But how about his trip back home? Since the UK is exempt from the restriction, Karel may be able to fly back home via London. He may need to go through a screening upon either landing in the U.S., landing at Heathrow or returning to his own country through Schipol.

Of course this is all assuming that the ASC isn't canceled or postponed at the last minute, with cases growing in Louisiana and now one reported case in Mississippi (Hattiesburg). I will need to get with the Kartel by phone Thursday afternoon to make sure that this event is still on.

Drew, please realize that you are coming from an area affected from the virus. Assuming that the ASC is still on and that you will be here, the airport that you land at (we're assuming you're flying) may have to screen you first. Sami will also have to be screened, of course, assuming he's still flying in. If anything I'd be most worried about Sami having the virus since London is one of the world's main international cities and is visited by so many people from so many places (it wouldn't take much for a pandemic to spread in such a place). But maybe London has indeed lucked out and is not badly affected yet, or the UK would not be exempt from the travel ban, but American airports and customs still need to monitor visitors from the UK just in case.

Also landing later today so should be fine too. Would be cutting it too fine to travel on Friday anyway in case any regular cancellations happen so doing like last year on Thursday (today) instead. Plus to relax on Friday. I enquired at Heathrow, everything is running as normal today so it will only be affecting those travelling to US from Friday onwards from Europe. Should be fine getting back they said too. Karel, would you need to fly back via UK or are your return flights still going to Schipol? Maybe just check that when you are there as that part is for those returning to mainland Europe. I assume return trips out of USA would be running normally. I'm going back Monday evening so it is only a few days away.

Takashi is already on the plane as far as I know. We wrote yesterday.

My flight leaves in a few hours so I won't be able to write again after that till I reach Atlanta then change quickly to Monroe.

Oh, that's good news to hear, especially about the hand sanitizer (we haven't been able to find that anywhere here!). My parents (being somewhat advanced in their years) are really concerned about me bringing the virus to them, and to the dogs. My own argument is that I may actually be less likely to pick up the virus in Monroe than at home, as the Gulfport/Biloxi area surely receives more out-of-town visitors (especially to the casinos), plus has a larger population, therefore viruses would likely spread here first. If anything, we have to worry about bringing the virus from Gulfport to Monroe, not the other way around!

I'll get you on the phone in the afternoon. I also need to get a hold of Koltz of course. I haven't really started packing yet since plans were uncertain (but I do have a box ready), especially after hearing about the European travel ban. In any case, don't get too excited about gambling in Mississippi when we come back on Monday afternoon, my family might not want us hanging out at a busy casino this time due to the ongoing health crisis. Just a little heads-up.

Hope there's room at Doe's for a few more people since we know Sami, Karel, and Takashi will be on board. They're all invited to eat with us, aren't they?

Matt has told me that he will not be at the dinner, presumably taking over for Kyle with ASC preparation (we'll have Kyle though).

Currently waiting for a call from Koltz. He did not answer his phone so I texted him my mobile number.

Finally heard back from Koltz via PM, he and I will arrive in town around 3-4 PM! Matt and I were a bit worried since neither of us were able to contact him by phone this evening.

No TT PRs this week (at least not while I'm here at home!) but I am practicing a little 150cc GP before I pack my other SNES and SMK cartridge. It turns out that the Kartel happened to be practicing GP, also.  

Harvey Kartel wrote on 03/12/20 at 11:31:07:


Just realize that I didn't specifically invite anyone. I left the dinner open to all, and whoever contacted me I made a reservation for, which was ten folks. Anyone else that wants to eat at Doe's will have to show up and hope the place isn't full.

^ That's all you have to say about this past weekend... "Meh"?  

Sami has not yet updated any times on the Players' Page, so I do not know if he has safely made it back to Croydon yet.

Everyone who came from outside the US, please let us know when you've made it back home! All of the American Karters should be back home by now (I was probably the first non-Louisiana Karter to get home) I'm anxiously awaiting everyone's commentary!

EDIT: Sami is now updating times!

This is the first time since SMK French Championships 2006 I will read other players bilans without knowing what happened, so please write loads of stuff there!

Brilliant write up Nick, I'm so glad you are a member of the Kartel, you are a legend through and through!
The highlight of my career was setting a #7 overall CI1 time on GP of 39.80 against the man that got me back into the game, my best friend, and old sparring partner Matt Ballard, with you watching!!!

