Cruising w/Kata & Cheeky
Once again I am up very early. Two and a half hours of sleep may kill me, but I hoped to make it anyway. I finally had time to walk around and check things out, so Kata Jade, Cheeky_monkey and I cruised around the vendor booths for a while. Cheeky and I filled out the Nvidia survey to receive a free Doom 3 t-shirt, and we grabbed a deadman poster over at the Zboard booth. We stopped at the a-bit booth to wait for Ms.X to play against Fatality in a Doom 3 tournament. I also desired to have both Suga and -beta play but one didn't show and the other requested not to be in it. 

Some of the girls paid attention to the notice we had near the Geekwearz booth and showed up at 10am. While they were there I posted a note and requested for everyone to meet at 1pm for a group photo shoot. I was upset that last year's tournament had the girls playing at late hours, then they'd request for them to show up at 9am. I wanted all of them to enjoy Quakecon and not have them feel like it was an job to be in MsQcon (even if the prizes paid pretty well).  Hey, last year we were in a mind set of getting done what had to be done. There was no time for figuring out people's free time hours! This year I wanted it to be fun first, then competition.  

Doom Frags at A-bit
Arriving the A-bit booth, I asked a guy who was displaying the Fatality products if he had seen Mark Walden. He was no where to be found so I was a little worried. Mark had mentioned to be there at 10am for the Ms.X vs. Fatality competition. I found a co-worker who knew about the arrangements and he called Mark on a cell to fine tune the details. They mentioned that Fatality was still in the Doom 3 competition and would hopefully be back in 20 minutes. Mark showed up at the booth and told me to jump on one of the Doom 3 competition computers to frag a little. He didn't want the computers to stand idle while we waited for both Ms.X and Fatality. I didn't mind at all. I wanted to see what the id guys had done to multiplayer since I hadn't bought Doom 3 yet.

The last time I played MP was at last year's demo display, so the changes on it were very impressive. Douglas Wong from PWX organization and Fatal1ty systems jumped on to play me. He kicked my bootay around for a few minutes then felt a bad so he started using his punches on me instead of the guns. I yelled at him for trying to make things easy on me. hehe. He said, "Okay, get out your fists, lets just punch each other."  That was the funniest way to play, although he was still hurting me pretty bad! I had his cell phone number and called him later that evening to tell him I enjoyed playing with him... but as soon as I enhanced my Doom 3 skills I'd enjoy a rematch. He told me he was up for the challenge once I knew the game more. 3ntropy walked up at introduced himself when I walked off the Tournament Platform. I don't recall what conversation we exchanged so he may have to refresh my memory. ;P

Arggh, Photos Delayed
At 1pm only half of the MsQGirls showed up and I began to worry. I had originally planned on leaving right after this photo shoot. This would allow me to leave at around 2pm, and get home in the evening. Now I am grateful I didn't, but at the time it sure seemed good to be home in my own bed! I told all of the girls there to meet back at 6pm. Missy had gone with her brother to watch Aliens vs. Predator in a theatre in town so it was a good thing the photo shoot was delayed. 

CNN & Miss Hummingbird
Chris Morris from CNN caught up with some of us that were lingering after the MSQcon meeting. On Friday, Chris introduced himself and asked if I'd be willing to talk to him about Ms Quakecon tourney. At the time there was too many things going on, but I had time today. It was a nice surprise to have him drop by. The ladies I recall who were still hanging around were Kata_Jade, Meska, Kryminal, -beta and Cheeky_monkey. Meska made a point that I thought was so sweet! She told me something like: "CaliGirl, you were like a hummingbird during the tournament. You were everywhere, non-stop, going back and forth as if we were your flowers to nurture."   I didn't realize how they saw me! It was very neat to hear them say such nice things about me! [CNN Article Results]

Few Video Camera Crews
I was surprised to see a few camera crews covering Ms Quakecon. G4TechTV wanted to talk to me about the event on Thursday but so many people came up to me all at once I didn't have a chance to talk to them. Kevin Pereira seemed to stand out on Thursday due to the robe he was wearing! I envied how comfortable he was, and all of us girls told him how we wanted to be in a robe at Quakecon but couldn't!

