I've been watching this since it ws first conceived: I'm pleasantly surprised that the logistics worked out, but it was never in the cards for me to be there. (too darned far ^^)

Wolf

Korea (South)3290 Posts

April 11 2011 15:42 GMT

#23

Motbob is such a great guy. Was really glad to meet him, even if I only saw him for a second and then mistook heyoka for him a few hours later T_T

Also, I gotta say, Antaran was my favourite player in the whole CESL Invitational.

Virtue

United States318 Posts

April 11 2011 16:12 GMT

#24

I went to the event to spectate our team's progress (OSU) and had a lot of fun. Our OSU had a lot of tough matches, but I was proud of how well they did. It was my first live lan and I have to say it was really inspiring. Seeing that environment and what the gamer community is like, I really want to work harder to get good enough to play in these kind of events.

As a spectator, I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the spectating area for the first few hours, but after the event staff was able to work on the issues the stream viewing in the watching area was flawless and it was great fun, though the best part of it by far was standing at our team's area and watching the matches be played over the players shoulders. There were a lot of close games and I am glad I got to see the comebacks as it was happening. The sponsor's were great and the venue was quite impressive. It was really cool to see the casters in person (JP, CatsPj's, and Wolf) and other famous CSL players like Murder and some of the Revoki players along with TL people like TrueRedemption(Who did a great job coordinating everything, btw).

Cyan Winters

United States8 Posts

April 11 2011 17:42 GMT

#25

As a team coordinator, I committed my team to this while still having some skepticism over how it would pan out, as bigger events such as MLG seem to have issues getting their shit together.

However, the event exceeded my expectations in every way imaginable and my only regret is that it wasn't longer. CES said they are hoping to do another event in the Fall, so hopefully this is the dawn of something great for the college E-sports scene.

There is definitely some room for improvement, but overall the event was fantastic, and with over 2,000 viewers on the stream all day, even during TSL matches, I'd say it was a moderate success externally as well.

Xog2

United States97 Posts

April 11 2011 18:41 GMT

#26

ROFL! I'm the random guy

Kazzabiss

1006 Posts

April 11 2011 19:52 GMT

#27

On April 12 2011 03:41 Xog2 wrote:
ROFL! I'm the random guy

Pitchforks

Xog2

United States97 Posts

April 11 2011 20:09 GMT

#28

On April 12 2011 04:52 Kazzabiss wrote:

Show nested quote +

Pitchforks

Come at me bro

BlitchizSC2

United States306 Posts

April 11 2011 20:12 GMT

#29

Blitchiz from Cincinnati here. This was my and my roommates BROvega's first LAN ever and I personally want to thank everyone for putting on SUCH an amazing event. From the casters to the coordinators to the production team everything went off without a hitch! Getting to have my game casted was one of the coolest experiences of my entire life, so hats or should I say Pajamas off to Wolf and Cats for not making fun of me too much. I couldn't have dreamed up a better venue and couldn't have dreamed up a better story of how we progressed. Waking up at 4 am and getting home at 4 am the next day couldn't have been more worth it. Also thank you to MLG, NOS, and Steelseries for putting up the money and schwag for us college teams. I hope we all put on a good show and people enjoyed some good games!

<3 always

Blitchiz

Cinci Fighting!

hpty603

United States262 Posts

April 11 2011 20:43 GMT

#30

On April 11 2011 06:16 motbob wrote:
A young man hunches over his computer, focused intently on a game of Starcraft 2. Surrounding him are his teammates, all staring at the screen with identical concentration. The player at the computer is Antaran, a Terran playing for the University of Cincinnati stagecraft team. The game is the deciding match against the University of Pittsburgh; the match is currently at 3-3. The winner goes to the finals to face the powerful University of Indiana. The loser goes home.

To an uninformed looker-on, things look like they are going poorly for UC. The mood looks somber, with a stolid, intense expression on the face of the observers. When the man at the computer loses a dropship, he physically reacts and shakes his head in frustration.

But, as it turns out, the game has already been won. A few minutes before this scene took place, the two combatants in the game exchanged siege tank and marine armies in the middle of Shattered Temple. At the same time, a drop by Antaran took out nearly all of his opponent's SCVs, and a desperation counter-attack was cleaned up. Now, all Antaran must do is press the advantage and end the game. Carefully.

When he finally sieges up at his opponent's natural and wipes out the SCV and marine army thrown at him in desperation, GG appears on the screen. The dam of emotion breaks. Antaran receives more pats on the back than he's ever gotten in his life. The Cincinnati players can be heard celebrating throughout the venue. "Yeah! Woooo!" "Not confident in TvT, huh?? You looked like a fucking boss out there!" "I almost pissed myself!" "That drop was so clutch." "We're in the FINALS!"

This is eSports. This is what it's all about.

This would be an awesome write up if I hadn't been on Pitt's team QQ

But ya, the event was unbelievably amazing and I had a blast.

Pictures: The spectators and casters - [image loading]

Xog, our ace - [image loading]

Saer, DouDou, and Xog (near to far on the close table) - [image loading]

I almost forgot the greatest picture of them all (it has me in it

) Saer, DouDou, me (Lobo), and Xog -

EdSlyB

Portugal1621 Posts

April 11 2011 21:38 GMT

#31

motbob: seems like you're more e-famous that you imagined...! :D

Seems like it was an awesome Sunday. ^^

Shinbuki

United States14 Posts

April 11 2011 22:37 GMT

#32

The cool name tags they gave us

UC team picture

UC straight bad mannering IU ahead of time
(this picture was taken during the beginning of the playoffs)

Antaran's famous question (he won that game!)
To his credit, he plays 2v2 way more... and he just started 1v1ing with terran 1 week ago

Dropping in on the wrong base in the IU vs UC finals
(murder had units that killed my scouting SCV up at the empty base.... what a bad ass)

Messing around with the CES stream

kstubbeman

United States5 Posts

April 11 2011 23:03 GMT

#33

It's great to hear people enjoyed the event. We did our best to ensure everyone would have a good time.

I do want to reiterate the fact that TrueRedemption worked his butt off the whole event and we can't thank him enough! I've been in that position at our IU lans and know how ridiculously tiring it is to be running back and forth all day. I was super excited to not be in that position for this event haha.

A huge thanks to the casters as well. Cats, jp, and wolf did a great job and had a VERY long day and were all super chill and nice.

Thanks to Nos and MLG for being there the whole way through helping us through any issues that arose. A big thanks to Steelseries, Daskeyboard, and Bigfoot networks for providing us with prizes and swag for the event! Please be sure to thank them on their facebook pages and give them a like

I was completely exhausted after 36 hours of no sleep, but after waking up Sunday I wanted to do it all over again. I can't wait until the next event!

Impervious

Canada4218 Posts

April 11 2011 23:19 GMT

#34

The event was amazing!

While coordinating my team, I still found tons of time to meet with and chat with a bunch of people I've only talked to online. Such an awesome experience! And to see us cast by JP and Wolf against Rice in the Ro16 was a far better outcome than I hoped for.

The event was such a blast, and I can't wait for the next one either!

EDIT - Also, it was pretty cool talking to CatsPajamas for a bit.

EtherealDeath

United States8366 Posts

April 11 2011 23:46 GMT

#35

On April 12 2011 03:41 Xog2 wrote:
ROFL! I'm the random guy

You have an uncanny resemblance to Silver o.O

leo23

United States3075 Posts

April 11 2011 23:52 GMT

#36

I gotta say, I loved the production coming out of this event. Such a high quality stream! I also loved making fun of catspajamas epic beard and asking questions about it lol!!