About two and half months ago, I was in the usual Resistance: Fall of Man NeoGAF Clan-Night match. We were almost done for the night when fellow user Efertlis (Beatbox) mentioned the tournament. Resistance accounts for the most time I've ever put into a first person shooter, due mostly to the dedicated NeoGAF clan, so I was immediately interested. The Global Gaming League was holding a single player and team (3v3) competition. Aeon712, Eferlisdotcom,and Sutdawg decide to form the only team to represent NeoGAF: Team Philly. Since I coudn't find two extra players at the time, I decided to enter the single player contest. My goal was really to just win one match since I had never even attempted to enter a gaming competition before. The tournament would have 512 player slots (first-come, first-served), broken into 16 brackets of 32 players. The more I read the rules, the more I felt like I had a decent chance of winning a few matches before I lost. I made it to the Elite Eight, scoring a free trip to New York, 150 dollars, a resistance infantry jacket, and one of the best experiences of my life.  Before I break it down, I have one main piece of advice. 

    Read The Rules!!!

    I cannot stress this point enough. The rules for a contest like this are determined far in advance, and are heavily legal. Mercy will not be shown if you don't know what you're doing. The number of people who seemingly signed up for the tourney without even glancing at the official rules was astounding. If you've ever complained about useless posts on NeoGAF, by all means sign up for the Resistance tournament site and scan through the Global Gaming League forums. By the time the signups actually started, I must have read the rules four or five times, just to make sure I couldn't screw anything up. There were tons of questions people asked and every single one was answered in the offcial rules. Not only that, different threads with the same question would appear ten times a day. It really bogged down the mods' ability to do their job and help with actual issues. You'll be able to save yourself a mountain of trouble if you read the rules a few times and check the website at least once a day to keep up with any changes or developments.

    The first night after the sign ups, the forums were a flood of threads such as, "you have to be 18?" "You have to be a U.S. resident?" and "why can't people from *insert state* enter?" The worst part was that once someone successfully registered for the tournament, the player couldn't be replaced. It tooks less than 24 hours to fill all the slots in the one on one competition. The problem this created was that around 30% (my estimate) of the total contestants entered in the single player tounament were ineligible. Some of these people chose to continue playing anyway despite the fact they could never win a prize, but most of them abandoned their respective matches. 

    
    All the invalid entries resulted in a large number of first round byes, and several players that went as far as round three without playing a match. I, however, wasn't so lucky. In fact, I was the only contestant in the finals who played all six matches to advance. If I had to pick one thing that hurt the tournament, its the fact so many people who wanted to play were shut out by ones who should have never signed up. No one was required to submit any personal information until they made it to the finals, so there was no way to eliminate invalid entries. Since it took six rounds to get to New York, I don't feel like it hurt the tournament in the long run. It just made the first two rounds a little boring until the action picked up.

    What kind of mentality does it take to win? Its hard to say, but I think you just have to be as realistic as you can. There are lots of players online who could beat me cold and I knew it. Despite that, I felt like I had a decent chance of success. One-on-one competition is extremely different than the game's usual twenty on twenty. The matches were comprised of short rounds, with 5 lives each round. Most of the maps used were fairly small, and the game's two cheapest weapons (the rocket launcher and shotgun) were prohibited. These rule decisions all tilted heavily in my favor. The best approach is to consider the match yours to win or lose. You need to have a gameplan, stick to it and try to minimize mistakes. Above all else: BELIEVE!

    Even though I had played nearly everyday since launch, I had to be honest that I was good, not great. Since I wasn't taking any classes this summer, I played for nearly five hours every night. Now I understand most people can't put in that kind of time, but thats what it takes. You have to get to the point where you don't need to think about what to do, just react. I really tried to overthink the training (as my forum thread will attest), and I had lots of fun coming up with different strategies. We went over map layout, weapon locations and spawn points. I'd set up as many practice matches (with tournament rules) as possible and received tons of help from my fellow NeoGAFers.

    There were maybe a half-dozen players I felt I couldn't be seeded against if I wanted a realistic chance at New York and I was very lucky not to have to face of them. Honestly, of my six matches, I'd say 4 of them were complete walks. The opponent involved either weren't ready for 1v1 play, relied to much on a single weapon (mostly the 40mm grenade) or just didn't have the skills to stand up to me. The other two matches kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time and were fun as hell. With only 5 lives per round, most players attempted to hide as much as possible. Even the easy matches were extremely tense and drawn out. You would slowly pace the level, checking every corner and hoping they didn't spawn behind you.     

