Although set to begin at 10AM, Triple Threat was still barely setting up at the time. By the original start time, competitors were still outside waiting in the hot sun. A quick look inside the HAX revealed the staff still setting up TVs – many of which lacked a corresponding console. To alleviate this, John Nelson, president of Active Gamers LA, raffled off two arcade sticks to registrants. This included the Tekken 6 version of the Hori Real Arcade Pro and Marvel vs Capcom 2 Mad Catz Tournament Edition Fight Stick. For the two winners, it was well worth the price of entry and wait in the hot sun, but for everyone else, they could only look on in envy and continue waiting to enter HAX. This went on for several more hours until competitors were slowly let into the building.

Even as attendees entered HAX, the tournament was not ready to begin. Although many competitors had already paid and registered online, they were told to confirm their registration so that the tournament brackets can be made. In most cases, preregistration helps tournament organizers gauge their attendance, create tournament brackets, and start the tournament on time. In this case, preregistration did not help any of those because Active Gamers LA also allowed competitors to register on-site. The tournament did not actually begin until 1PM – three hours after the originally announced time. In the meanwhile, attendees could play casuals and warm up in preparation for the tournament, which was one positive so far.

Aside from the tournament, Triple Threat also had other things to keep guests entertained – most notably an AkSys Games booth and AniMaid Cafe. At the AkSys Games booth, while BlazBlue: Continuum Shift was absent, AkSys Games still made sure gamers didn't go home empty handed. AkSys Games representatives brought boxes of bags, loaded with goodies like BlazBlue artbooks, comics, and CDs. While the artbook and CD were already included in the limited edition bundle that most BlazBlue fans already have, the comic was localized from Comiket – a rare treat for BlazBlue fans. The AniMaid Cafe was similar to the one held at Anime Expo 2009, featuring the same rules as before. On the other hand, guests were not required to pay a cover charge – they could simply sit down, order food, and play games with the maids or hosts. Manager Kasey informed us that John Nelson initially contacted them to cooperate with Active Gamers LA for Triple Threat, seeing a parallel between the gaming culture and maid cafe culture. The two did not mix well, though; half way through the tournament, an area was set aside for the maids to do a live performance. As competitors watched, most seemed disinterested rather than intrigued.

Sadly, for anyone except the competitors or those who followed the tournaments closely, there was no indication of exciting matches or tournament finals coming up. Attendees had to rely on crowds gathering around a couple of players and benches to notice an exciting match was about to happen, or even worse, in progress. Top 8 was even worse for most games; players simply went up in pairs to play with no indication of who was playing or whether it was semi, winner's, or grand finals. The tournament organizers could have definitely done a better job moderating this and made it more enjoyable for spectators.

Worse even, there was a basketball game occurring simultaneously at the other end of HAX. This meant that matches were often drowned out or disrupted by loud cheering, dribbling, and other basketball noises. While HAX is a great location to host tournaments due to its sheer size, these disturbances made Triple Threat feel like a second rate tournament.

Most tournaments do not charge entrance fees for spectators, but Triple Threat was one of the few that did. Worse even, halfway through the day, staff stopped checking if attendees had registered. This lack of enforcement was really unfair for those who had paid already – the event should have either continued to monitor attendees or never charged an entrance fee to begin with.

Aside from these problems, the tournament itself was spectacular to watch. As mentioned, there were a myriad of top players present, giving spectators the pinnacle of west coast competition. The BlazBlue tournament's top eight had several v-13 players, yet Ragna player Veteru stomped through all of them in convincing fashion to secure his victory. Despite winning $1200 in cash, he was not entirely satisfied with the victory. “This really would have meant more if it was at a national tournament like EVO,” he said, “it would have really shown people that v-13 is not unbeatable.”

The next featured tournament was Tekken 6. Grand finals came down to Michael “myk” Kwon, webmaster of IAMTEKKEN, and Suiken. At first, Kwon used Lars, but once defeated by Suiken's counterpick, Kwon had to switch to Steve. After the victory, Kwon stated that this wasn't his biggest victory in the tournament. In a previous match against Ricky Ortiz, he was down two matches to one but won three straight matches to clinch his victory. “Jack was always a bad matchup for me, so that victory meant so much for me,” Kwon said.

Street Fighter IV was the main event, as always. Sadly, none of the west coast's top players made the top three rankings, with Alex Valle just pixels away from clinching a top three spot, barely missing an ultra combo and losing to Ari “Floe” Weintraub. Grand finals came down to Justin Wong and Martin “marn” Phan. Phan's C. Viper ended up overwhelming Wong's Rufus to take the tournament home. “This was a good win for me,” Phan said, “I've never defeated Justin Wong in tournament before.”

At the end of the day, though, there was one more controversy before the tournament had to end. Busy with the tournament, Active Gamers LA had forgotten about the mandatory delay that PayPal institutes before money can be withdrawn. Instead of the full $2200 pot they had promised, Active Gamers LA was unable to hand out about $300. This left many competitors angry and cautious of any future events, but Active Gamers LA promised they would pay the gamers as soon as possible – and they did. “We're not about making a profit,” Nelson said, “We've given out big pots before in tournaments where we had to take a hit, even.”

Although this tournament was far from perfect, Active Gamers LA has already taken note. “We are actually planning another tournament with no venue fees,” Nelson added, “And we will be changing venues.” Seeing as how they've already decided to make a venue change, the future looks promising for Active Gamers LA's tournaments. Hopefully, the staff will be better prepared in the future and be able to fix all the errors at this tournament. No tournament ever runs perfectly, so shortcomings are expected; Triple Threat just had it worse due to an inexperienced staff and terrible venue choice.