marril2k's (mis)adventure to
stadium challenge: eastHey everyone, well I am black from the Stadium Challenge: east and it was a great event, and once again, I met many people and took lots of pictures. So here we go again, an event from my point of view…
Friday March 15th, 2002
The day started off like any other week day for me, get up at 6am, catch the bus to school at 6:43am est. I went through another school day, then once again caught the same bus back home to get back about 3:02pm est. Once I got home, I logged back into my computer and started preparing for one of the most rushed event preparation I would possibly do yet. I immediately started printing out my promos I would hand out, Gene's Onix for the public, Courtney's Ninetails for Zeo staff and other special people, and a prerelease of Steve's… well I don't want to ruin it for the people attending the gym challenge: Boston :P. After spending about a half hour or so getting the promos ready, I packed my shirts, pants, soap and stuff, then gathered my decks, league, stuff and the master ruling document in print form :D. I was about ready to leave at 6:25pm est, and I hit the road, after stopping a few towns over to pick up my sister which my mom invited so she wouldn't be alone when she headed off shopping on Saturday. Well I was on the road for about 3 and half hours when we took a wrong turn in NY, which took us off the map quest directions, so we got lost for two hours, on the NJ turnpike, and kept going in circles. Finally we asked at a toll both (the same person we saw 2 times already), she gave us the correct directions, and let us go through with out paying. Finally we turned off the highway to a fork where I noticed off in the distance was a upn station. I convinced them to drive a little farther on that road, when [insert ta-da wav file from old Microsoft 95 os], the Crowne Plaza hotel. Finally! We pulled up to the front door, I got out and wandered around through the lobby trying to locate where the event would be tomorrow, had no clue, so I asked at the front desk. She said it would be through the glass doors at the far end, then take a mini hallway and you would be in the lobby of the convention room. Well we checked in, I had my room key, next up, park the car on the parking structure, fun :D. We parked on the top level, grabbed the bags, it was now about 1am, I was really, really tired. I was heading back to the hotel when a group of people walk buy, about 2 minutes later, I realized I just walked past the Zeo crew, doh! Slow reaction -_-. From here I just headed to the room, to find out my key was not programmed correctly, so I had them fix that tomorrow, and we used my sister's room key. In side, it was a small room, and the toilet over flowed the moment my mother just used it… great, bad hotel room. It turns out I would be awake for the next hour waiting for the cot and Plummer guy, so I took out my promos and assembled some, and got my back pack ready for tomorrow. So far, interesting trip, what will happen next after my four hours of sleep I questioned my self before I went to sleep. And the answer was a very interesting one…
Saturday March 16th, 2002
The morning started like all my other trips to these events, well not really. As the alarm clock slipped from 6:14am to 6:15am a really loud and bad radio station signal woke me up, as I wandered out of bed to the shower, where I would realize this is the first trip I didn't forget my soap and have to use the hotel soap which they provided :D. I got dressed and put on my semi-recognizable blue tropic shirt. I headed down to the lobby to fill out my deck form and finish assembling my promos. Well sitting down there assembling the promos a familiar person came up to me and asked "master marril?" I said yes, and it was char wolf who I met at the last Boston QT, and I think once he came up to my league. Anyways, I gave him a promo, and asked for his assistance in assembling my promos, and in return he would get a Courtney's Ninetails, and he accepted. Thank you to him, with out him, I probably would have not had any promos to handout, or at least the number in which I ment to hand out. When we where near completion of the promo assembly someone came and asked for a battle, and I told char wolf, if he wanted to could take the challenge, I could finish them up, and he accepted, and I thanked him. Then I finished my promos, and headed down to the convention center, it was now 7:10am est. I walked down into the hall way and then the lobby, where everyone else way standing. I was told that only professors could go into the room. Well with 182 (on the 16th) days till I could take the test, I figured why not walk down there any way, mtm is probably in there. So I walked down, and said hi to mike, and gave him a promo, and returned back to the lobby, when I noticed everyone formed a line… great I was stuck at the end -_-. When my luck turned around, professors came out with a box of pens and forms, for us to fill out, yet the tables where in the convention center lobby, I ran to the tables, filled out the form, and returned to be near the front of the line :D. About now ray and joe showed up, I let them come up near the front and gave them each one of the onixs, and they told me of their adventure coming down cutting off a few cars and busses. Well it neared 8am, when the doors to the convention room opened, and we all got to go in 5 at a time. I walked in, registered, forgot about the $10 entry fee… at least I always go to these events with money. I walked around taking pictures, turned in my completed deck form, and wandered around. I found a table that joe, ray, and a few others where