I went to Las Vegas!【Splinterfest2022】

First of all, sorry for the delay in reporting....
The reason is that I contracted a coronavirus as soon as I got back home and was resting as best I could.

And as for why I suddenly wrote a post on PEAKD, I had no choice but to do so because for some reason the environment I'm in now won't allow me to open my own blog no matter how hard I try!
And that's how I'm going to sum up our dramatic trip to Las Vegas!

まずは報告遅れてごめんなさい・・・。
理由は帰って早々コロナウイルスに感染してしまい全力で安静にしていたからです。

そしてなんで急にPEAKDなのかってのは、なぜか今いる環境だとどうあがいても自分のブログが開けないから仕方なく！
そんな感じでドラマチックなラスベガスの旅をまとめていきます！！

I met up with HalfBlue and Nite who were going with me from Japan. But there was trouble at the transit point in Los Angeles! HalfBlue's plane was the only one that had a different flight, so we had to split up.
After 5 hours, we met up with halfblue.

The second day was free and Ashley and Yukihyakubai took us to explore the city of Las Vegas. Practice soon after.And at night, a pizza party! Glad I got to know everyone!
I was so excited that I couldn't sleep much, so I hardly slept and practiced all the time for the Champion League without worrying about CR.

日本から一緒に行くハフブルさんとにてさんと合流して行ったわけだが、トランジットのロサンゼルスでトラブル発生！ハフブルさんの飛行機がなぜか違ったので、別行動にｗ
僕とにてさんは先にラスベガスへ行き、ディズニーランドみたいなホテルへ向かい散策して待っていた。5時間後、合流。

2日目はフリーで、アシュリーとyukiさんに案内してもらいラスベガスの街を散策。その後すぐ練習。そして夜はピザパーティー！みんなと仲良くなれてよかった！
僕はドキドキしてあまり寝れなかったのでほとんど寝ずにCR気にせずずっとランクマ潜っていた。

On the day of the festival, I had an extra large pancake for breakfast and headed to the venue!
It seems to be the world's largest e-sports event venue. It looked like a place where Steve Jobs or someone like that could have been presenting a new product!
Various people seemed to be talking about games and making big announcements, but I couldn't understand them at all because they were in English, so I was almost asleep. Then the moderator gave me the finger and laughed at me.
I'm sorry about that!!

フェス当日は朝ごはんに特盛パンケーキを食べ、いざ会場へ！
世界一のeスポーツイベント会場らしい。入口ぎゅうぎゅう。入ったらなんかスティーブジョブズとかが新商品をプレゼンしていてもおかしくないような会場だった！
色んな人がゲームのこととか重大発表とかしているみたいだったが英語なので全然聞き取れずほとんど寝ていた。そしたら司会の人に指を刺されて笑われてしまったｗ
申し訳ないｗｗ

After a lunch break, it was decided that everyone would return to the hotel for a nap until the tournament. I was too lightheaded from sleeping through the event and the excitement before the tournament to sleep, so before getting on the train, I decided to say goodbye to everyone and headed back to the venue alone. I was not able to understand English, and I had avoided going alone as much as possible. But for some reason, this was the only time I really did so. This unexpected action saved my life.

Mr. Rogue Patton, whom I had made friends with at the pizza party, spoke to me in English as soon as he saw me. I honestly didn't understand what he was saying, but I recognized that he was asking me, "Did you enter the tournament?" I recognized that he was asking me if I had entered the tournament. I thought he had entered the tournament on his own when I entered the venue, so I looked at him strangely, but he pulled me to the PC set up in the venue and entered the tournament. And there were only 10 minutes left to enter. If I hadn't gone back, I wouldn't have been able to participate! Why didn't you guys tell me? I thought. But why didn't they tell us? They didn't know, did they? I suddenly felt uneasy and contacted them, but they were skeptical. They didn't believe me very much. However, just as the entries were about to close, everyone noticed the topic on the Discord and Halfblue came back.

