The Kroger years part 8... Stuff not invovling Kroger it self.. probably the most boring section ...
And the story goes on... This is a reaaaaaaaaally nerdy post.. probably the most game related...(hopefully for the last time at least..)you've been warned.. It wasn't meant to be this way.. but anyway..
So not much longer after that summer CVS2 was announced. Around this time is when me and Matts "relationship"/"friendship" maybe started to show its first signs that it was ended. It was probably around this time in the "KROGER DAYS" that Matt had been fired for drinking on the job, or stealing beer again, the story differs sometimes.
For a random funny story to add to this, after he got fired from Kroger, he started working at VGs almost immediately. Well, he didnt work there for long as well he could make much more money just selling drugs. So whats the point. However the one funny story about VGs I remember is apparently one day while bagging this hot girls groceries he got a boner or something. And the girl asked him if he could carry the groceries to the car for her. Well he did, and he basically just stood there right in front of her with a boner. And she was like "yea I noticed, thats why I called you out here. I think its cute. But your to young for me." Or something like that. And then Matt left work or something and jacked off? Ha...
Oh well I laughed, hell I laughed right now even typing it at the stupidity of it. But you know ive seen and heard of a lot of stupid things in my life, quite a few of them involve Matt as well so I believe it. Actually I even brought this story up to him recently, and I guess he had forgotten, but he had a good laugh about it again though.
What its like to be young I guess..
Anyway after that yea Matt started getting into more of his life of trouble. I honestly didn't see him much after that but a few times. As a matter of fact I clearly recall one day might walking into Krogers one late night while I was working and his hair had grown quite long, to the point of he actually had a pony tail with blonde streaks through his hair. Only time in life ive ever known Matt with long hair but he had it. I don't remember us talking much though, but he was living with some guy I think and "NO" from school days. Apparently he said he had a chance to bang her but he had dropped the ball, which to my knowledge is one of the few things he has said hes regretted.
Of course it wouldn't be to much after that fateful day that one day while I was at work apparently Matt showed up to my door stop drunk and beaten up. He tried asking my mom for help apparently, but it wasn't much longer after that as the story goes that the cops came. Matt got pissed at my mom and accused her of calling the cops but apparently the cops were getting calls about a kid walking through town intoxicated and thats how they caught up with Matt eventually. It didn't help probably that after that then Matt tried to run.....
He would go to Juvenile for the next 6 months I believe. And I don't think we talked but once if that. He told me something to the extent of he didn't have anything to say about it really anyway. As he already knew what I would say. I guess if you know me you can guess my usual nonchalant sorta sarcastic bluntness of a personality that I have.... And writing this perhaps that personality was evident even then, because I remember in a way being impressed that Matt felt that way, and that it was big of him.
Not sure how to explain that.... The same feeling I got when my grandma told me while at the end of conversation and I was getting off the phone that "you don't have to say you love me, I know I never did anything for you" one of those kinda things.
Whatever the case this is getting a bit ahead of the story..... So lets go back a bit...
So yea CVS2. Meh.. CVS2 technically died pretty fast for me. I only played it but a year, and then after that I just did the whole "ill enter a tournament every now and then, but wont play it play it anymore".
My horrible luck in all things including games had perhaps already started beforehand though and would continue to the first CVS2 tournament. I basically came out of nowhere and started raping everyone. I played a ton of characters through my first few matchs and then switched to just a chang/kim team. I even beat Floe from Chicago who supposedly was the shit. But if one recalls I also was beating him in CVS1 that I remember at MWC before I got sick. So whatever. I ended up losing to Julian right before the winners finals, as I got my first real taste of Wizzard sticks. I literally kept jumping at him trying to super, and I kept getting a kick like 2 or 3 times which would have killed him each match. And well Sagat does a lot of damage. I was pissed but I remember not being to worried, because honestly I was steam rolling through the tournament pretty handily up to the point.
Its funny though ive gone back and looked at tapes of me from that tap and I definitely had a bit of a cocky attitude when I played games... Its kinda embarrassing actually lol.
Unfortunately all though I had gotten this far by that time it was actually like 3 in the morning. And I had come STRAIGHT after work. Strangely enough my mom drove me. So it was like... I HAD to home. She just couldnt wait any longer. The tournament wasn't suppose to take that long, but to many people and not starting on time kinda fucked it. So again maybe not totally bad luck per say but....
So with CVS2 I sorta started my journey into a new sorta group of friends. Part of me regrets it but I also started up with the whole jokester kinda thing as well. Making jokes at my own expense to be friendly. I guess I was sorta the kid as well. I was only 16 playing with in general quite a bit older dudes then me. Its that strange sorta feeling... Again I never asked to be "the cool guy/dude" label that I started to get during the Kroger days. But in a sense who doesn't want to be that kinda guy? Right? But its hard to make friends like that with older people for sure, and I guess of course you want to think that people think you are funny.. Right?
So I guess its kinda hypocritical but yea...
So I would start to meet a lot of new people during these days. Of course some relationships could have been better but again its hard to trust anyone completely because of what happened during MWC just a few months earlier.
I suppose again even I can see that I did have a bit of a cocky air to me as well. Its funny because when I first started becoming friends with Nate and after he dropped the bomb to me that he was gay(as he told me because he thought I was gay)he went on to say that my attitdude and personality was the hottest thing about me or something? lol
...meh....
I also became better acquainted with Bhaskar, AJ, and Scott(who I would meet through Bhaskar bringing him over one day), and the Saginaw guys, And of course to this day the AA guys are some of only people I "regularly" talk to.
Honestly even typing this I feel ive devoted to much time to CVS2 so im really gonna try and just go into some random thoughts from this "time"...
