Toryuken 4 and the Enthusiast Gaming Live Event

Hey guys! As promised, I'm here with another blog entry and it didn't take months to upload! There's a lot of stuff happening this summer and I'm off this week so I'm able to update this thing lol.  I'll be covering Toryuken and the EG Live event that was taking place in the same venue.

Toryuken 4 was the first tournament that I entered and it was really fun. My neighbour and I entered the Street Fighter tournament and he was my first opponent (lol what are the chances?). The first day of the tournament was running very late and the space for the FGC games wasn't that big. There was also an EG Live event taking place in the same convention so it was cool that we had the option to check out other things while we waited. My pool was about 2 hours late but it was all good because it is very hard to schedule something with so much people. Still, I feel like they can improve on this for next year. After waiting for the 2 hours, I ended up winning my first match against my neighbour (played with E. Honda in all my tournament matches). Justin Wong was in the same bracket and if I won two more matches then I would face him. Justin even watched my second match and was keeping score of it because he was helping run the bracket (he was a very nice person BTW). Unfortunately, I lost to a Bison player at the last round of the last match.

I noticed I was jumping in too much and the Bison player gave me some pointers against this match-up which I appreciated a lot because I'm always looking for ways to improve. So now, I'm in the losers bracket and it's all YOLO! (yeah I know it's a lame thing to say but what if Emma Stone said it?)

My first match in the losers bracket was against a Juri and I was able to win that one 2-0. Next up was a Makoto and it went down to the last round last match again. This time I had another E. Honda player watching and cheering me on (never got his name but shout out to that guy for cheering against his friend lol). He kept telling me to jump light punch during the match and it was the move that delivered the winning blow! Next up was a Rufus player and it came to the last match last round again....Beside him giving him tips was the Bison player that beat me and unfortunately I lost the match by a little bit. After that I was eliminated but going 3-2 for your first tournament is pretty good IMO.

I wanted to face Justin Wong and Infiltration but never got the chance. Although, I know that I need more practice if I want to be competitive with them because I got eliminated so early. After I was eliminated I decided to check out all the stuff the Enthusiast Gaming Live area had to offer and it was pretty cool. I like the fact that they teamed up and did an event together because it gives people a lot of options. There were tournaments for DOTA, Counter Strike, Smash Bros, etc... as well as live speed runs taking place. There were multiple booths for gaming and gear but one that I found really interesting was an E-Sports bar opening up in Toronto that will have drinks based on video games and you will be able to play video games in there as well. I took a picture of some of the drinks:

There were some more impressive booths that I saw but I didn't take a picture of all of them. I did however take some pictures and here they are:

The second day of the event ran a lot smoother then the first despite the blackouts the happened (about 3 of them lol). Here's some footage I took during one of them:

Although, you can't blame the blackouts on the event organizers as it was something that was happening in Mississauga at the time. Infiltration ended up winning USF4 decisively and Justin Wong won Marvel. There were a lot of other tournaments but those were the two I followed. Mortal Kombat seemed to have a lot of hype because the local players are really strong (a Canadian ended up winning that tournament, which is awesome!). I also went to some of the panels that EG Live was hosting but not much people seemed to attend them (maybe people didn't know they were allowed in those rooms? Or there was not much advertisement for them?). My friend and I made this bead art during one of the panels:

I would say this tournament was a great experience despite the long wait the first day. I will definitely try to go next year and make it to top 16 at least! I was going to talk about the Z-Trip & QBert event at the Phoenix Hall that we went to after this event but that would make this post too long. I'll just say that it was a dope show!! As always, feel free to follow me:

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Sportcard & Memorabillia Expo 2015 and the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Fight

So continuing on from my last post, after we got our free comics we went to the Sportcard & Memorabillia Expo in Mississauga. The entrance fee was 12 dollars and we just went as a spur of the moment type of thing without knowing too much about the event. There were a bunch of notable guys there like Joe Carter and Mick Foley but unfortunately I didn't have anything for Foley to sign and by the time I found something at the expo that he could sign (his book) he was gone.