Apparently, the entry was announced after we left the venue. So everyone was unaware of it.
At this point, I was the only Japanese who could participate in the tournament. If I had not returned to the venue on a whim, I would not have been able to participate in the tournament, even though I went to the trouble of crowdfunding, which I would have been if RoguePatton had not backed out.
Between the relief of this miracle and the pressure of not being able to join the other Japanese, all I could do was watch Halfblue protesting to the management.

It was impossible.... Just when it looked like it was going to be impossible, someone offered to give Mr. Hufbul the right to participate in the tournament, and he was able to make it. It was a mistake, but he was able to get it approved in front of the management. I saw a miracle.

昼休憩に入り、大会までみんなで一旦昼寝をしにホテルへ戻ることになった。僕はイベント中爆睡して頭が冴えてたのと、大会前の興奮で寝れる気がしなかったので電車に乗る前思い立ったように皆に別れを告げ一人で引き返し、会場に残った。英語のわからない自分は極力単独行動を避けてたのにだ。本当にこの時だけ、なぜか。この思いがけない行動が我が身を救った。

ピザパで仲良くなったRoguePatton氏が僕を見るなり英語で何か話しかけてくる。正直よくわからないが、「大会にエントリーした？」的なことを聞いてくれていたと認識。エントリーは会場入りの時に勝手にしてくれているもんだと思ったので「ん？」みたいな顔をしたらそのまま会場に設置してあるPCまで手を引いてくれてエントリーをしてくれたのだ・・・。しかもエントリーまで残り10分だった。これ戻ってなきゃ参加できなかったじゃんよ！！なんでみんな教えてくれなかったんだ！？と思った。しかし、みんなが教えてくれないはずないよな？みんな知らなかったんじゃね？と急に不安になり連絡を取るが、みんな半信半疑。僕のいうことをあまり信じてくれなかった。しかし、ちょうどエントリーが終了したくらいでDiscordにあるその話題にみんな気付いてハフブルさんが戻ってきた。

エントリーのことは僕らが会場を出た後にアナウンスがあったらしい。それでみんな気付かなかった。
この時点で、日本人は僕しか大会に参加できないことになってしまったのだ。そもそも僕も気まぐれで会場に戻らなければクラファンまでして行ったのに大会出れませんでしたってなってた。RoguePatton氏が手を引いてくれなきゃそうなってた。
この奇跡の安堵と他の日本人が参加できないプレッシャーの狭間で僕はハフブルさんが運営さんに抗議しているのを見届けることしかできない。

もう、無理だ・・・。と思われた矢先、ハフブルさんに大会の参加権を渡したいと申し出てくれた人がいてハフブルさんはなんとかなった。本当はいけないことだが、運営の目の前で公認してもらったのだ。奇跡を見た。。。

As I was starting the qualifier, I realized that I had lost the card with my ghost account ID and password on it. I seriously wondered what I was doing, broke out in a cold sweat and looked around for it. Of course, it was not that easy to find it. Then, Chatter, the management team, came to my rescue. I got my ID and password, and we started playing!

I thought I was definitely going to fail because I lost 3 or 4 times by luck, but I managed to qualify for the Champion's League in 14th place. I hadn't practiced at all for the Gold League, but somehow I qualified in 4th place. All in all, I was too lucky in many ways.

予選を始める際、ゴーストアカウントのIDとパスワードが記載されたカードを失くしたことに気付いた。マジで何をやっているんだと冷や汗をかきまくって辺りを探しまくった。当然そんな簡単に見つかるわけもない。そんな時運営のChatterが助けてくれた。Chatterマジ感謝！！無事、IDとパスワードを手に入れ、対戦へ！

運負け3、4回したから絶対落ちたと思っていたがなんとかチャンピオンリーグは14位で予選突破。ゴールドリーグは全く練習していなかったがなぜか4位で予選突破していた。総じて色々と運が良すぎた。。

When we gathered with the finalists, another incident occurred.
While waiting for interviews and photos to be taken, I decided to talk to those who were nearby.

I asked them, "Hi, good luck in the final tournament. What's your in-game name?"

"Oh, KIRA1995."