If everyone is in agreement, which I'm sure they are, and he agrees, we welcome Ethan into the Kartel!
I really enjoyed getting to know Ethan even if it was at the expense of not getting sleep, it was more than worth it!



I'll elaborate further on the event soon.

Hello everyone. This will be my "bilan" of the happenings surrounding the ASMKC held in Monroe, Louisiana from March 14th-15th. I'm starting this one off in a subtle tone because, well... this weekend was absolutely insane. From my lack of sleep all weekend due to extremely early flights out of Denver to Dallas (we left our house at 4:00 am for a 6:40 am flight), to drinking like it's the end of the world (not so out of the ordinary), to finding out that the virus that's been going around has been upgraded to something far more serious than I ever thought and very well could be the end of the world (probably not), which led to me finding out on Twitter that all major US sports have been cancelled, to not knowing whether or not my European friends would be making it to the US at all due to travel bans being instituted literally hours before they left for their own trips, to me just thinking "fuck it, let's just have a good time while we can," this trip is certainly going to be remembered in the back of my brain for years and years to come.

Last year we saw the "bomb cyclone," this year was the Coronavirus, and it looks like we're just getting started...

First of all, huge shout out to all of the members of The Kartel in Louisiana. They pulled off yet another great event and they are all amazing people. The amount of work that they put into these events is hard to fathom, and I can only imagine how exhausted they all must be. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for a wonderful weekend of drinking... and some SMK on the side.

                 

Genesis, aka: "The Beginning"

(Granbury on the left, Monroe on the right)

Like I briefly mentioned earlier, I'm a total dumbass and didn't plan accordingly for our early flight in the morning. In the interest of full disclosure, Nes and I watch Chicago Blackhawks hockey, and our tradition is to do a shot of whiskey every time that they score a goal. This has since been amended to doing shot when:

- the game has started.
- the period has started.
- the period has ended and the Hawks have a lead (aka "keep the luck" shots).
- the period has ended and the Hawks failed to score a goal that period/are losing (aka "change the luck" shots).
- the Hawks had a rookie score his first goal (in this case we do two shots).
- the Hawks either win/lose the game.

So, we're basically in for a minimum of 4 or 5 shots per game regardless of the score. On Wednesday before our 4 am departure on Thursday morning, the Hawks just so happened to score 6 fucking goals. Couple that with a few of the criteria above, and we're looking at a cool 10 shots at the very minimum, right? Game ends at 10, so it's time to pack for the trip. We had been aware of the national/global hysteria surrounding the Coronavirus and were monitoring Karel's (and his surprise guest's) flight situation throughout the hockey game, but obviously the time difference made it so that it was well past midnight in Europe so there was no chance Karel was awake and able to gameplan with us about what to do. Between periods -- instead of a typical analysis of how the game had been going up to that point -- a random NHL public relations person that I had never seen before kept giving updates as to the status of the league and where it stands on the Coronavirus situation. These kinds of things don't happen unless it's extremely serious, so I finally tried to contact Karel on Discord to see if his plans had changed at all, obviously still knowing that he's not awake yet and won't see any of the messages that I wrote before I head to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. Nes sets her alarm for 3:30 am; I quickly pack, shower, and hope for the best. Three hours later and I'm somehow awake and brushing my teeth, groggy as shit and about to get on an airplane with my hair looking like Gordon Ramsay. Not a great look...

                 

Day 1: "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles"

As is usually the case, the Denver airport at 5 am is pretty empty, so nothing looked out of the ordinary to me at all. We board our flight and head toward Dallas, which shaved a cool 15 hours of driving (one way) off of last year's trip. While I absolutely don't regret driving across the country with Clark and Guillaume last year, I was pretty fucking happy that this year was going to be drastically different. Nes and I would be landing at 9:45 am (one hour time change to Central from Mountain), and we'd be able to sleep on the plane the entire time. I throw on some Elliott Smith live sets to fall asleep to and I'm out (at least as much as I'm able to sleep on a plane, which is between wide awake and dozing off until your head bobs and wakes you up again); so far so good.

