Tami and I took a trip down to ACTivegamerS LA with Northern California’s top SFIV players. After some serious partying the night before the big event, Ricky Ortiz, John Choi and Filipino Champ, all managed to place in the Top 8. Marn, who recently moved to Las Vegas from the East Coast, won 1st place against U.S. National Champion Justin Wong. ACTivegamerS also ran Femme Fatale, a side event strictly for girls to get their feet wet in Street Fighter IV competition. Congrats to Miyuki on taking 1st place with her crazy Abel against Princess Aura’s Ryu.

Despite feeling like a frozen popsicle inside the hangar the tournament was held in, I still had fun. There’s never a dull moment when hanging out with crazy gamers! As for the ACTivegamerS competition, I’m extremely disappointed at how long they made us wait to get in (event was supposed to start at 11am but didn’t until close to 3pm), and even more disappointed in how the prizes were handled. Apparently, the guaranteed prize money wasn’t so guaranteed when it came time to pay up. The players in the winner’s bracket were up in arms and were ready to call it quits. I don’t have the entire details, but we caught a vid of the explanation on our iPhone. This type of mismanagement of tournaments can ruin the competitive Street Fighter scene, so I hope things will all be sorted out and the winners get their due winnings.

Congrats to all the winners, and I hope to see you all at NorCal Regionals in Santa Clara, CA next weekend. It’s a Kineda sponsored tournament, so you know it’s going to be hype!

1. Martin “Marn” Phan (C. Viper)
2. Justin Wong (Rufus)
3. Ari “fLoE” Weintraub (Sagat)
4. Alex Valle (Ryu)
5. Ricky Ortiz (Rufus, Chun-Li)
5. John Choi (Ryu)
7. Ryan “Filipino Champ” Ramirez (Dhalsim)
7. YeB (Gen)

ACTivegamerS LA Photo Gallery

Tag Heuer’s sleek Grand Carrera ($6900) chronograph dial sits under scratch-resistant sapphire crystal on a stainless steel tachymeter watch. Comes with a black alligator strap that is topped with red stitching.

Jordan Brand seems to be releasing quite a few new Air Jordan 1 colorways recently. Some say they are overdoing it, but I’m really liking the fresh schemes. The latest is a dark obsidian on white colorway.

Out of all the costumes I’ve seen for Halloween, this one has got to be the best. Eric Testroete designed a giant self portrait head similar to the big-head mode used in video games. The geosphere look was created using 3ds Max 2009, Mudbox 2010, Photoshop CS3 and Pepakura.

Here’s one of those things that you’d only buy, if you had so much money spilling out of your pockets, you wouldn’t know what to do with it. The Intelligent Design Titanium Mouse ($1185) is made from grade 1 titanium and high quality plastic resin. It features a neodymium scroll wheel and uses laser tracking for accuracy.

I think I’ll just stick with my cheapo Apple Magic Mouse.

The Lexus LF-A ($375,000) is packing a 4.8-liter V-10 that brings a tune of 560 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. Lightweight titanium valves and connecting rods along with forged aluminum pistons, help the LF-A’s engine achieve its lofty 9,000rpm redline. Power is transmitted to a Torsen limited slip differential that splits torque between the back pair of 20-inch wheels.

Battlestar Galactica’s Grace Park and Tricia Helfer pose together for the November 2009 issue of Maxim Magazine. Check out the sizzling pics and a hot behind the scenes video of the photo shoot!

Grace Park and Tricia Helfer Pics

Grace Park and Tricia Helfer Video