I would like to kick off this billain by apologizing for being a bit over the top sometimes. I was very happy to be in the Netherlands and when I got drunk (which happened 2 times I think?) it just got ultra potentialized. Hopefully I wasn't much of an arse, and if I were, please forgive me.
I would also like to thank the organization and all attendees. This was an insanely fun week and one I will never forget (except for the parts that I forgot already... I blame it on the alcohol).
Now that I got that out of my system, I will try to do a quick report on how things went day by day, and also add some of my remarks about the people I met, be it for the first time or for the 4th time (who could that be?).
Anyways, on we go...
DAY 1 (Sunday)
I leave my place at around 09:30 in the morning (14:30 dutch time) on sunday. For some reason I couldn't check in using KLM's app or website, and I was advised the day earlier (yeah, I had to waste one hour going to the airport one day earlier) that I would only be able to check in on the day of the flight, 3 hours before. Late check ins are a nightmare for people like me (long legs, chubby), because there's always the risk of being placed on a middle seat. Being someone who can (almost) never sleep doing flights, this could be a nightmare scenario.
So I get into my first flight, from Goiânia to São Paulo. I get the window seat, which is neutral in my books, and it's a pretty quick flight. It was expected to last 1:40hr, but I guess the pilot decided to go full NBT + Long Boost, cause we landed in São Paulo after 1:15hrs. This was good luck I guess (GOOD RNG 1 x 0 BAD RNG), and could've made a difference if I didn't have to wait in São Paulo for 5 long f-ing hours. Anyways, that's what I sign up for when I decide to take these long flights.
In São Paulo we were informed that the plane could be slightly late (ended up boarding 15 minutes late inteed), and my worst fears turned into reality when I got to my seat: I was indeed gonna be seated in the middle seat during a 12 hour flight. The plane was completely full, so I had no shot at getting a swap or a better seat (GOOD RNG 1 x 1 BAD RNG). The flight was as bad as expected; I watched a couple of movies (Suicide Squad = good; Spider Man - No Way Home = also good) and played some games (Trivia, Angry Birds, Sudoku, Bejeweled, Tarzan's something... pretty much every game they had available, I played). After half a day in the plane, we land in Amsterdam.
DAY 2 (Monday)
Sometime in the middle of the flight. it became monday. I don't know exactly because timezone math is not my forte, and considering how boring the flight was, I don't think it was relevant to split the flight in half. Anyways, knowing how chaotic Schiphol Airport had been in the past, I was very scared something might go wrong. Fortunatelly the passport check lanes were very short, and the guy who checked mine was very nice. We had this quick dialogue:
Him: "Where are you going?"
Me: "To Alphen aan den Rijn"
Him: "What are you going to do there?"
Me: "Meet some friends, get a few drinks and play games"
Him: "What games will you play?"
Me: "Super Mario Kart."
Him: "Super Mario Kart? Are you good?"
Me: "Huh, I kinda am haha."
Him: "Ok, cool. Good luck and welcome to the Netherlands."
After going through the check I make it to Schiphol's main hall, where I go around asking people how to get a ticket for the bus to Alphen. After a few back and forths with a couple of people I'm informed I can just pay directly with the bus driver. I then move to the bus stop and after just a couple of minutes, the bus arrives (GOOD RNG 2 x 1 BAD RNG). The bus trip was fine, but I was so drained that It was kind of an out of body experience. 40 or so minutes go by and I get out at the station Sjors suggested. And here I make my first bad decision of the weekend: instead of following Sjors written instructions, I decide to follow the map he sent, the problem being that due to my lack of internet access, I could only see the preview of the map. After walking 20 minutes in the wrong direction, I decide to reset the path and go back to where I started. I then read the instructions and after a very short while, I'm in front of the Esports Game Arena. I check my phone and it's around 15:30 dutch time, which means my journey took me 25 hours. I'm exausted and stinky as I walk in. I immediatelly see a lot of faces, old friends and new ones, but no hugs are distributed at the time (although I did promise to compensate for that later). We would still have to wait at least an hour to check in, so I drink one beer or two, try to help whenever I can and interact, at a safe distance (for them) with people as much as I can. I get to be paired with Patrick for this night (some check-in shenanigans since we were suposed to be paired but there was a late switch), and I'm finally able to get a nice hot shower. I get back to the arena and finally am able to give away all the hugs I'd been saving. We then go to De Beren for a nice meal and a few more beers. This group interaction was full of penis references (inadverted, I might add), but we have quite some laughs. We get back to the venue, I try to show some NBT stuff/new strats to Sumner using his NBT pad (which completely didn't work for me), but I was so tired / slightly tipsy that all I was craving for was my bed. We end up going to our room (kinda) early, and I'm finally able to sleep (~40 hours being awake).