My parents pick us up at the airport and I feel great. We spend the hour and half back to their house shooting the shit and contemplating what the weekend is going to be like. I told them that I was bit worried about my European friends making it back home amidst the rapidly changing virus situation, but that's kind of all we could do -- speculate. Nobody knows what the fuck is going on and it's not like anyone can predict the future or anything, so we were forced to play everything by ear. Back at my parents' place I have a couple of beers by the pool and we keep a close eye on flights from Amsterdam to the US. I send some texts to Karel asking about his status once he got to the States, and here's what he had to say:




So, it looks like Karel is going to have a lengthy wait at customs in Houston, which, according to him, couldn't have moved any slower. His original flight was supposed to land in Dallas at 6 pm, which gave me plenty of time to rest a little bit at my parents' house before leaving at 4 to make it on time through Dallas traffic. The situation was still very much fluid, but his suprise passenger was able to make it through without a problem due to his United States passport.

Alright, I suppose that should be enough for everyone to connect the dots if they didn't already know: Lafungo was back in the US of A. Donc, Lafungo makes it easily onto the original connecting flight to Dallas, but I tell the two of them that I'm not making three visits to the airport in one day; they'll have to wait until Karel can get onto another flight before I leave to go pick them up. Luckily he was able to get a flight that landed 2 hours later, so I tell him I'll be there at 8:30 to pick them up.

Nes and I eat dinner with my parents and my sister, who brought over some gifts for our European/American guests, and we leave for the airport at around 7 pm. I remember not feeling so great around that time, but it was probably because I hadn't properly slept in about 24 hours, and I was pretty exhausted. This would be a common theme for the remainder of the trip.

                 

Their Arrival

Lafungo had landed at 6 pm and Karel 8, so Lafungo was forced to just wait around for a couple of hours while Karel was in the air. I felt a little bad about that, but there was really nothing else that I could do. Keep in mind that I had never met Lafungo in person before, so we didn't really have any comraderie to go off of like I would with Karel or Clark. That would all change pretty much as soon as I picked them both up and we made the trek back Granbury. Instant friends.

They were exhausted, but hungry... so I took them to the only place any Texan would take them: Whataburger. I was still feeling a bit meh, so I just sat there and tried not to think about the Coronavirus while they devoured their burgers. Lafungo was pretty happy with his purchase, despite it taking about 10 minutes to get his order even though he ordered the exact same thing that Karel did 30 seconds before he did, haha.

I remember walking back to the car and thinking that the trip had only just started but it felt like it was about to be over in an instant. For whatever reason every trip always feels like it lasts three seconds for me...

Back in the car we start comparing American fast food burgers to Whataburger and Lafungo mentions that he had never had In 'N Out Burger before, so I inform him that he was surprisingly in luck: Dallas is one of the few areas of the country outside of the west coast that has many, many In 'N Out locations. He gets very excited, so we gameplan to hit up In 'N Out the next morning on the way to Louisiana, along with the mandatory stop inside the truck stop paradise known as Buc-ee's. For those who are still unfamiliar with Buc-ee's even after last year's ASMKC, please refer to the picture in last year's thread...

We make it back to my parents' place and have a couple of beers, which, of course, is also mandatory. Anyone who has met either of my parents know that they aim to please, so they go out of their way to stock up on all the delicious Shiner Bock that money can buy. We talk about their travel situation, the unknown about whether or not Karel and Jonathan will get stranded in the US, etc... I tell them repeatedly that worst case scenario they could always stay at my place in Denver. Not soon after, everyone is feeling like they got beaten by a sack of potatoes, so we go to bed around midnight. This year has already gone better than last year's debacle where we didn't even show up to my parents' place until 1:30 am and had an early morning departure time of 5:30 am, so I'm thankful that everything has pretty much gone the way that it was planned, aside from Karel's minor hiccup in Houston. We didn't really have a set time of when we had to make it to Louisiana so we could sleep pretty late as far as I was concerned and we weren't up against any walls (thank god).


                 

Day 2: "I can't fucking believe this is happening"

I didn't sleep well at all. I kept getting hot and cold spells off and on throughout the night, and the fucking clock outside of our door kept going off every hour on the hour. It's pretty depressing when you're laying there and you're counting how many chimes it does: Five, then six, then seven, eight... and you haven't really been able to get any good rest in between... terrible times.

Everyone starts getting up around 9:30 or 10, I don't remember exactly. I was informed the night before that we actually had dinner reservations at 6:30 in Monroe, so now we had to leave at noon at the very latest in order to make it on time (including our pit stop at Buc-ee's). We decide to leave at 11 to leave some room for error, but not before Karel scarfs down bacon, toast, eggs, and some coffee. A traditional American breakfast, but that was the order in which it was served, haha. Lafungo decided to wait for In 'N Out, which I felt was the better call. I don't eat breakfast anyway, so we headed out right on time at 11 on the dot.

