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Charlottesville Virginia the final destination for greyhound passengers, TFGM, Marvelous, Kreymore, Jeron, Inorubain, Wyldflower, Wes and Mike G. As the crew unloaded there things into the station, they contacted fellow member of Empire Arcadia and chairman of M4's convention Brendan Becker for pick up. Brendan told them that he would call them back in 15 minutes with a pick up time and location. During that time the crew looked at the vintage arcade games that were inside the Greyhound. Shortly afterwards Brendan gave TFGM a call and told them to meet them at a staples that was down the block from greyhound. They were then picked up by Brendan who came along with friends in 3 separate cars. After making last minute shopping for additional supplies in staples to make sure that there was enough supplies for the three and a half day gaming festival, the group then headed straight for the Double Tree hotel several minutes away from the pick up point. As the crew entered the hotel TFGM met up with Midus who already was at the hotel. TFGM automatically knew that this year's event would be a whole lot bigger. His suspicions were accurate as the hotel that M4 was held in this year was at the very least double the size of M3 which was held in October of 2004.
Before the party could even begin, TFGM along with staff from Fusion Gaming Convention and Music and games; all held a conference with the administrative staff of the Double Tree Hotel. After introductions and rules of the hotel were explained the groups all exchange pleasantries and exited to get the gamer party underway. Brendan then gave all the staff keys to the blocked out rooms that he reserved for all that helped make M4 possible. TFGM took the members of the Empire to their rooms and held a small meeting with them explaining to them how things were going to work out for this year's Music and Games.
The festival started at 9pm Thursday night, and the first of the events to take place was tournaments in the game room. Marvelous and TFGM wasted no time getting some game time in. Setting a 300,000 plus score for Ms. Pac-Man and winning his 3 rd Pokemon Puzzle League championship in a row at MAGfest TFGM lied about not competing in because he wanted others to get a chance to enjoy gaming.
"I couldn't help it. I worked so much for the last couple of months I never got a chance to play and compete. Although I am a CEO, I'm still first and foremost a gamer." -EmperorTFGM
Marvelous set no example either, racking up 40 plus wins in Tekken 5 in under 30 minutes. However the two had to put their desire to play to the side as they were asked by the Fusion Gaming Convention staff to help host some of the tournaments as they had tournaments upon request. Jeron, Midus, Kreymore, Inorubain, Wes and Mike G. all helped out making it some what possible for EmperorTFGM and Marvelous to still compete while hosting tournaments. The Tournament room within 6 hours turned from 70 plus gamers into 200. It wasn't long before the convention began. The line stretched from the checkout counter down the hall to the con registration desk.
M4 had a host of interesting panels and booths for gamers to quench their interest. Xstrike Studios returns in traditional fashion and with a new gamer rendition movie for gamers to view. The movie is called Project: Snake . The movie is an action comedy version of Metal Gear Solid with a serious plot line. Terrorists have seized control of a remote Alaskan nuclear weapons facility. Now the only man that can stop the impending disaster is the cigarette-addicted, cardboard box-sneaking, guard-choking, woman-hating, gun-toting, legend of the battlefield, codename: SNAKE. Much like X-strike's previous movies, this spoof will not disappoint and bring lots of laughs. Another booth that was interesting to be at was the Virtual Fools booth. They hosted an old school point tournament for a game on Super Nintendo. The game for the tournament was Smash TV and although the game intimidated many gamers a few brave gamers tried their luck at the game and set some pretty impressive scores. Other booths were supplied by the hotel as concession stands with fruit and snacks for gamers were available. As for drinks gamers had a selection between Bawls and Vitamin Water; surely enough all 900 plus bottles of Vitamin Water were quickly finished between the nights of Thursday up to midnight Friday. Kreymore, TFGM, Marvelous, Jeron, Midus and Inorubain all had the endurance to stay awake to compete and host tournaments in the game room for over 24 because of the Vitamin Water drink "Endurance".
"Believe it or not ... each Vitamin Water does exactly what it says on the bottle. I drunk like two 10 fl oz. of endurance and I was good for 24 hours before I needed any food." - Kreymore
Vitamin Water believes that it is important that gamers watch their health just based on the simple principle that your health is important. Vitamin Water can and is used for health purposes in the culture of gamers. Empire Arcadia proudly promotes the element of health through Vitamin Water. Using it to help sustain stamina in gamers so that they can perform better at "Physical" games Vitamin Water is a important drink for people period. Not to be confused with other sports drinks Empire Arcadia does not support Vitamin Water as a sports athlete would endorse a sports drink, rather it is promoted to help give people the vitamin's and fluids needed to sustain good health through each day. Most hardcore gamers do not eat a full meal during the day whenever at events or tournaments such as Music and Games 4. Vitamin Water is "The best Substitution" for the lack of nourishment during odd circumstances such as what Kreymore endured at M4.
As 12 noon struck Friday morning, all pre-events we put on hold to host the traditional opening ceremony for MAGfest. Brendan addresses all the gamers that filled the room and gave them a run down of all the events that would be available throughout the weekend. Each panel guess, each gamer rock band and each gaming organization was all introduced and given a couple of minutes to address the audience and tell them the time of their event and what they offered to MAGfest this year. It took no long than 1 minute before the room where opening ceremonies was held to be cleared out for gamers to race back to the tournament room and attend the scheduled panels that they were interested in.
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