Oct 11, 2012
This shirt....oh lord...THIS SHIRT. The Sombrero Dude or Blind Man's Bluff as many of you call it came from a series of random occurences strung together to make the perfect moment.
You see, I always had this dream of selling my gear at the EVO tournament,and unfortunately, due to spacing concerns,timing,and a few other choice reasons (see: not really sure). I wasn't able to secure a booth of table to do that this year.
The year prior, I had a really rough EVO, and I really wanted to do something amazing and inspiring to show that anyone can come back from a bad moment and rise to the top.I thought my gear was hot enough to sell and something about doing it without the same tools or assistance of the other vendors just really worked for me.I had a bum hand anyway, so it would be a new challenge to keep myself occupied in a different way and connect with both fans of HH and the people that share the same love of the event and community that I do.
There's this saying,it goes something like "you make your own luck".So what did my crazy self decide to do? Buy 500 shirts and try to sell them there anyway.I literally trained for about a month and a half practicing being able to maintain a steady pace and be able to move long enough without any breaks for three days and sell a bunch of gear on foot.
I'm not motivated by money, so I needed to find something to keep me going throughout the event.I decided that if I was able to sell out of gear, I would do something REALLY AMAZING with the profits that the fans would love.I just kept my focus on being able to do that because it would just make me so happy I couldn't even think about how ridiculous my scheme even was.Without looking back,it was time to jump head first and commit to making my dream a reality now.So , I set out to make it happen.Anyways,cardio,cardio,shake,shake,lots of Journey on my Ipod....cut to the week before the event
You know how they say what can go wrong will? Yeah, that is an understatement.Shirts were lost, prints were late, some stuff didn't make it.Hotel security kept some of my stuff.It was wild.I hadn't really factored in human error or unforeseeables into my little equation,so it caused a CRAZY amount of stress.On top of that, doing everything to get ready,secure all of the gear,and get to Las Vegas...I didn't sleep for roughly 4-5 days. I didn't even realize it because I was so focused on getting this goal,nothing else really seemed to matter.I actually shipped and packed online orders from Las Vegas without any sleep and then set out to the event.I looked and felt crazy.
During the event,people were all sorts of nice.But, it seemed like despite being happy to see me,and sometimes copping a shirt or two, everyone was concerned for me.Almost every conversation was "Oh I like ______ you did and I'm gonna buy ____ if you have it on you right now ....*pause* hey man, you alright? You don't look so good.Normally when I don't sleep, I'm able to catch some Zzzz's later on or I wear my FocusFire glasses to cover up my face so I don't look crazy.But, in my restlessness, I left all three pairs in California with nothing to wear in Las Vegas.Also, I couldn't find any caffeine to save my life, so I had no crutches or distractions for people to not notice how run down I was trying to meet fans and get this goal done.I had passed out 2-3 times by then and it was really scary for me.I needed to take a break and gather myself.But I didn't want anyone to see how strung out and down I was trying to get back to even.How could I distract them and not leave the event completely?
During a search for a Redbull, I ran into Steven from Mexico.I had actually played Steven a year ago in Street Fighter.He was this quiet guy, really polite and super humble.He played a decent pad-Guile last year, but after playing Lamerboi for a year or two, no Guile really makes it far against my Rufus.So,we played some quick-matches made friends and called it quits for another day.
This year, Steven was with friends from Mexico.They were all wearing sombreros and were SUPER energetic, nothing like the Steven I met last year.He told me they were wearing the Sombreros earlier to support Team Mexico.What that told my brain is , "oh ,they must be pretty good at Marvel this year if they're all out here lookin' crazy and hype, I bet you one of them's got a shot if there's so many here".As you guys know now, that was Frutsy who tore it up for them later on.But lemme speed up the story,
Anyways, I saw Steven and I nabbed an extra Sombrero **RIGHT** after I found a Redbull for 5 dollars next door.I downed that puppy super fast and went to go sit down and gather myself.I figured the front would be a good place to sit because it was super chill before the big matches come up and if I passed out there I wouldn't do it on a person that would alert anyone.It's ALL FLOOR BABY! Haha.
So,I'm drinking this Redbull,and wearing this Sombrero....chillin'. I had security called on me maybe 4 times by then and I'm salty,but not in a really normal way, more like, PacMan trying to get the cherry and the ghosts keep chasing him sort of way.As I'm sitting here thinking about everything, this dude pops up.
I remember Worf vaguely from trying to play Marvel when it first came out.All I remember is Dormamnu.I see him standing up talking about something, but I don't hear words.All I can think about is if I nabbed his hat and danced with it, it'd look like the Moonwalker video game because that's what Michael Jackson does as his special move and Worf wears that kind of hat,so it might work (keep in mind....no sleep...I'm crazy regularly,but it gets worse as I don't have any recharge time).All of a sudden, he starts talking and I hear what he's really saying....
You see, I grew up around all women...I have a good grasp on what chicks think, my family owns a women's boutique,that's ALL I EVER GOT TO HEAR until I was like 11 (when I could be dropped off at the arcade alone) is women's opinions.Girls always fantasize about being proposed to, they wait for that moment and they can't really do it themselves, so even as they know they want to marry a dude, they have to wait for it.
So, as I hear what's going on in this dude's words.I'm laughing.I'm not laughing at him, I'm thinking about how his girl feels and how long she has probably waited for this moment.Her surprise,excitement,all the chemicals...it's a wonderful thing.And for some reason, I'm really into the moment.You see, I have this habit of being really animated and acting out stuff.But without sleep,and with that Redbull hitting me at the same time, my body is reacting to this moment and I'm acting it out without even knowing it.
I didn't know I was doing it until Worf looked me in the eyes.And I stopped, but as my body has awakened and electrified, Tony Chung, the guy that ALWAYS gets me on camera during the most awkward moments had already caught it.So, as I'm going crazy and being all caught up on the side.This guy framed it like I'm getting married.I'm sitting here thinking NO ONE caught it except Damien the MadCatz' mascot and I walk away.Then it happened.
Everybody ran up to me and I got like a million awkward stares like I did something.No one said anything to me ,but, 'that was awesome, for maybe 20 minutes.I didn't really get what was going on.I go to the bathroom, all sorts of Nods...I just think everybody is weird and just liked the White Footsies shirt.
As I'm on the toilet, I have roughly 25 texts from people saying they saw what happened and that everyone is talking about it online.I felt really embarassed,but most of all, I felt like going to sleep.This was going to be a rough EVO....
I'll end the rest story and explain part 2 about the actual piece in part 2. -h_h-