-CVS2 was basically the end of Arcade stick world for me. I hadn't obviously gotten sick at the point the game started, but I had already crossed into the land of only having ONE arcade stick towards the end of CVS1 after Matt decided to play baseball with my stick. So the problem was my brother also still played games on and off at that point, so I decided I would play on a DC controller from there on more or less, UNLESS I was at a tournament for Arcade. Im not gonna like and act like I was totally "uncomfortable" at the thought of playing on a pad mind you. But it did kinda suck, and obviously was a disadvantage. And please do not get it confused with that cliche thought that people liked to think about me that "all I did was play games". So saying that, that I could practice on arcade stick when my brother wasn't there. Dont forget I HAD a full time job. I may have been younger then most guys but I WORKED. I also played OTHER games besides fighting games.
So this is simply not the case.
Which of course brings me to my Achilles heel of never being able to get use to Arcade sticks during those days. And of course which would lead to many MANY frustrating situations throughout the time I played CVS2.
During that short time I actually "cared" a bit about games to the point I would get frustrated. Although during my time played the game I always did well and basically always got from first to fourth in Michigan tourneys, theres also many tourney where that fourth was just from me walking away from the machine after getting frustrated with the sticks...
The classic "MASSU FIREBALL" is a good example, and a term I made that I still use today. Which basically stemmed from me getting hit by random fireballs while assuming I was blocking.
In a sense you could say I actually didn't "lose" per say very much at CVS2. But I certainly was a quitter that much is for sure.
I guess its stems out of I didn't have respect for others in the game. I have no problem saying that CVS2 was also my first taste since I had started my journey into the internet that I actually knew more, and was quite a bit more creative then most people. If you look even way back during those days of CVS2 the stuff that was found, etc. A fair amount was from me. I WAS the first person that posted certain tactics, strats, bugs etc. But because I was a nobody back then I didn't get credit for it. But then later on someone like Bucktooth or Majerstros(I honestly don't even know these guys names shrug..)would post it, and then they would get credit..
....
Strangely enough the one thing I DO seem to get credit for is something I didn't even find. The CVS2 Kim infinite. I just found a diff way to do it, but to this day ive still seen people say that I was the one that came up with it. But its not true. I think the thing about those are just that I was the only one during those beginning days that actually went for it per say, or those Kyosuke combos.
I guess going back to the respect factor it was always frustrating that VDO and TKK were considered the best from MI as well. When if you look at me vs TKK to my knowledge ive beaten him more then hes beat me. And VDO if you count team tournaments(OK thats kinda iffy but roll with me here)I think I may have beaten him a bit more as well.. Or were even maybe...Certainly I remember losing to VDO more one on one. But in team tournaments I think off the top of my head I recall 3 times just OCVing he and his partner period in tournaments. Not super real.. But I think it counts for something. Also in general in out of state tournaments I out placed them as well. Meh... I should note I think VDO and TKK are cool dudes. And I don't really have anything against them. Just me being a vain and arrogant bastard I guess.
Again it was just hard for me to respect Detroit guys. Terrel also gave me a bad vibe, as people have said hes talked shit about me how "hes only lost to me once(or maybe he said never I forget off the top of my head)in a tournament ever." Shit like that. When ah... its like dude, that I remember the only tournament YOU beat me at was the horrible accident of a tournament called the "Massu stick tournament"(basically instead of the tournament being purely arcade, Massu brought in HOME made arcade sticks, for everyone to play on... It was a huge failure... moving on)... hell I remember one time I came to AA way after I had already stopped playing CVS2 and I just decided to enter it on a whim, and I had to vs Terrel and then Bhaskar or someone came up to me and started talking about how Terrel said "I was for free or something, and that hes never lost to me ever".. Well.. I ended up combo videoing him twice during the match that I remember...
Of course problem being that Terrel looks like he could eat me for breakfast. Dude is pretty big, and buff looking. So its hard to be mean to him, when he sorta 2 faces a bit and is nice to me. As well.. its sorta like a game of life and death. But Its definitely a uncomfortable feeling. =/. I guess I could note besides the shit talking, he did seem like a fine guy. shrug...
As I said the whole CVS2 thing didn't last long whatever the case. I think only a little over a year? As from what I recall the last tourney I was even sorta "into" was the Main Event tourney which was I believe in October or November, and CVS2 came out in September of the year before. And saying that the last tournament that I TRAVLED to with the thought of CVS2(and part of it was just the whole experience of it)was the Montreal tourney in January a couple months later when I actaully got a journal. Anyway whatever the case...Even that perhaps can be slightly misleading as around the time of CVS2 I also started getting into GG more, and well... Once RC was found in CVS2 which was pretty early on in the games life span my interest in the game significantly dropped.
Other random memories of CVS2 tournaments would be...
-The first Toronto tourney I went too. I believe it was strangely enough a mix of the Detroit guys and Saginaw. I became a little infamous as by that time the hate for me in the game community had already started. So people wanted me to lose. Well I lost my VERY first match as well since I drove with Detroit guys you can imagine how late we were. Justin(the guy who was running the tourney)was nice enough to delay it for us till we got there as well we were driving 5 hours there.(Meh.. morally I at least still feel bad about it).. But since we were so late we had to go in cold and I think maybe 15-20 mins after I got there I literally was up. No practice no nothing. And I ended up losing. I should note it was a fairly large tournament for the time around 50-60 people. Well I was pissed at the turn of events and basically went on to get 4th in the tournament while going through and beating basically at the top players of TO. One of the moments I became known for is I basically had assumed the weekend was a loss and decided to BS the rest of my match's and actually started having conversations with people while I played. Not the guy I was playing mind you, but the people in the back. I even explained how to do the infinites in the game while beating JS master. Which became a bit of a tale afterwords.