Gamer.TV asked a few girls and I to come back to talk about the event around 4pm. They had already had a chance to talk to Ms.X, the champion of the tournament, but would like to get a little more insight from the other girls. The video interviews went well. I believe suga, -beta, and I were interviewed. One of the three Gamer.TV guys happened to be British. I talked to him about Scotland and Ireland while the rest of the girls were being interviewed. We talked a lot about how each culture, even South Africans, have a type of lingo, but we all speak English. There are terms people can take the wrong way when you aren't from that country.

I Graduated...
After the photo shoot I felt like I just graduated from college. Everything didn't go 100% well; there is always something that can be improved. Overall, it was my first tournament and I was relieved that the majority of the girls walked away with a smile.

Flashpoint
I didn't want to pack up my computer on Sunday morning since my plan was to head out at 5 or 6am the next morning to get home by 11am. p24t knew I was antsy to get my computer in my truck tonight or I wouldn't relax and enjoy the rest of the event. We went to the BYOC area to grab my things. He grabbed the tower, I grabbed my monitor and kept my accessories at the table since I would come back for them. After walking about 20 feet I realize that gravity was going to take my monitor. I have become such a weakling!  p2 got worried and told me to keep the monitor on an empty table. He took off and brought back a Flashpoint to help. Both guys carried my stuff to my truck. I am so grateful to have such heroes!

Spicey pipes the Frebreze
Once again, I noticed Spicey working as a busy bee. She had some issues arise concerning the Doom 3 tournament. Through out the event she was a majestic whirlwind with everything she did at Quakecon this year. She made sure everyone was happy and satisfied with how things were going. I later joked with Spicey and p24t that we need to get some type of deodorizer next year. Many of the guys in the BYOC line took off their shoes and the smell would trail down the halls!  She mentioned an idea bout a pipe down the halls that would spray Febreze every hour. Although, She felt it would mess up all of the computers so it wouldn't be such a great idea, even if it would be good for the hallway hygiene. I have to admit many of the guy gamers are noticing more game girls coming to these events. A couple of guys told me how each time they'd be standing somewhere they knew when a girl was in their presence. No, it wasn't because of the clothes or long hair; it was because they would smell perfume that would turn their heads. Hey ladies, it may not be just looks after all, eh?  So as for Spicey, she reminds me of a sister I never had! It's always so much fun being in her presence.

Trillian & Deeay from ITG Radio
Deeay and Trillian happened to be away from the Radio IGN den so I went to talk to them for a while. They were in the process of covering the Doom 3 tournament finals. I mentioned how happy I was to finally meet both of them after knowing them online for all of these years. I notice Trillian's expression turned from a smile to a look of confusion. She told me she had met me back in 1998 at the PGL Finals. As she started describing when we met I had a flashback of this really young girl walking up to me to say, “Hi!”. I was too much in thought to mention it to her. I totally remember her coming up, but not taking note of her nick name. I also did recall her saying she was a little new to Quake back then.

Today we both talked how exciting that PGL was for both of us, no matter how small it was at Club-i in San Francisco. Trillian mentioned the big difference between how huge Quakecon was and how small PGL Finals were. I wish I took more notes back when I attended PGL 1998. Majority of it was by memory but I did take a handful of notes. I feel awful I didn't mention her in my PGL 1998 journey article. The good thing about taking pictures with someone is that memory lasts.  I feel pictures are a secure thing when you do journalism. Much lub to both of you girls! In addition, one person I was pleasantly surprised to meet from RadioITG was eekabeep, she's such a sweet girl!

