It's been a full week now since East Coast Championship 9, I still can not forget how fun that tournament was and all the people that I met there. Let's take a look back at this event and how it went. Twenty-eighth day of May, year 2004, I arrived at China Town Fair with "Lord UG". Awaiting us there were the first set of members of the Empire that were set to go to 8 on the Break for East Coast Championship 9, located in Dunellen New Jersey. As we gathered together and greeted one another, we waited for about a half an hour just to make sure that everyone arrived on time. Shortly during that time, I received a phone call from "Arturo" as he was on his way to the train station. Since we already had a set of people waiting at the train station anyway, we decided to rendezvous with him there. When we all got there we headed down to 14th street to transfer on the N to get to 34th street where the path train was. We all settled down and waited quite sometime for more members to meet us. During that time, GamingKnight and I had to make a quick run to pick up something from work. We took with us "Blue J" and Arturo as they went to pick up film. When we got back later, UG did a couple of interviews with some of the members there while awaiting our train. I made a short stop at the bank to ensure no problems when we got to the arcade. Xecutioner arrived shortly after and we all got our tickets and proceeded to board the train.

As we boarded the Iron horse (lingo term for train), everyone started to get a bit jittery about the tournament from who we were going to meet, to how it was going to turn out. During the train ride some of us played Gameboy Advance games or just conversed about random topics. We got off of Journal Square to transfer to another train of which forty minutes later, we arrived at Dunellen. We all gathered in front of the arcade across the street. I went inside to meet Phi and let him know that the Empire had arrived. He introduced me to a couple of people and as I headed out back to the front of the arcade, I found Robert Sigley and "Baltimore Chun" who were going to be our transportation back and forth from the hotel to the break. After about twenty minutes of hanging out in front of the arcade, we then got a ride to the hotel from B. Chun and Rob Sigley. As we arrived at the hotel, Peach, Luna and Andrew all were waiting in the hotel lobby for about 5 hours as they were in New Jersey from 1pm. Ouch! Everyone settled in the lobby as I took care of check in. There was a problem at first so I had to wait until Marvelous came into New Jersey. It seemed that the card could only approve 3 of the 7 rooms that the Empire reserved. We had to wait until Marvelous arrived at the hotel as I planned for something like this to happen. Sure enough it did.

In the meantime, Ace pulled out his Playstation one with screen and started to play street fighter EX 2 plus. Jeron started to beat the crap out of the other empire members. I was thinking about a lot of things because this was the first time that I've ever headed this large mass of people. The thought of this all collapsing did run pass my mind several times. At that point, I knew that I was worrying too much and needed to take my mind off of that. I then decided to get a game on Jeron and quickly smacked him up in EX 2 plus. He will probably bust me up when he reads this, but I had to get it off my chest. When I was done, I got a call from Marvelous to let me know that he had touched down in New Jersey. I told him the situation at the hotel and asked if he had the back up plan ready. As reliable as he is in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, he came through. Twenty minutes later he arrived at the hotel not in a good mood and helped all of us check in although we now had to pay the rest of the rooms in cash. Either way everyone was safe for now. I had to speak to him in private about how the empire will be paying back this debt to him since the original plan was to avoid using the last emergency plan.

During that time, everyone unloaded their belongings in their assigned rooms and started to change and freshen up as team tournaments would start the same day. Most of the members in the Empire pulled out their systems and started to play and relax while the soldiers congregated about plans on how to...well lets put it like this, the $yndicate and I had a talk about how we would invest $60.00 to help everyone in the Empire. While we made plans to return to the break, other members outside of the Empire state arrived at the "8 on the break" arcade. Then there were some that arrived directly at the hotel. "Team Serious of the Empire" was the first on the scene followed by special guests "Lifetimeboy", "Omar", (Texas) and "Shineosnake". After I greeted them and showed them to their room I went to the "Team Serious" room and heard the news that they had a couple of friends that had no where to stay and I was put in a very obligatory situation. I had very little choice so I accommodated for the new guests only to find out later during the week that I had to continue to do so more and more. Eventually, it just didn't matter so long as everyone had a place to sleep and eat. I actually felt better about myself.

