My First Bonnaroo (shortened)!

I know this is a gaming blog, but I found out that quite a few people (by that I mean like 6 or 7 that I know of) from MLG attended Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo is a fun, free-spirit, all around beautiful time. If anyone is thinking about going, I would definitely recommend it... just be prepared for little-to-no sleep. So here it goes:

*NOTE* Christine is my girlfriend, Charlie is one of my best friends that went with us.

This was the first time I've ever been to Bonnaroo and I tried to read up and prepare as much as I possibly could, but there is no preparing for Bonnaroo. The heat and the lack of sleep is something no one (from the north) can anticipate.

We, Christine, Charlie, and myself, started our journey to Bonnaroo at like 12:30 on Wednesday and drove as quick as possible to Manchester, TN. About 11 miles outside of Manchester we started seeing Bonnaroo signs and getting super psyched... then we hit exit 110 (supposed to be our entrance into Bonnaroo) and it was closed... then we went to exit 111, it, too, was closed. We tried exit 117 and yes, that was closed except to local traffic, so we took the exit and got gas then headed back on I-65. We had to keep going all the way to exit 127... and the Bonnaroo entrance line was still even further back then that... 17 mile line. So a cop led us to some back roads and we ended up only waiting an hour, but little did we know that this backroad would lead us to a part of the Bonnaroo camp sites known as "Bum Fuck Egypt"... meaning it was way the fuck away from Centeroo. 45 minute walk to be exact. We entered our correct exit at 11pm local time and got into our campsite at 12:30am local time... not a bad wait I guess. We set up camp, walked around the place to get a feel of our surroundings then went to bed.

Now before we came to Bonnaroo I read up on ways to sleep in because the heat in the morning was so unbearable in tents. So we set up an EZ-UP, put a tarp up, and multiple fans.. but even that stood no chance to this sourthern-sun. We went to bed at like 2am and woke up promptly at 7:30am to pools of sweat. The first morning waking up like that wasn't soo bad, I still had full energy and adrenaline because I was at Bonnaroo. So we got up, ate, talked with our neighbors and got to know them, then walked around again. Then we finally realized how far the walk was from our campsite to centeroo. We entered Centeroo and just sat right down and checked out the first band of the weekend, Uncle Skeleton, who was surprisingly awesome and easy to dance to. Fast forward a while, we are at Childish Gambino, who was probably the most disappointing set of the weekend. He was AWESOME for the first twenty minutes, but after that oh my God... his lyrics are the most repetitive verses in the world. I swear I heard the same song for an hour with a different beat each time. I wish I didn't go to that show because he made me so uninterested that I decided just to go back to the tent and missed out on Dam Funk, which I could hear from my tent and it sounded funky as hell. Definitely on my check-list of bands I need to see now.

The rest of the weekend just really didn't go as planned, except Friday. Friday I saw almost everyone I wanted to see (other than My Morning Jacket... biggest mistake of the weekend). I decided that sitting and saving a spot for Primus was a better idea, which was fine, because Primus kicked SOOOO much ass. During the set there was an Asian hot air balloon that people were tossing up and this one ran out of hot air and almost landed on me (who had just put on like a half can of highly-flammable bug spray). Luckily for me, the dudes in front of me caught it, because I wasn't paying attention to it, so if you guys some how read this, thank you so much :P. Then they re-lit it up and sent it on it's way... but of course, that wasn't the end of this highly-dramatic event lol. The hot-air balloon, remember it was an active flame, started heading straight for a tree... like RIGHT into the tree. Suddenly, half the crowd stopped paying attention to Primus and was fixed on this hot-air balloon and that tree. Everyone started screaming "NO NO NO" and laughing. The hot-air balloon did get stuck in the tree for a half second, and again people screamed, but somehow it worked its way out and the whole crowd started cheering and laughing in unison. From there we saw Arcade Fire, some of Bassnectar, The Black Angels, and Big Boi, who were all awesome. Then closed the night with Pretty Lights and SHPONGLE!!!! Shpongle = best show of the weekend, hands down. In all we got 1 hour of sleep that night.