Myshra Is Old School
I saw Yossman working it as usual with his sporty glasses. Myshra caught me off guard when she walked up, grabbed my badge to flip it over. She mentioned how it was nice to meet an old school Quake gamer. Myshra, Yossman and I talked about the current games we were playing. Myshra was into City of Heroes, a game that I played for a few months. I stopped playing a few weeks before Quakecon because I had to pick between Star Wars Galaxies or City of Heroes. Since I put too many hours into SWG, and didn’t have the heart to get rid of my Creature Handler character I chose SWG. Plus the expansion is coming out. Myshra is one of the of game gals who you really want to get to know more. Her love for games and kick ass attitude makes her shine. Definitely a gal no one should miss out knowing!

DLister - The Party Hopper
DLister passed by and I spoke with him for a few minutes. He just got back from the HardOCP party, but was headed to the VIP party near the tournament finals. He mentioned there would be some food so a starving girl like me followed. Funny thing about the VIP party: I was told when I walked in that I needed to have my I.D., buy I forgot it in my hotel. The hostess gal told me that I couldn’t get alcohol since I wouldn't have a bracelet, but I could get something to drink that was non-alcoholic. I requested an ice tea only to find out that it wasn't available. The bartender girl was extremely rude. I then requested a fruity drink. The only problem was that the girl boozed the drink up. I had a flighty buzz for the next hour. I didn't mind, but I drank it like it was water. I still have no idea what she put in it. Some of the people I recall seeing while being buzzed were Sluggo, CNN's Mario, Kenneth Scott, Eagle1 and a handful of others. After eating a little roast beef, DLister and I headed to the HardOCP party. I told him I never met any of the guys who worked at HardOCP so he told me he'd show me where the party was.

Cyrc & Anticonscience
Both of them walked up with an "oh not YOU again." Look on their faces. See what I have to put up with these PlanetDoom guys? They gave me a hard time as normal... but then they begged me for some concert tickets. Dlister and I walked back to my hotel room with Anti and Cyric to see if I had the red glow sticks. They weren't there so I felt they had to be in my truck. I knew I had at least 10 of them left from the bag KrazyAnnee gave me for the MsQcon Girls. Once I got to my truck I still couldn't find them. I had no idea where they went. Finally, Dlister told the guys that they could get in the concert area without the Glow Stick tickets and they were gone in an instant. Man, I felt so used. ;)

[HyD] FragMaster (FrgMstr)
After talking to DLlister for a while about games we enjoyed, I mentioned we had been at this party and I still haven't met any of the HardOCP guys. DLister walked me over to introduce me to Kyle Bennett. As he said my nick name, Kyle grinned and said something like, "I heard some people mention CaliGirl was here. I was wondering where you were. I used to play you Quake with you when I used the handle, FrgMstr."   My whole body went into shock after he said that handle, and the fact he was standing right in front of me to boot. I had been trying to reach this guy for the past 4 to 5 years and here he is standing there in front of me!

FrgMstr and I met back in the Quake 1 days when he was in clan Hyperdeath. We used to play Quake 1 DM a lot, while many of the other HyD clanmates were excessive Team Fortress goobers (Editor's comment: there’s nothing wrong with TF!). Back in the early days of Quake, it was all about NetQuake DM for me. Quake TF was for sissies who were handicapped if they played Quakeworld. That was just my way of thinking early on. So when I met many of the Hyperdeath guys they all played Quakeworld DM. I gradually pulled myself away from NetQuake since many of the HyD guys became such good buddies of mine. 

My brother, DarkViper, started getting hardcore into Team Fortress and was recruited into clan Hyperdeath before I met Fragmaster. He tried to get HyD to recruit me into their DM squad. Both Slipmat and FrgMstr took me under their wing to get me more familiar with Quakeworld DM. I never did join the clan. I followed the Xtreme Prejudice path and joined them instead. 