In 'N Out was purchased. Karel and Lafungo gave it two thumbs up, but Lafungo still thinks Five Guys is better than both Whataburger and In 'N Out, which very well could be true (I've never had Five Guys). Next stop was Buc-ee's, which completely blew Karel away, as it did Clark and Guillaume the year prior. I always laugh at their reactions because they can't believe something like that should ever need to exist. I tend to agree, but c'mon, it's still pretty fuckin' awesome, haha. Lafungo buys a Buc-ee's plush doll for Takashi, I take a couple pictures of the 100 gas pumps for future reference, and we're finally on our way to our final destination: The Kartel's home base.

On the way we continued the tradition of counting how many Subway restaurants were between Dallas and Monroe. I always lose count, but a new tradition was started: Count all the Morris Bart billboards. I remember laughing at his goddamn "smile" at first, but then we started to notice that his fucking smile was EVERYWHERE. Here's what he looks like:



There was even one place where he had bought both the billboards that are directly next to one another just to stick it to his nemesis that was trying to intrude on his turf.

Clark and Guillaume know better than anyone else that you'll do anything to keep yourself entertained for an extended road trip, so Lafungo asked me to recap a classic wrestling match: The 1998 King of the Ring Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and Mankind. I spent a good half an hour going into absolutely every detail as possible, which made Lafungo laugh, haha.

                 

The Meeting I Had Previously Deemed Impossible

I'm well aware that the words I'm about to type and what you're about to read won't ever do it justice. All weekend long I kept telling myself that we all died in 2012 and this is just some dumb alternate universe that we're all living in, trying to make sense of everything the best we can. Still, this was something that I never thought I would ever say in my entire life:

I actually met Nicolas Harvey. The forum legend Nick Harvey -- Harvey Kartel -- is a living, breathing human being. Un-fucking-real.

It still baffles me. From last year's sulphuric farts and unfortunately stained bed sheets, to this year's GoFundMe campaign that raised a cool $27 out of the initial $12,000 that Terrence Fenner was asking, one of those two legends of the Kart scene actually made it to Monroe, Louisiana. I remember pulling up and seeing his unmistakable face, and I immediately chuckled and said "no fucking way..."

I get out of the car and I look over to Lafungo and Karel, still in disbelief that I'm about to meet Nick goddamn Harvey. It's like a scene from a movie, man. It's like you've made it backstage at a concert and there's the lead singer 27 feet in front of you -- a person that you previously thought you'd never be able to see face to face and shake their hand. I walk toward the crowd...

Me: "Nick Harvey?" (I hold out my hand)
Harvey: "You must be Joe." (shakes my hand) "You still have your Texas plates even though you live in Colorado?"
Me: "Oh, yeah, well, that's my Mom's car. They still live in Texas even though I've since moved to Colo... you're really Nick Harvey, aren't you?"
Harvey: "So that's Nes over there then?"
Me: "Yeah, that's her."
Harvey: "Does she speak Tagalog? I know Filipinos speak Tagalog so I was wondering if she spoke that."
Me: "Oh, uh, no, she doesn't. Her parents do, but she was born and raised in Chicago... I can't fucking believe this is happening right now, haha."
Harvey: (silence)

Lafungo bee lines over to Takashi and they hug each other, having previously played together at the last CDM (check out the vods, they're definitely worth it). Sami and Karel start talking about their respective trips thus far and I'm just surveying the scene and taking it all in. Eventually we make it inside and put our stuff down, able to relax if only for a moment before we're shuttled off to a place called "Doe's Eat Place" for dinner and to meet up with the remainder of our crew: Dave Smith and Dan Hoernemann (aka: dan__h).

                 

This ASMKC is brought to you by Doe's Eat Place. Doe's: "We hope you like salt..."