Saturday was a day of disappointment because right before Buffalo Springfield it started raining/heavy winds and we realized that we had left our tents' air vents open and almost all of our shit was in the tent so we hurried back (again, 45 minute walk) and got to our tent to find only a corner of the stuff had gotten wet. We were kinda pissed and exhausted so we decided to take it in early. But of course I couldn't sleep because I heard Buffalo Springfield and Eminem, so I stayed up and listened to their sets. We could hear the music perfect, even from our campsite. I got about 4 hours of sleep that night.

Sunday was the day where fatigue finally set in. The heat got to us, the dirt got to us, and the lack of sleep got to us. So we decided we'd skip out after Cold War Kids and go get a jump start on the journey back home and stay in a hotel. But before that we chilled and saw some awesome music. Best set of that day was definitely Galactic... awesome jam band with amazing brass section. After Cold War Kids we split and headed to the road and stayed in White House, TN at the Holiday Inn Express, which was awesome. Air condition, shower, real food, beds, and TV.... relaxing felt like it was a luxury.

The people there were so fun, so chill, everything is so casual, saw multiple topless girls, saw people share everything and they were polite to everyone. It was like heaven (except the heat). Also on a side note, I wore my MSU football jersey and basketball jersey and got about 50 "GO GREEN" chants. I have to say that Michigan State was the most represented school there, by far. And Christine and Charlie will back me up on that claim. Soo many Michigan State, South Carolina, Notre Dame (another awesome thing!) and Ohio State people.

All in all the trip was fun as hell and I'm definitely going to go back as many years as possible! I already miss our neighbors from Michigan :(

Bands I Saw:

Thursday:

Uncle Skeleton - Surprisingly awesome and funky to dance to.

Future Birds - Not my type of band, good at what they do, but don't dig country.

Freelance Whales - Awesome! So good I saw them twice :), like a chill-er version of MGMT

The Knux - Craziest hype man ever

School of Seven Bells (last couple songs) - Not as good as I anticipated.

Band of Skulls - LOVED their show!! Top 5.. so fun, such good sound.

Twin Shadow - Another surprise, didn't check them out before and just kinda ended up there. Good show.

Childish Gambino - Cool for twenty minutes, after that, fucking annoying.

Friday:

420 Comedy Blaze with Cheech Marin, Workaholics cast, Jay Pharoah, and Ralphie May - The best.

Matt & Kim - They always have awesome live shows! Such good energy!

The Pimps of Joytime - Another band we just kinda ended up chilling to, very fun.

Freelance Whales (acoustic set) - Even acoustically, which I'm not usually a fan of, they were awesome!

The Decemberists - I wasn't a huge fan until I saw them at Roo. Completely awesome, singer had awkward stage presence though.

Florence + The Machine - Her first part of the show was a snooze fest and the crowd was MASSIVE.

Primus - I've wanted to see them for 10 years, and they were worth the wait. Les Claypool is a god. Top 2.

Arcade Fire - Second time seeing them, and they were just as good as Lollapalooza! Love them, top 3.

Bassnectar - Only saw him for a few songs but omg, that crowd was sooo energized and he killed it!

The Black Angels - Another show we just kinda stumbled upon and I actually really dug it.

Big Boi - For the first few songs we saw, I looooved it!

Pretty Lights - Stuck around for like 45 minutes and of course it was amazing.. when is PL not amazing?

SHPONGLE - Best show of the weekend. Best crowd, best visuals, best beats, best mixing, just the best.

Saturday:

Chiddy Bang - Of course Chiddy was the shit. His freestyle wasn't as good as Lolla's but the show itself was better.

Portugal. The Man - Loved their show. Reminded me of a Jimmy Eat World show, loved it.

Mumford & Sons - Top 4, LOVED it. It woulda been better if the people around us weren't fucking annoying.

Civil Twilight - Another show we just made our way to randomly and it was awesome. Love Sonic Village :).

...disappointing day thanks to rain and extreme heat.....

Sunday:

Shahidah Omar - Some funky stuff to dance to, loved it.

Neon Trees - The band threw me off at first with how metrosexual they looked, but they sounded amazing.

