Final part 3: COD GHOST at XGames/Why Evil Geniuses is still the team to beat.

The last part of the weekend was glued to my phone watching MLG.tv stream of the COD Ghost invitational at the XGames. I am not going to cover each team just the ones that stuck with me or struck a nerve with me.

It was great seeing Team Kailber make it to the final medal round. Like they said you don't see them much up at the very top.  They played well together and really celebrated as a team when there was a victory and when there was a defeat. It was the first time I have watched them play and I will be looking to watch them again to play again on MLG.tv.

Team Envy was very calm and collected and played some very good plays in the tournament.  It shows why they are always in the top tier of the major tournaments.  I will watch them as well when I see them on MLG.tv.

My boys of Evil Geniuses! Did they win, no. Did everyone think they would?  People thought they would be in the finals but here is where it gets crazy. Who people thought would win came down to just popularity not skill but more on that later. @EGCrimsix @EGDKarma @EGTeep @EGAchespp still are the destiny that they have created.  You don't win one tournament and you become the best.....oh wait you do if it is the COD Championship which Evil Geniuses did. They should not hang their heads in shame or defeat. They will still be the ones to beat at Anaheim. I think that when you are on the top for so long that it takes a little coming down to earth to get the fire going to take your game to an even higher level. I will still support EVIL GENIUSES!

And finally Team Optic, The Green wall or wall of unwarranted arrogance. Yeah they were predicted to win cause they are the favorite team cause they are always on MLG.tv playing some COD, Mine craft, Mario kart etc. They have figured out how to make the world of eSport into a popularity contest overlooking skill for likes. If it took you 4 yrs to win a tournament there is a reason.  Everyone will have a bad tournament,  if the planets align and you have your best tournament while everyone else had bad tournaments then you will leave. Now let's see if they back it up with another win this year. I am hoping and predict they won't. 

For me it is back to the grind. Drop Zone,  increasing my K/D ratio but playing for the objective. I still feel like if you take 4 people and come up with sound tactics that you practice and practice over and over you can compete competitively against the top teams. I am just looking for that group of people willing to take on the challenge.  Thinking of maybe incorporating some Blitz into my gaming. I think with the way I play Base Defense would be best. So I will be trying out different load outs while playing Blitz and only play cover for my base.

Evil Geniuses at XGAMES Austin/New job/MIO GLOBAL LINK/X^2 Performance/ COD:Ghost

So yesterday was my first day at my new job. Bilingual IT Service Desk using my French maybe 26 times a month.  Doing level 1 IT helps for Meritor. Good group of people. Such a different group of people. Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish and me French speaking people. The Service Desk will be running 24/7 and I have the M-F 5 am to 2 pm shift. Yesterday was just day one and going over how tickets are handled and clocking in etc. Real basic information. We won't actually start taking calls till July 26th. So have a long time of training.

So the day finally came!! My Mio Global Link came in the mail yesterday. Huge thanks to Mio. I can't wait to start using it tonight. It was charged out of the box but just made sure it was fully charged. Fit great, so light on the wrist. Downloaded MIO GO from Google Play Store. So quick found the Link right away. I will be using it to go over all my training and even using it first thing in the morning to monitor my recovery.  They are such an amazing company with forward thinking product and mentally.  Stay tuned for a daily update and training sessions using the LINK.

X^2 Performance signed Dave Scott to their team and had a great webcast Q&A. There was an issue and X^2 gave everyone who signed up a free shirt and samples.  This has been a supplement that I have been wanting to try and it came in the mail yesterday as well and I can wait to give it a try tonight before training. Mid distance ride tonight. Going to give my left foot another week to heal. It is so much better, but I am dying to start running.  Updates to come on how this product is to take a few hours before going to bed.

So jumped into some Ghost last night as well. Had some great games, it is almost like a switch was turned on and started to get several games positive while still playing Drop Zone Objectives.  But when I start getting tired or my thumbs start hurting it goes downhill from there. It is true what people say, to get good at these games it really is just practice practice practice. And it comes out of the blue too. All of a sudden you are playing better and faster. Was a really good gaming session.