DAY 3 (Tuesday)a
Another fear I had flying in is how my body would respond to the difference in time zones. Usually, since I don't sleep during the flight, that tends to be a non-issue. If anything I would be up until a bit later, and wake up a bit later too. I went to be around 00:00 if memory serves me right, so waking up around 7 or 8 was to be expected. I wake up, upen my eyes and check my phone: it's 05:55. Ok body, you messed up the time zone calculation more than I usually do. I stay in bed for a few more minutes, while browsing my cell phone to try and figure out where the closest supermarket is. I see there's one that opens at 7, so I just get out of the room around 6:50 and go for a quick walk around Alphen. I buy some soap and a shampoo and get back to the room, to find Patrick awake too, since there was a construction site just next door and the general rule was they would start every day around 7 (I'll open a parenthesis real quick to talk about the Boutique Hotel: it was great. There were a couple of issues, their body soap and shampoo were bad, the ladder going up to the rooms was messing with my knees and there was the construction site issue, but the bed was great, the shower was magnificent and, even if I didn't try it, the breakfest looked insanely good; so overall, very nice experience here). I get back to my room and find Patrick awake. We decide to go to yet another supermarket to buy breakfast. I find out there's a better supermarket that's closer than the one I'd just been to. At least I got to see some more of Alphen I guess. We go to the Arena to wait for the start of the ceremony.
Here I see a lot of the people who I still hadn't met this year. The enthusiasm level is very high. Throughout the ceremony I'm very emotional and I have to hold the tears back a few times. After the ceremony we get to answer Guillaume's quiz, some good questions, some trollish ones, only thing in common is he probably never double checked the answers.
TT is about to start, and I get paired with Mark (A.k.a Question Mark). He's one of the guys I'd never met, and honestly I couldn't have asked for a better person to share the TV with. I got to watch him do a very VERY solid 1 try loop (1 minute cut compared to his previous year - he's evolved in every single mode and I'm very proud of his results), and soon it's my time to play. I think to myself "you have done 80 loops of TT 1 tries, you know exactly what you are doing. You've been doing this for a very long time, relax and do your best", which was followed by me missing the exact first boost I tried. The rest of the set was utterly underwhelming, but still enough to grant me the 8th place in GS. And then came the big disappointment of being eliminated in 15th in the mode I'm sure I practiced more than anyone else. I was heartbroken, but decided that this result wouldn't bring me down. I keep interacting with as many people as possible, and watch Sami take yet another gold (and Karel, another silver). Nobody looked too dominant (which was the case for both SMK Championships the year prior), which both makes for better competition but not necessarily better performance levels. I go to sleep feeling like this was a bad day and that my overall results would now be way worse than I was hoping for due to my underperformance. This night I got to sleep with Zarkov. We got a picture but I won't share cause it's rated R.
DAY 4 (Wednesday)
I wake up with a slight hangover, which is sad cause it's Battle Mode day (I love BM - it's my second favorite mode, too bad I'm bad at it). On the competition side, I have a lot of entertaining matches, including having to face Sargoth on my first match (which I though should've been streamed, since we are both fan favorites - modesty aside). Anyways, I navigate my way into a second round of barrages, just to find out I'm about to face Sophie for my life in the tournament. Obviously I get crushed by my Bowserian overlords (spoiler alert: I have never beaten Sophie in any matches we played). After I'm done for the day (SMK-wise) it seemed like everyone decided to pay me a beer, which resulted in me getting a bit too drunk. I met a guy from Portugal (was nice to speak some portuguese since my brain was starting to fail me), and the night went a bit longer. I go to bed and sleep like a rock (had all my stuff on, except my shoes hahaha).
