the sudden sPike

so this 2899 (and counting) page view spike comes in the wake of an article on Yahoo!.

Even HWZ has picked up on our news – I just posted a thank you note there. my Maiden Post at that! http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?p=54873724#post54873724

I’m finding this particularly interesting because all along, we’ve received more support and more coverage in other parts of SEA, EU, and to some extent US. In fact, our clan originates from the US, and all the monetary/product support filters down to us from the land of the free.
I can’t ever say that we were supported in our home land… ever. In fact, I’d say we were attacked more than we were defended.
We’ve had plenty of chances to examine the gaming scene of our closest neighbour, Malaysia, which has a really vibrant community that supports their gamers wholeheartedly. It makes me jealous sometimes, that a team can be cheered on simply because they share the same nationality as their audience.
I’m past hoping that this will change, we’ll still be dissed, and I’ll still have fun reading and replying to comments about my team and I. hehheh.
Oh, I have to say that I love our supporters from the Philippines. They’re all so passionate and warm!

i-city PDC pic fest!

We are backs froms our “break the silence” trip to KL!
I think we’ve gotten many questions about whether we’ve disbanded or changed lineup, and I guess, this is our answer to you. =D
Without further ado, I’m gonna let the pictures do the talking. Ok, maybe I’ll add in some captions cos I’m feeling noisy. Heehee~

Oh ya, we’re holding a Polaroid give-away on our Facebook page here’s what you get if your comment is the most liked!

Ok. So much for the “without further ado”… here we go!

Pictures of “i woke up at 5 am today” are, obviously very bad for your self esteem…
Cyn and I looking mega sleepy on the plane. Dawn’s out cold to my left, so I kindly didn’t include her unglam sleeping position in this picture.

As I said, 5am is not a good time to wake up, in any circumstance.
This is kimchi and huayan snoozing/fidgeting/attempting to sleep in the gosu van which we took from the airport. It can seat 8 people, excluding the driver! And it has APM seats. Haha.

Dawn, Cyn and half of me. Once again, I have kindly only included half of out cold Dawn in the picture. She should treat me to a meal for this.
Cyn’s giving her signature ahhh pose.

First glimpse of our boutique hotel – we booked a family room and it was really quite pleasant, with a very helpful owner who sent us to the competition venue in her car.
De’art hotel, by the way.

The purple and silver chairs at the reception where we spent half the morning waiting for our room to be ready. Everyone is on their iPhone or hand held device. Three cheers for hotel wifi and technology!

And here’s Lgd who took over our seats the minute we got up. That’s the famous Chuan in the seat nearest the camera.

Took the opportunity to take pictures while waiting for our room to open.
Dawn used this really cool iPhone app called pudding camera (it’s in korean) to take this shot of me against nice wallpaper on the second floor of the hotel. The room door opposite the wall was open, cos they were cleaning it out, so the daylight came in at a very flattering angle.
My new display pic!!
Looks like a studio shot, no?

The kopitiam attached to the hotel where we spent 2 breakfasts. Gosu rending chicken nasi lemak. 😀

The registration booth and the main stage. Some of the competition coms can be seen too…

We were fortunate enough to get to play our match in the air-conditioned LAN shop (or CC – cybercafe, as malaysians call it).
That’s us setting up our equipment. As you can tell, we like to use Razer stuff!


This is taken off gosugamers.net. We were at the registration table checking out brackets.
Quite a nice shot, for an impromptu picture…


Another impromptu shot at the registration table, also taken by gosugamers.net.
Not as nice for me and cyn… Haha. But at least there’s the 5 of us in it.


Cyn and i on our way back from the minimart, spotted by a Facebook fan who took a pic and tagged us.
I’m carrying my favourite red tea by lipton.

Very windy at the main stage front seats!!

The main stage, as viewed from the front row of seats.

Pic of the crowd watching the games.

Another pic of the crowd at the outdoor stage area.

Dawn, kimchi and huayan next to two empty seats that cyn and I were occupying. As you can see, they are very engrossed, and getting a great view up front.

Or maybe not so engrossed.
Huayan taking a cat nap.

Sunset on the first day.
🙂
Sunsets make me happy…

Apparently these trees are a major attraction, and crowds flock over to i-city just to stroll around these fake trees at night.
They are actually just poles with LEDs on them!

Here’s our dinner spot for Saturday night.

Aeon and us settling down and waiting for the steamboat pots to arrive.
NutZ, Eryc, whiteface, chawy, Xy, lux, waiter, huayan, cyn, Dawn.