    My 5th opponent, G8wall, was a real beast. More that just skilled, he was a master of enforcing his will. Even on the largest map available (the Bus Yard), I felt like I was pinned into a corner the entire time. He stayed just outside my radar range and kept lobbing grenades around the level trying to draw me out. Once he found my position, he used the sniper rifle and flame thrower to contain my movement. If he had kept his distance and continued his sniping tactics, I'm almost sure I would have lost, but he was too aggressive for his own good. Not patient enough to wait until I showed myself, he left his sniping point when I hid behind a wall for a more than a few seconds. If you haven't played Resistance before, I'll just point out that the Auger (having the ability to shoot through walls) is my favorite weapon and IMO the most useful. I buried myself in the gas station on the far side of the map and preceded to send an endless volley of fire at him as he approached. Most of his deaths were the result of explosive barrels I shot through the wall. The match ended in classic fashion, tied 1 round a piece and each on our last life. We jumped to the roof of the gas station at the same time, not knowing the other was there. The game registered a double kill, but my final bullet had connected first, and I was awarded the win. 


    The night before I left, I finally started to get a little nervous. I wasn't sure what to expect. I had never met any of these people before. I think we can all agree that when it comes to online gamers, you're dealing with a mixed bag. It was obvious from the forums and match posts that many of these people and groups didn't get along. To be honest, I was half expecting a fight to break out in the Gamestop. At the very least I was bracing myself for one embarrassing moment. With one exception (more on that later), it could not have been a nicer group of guys. Even FreyDog, who talked more smack than anyone during the prelims, had some real class, talked to everyone and congratulated his opponents and rival teams.

    In my long tradition of travel problems, my flight was delayed nearly six hours (and 4 pints of Guiness) for reasons I still don't fully understand. By the time I finally got checked in at my hotel it was 1am and I was exhausted. Luckily, being in New York, I found a great place for beer and pizza less than a block from my hotel. I'm a bit of a pessimist, so I was almost expecting to stay at a Holiday Inn outside of town and get bussed in for the match. To my surprise, the Global Gaming League really came through on the accommodation. All the players stayed at the Hotel Pennsylvania, right across the street from Madison Square Garden. The hotel itself is very old, but it was huge and had serious style. That night I went to sleep at around 3am; the first match would be the next day at ten.

    The next day, I walked two blocks to the tournament site, a Gamestop at the corner of 33rd street and Broadway. As far as GS stores go, it was huge. It had a complete second story (which was dedicated entirely to XBox, painted core green, and included that giant Bioshock statue), while the ps3 consoles were set up on the main floor. Now, no one knew exactly how the systems would be laid out. We learned a few days before leaving that the finals would have different rules than the previous matches. The games would be conducted as a deathmatch without a limited number of lives. The race selection was now mixed as well, meaning you could choose to be a chimera for the entire match. The truth was, the matches we had played until then were failrly short and not suited for television. The players weren't really thrilled the rules had been changed, but that's not what concerned us. Basically everyone was forced to play standing up at one of those demo displays you see at Best Buy. The worst part of this was the fact that like the demo displays, the controller was attached to the flexible arm that held it up. This made it much harder to use the SixAxis to shake off fire and bullseye tags. (The screen was also placed very high so it could be seen by the camera.) I had played every previous round in my own apartment, on my couch, sitting level with my screen, with a beer on the table. Now I was playing standing, looking up at a screen, holding the controller at my waist. None of the players were really happy with this kind of setup, but you get over and move on. We weren't expecting an ideal setup in a Gamestop, but we all had to deal with it and to be honest, it leveled the playing field quite a bit.

    I was placed into the second match, versus Kotec123. After we sat through a rules/orientation meeting (we received our t-shirts and player passes here), I finally got meet the myth, JStevenson. It's really strange to finally meet someone you've spoken to for so long but never seen (he looks much less like Sam Cassell than I thought). After some conversation and nervous hand wringing by yours truly, if was finally time for my match. I won't go into much detail but I lost and it wasn't as close as I wanted it to be. Kotec123 (who went on to win the tournament) was as skilled as they come and he was ready for everything I tried. I can't even tell you how tough is it to take a beating like that with a straight face while being filmed for television. I'm really glad the GGL filled all the time they needed and didn't use any footage except the finals. Basically, I had a stupid smile on my face the whole time, while I tried to pretend I could come back at any second. No disappointment though; I made it farther than I thought I would, and I sure as hell can't complain about a free four day trip to New York. GGL is sending a DVD of the finals to me with my prize and since the embargo it finally up Ill upload the finals when I get it.

