Time: 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm (Day Raid), 11:30 pm to 5:30 am (Night Raid)
Venue: One Esplanade, SM Bay City, Pasay City, Metro Manila/NCR, Philippines
* With the cooperation of BigFishManila, for the Night Raid (Godskitchen @ The Esplanade)
Before I forget, I'd first like to thank my friends, who are the very first people I linked this blog to, for the welcome. ^_^ I know you know this already but I love you guys! ♥ I hope to meet more people soonest.
Moving forward...
At long last, here is my overdue album featuring the events that transpired during the Granado Espada Day Raid (plus a peek into the Night Raid). Please click on the thumbnails to get to the large photos.
It began MUCH later than I thought, even after I was in a hurry to get there. Packing my costume wasn't exactly a breeze, and I was worried my toy "pistols" (actually toy pirate rifles - you can't blame a gal for being resourceful) were going to break. More on those later.
At first there was a chaotic line, and the booth of my comrades, Cosplay.ph, was in front of the queue. However, since the stage wasn't enough for the event, we had to move to the side, where the wind promptly tortured our poor banners to submission.
And then, to everyone's amusement, our friends at Team Kyoudo put yellow tape with black "Caution - Do Not Enter" written all over it around the venue, fashioning the crowd into an orderly queue.
Look, we've spotted NineMoons-player! Hey sis! {wave wave}
In the waiting line.
Some of my co-moderators and I were reminded of the very modern, so-hip-it-hurts TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and we knew that a faux crime scene was begging to be shot. Unfortunately, without duct tape and chalk to create a human impression on the concrete floors, what could we do? Results are here (http://www.cosplay.ph/photogallery.php?photo=7436), courtesy of Kero and Acewildgal of Cosplay.ph. Thanks guys! d^V~b XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Soon enough the crowd grew restless and the event time drew nearer. I changed into my outfit in the ladies' room then continued the rest of assembling my costume (basically putting on and fixing my wig) outside, where it was MUCH cooler, with the help of my friends Jactinglim, Maiko and NineMoons. Soon enough I was dolled up to look like Brunie Etienne, the gun-toting treasure hunter of Granado Espada. Thanks to my friends, as well as to Mang Poli, for creating this ensemble
Not exactly my best photo, but it does show the intricate detail done to the rubber/craft foam sheets. (I originally wanted a real corset to go with the top, but I knew I'd never make it in time for the event if I'd insisted on it.)
I must maintain though that for a so-called "tomb raider", she's got extremely impractical clothing. I mean, come on, lace? Taffeta? Chiffon? ^_^000 Those things snag, and once they get caught into things, you're pretty much screwed. (I've been wearing those materials long enough to know that.) I was also a bit shocked to find that my shirt was dreadfully short in front, exposing my belly for all to see. Now normally I wouldn't mind it (I cosplayed Danaya of Encantadia after all), but if you base it off the original costume my midriff should have been hidden under the shirt. Alas, there was no way of hiding it, so we resorted to sewing the front end to my pantaloons. I was very thankful that I didn't have to go to the toilet until I needed to change into my Night Raid outfit.
Kero of Cosplay.ph choreographed me for this shot. Thanks to him, I also learned a few neat tricks I could do with my pistols. v^_~v
The event finally began around 3:30 PM, with the brilliant Pinoy Soul band SinoSiKat? kicking off with a cover of Erykah Badu's "On and On", a favourite of mine. They also began playing some of their singles, but the crowd failed to appreciate them because they were too busy trying to get the 100 Divine Angel Wings prize and the Limited Edition box set. ;_; Mental note to self: Must buy their album very soon.
I love you guys. ♥
There were speeches from the staff of E-Games Philippines, which is currently distributing the game for the Philippine market. At this point in time I couldn't take photos anymore, what with the media taking photos of me trying - and dismally failing - to execute the pistol-twirling and shooting tricks Kero taught me. It was good that I did manage to learn how to do them in around 30 minutes or so. (Thanks Kero for your patience!) More photos can be seen here in Cosplay.ph (http://www.cosplay.ph/photogallery.php?album=112), in DeSanggria's blog and in NineMoons' blog, among others. Major thanks also to DeSanggria and Veya (a friend of ours in cosplay) for hosting the cosplay segment. v^_~v
The event was fun, but it was a bit hard to follow the ongoing tournament (it didn't help that I didn't have my trusty eyeglasses on me during the entire Day Raid). I guess I was so used to seeing players duke it out by guild, that I didn't quite appreciate how E-Games made them fight by region instead. Also, I am still wondering what exactly happened during the live quest (scavenger hunt/Amazing Race game). I spent most of my afternoon chasing after my friend's daughter - the adorable Catherine cosplayer - and playing Filipino games with the other, younger cosplayers. In costume, FTW.
In the end, the Catherine cosplayer broke one of the pistols, to her mother's chagrin. Well, that's the quality you get for PhP150.00. X3 But at least they lasted through the whole cosplay round. And she with her dolls won second place, which was great! (Then again, there were only three Granado Espada cosplayers. The Elementalist was first, I was third.)
Then, after the Day Raid finally wound down, I had a McDonald's meal for a late takeaway dinner while chatting with DeSanggria-player. We had a photo taken with NineMoons-player so we could at least present some form of female presence in the rather (surprisingly) masculine GE event. XD
Grrl gamerz unite, because we PWN. v^V~v
After another long wait, the gates to the Night Raid - in reality the BigFishManila Godskitchen event - were opened. It was surreal to see people dancing to trance music while videos clips of GE were constantly replaying on the projectors, but then again it's no surprise. Obviously, the highlight of this night was when DeSanggria and I - well, mostly I - got rather wasted and partied very, VERY hard. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Yes folks, grrl gamerz play hard and party harder. d^V~b Alas, we Cinderellas had to go home from the ball eventually.
More photos, scant though they are, in this album.
And that's all the report you're getting from me. X3
