Yeah, so it’s 8:20am on Saturday morning and I’m in some city in Virginia for this PC-Gamer Network LAN. After our 16 hour journey from Milwaukee yesterday, we capped off our night with an interesting night at Applebees, eatin’ good in the neighborhood. I never in my life have been grilled so hard over my ID. I got asked my eye colors, height, zip code, and if I was a donor or not (which I didn’t remember). Apparently Ksharp looks likes he’s 17 and it’s odd if your states ID shows the dollar amount of how much it cost. We wanted to go out and celebrate Paradox’s 21st birthday but all the bars/restaurants around our hotel closed at midnight like a bunch of chumps, so our night ended by slowly passing out while watching Bruce Almighty.

We’re about to head to the LAN in a few minutes. Supposedly, the tournament is supposed to start at 10 but I went ahead and told Nick and Musty that it starts at 9, because to them 9 means 10 (hopefully they don’t see this before we head out). Nothing is more annoying than having to wake up two of the laziest kids in the world before a tournament and it always seems to be me who that responsibility falls on. Not wanting to deal with it this time, I put my sister and Ksharp in the room with Nick and Musty so I wouldn’t have to deal with those two fools. If I had a dollar for every hotel attendant that I’ve had to argue with to prevent us from getting a late checkout fee, I’d be mildly richer. One time I got slapped in the face because I wouldn’t turn the wake-up alarm off because Nick felt like he needed to sleep longer.

At Showdown two years ago at the RCA Dome in Indy, we were late for the finals match because Nick didn’t get out of bed until 5 minutes after we wanted to leave. So we get to the venue, and the closest parking spot is literally a mile away. I drop everyone off of the door, and go to park. I get a call from someone on my team saying if I’m not there in 5 minutes we forfeit – so I sprinted from the parking lot all the way in to my chair at the finals table and was live within 30 seconds, sweat beads pouring down my forehead and all.

Anyhow, it’s probably time to head out now. I have no idea how many teams are coming to this event, or if it’s going to be a total flop. I just came to have a good time with my old CS buddies that I don’t get a chance to hang out with very often anymore. If you’re at the event, stop by and say “HELLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”.

Whilst to some degree I've neglected blogging because I've been busy with beginning my spring semester, mainly I haven't blogged so to spare you from having to listen to my moping over the CGS dying. Since a blog is supposed to be a collection of one's thoughts and all I could think about for that period of time was the CGS's death, I didn't have much anything of substance to say. But now I'm over it -- so let's talk. =]

I've found some time to play some Left 4 Dead which I'm sure most of you have seen or played. I'd like to give my opinion on how I view it as a competitive game from my perspective as a caller coming from CS.

Although it is an FPS, unlike CS the success of a team has very, very little to do with a player's ability to aim well. There is some skill involved in being able to shoot/melee flying hunters, however the majority of the time killing things is very easy given how powerful melee is and how big the shotgun blast radius is. If you're playing someone in CS and you can just completely out-aim them, you could just run around the map like idiots and you'll still win.

What makes L4D cool is that the success of a team is almost completely dependent on their coordination -- this makes it extremely fun to be a caller. There are so many variables in play at any given time that a caller must consider: what items do we have, what is our health, what infected are dead, when can we expect a tank, where do we expect them to be next. All these things are constantly changing. Since the game is so dynamic, you have to evaluate almost all situations on the fly and the better you are at doing this the better your team will be.

Another thing I like about calling in L4D is the amount of knowledge you are given as a caller. CS is a game of partial information because you can only see what is going on at your part of the map, as opposed to L4D where you can see pretty much everything that is going on since your teammates are always near you (and if they're not, you've probably already lost). Knowing exactly where everyone is and what they are doing allows the caller to make more effective calls.

Who knows -- maybe we'll be seeing a juan4dead.com pretty soon.

As for CS, I'm taking some time off so I can focus on school and keeping the site updated.

As much excitement as I had while writing my first CGS blog, I write this final blog with an even greater level of sadness. Having played in CGS Season 2 alongside such an incredible team, the experience was even more enjoyable than I had imagined.

I will miss living in LA this summer with my friends. I will miss the practice rooms, the van rides to and from the studio, playing poker until 3AM, and the unnecessarily early team meetings. I will miss going out and celebrating wins with the team after our matches on late night runs to In N Out or Applepan. I will even miss losing, and how it brought us together and pushed us to work even harder for our next match. While it was very cool to have made a salary from CGS, I would have played for free if that's what it came down to because of all of the small things that made it so much fun.

At the moment, I do not know what my CS future holds for me. It'll be hard to take a step backward to just playing local tournaments and online leagues after having experienced a CGS season. Though it now seems pretty anti-climatic, tonight is our Pro-Am finals match versus the Optx. I am going to try my hardest to win this match, as it possibly could be the last finals match I will ever play in my life, and I'd like nothing more than to go out with a W.

John McCain sent me a text message at 3:33 this afternoon. I was a little surprised John had my number. This is what hiss text said:

Barack Hussein Obama is so arrogant he is playing basketball as we speak and throwing an early victory party tonight...

I wasn't sure what this had to do with anything.

