ReckPro Gaming

8th annual Canada Cup has passed with it came an Esports event that comprised of many upsets and close matches, you would think you were watching a Sunday afternoon football game. My previous post focused more on the Street Fighter tournament at FGC events. As a whole you just can't tell what will happen in any Esports tournament, examble being that many of the top North American players got knocked out early, ItaZan was knocked out of SF and a fricken "Double-KO" in Grand Finals of Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite, or "MvC:I". Just.....what?!?! *mind blown*. That particular round and the crowd reaction shown below. A cheering crowd as Canadian player Teemo forced a bracket reset (more on that later) then proceeding to upset Richard Nguyen in the Grand Finals; which won him possession of the Mind Stone. What does that mean? MvC:I didn't come out in time to have a proper full season, instead Capcom decided to hold a "Battle of the stones" event where the past 7 champions, 6 stone bearers won at premier events, and 3 Online regional tournament winners will enter a Top-16 tournament in December. The catch: As a stone barer it grants you a tournament changing trait specific to each stone (Power, Soul, Mind, Reality, Space & Time). As for the mind stone, it grants Teemo the ability to choose his opponents' characters and in-game stone they will have to use. seemingly the most powerful stone of them all, the crowd lost their mind during the announcement. However, with the Reality Stone power still unknown we would beholden to find out this weekend when it is announced at the Latin America Finals if it trumps even that of the Mind Stone. 

MvC:I - Teemo vs Richard Nguyen Double KO at CGC

Fighting Game Community event, eh!

These events are not easy pace either, walking around in my GamerzUnited gear I wanted to see everything only to realize I couldn't. There are dozens of monitors & players with even more spectators filling up the whole business center; add Multiple big projector screens for  prime-time matchups. Throw in multiple halls running tournaments at the same time and you have a massive player/fan based event. One of these FGC events can host 10-15 game tournaments at a time, with everyone running to either follow a game or their favourite player. The excitement and cheers draw you in and hooks you into a large circle hovering over a screen as two battle it out in Guilty Gear X. Getting to watch characters like Marth take on Fox in Smash Bros. and Mew2King taking first place in Melee while hearing the crowd engage with the action as Canadians Kage and None made an epic bid to get to said Grand finals, it is an experience you never expect to get at an Esports event. 

We real excited to watch some Esports

"What is this Grand Finals you mention?" well, Esports tournaments work on the basis of double-elimination, losing once will send you to the losers bracket still allowing a chance to win should you beat the bracket. At the end of winners and losers bracket is their respective finals which sets up a Grand Final between the winners and losers bracket finalist. Coming from the losers bracket requires that you win the first set which is called a Bracket Reset, essentially putting the Winners finalist into the losers bracket, then it is sudden death in the last set to determine the Champion. FGC events have been running for around a decade and this year Canada Cup had 11 tournaments all with a cash pot to win from; Smash bros. handing out $5000 and $1000s for other tournaments, SFV had a pot of $15,000 and just under 300 participants, it's no wonder why it has such a large draw. It's a weekend unlike any other where you'll see the best of Marvel Vs Capcom, Blaze Blue, Guilty Gear and more all competing to claim victory. All this pales in comparison to EVO and Capcom Cup in December where that tournament pot hasa $100k increase this year to.............$600k.........I'll wait for the jaw to close.

The Event ahead

For most tournaments, they end there at the event until the next event comes and a new prize pool to win from is established. Capcom goes a step further having players play throughout the year at premier, regional and ranking events (typically online events) gaining Pro Tour points. These events scale in awarded points of the premier events EVO(evolution championship) top-256 garners the most potential points with 1000pts for first vs 400pts at premier events to first place and top-64 earning points. In comparison ranking events only award points to the top-16 with first place receiving 160pts. Top-31 players are decided by points whilst the 32nd spot is decided by a last-chance event the day before the Capcom Cup. Awesome, cause you can guarantee nothing but upsets, cheers, devastations, heated emotions and undoubtedly many "Pop-offs" (Still very personal). it's obvious why it remains one of the highest viewed Esport in FGC. These events are the result of the consistent dedication of organizers, players putting in more hours than ever, and all the fans continued support of ESports. Having a bolstering number of new players popping up and many fans picking up controllers it's looking like the Esports trend and gaming as a whole isn't going to slow down anytime soon.