    On the issue of embarrassment, the notable exception I spoke of earlier was a player called Freeway_rick. He was well know by all the elite players in the game, and all of them claimed he had someone else play for him so he could advance that far. Now, I have no knowledge on the issue so I can't comment, but after what happened in his match against Rankman (who won his first finals match), I can say he's a grade A loser. With a combination of lucky spawns and 40mm whoring, he managed to pull out a victory by one kill. Rankman walks around the console to shake his opponent's hand, when Freeway_Rick procedes to give him the finger, on camera, right in the middle of GameStop. Now, if you can't control your anger after losing, that's pathetic but I expect it from some people. Flipping off his opponent after winning was just about the most classless thing i've seen someone do, and just made all gamers look bad.

    After my match, I was interviewed by JStevenson for the Insomniac Podcast. It was the first time I had ever been interviewed for anything other than a job. JS is a great guy and I'm glad he trimmed the interview down and made me sound more interesting. The producer of GamePlay HD (the Dish Network station broadcasting the finals) asked a few of the losers if we could help them do a trial run of the live taping they planned for the finals. The taping took place on a sound stage at Rainbow Studios, a fairly famous studio located a few blocks from our hotel. The place was covered in gold records and signed pictures of musicians. My last official act in the Tournament was picking up my Resistance jacket from one of the Insomniac reps. When I grabbed my jacket it was Saturday at 4pm, with the championship match taking place the next morning, and my flight home two days later.

   We weren't allowed to stand around the studio to watch the finals, so I basically had two full days free to myself in NY. Seriously, If you've never been there, try to make it your next vacation. Aside from the hotel, food will definitely cost you the most. Sightseeing is relatively cheap, and if you're a student it's even cheaper. I'll upload some pictures, but it really must be experienced, its truly unique. I had a blast just walking all over town just looking at buildings and parks. I must have spent eight hours walking on both days, but that's still not enough time to cover ground. The subway is a hot, humid, smelling mess, but it certainly is convenient and fast. The city is completely infested with taxis if you have the money. In two days, I managed to see Central Park, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Bronx Zoo, The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I just barely managed to get it all in.    

   For my first experience with competitive gaming, it really was outstanding. I met a ton of great people, made some new friends, saw lots of amazing landmarks, and the most fun I've had in a while. The tournament certainly wasn't perfect, but you just have to have a good attitude and take it all with a grain of salt. You're bound to run into more than enough immature, whiny, trash talking jerks, but it's no different than anywhere else in life. You let them have their tantrums and then take care of your own business. It's cliche, but above all else you have to remember to have fun; hopefully why you started playing the game in the first place. Once again, I just want to thank everyone at NeoGAF that wished me luck and congratulated me, expecially the Resistance clan.     
 
 

Highlights of the trip

-Frey-Dog proposing to his girlfriend on camera at GameStop the morning of the first matches. I sure wasn't expecting to see that.... ever. Congratulations to him but yeah, we laughed our asses off.

-Rankman (age 19) got absolutely hammered in a club the night before the first matches. He was out cold all morning and nearly missed his match. About 5 minutes before he plays, he runs outside, throws up in a garbage can, comes back in and wins his match. That is truly a hardcore gamer.

-The text message I got from JStevenson after I arrived at the hotel: "RankMan shows up in a mother fucking Gears of War shirt, Seriously wtf!!"

-Finding My great-grandparent's names engraved on the wall at Ellis Island. (Frank Spacek and Rosalia Bartol)

-Eating White Castle for the first time. It was pretty damn good. crinkle fries > straight fries

-Splitting a few cases of beer up in a hotel room with all the players. I think we all got along really well, and it was fun to talk about everything we liked and didn't like about the tournament. Not a single one of them had ever heard of NeoGAF...so they say.

-NYC! I loved New York. Denver is great but it becomes a ghost town an hour after last call. It was amazing to see a city with so much happening 24 hours a day. If I ever get a chance to go back, I could easily spend another 3 days and only see new sights.

-Seeing Freeway_Rick receive the single most epic pwning every caught on tape, and I mean ever. It must have been karma; He was killed 51 straight time in the ten minute final. If you've never played Resistance let me tell you that's absolutely absurd. Given that its take 5-6 seconds to respawn, he was hunted down and killed in an average of 5.5 seconds. That must have been unbelievably embarrassing and no one deserves it more.

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