sitting, having a team battle, so I watched (still no sign of ech and pure, sleeping is my guess). I was sitting around when with my luck, dmtm called me up to the registration table… it seems my deck list was 3 cards short, doh! Walked back to the table, took out my deck and realized I forgot to right down the 3 focus bands that where in the deck. Added the focus bands to the form, turned it back in and then saw mike standing around near the professor playing area. I headed over and talked with him a bit, mostly about the "other league" of NH, that sells league kits, he told me they are still working on "leagues" like that, and then I asked him to sign my school course selection guide for the next school year. He signed near the course Child Development II with a saying next to his name that said "its about me!" and I got a good laugh out of that. I walked around taking more pictures and watching the team battle, when ech and pure walk in, but I didn't notice till joe said something. I walked over behind them and said hey. They handed me official Zeo promo #13, Baracus (Larvitar). I fished around in my backpack till I found the 3 card pack I had for ech and pure, and apologized that I didn't have enough time to finish packing the promo package in seranrap. Then I looked though my backpack for the imakuni style fakes featuring the Markuni font, and they really liked them, and I think ech really like the Den of Echidna's promo. Then I looked around in my back pack for the photos from San Diego, when I realized I left them on my bed at home, along with the Disney passes I made for everyone, along with a few other things I ment to bring. I walked around with them for a bit, then pure ran off and I was following ech when his camera died, so I let him use mine for a bit. Then ech ran into the new staff shirts sitting on a table, and asked mtm if he could get one for pure and him self, and mike said yes, so they ended up working that day, instead of playing, oh well. Well then the announcement was made that the morning announcements would start soon, so I said by to ech and pure (who returned some time after), and headed to the tournament area, and had a seat, pretending to lisson but I faded in and out, as I searched for my damage counters, which I know I had that morning, but lost. Once announcements where done, I got up and ran to the lost and found, nothing yet, so I found ech and pure, asked if they seen any damage counters and gave them a description, they had not seen anything, and started the hunt that would last a long time. Then I found head judge guy, described my damage counter issue and he offered to keep an eye out and gave me a new dci randomizer dice to use that day. Then parings went up. Kind of disappointed I lost my damage counter bag (which also contained pikachu coins for the league), headed to my round one opponent. Each opponent I faced I handed them a Gene's Onix till I ran out, when I started to give out Mystery Gift promos to my opponents about round 5, but we are still at round one. I sat across from him, and asked if I could borrow damage counters for the round, he agreed. I won that round, which is about a first for me at large tournaments, with out not having an opponent or getting a bye. After round one, I walked around still in search of my damage counters, nothing was found, and it was now time for round 2. I walked over to my new opponent handed out a promo and played, I lost this battle, oh well. Left the area, still in search nothing yet. I about now, I met JDGloom and Nova, they are fun people to hang around with, and then round 3, a win, no damage counters yet. But round 3 had to be the weirdest round yet. My opponent would be someone who ended up sitting at the playmates next to me for the rest of the day, it was weird. After round 3 I located the Zeo table and had a seat, and met up with vash for the first time at this event. I talked with him and the rest of the Zeo Crew 2002 east for a bit, then checked on the damage counter situation, nothing yet :/. Round 4, I lost, no counters yet. Before round 5 I met vash's brother, and then talked more with the Zeo crew, then round 5. Another game, another promo handed out but finally, something all players waited at that point, LUNCH! I headed over to the Zeo table waited around for a bit, then ech convinced me to get a Zeo deck skin. Although I had no change at the minute, he did that glair from San Diego, which messes with my mind :P. So I agreed I would get one, and convinced him to give me about 3 minutes till I got my food and had change. So I slowly ran off, but first, I checked in with the lost and found, and they actually had my damage counters :D. The bag they where in was a bit slippery, my guess is the person who found them used them in a tournament, had lunch, then turned them in. I counted everything in the small mp3 player pouch, everything was there, and got lunch. I spent $6.50 on pizza and a coke, then returned to the table. After my lunch was eaten I purchased a Zeo deck skin. Now the deck skin had to be the weirdest thing I had ever purchased, mainly how it worked. Ech gave me a quick lesson on how they worked, yet I still didn't get it. Well I messed around with it for a short time, then decided I would have time to figure it out later. I took out some pretzel flavored gold fish, and offered them to the group. Ech signed one, and handed it to pure, then she handed it to jdgloom who ate it. So I took out my sharpy and started a new fish, and passed it around, yet I had no clue where it ended up, oh well. Then the Zeo crew headed off to get in a draft really quick, and I went off into round 6 of the main event with