If your a collector then this is definitely a place you should at least check out. They had a lot of rare items and old school collectibles at a reasonable price. First let's start off with some of the wrestling collectibles I saw.

 I use to have the Hulk Hogan figure at the top left when I was a kid even though I was more a Macho Man fan (luckily, I got to meet him when I was a kid). I didn't pick up any wrestling memorabilia but I did get one thing that was wrestling related:

I got to meet Virgil and get his autograph. He talked about how he got pick-pocketed back in the day and how it's good I kept my wallet in a safe place. He was pretty cool and we talked for a good while. I picked up a bunch of other stuff as well but I only took a picture of a couple of them:

 I picked up one item in each of those photos. Could you guess which ones they are? Well if not then here are the answers:

First pic: Family Matters/Full House card deck (don't judge me lol)
Second pic: Power Rangers playing cards
Third pic: Power Rangers trading card set
Fourth pic: Sunshine Girl playing cards (had like 12 decks in that bundle)

Things that I picked up that have no picture: Dragon Ball Z, Yo MTV Rap and Basketball Upper Decker Trading cards.


The guys that had a Beckett booth also gave me this free magazine (shout out to them for hooking me up with it):

My most important purchase that day was for my Tyson Boxing glove. A couple months back I won a contest to meet Mike Tyson and go to his show. I got a signed glove but didn't have anywhere to put it. While walking the showroom floor I saw a case that would be perfect for it. It was a Stanley Cup case but I already knew that it would be perfect for the glove. So without further adieu, here it is:

 Now onto some of the cool collectibles I ran into while walking:

 I remember those NHL Muppets as a kid. I believe they were being sold at McDonald's back in the day but I could be wrong about that. Still, seeing them brought back some memories. Then we have a card table that had a bunch of cool sets like the Coca Cola and Pamela Anderson ones. Next up is a TMNT lunch box. I use to have a lunch box similar to that one as a kid but it was a Super Mario one (I made a friend back in the day because we had the same lunch box lol). I had to take a picture of the Pez dispensers; I always think about that Seinfeld episode whenever I see them. The American Pie set is worth a lot because you have a chance of getting a signed Elvis card within the set and that would be worth A LOT of money if you hit the jackpot. Lastly we have the Rock'n Roll set and I took a picture because MC Hammer was on the cover! Next up, I want to cover some of the 'peculiar/why does this exist' things I came across but before I do that I have to show a picture of something. I couldn't decide if this was cool or deserved to be in the 'why does this exist' section so I'll just leave it here: 

 So yeah...moving onto some of the stuff I had to take a picture of because I found it funny that they were actually manufactured:

First is the Justin Bieber trading cards (wouldn't surprise me if they sold a lot...smh). Then we got the 'All My Children'  and 'American Idol' trading cards (my grandma would probably love those lol). Lastly, we got the Nsync and Ricky Martin trading cards (I was on the lookout for Michael Bolton trading cards after seeing these but no luck!). I would go to this expo again in the future, it's a good experience for the price.

After the expo my friend and I went to go watch the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight. Prior to going, I was at a family gathering and wasn't sure if I would be able to make it but my friends went early to reserve a table for us so I left my family gathering at a reasonable time so that I was able to watch the fight and spend time with the fam.

Going into the fight, I was cheering for Pacquiao to win because he's an aggressive fighter and his story about changing his ways to follow Christ is an awesome message. Also, when I saw this video on the Street Fighter YouTube page, It got me even more hype to see him fight:

