Okay it’s like midnight and I’m pretty tired but I figured I should do a climax write-up an entire tournament late on account of how awesome the experience was. Anyways this is gonna be a full chronological telling of my climax and Mixfest because fuck I love uni man. Also I’m a published author I promise but this is not going to be written in any professional form because it’d be easier to go stream of consciousness.

BEFORE CLIMAX So initially, my goal was to place 65th, matching my evo performance. I had considered setting a goal at 49th, but due to poor practice in August and September and generally not wanting to set myself up for failure, I set out to repeat my performance. Then pools dropped, and I saw just how killer the uni players at climax were, on top of my path including Jaytsu, Defiant, Frank VOCean, and Noctis, and I basically said “you know what I’d be okay with 97th.” It was my first time traveling solo. Usually Henry comes with me to tournaments, but we did a lot this year and he was just exhausted by the time I brought up climax. It was a really lonely experience, but I was in a zone anyways, and it got a whole lot better once I realized that other minnesota guys had gone too.

So Havard and two of the other Chicago people were on my connecting flight from Chicago to Atlanta, and shoutout to that group because they didn’t even know me and were just like “yeah we’ll show you how to get from the airport to the venue also share this lyft with us.” I also, uh, didn’t know Havard was Havard until I venmo’d him for the lyft and saw his last name but we don’t talk about that.

Check into the hotel and go to sleep and I’m in a weird headspace because I think I’m at climax alone at this point.

CLIMAX DAY 1:

Day 1 of climax was fucking magical. I get in the shuttle from my hotel to the venue and its like me juushichi and reflectivejade but I didn’t know either of their faces yet and didn’t learn this until the end of the shuttle ride lmao. So I get in line to pick up my badge and Thorn is working check-in which instantly gives me a sense of relief. I knew she was working climax, but just seeing a familiar face made me realize I’m not nearly as alone as I thought I was. I head into the venue and start watching some games waiting for my pool when a certain Tim Mishi walks up to me and says hi. Instantly any lingering stress was gone, just a “thank fuck I’m not alone in an unfamiliar part of the world” but also because Tim is awesome to be around. Another guy who I don’t know stands next to me, but I start talking with Tim about my bracket path and I mention “yeah I’m anticipating fighting Noctis in loser’s finals based on the bracket.” The other guy turns to me and like looks at me for a while and I don’t say anything I just kinda look at him and look away like “there’s no way” until he extends his hand and goes “how ya doing, I’m noctis” LMFAO. At some point I was talking with Issei, who asked my tag and when I said Teekay he went “THE BYAK I FOUGHT ON RANKED?” And we chatted for a while, which was awesome, but then something really electric happened. Anklegator went “wait you’re teekay? Can I get a picture and you to sign this?” And just like shoutout to that guy, he’s way better at uni than me and a way more recognizable name but he still made me feel like a fucking popstar and just made me feel welcome in the community. Like words cannot describe how what you did, even though you say you do it for yourself as a souvenir at tournaments, made me feel. Everything after that but before pools is kind of a blur, my pool was the first of the day but I caught up with Alec Alterchemist and Meld before my pool.

Round 1: Vs. Turnup So Turnup is super cool. We got told we were going to be R1 on stream so we sat down and chatted a lil, he told me about Uni2BL and I talked about Gustavus a good bit. We sat down and played, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this shaky. For whatever reason, despite the fact that I love the Camera, I was just nervous, probably because it was my first real on-stream game at a major. I played really shaky, and watching it back you could tell. I went for a lot of bad FF overheads, and my offense was really shaky and gave him a lot of openings. I think Turnup was also feeling the effects, he got opened up by things that would not work on him in a low-stress environment. Regardless, I’m able to close it out 2-0 and pulled off some okay things; the crowd was going crazy but I had headphones on and couldn’t really hear them. Regardless, this is important for the Mixfest section of this writeup so I had to mention it.

Round 2: Vs In Murph We Trust Ok Murph didn’t say a word to me, we just fist-bumped before and after the game. I feel like I actually played this really well, though. Before this match I had labbed a way to finally beat Aka EX parry on my web setup and I pulled it off consistently here and scared Murph off of doing EX parry, making my web sets even scarier. I also just played solid neutral and rarely had to play defense, I got the opening first and carried it to victory in all but the one round I lost for a 2-0.

