EPTAlthough I received very positive comments on my photo posts (Day 1, Day 1.5, Day 2, Day 3), a lot of that was I think due to my pics being posted each night of the event. I am glad to have provided more of a “live” experience of the attendees throughout the weekend, since my photographs pale in comparison to some of the truly amazing ones in the blogs that came out after the weekend was over (from itsjustatank, thedz, and zemotion especially).
If I just craved praise, I’d just leave well enough alone, but I didn’t just want to make a few posts of pics w/funny captions to remember my MLG Anaheim experience by, and I didn't want to regurgitating other attendees’ experiences, even though I shared many of the same sentiments (Not enough seats!). So I decided to write more about how I felt about my experience as a whole. It may not have any cool stories (like MrBitter uniting Day[9] with his biggest fan), but I am hoping that people will respond to this less as a tournament report and more as an introspective post (I am heartened by the encouraging and constructive comments in the more personal of the blog entries from other people). If you're expecting a play-by-play account of the weekend, you'll likely be unhappy with this entry.
+ Show Spoiler [My Biggest Disappointment] +
Just to get it out of the way, my biggest disappointment was missing the opportunity to meet BoxeR and MMA in person. And the worst part is that I could have had more of an opportunity than most. I had purchased a gold MLG membership and had arrived before 1 PM on Friday. I saw this huge line of people outside but recalled that gold members were supposed to be able to enter the venue early. I walked to the front of the line, where yellow-shirted security staff stood. I asked one if a separate line existed for gold members and he told me “just one line”.
So I went back to the end of the line and waited about a half hour before some actual MLG staff came out. The guy behind me told the MLG staffer that he was a player and asked if he had to wait in the line, and the MLG guy said no. I then asked if gold members had to wait, and he said no. I walk up to the venue, go in and find out that there was a separate line for gold members (and another for players) and I get my wristbands within minutes. Of course, it was at this exact same time that everyone else was finally being let in.
My plan was always to get an MLG Anaheim shirt for the players to sign. I walked in and saw the humongous line for meeting the Korean players, and the humongous line at the merchandise cage, and immediately lined up for a shirt. Unfortunately, once I got the shirt, the Korean player signings were over, and while I got to meet some of the other players and get their autographs over the weekend, I never again had a chance to meet BoxeR and MMA.
Lesson for MLG: More signage (and seats) please!
Lesson for me: Be more assertive in finding out if I can get in earlier instead of waiting in line for an extra half hour and missing out on one of the biggest benefits of being a gold member.
So I went back to the end of the line and waited about a half hour before some actual MLG staff came out. The guy behind me told the MLG staffer that he was a player and asked if he had to wait in the line, and the MLG guy said no. I then asked if gold members had to wait, and he said no. I walk up to the venue, go in and find out that there was a separate line for gold members (and another for players) and I get my wristbands within minutes. Of course, it was at this exact same time that everyone else was finally being let in.
My plan was always to get an MLG Anaheim shirt for the players to sign. I walked in and saw the humongous line for meeting the Korean players, and the humongous line at the merchandise cage, and immediately lined up for a shirt. Unfortunately, once I got the shirt, the Korean player signings were over, and while I got to meet some of the other players and get their autographs over the weekend, I never again had a chance to meet BoxeR and MMA.
Lesson for MLG: More signage (and seats) please!
Lesson for me: Be more assertive in finding out if I can get in earlier instead of waiting in line for an extra half hour and missing out on one of the biggest benefits of being a gold member.
Some of you may be wondering why I thanked Gretorp, someone who didn’t even play at MLG Anaheim, in the subject line. The reason is because I’ve decided to “hang my hat” for this post on the feeling of belonging. If you check my profile, you’ll see that I am, not just a relative noob, but a real TL noob, with just over a year clocked in. I had actually known about TL for years, and occasionally I’d lurk, but I decided to wait and register on the official release date of SC2, something which in retrospect actually makes me seem even more noob than I am, though by using the word “noob” at least four times already in this paragraph pretty much cements my status as a noob, Amanda.
My point is that I am not an established member of the community. I try to keep my head down, make good comments (or at least not bad ones) and try not to ruin ESPORTS too much. I don’t know many members of the TL community on sight, and, even if I did, I am not very good at approaching people IRL. I often feel like even among a community of nerds, geeks, enthusiasts, there are still the “cool” outgoing ones (I couldn’t do what EdwardStarcraft does, for example), and I’m often still the shy outsider looking in.
