EPTI'm a huge lurker on this site, and figured I'd finally attempt to contribute something to the community. This past weekend I attended, and competed in the MLG Dallas event (MLG id Dudetoss, SC2 id Mantoss). I just wanted to talk a little bit about my experience, including how awesome the atmosphere at the tournament was, and how great a time I had. [note: there will be spoilers]
First off, I got to the convention center right on time for check in, so that was a bit stressful. However, on my way in I saw a bunch of huge names right outside. The only one I can remember off of the top of my head was ret, but it was still pretty exciting to see a familiar SC2 face. I went with a buddy of mine, and we met up with a couple of my clan mates who I'd never met. Fortunately for us, they were relatively normal haha. (you can never be sure at MLG :p). Then I walked into the main gaming area. This was a legit experience. You could see huge screens up at the front just waiting for the games to start, but before you could walk over there you had to claw your way through about 30 girls trying to force Dr. Pepper on you. This was mildly annoying, but you couldn't complain too much, as after all it was free Dr. Peppers, and the girls, for the most part, were way too good looking to be at a starcraft 2 tournament. From the entrance though I went straight to the SC2 side of the center, as halo and CoD were dominating the right side. The SC2 setup was awesome. Roughly 40 computers were set up with 1 main stage game, being played on the big screen, and 2 other show games that were being shown on tv's above the players heads (the rest of the games you had to watch from behind the players shoulders). It was a really cool atmosphere, with teams all sitting together, and a bunch of guys gathered around waiting for the draw to be announced. No one was sure what the draw looked like, as it was never shown to anyone, but you were told who to play one round at a time. My first round opponent went by the id Aeneas, and I had no idea what to expect. Most people, including myself, were under the impression that only high level masters players would enter the tournament, but this didn't seem to be the case. The first round was riddled with diamond, platinum, and even silver leaguers. My opponent turned out to be a diamond protoss (im a masters protoss myself), so I was pretty confident going into the match. However, nerves began to strike right as I began to set up. It wasn't just me either, a lot of players were noticeably nervous. The thrill was truly exhilarating. We were informed by the officials that the first map was Scrap Station, so of course I knew I was 4 gating. Fortunately for me, Aeneas, through some obvious lack of judgement, went zealot stalker sentry into 3 gate, and I totally crushed him. The second game was much the same. I was so excited to have won my first match, and was very curious as to my next opponent. One of my friends texted someone to find out who I was playing, and guess how lucky my draw was? I had to play a character named GosuHuk, more commonly known as Liquid Huk. We all had a good laugh, and watched some of the other rounds play out. My games against Huk went exactly about how you would expect them too, we both 4 gate both games, he wins with blink stalkers in the first (i transferred into robo but too late) and the second we both offensive 4 gate but he catches my warp ins way out of position and gg. However, I couldn't leave without saying something about his pillow
.![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/8TILQ.png)
Now I was into losers round 2, but my night was far from over. The games went on until roughly 1: 30, and some of the games were truly wicked. I think my favorite game from day 1 had to be Grubby vs Darkcell. Grubby truly put the hurt on him shutting down baneling/roach with wicked forcefields and apparent ease. I went home that night feeling pretty good, and ready for the next day.
Saturday was when the majority of the tournament took place. The losers open bracket finished up along with the pool play, and some of the games were truly amazing. The rest of my tournament was rather dull, I crushed a diamond zerg and then lost to vVvTitan where he essentially outmacroed me in game 1 and baneling busted me game 2. However, the most exciting part of the day was watching the bracket play out, and interacting with all of the pros who are constantly standing beside you to watch the games of their clan mates or friends. The losers bracket created some very interesting matches, but it was very confusing to figure out who was playing who and where on the bracket they were. However, it was still really exciting to watch. I think the highlight of day 2, however, and I don't think anyone would disagree, was idra vs huk. This match really had it all, and certainly deserved to be on the main or at least side stage, instead of good old station 33. This game probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 people sitting/standing behind Huk trying to see what was going on. Game one was the least exciting, as huk essentially blundered his early army, leaving idra to take over the map and go into macro mode. Game two was a very tight back and forth match cross positioons on metalopolis. During this match Grubby wound up standing beside me, and I was so into the games I didn't notice for a good two minutes until my friend nudged me haha. The games were just too good
. But idra was using a ton of banelings, zerglings, and brood wars to really take over the map. Huk got his third up easy enough, but his forth really never could get settled. Idra shut down Huk's gold expansion hard with broodlords and zergling harass. Finally Idra looked like he had it won as Huk had a new fourth at the 10 o clock which Idra was about to attack, and Huks army was far inferior to idras. However, huk, who had just upgraded hallucination, made about 7 fake voids, and idra, seeing the voids and his obvious lack of anti air left the game. As Day 9 put it, Huk could be the first person to win a Bo3 by losing two games. Huk was so polite as to inform idra that the voids were hallucinated at the start of the next game, and idra politely informed huk the "f@*k off." Which got a good laugh from the crowd. This game was pretty weak though, as huk won with a simple 5 gate push. Idra left and smashed his fist on the table, which got everyone talking about the infamous idra rage. However, no one was eliminated yet, and the champions loser bracket was created. Sunday was still a lot of fun. By now all the no name players were out of the tournament, and the big names were duking it out. The spectators were all engaged in the matches, and everyone was running around getting autographs (including my fanboy self T_T). It's truly amazing how approachable the players are at events like this, and they really do, (with the exception of Naniwa haha) seem to enjoy signing shirts and what not. Huk continued through the losers bracket, beating ret with a cannon rush (lol just like his stream) and advancing to once again play idra. This was immediately thrown on mainstage, unlike saturday, and was an extended series. However, it was extremely one sided with Idra macroing up huge armies and regularly being about 40 supply ahead of huk. My one friend, after watching these games, got idra to sign his shirt below where huk had signed it, and then asked idra to throw in a greater than sign as a joke, of course idra immediately obliged . When I talked to idra he really did seem to be a genuinely nice guy. He even had a sense of humor. I mean, sure the guy is bm, but he really does love what he does These little experiences are something only MLG could bring about. Another highlight of my sunday was huks consolation game against drewbie. This game didn't really create any exciting games, (huk 4 gated in games 2 and 3 to take the win) but the chat between the two players was hysterical. Huk asked drewbie at the start if he wanted to small talk, and drewbie said sure. This was some funny chat, until the game got a little further in and the apm was more necessary. Then the internet crapped out, and the game was paused. Me and my friends, watching behind Huks shoulder, told him that idra had just lost to TLO, and huk was literally about to go rag on idra who was three computers down, but he decided against it, as we weren't 100% sure ha (the score screen was far away and hard to see T_T). The game then got unpaused, and then huk asked drewbie to ask idra who won, Drewbie literally took off his headphones and looked over to idra, asked "did you win" and idra said "no," and then drewbie told Huk in game. From here, Huk threw his hands in the air for a second, but idra didn't see it. This was hysterical to watch, I thought idra and Huk were going to fight by the time the weekend was over, but unfortunately they didn't
. After this me and my friends watched the final games and headed back home.The whole MLG experience was truly amazing. It was definitely worth my 70$ entry fee, and I had a great time meeting a bunch of the players I read about every day. I would suggest attending MLG to anyone interested in gaming, as it truly is a premiere gaming tournament. At the end of the weekend, I had won two matches, played a Bo3 against Liquid Huk, lost to vVvTitan, and had a shirt signed by Haypro, Ret, HuK, Idra, Incontrol, qxc, and Naniwa. It was a great weekend, and I look forward to the next one.