I would eventually lose to temujin(?)I think after I fucked up a few times as I had him dead to rights. Which after words he would then call me a scrub, and on the boards he also started calling me out about "how I needed to admit to everyone how I was not good, and thats the only way I could ever become good. And that I didn't deserve to place in all the tournaments I was." Its like what the fuck? Where did that come from. A quick note the tournament ended with I believe Southa getting first, VDO getting second, and Temujin getting third. Southa and Temujin were actually from Montreal and Montreal at the time(and maybe still is, I don't follow games much anymore)was considered basically the best in Canada period. But yea as the story goes not quite a year later I would actually go to Montreal where I would actually beat almost everyone before losing to Arcadekid including JFL(who was considered one of the best on the east coast of NA period for a time)where everyone in the arcade bummed rushed me, hugged me, and yelled in my ear and apologized for calling me a scrub. I still can remember that till this day in all those French accents "Your no scrub Final showdown" "no scrub could ever beat JFL in a tournament" etc etc *while shaking the shit out of me*
For other stuff I remember about the tourney. Well I remember almost getting raped at the KOF2K1 machine. I may have still been in the long blond pony tail phase during this time, cuz I remember sitting down bored and all of the sudden some guy drunk beer in hand(id be lying if I said this place wasn't a bit ghetto. Hell I even recall reaching for my wallet while outside and VDO even telling me "wtf are you doing. Do you see where we are?"... yea it wasn't the best of neighborhoods) sits next to me. All of the sudden he starts trying to butter me up, telling me how "pretty I was" and other mumble jumbo that only made since to him. I kept trying to give Raul the "COME OVER HERE AND FUCKING SAVE ME FROM THIS DUDE" eye. But I remember it was probably a good 5-10 mins before he realized what was going on and came over and started playing with me.
-There was another trip to Toronto for a tourney I went with my Mom, her BF at the time, and my brother. There isn't much to say about it other then it was a lot of the kinda "is this tournament over yet?" as it started really late. So I had that looming over me the whole time which sucked. ALSO my brother got robbed during the tourney. I just remember it was like I start to play my match and someone runs up to me and there like, "Dont worry Clayton its ok, hes fine, but your brother got robbed. Dont worry hes fine though! Just come with us after the match." Its like... "........"
-I guess for a final story for CVS2(unless I feel like writing something else.. Again its hard to write about this, as it somehow just doesnt feel very important...)was EVO2K2 I guess? First time going to California. I remember playing some Japaneses guys in XX and doing pretty well vs them even though it was my first time playing the game(as I had only played X before)and it was on arcade. But the Japanese were asking my name, but I knew no Japanese at the time so... we couldn't really communicate.
I remember doing really well durning casual. I was beating the Japanese, I beat Valle, Watson all that stuff. Hell actually besides when he beat me at that one MWC, in general when ive played Valle I won. Shrug go figure.. HOWEVER one bad thing happened from this. While on the campus internet I was browsing SRK and people started posting about how I was beating all these people in casual but THEN people started saying I was going around and talking shit about it. Its like WTF!? To who? =/
Again just my luck. I think this is the EVO I played Wong in KOF and OCVed him with nothing but jump CD Ryo. I remember I had heard he is good(and he very well could be)but ... I won literally doing nothing but jump CD and the last match ended in a time over as well. And I remember Flash(some NYC guy)giving me a "Is this n*gga serious?" sorta look.
I remember I saw Suzu at this tournament to who I had a quick little crush on as I guess I have that thing for lips and she was wearing bunny ears and meh... I actually thought she looked good. I think part of it is to is im not particularly inclined towards Asian girls so when I see one that I find remotely attractive its probably doubled.
EVO staff fucking with me and even though at the time they had that APEX shit and I was suppose to be seeded they decided not to seed me. I don't remember what I got in CVS2 but I remember some dudes being mad pissed about losing to me. I got one place from the final 16 that year? In ST as I unfortunately got fucked and once again I got placed vs Japanese very early on as would be the case to every EVO I go to. Again I was suppose to be seeded in the first place. Anyway I once again ran into bad luck, I had a chance to guarantee my spot in the top 16 or whatever. But I fucked up. Cole who was in my bracket as well(who would go on to winning the whole tourney)and he ended up actually losing to Eric Choi. So it was me and Eric Choi then in the winners finals. I fudge up something and it ends up going 1-1. Final match we both have no health left, he does a early jump in HK, I obviously see its early.. Hell even if it wasn't early it didn't matter cuz block damage woulda killed him so unless he also just landed to dp he was dead, well.. I did get anything, and walked forward to a attack and died....
...
I ended up going to losers, who right off I had to vs a Japanese guy that beat me. Then Cole beat him and well it was Cole and E. Choi got the spots for the top 16. Just my luck.. shrug
Other then that not much to say.. It was the tournament I ended up somehow becoming friends with Veteru somehow. And I remember me him and I think Dave(who I knew from Indiana who just so happened to have family out there)just walking around chilling. I remember the weather being great all weekend. And I think at some point Veteru climbed some statue at the campus. Although talking to him right now, he says it was in fact me not him.. shrug... Anyway..
I remember there being a lot of dead birds for some reason on the ground that year.
Eugene and Chad from Michigan also came and I remember them giving me a ride back to the hotel once and then getting lost. And Eugene had all these Transformers drama CDs and well... we ended up listening to that for like 40 mins trying to get back. I remember trying to make a little joke about it, but he gave me a look of death. I guess to sound cliche black dudes seem to like Transformers... So don't talk shit about it.
Im gonna end the CVS2 shit there... maybe ill post more about those days later but its tiresome...