DAY 5 (Thursday)
Hangover hit me like a truck. I don't know if this happened on wednesday or on thursday (the days are already blending in my mind somehow), but I get down from my room to walk to the supermarket and get something to eat, and as I'm leaving I meet Kazmo. I invited him to go to the supermarket with me and we had a nice long conversation, ranging from his SMK gurus/inspiration to other games we play. Some interesting interactions since it's a japanese and a brazilian walking around the very dutch city of Alphen aan den Rijn. Once again I play some very interesting matches (2-2 vs FFVI being one of the best, he showed me all his frenchness with some DIRTY body blocks and shenanigans), and I end up getting a nice 9th in GS. This meant I was already on to the KO stages, where I faced JDR (5-3 in his favor, highlight was me star driving, Infinite Boosting to get in range of a red shell, I get an IB, get the red shell, fire and he just dodges is like it's nothing... GGs). After being knocked down to the lower bracket, I get to face my nemesis, Jarm0u. I once again get trounced (5-0, I never even had a chance), which makes for a very short (if not disappointing, given the GS results) day. No beer today since I'm recouping. At least I'll wake up on a good shape tomorrow, right... I will wake up in good shape tomorrow, right?
DAY 6 (Friday)
I feel like I haven't slept in the past 3 months. My brain is failing me (I can barely speak english at this point, long pauses, missing words, I'm a mess). I play a lot of weird matches all the way, with mixed results, but I never felt like I was me during GS. I was just hoping I would be out without having to play any matches, which, obviously (since this game is sadistic), wasnt the case. I end up having to play barrage #1 against Sumner (I might be wrong in the order of matches here, if I am, I'm sorry) and then another barrage against Kazmo. Both great dudes and both cups were nice. As a prize for making it through to the next round I get to face the GS winner, KVD (yay!). I was sure I was gonna be destroyed, but at this point it seems like my brain was strating to get running. I fight well for one cup (flower, which he won by executing a clutch feather trick on BC2 otherwise he would've been down 6 points), and then I rank out on DP3 (which pretty much means it's over). This first cup is the only moment I felt like I've played well so far. I check the brackets and I get to face Leyla. At this point I get a message from Alencar saying "how hard can a tournament be, that you fall to the lower bracket and your opponent is LEYLA HASSO??". I let that sink in for a moment, and proceed to my match shaking like a leaf. I had played her during GS in a very fun and contested match (she won 39-36, highlight being that on GV3 she started lap 5 in 7th place and managed to still finish 2nd). We play the first cup (which was Start iirc) and we end up in a draw (36-36). We ask orga what should we do and we are instructed to keep playing, cause that might not be relevant (if someone wins the next 2 cups). Next is Flower, which she won. The I win Mushroom. Now we need a clear ruling on what's next, should we replay Star? We get word that we are supposed to play Special, and my heart kinda sinks. It's my least favorite cup and she had already beaten me in it. I shake it off and on to the match we go. I win DP3 iirc, with Leyla finishing 2nd. On KB2 she's on the lead, and she let's go a comment, which later proves to be a self jinx), that she just can't keep full speed on this track. She falls into a pool of dark water, and I managed to hit her with a green as I pass by. KB2 being the unforgiving track it is, she ends up ranking out, which means I just needed to finish 2nd on every other track.
What followed next was Leyla playing masterfully, racing around like there was no tomorrow, while I tried to survive. Worked for GV3 and VL2, with no attempts from her side to troll me (I genuinely thinks she's too nice to do such things, which make me feel extra bad). We get to RR and I hear Jarm0u screaming "SEEK AND DESTROY", a message I understood quite early. I proceed to drive safely in 2nd, and around lap 4 Leyla does a few mistakes, I get into the lead and that's pretty much it. I decided to add the details (although some of them might be mixed, too much stuff for the brain to process) because it was my most crucial match in all my days of attending the CDM. It was truly an honor to play against her. This was also the first time I ever won a KO stage round (lost MR, BM and GP in 2009, didn't make it in MR in 2015, lost MR and BM to Sophie in 2022). I get little to no time to celebrate and am to play against Lafungo. I have a very nice way of summarizing how it went by saying we played 8 tracks in 2 cups. Swift end to a day that started very poorly but ended on a high note, despite the loss.
