EPT![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/blizzconbanner.jpg)
***Warning this blog is long and filled with pictures and videos**
Day 0
Blizzcon 2009 for me started on Thursday August 20th. I left from the Grand Rapids airport at 7pm for my 3 second flight to chicago followed by an hour long lay over. From there I flew out to orange county, the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana California, about 10 miles from the convention center. When I got there I waited for my friend Gage, who I met when I used to play WoW (fuck all you bitches out there besides I don't play it anymore) and when he showed up we grabbed a cab and went to our hotel. The cab ride was 40 dollars...and our cabby gave us the run around pretending not to know where our hotel was when I had given him the exact address. We checked in 10 minutes before our hotel's lobby closed which boggled my mind since I'm so used to 24 hour a day lobbies at hotels. Then we started walking around anaheim to find the convention center. I ended up eating some terrible pizza and getting a slurpee from 7-11 then going back to the hotel and sleeping not too eventful of a night Gage bought a fifth of whiskey though and had a few shots before sleeping).
Day 1
I had to go pick up my passes at the convention center and let me tell you the line was beyond epic to get into blizzcon. If you've never seen 20,000 people standing in line I am extremely jealous of you.
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On top of that it seemed as though the waiting time was an eternity. People like this made the wait lolfilled though.
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![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0005.jpg)
The day started out and immediately I ran to the SC2 line I hopped into single player and started playing the terran's first mission.
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![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0006.jpg)
I ended up skipping some of the cinematics though because you only had 20 minutes to do stuff and I couldn't even finish the first mission in time because 20 minutes is just not nearly enough time to play around with the menu and finish a mission. After that I went to some booths to enter contests which I did not win and went to the main hall for the opening ceremony where they announced the monk class for D3 and the new WoW expansion. I left and immediately went to the RTS section of the convention. I watched the first show match Zero V Skyhigh and let me tell you, Game 1 was so full of epic it must be watched, RIGHT NAO SRSLY DO EET.
My post game thoughts:
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Following Zero V Skyhigh I went to the progamer area to watch some of the other matches unfold. Ret took a game off of nada and I was all like 0_0 that was super awesome I didn't get to see it because they were in set 3 when I showed up. However Nada did beat Ret. I also got to see beckham........how exciting.........get owned, I mean there were probably 10-20 people in the stands that could beat beckham (however I'm not one of them). While over there I got to meet a lot of the SC2GG and TL people however I didn't really get a lot of names. It was interesting to talk to people who shared my passion for starcraft though because Gage was not too into it, he is a big WC3 fan though so we watched some of those games. I was so consumed by the RTS stage that I ended up missing the Battle.net panel and all of the SC2 panels/Q&A so I'll have to look up information from a convention that I was at. In the second round blizzard decided it was imperative to show us a ZvZ since we had not seen one yet instead of putting quite possibly the most epic game I've ever seen on the stage. Game 1 of NaDa vs effort was...the best thing I've ever seen.
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Nada First Person Keyboard view of this game
I hope that the replays become available from that tournament because NaDa v effort Game 1 needs to be seen by the masses. After the last few games we went to go get some subway and then get ready for the OSL party.
OSL Party
After we ate and went back to our hotel we wandered over to the Mariott and found the ballroom that the OSL party was to be held in. We sat down and started watching some vods when Gage got bored. So we went back to our hotel and got drunk. By the time we got back to the OSL party we had missed the progamer meetup and ret was already curled up in a ball against the wall in the back...poor guy I thought he was going to need his stomach pumped. When we got there though Greg and Bryce were playing up front and incontrol was commentating. This beats all the commentating I've ever seen in my life out easily even Chill vs Combat
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Then Gage had some more Booze with Geoff
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![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0023.jpg)
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my voice was raspy as shit and you can hear Sean in the background doing standup
Now I just want to say here, I was a little obnoxious and loud at the party and I'm sorry for that seriously I was sitting next to idra and I think he moved because of my loudness /facepam.
We went on to watch the uneventful Jaedong Raping Yellow[arnc] OSL finals and then I picked up a bit before I left.
Day 2
Day 2 started out by getting up late and missing the first round of the day well because...the osl party and staying up till 4am is ouch plus it was another ZvZ so who cares. Day 2 was rather uneventful I got to play D3 and more SC2 and I watched the finals of both WC3 and SC. I also got to see a bit of the Starcraft 2 exhibition...because I was at IHOP. However I did get my picture taken with "Atrosis" and Tasteless
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![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0027.jpg)
and I also video taped Effort's Victory speech
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really boring generic korean answers but I was hoping for something super exciting
We went to go see the live bands in the main hall but when we got there (30 minutes early) there were no seats and we were told we could not sit on the floor by asshole security guards so gage and I just left
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WUT U MEAN WE CANT SIT ON DAT FLOOR
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0011.jpg)
Random pics that didn't fit in anywhere
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![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0028.jpg)
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Conclusion
Blizzcon was AWESOME at least in the RTS area. I got to play alphas of 2 of their new games and I entered some contests and got some swag all in all I was very happy and it was worth the ~1000 dollars I spent to go without a doubt. That being said the WoW atmosphere seemed to dominate everything so much that I don't really want to go again. I was there for SC and SC2 and it seemed like about 19000 of the people there were there for WoW. This was one of the greatest experiences in my entire life and I'd never trade it for anything especially this moment.
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The 2 people in this picture have a combined 6 star league titles
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v338/Grouty/Blizzcon09/DSCF0016.jpg)
Hug and pic from nada is worth far more than 1000 dollars to me
Hug and pic from nada is worth far more than 1000 dollars to me
good blog 