Before leaving the hotel, I made sure that my wife Wyldflower and the Valkyries of Arcadia were okay and was well taken care of. With that assurance relieved, I then took leave to return to the arcade with Santhrax , Marvelous, Xecutioner and "Chris Matrix." When we arrived at the arcade, everyone crowed around the Marvel vs. Capcom 2 arcade machine. Players competed for the sheer entertainment value of the spectators around them. and for other reasons as well. While D. Hyo played a couple of guys in marvel, people crowed around representing their groups or state that they came from. I decided to head to the back to see Phi and speak to him about how things were going with his tournament. For a while, I walked around and just looked at the arcade. I looked at all the old games and new games that were there and the memories each brought back to me. It was a peaceful time during all the noise and commotion. After I snapped back into focus, I saw a member in the Empire from Philadelphia, "Julian Robinson". We conversed a bit and I let him know that he had lodging back at the Holiday Inn. Truthfully, I just wanted to hang out and get to know him a bit more because I hadn't seen him in over a year. I guess I will have to just go see him in Philly when I get the chance. I decided to go outside and get some air afterwards. I hung out in front of the arcades talking to new people and some old friends for a while. I decided that I should head back to the hotel as it was a bit late that night, and also because I had plans at the hotel.

Arriving back at the Hotel by getting a lift from B.Chun, I invited him to come upstairs and chill for a while; but he had other people that he had to drive and help out so I told him that I would see him later. After arriving back to my room, I discovered that Peach and her boyfriend had already left for the day and returned to New York. I then chilled with the rest of the girls and took a shower to freshen up for the night. By that time, I was done. I got a phone call from Gamingknight to let me know that he was at the break. I gave B. Chun a call to have him picked up; Gamingknight would have to wait as he had other matters to attend to. Later that night, Gamingknight, "Chronos", and "Ether" all arrived and settled in. As everyone settled in and the night grew old, I found myself back at the break waiting for others to arrive at the arcade. However, a more serious issue was at hand; Food! As the night got later and later, I didn't know if there was going to be a store around that sold grocery food. Fortunately, Team Serious came to the rescue. Ami and his friend gave me a ride to shop rite. Kreymore was with me at the time, and we hit the super market with a half an hour left before closing and bought $150.00 worth of food. We quickly bolted back to the hotel before the other members of the empire would get to the hotel. I, with the help of all of team serious, hit everyone's room making sure that they had cereal, a box of milk, juice, sandwich meat, cheese, mayo, bread, spoons, etc. As soon as we were done stacking everyone's room, other members of the empire such as "Ricky Ortiz", Floe , "Flash G." arrived back from the break and went straight to their rooms. I entered their room and spoke with them briefly about tomorrow and the battle that the Empire had coming. They all seemed pretty confident and non shallot about it, especially Ricky. But hey, that's Ricky for you. I returned to my room and sat back in the chair and just thought about the days to come and what new challenges awaited the empire after the tournament. I thought for quite some time until I decided that I would finish ECC9 before taking on anything else. Then I started to get tired. Everyone else was asleep and even the random people who I met for the first time that day started to fall out, so I took that as my queue to get some sleep myself.