What a surprise!
I got to meet that KIRA!

KIRA is the guy who banned us Japanese who were fighting like NEETs from the tournament before. He used to call us "bots" and "playing wintrade". We were really troubled at that time.

Halfblue was going into it in depth. I laughed. KIRA laughed like he was having a bad day.

I'm glad we actually had a conversation, because he believed we were human and we got along well.

Unexpectedly, I had accomplished one of my goals for the trip, which was to befriend KIRA!

I even took a picture of him and I arm-in-arm, but I forgot to get permission to publish it, so you'll just have to be satisfied with this image!

決勝トーナメント出場者で集まる時、またまた事件は起こった。
インタビューや写真撮影の待ち時間、せっかくだから近くにいる人と交流していこうと声をかけていく。

「やぁ、決勝トーナメントがんばろうね。君のゲーム内ネームは？」

「ああ、KIRA1995」

なんと！！！
あのKIRAとの対面が叶ったのだ！

KIRAは以前廃人のごとくプレイしている我々日本人をbotだとか八百長しているだとか難癖付けて大会を出禁にまで追いやったサポートスタッフの人だ。

実際会話をしてみて我々が人間であると信じてもらえたし仲良くなれたのでよかった。

思わぬところで旅の目的の一つであったKIRAと仲良くするという目標を達成できた！

本人と仲良く腕組んだ写真も撮ったが顔出しの許可を取っていないのでこの画像で満足してほしい！

Day 1 of SplinterFest was a bit of a whirlwind with so much going on!

Day 2 was the final tournament!

As you all already know the results, I was able to take second place in both Gold and Champion, and was awarded the MVP of the tournament.

During the tournament, everyone was watching me, but I was not nervous and was able to play calmly from start to finish. The finals were really close. I played with a steady mind throughout the tournament because I was unfamiliar with the Champion and Gold League, but that is not my original style of play. My style of play is to put priority on playfulness rather than win rate, to actively go for more gutsy meta play and attractive play.
I lost in Gold, so I can't blame myself for becoming more stability-oriented. Next time I get a chance like this, I will try to play in the way I enjoy the most so that I will have no regrets.

SplinterFest1日目は色々ありすぎて波乱万丈といった感じだった！

2日目はいよいよ決勝トーナメント！！

もう皆さん結果はご存じの通り、僕はゴールド、チャンピオン共に準優勝をし、大会MVPを受賞することができました。

トーナメント中は終始冷静にプレイできてよかったです。決勝戦は本当に惜しかった。今大会は慣れないチャンピオン、ゴールドリーグというのもあって終始安定志向を貫いていましたが、それは本来の僕のプレイスタイルではない。もっとガッツリメタ張ったり、魅せプ狙いに行けばよかったｗ
ゴールドはそれで負けちゃったから、そうなってしまったのは仕方ないところではある。次こんなチャンスが訪れたら後悔のないよう自分が一番楽しいと思う戦い方で挑みたい。

Lastly, I went on this trip with a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Thanks to the people around me, I was able to achieve a great result: double runner-up.
I also made a lot of friends, which was my main goal.
I will always cherish the invaluable friends I have made through Splinterlands.
I can't not repay them for the connections I have made with so many people and the one-of-a-kind experiences I have had.
I know it's still a long way off, but I definitely want to repay the favor by winning a championship someday. And of course, I will return the favor through my activities as well!
Thank you so much for such wonderful memories!

See you soon!

最後に、私はこの旅へクラウドファンディングを成功させて行きました。
周りの人々のおかげでダブル準優勝という大きな結果を得ることができました。
一番の目的だった沢山の友人を作ることもできました。
Splinterlandsを通じて出会えたかけがえのない友人をこれからも大切にしていきたいです。
これだけの人との繋がりと唯一無二の経験をさせていただき、恩返ししないわけにはいきません。
まだまだ先になってしまいますが、いつか必ず優勝して恩返ししたいです。もちろん活動してその中でも恩返ししていきます！
こんなに素晴らしい思い出を本当にありがとうございます！！！

それではまた！