December 29th, 2003:
So the day of the big Sportsworld $1000 Christmas of Fire Tournament had finally come. I drove there with my lovely Cindy fully expecting that nothing truly spectacular would happen there, but that I'd have a good time.
A couple of months prior, I had prepared a big list of songs from DDR Extreme, noting which songs could be practiced in which home version, which could be practiced in the arcade on DDRMAX2, which songs were my weaknesses, and so on. And I'd even kinda created a practice schedule for myself. Then I proceeded to pretty much ignore all of it. I hadn't completely stopped playing over the previous two months, but I wasn't playing as much as usual, and I certainly hadn't practiced anywhere near enough.
This was trouble because I was entering the Expert division, with a thousand-dollar top prize, and I already knew from the DDRFreak boards that many of the region's best players were going to be there. 32 players would be allowed in the bracket following a qualifier, and the tournament was to be single-elimination, 2-out-of-3 songs... so even one mistake could knock me out early. So I set a goal: get to the 2nd round. I didn't think it would be too impossible.
Cindy was entering too, in the Regular division. The Regular division was taking place in a huge 64-player bracket, and the tournament was being played on a MAX2 machine, with two-song matches and a 7-foot limit, Light/Standard modes only. At this time, she'd improved to the point where she could do well on most Standard and a few Heavy songs, so I figured she'd find good competition with other players at her level.
We got there and met John and Yi before the tournament started. I was surprised that John hadn't considered entering the tournament; I still consider him as being better than me at DDR in many areas. I always run out of stamina before he does, he handles crossovers effortlessly, his PA is getting really good, he just plain r0x0rz, etc. But he'd been up at school for the few months prior, and Binghamton is DDR Hell... the closest machine is an hour away. He figured he'd be out of practice, I think. So he played as a spectator, along with Yi, who I still don't know all that well, but is always fun to be around.
Joining us were countless people that I'd "seen" on DDRFreak but never met in real life. They came from all over the region, and I even saw people from central and upstate NY. I wished that people's names could float over their heads, but I did manage to catch a few of them. A few people said they'd heard of me, but this was really the first time I had attended any sort of major tournament, so they'd never seen me play. I felt a bit nervous.
The qualifier could have been nine other songs I didn't know as well, but it was Rain of Sorrow, a song I'd practiced over and over back when I was attempting to pass Cool7. So this was good news, except for the fact that I hadn't played it in months. "Oh well, here goes," I said to myself... and then I actually did rather well. I think I had 15 Greats and 2 of something else, and seeded either #5 or #6, I think. It was high enough in the bracket that I'd almost certainly be matched up with a weaker player in the first round.
The event was to span several tournaments: the Expert and Regular divisions I already mentioned, as well as a Double tournament, a Freestyle tournament, and an event called "Last Freestyler Standing." This event was based on the reality TV show "Last Comic Standing" and worked in about the same way. The problem was that there was only one day, two DDR machines, and the fact that you can't run freestyle and technical tournaments at the same time (the point of freestyle, after all, is for people to watch). So the organizers chose to break up the Expert and Regular tournaments into parts, run one match of Last Freestyler Standing every so often, run Freestyle all at once in the afternoon, and do Double later, when the other tournaments were about finished.
The tournaments began, and before I knew it, I was playing my first round. I don't remember who I played against, but when I was told I had the choice of who got to choose a song first, I nominated him to do it. This would allow me to choose a song based on how I did on his song. He chose Paranoia KCET, and he did well... but I did better. As I had guessed, my performance in the qualifier had rewarded me with a first-round opponent I wouldn't have much of a problem beating. I chose Door of Magic as my song--something not too complicated--and won, despite the fact that I was careless a couple of times throughout. The first round was over. I kind of felt bad, because my opponent was certainly a decent player, but this was the Expert division, and so it went.
Cindy won her first round also. She did better than she had expected to do, and had emerged victorious. We celebrated our victories and awaited our next matches. While waiting, I went through more water than I thought possible. It must have been a cross between the physical activity, the temperature in the room and the nervousness. I was making trips to both the water fountain and bathroom almost constantly. Yi picked on me (and I laughed). I joked that I should just stamp "Brita" on my head and be done with it.
Before long I began my second match. My opponent was Angel, who goes by "Phataxel." Phataxel hails from the Bronx. I didn't realize it at the time, because I knew nothing about his skill level going into the tournament, but Phataxel was definitely a better player than I was. Before our match, he'd warned me that he was going to pick MaxX Unlimited.
Ah, MaxX Unlimited. A ten-footer. I suck at ten-footers. I just don't seem to have the stamina to keep up with them throughout the whole song. And I'd never passed MaxX Unlimited. Then again, I hadn't tried much. The MAX2 machine I played DDR the most on still didn't have the song unlocked. I feared the worst, but remembered that the format was still 2-out-of-3. All I had to do was win my song and I'd have a chance at a tiebreaker.
