Talk:Just Dance 2017/@comment-1465604-20170222164154

So I finally got back from Paris. The last 2 days were crazy and the 2 days following them I just lay dead in my hotel room winding down for the most part. But now I'm finally energetic enough to post. So here follows my experiences of the last 2 days of the JDWC:

Day #2: I woke up at 9 and then spent the rest of the day franctically trying to finish my "Into You" cosplay. Pulled an all-nighter and finished it with only hours to go 'til the last day started. So, unfortunately, I had to miss the 2nd day entirely.

Day #3: Yes! Mehdi! I'd mage friends with NijiShoujo on day #1 and we'd vowed to stalk Mehdi if he made an appearance, which we did. It mostly consisted of her remarking on how beautiful he is while watching him from afar. NijiShoujo was there to support her friend Aazzlano (the U.S. representative), so I got to know him as well, plus their friend Stahl (a.k.a. the guy who got 2nd in the French World Dance Floor rankings).

I arrived a few minutes after the venue opened and then managed to get a random French girl to help me apply make-up to my face since I didn't have a mirror with me. NijiShoujo arrived slightly later and helped me put on my wig and away we went. Niji wore her "Worth It" cosplay on this day and got to come onto the JDWC stage (not the main one for the venue) to dance to "Worth It". Later on, I got to do the same thing with "Into You".

Remy Vivisane, one of the most instrumental members of Just Dance France (working for Ubisoft at most if not all Just Dance-related events in France) had his Birthday, so there was a round of "Happy Birthday to you" which started out in French and then branched out into various languages. Remy invited me and NijiShoujo on stage to dance behind him to, what else, "Birthday" and towards the end, a cake was brought out. It was all a lot of fun.

While watching the semi-finals on the main stage (the venue had a main stage where important matches were played), I befriended the German WDF representative (it's all a blur, I might've befriended him on day #1 while watching matches on the main stage), AkaMisaki (real name Mike, also called Mika).

After the semi-finals, Mario (another instrumental figure in JDF) had the idea to have a mini-tournament among the champions where 6 regular audience members were chosen as a jury to emulate the JDWC jury, giving out comments and points to crown a winner after each song. Eventually, this just became a free-for-all where anyone could come up on stage to dance and have comments given out to them. Some of the jury members were very good at parodying the real judges.

Then we had the finals and all the excitement that came with it (but you can just watch the live streams to see them, no need for me to describe them here). Afterwards, we had a few hours before closing. Gigi Rowe was once again convinced to sing live while "Run the Night" was played. This time, she was actually on the Just Dance stage, though, centered, but still not actually dancing.

I asked her if she'd be able to tell me if true and if so, if she'd been asked to contribute a song to JD2018. Her answer was that she did not know yet, so it seems she has yet to be asked, but they did ask her to come and be a judge at the JDWC, so I'd still bet good money on her appearing in the next game (or at least on JDU).

I ran around getting selfies with any of the champions I could get my hands on, including Dina (France, WDF), Diegho (Brazil, former champion, pre-qualified), Manu (France, event qualifier, very nice and loved my cosplay), Technoth (Turkey, Asia-Middle East-Africa-Oceania WDF qualifier) and others. I also got a selfie with Mehdi and got to gush at him about how he was my favourite JD choreographer and dancer and how I'd cosplayed 2 of his on-screen personas in the past. He was very complimentary of my cosplay and when I asked if I could give him a kiss on the cheek, he said "Aw, aren't you the sweetest" and I got to give him a kiss on the cheek.

I also kissed Technoth on the cheek and had him kiss me on the cheek (getting pics taken of both occasions by his cousin). He was very nice and gracious and very complimentary on my cosplay. Later, in the "official" Just Dance hotel (the hotel where all of the champions stayed), he offered me (and everyone else) pizza because he was already full and had gotten it for free for some reason. I declined because I'd just come back from eating and was full as well. I also got pictures of myself kissing Diegho. I cannot tell you enough how beautiful Diegho is in real life. Pictures do not do him justice. Diegho started calling me Ariana before changing it to Ariano and for the rest of the night, he addressed me as Ariano.

