Waffles the cat, a.k.a. Waffles the model

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My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

In my endless string of travels, not too long after returning to Las Vegas from my visit to the Chicagoland suburbs, I made my way over to Southern California again for a bit more Tempo Storm related work. While in the area, I drove over to visit one of my co-workers and had a photo shoot with his cat, Waffles.

Waffles

Waffles

Waffles

Waffles

Waffles

Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamparkzer/sets/72157698161219422

 

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PUBG Pan-Continental 2018

This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

I’m not a huge fan of conventions or events, but our PUBG team came to Las Vegas to compete in the PUBG Pan-Continental, so I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to go out and capture some photos of them during the event.

The event took place at the PokerGO Studio, which is right by the Aria in CityCenter. However, just because I’m a Las Vegas resident now doesn’t mean I know exactly where everything is – especially on the Strip, because I live and always linger around the suburbs. I proceeded to roam around getting lost for a good half hour (nearly accidentally taking the tram to an entirely different area of the Strip) before finally making it to the studio.

This tournament was a multi-day event, and the manager (the one who ate the Fritos a few days ago) let me know that the studio wasn’t really that crowded. Keeping that in consideration, I showed up today… and realized the place was completely packed. After asking the manager why he baited me, he said that today was the final day, which is probably why more people showed up.

I began snapping photos of the venue and our players, and I eventually had to leave the competition area when the games started. The studio was literally so packed that I didn’t even have a place to sit, and I was actually considering leaving early… which I’m glad I did not, because Tempo Storm ended up winning the whole thing.

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Full photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamparkzer/sets/72157697450001891

 

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I go mini-golfing not to mini-golf, but to take photos

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My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

The course looked nice, I couldn’t resist.

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Also, we saw a peacock.

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Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamparkzer/sets/72157698036346484

 

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H1Z1 Pro League, Week 5

This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

Although I’m local to the H1Z1 Pro League in Las Vegas, I haven’t regularly been attending the live event because I’m not actually able to watch the games without getting motion sickness. This is also the reason I can’t play or watch first-person shooter games either – the rapidly-shaking player point-of-view makes me dizzy. Although I haven’t been officially diagnosed, it’s very similar to sopite syndrome, where I feel unwell when exposed to excess horizontal motion – both literally (in cars and planes) and virtually (in FPS games).

But, with that being said, the last time I went to the Arena to see the team was back in late April during the premier of the league (though I have seen the players on multiple occasions since then, just not in the Arena). I wanted to snap some new photos of them, seeing as the only photos we had was when there was partial construction going on in the background, so I headed over to Caesar’s Entertainment Studios for Week 5 of the games during rehearsal (I left before the actual games started).

Since then, the stadium has been improved a substantial amount (though that opinion may or may not be biased because Twin Galaxies messed up VIP access for the premier and a lot of people were denied access to the VIP area because some random actress who I had never heard of was in the VIP section and her escorts were apparently being uncooperative – the stadium might have just looked better this time because I was actually able to enter the VIP area with the couches).

H1PL at Twin Galaxies Sports Arena in Caesar's Entertainment Studios

H1PL at Twin Galaxies Sports Arena in Caesar's Entertainment Studios

H1PL at Twin Galaxies Sports Arena in Caesar's Entertainment Studios

Tempo Storm H1Z1 team

(Full photo album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamparkzer/sets/72157669060686858)

 

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My tour of the Blizzard Arena in Burbank

This post is over 5 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

This past weekend, Blizzard and their Heroes of the Storm team invited me out to do press/media coverage for Heroes of the Dorm, an annual collegiate tournament where teams from colleges and universities across the United States and Canada compete to crown a champion who will receive tuition for their college careers.

Last year, Heroes of the Dorm was at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, but since then, Blizzard set up the Blizzard Arena, their own studio in Burbank, CA near Hollywood. The Blizzard Arena is a full-blown production studio and stadium, and part of the media day leading into Heroes of the Dorm was an Arena tour.

The Arena was actually pretty amazing, and people who actually know me well know that I don’t really give out compliments too often, and even when I do, the word “amazing” usually doesn’t get thrown around too often. The media group got to see all the behind-the-scenes production rooms and equipment, as well as the different stages used for different games. Luckily, I had clearance to take photographs of everything.

Blizzard Arena

Blizzard Arena

Blizzard Arena

Blizzard Arena

Blizzard Arena

Blizzard Arena - Skybox

(Full 2018 Heroes of the Dorm album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamparkzer/sets/72157691099653260)

 

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H1Z1 Pro League rehearsals and welcome reception

This post is over 6 years old and may contain information that is incorrect, outdated, or no longer relevant.
My views and opinions can change, and those that are expressed in this post may not necessarily reflect the ones I hold today.
 

After a long two weeks of preparation with the team house and bringing in our new players, the day is finally about to come. Our team house is finally in livable condition (though it still needs a substantial amount of additional furniture), the players are ready to perform and compete for the first show, and all the visiting Tempo Storm staff members have arrived in Las Vegas and have all gotten lodging settled.

People were originally prohibited from posting photos of the rehearsal stage to the public because they didn’t want untasteful pictures of a construction area being released (this is also why I didn’t do day-to-day vlogs with the team). However, as the stage neared completion, they lifted that ban, so I was able to snap a few photos during our team’s rehearsal:

H1Z1 Pro League - Rehearsal

H1Z1 Pro League - Rehearsal

In celebration of the premier of the H1Z1 Pro League, Twin Galaxies set up a welcome reception atop the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in the VooDoo Lounge. Although I’m not really a fan of parties, I still attended for the sake of getting some free food and taking photos of the Las Vegas Strip from a really tall building. Our Chief Business Development Officer and one of our social media specialists also came along, so I attended to accompany them as well.

We arrived early enough that the sun was still up and we were able to see the buildings. This is a photo facing southeast from the Masquerade Tower at the Rio; the most notable buildings present are those composing CityCenter, as well as the Panorama Towers and the Martin beside it:

Las Vegas - CityCenter, Panorama Towers, The Martin

After-the-fact, I realized that I probably should’ve brought along my tripod and set up my camera for a time lapse of the sunset and all the lights coming on, but unfortunately, I didn’t think of that idea early enough. Instead, I just have photos from after sunset – this next photo is at a similar view southeast; the one following it shows the more northern side of the Strip:

Las Vegas CityCenter at night

Las Vegas Strip at night

One of the Rio’s attractions is the VooDoo Zipline that extends from the top of the Masquerade Tower all the way to the Ipanema Tower. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch anyone riding it, and I wasn’t really too interested in riding it myself, but this is what it looks like:

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(Full album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamparkzer/sets/72157694126820331)

 

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