Did I think he would win? I thought he had a chance but I knew Mayweather had the advantage (he is the champ and undefeated after-all). The first couple of rounds it looked good for Pacquiao because he was being the aggressor and landing his shots. As time went on though, you could see Mayweather keep him out and check him with a jab every time he tried to get in. Pacquiao was landing his shots when he would corner Mayweather by the ropes and give him no room to move. Unfortunately, he didn't keep him there and make good use of his opportunities. Mayweather won that match decisively and I find it funny how everyone is making memes out of Mayweather for hugging and running during the match when he's known to be a defensive boxer. What I find even more odd is that Pacquiao honestly thinks he won that fight. It was clear as day that he lost but still some people think he got robbed. Also, no one in Pacquiao's corner told him he was losing that match? I just don't get it but I for one wasn't disappointed in the fight. Mayweather stuck to his plan and won by keeping Pacquiao out. I think a lot of people are just disappointed because Manny didn't win and Mayweathers style isn't the best to watch but it is effective. What's funny is, after the decision was called, people were booing in the restaurant and some guy flipped his chair over; The place cleared out within 2 minutes of the decision.

My friend and I were one of the few people that stayed back to listen to the interviews. I don't think we'll see a fight of that calibur in the future but I would be down to watch a rematch if it happened. There is that whole shoulder injury as well (I'm surprise they would allow him to fight with an injury like that). I wouldn't use that as an excuse for Manny though since he knew what he was getting into and he should've reported it earlier if it was an issue.

That's pretty much it. Went to Free Comic Book Day, Sport Card Expo, a family gathering and Boston Pizza to watch the fight all in the same day. Good times, good times. Now you can see why I don't have much time to update this blog lol. Next blog entry I will talk about my first tournament and the Qbert and Ztrip concert I went to this week.

Untill next time!

Free Comic Book Day 2015

Hey Guys!

I know it's been a minute but so much stuff has been happening so I couldn't update this blog until the long weekend (Happy Victoria Day BTW!). I decided I'd celebrate by finally updating this blog and filling you guys in on what's going on, as well as, set my Twitch account back up so I can start streaming some games again (probably Street Fighter).

So on Saturday May 2nd I was out all day because everyone decided to throw an event at the same day but at different times. Let's start with the morning and that would be:

Free Comic Book Day

A couple of friends and I decided to go to Free Comic book day and our first stop was a comic shop called Stadium Comics in Shoppers World. There was a long line but it was good to see this event gaining so much popularity. The guys that throw the event did an awesome job and had more then just free comics! There were also great deals in-store and they had an artist section where you could meet comic artist and talk to them about whatever you want (or buy one of their prints if you wanted). I bought this Cammy statue (had to support that Street Fighter):

I also got The New 52 Zero Omnibus which was on sale for 40 dollars!

We got a total of 5 free comics from there and decided to head to the Comic Warehouse and see if we could score some more comics that we didn't get. When we got there at around 1-2 PM, it seemed like the rush had died down and most of the popular free comics were gone. Fortunately, they still had a good selection and we were allowed to take one of each of the remaining comics (so about 8?), They also had a sale where all the dollar comics were 50 cents each so I picked up about 40 comics from there. Some of my favourite picks from were:

I didn't know Double Dragon had a comic book so I had to pick that up (did the same thing when I found out it had a movie...wasn't the best decision but its Double Dragon!). I also picked up the JSA vs Kobra because I didn't know about that crossover and it sounded intriguing. I purchased the Deadly Hands comic because the cover looked groovy and for 50 cents I was down to find out what it's about. Lastly I got that Generation X comic because I'm a fan of Howard the Duck (yes even after the movie, I'm still a fan of Deadpool after Wolverine Origins aswell).

I also bought a bunch of X-men comics and I saved the best finds for last...

 The Obama comics! (lol why does this exist? I had to get them just because I find it funny that this is real). Now it's time to show you why we went to this event in the first place...

The Free Comics!

Luckily I was able to get all the comics I wanted (Street Fighter, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, TMNT, Attack on Titan and Hip-Hop Family Tree). Surprisingly, my friend that went to a Burlington comic shop was only able to get 1 free comic which is odd as most places give you 5. If you live close to Stadium Comics and the Comic Warehouse in Brampton then I highly recommend those places. After this event we went to the Sportscard & Memorabilia Expo in Mississauga. I will cover that one in my next blog post which will be up soon! (maybe in a couple hours, didn't want this blog post to be too long). Also check out my Instagram if you want to see the events I go to:

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