Ok, CDM is over for me, so I get to drink. Quite a bit. Sargoth and I try to get some Street Fighter matches in but the setup they provided us is pretty much unplayable (that plus the alchohol that was already kicking in). It's unfortunate that I didn't get to fully experience that match against Sargoth, but there will be other chances. I also get to experience some BANANA games (I love Pfifer, he always has the best obscure games for us to play), which is, honestly, always one of the highlights of any of the CDMs I attend. I then decide to go around taking selfies with a bunch of people, including people I didn't know. I had a blast. Only donwside is I broke one of EGA's glasses. Sorry. On our way to the hotel we meet Kazmo and Takashi. I repeat the same phrases 25x using what little japanese I learned from animes, and when I'm about to say it for the 26th time Takashi says "GAS drunk". Takashi's wisdom proves too strong again, and I just go to bed instead. Not without going into Sargoth and Karel's bedroom and putting up some kind of non-sexual performance.
DAY 7 (Saturday)
I am no more. All that is left is the wandering carcass. I go to the supermarket to buy my wife's stroopwaffles (her only demand for letting me do this crazy trip), and am soon ready for the closing ceremony. It wasn't broadcast this time around, which is kinda sad, but I get is. People had lost their voices, and were all too tired. We go down the list and all the while I'm fighting not to cry. I planned on saying a lot of things once I got up in that stage, but soon realized I was not going to be able to. I just say a quick "eu te amo" for my wife, and a swift "Free Narnet" message while wearing my ESPAÑA t-shirt, and move on with it. I will not write down what I had in mind for that speech, I'll save it for the next time I attend a CDM (and I'll try my hardest not to cry haha). I get a very very nice prize (FXPAK - these cost an arm and a leg in Brazil), and get to sign quite a few posters. I don't go around getting mine signed cause I knew the chances of it surviving were pretty slim (it did survive - kinda. I'm still fighting to get it in better shape - plus I got it signed by the artist herself, Miku, so it's great anyways). A few more interesting things happened during this day, including the SMK Deluxe trailer (brilliant!), playing some SMK Horizons (what a beautiful work griddattack has done here) and some "blind" mode in SMK (the track lines were gone). Had a blast doing all of it. I then switched my attention mostly to MK64 since they were holding their own tornament and got to talk with some of the guys (more on these interactions later). It gets later and later and all I can think of is to get to the Avifauna hotel, get some quick sleep and start the journey back. I don't remember many of the details of this day, so sorry if I didn't mention anything very important. I give away a few more hugs (Miku gets double the hugs) and we start our walk towards the Avifauna. We deliver Moll to the place he's staying in (on our way to the hotel), we then get kinda lost (saved by Guillaume's GPS), and in the end we make it. Jarm0u's crew is parking as we arrive, so I get to give everyone there an extra round of hugs, and on I go to the room where I'll stay (with Lafungo and Takashi). I trade a few words with them, get a quick shower and on to the bed I go (for my 3.5 hr sleep).
DAY 8 (Sunday)
I get up after 3 hours worth of sleep, and go to the bathroom to brush my teeth before I leave. I find Takashi there on his way to his bed, say another goodbye to him, get myself sorted, search for the closes bus station (had to be precise here, cause I'd lose internet once I'd left the Avifauna). I then proceed to walk kinda blindly to the bus stop, and when I get there I see the next bus will be there in 40 minutes. They go around every 41-42 minutes. I missed the damn frame rule (GOOD RNG 2 x 2 BAD RNG).
I'm in zombie mode, so the 40 minutes fly by. I get to the airport, through check ins (had some problems with my flight so I couldn't check in online). The when I get to the passport check queue, it's gigantic. I made some quick math in my head trying to figure out how long it will take, but 10 seconds into it I see some airport staff guy waving his hands and asking people in the queue to follow him. He leads us into a secondary passport check place, with a few open desks and no queue. I'm clear after 5 minutes. Of course RNG couldn't be neutral, it had to swing to one side of the other. Final score: GOOD RNG 3 x 2 BAD RNG. The rest of the trip is just a regular ordeal of any trip back home. Everlasting, painful, annoying. But I make it home, and good thing is I'll have 24 hours to rest before I can get back to work. That marks the end of my CDM journey. The billain doesn't end here though, since I plan on adding a quick note about everyone who attended (or at least people who I have interacted with).
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This second part took me forever to make. I decided I will only add notes about people I hadn't met before.