This place was pretty great, I have to admit. I thoroughly enjoyed my 24 ounce strip steak, but the look on Karel's face when he got his plate handed to him I'll never forget. Fuck, I'll never forget this entire meal for various reasons, but Karel's reaction to his rib eye was absolutely priceless. A picture for size reference:



Other than that, I apologize but bullet points will have to suffice:

- I got the au gratin potatoes as my side, but the amount of salt that it contained turned my face into this:

- Somehow, some way, the band GOAT and Your Mom and that legendary song "Can You Quack?" was brought up. We laughed and talked about them for a full 5 minutes before Harvey asks us if we've ever heard of GOAT and Your Mom and that song "Can You Quack?" We all have another good laugh at that moment of miscommunication.
- I wasn't counting, but I think Nick must have drank him about 15 sweet teas during dinner.
- Obligatory out of context reference: "Where're YOU goin'?" - quote of the weekend.

The meal lasted, oh... about two and a half hours. Dave didn't get his steak until 15 minutes after everyone else at the table did, and then when they sent a replacement, it was undercooked to the point where Dave had steam shooting out of his ears. Two hours later and we're all wrapping up our meals, getting our checks, but Nick is still ordering sweet teas and going ham on his surf and turf. We pay our check; still hackin' away. We get up to leave -- Andrew Koltz gets up but remembers that he's driving Nick back to the Kartel's place, so it's gonna be a little while longer before he's able to leave...



From left to right: Nes, me, Nick Harvey, Dave Smith, Andrew Koltz, Jessica, Dan__h, KVD, Lafungo

And that's all I have to say about that...

Back at the Kartel HQ -- I crack some more beers and we set up a couple SNESes to practice before tomorrow's shindig. I don't remember all that much about the rest of the night except that I colt 45'd Harvey in GP through all the cups, which prompted him to ask "Are you the American GP champion or something...?" I may have played it from time to time. I finish my several Yeunglings and I'm off to bed around 1 am or something, who the hell knows at this point.

                 

Day 2: "The show must go on"

This has already been way too long, so I'll recap the events as best I can:

Time Trials: Sucked. I did pretty well in group stage (4th overall) but as soon as the lights turned on I shat the bed pretty hard. Whenever I can't decide whether I should be going balls out or playing it safe I get caught in-between and end up making far too many mistakes than I normally would. Plus, I hate being on the stream TV, so nerves are always my worst enemy.

I interviewed Harvey between Time Trials and Match Race, so try to check that out if you're so inclined.
Edit: https://clips.twitch.tv/DistinctFairYakinikuAsianGlow

Match Race: Includes using items, so I never stand a chance. I played Drew a few times, which would be a theme for the weekend. Let's just say that I didn't do so hot and I was happy when the day was finally over.

Back at the hacienda and I've picked up some more beer (I made a lot of trips to Wal-Mart and the corner gas station all weekend). I knew this was the only night that we had to really drink, so we got Dan and Dave to stop over and we have a nice little Saturday night drink-a-thon. Dave had already left for his hotel before Match Race had ended, but Dan and I were not very happy with his decision to call it a night. Donc, we call for an Uber to go get him (after about a half an hour of trying to convince him that it'll be worth it to come back and hang out) and he finally caves in. Fast forward like 10 beers, a shot of tequila, and the hottest pepper sauce he's ever had and Dave's back in the EXACT SAME UBER that brought him to the party. It's 2 am and everyone is about to head off to bed, but Ethan decided to give more time trials a go. He didn't go to bed until 7 am or so.

well i guess its time to post my trip report, or bilan as they say. people who don't use the discord most likely don't know who i am. i joined the leaderboard back in december 2019 after i found out that they allowed use of snes mini to submit times, so i did and ive gotten just in the top 100 in next update most likely. still playing on snes mini, never really tried nbt, on a flatscreen, but one day ill change my setup, for now just having fun seeing how far i can get. i also kind of want to post a bilan based on the view of an outsider, for people who doesnt know anyone and still want to consider attending a future event whether its this or CDM

so i first had heard abou asmkc about.. mid february i guess. i found a cheap room in the area and booked it just so id have something if i decided to go later. it simmered for a few weeks, and another moment was in a twitch chat a couple weeks prior when matt offered to let me stay in his house for free. i told him id consider it. i let it sit a while longer, until about a week before the tournament when i DMed matt on discord that i would plan to attend if i could crash at his house because i wanted the "full" experience so to say. i didnt really want to just go back to a hotel room after i left the venue. he graciously allowed me to stay and everything was smooth. or so i thought..

coronavirus. yeah. this all kinda kicked off badly the wednesday prior. for about a 2 hour period i was seriously considering not attending, but i was made to feel better by knowing it would be a smaller venue and we would all be taking precautions. this wasnt even considering the issues that sami/kvd/lafungo/takashi would/did have with their flights during the weekend. it wouldnt have been the same if they didnt make it so im glad it worked out like it did.

