EPTMLG Anaheim 2011 Recap!
My head is still somewhat groggy after the weekend, not because of an excessive amount of drinking, but because watching MLG live in EU means staying upp all night some three days in a row! But what a weekend it has been, amazing games and amazing stories! This may not be the one tournament that triumphed DH Summer in fun games (in my opinion), but it came damn close!
Let's begin with the stories, and the most remembered might be White-Ra's journey in the open bracket, he was disqualified for not showing up in time (1 minute too late). He argued with the referees but they refused, be on time or be DQ'ed. Anyone who was like us - the lesser back scrape of humanity would have left the tourney and begun a journey of epic drinking. But not White-Ra, like the good mannered beast from the east he is, he did it for the fans. And he did it all the way into the champions bracket! The story came to a gruesome end as SeleCT killed the dream with marines, hellions and what not. It was a fair win on paper, but I think White-Ra is the true champion in this tournament. Along with Gimix, a man who rose to fame through throwing his first two games in the extended series when he finally got to play White-Ra. He then lost to White-Ra but won the fans!
Another story is the one about only Koreans at the top, Boxer, MMA, MVP, DRG, Rain.. I know there are a lot of MMA/MVP fans out there.. I'm not one of them. I had my heart set for DRG vs Naniwa in the finals, but Slayer and IM would have nothing with that. And on the one hand it is kinda heart breaking that it was all Koreans at the top again (specially the ones which I am not even rooting for
). BUT! Alicia and Choya got knocked out and the top Koreans did have some games picked off them! But yeah I'm a bit disappointed, not one of those I was rooting for made it to the top 5. Good game for MMA and MVP, amazing players and I will not remove an inch of respect for their game play.. but you know how it is. Sometimes you just root for someone even though they are the worst player on earth (try watching the Swedish Soccer league and you will soon realize that it takes a lot of heart to keep rooting for any of those teams). But better luck next time!
And damn there were so many hellions in like every TvSomething game, I wish someone could count all the workers that died because of it.. would be a fun number!
The Grand Finals
The finals were - okay - not boring but not really that exciting either. MVP was really shaky going into the finals and I had a slight feeling that MMA was the crowd favorite (based on him being the Emperors apprentice). It was more a show of score's than in game twists and turns. MMA being the super solid safest T in the world did not open up for any mistakes of grand design.. The result was an okay finals. Kinda worthy of Code S if you know what I mean.
An epic conclusion!
It was an overall fun tournament, less of technical issues compared to last time. Lots of good games and overall not so many boring ones, they came but it was far between and you had mostly a fun watching experience. Do I recommend to buy a season ticket to watch the VODs? Yeah, yeah I do. Why? Because Boxer vs Rain, Jinro vs Choya.. more or less every White-Ra game broad aired. Yeah I think I got my moneys worth. Although I wish for the next time that they will show more games on more streams. I would have loved to see some of the games TOD played or BBE for example.
