Some people think i dodged on purpose, but here is the story from my perspective about why i couldn't attend Dreamhack.
I'll try to start from the very beginning where i tried to qualify for DH.
ZOTAC Quake Live Cup #108
1st place: 100€ + slot for DreamHack
2nd place: slot for DreamHack
As most of you know, Dreamhack gave 4 duel slots for ZOTAC to qualify 4 players to go to DH, 2 for each cup.
They had 2 cups, i only joined the second cup. ( notice all my opponents in zotacs are always russians :DD )
1st round: raskalito WIN
2nd round: checkmate WIN
3rd round: alfaomega WIN
4th round: slim#k WIN
Ok, so i had made my way to the quarter finals. Unfortunately for me, there were still 3 pros playing just for the cash, neglecting the fact that there were players trying to qualify for Dreamhack ( which i believe to have been a mistake from the organization, giving a cash-tourney slots for someone to qualify for a lan will always make people with no intention of going to the lan ( or already qualified ) play ) such as: Cypher, Strenx and k1llsen.
I ended up losing in the quarter finals vs Cypher, not really surprising i'd say.
In this cup Amai and p0ni qualified.
After my loss vs cypher, i get pm'ed by a DH admin.
The deal was: There was still one invite to give away for the duel tourney, and there were 3 people ( winz, draven and twister ) who had applied for it.
DH staff made a mini-tourney with those players + me ( they thought i should have a chance of fighting for that spot since i lost in the zotac vs a player that was already qualified ).
Winz dropped out, he didn't want to fight for the spot. So it was only me, draven and twister going all-in for that last invite.
We played vs eachother.
Rules were the same as DH's. Bo3, same mappool, etc.
I beat twister 2-1. Draven beats me 2-1. Twister beats Draven 2-1.
Admins decide we have to repeat all the games.
We repeat all the games.
This time twister loses 2-0 to draven.
If i lose to draven again, i'm out of dh, there goes my chance, had to give my best shot.
I beat twister 2-0 and then i beat draven 2-0 as well.
I was qualified for Dreamhack. For the first time in QL, I had qualified for a major lan. I was so damn happy by then I punched the table and yelled of joy :DDDD.
In the next days, I try to get a sponsor without much success... until a friend pm's me asking me to talk to his multigaming org's boss about the situation.
So, i talk to the manager of
Gamesense, got quite surprised when I found out he was portuguese as me. He tells me that luckily he had already booked 2 plane tickets to attend Dreamhack, arriving in sweden at the evening of the 24th, but the flights were from Portugal. I live in spain, so not much of a problem, just needed to get a train one or two days before. So i book a train for the 22nd.
I was the happiest man alive for the next couple of weeks! :D Was practicing like a madman, 5 and 6 hours per day, lots of demos/vods, etc.
One week before DH, i also remember i could be playing in the TDM tourney, so i PM Ventz, Fraze and Syz to make a team with them.
I knew Ventz was going to be there for the duel tourney, and fraze would be in europe living with his gf. And since Syz is a irl friend of all of us, he was the first person that came to mind to invite!
Fraze and Ventz arrive in europe and we start practicing for DH, we discuss tactics, play lots of teams, etc. All going steady and we're all super hyped for DH! :D
Had school until 14:00. Arrived home and packed everything that wasn't packed yet and I go to the train station! But, instead of taking my usual old cellphone, my brother lends me his new phone, because he wants me to take pics with the camera to show everyone when I get back. What he didn't tell me is that his phone could only last 3 hours turned on before the battery dying.
There i am, on my 13 hour trip on the train to Portugal ( I live near france ).
I get the train at 00:30. I should arrive in Portugal in the 23rd at 14:00.
By 4am, phone dies.
At 9 am, my manager, Gamesense's boss, gets a call from TAP where they tell him they'll be on strike the 24th, and to reschedule a flight, he needs to be in the airport WITH ME before 12pm. He tries to call me, I can't answer because my phone is dead.
I arrive at 14:00 and i get to my cousin's house in lisbon at 15:00 where i log in at ql, charge my phone and turn it on.
I instantly call him, only to hear him say that rescheduling TAP will be on a strike tomorrow and our flight got cancelled.
Right now I'm totally devastated, trying to find flights, calling air companies. Only flight available would cost 500€+ and was from Porto in less than 1 hour ( Distance from Lisbon-Porto = 300km ).
I really didn't know what to do now. I was logged on in ql, in a server with ventz and rapha, and i ask rapha to play for me in tdm since i cant do it. He says he'll think about it ( \:D/ ).
I wanted to go back to spain to my house but i couldn't leave lisbon, cause the whole damn country was on strike, no trains, no subway, no nothing.
I came back yesterday from Portugal.
Already found out that rapha did play with my team for me, THANK YOU SO MUCH SHANE! :D
They all had a good time in DH!! :D
Me missing Dreamhack could easily be avoided if I took my cellphone with me instead of my brother's, or if I knew about the strike ( I live in spain and I don't usually check Portuguese news sites ).
Syz, my portuguese teammate, went to dreamhack yes, but his flight was a couple of days before mine, to UK. Think he moved in for 2 nights with some friend there, then he went to sweden.
Ok, sry for the spam, was just getting pissed off at all the lan-dodging accusations, which don't make sense, since i was really looking forward to this lan. =)
Btw, for those of you who don't believe the strike ->
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/general-stri...2010-11-24
![shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann](/files/avatars/2007/51852-shaftwhore.gif "shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann"){kind=small}
ins and 
Kyto.
