WEIQI COMP!

wooohoo. so much to talk about...

ok. let's begin from sat.

went to CO first. quite fun. jin se nian hua is starting to sound rather nice with everyone improving. I think I've finally found the timpani touch or whatever u call it. haha. but anyway, im so proud of cui cheng for managing to play the yun2 luo2 which even me myself havent played b4. woah. haha. it sounded rather nice. (:

hmm. den, had a short exco meeting b4 headed with cui cheng for mrt. mm talked about: SONGS! haha. Jay Chou's 退后! haha cui cheng managed to sing out the song with the lyrics. haha. till now, i can only hum the tune of a part of the song. sigh. so anyway, got to tampines CC in time for the competition. Hmm. I couldn't believe my suay-ness. lol.

1st match: AGAINST HCI. 4dan.
walao. *faints*... i knew i was about to lose anyway, but i just played along. was losing until he made a mistake and the game became rather close. in the end, lost due to guan zi. white 172. HAIX. but at least i gave him some scares. I think he thought it would be a swift win, but the game lasted for 2 hrs. lol. lots of people crowding at the last part esp. the HCI people. quite happy that i put up a challenge for such a pro guy.

2nd match: Against Chua Chu Kang Sec.
quite an easy match. he was a beginner but he's quite nice luh. haha (:

3rd match: Against HCI. 4dan.
When I first saw I was against HCI again, I said, "walao. what luck...". haha. but anyway, against some 4dan again. this time, no mistakes by him and an easy win for him luh. i was quite depressed then cuz people i could beat were on 3 points. lol.

4th match: Against dunno what.
Hmm. quite a hard match for a 1 pointer. I was actually scared at one point that I would lose. I guess I was helped by the fact that he thought he was losing and kept playing with his handphone and rubik's cube. lol. in the end, he made a mistake after another and it was a nice win! (:

so that ended saturday. The thing ended at around 930pm. lol. And to think that I was the earlier ones to leave. some, whose game lasted longer, left at 10 haha. so sad. hmm. so saturday, 2/4 matches won. rather bad by my standards. I knew I had to win the last 3 matches to get anywhere new a prize. didn't really expect a prize anyway, so i thought i'd just try my best.

Sunday:
HMM. Interesting day. haha. left home at around 815. waited at the bus stop. i sortta recognized this girl sitting at the same bus stop from the weiqi competition but i wasn't really sure cuz her back was facing me. but anyway, when the bus came, we recognized each other and waved... lol... but anyway, after we alighted, we didn't board the same mrt cuz i had to buy breakfast. hmm. so took the mrt and bus to the CC.

5th match:
And guess what. my fifth match was against that girl i met at the bus stop. haha. so weird. mm. quite an ok match bah. i made a few mistakes but still a nice win for me! yay! (: haha, after the match, the girl asked me whether i lived at sin ming too so i said yeah and she asked me which block i lived in and i said 402 and she said she lived there too! haha. so interesting right! haha. hmm. she lives on the 22nd floor, haha so much higher than my 4th floor. i bet there aren't any mosquitos there. im sick of it not only cuz mosquito bites are itchy but also because i have to close the windows to prevent more mosquitos from coming in, making my room much more stuffy. lol. but anyway, quite 巧 right? haha... actually i've seen her in a few previous competitions but i never knew we lived in the same block. lol. ok. so much for that...

6th match:
hmm. quite an easy match. i did make 1 or 2 mistakes but still i won quite comfortably...

so, it was 4/6 won. I had to win the last match to have any chance of getting a trophy... i was hoping for an easy draw...

7th match:
against some nanyang poly guy. i was rather glad i didn't get some other imba HCI guy, but i knew this guy wasn't easy to beat either. i played very slowly at the start, making sure that my every move was good so as not to lose the initiative. but i guess i was really so slow that my opponent had to find a timer. lol. i was quite glad with my playing and it was a really close game. it all went down to guan zi again, just like the 1st game. i made sure that i moved all the right moves so as not to lose like i did for the 1st match. and guess what, BLACK 185! I won by a single seed! WOOHOO! haha. I was so happy! but i also pity the nanyang poly guy luh. cuz i think he deserves the award more than me. his skill is definitely better than mine.

so, it was concluded that i had 5/7 wins for this competition. The results came out. I WAS 10TH PLACE! WOOHOO! 12 prizes and i was 10th! den, new results came out, i was 11th... still ok... i still get a prize. den new results came out again and i was 12th. i was praying that no more new results came out and yup, no more did and i was 12th. YEAH! omg. i was cursing my luck on the first day but in the end, my luck turned out to be fine. haha. and there were 5 pointers who were better than me who didn't get the prize! hmm...

so prize giving was done. phillip was there and we waved at each other when i went up to receive the prize. during phototaking, i looked across all the winners and i realised how lucky i was to get 12th cuz i couldn't imagine beating any of them. and looking down the stage, i could find at least 3-4 people who could have challenged for my place so i guess my luck was very good in the end! (:

hmm. some interesting things happened as well...

1. Parent from temasek poly
hmm. while watching a game, this parent who lectures at temasek poly came over to ask me how to play the game. i was quite taken aback cuz it wasn't easy to teach weiqi. but i tried to and i definitely benefited from it. haha. the parent was very nice and after a while, he started telling me stories about his son from Victoria School and how he was pro but still had to take O-levels and not IP because the pricipal wanted good O-level results for ths school. He told me about how he handled poly students. He told me the wide range of students in poly, from the brightest of the lot who go to poly because it is a much shorter education route to those who are unable to get into a JC. but the most interesting of all was his description of his NS life. He said he was an officer and he had to handle some totally uneducated people. it was a tough job because you never know what these people might be taking. in fact, his friend died because a guy shot him during some training. i was quite shocked to hear that... but anyway, he told me about how he handled them skillfully, being like them but at the same time staying different, giving them incentives and disincentives and stuff and somehow or rather, it seemed to relate to CO. haha. but anyway, that was quite interesting and we exchanged our emails after our chat.

2. card games
we had quite a lot of free time between matches so we started playing card games like poker and dai di. haha. it was quite funny during poker cuz we were playing with seeds and we took more time giving out the seeds than the actual playing cuz everyone went "all in" on the first round. haha. damn funny. so we set a new rule that whoever went "all in" need to "回家" haha. but we realised another problem for people who had very few seeds left cuz they had no choice but to go "all in". haha. so that was rather funny...

mm...

3. xue wen
haha. xue wen is RI's sec 2's biggest weiqi talent. haha. ok luh. he was not bad. i didn't expect him to win but he did. and he got 12th place as well! haha, in the B category. but still a very good job. had a very fun time with him and wen ye playing wu zi qi and random games and of course getting to know them and stuff.

hmm, so after that, got buffet dinner. ate a bit before going home. guess what. that girl was on the same mrt as me when i went home and in the same carridge (whatever you call it) too. lol. but not as 巧 this time luh. haha. the same block one was more 巧. erm. i guess i don't have much to say anymore. i still need to revise some math. got math TA tomorrow. SIGH! rarh...

GOOD JOB TO ME! (:

Patrick