So while the CVS2 days were going on and I was getting into GGX from Alex. You know I think I called him "AF" when I started writing this but whatever ill just call him by his name from now on. I got to a pretty ridiculous level pretty quickly in it I guess...
I remember Jon use to drive down to play me every now and then, and it was bad. Like... were talking he would come down, and lose 50-0 pretty regularly and then just drive a hour back home. Hell sometimes he would even bring his GF with him. Im sure it looked pretty bad. I mean not that im sure girls are turned on by games in the first place, so im sure he wasn't thinking something like "(ill beat Clayton, and she will get super hot for me!)" kinda thing but... yea bringing over your GF just to watch you get beat 50-0 probably isn't to good. Hell she once told me a pretty sad story that one day the beating was so bad... Like I dunno maybe he even went to a 100-0 or something, and she said Jon cried on the way home...
....
So yea CVS2 had ended and around that time as well I think Matt got out of Juvi. Are "relationship" again was a bit strained. I remember him being pretty horny about CVS2 to play games again but by that time again I was already sorta tired of it.
SC2 would come out though so that would be our excuse to play games. We might see each other at Blasters or something like that. But, "unfortunately" Matt finally found a game he was better then me at, and well he talked a lot of shit about it like I said earlier and made the game not fun.
He would even go as far as during one tournament I was beating him then during the last round when I was winning he suddenly walked away from the machine claiming his stick didn't work. Now... don't get me wrong, im not gonna act like the sticks were great, and they very well could be fucked up. But how the hell are you gonna do that in the final round? Its pretty suspicious. And well then I ended up losing.. I was pretty pissed about that.
Also perhaps me being a bit anal but he also use to not wait for me in tournaments and would pick my character and then just start the match stage and everything. And be like "Come on I picked your guy the time is already going hurry up" I should have stopped him there and said "WTF dude wait for me."... I guess just going by the beginning of the match matters ya know? But I was pissed when he would do this so....
I even remember at some point Matt had talked so much shit I started routing for him to lose. I remember clearly hoping that Scott would beat him in a tourney, and I remember one tourney when he VSed Jo-el he tried to pull something like me and started the match and picked the stage all that stuff(which Matt didn't like ring outs so he picked stages where it was harder to ring out lol shrug... And of course your not allowed to pick stages in tourneys.. Its suppose to be random)I remember even yelling when that happened as it was the finals of him VS Jo-el but Jo-el said something to the extent of "No matter what he does, it wont matter" lol. Ha thinking about it now.. it actually sounds kinda cool. But at the time I remember being kinda pissed. Although also thinking back on it now, besides the fact that Jo-el was good in the game he also was biased towards Matt, as well of course he had a man crush on Matt. And literally wanted to bone him. Of course at that time I didn't know he was gay lol. Actually speaking of that, funnily enough, unlike Nate who just randomly came out to me, I dont think Jo-el even did that. It was a sorta "(yea Jo-el might be gay)" sorta thought sometimes.... but one day he just started talking like I must have been told for sure, and it was a matter of course...
Meh anyway Jo-el won the tournament....
PHEW.... a few random stories before I stop again...
-Around the time that I got that modeling job, my mom told me she called my insurance and somehow got it approved for me to get my teeth whiting for free. Thinking about it now, it sounds extremely suspect and I should have known something was up but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Well back in the day(or maybe they still do it sometimes like this), they modeled my mouth out of something and then give me strips that would PERFECTLY like form my teeth or something. Well anyway after this is all done I started to leave and they were like "sir you haven't paid us yet." Im like.. "What my mom said it my insurance was covering it." My mom who was also there was like "Well I thought its better to have your teeth be really white when you do the modeling stuff..."
Obviously I realized I was duped. Whats worse is I ended up not even being able to use the stuff cuz my teeth were to sensitive for it. So I was out of I think $200-300 something dollars. =/ Guess who did end up using it though? My mom. =/ X2
-One day while walking home from Blasters late at night a hooker stopped us. Well I didn't know it was a hooker at the time, and even saying it now it seems strange as what are the chances of a hooker in Brighton? But I digress. She came up to me and we started talking and chating it up, untill the group of guys I was with pulled me a way. And they were like "DUDE what are you doing you want your first time to be with a hooker!?" I was like "what? she was?" And then another dude was like "No way, she was a under cover cop probably. Your lucky your young or she woulda busted you.." Random story that I remember shrug... Also funny cuz thinking about it, it almost implys that I would flirt with a girl which is fairly ludicrous. Although I have been accused of it before so....
-Back to fun trips while hanging out with everyone....
One day while a big group of us was at Dennys I believe I rapped a full song about everyone like all 15 of us or something. I remember it being "ok" I guess.. But I guess others have led me to believe I actually did a really good job that night of it. As a matter of fact Jon actually recently posted that it was his favorite gaming moment ever of hanging out with friends on SRK. Maybe he was just being nice, but it was pretty random of him to bring up so whatever the case I do appreciate it. lol
I also think this was the first of Rauls mooning... Raul had complained that the waitress was slow so he wasn't fast enough so he wasn't tipping her.. I was unpleased and paid his tip for him. After we left he started mooning everyone. Random...
While coming back from MWC one year with Jon, Raul, Bhaskar and Scott, I think Scott fell a sleep at Dennys while eating. You know though saying that, although I think its Scott, considering how often Bhaskar fell a sleep randomly during those days it very well could have been Bhaskar. All I know is we decided not to stay the night, and drove home from Chicago late one night, and got back to AA like at 5am, and who ever it was kept falling a sleep while eating. It was pretty funny. Like he was basically blind, his eyes closed the whole time just randomly searching for his food, while then falling a sleep.. Definitely one of those things I wish I had taken pics of.