I’m also at a different point in my life than many of the attendees. While I blend in with the hundreds of other twenty-something Asian guys in attendance, I’m actually in my mid-thirties, married, with two kids (futureTossGirl and miniZergGirl). My wife, who used to kick my ass at BW when we played in my college computer lab, isn’t as into SC2 as I am, but tries to support my interests. We’re a fairly modern family, splitting the housekeeping and parenting pretty evenly, so it was a big deal that I got to shirk all that grown-up stuff for a few days, so mad props to my wife for taking everything off my plate for an entire weekend. But even if I knew of the TL parties (I didn't) I probably couldn’t attend anyway, since I live within driving distance of Anaheim and tried to be home with my family at least a little bit each day, so I couldn’t hang around much and try to get to know people from the community.
(It was very cool to see some families, with little broodlings, at MLG.)
So it actually felt kind of lonely the first day and a half of MLG Anaheim, and probably the biggest factor was the fact that I didn’t go with anyone. You’re probably thinking “Duh!” Actually, some of you are probably thinking “Boo-hoo, I can’t even go to an MLG and this guy is complaining about being lonely at one.” To be clear, I had a great time meeting players and striking up small conversations with fans and TL members (CDRdude, I mentioned you in my pics posts, but I just have to thank you again for the TL pin; I know you gave the pins to many people, but it meant a lot to me to have gotten one), but I still mostly felt like just a spectator. Again, this is almost all due to my personality and the fact that I couldn’t spend a lot of time hanging out, as the TL members I met, and the other SC2 fans and players in general, were all very friendly.
Okay, I’m finally getting to the Gretorp part. On day two, Gretorp arrives in the late afternoon, or maybe early evening, and I go up to him to ask for an autograph, and the way he greeted me was like an old friend and immediately made me feel welcome (and it wasn’t just me, I saw him greet others the same way). Maybe he wasn’t as intense as the other players and personalities I met because he wasn’t playing or covering the event. Maybe that’s just how he is all the time. But much of my feeling of I’m-so-excited-about-being-here-but-I’m-too-shy-to-share-my-excitement-with-the-guy-next-to-me lightened after that.
Gretorp: Good for what ailes you!(tm)
So for the rest of day two, I felt better, and I actually sat down and took the time to just watch a bunch of games (Ret vs. Rain and White-Ra vs. Drewbie). That’s part of the reason I took less pics, if you look at my day two pics post. When the night was over, as I was walking out, Andre (see, I felt comfortable calling Gretorp by his real name, and I did) was as well, and since I wasn’t with anyone and he wasn’t either, he came up to me and put his hand out and just again greeted me like an old friend. We walked out of the venue together and I asked if he was working ESPORTS full-time because I remember when he was on Day[9] way back that he had a full-time job in addition to going pro, but he is indeed in the industry full-time.
I told him I was happy for him and to enjoy the hell out of these experiences. It’s definitely possible to be in ESPORTS and have a career outside of gaming and have a meaningful adult relationship and raise a family all at the same time (see: djWHEAT), but it’s damn hard. I’m lucky if I can play an hour a day, so my chances of making it out of Silver and into Masters are slim. So I told him that I’m trying to support the industry and the community how I can (I’m going to subscribe to NASL Season Two for sure) and wished him all the luck. Then he had to go to a party and I had to go home to my wife and kids and we parted ways.
And that was my MLG Anaheim 2011 experience.
Actually, astute readers will see that we’ve only gotten to the end of day two, but I didn’t know how I was going to wrap this up and I liked how the above section ended. Since I don’t have the burden of this being a tournament report, I don’t have to get into the specifics of day three. Suffice it to say, the energy of the crowd for the finals, really for all of the matches (BoxeR vs. Rain, anyone) were just cranked up to 11. I saw Gretorp again and again he greeted me as an old friend; he might have even used my name (I can’t remember).
And now, I will once again hastily wrap this up by saying “that was my MLG Anaheim 2011 experience”. It was, overall, excellent, and I came away from it feeling like I belonged to our community. And for that, I'd like to rephrase my subject line, and say “Thank you Andre!”
As a side, I just want to say thank you to TLO, HuK, and JP for taking the time to sign both my MLG Anaheim shirt and my SC2 game box. I tried not to ask people to sign multiple items, since there was always other people waiting. I just remember when meeting JP, I was using the box as a platform for the shirt, since we weren’t near a table. He asked what was under the shirt, and when I told him it was the game box, he asked if I’d like it signed after the shirt. I said I didn’t want to take up too much of his time, and he insisted on signing the box too. So thank you JP for taking your time and making me feel welcome to your home away from home!
Oh, before I forget, here are some more reminders of my experience at MLG Anaheim:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/W6B3Nl.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iXFF9l.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GMi0Hl.jpg)
[Edit: I realized this is more disjointed than I meant it to be. I'm too tired to revise it. Maybe tomorrow.]