Galactic - Next to Primus, they were the best musicians. Such awesome energy and sound!

Cold War Kids - The show was just a perfect way to close out my weekend! The crowd was sooo into it, too!

I heard Eminem/Buffalo Springfield/Neil Young from my tent.. but I can't really count that. - From what I heard at my tent, Eminem blew dong but Buffalo Springfield and Neil Young sounded AMAZING. If I would have visually seen them they would have been #1.

Worst show of the weekend: Childish Gambino.

*If you're interested in looking at any more pictures, look at my facebook.

Clutch: A Halo Reach Montage

Great montage that was just released. Enjoy!

Worst Gamertag of The Week

In this new weekly segment we will be taking a look at some of the worst gamertags on xbox live. This week we have the one and only sneakuhhead2103. He plays Reach and then he hops on MW2 when he gets mad. He always wants you to give it to him all or nothing. This guy breaks two of the biggest rules of having a decent gamertag. First he misspells "sneaker" and secondly he has four numbers, the sign of a total nubcake. This guy must love shoes a lot and wanted everyone to know the last four numbers of his social security. If sneakuhhead2103 is reading this here are some xbox live generated suggestions so he can get a better gamertag: WeeklongTurnip, SisterTundra, BonzerNewt, CursingLawyer, or PackedMoth.

The MLG Live 4th of July Broadcast Extravaganza

MLG.tv is already the place to go for tournament VoD, Top 10s, highlight compilations, the best in competitive gameplay, and more. Starting very soon, something completely new will be happening on MLG.tv: MLG Live.
Join us for a sneak preview of MLG Live as we knock Independence Day out of the park with ten straight hours of live streamed content featuring the best of the world of competitive gaming.

• Want to watch top pros duke it out live in StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Quake Live, and more? Then it’s your lucky day.
• Have you been missing your weekly dose of State of the Game and SC Center? Good news: the live broadcast will include special editions of each show.
• MLG’s top gaming personalities JP McDaniel, Chris Puckett, Slasher and Nexy will be providing commentary and hosting the broadcast, joined by a veritable parade of outspoken special guests from the competitive gaming world.
• Need some drama in your life? Tune in for a best-of-3 Black Ops grudge match between Force, the 2^nd Place team from MLG Columbus, and Optic Gaming, the team that knocked them out to take the title.
• Is there a player you love—or love to hate? Chances are we’ll be bringing them on the broadcast: to play, give interviews, and share insider info.

It’s an extravaganza of gaming with all your favorite players, commentators, and community members—all streamed to you live in HD. Will there be incredible games? Definitely. Will there be trash talk? Almost certainly. Will there be fireworks? Possibly, if JP sets them off inside the studio. It’s almost more than any one person can handle, but you’re strong. You can take it. Tune in live and celebrate the 4^th of July in true gamer style.
 MLG Live 4^th of July Celebration Schedule (all times EDT)
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM  – MLG Live Launch with JP McDaniel: includes special guests TBA, live tour of the new MLG Live studios, interviews, and more
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM  – StarCraft 2 1v1 Showmatch, players TBA
5:00 PM – 5:30  PM –  Special Edition of SC Center
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM – Call of Duty: Black Ops with Nexy and HolidayDoc.: a best-of-3 grudge match between  Columbus Champs Optic Gaming and 2nd Place finishers Force
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM – Halo: Reach with Puckett: Dynasty vs. Status Quo in a best-of-5 Showmatch
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM - Quake with Slasher: players TBA
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM – StarCraft 2 with JP: 1v1 and 2v2 Showmatches, players TBA
10:00 PM – Onwards – All-new State of the Game with JP and new co-hosts TBA

Bwandon or Restartz the troll

I'm Brandon, Bwandon, or Restartz. Restartz is my 4th gamertag on xbox (add me) and Bwandon's my ridiculous nickname from moddle school. I've been playing video games since kindergarten. Mickey Mouse speedway was my shit along with pokemon silver. Out of the other people who have written on this blog so far I'm the worst at Halo. I'll stick to being a COD fanboy. I'm not sure wether or not my intentions on this blog will be any good. I'm a child compared to everyone else who writes on here. I'll probably bash your favorite sports and tell you how much better I am then you at Call of duty. I'm always accepting hate mail and F/R on XBL.