OK I gotta stop there... Way to long... This is really getting just in the random storys thrown together territory as well..... More later I guess...
So not much longer after that summer CVS2 was announced. Around this time is when me and Matts "relationship"/"friendship" maybe started to show its first signs that it was ended. It was probably around this time in the "KROGER DAYS" that Matt had been fired for drinking on the job, or stealing beer again, the story differs sometimes.
For a random funny story to add to this, after he got fired from Kroger, he started working at VGs almost immediately. Well, he didnt work there for long as well he could make much more money just selling drugs. So whats the point. However the one funny story about VGs I remember is apparently one day while bagging this hot girls groceries he got a boner or something. And the girl asked him if he could carry the groceries to the car for her. Well he did, and he basically just stood there right in front of her with a boner. And she was like "yea I noticed, thats why I called you out here. I think its cute. But your to young for me." Or something like that. And then Matt left work or something and jacked off? Ha...
Oh well I laughed, hell I laughed right now even typing it at the stupidity of it. But you know ive seen and heard of a lot of stupid things in my life, quite a few of them involve Matt as well so I believe it. Actually I even brought this story up to him recently, and I guess he had forgotten, but he had a good laugh about it again though.
What its like to be young I guess..
Anyway after that yea Matt started getting into more of his life of trouble. I honestly didn't see him much after that but a few times. As a matter of fact I clearly recall one day might walking into Krogers one late night while I was working and his hair had grown quite long, to the point of he actually had a pony tail with blonde streaks through his hair. Only time in life ive ever known Matt with long hair but he had it. I don't remember us talking much though, but he was living with some guy I think and "NO" from school days. Apparently he said he had a chance to bang her but he had dropped the ball, which to my knowledge is one of the few things he has said hes regretted.
Of course it wouldn't be to much after that fateful day that one day while I was at work apparently Matt showed up to my door stop drunk and beaten up. He tried asking my mom for help apparently, but it wasn't much longer after that as the story goes that the cops came. Matt got pissed at my mom and accused her of calling the cops but apparently the cops were getting calls about a kid walking through town intoxicated and thats how they caught up with Matt eventually. It didn't help probably that after that then Matt tried to run.....
He would go to Juvenile for the next 6 months I believe. And I don't think we talked but once if that. He told me something to the extent of he didn't have anything to say about it really anyway. As he already knew what I would say. I guess if you know me you can guess my usual nonchalant sorta sarcastic bluntness of a personality that I have.... And writing this perhaps that personality was evident even then, because I remember in a way being impressed that Matt felt that way, and that it was big of him.
Not sure how to explain that.... The same feeling I got when my grandma told me while at the end of conversation and I was getting off the phone that "you don't have to say you love me, I know I never did anything for you" one of those kinda things.
Whatever the case this is getting a bit ahead of the story..... So lets go back a bit...
So yea CVS2. Meh.. CVS2 technically died pretty fast for me. I only played it but a year, and then after that I just did the whole "ill enter a tournament every now and then, but wont play it play it anymore".
My horrible luck in all things including games had perhaps already started beforehand though and would continue to the first CVS2 tournament. I basically came out of nowhere and started raping everyone. I played a ton of characters through my first few matchs and then switched to just a chang/kim team. I even beat Floe from Chicago who supposedly was the shit. But if one recalls I also was beating him in CVS1 that I remember at MWC before I got sick. So whatever. I ended up losing to Julian right before the winners finals, as I got my first real taste of Wizzard sticks. I literally kept jumping at him trying to super, and I kept getting a kick like 2 or 3 times which would have killed him each match. And well Sagat does a lot of damage. I was pissed but I remember not being to worried, because honestly I was steam rolling through the tournament pretty handily up to the point.
Its funny though ive gone back and looked at tapes of me from that tap and I definitely had a bit of a cocky attitude when I played games... Its kinda embarrassing actually lol.
Unfortunately all though I had gotten this far by that time it was actually like 3 in the morning. And I had come STRAIGHT after work. Strangely enough my mom drove me. So it was like... I HAD to home. She just couldnt wait any longer. The tournament wasn't suppose to take that long, but to many people and not starting on time kinda fucked it. So again maybe not totally bad luck per say but....
So with CVS2 I sorta started my journey into a new sorta group of friends. Part of me regrets it but I also started up with the whole jokester kinda thing as well. Making jokes at my own expense to be friendly. I guess I was sorta the kid as well. I was only 16 playing with in general quite a bit older dudes then me. Its that strange sorta feeling... Again I never asked to be "the cool guy/dude" label that I started to get during the Kroger days. But in a sense who doesn't want to be that kinda guy? Right? But its hard to make friends like that with older people for sure, and I guess of course you want to think that people think you are funny.. Right?
So I guess its kinda hypocritical but yea...
So I would start to meet a lot of new people during these days. Of course some relationships could have been better but again its hard to trust anyone completely because of what happened during MWC just a few months earlier.
I suppose again even I can see that I did have a bit of a cocky air to me as well. Its funny because when I first started becoming friends with Nate and after he dropped the bomb to me that he was gay(as he told me because he thought I was gay)he went on to say that my attitdude and personality was the hottest thing about me or something? lol
...meh....
I also became better acquainted with Bhaskar, AJ, and Scott(who I would meet through Bhaskar bringing him over one day), and the Saginaw guys, And of course to this day the AA guys are some of only people I "regularly" talk to.
Honestly even typing this I feel ive devoted to much time to CVS2 so im really gonna try and just go into some random thoughts from this "time"...