i am about an 8 hour drive from monroe, and i wanted to get there a little earlier on friday, so i elected to leave home at about 2am friday, which would put me there late morning. the drive down was fairly uneventful, i arrived about when i expected. i was the first to arrive on friday, it was matt and takashi at the house, and matt's eyes bugged out when he first saw me, i still recall that. we had our pleasentries and chatted for a while. later on, i met sami and we had a discussion about SMK history and recruiting japanese players to join the leaderboard while he was waiting for takashi to wake up so they can go tea shopping. truthfully, after this most of friday is a blur to me as i woke up at midnight to drive down there and i didnt sleep for over 24 hr after. eventually others started showing up (which i wont list names because i will forget someone, but it was about everyone). being a bit of the outsider, it was cool seeing everyone id just read messages on discord or watching their vids/etc. eventually many of them left to either doe's or to the gym. i think at that point it was just me and takashi and kyle. i dont remember much of what happened after that, but i eventually went to sleep sometime past midnight

saturday comes. i woke up at 5am and couldnt get back to sleep, so i eventualyl climbed out of bed at like 6-7 am, i was the only one kinda out of bed at the time, but not the only one awake i later found out. i hung out a bit, charged phone as the others slowly began to wake up. i went out to get breakfast, but i later find out after i ate that the kartel provided donuts and other pastries for breakfast. wish id known prior, but all good. i arrived at the venue at around 10am as they were getting the final setup done, and i quickly realized i needed to relearn zoom start timing. you have to hit it earlier on the snes mini than you do on actual snes, which i attribute to input lag...i trained it as best i could before the competitions began

time trial. the only mode i was hoping to do alright in. we started with a one try of every track to add overall time. the zoom start thing really messed with me, but i think i did hit just over half of them. even though this hurt my result a lot, and i had a tough start (1'06 mc1 rip), i had a good end and my overall time was about 28 minute 7 seconds. id said before that i was hoping for a high 27 to low 28 so i was satisfied with this. after the TT was done, we would race randomly drawn tracks and if you finished in the bottom half, you got a strike, 3 strikes and you were eliminated. i lasted 4 tracks (i managed to survive gv3 by getting 10th, where 11th got a strike) so this result was fine, especially since i had no chance on some of them. you also learn how much of a madman ethan is though, during a gv1 one try he hit 2 pj's and went for a third and fell. eventually the field got down to three, KVD, lafungo and sami. they ran it CDM style and this went on for some time, but it was a lot of fun to watch. lafungo fell behind on strikes early but made a valiant effort to stay in and outlast KVD, but eventually lost the winner take all race to sami

during the TT the kartel family provided more food, pizza, and some delicious homemade gumbo i think it was? or jambalaya, either way it was quite good and i had more than one bowl of it.

match race. a mode ive never played in my life. i learned that the zoom start actually lines up closer to the snes mini TT timing so i didnt have as much issue adjusting to this one. each mode from here on was a triple elimination bracket. as i recall i got crushed by matt, then i played kyle and i won that match. i then got matched with eric and got crushed again (i called it good practice for them), and i ended up rematched with kyle, which i then lost and was eliminated. so i sat around and watched the others go at it, and eventually saw sami with another victory.

we got back saturday night and had a good time hanging out. i was quite tired so i dont remember much of it, but there was a lot of garage mario kart involved, and dragging dave smith from his hotel to hang out. i heard there was hot sauce at some point but i think i missed it, i ended up crawling into sleep a bit before 2am.

i woke up sunday, i wanna say around 7 am. i found out that ethan has been grinding TT all night after sleeping during match race, and also got a new US record on VL2, which i also found out was andrew koltz's only US record. but soon after he went to sleep, and did not wake up for a long time. i again went to the venue about 10am or a bit after, this time not getting breakfast and being rewarded at the venue by the crew! i hung out and tried to practice zoom starts a bit before it began

grand prix. well, it lasted a long time. kyle put it to a vote whether we should make the early rounds first to 2 cups or first to 1, and the room voted the former, so this led to grand prix going very long. i got eliminated by 2pm and it kept going until like 9pm or so. anyway, it was a lot of the same, i got crushed by matt, then i got matched with kyle which i think i won. i think i again got matched with eric who crushed me (but hey i got one race win at mc2 so ill take that and run), then i faced kyle again and i lost. that might be out of order, but it went something like that. ethan didnt arrive to the venue until like 3pm, which despite our best efforts he wouldnt wake up in time to make GP

again the kartel family provided delicious homemade lunch, red beans and rice, again i had more than one bowl. the match down to the finals was a lot of fun to watch and in the end KVD pulled out the win over sami.