Round 3: Vs Defiant Okay Defi is something different. He was also clearly upset because he had to wait forever to play, his R1 opponent (he got a bye) Dq’d, and then they tried to put us on stream but it kept getting put off until they had us run off-stream. Regardless, Defi is super cool and was super nice, but what the fuck I have never in my life felt more lost in a fighting game. I got Defi’s Kuon, which isn’t a matchup I’m great in, but I just couldn’t find angles for anything. I think I got maybe 4 clean hits total in the set, and almost won a single round. I was on defense constantly, and though I didn’t get super hard punished for anything, I couldn’t get an opening like ever. 0-2

Round 4: Vs Frank VOcean This dude had that shit ON like I sit down and see this guy’s fit and I’m just like god damn I wish I had this guy’s fits. So I sit down and lock byak and I hear somebody behind me yell like “squish that spider you know this matchup.” He picks hyde and I’m like oh dope I know this matchup shoutouts to spencer and issei. I remember having a really easy time playing neutral vs him, he went for poorly spaced fireballs a lot that I could 66C. He took like a round, maybe one in both games on account of hyde offense but I didn’t struggle too much, and was able to close it out in a scrappy 2-0. I should also mention that the whole time the guy who yelled in character select was yelling rooting for their boy (THIS IS A GOOD THING DO NOT LET ME STOP YOU) but I turn around and its LuFl and he’s like “oh hey teekay no hard feelings about rooting against you” to which I basically say dude I’m not going to hold a grudge for you rooting for your homie wtf. Anyways shoutout to east coast uni they’re awesome people.

Round 5: Vs AtlasOmega SO this is a very recognizable name in the scene apparently and he had just beaten Noctis to get here but I’m feeling very confident because now that we’re offstream I’m playing hot. Also at some point between R1 and now I had met up with Alterchemist and he was watching my matches. This was also on Shaky Cam so I’ve reviewed this footage a lot. Game 1 is data city, R1 he perfects me R2 I perfect him R3 he perfects me again. Neither of us played like any defense but I’m feeling confident going into game 2 because I feel like I got a read on his habits. Game 2 he actually mentioned feeling like he threw it, and watching it back he was in a “one hit to win” situation at one point in this game, but I FELT fully in control having figured out his offense, I got a lot of good mashes off on him and my oki was phenomenal. Game 3 I kind of rolled that momentum from winning game 2 over and tilted him off the planet to control the gamestate. He got a few hits in, but I closed it out. So here I had officially reached my ORIGINAL goal of 65th, and made it out of the pool, so I pop the fuck off and I’m looking for any possible way to release that positive energy. I fist-bump Atlas and then I stand up and I’m jumping around, I make eye contact with Alter shoutouts to that guy, he looked like a deer in headlights as I yelled “CAN I HUG YOU RIGHT NOW” at him like 4 times before I hugged him. I asked him about this later and apparently he looked like that because, and I quote, “usually people don’t ask first” lol.

So I got my red tag and I’m playing again on Sunday. I misheard the TO and thought it was saturday so I had to lug my stick around all 3 days but whatever.

Also Thorn had to ping me because I didn’t know what time wonderful world was. Apparently I got like 3 consecutive byes due to DQs and made like winner’s semis. My two opponents over the course of these two games were apparently two of the best players in NA and I still don’t actually know anything about this game tbh. Sorry Thorn I promise I’ll actually learn and grind but rn uni is too fun to dedicate time to anything else.

Saturday: It was a good day. I mostly don’t remember a lot of it because I was stressing about playing again on Sunday the whole time but I bought most of my merch Saturday and watched the other Minnesota guys in their games. At the end of the day we went to a Kpop-Themed Korean Bbq place though and that was some good ass food. Tim and Alec ordered a bottle of soju that they split and by the end of it Alec was INEBRIATED like dude’s eyes were looking different directions. Also I asked everybody if anybody was allergic to seafood or shellfish before I ordered seafood and nobody was but ricefield went “but I’ll be going on a seafood adventure with you.” They stopped selling the garlic calamari because nobody ordered it apparently (WHUH?) but the cajun shrimp was the best shrimp I’d ever had and I think our table ordered like 5 entrees of it over the course of the night.

