After the H1Z1 Pro League ended up being an absolute, catastrophic failure, I haven’t really seen too many big esports events happening in Las Vegas. I saw that the Esports Arena at the Luxor held a few events, but most of them seemed to be amateur or smaller-end tournaments and nothing too notable.

… Either that, or I’m just ignorant.

Anyway, after Tempo Storm signed a Rainbow Six Siege team, it was announced that the 2019 US Nationals would take place in Las Vegas in the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. The Rio gives me borderline PTSD because that’s the hotel where the H1Z1 players stayed during the H1Z1 Pro League, but regardless, I was still pleased that something that Tempo Storm was involved in was happening in Las Vegas.

We had a handful of staff members coming into Las Vegas to attend the event because Rainbow Six Siege is going to be a big part of the esports division of the company moving forward. I booked an Airbnb at the Palms Place hosted by Creambnb for them, but that ended up being a huge disappointment.

It was listed as a Palms Place penthouse (a penthouse, by definition, is a unit on the top floor of a building), which implies that it would be on the 47th floor (seeing as Palms Place is 47 stories tall). I later found out that the address of the unit indicated it was on the 34th floor. Then, on check-in, we were directed to the 9th floor.

The person who helped me with check-in (which was not “Mona,” who was on the listing as the owner, nor “Cream,” who was communicating with me via messages on Airbnb) said that there was a water leak on the 34th floor and they were unable to put us in that unit. However, she also wasn’t able to provide a partial credit or refund for relocating us to a far lower floor. She was also adamant about never going to the front desk, and said that we would be in huge trouble if we did—which is strange, because Palms Place is a condotel anyway, so it made me suspect that they were doing something shady.

Anyway, the staff members went from having the potential to have a great view from the top of Palms Place… to staring directly at a parking garage with donut circles at the top.

I absolutely would not recommend staying with Creambnb, especially seeing as my situation does not seem to be an isolated case, as other reviews also show an unusually high number of people complaining about last-minute cancellations by the host, or ending up being put in a unit that was different than what they purchased.

Anyway, the event went about as expected—it was just another esports event—and unfortunately, our team lost twice in a row with a score of 7-8 and 7-8 (I’m not sure how Rainbow Six Siege works, but I think the rounds are best-of-15?), lost the series 0-2, and got knocked out during the first round.

During the evening, I went to get sushi with some other staff members, and while we were waiting for our table to be ready, we stopped by a nearby sports bar just to explore.

After we got eliminated, Jordan Kelly (who you may remember as my hiking buddy) and I went and experienced the one and only good thing (at least in my opinion) about the Rio—the Voodoo Lounge at the top of the Masquerade Tower.

Behold, the greatest city in the world.