finally, battle mode, where i had no expectations and just wanted to have fun. i again got matched with matt, which i lost. i then got to face joe (which was the first time i didnt play someone from the kartel all weekend!). despite his best efforts to lose, he beat me quickly. i ended up playing badandrew as he went by, and i somehow won that one with some good fortune. i then faced eric, and though i managed to get it to a deciding 5th game, i couldnt quite pull it out. either way i was happy with that result.

battle mode kept going until past midnight, and sami defeated drew to take the battle shell. afterward we stayed at venue and picked out prizes, and signed posters. i somehow ended up with one of matt's controllers. i contend that it was in the prize bag, but he said fine so i have it here next to me.

after a quick stop-off at whataburger we went back to the venue and had some more hang-out shenanigans and i was introduced to some of fenner's vids. i was doing alright but i broke midway thru the fennerco video. there was a re-appearance of the handstand video too. we found a nice photo of fenner posting with his 59"80 ci1 time so we blew it up and left it on the projector all night for others to run into. karel just kinda accepted it as i recall.

i went to sleep in the garage about 5am, not long after takashi left for the airport, and woke up around 10:30am, right as joe and nes were leaving, so i got to say bye to them at least. dave smith had already left town too, the rest of us went to waffle house for a nice pre-lockdown meal. harvey and koltz left town from there, rest of us went back to the house. karel and lafungo were still trying to figure out their flights and had to go to the airport with sami to see if they could go. i did get to say goodbye to sami/kvd/lafungo before they went to the airport, exchanged hugs and stuff. the one thing that really stuck out to me was lafungo hugging me and saying "welcome to the community". i mean like i said i came in as the outsider and stuff, but that kind of statement, it meant a lot actually.

i left monroe about 5pm monday with expectation of arriving 1am or so. but apparently no asmkc trip can go smoothly. from dave nearly being run off the road by a truck to harvey/koltz car issues to everyone elses flight issues, i had my own bit of fun. i got stuck in gridlock at about 10pm in tuscaloosa, alabama. there was a wreck just up ahead and an 18 wheeler flipped over onto a car or something. i sat there not doing much, but a lane finally opened just before midnight. i was so tired on the way back, i should have napped before i left. but i didnt make it home until like 4:30am and more or less started my self isolation.

my view for 2 hours:


in the end, matt and the rest of the crew were outstanding hosts and i had a real fun time. i hadnt mentioned it before, but i tend to be a bit awkward and anxious and i put myself way outside my comfort zone on this trip. traveling down somewhere id never been to stay in the house of someone id never met. i almost didnt go for various reasons and coronavirus, but in the end i had a real fun time and am so glad i made the decision to attend, was one of the best weekends ive had in a while. not to mention the community felt so welcoming, which i felt went above and beyond what i was expecting. was crazy. even though i talked to some people more than others im glad i got to meet everyone and im hoping next year can work out and to meet even more people if i am able to attend. i didnt really do the trip justice with this bilan but i did just wanna say how great everything was.

Not really sure what "Inducted into the Kartel" entails, but yes, I'm down. Haha

Had a great weekend at ASMKC. It was great to finally meet all of you guys. I guess I'll give my little recap of things.


So I got off work around 2:45pm, packed up my stuff, saw my girlfriend for a little bit, and finally started the trip to Monroe, LA, around 4:47pm. I then stopped by my uncle's house in Pine Bluff to have him double check my car, make sure I wasn't dooming myself in (he's a former mechanic)-- all checked out. So, I begin my drive, maybe 3-3.5 hours to go at this point, southbound to Monroe. I had never actually been to Louisiana except for a quick pass-through in the car on the way to Biloxi, MS, as a kid to see my cousin off to his 2nd tour in Iraq. Listened to Queen, Elvis, The Righteous Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Tool, Ray Charles, to name a few, all the way down, belting songs out. Crossed the state border around maybe 7:45 (it's hard to tell when you cross the border; didn't see a sign or anything), driving slightly cautious because this particular path is well-known for deer crossing. Somewhat blew out my voice before I ever even got to Monroe, haha.

