[back in elbi]

I was itching to get online when I got here, but now that I finally *am* online - I had so many things to say, so many stories to tell but tight now somehow I am unable to write about them.

Actually, I was itching to get back here more than I was itching to go online. I think I'm a bit excited to finally get back to work, finish my practicum and spend the summer here in Los Banos. Too bad she doesn't have plans to summer class, so I guess I won't see her much - but then again, I think there's something I can do about that. Anyway, I'm just happy to be back.

[gebrankan ownage]

I'm fresh out of the MGDR Internet Cafe 3v3 DoTA tournament and watching the replays here on Brian's PC, and just a few hours ago, we won first place. I mean... HELL YEAH WE FRIGGIN' WON FIRST PLACE! CHAMPION! Here's the story:

I was supposed to leave for Makati (and go straight home to Baguio) , but I decided to hang around a bit longer with Dianne, Louis and Cherrie. The tourney was scheduled April 7, 5:30pm, and Louis and I originally had no plans of joining, since we lacked one team member (the China-man) and we had no one else to complete the team and hopefully match-up against Marksman and the rest of (the real) team Gebranka. But since Dianne was with us later that afternoon, I thought we could draft her and join the tourney just for the hell of it (no offense Cherrie, I trust you in a lot of things, but not in your DoTA playing skills ^^). I figured we had a fighting chance as long as we could compensate for Dianne.

We were practicing our line-up a bit in h5, when something so WTF happened: we were informed that team Gebranka got banned from the tourney. Why? We found out later that a lot of the teams who were supposed to join backed-out at the sight of Marksman, Francis and Celsus ('yun yung WTF - Dianne, Louis and I would've still joined the tourney even though Marksman was there. Laban lang!). For the tournament to continue, more teams were needed to join - hence the ban. I heard it was team Ziggurat who requested the ban on Marksman's team.

With that, Louis and I signed up as team Gebranka with Celsus (we had to sub Cel for Dianne - to Dianne's relief ^^). The organizers allowed the sub, since it was only Celsus joining and not the whole Marksman team. The Clan's name was riding on our shoulders (gah, the pressure!), so we had to do our best. And besides, for me, someone was watching. I couldn't lose. ^^

The Rules: 3 on 3 Teampick, no feeding, no Necronomicon, 2 Mekanisms per team limit, backdooring allowed. Coin toss winner picks which side (Senti or Scourge). Final round is an Allpick match, where the coin toss winner gets to pick the first hero, opposing team picks the next, hero-picking proceeds in turn order until all teams have 3 heroes.

Preliminaries: match against the Ziggurat netcafe team
download replay

We win coin-toss and pick Scourge. Line-up: Me/Medusa, Louis/Lich, Cel/Krobelus. Sentinel line-up: Rhasta, Sniper, Sven. Medusa gets owned in the early game by Rhasta, Lich and Krob successfully control lanes and leave Sniper and Sven severely underleveled - they surprise us by using inefficient builds (Sniper caster build, Sven.. whatever build, Rhasta wtf double-Eul's build). Lich and Krob push different sides in midgame while Medusa is left to farm. By the endgame, full force pushes finish off Sentinel frontyard.

Semifinals: match against a team from Calamba
download replay

We win coin-toss and pick Scourge again changing our line-up to Me/Doombringer, Louis/Lich, Cel/Krob. Sentinel line-up: Rhasta, Syllabear, Morphling. The game was easy, Lich treating Rhasta like a noob, Krob harassing Morph, and Doom level-locking Bear. Rhasta and Morph constantly switching lanes to get away from Lich. Rhasta (who never got above boots, mantles, ciclets, a ring of regen and a sobi mask) constantly being Doomed in every clash. It was a bully-game. We only lost one tower, but not against a decent push, but against creeps we ignored because we were having too much fun. This is probably our best game: best creep stats, towers defended, most frags and least deaths.

Finals: match against Ray, Arct and Dim from Area51
download replay

Area51 wins coin-toss and surpisingly picks Krob as first hero not Lich (we figured it was to deny Celsus his Krob), so -as if we won the coin toss- we pick Lich, Sniper goes to them, Cel picks Shadowfiend, they pick Venomancer last, and I pick Doombringer as planned. Me/Doombringer, Louis/Lich, Cel/Nevermore; Ray/Krob, Arct/Sniper, Dim/Venomancer. We were all able to hold our lanes, though barely, at the start. Doombringer eventually level-locks Venomancer, Lich supresses Sniper, and Nevermore prances around, gaining insane creepkill stats. We were able to successfully incorporate travelling chicken with wards, flasks and townportals in our strategy, and I think it's what gave us the game. We gained the upper hand in lane-control up until midgame (avoiding ganks and ambushes) and started pushing lanes when we got our high-level items (SangeYasha and Aegis for Never, Soulbooster and Mekan on Lich and Linken's on Doom with SangeYasha on the way). From there, it was only a matter of keeping the Sentinel crippled until we could finish off the outer towers.

Although our victory is mostly attributed to not-so-good opponents who've never even heard of the Lich Dark Ritual build, who use inefficient builds, and, of course, the absence of Marksman and Ewan, a win is still a win. And there you have it, GG. GELO!!! Wish you were there. Para sayo laban na yun!

I'll be leaving for Baguio later today, and I know I'll be riding the bus with memories of yesterday still fresh in my mind - with a grin on my face I'll ignore the stupid bus music, enjoying my ride home, and looking forward to spending Sunday in the beach :D

[china-man]

One of my closest friends here in Elbi is leaving for China tomorrow, he'll be staying there for 3 years. I have a lot of things to say, and I'm having a bit of trouble trying to organize my thoughts (had a few beers just now), I'll try my best to say whatever I have to say.

Mimsas has pretty much said everything I have to say on this; that when I first met this guy I never expected him to be one of the closest friends I'll ever have. Some of the best lessons I've learned in life, about people, and about myself, I learned - directly, indirectly, intentional and unintentional - from him.

Here's to the China-man, the most generous BANK in the world, the Co-creator and author of the Pusoy Dos project -the darkside of the lightside of my concept designs-, Kupunan ni Eugene's teamleader and DoTA guru, the guy who should've been the boss of Skewed Studios, the guy who's arrogance and single-mindedness I've always hated, but (and I'm not ashamed to say it now) who's complete confidence, will, wit, and influence without even trying I've always envied.

Here's to great friends and great times. Gelosas, Mabuhax!

-Ansas

[f1]

Faith. And patience. I know I'm taking a while, but I'm learning.

[version 6! hell yeh]

Dapat nagrereview ako para sa finals ng STAT pero ok lang... kasi sulit ang nasayang kong oras sa kakabutingting ng blog ko! Bwahahaha!!!

I was trying to draw something that had a person with a katana, a pencil and a fish.. so I came up with this under-water layout with the banner located at the bottom of the page, with a pearl diver-ish kind of character with a fish, a sword and a pencil with a couple of seaweeds and corals and shit at the seafloor. Unfortunately, I couldn't -for the life of me- draw that scene I was picturing in my head. So I gave up on it, and decided to just look for some images on the net I could turn into a banner (due credit going to the artist of course), and then it occured to me - what if I just gathered images that had a sword, a pencil and a fish in it and just put them all on one picture.. something like a collage or, something like the one you're seeing right now.

Anyway, that's this new design's story. I'm thinking of taking out some inactive links in the sidebar... there's just too many things in there.

Have a great summer break everyone.