FrgMstr was a guy I had been trying to get a hold of to update and create an old bio I had of him in my personal photo album. I told him at the HardOCP party that he has an old picture of his wife (at the time it was his girlfriend) in the photo album. Since he no longer uses his old alias he was hard to reach. At the time he said his nickname I must have said, "Oh my gawd!" at least 45 times. I even told him I needed to sit down because it was just so absurd how after all of these years we see each other in real life this way. I do recall back in the day Fragmaster went to Quakecon annually since he lived in Texas, so it all made sense that he still attends the event now. This is one of the craziest circumstances I have been in a long time. I really missed our old times!  :(

Yossman & Wendigo Snapshot
I desired to get a picture of Fragmaster but my camera was having difficulty focusing. There was nothing but a big glob of blur. DLister called Wendigo to see if he could come to take a picture for me. DLister mentioned both Yossman and Wendigo would be up in 20-30 minutes. 15 minutes later I was able to get my camera in focus and I took a picture after all.

Mplayer Triple Threat Guy
When I got back from getting some fresh air outside, Fredo told me I absolutely needed to check out the bathroom since there was supposed to be a telephone and TV in there. I laughed at the thought. A guy with blonde hair was in the bathroom showing a few of his friends. I noticed this guy most of the night for some reason. I don't know if it was his yellow shirt, dark tan, or blonde hair that made him stand out as a California boy or what. I still have no idea if he was from California but he just seemed very familiar to me, I was curious of who he was.

I introduced myself and shook his hand. He mentioned his name and who he was. When I mentioned who I was and he replied, "Oh, I have never heard of you." then he went on about what he is known for: Mplayer's Triple Threat Tournament back in 2000. He won the online ladder and was able to win a trip to E3 to compete in the Triple Threat Tournament Finals. When he said Mplayer I totally went off on him for not knowing me.  I said, "If you were in the tournament, then why wouldn't you know of me?" He looked a little confused when I asked him that question. By then I was getting a little upset. Not really at him, but that frustration you get when you are trying to get it into someone’s head. This time I repeated myself and waved my name badge in front of him. Maybe if he SAW the text CALIGIRL he would associate it better than me saying it. I went on and told him how I worked at Mplayer for about 4 years, and was at the booth a lot that year since I was displaying XtremeNetwork.com at a kiosk for them. I met all three of the guys who won the ladders and were going to play in the Triple Threat Tournament. I asked him if he heard of DarkViper before. He replied, "Yes, of course I know of DarkViper!"  I told him, "I am his sister!" He was completely blown away and replied, "Are you serious?"

We talked a bit about our fond memories of playing on Mplayer and how to this day, there hasn't been a place like it. Something that freaked him out was my photographic memory. I actually have freaked guys I have dated in the past with it. I told him I did recall meeting a guy that was flown out from winning the AVP ladder. Although he was much thinner, he had long blonde hair, and he wasn't tan. He seemed awestruck, yet almost looked scared from how well I remembered him.

Wendigo Adoration...
Just a minute after talking to the Triple Threat guy, wendigo walked up and asked what picture I needed to be taken. I told him I didn't need one by now. I was surprised wendigo talked to me in the first place. I figured he was either a guy with a huge ego, or he was just a little shy from the encounter I had a year ago. I asked him if he had seen the TV and Phone in the bathroom.  After he took a few pictures, we walked into a nearby room and somehow got on the subject of Command and Conquer. I was surprised to find he was into C&C at one time like I was. He couldn't seem to be able to convert to Red Alert too. What was even more crazy is that I told him a story about what happened when I was extremely addicted to C&C. I normally won't tell just anyone that humiliating yet psychotic story. Within 30 minutes, that boy had me so captivated on every word he said. He is simply one amazing man. Definitely a keeper.  Since wendigo was wearing a black hat I had to try it on. It matched well with my Leopard Blouse! I wanted to keep it that night as a wendigo Qcon souvenir when I found out he wears it at Qcons each year.