Saturday morning, I woke by a call from Uber Jae. He gave me the run down of the team tournament stats . I quickly jumped out of my bed because he also alerted me that sign up for Capcom vs. SNK 2 singles, along with other games, were due in one hour. I raced to everyone's room that had a player in the Empire competing and even the guest room that had players competing which were not Empire. I woke them all up and let them know that sign ups were in an hour. Team Serious room was already awake as they were up practicing long before I woke up. I also called Rob Sigley and B. Chun to have them come and pick up some of the Empire's players to get them to the tournament for sign ups. A friend from team serious helped out a lot and took spare members in his car back to the break and everyone was fine. Skisonic, a friend of Baltimore Chun helped out as well. I decided that it would be best if I took a small break away from all the work and watching everyone and just chilled in my room for a bit. I knew that the guys were probably restless from the late night gaming and most likely hungry. I waited patiently to see how they would get ready for the second part of the tournament. In the meantime, I assembled all the ladies in my room and armed them with pillows. I gave them the plan and launched a strike on the guys. The first room we hit was my very own.

Ricky showed up in the throne room and all the girls just looked at him. He needed to brush his teeth and his room was occupied by Flash and Marvelous who were taking showers; so I didn't mind him using the bathroom. When Ricky was done using the bathroom he noticed $20.00 lying on the plush stool. He looked at everyone in the room and said "Oh wow, money!" The minute Ricky touched it, it was a wrap. He was blasted by pillows into the ground. After Ricky's pounding, we decided to head out and hit each room. Next stop the Royal Guards room. UG was taping this while it was going on.. When we arrived at the Royal Guards room, I walked in to find C. Matrix and Jeron playing Street Fighter Alpha 3. I told them that they shouldn't be wasting time playing the game and that they should be getting ready for the tournament. Matrix looked at me and told me to be easy and not to worry and that the $yndicate has everything under control. I said to him "very well" and left the room. Upon my departure, the girls all flooded into the room and bashed Jeron and Matrix down. Matrix came running out of the room and down the hallway laughing. He said to me that he couldn't even get his dragon punch out when he just got clocked in the head. It was a hilarious morning so far. Marvelous then came out of the shower and noticed all 8 of the girls circling him. He just gave up and told the girls to get him while they can. The ladies had no remorse nor did they feel sorry; they just bashed him.

Next, we decided to give the guest a treat. I told all the ladies to get against the wall like we were playing Metal Gear, and knocked on the guest room door. Lifetime boy answered and I asked him if I could come in. Obviously, he allowed me to enter and I greeted them with a good morning. To my surprise, Santhrax was still asleep. In my mind, I thought "Perfect"! After a small and meaningless speech, I walked to the door and opened it to allow the girls to give Santhrax a fresh wake up call. Lifetimeboy stood there watching and laughed. I though to myself, "hey, didn't he join the Empire? his back is turned too, get him!" So I tackled him onto the bed, and then the next thing I knew or saw was white lights going off. The girls jumped both of us. After wrestling in the bed with the ladies, we noted that we had only two more rooms to hit; The Knights Barrack and the $yndicate. We decided to leave the Knights barrack for last. I don't know why but I just felt it was the right thing to do. So much commotion was going on in the hotel hallway I was surprise that we didn't get kicked out. As we headed to the $yndicate room, I walked in and had a small chat with X and told him that I expected great things from him in the tournament and that failure was not an option. Xecutioner gave me a non shallot shrug. It was just the type of response I was looking for. I told him that failure to the Empire result in bad things and walked out the room. Xecutioner then said "Ah, don't worry". The ladies then rushed him which stated my point. Funny though X didn't fight back. He kind of enjoyed it. I laughed; at least I know everyone was having a good morning. Finally.the Knights Barrack. I found something odd about going to Gamingknight's room with all the noise going on outside. I wondered why none of them came out the room to see what all the commotion was about. When I knocked on the door, Shen Yin answered. He had an odd look on his face. I immediately knew that they knew everything, so I just open the door and told the girls to strike first before it was too late. Unfortunately for the ladies, it was already too late. Bolting out of the room "Orin", "Ace" and Shen came out swinging. Orin hit Luna so hard that she nearly had a concussion. Yoko was knocked clean to the floor. It was a hilarious sight. The first thing I thought was "what type of guy fight back in an all girl pillow fight". Go figure.

Waiting in the hotel lobby for rooms.