Sunday: So first thing of Sunday was my one match.

Round 6: Vs Spinach This is like formerly the best Carmine in NA apparently and I feel good about my result if that’s the case. I lost 2-0 but this shit was so winnable, both games were down to last round last hit. I played on fire in neutral and got some sick hits off but couldn’t find openings on defense (carmine lol). Also Spinach is like really fucking nice, like aggressively nice I want to base my entire personality on being like this guy. We spent like 5 minutes before starting our game just talking and having fun and bantering and then every time I got a hit in match he audibly said “oh no!” This dude rules shoutouts to John Woke.

After that I just watched top 32 until current code top 8, that tournament was cool. Idrk enough about the mechanics of Current code to make any assessments of the game but Thorn knows I’m a dirty setplay gremlin and she said I’d like C roa or any version of V Akiha which tracks those characters look like they put their opponent in situations. Speaking of situations wtf is Mech Hisui that character looks like she either gets shit on or wins every matchup 10-0 and it depends on if they have an answer to the exploding George Foreman move.

Uni top 8 was sick!!!! This game is so cool man I love watching this game. I don’t actually have much to add to any analysis of the top 8 that hasn’t already been said, but fuck was it a fun top 8. Climax at combo breaker is dope and the fact that the series isn’t dead just under new management is dope I will 100% still be going.

Also after top 8 Turnup had me do an interview for the Uni2BL stuff. Go watch it I’m a well-spoken person and the camera loves me.

Ok time for the mixfest analysis which is fresher in my mind.

This was a weird one because it’s in my home turf. I mean I moved to st peter now but this tournament is literally 10 minutes from my childhood home. Anyways instead of a hotel I chose to stay with my parents (shoutouts to them my parents are awesome) which honestly added a lot to the experience. Just getting home and having parents who want to hear about how the games went and eat and watch tv with me is very different. Like I love sitting down and watching impractical jokers and falling asleep with the tv on in a hotel room after a tournament, but being around family gives me so much energy. Although my mom turned my old bedroom into her home office so I have been sleeping on a floor mattress in the basement but we don’t talk about that. Anyways Friday I didn’t spend a whole lot of time at the venue. I showed up around like 12:30 and watched some games and played some games, but uni didn’t start so I looked through the artist alley and took pics of merch I was gonna buy for Henry and myself, talked with Chris for a while, and went back home.

Saturday was funny I misread startgg and thought both uni pools were sunday but I, in fact, had to play Saturday so I had an “oh shit I didn’t adequately prepare” moment. I got some practice games in with spencer, not realizing that we were eventually going to have an actual match later. I think he 3-0’d me and then I beat him 2-0 while he was distracted. Then he got up and went and got food and I asked Mike Uni Player for games and shoutouts to that guy for literally leaving to go get his stick to play with me. These games were where I really felt like “oh wait I’m kinda nice at this game” because every other time mike had come out of the woodwork to actually play this game he hates, he thoroughly smoked me and I looked totally lost, but this was like a close set. I was like even with his ogre, and gave him a run for his money every game and took a few off his eltnum. Before I got up for food I asked for pointers and he gave me some elt matchup advice that I don’t remember but also said “if you play confident you can do this.” This was, for some reason, exactly what I needed to hear because I played confident as fuck the whole tournament. Also Leann Chin is not good food.

Right before round 1 the TO calls for Teekay and I’m like “yep” and they go “wrong teekay” so anyways that’s how I met the other Teekay hi bestie you’re super nice and cool!!!

Round 1: Vs Heroawesome I am very confident in the “seth player who likes to upback” matchup. I got won just about every neutral interaction, converted into full damage and oki, and snowballed every round off like a single hit. I think heroawesome took a round? Idk I don’t remember it.

Round 2: Vs Ethics Buster Ok so this was predicted and something I was very excited for. I learned this game watching Giuseppe footage, and this is a fun mirror because Byak doesn’t have tools to deal with his own brand of bullshit. He won most interactions and I lost a pretty quick 2-0 but he hit me with the “that was stressful” afterwards because apparently he was not having an easy time figuring me out which was good feeling.