-CVS2 was basically the end of Arcade stick world for me. I hadn't obviously gotten sick at the point the game started, but I had already crossed into the land of only having ONE arcade stick towards the end of CVS1 after Matt decided to play baseball with my stick. So the problem was my brother also still played games on and off at that point, so I decided I would play on a DC controller from there on more or less, UNLESS I was at a tournament for Arcade. Im not gonna like and act like I was totally "uncomfortable" at the thought of playing on a pad mind you. But it did kinda suck, and obviously was a disadvantage. And please do not get it confused with that cliche thought that people liked to think about me that "all I did was play games". So saying that, that I could practice on arcade stick when my brother wasn't there. Dont forget I HAD a full time job. I may have been younger then most guys but I WORKED. I also played OTHER games besides fighting games.
So this is simply not the case.
Which of course brings me to my Achilles heel of never being able to get use to Arcade sticks during those days. And of course which would lead to many MANY frustrating situations throughout the time I played CVS2.
During that short time I actually "cared" a bit about games to the point I would get frustrated. Although during my time played the game I always did well and basically always got from first to fourth in Michigan tourneys, theres also many tourney where that fourth was just from me walking away from the machine after getting frustrated with the sticks...
The classic "MASSU FIREBALL" is a good example, and a term I made that I still use today. Which basically stemmed from me getting hit by random fireballs while assuming I was blocking.
In a sense you could say I actually didn't "lose" per say very much at CVS2. But I certainly was a quitter that much is for sure.
I guess its stems out of I didn't have respect for others in the game. I have no problem saying that CVS2 was also my first taste since I had started my journey into the internet that I actually knew more, and was quite a bit more creative then most people. If you look even way back during those days of CVS2 the stuff that was found, etc. A fair amount was from me. I WAS the first person that posted certain tactics, strats, bugs etc. But because I was a nobody back then I didn't get credit for it. But then later on someone like Bucktooth or Majerstros(I honestly don't even know these guys names shrug..)would post it, and then they would get credit..
....
Strangely enough the one thing I DO seem to get credit for is something I didn't even find. The CVS2 Kim infinite. I just found a diff way to do it, but to this day ive still seen people say that I was the one that came up with it. But its not true. I think the thing about those are just that I was the only one during those beginning days that actually went for it per say, or those Kyosuke combos.
I guess going back to the respect factor it was always frustrating that VDO and TKK were considered the best from MI as well. When if you look at me vs TKK to my knowledge ive beaten him more then hes beat me. And VDO if you count team tournaments(OK thats kinda iffy but roll with me here)I think I may have beaten him a bit more as well.. Or were even maybe...Certainly I remember losing to VDO more one on one. But in team tournaments I think off the top of my head I recall 3 times just OCVing he and his partner period in tournaments. Not super real.. But I think it counts for something. Also in general in out of state tournaments I out placed them as well. Meh... I should note I think VDO and TKK are cool dudes. And I don't really have anything against them. Just me being a vain and arrogant bastard I guess.
Again it was just hard for me to respect Detroit guys. Terrel also gave me a bad vibe, as people have said hes talked shit about me how "hes only lost to me once(or maybe he said never I forget off the top of my head)in a tournament ever." Shit like that. When ah... its like dude, that I remember the only tournament YOU beat me at was the horrible accident of a tournament called the "Massu stick tournament"(basically instead of the tournament being purely arcade, Massu brought in HOME made arcade sticks, for everyone to play on... It was a huge failure... moving on)... hell I remember one time I came to AA way after I had already stopped playing CVS2 and I just decided to enter it on a whim, and I had to vs Terrel and then Bhaskar or someone came up to me and started talking about how Terrel said "I was for free or something, and that hes never lost to me ever".. Well.. I ended up combo videoing him twice during the match that I remember...
Of course problem being that Terrel looks like he could eat me for breakfast. Dude is pretty big, and buff looking. So its hard to be mean to him, when he sorta 2 faces a bit and is nice to me. As well.. its sorta like a game of life and death. But Its definitely a uncomfortable feeling. =/. I guess I could note besides the shit talking, he did seem like a fine guy. shrug...
As I said the whole CVS2 thing didn't last long whatever the case. I think only a little over a year? As from what I recall the last tourney I was even sorta "into" was the Main Event tourney which was I believe in October or November, and CVS2 came out in September of the year before. And saying that the last tournament that I TRAVLED to with the thought of CVS2(and part of it was just the whole experience of it)was the Montreal tourney in January a couple months later when I actaully got a journal. Anyway whatever the case...Even that perhaps can be slightly misleading as around the time of CVS2 I also started getting into GG more, and well... Once RC was found in CVS2 which was pretty early on in the games life span my interest in the game significantly dropped.
Other random memories of CVS2 tournaments would be...
-The first Toronto tourney I went too. I believe it was strangely enough a mix of the Detroit guys and Saginaw. I became a little infamous as by that time the hate for me in the game community had already started. So people wanted me to lose. Well I lost my VERY first match as well since I drove with Detroit guys you can imagine how late we were. Justin(the guy who was running the tourney)was nice enough to delay it for us till we got there as well we were driving 5 hours there.(Meh.. morally I at least still feel bad about it).. But since we were so late we had to go in cold and I think maybe 15-20 mins after I got there I literally was up. No practice no nothing. And I ended up losing. I should note it was a fairly large tournament for the time around 50-60 people. Well I was pissed at the turn of events and basically went on to get 4th in the tournament while going through and beating basically at the top players of TO. One of the moments I became known for is I basically had assumed the weekend was a loss and decided to BS the rest of my match's and actually started having conversations with people while I played. Not the guy I was playing mind you, but the people in the back. I even explained how to do the infinites in the game while beating JS master. Which became a bit of a tale afterwords.
