Vid and Friend's crazy NYC Brawl AdventureI was sitting at the TV in the living room, watching Back to the Future Part II with a bag of clothes and other things, and my pillow, with my mother. The doorbell rang. Jeff, a friend of mine who lives in Brooklyn was at the door, ready to take me to the midnight launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Manhattan.
We hop in his car, and head out for the city. We made a quick pit stop for gas, as well as food. We went to Wendy's and had eaten dinner there.
The ride took awhile. We departed around 4:30, so by the time we entered Queens and Brooklyn, the sun was already setting, and when we got out of the car to get into his apartment to drop off my stuff, it was dark out.
It was also raining on and off, so when we got to the subway station, we were soaked. We took the R train from his apartment in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Prince Street in Manhattan. The ride took awhile (About 12-13 stops, an ~18-20 minute ride) so we dried off, and waited. When we got to that stop, we headed out of the station, asked for directions to the Best Buy, and headed there.
We entered the building, and saw flashing lights in an area, we immediately went over it and saw this:
5 wide screen televisions on a balcony, showing a Brawl fight that was occuring downstairs. A guard in a suit was barring access to the staircase, so we just watched. We also wondered where the line for the game was, so I asked the guard and he said a line won't form until a few minutes before release. There were a couple of DJs announcing the fight down there, one male, and one female. It was an ongoing tournament that also had rounds in LA, San Fran, and Boston.
The male announcer periodically went upstairs and asked trivia questions for prizes such as Nintendo-related clothes, Wii games, and Wiis. I knew the answers to almost every question, but never got their attention to answer them. =/
He also said from down there, we could "Head upstairs and pre-purchase a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl so you won't have to wait in line". Jeff and I took the escalator upstairs and asked a staff member, who told us that they weren't reserving copies anymore. We got back downstairs we felt like the staff was lying, since the announcers were still claiming we could.
So we waited awhile again. Finally, I put two and two together and realized that the floor Jeff and I were on WAS the "upstairs" they were referring to. I walked up to the staff and asked if the staff members who told us we couldn't pre-purchase were wrong. He went on a nearby computer to check, and took me to a section of registers that had staff taking money and giving receipts for a copy of the game.
I called over to Jeff so he and I could pre-purchase. Now feeling good about myself for asking about it and being able to guarantee myself a copy, I enjoyed the rest of the tournament. When the New York contestants were finally whittled down to one last player, the three winners from LA, San Fran, and Boston came in and, with the New York winner, did four rounds of Brawl. Eventually the LA and San Fran players were eliminated, and the Boston player won, much to the dismay of the tons of New Yorkers surrounding him.
After that, they led us out of the building and into a line on the sidewalk in the back of the store. Jeff and I waited in the dark Manhattan streets by playing Mario Kart DS together, and socializing with the two people behind us. The line moved every so often, and two staff members in front of the line took pictures of people waiting to get their copy of the game at midnight. We didn't wait very long, thankfully. It appeared that mostly everyone decided to pre-purchase a copy. We finally got in at midnight, presented our receipts, and got ourselves Brawl.
We took the subway back, went back to his apartment, and played for a couple of hours. Then, I went to sleep on his couch for the night. When I woke up, it was about 9:30, so I waited on the couch for Jeff to wake up (wasn't a long wait) and make us breakfast. After that, I had changed into my other clothes, and we played Brawl until about 2. After all the craziness, he took me back home. I got back at around 4~4:30, so I had been away from home for just about one whole day. =3
Fun weekend, this was.
