Arrived on Monday night and went straight to cc for a match of Dota 2 lol. And I have just finished unpacking most of the things this afternoon. Now, story time!
We arrived in Manila, Philippines on 10th of June, a Friday. Dec Dec, Sarah, Jam, Jeremy and Mimi came and picked us up from the airport. I think I can say the same for the whole group that we were ecstatic to be in Manila and to finally meet the D2PC members!
Arrived!
Our first Philippines experience was traffic congestion. The entire road was jammed up. Apparently it is always like that, every hour, every day. Except maybe Sundays and midnight. There were a lot of jeepneys on the road! It was rather refreshing to see because we don't have that in Malaysia. We then headed straight for lunch at Phillipines' famous Jolibee! (We actually saw lots of Jolibees on the way to the mall.) The Chickenjoy was super duper delicious! Partly maybe because we were really hungry so at that moment I honestly felt like that was one of the best fried chicken I've ever tasted in my life.
Oh, Dec dec looks like Jolibee!
Dec, Jolibee.
Mini ice creams! 35peso/palette
We then went to the secret shop to see if we could get ourselves Legendary and Rare boxes. But unfortunately, they ran out. But it was still alright because we met some pretty damn awesome cosplayers from all over the world! They were all so close to perfection I honestly don't know which is the best. But I'm super impressed with the Clockwerk cosplay.
Look at thatttt
short footage. couldn't get the recording of his quotes clearly. :(
A few other notable ones are the Tinker (who took first place), Doom, Undying, Pudge, Timbersaw, etc. Well to be honest, all of them were incredible.
But seriously, all of the cosplays made me speechless. For a moment back there I felt like, damn, I am trash compared to these. I seriously need to improve myself and up my game. Then again it would be a million years before I get to this level (x'D) but well, no giving up!
Invoker!!
One of my personal favourite was the Invoker though, cause, well, he's Invoker. :D Talked to him and apparently he came all the way from China, alone, to take part in the contest. Helped him with his wig and mask during the preselection. Thomas went and became his translator cause he couldn't speak English and the judges couldn't speak Mandarin.
Hi I am a fly
Dec's Tinker helmet hue
I slept all the way in Dec's car to our dinner place. Experienced some Philippines food and damn it was awesome. Sisig is love. <3
Fried chicken intestines. Sisig at the back.
Went back to Dec's house to rest after that. Met and played with fluffy Itchi~ He's super duper cute!! Missing his sad, innocent, y u no luv me face already.
On Saturday, we went to Manila Majors~ We decided to push our full costume cosplays to Sunday so that we could do it together with Dec Dec. So we swapped our originally Sunday's mafia plan to Saturday.
*oppai*
When we got there, the first place we went was the secret shop. Because the day before, they told us that they might restock on the Rare boxes.
Common box's loot isn't very exciting.. there's a pair of socks, Manila Major tag, iPhone 6 cover (which is kinda sad for anyone who doesn't use iPhone 6, eg. me), and Dota 2 mousepad. Oh well, at least there's a collectible pin inside!
I got Tusk! Though I was sort of hoping for Lina.
The stage in Mall of Asia Arena was incredible!!
So beautiful <3
The entire set up was so breathtaking!! Watching a live match like that, I had nerdgasm.
a short vid of the arena when we entered
Just gonna put this photo here cause I like the way I smile here.
I look genuinely happy and excited XD
After the matches, we went outside to take some photos. Surprisingly, many people came and took photos with us!
Photo from Micho's page
Changed out of our formal attire and went for D2PC's First Blood dinner with everyone! I must say it is one of the best dinner I've ever had, with friends from 5 different countries gathered in a room, eating and singing karaoke, joking and laughing together. It's honestly really heartwarming. <3 I miss everyone already!
a sohai singing hahaha
Had Max Fried Chicken for brunch on Sunday. It was yummy! Somehow, Philippines' fried chicken all taste really, really good. We went to The Manila Majors in our full costumes on Sunday.
CM begging for gold
Took lots of photos and met more new friends! To be honest I was slightly panicking when we weren't done with photo taking but the match between OG and Liquid was already going on. It's a good thing that finals are Bo5 lol.
Manage to rush back and watch the final match. It was pretty intense as the crowd was screaming and cheering at almost everything, myself included! That moment when GG was called, damn. I can't even begin to describe the adrenaline rush and that overwhelming urge that brought my close to tears lol. FUCKING GGWP <3
Rewind a little: We actually made a bet the night before to root for OG or Liquid, and me, Micho and Nobu was rooting for OG while Thomas, Hui Min and Dec were for Liquid. We agreed that whoever lost the bet would gift a rare set to each of the winners. And yay~ free rares!!
I would've wanted Fnatic to win, well cause Mushi and Malaysia. But, I'm still happy that OG won. Miracle- and Cr1T- were incredible!!
That night when we got back to Dec's house, Dec and Jam bought us balut to try.
An intro video:
Then, a video of me eating balut lol.
It tastes really good tbh. The taste is like normal boiled egg but slightly saltier, and the texture was like smooth and extra creamy egg yolk. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED. I would've eaten so many of them if I had the chance. Hahaha!!
We got Dec to sleep with us in the same room that night. So we had 6 person squeezed in 1 room lol. Micho managed to record the snoring from all the guys hahaha, it was quite funny. XD
The next morning we went and got lots of snacks and canned sisig to be brought back to Malaysia. Saw this bread at the mart.
We ate buffet lunch at the Vikings with Dec, Fran and our new Aussie friends before flying back home.
A gift I prepared but didn't have the chance to give.
Some sohai photos (which are a must for every trip with friends) to end the post (actually there are more but I'm just gonna put these 2 here):
*some photos on this blog post are not taken by me. stole them from everyone hue hue hue thanks and pls forgive me bye