I would eventually lose to temujin(?)I think after I fucked up a few times as I had him dead to rights. Which after words he would then call me a scrub, and on the boards he also started calling me out about "how I needed to admit to everyone how I was not good, and thats the only way I could ever become good. And that I didn't deserve to place in all the tournaments I was." Its like what the fuck? Where did that come from. A quick note the tournament ended with I believe Southa getting first, VDO getting second, and Temujin getting third. Southa and Temujin were actually from Montreal and Montreal at the time(and maybe still is, I don't follow games much anymore)was considered basically the best in Canada period. But yea as the story goes not quite a year later I would actually go to Montreal where I would actually beat almost everyone before losing to Arcadekid including JFL(who was considered one of the best on the east coast of NA period for a time)where everyone in the arcade bummed rushed me, hugged me, and yelled in my ear and apologized for calling me a scrub. I still can remember that till this day in all those French accents "Your no scrub Final showdown" "no scrub could ever beat JFL in a tournament" etc etc *while shaking the shit out of me*
For other stuff I remember about the tourney. Well I remember almost getting raped at the KOF2K1 machine. I may have still been in the long blond pony tail phase during this time, cuz I remember sitting down bored and all of the sudden some guy drunk beer in hand(id be lying if I said this place wasn't a bit ghetto. Hell I even recall reaching for my wallet while outside and VDO even telling me "wtf are you doing. Do you see where we are?"... yea it wasn't the best of neighborhoods) sits next to me. All of the sudden he starts trying to butter me up, telling me how "pretty I was" and other mumble jumbo that only made since to him. I kept trying to give Raul the "COME OVER HERE AND FUCKING SAVE ME FROM THIS DUDE" eye. But I remember it was probably a good 5-10 mins before he realized what was going on and came over and started playing with me.
-There was another trip to Toronto for a tourney I went with my Mom, her BF at the time, and my brother. There isn't much to say about it other then it was a lot of the kinda "is this tournament over yet?" as it started really late. So I had that looming over me the whole time which sucked. ALSO my brother got robbed during the tourney. I just remember it was like I start to play my match and someone runs up to me and there like, "Dont worry Clayton its ok, hes fine, but your brother got robbed. Dont worry hes fine though! Just come with us after the match." Its like... "........"
-I guess for a final story for CVS2(unless I feel like writing something else.. Again its hard to write about this, as it somehow just doesnt feel very important...)was EVO2K2 I guess? First time going to California. I remember playing some Japaneses guys in XX and doing pretty well vs them even though it was my first time playing the game(as I had only played X before)and it was on arcade. But the Japanese were asking my name, but I knew no Japanese at the time so... we couldn't really communicate.
I remember doing really well durning casual. I was beating the Japanese, I beat Valle, Watson all that stuff. Hell actually besides when he beat me at that one MWC, in general when ive played Valle I won. Shrug go figure.. HOWEVER one bad thing happened from this. While on the campus internet I was browsing SRK and people started posting about how I was beating all these people in casual but THEN people started saying I was going around and talking shit about it. Its like WTF!? To who? =/
Again just my luck. I think this is the EVO I played Wong in KOF and OCVed him with nothing but jump CD Ryo. I remember I had heard he is good(and he very well could be)but ... I won literally doing nothing but jump CD and the last match ended in a time over as well. And I remember Flash(some NYC guy)giving me a "Is this n*gga serious?" sorta look.
I remember I saw Suzu at this tournament to who I had a quick little crush on as I guess I have that thing for lips and she was wearing bunny ears and meh... I actually thought she looked good. I think part of it is to is im not particularly inclined towards Asian girls so when I see one that I find remotely attractive its probably doubled.
EVO staff fucking with me and even though at the time they had that APEX shit and I was suppose to be seeded they decided not to seed me. I don't remember what I got in CVS2 but I remember some dudes being mad pissed about losing to me. I got one place from the final 16 that year? In ST as I unfortunately got fucked and once again I got placed vs Japanese very early on as would be the case to every EVO I go to. Again I was suppose to be seeded in the first place. Anyway I once again ran into bad luck, I had a chance to guarantee my spot in the top 16 or whatever. But I fucked up. Cole who was in my bracket as well(who would go on to winning the whole tourney)and he ended up actually losing to Eric Choi. So it was me and Eric Choi then in the winners finals. I fudge up something and it ends up going 1-1. Final match we both have no health left, he does a early jump in HK, I obviously see its early.. Hell even if it wasn't early it didn't matter cuz block damage woulda killed him so unless he also just landed to dp he was dead, well.. I did get anything, and walked forward to a attack and died....
...
I ended up going to losers, who right off I had to vs a Japanese guy that beat me. Then Cole beat him and well it was Cole and E. Choi got the spots for the top 16. Just my luck.. shrug
Other then that not much to say.. It was the tournament I ended up somehow becoming friends with Veteru somehow. And I remember me him and I think Dave(who I knew from Indiana who just so happened to have family out there)just walking around chilling. I remember the weather being great all weekend. And I think at some point Veteru climbed some statue at the campus. Although talking to him right now, he says it was in fact me not him.. shrug... Anyway..
I remember there being a lot of dead birds for some reason on the ground that year.
Eugene and Chad from Michigan also came and I remember them giving me a ride back to the hotel once and then getting lost. And Eugene had all these Transformers drama CDs and well... we ended up listening to that for like 40 mins trying to get back. I remember trying to make a little joke about it, but he gave me a look of death. I guess to sound cliche black dudes seem to like Transformers... So don't talk shit about it.
Im gonna end the CVS2 shit there... maybe ill post more about those days later but its tiresome...
So while the CVS2 days were going on and I was getting into GGX from Alex. You know I think I called him "AF" when I started writing this but whatever ill just call him by his name from now on. I got to a pretty ridiculous level pretty quickly in it I guess...
