EPTI arrived yesterday (Thursday) night well past any of the games. I was arriving from Chicago, so boy was it warm! Palm trees and just lots of sky everywhere. It isn't the first time being in LA but it's been a while.
The WCG is being held at the Convention Center next to the Staples Center. It's a huge huge location, and the WCG was being held at just one half of one of the sections. I was there with John and Albert (darktreb on TL).
I was so giddy walking in. It was a huge open area, dimly lit, but with flashing lights everywhere. Think of a giant car show except replace cars with games, a huge open space with different sections promoting different products / games, and of course, stages for various games. The center of this big open space was filled with computers and monitors, giving off a very big LAN party feel. It seemed, though, that only players / referees were allowed to use these computers, for practice / non-broadcasted matches.
Anyway, this was my first time visiting an actual live Starcraft:Brood War event. I've played for years and years, watching VODs from afar, the comfort of my home, just ogling these progamers play on my screen. Trying out bo's, trying desperately hard to make WCG, staying up to watch proleague, wishing that Jaedong would beat Flash... To finally get to see them play live was absolutely phenomenal!
At one point, Flash, Jaedong, and Kal were all sitting in the first few rows in front of the broadcast stage waiting for Jaedong to play F91. It was a O_O moment. To see them live was amazing! :D
After Jaedong vs. F91, I of course sprinted up to them and took photos with each. :D I wasn't confident in my Korean, so I didn't get to say much to them. I said "LEE YOUNGHO", shook hands, took a picture. Then "AHNNYUNGHASAEYO" to Kal, took a picture. In front of Jaedong, I just blurted out, "LEE JAEDONG". He looked surprised, looked up at me, and then continued walking. Then I motioned for a picture and got one.
I also met FuDDx (I think that's his TL nick) there. He had a PRESS tag on which he said he got by saying that he was a blogger. I was on the lookout for other TL'ers but didn't get to meet any more. I also ran into Christina (peanutsc) whom I haven't seen for a while.
Afterwards, I saw a War3 game and went out to get lunch with friends, and -- gasp -- I saw FJK (Flash Jaedong Kal) again walking down the streets of LA, probably from getting their lunch. I also noticed Kingdom and the KT coach walking down as well. I wanted to ask them about the future of SC in Korea, but missed the timing. I think once you start overthinking how you're going to meet these people you end up just psyching yourself out. Didn't help that I'm not confident in my Korean.
Anyway, fantastic experience so far. I'm going to go tomorrow and catch the epic FvJ, possibly the last FvJ depending on how SC goes in Korea. It's gonna be great. If it ever happens that BW dies, people will talk about the last epic FvJ and I'll be able to say, "I was there."
One big gripe I have with WCG so far though is that they weren't selling WCG t-shirts... Believe me, I've tried to get one. What I wanted was an autograph-able nice souvenir from the place. All the players were wearing shirts, all the staff were wearing them. When I tried to get some t-shirts they said "they're not for sale". I asked a bunch of staff and they all denied me. If they wanted to distinguish staff/player/watcher they could have easily had different designs. At this point I'd pay any amount of money to get a good WCG shirt for signatures. I'm definitely gonna get signatures tomorrow regardless, because I stopped by a Gamestop to buy a Starcraft Battle Chest just to get it signed by the three best players in the world, one from each race. Hoping for t-shirts tomorrow! I definitely should have brought my keyboard. That'd be a legit piece of equipment to get signatures on. Or a mousepad. I should also have ordered Hwaseung / KT gear. I was not prepared for this trip!
Coming here made me realize how awesome this experience was. To many people it's more than just a game, and I was able to reaffirm to myself that it was true for me as well. I will make it my mission to make WCG next year, whether it be in SC:BW or SC2 (Dear TL: I've been secretly playing SC2.
I am currently a mid-1400 Zerg. The level there feels like C- on iCCup.)
