16 of us flew from the UK to Jonkoping, Sweden for the Street Fighter IV tournament at Dreamhack Winter 2009. Here is what happened.

Ryanair

Flying from London to Gothenburg.

I stood here for ten minutes waiting for her to move her trolley up so I could get some shots.

Shau

Femi

Chunkis, David & Zade. Sleeping on Ryanair is not a comfortable experience.

Say aaaaaah

The weather in Gothenburg was actually worse than in London. Wetter and colder.

Sweden

For some reason, Dreamhack brought the tournament forward one day from Friday to Thursday, so we had to rush straight from the airport to the event. We were pretty whacked when we got there.

Waiting for the bus

Some of my matches

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ryan Gutierrez (aka Gootecks, seated right) and Cami (behind players) were invited over from California by Dreamhack to do commentary on Swedish TV. We played some casuals with Gootecks.

Ramzi & Gootecks

Dawgtanian & Gootecks

F Word challenged Gootecks to a push-ups match – whoever lost the fight would have to do 30 push-ups. Here is what happened.

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F Word gets on all fours

And then tries to escape after one push-up.

Zak ‘The Beastman’ Bennet playing his group

One of Zak’s matches.

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Ryu was in the house, in F Word’s group.

Here is the main bracket after the group stages.

I had Ryan Hart in the first match; one of the three worst draws I could possibly get (the other two being Zak and Gootecks). Here is how our match went. Not great for me by any means.

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Ryan Hart took down the tournament for the UK, eliminating me, Afii and Zak in the process. It was inevitable we would eliminate each other when 14 of us made the last 32. Pretty good showing by the UK.

We were front row supporting our guys. We were on Swedish national TV!

United States of Kingdom

After the tournament, we had a 6v6 against the Swedes. Gootecks represented the UK and Xian joined the Swedish, to give us ‘The United States of Kingdom’ vs ‘Swingapore’. It was great fun and there was a lot of trash talking.

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Nom

The wall of microwaves. You could buy a TV dinner and heat it up here in 5 minutes.

Et voila.

Random guy. It seems a lot of my photos are slightly under-exposed. I need to get used to Leica metering.

This is Jadi, he has a pretty gangsta joystick.

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Some kind of card game going on here at 4am

Cami & Gootecks

Cami and Gootecks preparing for a podcast recording with Ryan Hart and Zak.

Waiting.

Breaking down what they are to discuss in the podcast.

Podcast time. Zak and Ryan had an interesting debate on the limitations of Street Fighter IV.

2nd place finisher Ho Kun Xian was really jetlagged.

Live studio audience

Xian is not very live.

Game over

The last night of Dreamhack, we grabbed a bunch of beers and played Third Strike until 7 in the morning.
Group shot of some of us, some of the Swedes, Gootecks, Cami and Xian before we all hit the road.

Cami & Gootecks still had the energy to climb a tank. Crazy cats.

Sleep

Getting the train back to Gothenburg to fly home.

We met Jenny on the way to Gothenburg; she was on her way to pick up her son from kindergarten. She speaks five languages but is not available for marriage. Sorry chaps.

The others were still in Jonkoping when we got to Gothenburg, so we waited for them at the internet cafe.

Is everyone asleep in Sweden?

Seems so, but some are still keeping busy…

Geeky stuff: Leica M6, Leica 35mm 1.4 Summilux, Kodak Tri-X +2. Panasonic SDR-H250 video camera.

Bonjour

Welcome to Paris.

SFII Sagat stage

Femi on the hunt.

Crepes

We stayed up until around 7am every day playing Street Fighter IV & Pro Evo, so people closed their eyes every chance they got.

Lawrence

Homeless guy.

Tournament time

Bushido Impact 9. We came to Paris mainly to enter the Street Fighter IV tournament. Most of us made it out of our groups into the main tournament bracket.

Here are some of my group fights. I play Zangief.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Zero2000 (Wes, right) vs Yamazaki (Olivier). Yamazaki is is the best Ryu in France.

Yamazaki vs Dawgtanian. Dawgtanian is very popular in France, known from his online matches. There was always a crowd when he was playing.

Jesus is a pad player

The King Sagat.

Logan Sama. Logan and I stayed up all night Friday and played 200-300 games vs each other, Zangief vs Akuma. That is my tournament stick next to him, with a custom Zangief faceplate.

Close up of my stick. My gamer handle is ‘WorstGiefEVER’. I play SFIV on PC, my gamertag there is JBARDOLPH if anyone wants to add me. I am improving all the time, so one day I will probably change from ‘WorstGiefEVER’ to ‘Maybe not the Worst Gief EVER, but still pretty bad’.

