Shot a portrait of Blitz the Ambassador yesterday. Blitz recently went on tour with Blackalicious and The Roots, and is now back in Brooklyn to work on his next album. If you're into The Roots, Common, Talib, Mos Def, etc. I suggest you check this guy out.
The video above is a clip of me defeating the reigning 2 time World Champion of Tekken in the Grand Finals of last Major National Tekken Tournament.
I'm not used to a lot of people cheering for me. I'm not a musician, nor an actor but for this one moment in my life, on January 5th, 2007, I felt like a champion.
Being in a crowded room with hundreds of people watching my every move, many of them having emotional connection me, invested in potential my success or failure is one of the most incredible feelings of my life. I've begun to understand why performers love being on stage or athletes thrive in sports arenas. You literally feel like a superhero version of yourself.
If you just watched the video, you might have noticed that the instant I won the crowd sort of had a simultaneous group orgasm (hahahha). They rushed the playing area to lift me up on their shoulders to celebrate. It felt like I had just won the Super Bowl.
My mind was still stuck in the game world for the moment, and I was in such shock to be floating above everyone. I honestly had no idea why I was being tossed around by all the people, so I screamed out "Put me down, I'm scared of heights" (hahah, though I really am scared of heights). You can hear people saying, "MoJo", because that is what the Tekken community calls me since I am a fashion photographer (heh).
This is one of my all time favorite experiences in my life. Its rare to even have an opportunity to face a world champion in this context, let alone defeat him.
Though I don't have any intention of quiting my day job to pursue a career as a professional gamer, there have been developments. Following this victory I've had a great deal of attention directed towards me by way of gamer magazines and fan sites, etc. I have since gained cooperate sponsorship as a professional video game player. And they've been felying me around the country, with hotel, food and accommodations provided! I spent a few weeks in Los Angeles to play in a tournament sponsored by Intel the other week, it was so fun. And will head back to the West Coast again to compete in a couple months. I feel very blessed and its been an awesome adventure so far!
* Go watch the Japanese movie "Ping Pong", it is excellent!