Don't forget to pull for Evil Geniuses this weekend at X Games Austin!!!!

Wayne Taylor Racing/Long cycle ride/COD GHOST

Sitting here on the couch watching a great finish to the United Sportscar Championship, great win by Wayne Taylor Racing. Love watching Jordan and Ricky Taylor racing.

Yesterday TRI training was my longest one so far. While I have been on non running status, I have added 5 miles to all my cycle rides. So 75 minutes plus 5 miles or 1.41:00 on the bike. Since I am still just beginning and not wanted to get injuries and just getting the seat time in, keeping cadence at 83 plus or minus a few. So 19 miles done then the brutal ab workout afterward. Again can't say enough about Prime Nutrition EAA and Glutamine. Loaded up my big water bottle with Gatorade and Prime Nutrition EAA. Finished the ride not dehydrated at all. Then when I got home, instantly go with Gatorade plus Prime Nutrition Glutamine and ALR industries HumaPro for instant protein uptake. No leg soreness this morning at all. Can tell that I pushed my legs the farthest they have been. They feel a little heavy is the best way to describe what it feels like the next day when you work your legs past their comfort zone with good nutrition and supplementation. Woke up this morning and didn't even think about my left foot. So healing is coming along well. Again Plantar Fascittis doesn't go away you just manage it. So fingers crossed for Monday running after my bike.

As far as racing and gaming yesterday, was suppose to do League Indy 500 last night. Went to the gym early in order to be able to get in. Was told the wrong time and could not get in to the server. So that is 2 Indy 500 races where something outside of my control caused me not to be able to race it which blows! So did a Skip Barber race at Mazda Laguna. Started from the pole first time this year, had a second lead by turn 4. CHARTER INTERNET GOES OUT AND DISCONNECTED!!!! SO PISSED!! If I make a mistake that causes me places or the race, I learn and move on but to go out cause of something that I can't control, kills me. Internet came back, log back in, join dead last 2 laps down. I was so much faster than most cars I pasted 7 cars by the end of the race and and looking at the time would have finished 2nd if wonderful Charter didn't go out.  Took a beating in IR points. Was so mad just decided to regroup and go again today. So jumped on COD Ghost cause it is Double XP weekend.

Still learning FPS and Ghost maps, so I am not a running and gunning player.  I pre aim and crouch walk around every corner. While everyone goes for the Drop Zone (all I am playing right now) it always go very wide and try and take out the opposition from the flanks to help my players holding the Drop Zone. From watching all the footage of Pro Gamers playing on MLG, I have seen what I thought was all the maps on Drop Zone. Then COD throws in one I have never been on. And oh boy how sucky can I be!! I feel like if you get on a team and work together you can play just as good as the pros. Good tactics and working together can beat anyone. Now it pains me to say this but I do feel like a Scuf controller or modify your controller to be like one is a must now. Which I am giving Scuf a little more time just to respond to a slowly going away fan of theirs even not buying one yet. The ability to jump, shoot and crouch in one motion is huge. I am still plugging along. I feel like when I go positive or even I have won. I am a cautious gamer and will always be like that. I feel like quickscopping and C4, is such a weak player mode. They way they aim assist and hit boxes in the game works. You just have to have the player in the circle of the scope and the game makes the hit. Then C4 what can you say. People take KD  (kill to death ratio) as the be all of how to judge someone. Have you seen pros play against each other. More times than not they don't go positive cause they play for the objective.

One last thing, Indy racing is on right now at Belle Isle. And I will honestly say. Will Power is the dirtiest driver and race control protects him so much. Just dirty and knows he will get away with stuff. Stay tuned for more rants, workout and thoughts from me and thank you again for reading this blog.

Gaming day/iRacing/COD/Optic Gaming

So day off from the TRI training gives me time to get some iRacing practice and some Call of Duty Ghost practice in. Yes I am a kid at heart, a nerd or geek or whatever your term for it is but I am proud of who I am. Be yourself don't let other people tell you what you should be cause of your age, job or anything.