?Mark - the nicest guy around. I was fortunate to be paired with/against him in pretty much every mode, which was great. It's impressive how much better he got from the previous CDM.
Alba - very chill and laid back. She did a great job before the event, and it was great to know we had her around to keep things safe and enjoyable for everyone.
Chris Wild - he's so nice and humble it doesn't even seem possible. Probably the most naturaly talented player to ever touch the game. What a legend. Also his zoomstart tips saved me in MR.
Goomba - I wish I got to interact with him more, but since he was always on casting duty/tired from being in casting duty, it's understandable. Still great that I got to chat with him a bit and give him a few GAS hugs.
Greg_I - I decided to add Greg on a separate entry to the other MK64 guys cause he was the one I talked to the most. The guy is brilliant, knows a lot about everything (even about Brazil, which he visited), and is a great person to be around and share a beer with. I'm glad we shared more than just one of those (maybe a few too many, but whathever).
Kasmo - Kasmo-sensei is awesome. We had a very deep conversation on a trip to the supermarket, in which I got to know him a bit better. He's a great addition to the community, and I hope he attends as many live events as possible.
Lafungo - Lafungo is the kind of person I wish I had met offline before I met him online. Online we are usually on opposite sides of pretty much every discussion (LOL), but we got along very well IRL. He's talented beyond words, was organizing the event and still was very kind all around (except to his opposition).
Miku - my sister from another mother, another father and another country. We didn't interact much at first, but once we did, we clicked instantly. She's awesome and I'm very happy Guillaume found her. [sends 100 hugs her way]. [ps.: he's still an asshole]
PT - very chill guy, another great one to share a beer with. I think we are very similar when sober, although our drunken personalities are polar opposites. I probably annoyed the shit out of him by shouting PEE TEEEEEE every time I saw him lol.
Rub - another long time friend who I'd never met before. He's so cool, and getting to know his awesome family was one of the highlights of the event. Rune is a beast!
Sargoth - worst person in the world to share a beer with. He would finish his drink in 25% of the time I needed to finish mine, and would never get drunk. It has to be something to do with his viking blood (or maybe his 5% frenchness). For some reason he's one of the few people from the community that I think I would eventually meet, even if I'd never played SMK. Too bad our Street Fighter attempts didn't go too well...
Sjors - he's a sniper. He will be quiet for an hour, just to shoot a hilarious humor bullet that will make everyone around crack up.
Sparks - very interesting character. Another one that's different offline and online. We had a long conversation about a lot of topics, and in the end I feel like we were in good terms. No doubt he's one of the most passionate about the game.
Sumner - he was a leather jacket and a crocodile-teeth necklace away from being exactly how I thought an australian would be. Awesome guy and the surprise of the tournament (that TT run will be remembered forever).
Takashi - seemed like jetlag hit Takashi hard, since most of the times he was either looking tired or resting. He was very gracious and seemed like the person who was the happiest to be there. He's so talented it's scary. Maybe one day he'll lift the trophy and be the first one outside of Europe to do so (Lafungo is dutch)!
Darius/Zoki/KelpNL/VAJ - the MK64 crew never disappoints. It was amazing to meet VAJ irl after so many years, and even better to know he's exactly the same in person. Darius and Zoki were all class act. KelpNL and I had long conversations on different topics, specially our shared love for CS:GO. I wish I could've talked a bit more to the other guys, specially the ones I see very often on Matthias' chat (MarvelGirl, eNT, Yoshi...). All in all I'm glad we could share the venue with such a nice group of people.
Kartbabies - my one regret this tournament was that I didn't get to interact with them much. They seemed like a great group of people, and the few moments I shared with any of them were great. Language barrier still a problem most of the time
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Other french players - it was nice to play against the likes of JDR and Rejemy, although we mostly didn't understand each other, we spoke the language of SMK!
I'll add an exception to my rule to thank Drew for his support, both to the event and to me personally. Besides that, it was great to be around him again and seeing how he never loses his authenticity. I learned quite a bit about crypto, and laughed hard at him and with him. I repaid him by giving him every piece of leftover food from each of the days.
I'm sorry if I forgot about someone. I'm writing this a few months removed from that week, and the fact that I was exhausted/drunk pretty much the whole time makes it even harder to remember the specifics). Overall I really enjoyed it, and I love you all.