Anyhow, last week I went downtown to vote early so I wouldn't have to deal with the lines of people today. However, it turned out to be just as bad anyhow.

My roommate and I drove down together. When we got there both parking garages in the area were completely full. We happened to get lucky, because just as I was about to pull away, right in front of the building someone pulled out of their spot and I took it. However, it was a metered spot with only a 25 minute limit, and I was pretty sure it was going to take longer than that to vote. I put my quarters in then went in to vote.

The entire time while waiting in line I kept thinking about how I was going to get a parking ticket. Then I thought, "you know what, if they give me a parking ticket because I came in to vote and there were no other spots available, that is GOING TO MAKE ME VERY ANGRY".

The whole process took about two hours, and as I walked out of the room, I was looking for my roommate who had already finished. I didn't see him right away so I went out to see if he was waiting by the car - he wasn't there, but I was relieved to see that I had not gotten a parking ticket on my windshield. I walked back inside to try to find him, and after a couple minutes he showed up (he was waiting by the exit, but I walked out the entrance...oops). So we walked out to my car, and then I saw a PARKING ENFORCER standing at the back of my car WRITING UP A TICKET!!!

I ran up to him yelling, "Nonono....I was in there voting....I'm leaving now,"

He paused for a minute looking at me with his ticket pad in one hand and pen in the other. "All right, you're good," he said and he let me off and walked away.

In the end, democracy prevailed over parking tickets.

Congratulations Juansource member rou on winning the Amazon.com $25 Gift Card! I will send you an e-mail tommorrow so that you can claim your prize.

Sorry to all those who didn't win, but remember the next one for the Antec Case will be held on November 1st.

Also, tomorrow Mustang's commentary on de_season will be released. Furthermore expect a de_season video article on Tuesday, and Heatwave/Misty's de_dust2 commentary on Wednesday.

Have a good weekend!

Lately I've spent a lot of time in the computer lab because I've had several big programs I've had to work on for my computer science classes. Being a CS major, I meet a lot of "interesting" people in my classes. While in the computer lab, I've been able to observe some of them in their natural habitat.

Last week, I saw two older foreign guys in the lab working on a project together. I wasn't sure what they were working on, but it must've been pretty hard, because every time they got something to work, they would shout at each other in another language, stand up, and give each other high fives. It was basically a touchdown celebration for programmers. They did their mini-celebration probably a dozen times during the two hour span I was in there, LOL. Enthusiastic programming, I like that.

Yesterday, a guy came into the lab and sat down at the computer next to me. I figured, like everybody else in the lab, he had come to work on homework. Nope, not this guy. He INSTANTLY loaded up starcraft and began microing away. I could tell when he was about to lose because he would grumble loudly at his monitor, lol.

I can just imagine me playing CS at the lab, shouting at my monitor with everybody staring at me, lol...

Today, someone who I've seen before in one of my classes from last semester came into the lab and sat down at a computer at the end of the row. He logs into his account and then pulls up his program to begin working on. Before starting, he pulls his ipod out from his backpack, pops his earbuds in his ears, cranks the volume all the way up, and then begins to blast "The Final Countdown". Keep in mind, I am several seats away from him, and he is using earbuds, but I can still clearly hear what song is playing. For the half hour that I was there, he must've played the song at least six times.

I guess The Final Countdown must give him programming inspiration. Maybe I should try doing that when I get stuck.

DUH DUH DAH DUHhh, DUH DUH DAH DAH DAHhh

Congratulations to JuanSource member silhouette004 for winning today's raffle.

You have won an Antec SpotCool System Cooler and an Antec MX-1 Harddrive Enclosure. I will send you an e-mail regarding further details about receiving your prizes.

Sorry to all who didn't win, but you all still have opportunities to win the next two raffles.

I'm happy to announce, that over these next two months I've decided that I will host a few raffles for Premium Members for a chance to win some free swag. Here are the prizes and dates of when the raffle will take place.

October 1, 2008
Antec SpotCool System Cooler
Antec MX-1 Harddrive Enclosures
(These two products will be raffled together)
For US subscribers only

October 18, 2008 (because it is my 21st Birthday)
Amazon $25 Gift Card
For INTERNATIONAL subscribers only

November 1, 2008
Antec Three Hundred Gamer Case
For US subscribers only

Note, the only thing you need to do in order to be eligible for the raffle prizes is be a Premium Member at the time of the raffle. On the date of the raffle, I will post the name of the winner on the front page, and will send you an e-mail in order for you to confirm your address.

Furthermore, as requested, I am aiming to coincide content updates with the CAL map of the week. Today, I posted a new de_inferno commentary of 3D versus Complexity - so if you haven't watched it yet, go check it out. While Strike and Fire content has been requested, it is very difficult to for me to find high level demos on those maps, though I will do my best to continue searching. As for this week, here is the planned schedule of content to be released.

Today, September 22 de_inferno 3D vs. Complexity commentary by me

Wednesday, September 24 de_inferno Video Article

Thursday, September 25 de_contra commentary by badapples

Monday, September 29 de_nuke Video Article

If you have any other questions, please feel free to post them in the thread, or send me a private message.