China’s best team appeared at the restaurant for dinner later too. CCM went on to win the 15,000RM first prize the next day.

Cyn getting ready to feast.

Huayan impaling a Yong tau Fu.
We should turn this Yong tau Fu into our team mascot!!

Or maybe not… It actually looks quite creepy up close…

 
 

Sotong and

Lotus root and random other Yong tau Fu.

NutZ, Eryc, whiteface, chawy – digging in merrily
Eryc has very bad engagement timing, always tries to eat the food that we just dumped into the pot.

Aeon in their full glory. Lux making an appearance to the extreme right of the pic. Btw, congratulate him on Facebook! He just passed his driving test today!

Whiteface, evidently feeling full, satisfied, and very sleepy.

Ok, gotta admit that the LED trees are quite nice to look at once the sky gets darker…
Bt the concept of fake trees being an attraction is quite a strange concept to me.
I guess entertainment comes in all forms!

After dinner chill out and strat-talk session, with my team listening in. We try to learn what we can!

Cyn and i (and the rest of my team, less obviously) on video on the main stage screen!! Thats a video made by Razer which had footage of Tokyo Game Show and BiG Festival in Bangkok, which we attended.

 
 

Only in Malaysia do you get marshals who also act as sun screens for the participants. Here we have nirvana.my (don’t think they are called that anymore) Vs Scythe.
Xtinct paused the game halfway to pay the toilet a very long visit.
Poor guy!


Kimchi, huayan and I waiting for the games to resume.


Huayan and I taking the opportunity to cam whore when the wind died down.


Wind is still not blowing.

And it’s still in a lull…


Huayan throwing the oblivious kimchi a “hmmm!?” glance.

Kh aka melodyofmayhem and drakan dropping by to keep us company and watch the finals.
Ok, I think they were there more to catch the finals than to keep us company.


Me in the reflection of my iPad. You can see the dent I accidentally made in my screen protector before I pasted it on.
/kicks self for being so retarded.
iPad is great for team entertainment whilst waiting for stage matches to begin! Boggle ftw!!

Another beautiful sunset on day 2…


The amusing emcee doing a Razer stage show.


Stage show pic 2.

Game in progress!! China’s flag on the left, and Scythe’s Singapore flag flying on the right.
Interesting point to note : Scythe is made up of 3 Malaysians and 2 Singaporeans, but they chose to fly the SG flag.
Sad that I had to leave halfway through the first game of the finals – finals were best of 3 games.
It was 4-22 in favour of CCM when I took my leave.
CCM proceeded to win Scythe 2-0.

And so concluded the 2 day trip to PDC.
It was fun!

[ 02072010 6.29am | 12.29am in paris ]

been walking around paris for the past couple of days.
day 1 – arc de triomphe, champs elysees, eiffel tower
day 2 – louvre, engagement bridge, st michaels fountain, notre dame
day 3 – eswc!

day 1 was the most taxing, because we walked up the eiffel tower *pants*
i have realised that i’m really really unfit. i shall go running 3 times a week when i get back.
weather here is REALLY HOT. if not for the cool wind, i think i’d be sweating buckets.

day 2 was unbearably hot. stuck in the square at the louvre watching the guys take turns to take pics with a status was more than i could take. i ran into the museum for air-con before i could wind up in hospital for heat exhaustion.

at the end of these 2 days, i have concluded that i need a better pair of shoes – with good sole support.
thank goodness i didnt overestimate myself by wearing heels.
it would be quite fun to see Aeon carry me to the Metro. NOT.
so here are some of the funnier pics.

huayan might be giving a funny face… but shes not the funny one…
check out XY’s expression!!!
sitting at some random chair taking pics cos the lighting is great.
anyhow snap also turn out damn nice.
all i need is a prettier face.
Aeon.
hyhy tofy xy roy ice
huayan was mega excited to be at the louvre.
i took a picture of roy taking a picture of her and hyhy.
*
fail statues. or fail photos of some statues.
i was trying to take a pic of the guy’s face from below… from the perspective of the kid at his knee.
but.
i didnt realise that he wasn’t very dressed..
so i accidentally upskirted him.
=
i shall ZI PAI!!!
statue giving me the third finger. @@;
*
and next follows a series of photos like this one here …
on egyptian hieroglyphics
on a sarcophagus
on a statue
on a mummy!
anddddd
me squeezing a birdbird at notre dame!
haha… its a baby and already so fierce, trying to peck at me.
unintentionally photographed in the exact same position as this signboard…

for more pictures…. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=190915&id=679036463&l=c58092672c
thats the fb link !