Canada Cup 2017 - FGC in the North.

This weekend will play host to one of the more prestigious tournament events in Canadian Esports gaming, and my first time attending a Fighting Game Community event. Canada Cup brings out many participants, fans, and the Capcom Pro Tour for Street Fighter V. Lap Chi Doung has done a great job making this a mainstay FGC event of game tournaments; which is highlighted as a Premier event in the CPT as it has been, for the last 3 years, the final event before the Capcom Cup in december. For a brief history of Canada Cup, last year NuckleDu broke a long-standing drought of 2 years that left America without a win in a premier event SFV tournament. For insight, there is typically 11-13 premier events each year, this then led him to also winning the 2016 Capcom Cup with an automatic qualification to the 2017 Cup as one of the top-32. Canada Cup, now in Toronto, once resided in Calgary as the Calgary cup for the first few years of its organization; now a much bigger brand and staple in the FGC it has grown into its new National title and plays host to many game tournaments notably Smash Bros. Tekken 7, and even Super Turbo SF II. This year with 11 games included over the weekend, there will be many close matches, upsets and numerous "pop-offs" (Think NFL TD celebration, but very very personal). 

Gaming at it's finest as

GamerzUnited Tee via ReckGear

A premier event for SFV, top performing players earn a large amount of points towards their standing leading to the Capcom Cup. There are also Regional and Ranking events that happen alongside these premier FGC events at a lower scale but these too are crucial to players seeding high for the Top-32 in December. With exciting matches like video below, a classic match-up from Combo Breaker earlier this year, I am highly anticipating a great weekend ahead. Although I'll only be able to attend Saturday and Sunday events, you will catch me in my GamerzUnited gear throughout the weekend within the crowd cheering and probably jumping through the matches. What is also pretty cool is the After Party that concludes the event on the Sunday at one of Toronto's few Gaming pubs Raiders Esports, with a menu I can't wait to get into after a full day of sporting (I have a football game in the early afternoon) what can really beat this line up. With over 300 participants at this years Canada Cup, I look forward to seeing Snake Eyes compete, someone who has always been my favourite to watch; Punk currently ranked #1 is always going to be a highlight showcase and Fuudo will also be around to shake things up. Among many other top players, don't dismiss the unknowns either, there have been many upsets in many contests which always makes the Pools matches exciting in itself (video example). Though Tokido isn't in attendance, after his long overdue win at EVO this year, that is surely a loss for the fans this time around. There are still ReckGear designs avaliable online to check out.

Snake Eyes vs Justin Won: Combo Breaker 2017 Top 8

Esports? it's a GamerzUnited thing.

With EVO(Evolution Fighting Championship) being the unofficial biggest FGC event in the year held in stadiums, The Capcom Pro Tour has a wide-reaching spread of events all around the world at many FGC events. Starting in March with "Final Round" and of course capped up with Canada Cup at the end, CPT is a series of SFV tournaments that culminates into the single day Capcom Cup tournament in December. I could go on about how ESport brackets work, namely, it's "resets" that makes for an exciting Grand Finals, or how the Pro Tour points system Works and other FGC events but I'm surprised you even made it this far........and more so that I am still typing. Even if you aren't here, this one is for the Google Bot that's reading this, Hi little guy. By the end of all the Premier, Regional and Ranking events, all 30 players are decided based on the points standing, the 31st decided from the previous years Cup winner. While the 32nd player gets in via the Last Chance event the day before the Capcom Cup which in itself is an event because imagine the excitement if the 32nd seed goes deep in the bracket. This is what embodies GamerzUnited the coming together of players, fans, organizers and supporters for the sport of Gaming as we love it today.

"When you are great, be Great. Don't hold back, second guess, or talk yourself out of it. The world benefits on your fall, but it is conquered on your success."

It has been a long many weeks, basically starting from the ground up as if it wasn't already done before. I definitely am reminded as to when I first founded ReckGear the hours that was put into getting it off the ground. Welp, someone let the monkey inside and knocked all the papers back on the ground and it's not such a bad thing that it happened. Expanding, growing and getting better is all one can ask for. So when you see the new ReckGear.com you can enjoy the simplicity that this new site brings. It definitely brings the brand into amore modern day era and looks pretty good with some Beer.