IRacing practice this week is in Skip Barber is Mazda Laguna Seca and in the Indy Fixed Series is at Richmond.  Me and my Flying Squirrel Racing Teammate Jon Carrigan have decided to drop the Radical series cause for some reason this season has gone completely non USA time friendly. Which sucks for us. Jon worked hard during the week between Season 1 and Season 2 to come up with the schedule that they are running during season 2. So we did over 30 minutes of practice at Laguna Seca in the Skippy. I just uploaded the video to my YouTube channel ( www.youtube.com/bcutler71352003 ) so check it out. Just started to upload videos to YouTube so I am just learning lol. We are running easily in the top 10 of our division as far as fastest time is concerned. After Skippy practice we jumped over to the Indy Fixed Series Oval at Richmond. We did over 120 laps and we were right where we left off just tenths of a second off the fast times. I haven't run that series in almost a year and I can say I seriously miss it. Now when I upload the video to YouTube, you will see that it is the 2005 Dallara Car and not the 2013 DW12 car. Well they came out with the DW12 for the Indy 500 race last weekend. Unfortunately the site crashed and they had to cancel the iRacing Indy 500 but they will be changing the series next season from the 2005 Dallara to the DW12 so we are definitely looking for that.  If you love racing but can not afford the 10s of thousands of dollars required to real race, please look into iRacing. Great laser scanned not GPS plotted tracks.  Cars from the manufacturer or from the racing teams so all the details, you could want. A computer,  monitor,  preferably a steering wheel/pedal setup and a headset to speak and hear the noise of your engine, tires and competitors.  Speaking of headsets, I have a X12 from Turtle Beach. These are great beginners headsets. Very inexpensive, comfortable and clear sound.  They are stereo headsets and not surround sound. I wonder if going to a set of Turtle Beach SEVEN or the DSS stereo processor would make a difference. Would I be able to go faster if I could tell if the back right tire was slipping instead of just the right tires are slipping?  I think that would be a good review.

Jump on to Call of Duty Ghost practice next. Now I decided to play COD Ghost and Black Ops 2, cause my kids love to play these games. So it gives me just another thing to be able to do with my kids. Now you know me (or you are learning to get to know me lol ) I want to be very good at any game that I decide to play. So I went on YouTube and looked up videos to watch to get better or at least above bad lol. I found 2 that were very good. One was Drift0r and the other was Nadeshot. Well I also had to choose a team to support since I knew my kids supported a team but didn't know which one they supported.  So after watch Nadeshot on YouTube, I decided to pull for his team Optic Gaming. Come to find out it was the exact same team as my kids. So subscribed to Nadeshot channel, joined MLG, downloaded MLG app on phone, follow whole team on social media; H3CZ, Proofy, Scumpii and of course Nadeshot. Now to watch hours or videos, see they compete in Game Battles and Tournaments on MLG. And will of course watch then at the first Main non eSport event 2014 X-Games Austin. Now I know what people are saying a 40 yr old trying to learn videos games better to a competitive level watching kids that he could be their fathers, and you know what I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK. This is how I am. Now if I could just get better lol I have been practicing as much as I can and been creating new swear words lol It would be nice to get pointers from Nadeshot and the team. By watching them I have learned about Scuf Controllers and Elgato video capture cards. A www.scufgaming.com controller is a normal Xbox controller that they have modified with adjustable trigger stops and paddles on the back of the controller to push instead of taking your thumbs off of the sticks to push the X, Y, B, A buttons.  Now I wonder would a SCUF controller make a difference for me someone just learning the eSport competitive level of play like me? That would be a good review as well. So I am now looking at getting an Elgato capture card which I will do a review on that as well. Listen if watching gaming is right up your alley, go follow the guys at Optic Gaming. Hector Rodriguez is the team owner and has really taken eSport teams to a whole nothing level.

Well that is it for me tonight. More iRacing and COD Ghost practice tomorrow, hopefully the pool if weather is good, then of course the gym. I really miss TRI training on my days off. Praying my foot will be better by this coming Monday. Hope you guys who are reading this like it. Please comment or subscribe if you do. Till tomorrow