studying frame data and analysing matchups accordingly. Back to night casuals, Daine was approached by a druggie ROFL and asked whether he was “Shane”. Wearing a leather jacket, leather shoes with slicked-back hair and looking suave, I too would be tempted to ask him “Hey mate, u know Shane?”
At the end of the day, Daine decided to interview Jack and me so he should have some video footage about our honest opinions about why Melb 3S > Syd 3S. Jack was apparently so brain-fucked by playing Melb players that he did random stuff like sleep for 1 hour and then suddenly jump up from his sleep and asked questions such as “Why did I do this on that instead of this?” Then went silent again. The day ended even worse for my 2 roommates as I went into darth vader mode, apparently when I fell asleep I snored so loud that I could have brought the whole building down. Jack has kindly informed me that he recorded this beastly noise into the phone that I bought him so that he can post it in the forums.
Day 2 (Fri)
Noon/Bluehouse
I woke up to find 2 grumpy old men who gave me killer stares like I have just denied them a whole night sleep or something. Australia went through to second round and these 2 guys were unhappy about being disturbed by neighbours celebrating goals at 5am. 2nd day of casuals were pretty much the same, finally met El-Renmanzuo after missing 2 attempts. Third time lucky. eks appeared and was doing well in casuals taking down many names and getting win streaks. Then Paul showed up and proved he’s not hype at all. He really is Australia’s best 3S player at the moment with his Akuma gameplay. Kevin might disagree but its for them to fight it out. If this year’s SBO team was Hong/Monky/Kechu/Oriku Australia really has a fighting chance to qualify for final 32. Daine gave an honest opinion based on all the foreign players he saw during Tougeki that Paul is best amongst them. Paul reminds me of the jap Akumas I see on vids and when I play him I am constantly backpeddling and blocking, couldn’t do jack shit.
Night
Jack and I left early hoping to catch more sleep as we had to check out early on Sat morning. Daine being the arcade officer he is, prefers to not be a team player and stayed on for more casuals. We just dogged him and headed back as we refuse to pay for an extra day of accomodation. In the end, our boss decided to graciously pay the majority of the room extension fee due to him having to deal with 2 scheming Chinese roommates. Another day passed and reflection at night in our shitty budget room. We talked about hiring ninjas for PaulT during OHN5 to increase Sydney’s chances, and yet another round of randomness from Jack, for example humping Daine’s bed and mine 
Day 3 (Sat)
Noon
Jack left early followed by Daine then me. Jack was determined to adapt to Melb style and I reckon he did over the course of the whole trip better than Daine or me. We had casuals up till tournament time where eks was handling himself pretty well and ppl then start turning up.
Tourny
The tournament was so stress. 21 guys is considered a very low turnout for them. 21! We had live feed on the players’ faces in addition to direct feed from the cabinets. That place was so packed and the atmosphere is electric. I think Jack is doing the brackets up and will post them up soon. More highlights in the post tourny section I think.
Night
Dinner was an unforgetable dining experience. Szechuuuuuuuuan SIZZLE HOT JIZZNESS. I just realised that when they put 2 chillis on the menu they meant 200 chillis. I could take spicy food and that stuff just burnt my tongue out. Jack actually ordered a noodle soup and when it came it looked like someone poured chilli oil onto chilli flakes onto grinded raw chilli with red coloured noodles (should’ve taken a pic). Lok was struggling too as he ordered the same stuff. Sorry to wiggy and Alex who are not into Chinese food but gracious enough to tag along. Akira revealed the food was different from before as the restaurant just changed ownership so it was really bad luck for us. As it was after the tournament and Sydney guys did piss poor in it we kept getting taunted, mainly by Akira (all in good fun). Jack was the main target as Akira described his Genei-jin Yun as 3 yr old Genei-jin hahahhaha which was true to a certain extent. Many new quotes came from that dinner, I’m sure Kechu will change his signature soon.
Overnight/Flight
We went back to Bluehouse and had a best of 5 with Melbourne guys versus Sydney guys as Kevin had to leave early and the last chance to play with them before us flying back. It was great fun as there was no tourny pressure, which was followed by a 3on3 random team tournament where I was grouped with Hong and Akira hohoho …… Daine and I decided to leave early to pack up and shower (sorry Hong!) while Jack stayed and duke it out with Hong. Daine decided to start filming again and get final thoughts on the entire trip. Finally it was time to leave Melbourne with Alex driving us to the Avalon airport and we had a blast during that short drive discussing about random topics and how the Melbourne scene has turned around, came back from the dead and now superseded Sydney’s scene in both standard of play and overall humbleness and players’ attitudes.
Prior to flying Daine tried using an coin-operated internet kiosk and the sweetest thing happened. It ate his damn coin. How do you feel now, huh Mr. McD? Hahahahaha what sweet irony please fix your coin slots at MCH. Flight back was boring, discussed about the whole trip and how much we have learnt and when we got to the airport I opted to leave by bus but realised they dont operate on Sundays. Jack and Daine actually called to check on me to make sure I got out and they were going to turn back to fetch me on their taxi when I mentioned there was no bus. No sooner had I hang up the bus showed up and I couldnt be bothered calling them back. Jack then called again and got pissed because the taxi driver made an illegal u-turn ROFL. This whole trip was ridiculously eventful.
Melbourne was an eye opener, thanks for hospitality! See you in a week’s time, we will try to return the favour.
Photos at Flickr -> Pre-OHN5 Melb trip June 2006 photos
archived ozhadou threads:
Player Hookup
Aftermath
Post-trip logs
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