European WipEout Convention 10 Final Blast!!

[G'Kyl]

Here's what I think: The fact the conventions have become more about meeting all of you instead of playing WipEout is exactly the reason we need to keep them coming!

I've been neither on the Zone nor going to conventions in recent years - and last weekend really was an eye-opener about how much I missed doing so. Won't let that happen again! It was most wonderful seeing Asa, Mad-Ice, eLhabib, AmigoJack and Temet again and finally meeting Sausehuhn after all those years! [Had to look up WOZ nicks as they have by now become less common to me. ] Talking, being silly and competing with them makes for a most wonderful experience each and every time. And as I know from experience, this includes all who couldn't make it this time. Anyone who's never been or could not make it: You've got to be there at some point!

On topic: Competing in the small number of tournaments that we had meant a lot more fun than I expected! I won't go into detail about the unofficial Pulse tourney, which... apparently I had far less skill in that game than I remembered. I believe i didn't come in last just once.

2048 was fun though, because Asa doesn't know the game very well and so ended up fighting me for first place each time we raced each other in division 2. All of our races had either one sack the Gold mere seconds in front of the other. I take no pride in being able to compete with Asa when he simply doesn't know the game well enough to do better - which I know he would otherwise. However it was the first time I ever remember having such a consistent battle with just one pilot, and that's what made it a ton of fun!

Plus, it wasn't the only competition we got ourselves into, as he had set up two NTSC PlayStation consoles running WipEout XL, my favorite to this day. Now, I played the shot out of 2097, but as far as I remember I had never touched XL, which indeed plays significantly different than the PAL game. So... we got both our asses into a Qirex each and fired them up in time trials at Talon's Reach. So, while I was getting in tune with the slightly different physics, Asa would be kind enough to not take any shortcuts. (He's usually taking shortcuts in a Piranha, mind you, which in some ways is a different game entirely.) End of story: We ended up setting new Qirex XL records - me logging one tenth of a second before his best race time, and him setting a new lap record one tenth of a second before me. That's WipEout, folks!

Anyways, long story short: Huge thank you to everyone included in setting things up, bringing equipment and whatever else was needed!! It WAS a blast. And it WON'T be the last. Mad-Ice: I'm up! :-)