Zero2000 (Wes) in battle.

Dawgtanian vs StarNab. StarNab is an awesome Fei Long player. He is SG rank on XBOX (top league). This match had HUGE hype, and Femi got it on camcorder and commentated. Probably the most hype match of the day. Video below.

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Bushido Impact 9 was a fantastic event. They are planning to run an event every month; it is a one-day event, so from the UK you could get the Eurostar there and back on the same day for £50. I will certainly be doing this again. The people we met were great and very hospitable (thank you Bushido), and we all look forward to seeing them again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Geeky stuff: Leica M6, Leica 35mm 1.4 Summilux, Kodak Tri-X, Ilford Delta 400

Welcome.

The ground floor of the Tanzanian High Commission had been turned into an art installation.

Curators. Should have taken a shot of them from the waist up as well.

Out of the Tanzanian, into the Mexican.

My composition has gone to shit for some reason

I thought this was pretty cool.

Not to my taste, shall we say

Awesome charcoal painting by Annie Attridge

A bed blocking the path to the higher floors. Quite ironic sign, I thought.

Shark and maker of the shark, George Dulake.

George asked for a shot at the entrance to the embassy. I prefer the other shot.

It was interesting to see a squat/gallery, its inhabitants and their demeanour; the different way of life, and the enthusiasm about things most of us would barely even notice.  I question the futility of the squatters’ ways, though; they enter and occupy a building for an always finite amount of time before they have to leave and search for a new building again. Not always having water and electricity, seeking unused food from delis at the end of the day and doing flexible jobs to generate money every now and then. I think better understanding comes with spending extended time with a community like this – being a squatter for a night.

Maybe one day…

Geeky stuff: Canon EOS 20D, 24-70 f2.8 lens.

Times Square has lots of people

And windows errors.

Central Park carries exhausted children

And sad news.

The Museum of Modern Art measures your height

And writes your name on the wall next to it.

A king among men. Shame I can’t shoot straight.

Gareth recently graduated

And Vince is Vince. Or ‘Vincenzo’, in this instance.

Harlem. Met a friend I have not seen since secondary school and he took us to the soul food restaurant.

Despite all the soul food on offer, Ryan only chose Lettuce and mashed potato. Crazy, I say.

Simon.

Back near Times Square.

Ran into the Turkish girls again.

I helped her friend with her pram up some stairs and she asked me when I would take her picture.

On and around The Highline

Going home for the final time.

Not before a spot of Golf though.

Geeky stuff: Canon EOS 20D, 24-70 f2.8 lens. Nikon FM, 24mm f2 lens; Tri-x 400.

I recently went to America with the chaps below. From the left: Gaurav, Ryan and Gareth. Vince on the right is a friend who lives in Philadelphia.

London

Made this shot of Gareth in the airport back in London. Nicole Sherzinger from The Pussycat Dolls was standing behind us. She’s smaller than she looks on TV.

New York

Vince met us at JFK airport with his car and drove us to the house we were all staying at in the Bronx, near Gun Hill Road. Ryan jumped in the front seat for the trip. It was the first time he (and Gaurav) had met Vince.

We got the subway to Grand Central Station…

..then walked to 42nd Street / Times Square.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pedestrianised Broadway between 42nd and 47th street in order to try and improve traffic in the area. Chairs have been laid on the closed section of the road and are proving extremely popular with residents and tourists alike, around the clock.

Zoe met up with us in Times Square. She hates Times Square, lives in Brooklyn and hangs out in the lower East side. She took us to Chelsea to find a place to eat.

We ate at a sub-par restaurant after at least one person  in our group clashed with practically every attractive food establishment in Chelsea.

You don’t really find these in London. Space like this would be built on, with little regard for parking space.

Back to the Bronx

We returned to Times Square until late, then tried to get home. Little did we know the standard line to Gun Hill Road does not run late. We were not the only people waiting.

Sleeping on our feet

From film to digital

Bumped into a Hello Kitty. I asked for a photo and she said (in a Chinese voice) “One dollar”.

We also kept bumping into these Turkish girls, so I kept invading their photographs.

Chinatown. This guy seemed to take interest in this photo.

Then started a Karate kata.

Saw these at a store. I asked the guy what they were but he refused to tell me. We thought they were cow penises. Apparently it is a shellfish.

Brooklyn

We had dinner at Zoe’s house. I brought some wine along as a token of thanks to her mother for cooking for all of us.

Give me parmesan and I will put it on everything. I don’t discriminate with my parmesan.

Zoe’s dog Gucci ends the blog entry.

Geeky stuff: Voigtlander Bessa R2M; 35mm 1.7 Ultron; Agfa APX 100.