Round 3: Vs Stud Muffin 23 I suck at fighting Nanase and also this guy had goated defense. I won 2-1 and he made me WORK for my hits. Afterwards I asked him where he was from he’s like “Minnesota” so anyways if this guy starts going to locals and actually getting good practice I’m screwed. I think I won exclusively off the few times I was able to punish the fireball.

Round 4: Vs Hatorn Ok so going into this it should be known that I have fought Hatorn a number of times online and have never beaten him. Also he was critically underseeded given I was seeded to beat him and his record is way better than mine but I digress. Since the pool was coming to an end, there were fewer matches going on and I think there was a sort of spectacle of it, since Hatorn was one of the few players left in the pool that wasn’t MN, so we had a crowd around us. Anyways, I lose game one but I take a round, and I really had a few really solid finds to get my way in. I noted his flash kick timings as well and knew I was going to punish it going forward. The crowd also had my back, being mostly MN, and I realized that I still very much love playing for a crowd. Like I’ve always liked the camera, or having people cheer for me, but it had been a while, and this was a sort of moment where I went “oh yeah I can play to this” which will 100% be a thing moving forward. Between rounds I’m intentionally riling the crowd up, signaling for cheers, giving them thumbs up, etc. DAMN did that shit amp me up. Its still super close both games 2 and 3, and I don’t really remember either one super well, but I played a lot better than game one and closed out my first tournament match vs Hatorn. I also stand up, turn around and face spencer, who I learned lost to KHRocker earlier, point at him and declare “you’re next” just to keep up the crowd pleaser bit.

Round 5: Vs Spencer So Spencer and I had been playing online a good bit recently before this, and while he’s mostly had my number, the set count was getting closer and I’ve been on my grind. We also only have one tournament set, which was 3-1 in his favor back in like May when I could go to tournaments because I was on Injured on Duty leave.However, I’m playing hot as fuck, and the crowd is on my side. I know Ash said to Spencer like “I’m sorry I’d root for you in any other matchup but I have to root for my namesake” shoutout to that lmao. Overall I think the set was very similar to the one with Hatorn; he took game 1 because I mashed hard, but got the data on his offense so I could have angles to find my way in. I think he took round 1 in all three games as well, lmao. I just know in game 3 he spent all his bar on a VO hyde route that did like 5300 but didn’t kill, and then I played insane defense for 20 seconds before finding a single 2B that ended the set. We handshake and hug it out, and in that moment I want so hard to pop off and run across the venue, but I know I have to redirect that energy toward the persona I had created of a fan-favorite, so I stand up, point at Uni player, and declare this victory for him LOL.

Anyways Top 8 is Sunday at 4 and I’m exhausted so I go celebrate, talk to some people, buy merch, and go home and watch Beavis and Butt-head with my dad.

Sunday I show up and get some practice matches in with Spencer before the second pool that I watch and root for the homies. Then I go to get food with Silent Z shoutout to that guy for buying my food unprompted. Top 8 is all MN and Chicago and the Vikings are getting shit on by the bears at the bar we went to so I say something like “if Minnesota loses to Chicago AND the vikings lose to the bears today I’m gonna crash out.”

Round 6: Vs Ethics Buster I got my runback. I still lost, but I did get my runback. I think I played way better this time. I did some WILD shit, chain throwing him, anti-airing him, etc. I dropped every combo the whole set though. Regardless, I played for the crowd here too, just knowing that I’d feed off that energy. All of Minnesota had my back, but special shoutouts to Spencer and Uni player again who like really went out of their way to make that known. Once again, I played to the crowd, and even got Giuseppe in on it for a little pre-match banter that the stream didn’t get to see lol. Anyways that guy is goated and I’ll be coming for him next time we fight in bracket.

The rest of top 8 was dope as fuuuuuuck. Hardly is just an unkillable demon king somebody pay for him to actually travel to a major, and KHRocker popped the fuck off too. Anyways I got the hardly spencer and uni player glaze this tournament so that’s how you know I’m goated and I’m only getting better I’m gonna go home and keep playing this game 6 hours a day after every shift at work and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.