So after the drive is coming to an end, I eat these 3.5g of psilocybin mushrooms that I'd stashed in my glove box for the trip, figuring I'd make the best out of finally meeting these people. Upon entering, I was greeted by Anthony, then maybe Joe (I honestly can't remember the order), and then meet the man of the hour: Nicholas de la Harvey. In all honesty, similar to Joe, I never thought this was a possibility in any timeline, but here I stood, feeling the come-up of shrooms, saying hi to legends like KVD and Lafungo, before going to play Nick in 2P GP 150cc in Matt's garage. We ended up going, I believe 1-1 in sets, before Takashi and Lafungo hopped on for their practice. I took the reprieve from playing as an opportunity to chat with some people who were there, namely Matt Ballard, the Supermodel of SMK, and Andrew Koltz. Mainly just shot the shit for a few hours, checked out the hot sauces that Eric had purchased, and was overall trying to conceal my laughter, as the shrooms were really starting to hit at this point. Demonstrated to Andrew some MKSC, where Nick saw me playing (terribly) for a little bit as well, but in all fairness, I couldn't feel my hands and playing the game felt like a foreign concept at that moment. Eventually everyone went to sleep, and since I was still under the influence (with the addition of a few Abita AndyGators at this point), I felt like it was the perfect time to kart. Stayed up basically all night, and around 3:15am, hit 08"86 on VL2 flap, stealing Andrew's last NR after I'd chatted with him all night. Landed a 1'00"75 5lap on GV1 as well later on that morning, nearly crashing in the lap transition to lap 5 due to the air compressor going off just as I'd landed last corner.

Come day 2, I believe Anthony was among the first awake, and came in to congratulate me (much appreciated, btw!). Everyone starts slowly waking up and eating or practicing, whatever they do. Karel casually set a 56"87 MC1 in like 2-3 tries on my cartridge, only to say "Oh... you don't mind do you?", haha (don't worry, I don't). He smashed a few of my 1-try 5laps with much better 1-tries while warming up, etc. I was already experiencing some numbness in my hand around this time, maybe 8:30-9am, from playing all night (carpal tunnel is an issue I have). Did the TT 1-tries, finally got to meet the one and only Sami Cetin, placed 9th in the end, not too terrible. I ended up dying on GV1, where I landed 3 PJ's and then choked 2 more away. After such a long excursion though, on no sleep, it was time for me to catch a little shut-eye (and the tendon down my forearm was becoming inflamed and holding a controller at all hurt). Went and slept through Match Race, waking up at maybe 8:30 and going to the nearest gas station to buy a bunch of ibuprofen (my arm was in agony). Got to see the hype Match Race finals, basically all of the last 4-5 sets in all of their glory. Went back to the Kartel house, once again chilled with Matt, Andrew, Anthony, as well as some of the Kartel gang. Finally got to meet Eric Olden (great guy, of course) and try out the hot sauces. They were all pretty good, the only really hot ones I think were the Mad Dog .357 and the Mad Dog capsicum extract, the latter was alarmingly hot but didn't burn for very long. Some funny shenanigans were had that night, to say the least.

I might have stayed up TT'ing, I honestly don't remember. Whatever happened, as stated by Joe, I didn't wake up until like 3pm. If I recall, I was just really hungover (between shots, beer, shots, beer, etc). Missed 2P GP, which is something I'd really wanted to compete in (maybe next time), but did get to play Battle Mode, where I got rocked (did take a single match off Harvey though, that's all). Saw the awards, got whooped by Dan Hornyman at Smash64, hung out with everyone at the venue a little bit, got utterly smashed by Drew in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe VS mode, then the crew went back to the Kartel house to watch some Fenner videos, get some rest, hang out for one more night. Awoke next morning, went to Waffle House with the Kartel, Anthony, Andrew, Harvey, Sami, KVD, Matt and Lafungo, took some pics. KVD, Lafungo, Sami all went to the airport, and I slept until about 5pm before departing back to AR.

Had a great time, can't wait to go back again. Hope my years of impression of being a total twat here on the MB were (somewhat) made up for. Really enjoyed kicking it with everyone.

The lack of bilans even after all this time is a little disappointing. Thank you to all who have already submitted their own take of a great weekend in Monroe, Lousiana!