Today we are proud to announce the launch of the re-branded and fully operational Western Union Canada website. Check out the snaps below for a peak of the website. Better yet….click here to see the full website in action. Let us know what you think!

A big thanks to Paul Hunter for his amazing review of the Mario Kart Tournament (aka Relive The Wizard) we held a few weeks back.

Thanks for coming out Paul and thanks again for the review.

Amazing!

Lindsey Bakes! comes through again.

Zoe, great job on the packaging!

Offshoot clients, hope you enjoy your cookies.

Happy Holidays to everyone else!

We’ve all heard how people’s lives can change in a second because of instant fame due to You Tube or Facebook. Here’s a story about a director from Uruguay who’s landed a major deal with Hollywood because of You Tube.

A five minute short film that was done for under $1000 and uploaded to You Tube, has now landed one Uruguayan film maker a $30 million Hollywood deal.

The documentary styled short entitled Ataque de Panico! (Panic Attack!) is about gigantic robots destroying and attacking the capital of Uruguay.

Speaking with BBC Mundo the director of the short, Fede Alvarez said “I uploaded it on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of emails from Hollywood studios…it was amazing, we were all shocked”

The $30 million dollar deal from Ghost House Pictures will team Alvarez up with a writer to create a feature film. Ghost House Pictures is the same company that hosts the Spider Man films director Sam Raimi.

It’s pretty amazing how hard work and putting yourself out there for millions to see can get you the deal of a lifetime.

Check out the full movie below.

Last Thursday we hosted our first ever Relive the Wizard – A Mario Kart Tournament.

Taking home the coveted trophy, some serious prizing from PKG/Skull Candy and the title of Mario Kart Champion was Offshoot’s own Chris (we-swear-we-didn’t-rig-it) Woodford.

Held at The Baitshop, Offshoot proudly hosted and watched some local businesses, gaming connoisseurs and of course our friends battle it out for the first place.

Players were put into a group of 4 and battled through 3 random races. The top 2 winners proceeded to the next round and the bottom 2 were sadly elminated. After the first round of competition, gamers went in to sudden death rounds in a one race winner-advances and loser- eliminated, until the final two drivers were left.

It was a crazy night, full of upset, defeat, surprises and cheers!!

We can’t take all the credit for producing such a stellar tournament. We had some help from some amazing companies.

A HUGE thank you goes out to Andy Priestman from PKG and Skull Candy. They hooked us up large by providing some amazing prizing for our first, second and third place gamers.

Props to the guys at The Baitshop for letting us use their perfect venue!

Kudos to Michelle Gatien for being our eyes of the event and caputring the moments for us.

Thanks to Vitamin Water for donating some delicious beverages.

Many, many, many thanks to our wonderful MC/Referee of the night Modi Taylor Cline, who encouraged the gaming trash talk and kept our players in line and on the ball.

Finally, a MASSIVE thank you to our Food & Beverage sponsor, the Video Game Developing Program at TriOS College. These guys set up our spectators and our gamers with some delicious and game fuelling treats and drinks.

Here’s a sampling of some photos from the tournament.

Check back soon as we will be posting some more photos and of course stay tuned for your opportunity to sign up for the next Relive A Wizard – A Mario Kart Tournament.

This summer, Neil tossed around the idea of holding a no holds barred ladder match Mario Kart tournament. For what reason? Well, none other than to crown the Mario Kart King or Queen of Toronto! This Thursday December 3rd, we’re excited to announce that, along with our friends at The Bait Shop, we’ll be holding “Relive The Wizard: A Mario Kart Tournament.”

Things get underway at 7pm sharp. If you’d like to attend or enter the contest please RSVP here.

Food and beverages will be provided by the likes of Red Bull and Vitamin Water and Steam Whistle. Our friends at PKG and Skull Candy will be giving away some prizes to the night’s winners. On top of all that, we’ll have some DJ’s spinning throughout the night to entertain guests plus a few other surprises as well.

We hope to see you there!

Been listening to some Silent Majority today. It takes me to a special place when I listen to this band, especially the album Life Of A Spectator.

Here are the lyrics for Popular Opinion:

You got a problem with me personally
So you go and you write about
It in your fanzine
Then someone reads it and she likes it and she puts it in hers
And it grows and it grows and it grows
Do you f*****g know me
Or are you judging by popular opinion
I think you are
Are you judging
This popularity contest
Is nothing less
Than a set up and I’m fed up
With this s**t that your putting through
And I didn’t ask for this
You placed it on my shoulders
And I’ll give it back to you
This status
I didn’t ask for it

If Popular Opinion was written today, this is how it would go:

You got a problem with me personally
So you go and you write about
It in your blog
Then someone reads it and she likes it and she puts it in hers
And it grows and it grows and it grows
Do you f*****g know me
Or are you judging by popular opinion
I think you are
Are you judging
This popularity contest
Is nothing less
Than a set up and I’m fed up
With this s**t that your putting through
And I didn’t ask for this
You placed it on my shoulders
And I’ll give it back to you
This status
I didn’t ask for it

I miss my ‘zines!

Hi Tek has to be one of the greatest producer’s birthed by Hip Hop. Not sure why I’m writing this but I’ve just bumped his last two albums in a row and they are so nasty… I don’t think there is anyone in the game that loves crafting beats more than he does (other than the good Dr., of course).

“Let me see where it started at…”

Cop these!!!

Hi-Teknology
Hi-Teknology 2
Hi-Teknology 3

“Music for life… RIP Dilla”