So I went to LA for the Sexiest Gamer finals. It was loads of fun. I met some really cool people, and got to hang out in California for a couple of days.

The finals were pretty cool. There were three rounds.

The first round consisted of game trivia. Each contestant (five guys, five girls) got three questions. I nailed my first two (“True or False, the Playstation was originally designed as an add-on for the SNES. = True” and “What game option menu includes an option for ‘breast bouncage’? = Dead or Alive”) but I missed my third question by a long shot (“Which recording artist sang the opening themesong for the new James Bond Gamecube game?”). None of the other contestants knew it either. The answer was “Maya”.

The second round was basically a “strut your stuff” kind of deal. They played “I’m too sexy”, and you had thirty seconds to make a complete ass of yourself on stage in an attempt to look sexy. I was first up, and I decided to go on up there and pull off the cheesy John Travolta-ish Saturday Night Fever thing. Given that 90% of the judges were young males my own age, I don’t think the sex appeal thing went over too well. But I was congratulated by my peers on my courage.

The final round was playing some Soul Calibur 2 versus mode. They used the Xbox version, but they also used the original Xbox controllers… you know.. the HUGE ones. This threw me a bit off, since over the last few months I’ve gotten used to the S-Controllers. But moreover, this was a large disadvantage for the female contestants, whose hands were decidedly smaller than us guys. It was a pretty fun round nonetheless.

I didn’t end up winning the competition, but I definitely had lots of fun. Like I said, I met some really awesome people, and experienced Los Angeles for the first time (dear god, the traffic!).

After the competition, my girlfriend took me out for sushi (I had never had it before), and I must say… it wasn’t that bad. Once I got over the whole “holy crap, they haven’t cooked that yet” thing, the whole experience was pretty enjoyable. Whether or not I’ll become a sushi lover remains to be seen, but I would definitely give it another try.

So a HUGE congratulations to Colin and Ashley (the winners). You both did great, and I hope you have a blast in London.

And to all of the rest of the contestants, I had a blast hanging out with you for a bit. You all did really well. Feel free to drop me a line to stay in touch!