I'd beaten Phataxel in the qualifier, so he selected first, and as expected, he chose MaxX. And as expected, he clobbered me. But I passed the song! With a mediocre C, true, but I passed. I felt like I'd accomplished something. Now I had a decision to make: what do I choose against him? Deciding between my two best songs, On The Jazz and Do You Remember Me, wasn't much of a decision when I realized how tired I was.
So it was the lighter-impact On The Jazz, a song I'd earned as few as 8 Greats on, and a song that is known as a difficult song to perfect. I made several mistakes that I didn't normally make, but I noticed "Great!" appear on his side a few times as well. I was nervous as hell but finished the song as best I could. After "Cleared" had appeared, during my anxious wait for the Result screen, I could hear people saying, "it was close," but I felt I'd lost.
We both had the same number of Greats. Then I noticed something: he had one Boo. I didn't. I couldn't believe it. I was still in this match, and we were going to play a third song.
We were to play an edit of 1998, one of my favorite songs in Extreme. I'd done really well on the Heavy steps before (2 Greats) and was eager to try the edit. We began, and were both doing really well. Then, at one critical point in the song, I saw what could only be described as a jumble of arrows. There was no time to read their timing. I quickly guessed that the timing would follow the music, stepped my guess, and saw that I'd guessed correctly--and out of the corner of my eye, saw that Phataxel hadn't. I finished the song with the excited nervousness that comes with knowing that you've won.
The match was over, and I was advancing to the third round after one of the closest matches I'd ever seen, let alone played. It was controversial in the fact that his margin of victory for MaxX Unlimited was much higher than my margins of victory in the other two songs, but by the 2-out-of-3 rule, I had won. I felt bad once again (man, I have to keep my ego in check), but he congratulated me, and the third round awaited.
Cindy hadn't gotten to play her second round yet, and it wasn't going to be soon, either. The fact that the Regular tournament started with 64 players made it take much longer than anyone had expected. To make matters worse, they kept interrupting the technical tournaments for the Last Freestyler Standing matches, making Regular take even longer. But I couldn't worry too much about that, because my next match was starting soon. We were down to the final eight players, so the wait wasn't very long...
...and here I was, up against the amazing Gay Goblin in my third round. I figured I was doomed. I didn't know him personally, but I knew that Gay Goblin was one of the best players in attendance. He'd beaten me in the qualifier and told me to pick first. You can't repeat songs you've already chosen, so I chose my other best song, Do You Remember Me. DYRM is a challenging nine-footer, with a bundle of quick steps, a bit of tricky timing and some nice-sized runs. Oh, and the song is great. =) I'd played the song many, many times before as part of the Pop8 Oni course, and had cleared it with around 10 Greats. I figured if I could beat Gay Goblin in any song, this would be the one.
I began playing and was totally into the song. I was having a great time. Then I noticed something: I was halfway through the song and had stepped all Perfects. Usually the time when you realize that is the time you get a bunch of Greats, but the Greats didn't come, and I continued to rack up Perfects. I hit a few steps that I thought were a bit off, but "Perfect!" "Perfect!" "Perfect!" I was beginning to think the machine was malfunctioning. I made it to the final run of the song, knowing there was absolutely zero chance I could get 100% Perfects. I'd never done that on any individual Heavy-level song before, and here I was playing a difficult one, at this tournament, in front of a huge crowd of people. And then the song ended, and I looked at my score, and it read "90000000."
I lost it. I yelled "YEAH!" I screamed like a little girl. I jumped off the machine and into the air multiple times. When I was done, I looked back at the screen and it said "AAA." Someone took a picture (I never saw it). I was congratulated by a bunch of people (I didn't know who half of them were). I was the star of that moment, and I thrived on it. This was the greatest moment of DDR I'd ever experienced.
And then Gay Goblin picked Paranoia Survivor MAX Heavy on me, and utterly destroyed me. We played an edit for the tiebreaker, and I failed. It was over for me, but I didn't care. I was on cloud nine. I had accomplished more than I'd ever expected to that day. I came hoping to reach the second round, and not only surpassed my expectations, but blew my own mind by accomplishing something I never figured I could. I returned to my friends' smiling faces and collapsed in a chair with a very content smile. And that was my best DDR experience, ever. It rocked. (Gay Goblin went on to win the tournament in a thrilling final match against qkumbr, on the Road of Truth Oni course.)
In fact, the only thing about that day that didn't rock was what happened to Cindy in the Regular division. If you'd like to read about it, click here.
Freestyle was amazing. There were a lot of talented performers, and they put on display a wonderful array of routines that spanned the imaginative, the athletic, and even the silly. Phataxel jumped, twisted and backflipped his way to second place while JimTheFly stole the show with a cleverly-designed "Rip-Off!" routine, poking fun at many routines that had come before, and winning in the process. It was a blast to watch, and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Overall, the day was fantastic. We ate at Red Lobster after crossing the street (which took 20 minutes, I think), and then went home for a well-deserved rest. I hope to do it all over again next year...