I asked Mike if there was any kind of after party of event after the event, thinking Ubisoft might organize something or the participants themselves would want a last night on the town or something. Mike told me people were going out for drinks but wasn't entire sure in what way (as in if we were gonna go to a bar or just buy alcohol and then have it in someone's hotel room or something).

Feeling slightly awkward, I asked if I could come with because I just wanted to keep hanging out with these awesome people, so he asked Dina and she very graciously allowed me to join in. And so it happened that I, Mike, NijiShoujo, Aazzlano, Dina, Diegho, MoonAngel90 (Italian WDF qualifier) and her boyfriend, Danila (DeaDanRUS, Russian event qualifier), Roberto (Roberto00Robert, Spanish WDF qualifier) and Hian (Brazilian event qualifier) spent the night together (not like that!). First we went and bought alcohol at a convenience store, then we went back to NijiShoujo's apartment (she'd rented one on Air B'n'B), then went for dinner (everything was closed, so we had McDonalds), then everyone went to take a shower before we all returned to the apartment for drinks and just winding down. While waiting in the Champions' Hotel lobby for people to finish showering, this was when Technoth returned with his pizza (that nobody seemed to want because everyone had already eaten). I got to speak a little with Kevin Dudas (Hungary, Rest of Europe WDF qualifier), who's a friend of Mike's. There were other champions just hanging about the lobby, too.

It as just Smirnoff and a margarita mix + Orangina and some ice. Nothing too strong, but enough to get a minor buzz going. The rest of the night was spent just talking, dancing to non-JD music ("No Just Dance!" was immediately set as a rule once Mika busted out his bluetooth speakers). At some point, the manly men (+Dina) thought it'd be fun to have a push-up contest. Mike won with 40-something push-ups, with Diegho and Dina coming in at a close 2nd and 3rd. Then they spent quite some time nursing aching arms. Danila then busted out this spectacular move where you lifted your entire body up by your arms and Diegho did the same (nobody else could).

There was a lot of spontaneous dancing (some JD songs did slip through, too), where people would try to remember obscure and old JD songs, Roberto busted out some impressive street dance moves (unsurprisingly, when he connected his phone to the speakers to play his own music, almost all of it was reggeaton) and even some karaoke (we sang along to the music).

A few hours into the night, I asked if I could try on NijiShoujo's "Run the Night" wig (which Mike insisted made me look like Ayane from "Dead or Alive"). She said, sure. Mike then tried on the "Disturbia" wig after which they had him try on the actual cosplay and a lot of hilarity was had by all. I then tried on the cosplay myself and then Mike wore it again.

We spent some 5 hours or so in that apartment just shooting the you-know-what. Diegho knows almost no English, so he spoke Brazilian Portuguese with Dina, who then translated it to others, Roberto spoke only some English, so he preferred to speak Spanish, Hian knew some English but likewise preferred to speak Brazilian Portuguese while the Italians were mostly quiet, but some spoke English. Danila knew some English, but was mostly quiet and when he wanted to communicate, Mike, who's Russian by ethnicity (but was born in, raised in and lives in Germany) would translate a bit with his cod Russian (in his own words, he's shit at Russian). The French, Brazilian, Italian and Portuguese people would just speak their mother tongues to each other and managed to understand each other reasonably well. Me, with my so-so knowledge of French and Spanish managed to understand maybe half or 1/3rd of what the French, Spanish, Brazilian and Italian people said.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. At 3 in the morning or so, we all staggered back to our hotels (I'd, by chance, chosen a hotel on the same street as the champions, only some 300 meters away), except NijiShoujo (it was her apartment, after all) and Aazzlano (who might have gone back to his hotel later, I don't know, but he stayed behind while the rest of us left).

So there you have it. The champions, they're just like us. Mostly down to earth, nice people who don't mind a fan tagging along, who wind down with a few drinks and just small talk. Also, Mehdi is awesome and Diegho, besides being photo model-levels of beautiful, has a really nice body (delicious abs) and a pert behind.