I remember Jon use to drive down to play me every now and then, and it was bad. Like... were talking he would come down, and lose 50-0 pretty regularly and then just drive a hour back home. Hell sometimes he would even bring his GF with him. Im sure it looked pretty bad. I mean not that im sure girls are turned on by games in the first place, so im sure he wasn't thinking something like "(ill beat Clayton, and she will get super hot for me!)" kinda thing but... yea bringing over your GF just to watch you get beat 50-0 probably isn't to good. Hell she once told me a pretty sad story that one day the beating was so bad... Like I dunno maybe he even went to a 100-0 or something, and she said Jon cried on the way home...
....
So yea CVS2 had ended and around that time as well I think Matt got out of Juvi. Are "relationship" again was a bit strained. I remember him being pretty horny about CVS2 to play games again but by that time again I was already sorta tired of it.
SC2 would come out though so that would be our excuse to play games. We might see each other at Blasters or something like that. But, "unfortunately" Matt finally found a game he was better then me at, and well he talked a lot of shit about it like I said earlier and made the game not fun.
He would even go as far as during one tournament I was beating him then during the last round when I was winning he suddenly walked away from the machine claiming his stick didn't work. Now... don't get me wrong, im not gonna act like the sticks were great, and they very well could be fucked up. But how the hell are you gonna do that in the final round? Its pretty suspicious. And well then I ended up losing.. I was pretty pissed about that.
Also perhaps me being a bit anal but he also use to not wait for me in tournaments and would pick my character and then just start the match stage and everything. And be like "Come on I picked your guy the time is already going hurry up" I should have stopped him there and said "WTF dude wait for me."... I guess just going by the beginning of the match matters ya know? But I was pissed when he would do this so....
I even remember at some point Matt had talked so much shit I started routing for him to lose. I remember clearly hoping that Scott would beat him in a tourney, and I remember one tourney when he VSed Jo-el he tried to pull something like me and started the match and picked the stage all that stuff(which Matt didn't like ring outs so he picked stages where it was harder to ring out lol shrug... And of course your not allowed to pick stages in tourneys.. Its suppose to be random)I remember even yelling when that happened as it was the finals of him VS Jo-el but Jo-el said something to the extent of "No matter what he does, it wont matter" lol. Ha thinking about it now.. it actually sounds kinda cool. But at the time I remember being kinda pissed. Although also thinking back on it now, besides the fact that Jo-el was good in the game he also was biased towards Matt, as well of course he had a man crush on Matt. And literally wanted to bone him. Of course at that time I didn't know he was gay lol. Actually speaking of that, funnily enough, unlike Nate who just randomly came out to me, I dont think Jo-el even did that. It was a sorta "(yea Jo-el might be gay)" sorta thought sometimes.... but one day he just started talking like I must have been told for sure, and it was a matter of course...
Meh anyway Jo-el won the tournament....
PHEW.... a few random stories before I stop again...
-Around the time that I got that modeling job, my mom told me she called my insurance and somehow got it approved for me to get my teeth whiting for free. Thinking about it now, it sounds extremely suspect and I should have known something was up but I didn't think anything of it at the time. Well back in the day(or maybe they still do it sometimes like this), they modeled my mouth out of something and then give me strips that would PERFECTLY like form my teeth or something. Well anyway after this is all done I started to leave and they were like "sir you haven't paid us yet." Im like.. "What my mom said it my insurance was covering it." My mom who was also there was like "Well I thought its better to have your teeth be really white when you do the modeling stuff..."
Obviously I realized I was duped. Whats worse is I ended up not even being able to use the stuff cuz my teeth were to sensitive for it. So I was out of I think $200-300 something dollars. =/ Guess who did end up using it though? My mom. =/ X2
-One day while walking home from Blasters late at night a hooker stopped us. Well I didn't know it was a hooker at the time, and even saying it now it seems strange as what are the chances of a hooker in Brighton? But I digress. She came up to me and we started talking and chating it up, untill the group of guys I was with pulled me a way. And they were like "DUDE what are you doing you want your first time to be with a hooker!?" I was like "what? she was?" And then another dude was like "No way, she was a under cover cop probably. Your lucky your young or she woulda busted you.." Random story that I remember shrug... Also funny cuz thinking about it, it almost implys that I would flirt with a girl which is fairly ludicrous. Although I have been accused of it before so....
-Back to fun trips while hanging out with everyone....
One day while a big group of us was at Dennys I believe I rapped a full song about everyone like all 15 of us or something. I remember it being "ok" I guess.. But I guess others have led me to believe I actually did a really good job that night of it. As a matter of fact Jon actually recently posted that it was his favorite gaming moment ever of hanging out with friends on SRK. Maybe he was just being nice, but it was pretty random of him to bring up so whatever the case I do appreciate it. lol
I also think this was the first of Rauls mooning... Raul had complained that the waitress was slow so he wasn't fast enough so he wasn't tipping her.. I was unpleased and paid his tip for him. After we left he started mooning everyone. Random...
While coming back from MWC one year with Jon, Raul, Bhaskar and Scott, I think Scott fell a sleep at Dennys while eating. You know though saying that, although I think its Scott, considering how often Bhaskar fell a sleep randomly during those days it very well could have been Bhaskar. All I know is we decided not to stay the night, and drove home from Chicago late one night, and got back to AA like at 5am, and who ever it was kept falling a sleep while eating. It was pretty funny. Like he was basically blind, his eyes closed the whole time just randomly searching for his food, while then falling a sleep.. Definitely one of those things I wish I had taken pics of.
OK I gotta stop there... Way to long... This is really getting just in the random storys thrown together territory as well..... More later I guess...