I feel really bad that Yossman and erwin walked up while I was telling wendigo my humiliating C&C psychotic story. They didn't want to interrupt so they left. I feel so awful, I was in deep thought and well, I didn't even really get a chance to get to know erwin a little more. :(

Solarizing
During the event Solar kept encouraging me to relax a little more, but you may have noticed by now that I was a work-a-holic with this tournament. Finally at the HardOCP party he found out I was there and brought me a Vodka/Redbull drink out of the blue. I was finishing up my discussion with wendigo at the time. It was nice to be able to finally relax and talk to him for a while, even if it was very brief. :/

More Party Peeps!
A few people I also bumped into at the party were Miles, Redwood, EvilJohn, Nate, milez aka huggabear, Meska, Fatality, milez, SkyGoddess, p24t, Paul Magyar from Telefragged, and Finger.

I also met some other people that I didn't know, nor did I care to know who they were. They were out on the balcony asking me if I was the CALL Girl everyone was talking about. I was like "uhh, my nickname is CALI, as in CALIFORNIA Girl." One blonde guy in particular asked me out on the balcony to talk to him and I refused to do so. Plus I was looking for someone at the time. Go figure.. in your dreams dude...

Even More Wendigo... *sigh*
We all headed down to what ended up being the smoking deck since the party was stirring up, and security officers sort of broke up the HardOCP party. I noticed Yoss, wendigo, and a few other guys out there so DLister, Solar and I walked up to talk to them.  I can't help it. I desired to break up with my boyfriend because of wendigo, even if I wouldn't have! I think he has some mind control powers on girls. I heard quite a few game girls ask about him. I wonder what that is about! *swoon*  All I recall doing is asking Yoss to help me... he was able to calm me down after a while. I was happy to finally have wendigo blushing a few times that night.

Evil Genius
Some people who were hanging out left by 3am. I noticed a guy who I hadn't really talked to yet so I introduced myself. He looked as he was planning on sneaking off himself so I caught him before he made a move. He flipped his badge over, which showed EG. I asked him what it stood for and he said Evil Genius. For some reason I connected EG with Kiljoy. Back in the Quake 1 days KJ would talk about EG from time to time. Evil Genius is a very neat guy to talk to. I wish it wasn't the last day when I met him or we could have talked more in person. :/

Melinko's & wolfey Flips As Clay's Heats Up
As I was out on the smoking deck (NOT smoking mind you) a few of the guys like Melinko, wolfey, Solar, DLister and Clay were hanging out. Clay was talking about how much Mplayer sucked so I chewed his head off for his comment. I dug further to find he was a Heat.net goober.  We talked about the background of Heat.net, and how it was Mplayer's licensed product but enhanced to be more hardcore. I'll give him that much credit. ;P  While I was talking to him two guys enjoyed flipping us off. First, Melinko, who was a bit drunk, came up to flip me off. I pouted and asked him what the heck I did! He told me he'd figure something out. Then wolfey came up to flip off Clay. hehe. I comforted Clay with a few words for wolfey being so mean. ;)

Chappy, Stirge and Sam's Praise
All three of these guys were such sweetie pies! I had the the chance to get to know them a little more this night since I had more time to mingle with them. Chappy is one of the most upfront honest guys who speaks his mind. But I wasn't expecting for them to gang up on me! I won’t go into details on what was said, but I will however say it brought into light on how I pictured some game guys. Overall, they felt that I represented game girls with the utmost respect – even how I dressed. But most importantly, they also respected many of the game girls in the MsQcon tournament for their love of games. These guys either know how to swoon a lady or they're just really special guys!

[Back to Quakecon 2004 Journey]

Thanks to RadioITG for the Deeay/Trillian photo, Spicey
for the Zboard deadman poster shot, Oncoming for GTV/Solar picture, a big hug goes to Redwood for Wendigo/CaliGirl photo,
and lastly, thanks to wendigo for Evil Genius picture.