★ ERIC Atkins ★

What a trip.  I just got back from Chicago where I played in the first Major League Gaming tournament for Shadowrun.  Actually, I spent most all of my time in St. Charles (home of Gino’s East - more later) which is just west of Chi-tonw (sic).

On Tuesday, a friend from Chattanooga and one from Atlanta came to my house.  Both were a part of the Shadowrun beta test with me.  We had grown together and gotten good at Shadowrun.  We drove up on Thursday and met our team mate from New York City.  Our team, the cooked Gamers, were the #1 seed in the tournament.

We began playing on Friday afternoon and didn’t stop until near midnight.  When that day was over we found ourselves battling out of the loser’s bracket.  On Saturday morning we found our second loss and ended up placing 5th in the tournament.  No prize money this time.  We did receive semi-pro status (whatever that means).

I learned a lot this weekend.

• Indiana is nothing but corn and porn.  Drive past cornfields for 20 miles, get to an exit with more corn, some gas, and “Adult stores”.  Repeat a few dozen times.  Why do they call them “Adult” stores anyway?  Fix your roads, by the way.
  
• Louisville is frickin’ huge.  I never new that city was so large.  It seemed like it had a lot going on.  It reminded me of Memphis. 
• Chicago traffic is awful.  It took about two hours to get from I-65 to west Chicago.  And there are a ton of tolls along the way.  I missed one toll.  Unfortunately my friend was holding up a peace sign for the camera as we rolled through at about 75 MPH.  I’m sure I’ll be getting some mail from the State of Illinois.
• MLG is a lot different than the CPL.  The average user at MLG was about 17 years old.  At the CPL, the average gamer seemed to be in their early 20’s.  The venue at Chicago was kind of old and rundown.  However, MLG definitely knows how to present themselves.  The event was well organized.  But, for some reason, I was underwhelmed.
• Shadowrun is a heck of a lot of fun to play.  But, there’s not that much difference between LAN and online play.  I did notice that some players that were dominate online were not near as good on LAN.  Perhaps this is due to Shadowrun’s netcode.  The more lag the game has the more likely you can stay alive.
• Maybe I’m past my prime.
• I drove from Chicago to Huntsville in 10-hours.  We made two stops for gas and I drove the entire way.
• I was not passed by any car from Chicago to Huntsville.
• I didn’t drive faster than 80 MPH the whole way.
  

We were the top seed at the tournament, but we ended up placing 5th.  I was disappointed.

The next event is in Orlando in September.  And rumor has it that the following event will be in Las Vegas in October.  Right now, I’ve got to decide if I’m going to commit to go to these events.  I need to let my team know now. 

What’s in it for me?  Well, there’s not much money for being on the best Shadowrun team.  The most I could hope for would be about $15K per year maximum in winnings plus some small time fame on MTV and USA network and in print mags like Official XBOX Magazine, USA Today, Wired, etc.  All that for being the best at a video game.

I’m closer to 30 years old than 20 years old.  I’ve got a wife.  I’ve got a house.  I’ve got a full-time job with the US Army.  And, I’ve got a limited amount of annual leave that I can use to travel.

Shadowrun would be a second job for me.  While I could take it on, I would sacrifice a lot of other areas of my life.  I already have.  I want to play in Orlando and Las Vegas.  I believe I would earn a few thousand dollars playing the game this year.  But, I just don’t know if I can afford to dedicate so much of my life to MLG.  I’ll make a decision in the next week or two.

Oh.  Gino’s East owned my face so hard.  Check this stuff out.



Are you kidding me?

Perhaps the best pizza pie I’ve ever had.  And at a legendary pizza establishment (which was just across from the street).  I’m definitely ordering one through their website in the next week or two.