my damage counters. I sat down, next to the same person I sat next to for the last 3 rounds, handed my opponent and promo and played again. After round 6, I walked over to the draft area to see how everyone was doing, and they just finished drafting. Walked back for the final round of my tournament today, and it was a good ending with a quick loss. I walked back over to watch the end of the first round of the draft (I wished I dropped and played in the draft, it looked fun, plus my last to battles where losses anyways). I watched the draft, got pictures of the place and just walked around mostly. I headed over to the Pokémon center stand, they where handing out promos from the store if you gave them your email address, and since I already receive junk mail from many places (thanks to who ever gave my email address to a junk mail list), I filled out 3 forms, and got 3 promos. Nothing much happened, it was around 5pm now, and I was kind of tired. I watched as the tournament area for the 10 and under and the 11-14 quickly was broken down in to the finals set up. And then watched as the called out the final players. And then waited for the finals to start. The finals went quick with jonathan brooks winning the 10 and under and eric brooks getting the trip for the 11-14. I kept walking back and forth from the finals and professor event. I asked mtm if it was ok if I took some extra energy cards that where sitting on the tables in the back from the professor draft, he said take what I needed with in reason, so I took some energy. Then watched the finals with vash and jdgloom as I bounced back and forth between the two events still remaining. From here when the finals where done, I watched mainly the professor event and sat at a table with peep toad watching ech and pure's stuff. And playing around with the deck skin I got earlier, the deck skin can be a great item, but it also is weird. I finally got it to work when I realized it is also double as a puppet hat :P. Once the professor event was over, with a person I knew from him coming to the league a few times, bob callahan came in second losing to gregory sauk who took the win for the first professor event. Now ech and pure where talking to mike, and I was just around, when mike asked everyone to leave. The Zeo group was the last to wander out of the room, and we were off to dinner. The original plan was to go to the olive garden, but that changed for the one and only sizzler! After placing the orders, we headed to the table on the far end of the restaurant. I followed vash around to the other end of the table when everyone started sliding across the booth, down to the end where vash was (who sat at the end), I walked around and ended up sitting at the final booth seat, with peep toad the last to arrive took the end seat of the table next to me. Immediately our end of the table took some thinking when we arrived to call us the "table wasteland" at least it was not a table of 30, we where able to break the communication barrier more then we did in San Diego. I quickly got out my sharpies and a blank form and folded it in half and made my first sign of the night: "hey Zeo Crew!" Later I changed it to say: "hey Zeophytes, Zeo Free Rangers, Zeo Honor Guards, adminguris Zeo, Zeo Grand Pooh-Bah, Team Hoax, and the rest!". Then the dinner came, I got the mega bacon burger and then half way through the meal "The Preregisered Beginning" where able to get there drinks refilled in larger glasses, doh! It was still a good dinner. Then we headed out of sizzler to redermin the car seating for the short trip back. It just ended up just the same, peep toad, myself, and joe, crammed into the ray car :P, everyone else in vash's. Everyone else headed back to the hotel, we had to search for peep's hotel, we ended up going around the whole east coast super trainer showdown area to find it, when it was right next to sizzler the whole time. Well then it was time to say good bye to peep as we dropped him off and headed back to the crowne hotel, just in time to get… lost, when the upn station saved us, but we still got lost. We arrived at the crowne in time to track down ech and pure. We crept through the halls of the hotel quietly till I heard what I thought was pure's voice. I came up to a block of 2 doors, and 2 doors across the hall. I lissoned till I figured it was room 317, and slowly knocked on the door. And pure answered. They where just doing nothing big in the room, so I headed back to the elevator, and said good by to joe, ray, and some other person that followed us for some reason. They headed in the downward elevator, where I went up. I went into my hotel room, dropped my stuff off and headed down the vending machine, which didn't work. So I headed to the elevator to head down a level to get a coke when the person in the elevator was heading down to floor 3, so I followed down to floor 3 also. I stopped at the vending machine, then headed back to room 317, when ech answered the door, and I just wanted to say good bye to him and pure, when dmtm said it was all right for me to come in. I headed back up to my room 1003, grabbed my back pack, headed back down, just in time to challenge pure to 2 vs battles. The first time she won by prizes, and the second time she one because I knocked my self out with out realizing it. It was just about midnight/1am when dmtm, pure, gloom, and ech decided to do a team battle. I watched and took pictures, for pure using her camera. It was about 1:30-2am when I figured it was time to head back up to my room. I said good bye to everyone, and left. I got back to the room, and went to bed. The end to my first event of the 2002 Challenge Series.
