HoH2022

This was my first experience at a major tournament abroad and it was such a great first experience. Loved the venue, the place was big, everyone were having fun playing lots of different games. The general atmosphere was amazing.

I went with Onemi, ADKSeth and Yuuno. Even with all the difficulties that we had last minute we were able to go to brazil. I'm glad that everything went well.

Then at the hotel we met with Ceris and shared rooms at the hotel. Really nice person and it was a pleasure being with him.

Mostly for days 1 and 2, I was watching my friends playing their respectives games and on the side I was playing and talking with the players from the Brazilian UNI community.

Also on day 2 we had a Brazil vs Chile exhibition match, I was extremely nervous at the beginning. Playing it front of people from another country, getting hype, doing chants and (obviously) rooting for the local players can be really scary. I ended losing my fist match against Rogerio an strong Orie player. Then at the next match thanks to the help and encouraging from my Chilean team, I managed gain more confidence and I won my next fight against Faulki an strong Carmine player. We won the exhibition 5-3, we were losing really hard at the beginning but we managed to bring it back.

On day 3 at the UNI tournament I was feeling more comfortable since we won the exhibition the day before, but ended up getting 17th place. In a very funny coincidence I got sent to losers by Faulki and after winning some matches I lose to Rogerio ending my tournament run.

I'm content with that result because this was my first time experiencing a major tournament abroad and the feeling it's very different that my usual local tournaments. The stakes are much higher.

After that I was just supporting Yuuno, Onemi and ADKSeth through the rest of the tournament. Yuuno's run was crazy, he is such an amazing player. He won the tournament, the grand final match was something out of this world. It was the pure example of UNI being played at the highest level. I couldn't believe what I was watching. Jaca vs Yuuno it's going to be one of the sets that I will remember forever.
At day 4 I was just having fun, I entered the aquapazza secret side tournament and got 4th (AQP gang). Then for the rest of the day I just played lots of UNI with players that I couldn't play with on previous days. Then HoH2022 ended.

On Monday the UNI and melty community invited us to a venue they had reserved and we managed to play our last games and after that we went to have dinner together. The food was amazing and had lots of fun.

And that's all! It was a crazy weekend, it went extremely fast. I enjoyed every minute being in Brazil.

Now here are some thoughts of my experience as a player:

-After finally being able to play against more people, I could finally measure my level as an UNI player and I'm happy with my results. I can finally say that I'm good at the game, maybe not at a top player level yet but good enough to win some games against the strongest players.

-After talking with Yuuno I learned the importance of scouting players, looking for habits and looking for OS timings. And also thanks to him I learned a proper way to setup situations that can give me that information. I will work on this.

-I really need to work on a more structured way of doing pressure. I feel that the way of pressure that I use it's way too free-form. This is mostly because of me playing Eltnum a character that give you the tools to do free-form pressure. The main issue that I have right now it's that since I'm doing a very unorthodox way of pressure I ended up not confirming stray hits. I need to do pressure with meaning behind it and not just press buttons until my opponent gets eventually hit.

Now I will do some shout outs:

First to the Brazilian UNI community. They are the nicest people I have talked to in a while. Really welcoming and warm people, also their level as players it's really good.

Ceris: Thanks for being with us at the hotel, it was a pleasure meeting you. Playing games with you and spending time with you was really fun.

Jaca: I couldn't play with you but you have a really strong Vatista, it's the first time I saw someone pushing the character to it's limits in person. Your sets against Yuuno were a treat to watch.

Knox: Literally the Brazilian Aether, you are a really fun person and a really strong Orie. I really wanted to play with you more.

Klasfer: Amazing Seth player, I really like playing against Seth it's the funniest MU the games were super explosive. Thanks for the games.

Thiago: Really fun dude it was hilarious how you mess around with the other players. You have a nice phonon, I also wanna play against your Yuzu.

Guizin and Guigols: Super strong Gord players both have really different styles of play so it was fun to play with you guys.

Faulki: Nice Carmine, you have a very good corner pressure, nice puddle setups and it was fun to play with you at the exhibition, tournament and casuals.

Rogerio: Nice Orie, really strong neutral, you have the potential to be a really strong player. It was fun playing with you at the exhibition, tournament and casuals.

Italotss: Great Chaos player, I had lots of fun playing together. We had really close sets, you have a nice control of neutral with chaos/azhi, I hope we can play more in the future.

Hitbill: Nice wald player. You have really good hit confirms, you have the potential to be a great player. Thanks for talking to me, I had fun playing with you, you are a very nice guy.

ADKWill: Thanks for reaching out to me and for the games, you are very nice. One day I will learn the meaning behind "adk" lmao

Fallen: Really nice person, thank you for all the help on our final day on Brazil. I couldn't play against your Hyde, I hope we can play in the future. You are a legend!

Freenicius: You are a really amazing person, thank you for being so welcoming with us. I enjoyed a lot talking to you. Thanks for everything.

I will treasure this experience and definitely will go again to Brazil for the next HoH.