With it you will find everything has been better organized to find the items you want, it has all been putinto categories and types, it's all just a lot cleaner, purchasing is much more stream lined with flat rate shipping, and it's all still being run locally. Which has been, and will always be the main goal; as much as can be to keep as much of the process done locally. Knowing that I am able to get even down to the domain name located within Toronto is an awesome feeling and a testament to my city.

I want to hear from you, if you see something not in the right place or off beat, definitely let the team know about it info@reckgear.com. We will deal with the appropriate culprit and make sure they run laps for their heinous crimes. I am very close to launching, and may even do a soft launch tomorrow to get it back out there. It has definitely been a long time coming to get this back on the road, and to no fault of the acting help. This has definitely been a lot longer time off than I ever planned it to be. however, Here's to a great New Years. 2017 will be a year of working towards the better you, hope to enjoy that ride with you as well!

When you let the Blue Jays into your heart

The Raptors season was a huge success and it brought the city so much closer. It was an awesome epic ride, that actually did not disappoint. When you get to see your home team do so well, it builds a sense of pride in your city and that is an awesome feeling. I've got a special Made in 416 variant coming up for your baseball season this summer. And it looks really good. Sometimes the most simple of things to do is often the best things one can do to make something special. With this in mind I am taking all these steps day by day, and trying to be better everyday I possibly can.

It's a push sometimes to get things going and keep the momentum, but with diligence and continued strides towards the goal it really can make a huge difference to the outcome of what is to come for yourself. Sometimes you have to look inside you and realize that there is something a lot greater than what you could possibly imagine. Don't stiffen it or hold it back, let it out and let it run you to greatness. You'll be surprised to know how far you can go if you just let it control you and dominate your everyday life. 

I have a few other concepts in the works that will come out later, but the tricky part is controlling how much content is out there at once, as I've learned it's hard to multi-support many different brands under your main brand. This is why I've decided that I would now work on increasing the overall ReckGear brand instead of the apparel individual brands. It'll take a bit longer to garner interest, but the outcome of having a brand that can sell anything is so much greater in the end. That will be when I can get all my ideas out there, because it is now an umbrella brand and that is when you have something of serious worth on your hand.

As I said, the new Blue Jay variant will only be sold via my Social Media so if you happen to come across this blog post, make sure too visit instagram.com/reckgear and facebook.com/reckgear to stay in the know and get ready to order possibly the best shirt of 2016. This Tee will be awesome to represent the home team in Toronto.

Tdot, where the City meets Reckless Summer. Boom! as special treat take a look at my hot new logo below:

This is a where things get interesting for me here, a refocusing on the site and boosting marketing appeal. The present time is the best time to make something big happen and what better way then to keep pushing onward and forward and make this into a much bigger dynasty then one could ever imagine. I believe that my thoughts and desires have been way too broad and I need to get a clearer idea of what I am really after and the road to get there. Lately, my mind has been all over the place and I don't know why. Feels like my head has be frazzled but I have been keep these penetralia thoughts, and it has been holding me back from my day to day. A readjustment is needed and I need to embrace it's timeline, maybe some separation is need to refocus on what ReckGear can really be. The world is ready for it, the world needs it. It needs these designs I have hidden away and ready to go. It needs it like goat needs a roti shell. Ha 

This is indicative of ones mindset, the thunderous rampage of strikes of lighting hitting every cylinder at once is a little daunting, but at the end when it all comes together it makes for a beautiful imagery of blissful awesomeness. Lets get it, Lets get it.

It has all definitely come a little way, and it's scary that the adventure is only beginning. I have no idea where the doors are leading too, but I gotta keep opening them and seeing what is on the other side. This isn't really for you to read, cause lets face it, I doubt anyone has read any of this. This is an outlet for me to get things off my mind and into paper......21st century paper. (I love you technology, now what's this pencil I hear old folk speak off). It's gonna be a journey and I think I am going to write blogs on a more frequent basis. How many blogs have you read say that then turn into ghosts. This could be the 100th time Ha.

I believe this to be more accurate at this current moment. Anyways, cheers to the next adventures. Currently on the design for more ideas and stuff. 

I've been asked, and I've been pleaded with. I now am able to provide Infant tees for the little people what were really made in the 416. Ha, now your baby can go amongst their friends and they all will know exactly how they rep.