Introducing... Alex, aka POLiSHPiMP

My name is Alex Kurowski, some may know me by POLiSHPiMP from MLG forums or Halo. So if you haven't noticed already by my last name, gamertag, and dashingly good looking eastern-European face, I am Polish, and for some reason I wear it with pride everyday.

I'm a student at Michigan State, studying journalism.

I love music. When I say love, I mean I LOVE music. Unhealthy love. And because I'm in an unhealthy relationship with music I tend to spend all my money on concerts and music festivals. I'm a Lolla 07, 08, '10, and soon to be '11 vet, as well as Bonnaroo '11.

As far as gaming goes I usually just play Halo Reach (even though I hate it), Starcraft 2 and World of Warcraft on occasions. My XbL GT is Passion Pit, and my Battle.net id is slapshota@comcast.net. Add me on Battle.net if you want! Gotta say, all-time favorite game is SSX Tricky and I will beat anyone at that game.

I guess I'll be in charge of writing about a few things on here. Things like: The Worst Gamertag List, Concert/Album Reviews, and other shit.

Remember: Stay positive and love your life.

A Better Guest Author

Hey everyone, I guess I will be writing on here occasionally more than likely it wont be anything too serious but who knows! Hopefully everyone will enjoy what I have to say and I can start taking some suggestions about what to write next.

My Love Hate Relationship with FIFA 11

Warning: the following article contains strong language, read it it's funny

Ask any of my friends what's the one game that makes me nerd rage more than any other, one or two would say NFL Blitz 2000, but that's only when I don't cover the 30 point spread I give every loser I play, the real answer would be FIFA 11. Holy shit that was a long sentence and probably full or errors. Anyways Let me make this clear, I love FIFA 11, it is the best football/soccer video game currently available; PES has too few licenced teams to be taken into consideration and most other games are crap. But almost every time I play on xbl the friends headsets are filled by my yelling how utterly bullshit the game can be.

Lets get the good things about online out of the way first. You can always find game with a generally good connection. The pro club mode fun and is a great way to play FIFA with your friends even if they aren't very good....Avante. At it's best FIFA is best enjoyed with your friends. I can get my ass kicked by Bad Habit five games in a row and still have fun, well I rage a little bit. Nothing beats the thrill of winning a game on FIFA for me and that's what gets me going back again and again. It's weird I could win 20 games of MLG on Halo Reach, and still feel that my most recent victory on FIFA was better, which was a 3-2 win with Bayern Munich over AC Milan with Gomez scoring a hat trick. It's sad that I can even remember it that well, but to put it simply winning feels awesome on FIFA. The feeling that your team and tactics overcame anther's. But what happens when your plans don't work out?

If I could sum up all my frustrations about FIFA with one team it would be without question Real Madrid, or as I commonly refer to them, Real Mafuckindrid. I must have lost the more matches online to Real Mafuckindrid than any other. To understand my frustration one must come to grips with the horrible ranking system. I usually choose a team in the 41/2 stars range such as Totenham or Bayern, although the argument could be made that Bayern should be a five star team. Real is a five star team, but should be higher because of FIFA's overrated stats. Where to begin? Speed for one thing is ridiculous, RM can run laps around people with just about anyone on their team. If you have speed you will win, a fatal flaw in the FIFA system. I lose countless matches because my defenders just aren't fast enough. Manchester United (GGMU!!! CHAMP19NS, I had to do it) are victims of lack of speed on Defense. Vidic and Rio cannot keep up to save their lives, and long passes rip me apart every time. Positioning stats mean nothing if they get beat every time by some idiot online who can give the ball to Rofuckinaldo and have him rip apart my defense and have no strategy what so ever. And then they have the balls to do the fuckin stupid ass celebrations with Rofuckinaldo, cause it's so hard to score a goal with Ronaldo. Really just give the fucker the ball anywhere near the top of the box and do a finesse shot and I will be nerd raging because the ball is in the back of the net. I also hate the keeper and defense AI. Ever so often the keeper will completely fuck up on a free kick from a ridiculously far distance, he'll dive like the ball is over him while it bounces under him or even the different direction. The defenders are pussies, attackers can just glide off them at times when the defenders should be much stronger; somehow Messi or even worse Tevez can just shrug off Rio Ferdinand or whoever like they're a Japanese schoolgirl. Small players have a knack for stealing the ball when ever they challenge someone, even Paul Scholes, who is bad at defense can steal the ball with ease with a crystal clear tackle.