Sunday March 17th, 2002
I woke up at 8:12am est, to pack up and get ready to leave the hotel. It was Sunday, and that ment my self, my sister, and mom where going to tour NY. We headed down to the lobby to eat breakfast at 9am, then came back, grabbed the stuff, ditched it into the car. Then my sister waited out side for the hotel shuttle guy, my mom checked out at the front desk, and I sat over in the lobby area, till I heard someone say "I don't think he remembers us." And I looked over to see dmtm and I think pokesensi sitting over across the lobby area. I said hi, then ech and pure came over and told dmtm that they where running a bit behind, and I said good bye to them, and said that I was off to tour the city. It was a good way to end the Pokémon part to the weekend. Next up, NY! I got into the hotel shuttle, which took us to a bus stop, which we then took to the transportation center, which then took the subway, to the statue of liberty @_@. I was confused, but we made it. Then when we arrived at the statue, we could not find a way over to it or find a boat to take us, so we look a look at the statue from a far, and I got a picture of it from a distance. I was starting to get a bit cold, as we walked down the street to ground zero. It was a much smaller area then I imagined it. It was just a view to remember, as you would look up and there was a building with a black curtain type object over it with an American flag hanging down, and all you could see was the building's side ripped open. It was just an amazing sight to see, and to immagen that all the people died in that small short area. After the ground zero we headed off to locate a taxi to catch a ride over to Rockefeller center, home of the one and only Pokémon Center USA. It was a ride over but once we got there, we got lost, searching for the center, we walked around the nbc building only to learn it was south of where we where dropped off, the area with the flags and ice skating spot. We walked down, and the store was a lot cooler then I have seen from the photos. I waked around, the second floor first, when I noticed the Pokémon machine I heard about. But with my luck all I had was Pokémon silver in the car, and crystal, gold, and all the other games back in NY. It was still cool to see. I wandered over to the card game shelf and picked up 2 packages of the center's deck sleeves, and a plush marill to sit on top of my computer monitor. I walked down stairs to pick up a mini figure of marill to put on my shelf which sits above my computer, and that concluded my stop at the Pokémon center. Now it was time to wander our way to the subway, which we would take back to station 42 and wander our way to 8th ave, where we could catch the bus to Secaucus plaza, where we would call the hotel shuttle guy to take us back to the hotel. Once we where back I wandered inside to use the bathroom, then it was on the road again for the next 5 or so hours, which I entertained my self with the Zeo deck skin, and making my hair staticy.
The End...Over all it was a great trip, and I was glad I was able to meet everyone again. I would like to thank those who I played as opponents for the great matches, char wolf especially for the promo assembly, that kid that I always sat next to after round 3 for the great entertainment he provided, ray for the ride to sizzler and back, those who sat at "the table wasteland end", the mt's and wizards for putting on another great event, and ech and pure for the Zeo promo and for Zeo it self. I look forward to meeting those who attend the Gym Challenge: Boston, my next challenge series event. All for now,
-Marril2k
The Legal Stuff: All material ©2000 - 2002 by purity, Ech, and their respective owners. Pokemon is a registered trademark of The Pokemon Company/TPC