I'll end with a word of advice... don't be a dick online. That means no picking overpowered teams like RM or Barca unless the other player is also a dick and picks RM or Barca. Don't pick international teams, why not just play FIFA World Cup. If you have the lead don't sit on the ball and not let your opponent have a chance. Don't give your vitual pro a blue afro. And most of all don't think your a FIFA god when all you can do is dance around with Ronaldo and score a finesse shot from the top of the box, while my poor Totenham defense is wondering when is fucking game will end as you cartwheel and ass-shake around them.

Guest Author

Hi Internet nerds, I'm a guest author. You can call me Malco, Malcolm, Malcodinho, Malcdawg, whateva. I will be contributing to this blog with reviews, complaints, and my everlasting love of Midway sports games. I'm currently attending BGSU. My gamertag is Malco Light. That's me with MLG Starcraft commentator Dj Wheat

Avante H3 Minitage

Guest Writers

I thought I should let you all know that I will be having guest writers here on the blog with their own articles. It brings variety to the blog. Hopefully it all works out!

-Avante

Alice Madness Returns Game Review

Alice Madness Returns is a sequel to the 2000 American Mcgee's Alice game. The first Alice game took a twist on the Lewis Carrol story. Now Alice is back in the sequel Alice Madness Returns.

The game starts off in the normal and bland city of London. The game developers made the city colorless to give it this sort of feel. After having some weird hallucinations Alice finally makes her way back into her Wonderland. But when she arrives Chesire Cat is there to greet her with the news that Wonderland isn't the same.

This is where the real game begins. I'm going to flat out tell you that this is a platformer/action game and not an action/platformer. It has a lot of platforming and quite a bit of action. Throughout the game the developers throw hidden collectibles and items at you to keep you looking around for the secret keyholes to shrink into. The platforming is simple jump from point A to point B sort of stuff like in the classic platformers. So the platforming does get a bit repetitive but they throw a  few challenging puzzles at you along the way. While the platforming is quite a bit of the game, we can't forget about the action.



The combat in this game is nice. Nice meaning it's not clunky or anything like that. You can hold down the Left trigger to focus on certain enemies and you use all of the face buttons for each of your weapons. It works out pretty nicely. The only downfall to the combat in this game is again the repetitiveness. The combat gets a tad repetitive at times. They do try to mix up the type of enemies you fight at certain times but its essentially the same thing again. Although it is a bit repetitive it gives the player a nice break from the platforming. Alice acquires quite a few weapons along her way in Wonderland. She starts off the the infamous Vorpal blade from the first Alice game. The weapons are all unique and can be used in interesting ways.



The story of the game is great. I mean the story of Alice in Wonderland itself is one of the best American stories to date. This twisted take on Wonderland where everyone has become Mad is just awesome. The game developers really put you into a Wonderland that is unique. Although the graphics in some areas of Wonderland are a bit dated, Alice is not. The way her dress and hair movies when jumping and fighting are just ridiculously nice. And every new chapter brings you a new dress!



So overall the game is a whopping 12-15 hours long! It has great mechanics and tons of platforming and exploring to do. The action can be a bit repetitive but it is a nice sidestep from the platforming. The story is awesome. Alice is awesome. And Alice Madness Returns is an awesome game I recommend to players looking to get away from all the damn shooters of today!


Alice Madness Returns gets a 9/10

My First Blog

Hello to everyone reading this. This is my first blog here on blogger. I will try my best to keep you all informed on the gaming news around the net as well as little tidbits about what's going on in my life over at MLG and the forums. I hope you enjoy my blog and decide to follow me! Thanks!

-Avante