EPTBy: Dylan "Phenom" Arana
7/26, 22:22
I give my friend Austin a ringy ding, to finalize the plans we have in place.
"Hey man, are you pumped for tomorrow!? I'll be leaving around noon"
"Ummm... I don't think I can go"
"...I don't understand"
"I got a job, and, uh, I might get called into work this weekend"
"...I don't understand. Can't you just tell them that you have something that you've been planning all summer?"
"Well, since I'm new I'm not going to."
"well, ok, that sucks, but whatever"
"Ya, I'm sorry man"
"It's ok, I guess I'll talk to you later"
"Mmk, see ya"
"Peace"
I hung up, pissed. Here I was taking him and another of my really good friends down to MLG free of charge, paying for practically everything, just because I really enjoy their company and they're poor as poo.
I hopped onto Skype and chatted my other bro, Noel, longtime HS bud. We discussed how much of a nub Austin was and ranted about how he should at least ask to not be called in. After ranting we spammed him and came up with the plan to call his work and tell him he couldn't come in (this did not occur).
I knew I needed sleep for the drive ahead so I got into bed and thought about the experience that would be MLG Anaheim.
7/27
When I woke I started to pack the essentials:
ESPORTS shirts x 2
Team Liquid shirt
Dignitas team hoodie
SteelSeries mouse pad
Rosewill Keyboard
Yeah, I was good to go.
First stop was Springfield, Oregon, the place I grew up, and where I would pick up Noel and Chuck, another HS friend who was hitching a ride to Sacramento.
The drive south was pretty boring, it consisted of Noel and Chuck talking about some new DotA style game, and me listening to "Tonight" by Big Bang on repeat. We stopped in Klamath Falls and grabbed a free meal at my friends family restaurant.
On the drive down I decided I liked driving at night because I couldn't see the ugly scenery surrounding us.
7/28/11
We woke up in Sac at Chuck's place, went to some crepe place, and left. This is where things got interesting... I don't know how many of you guys have ever been on a road trip, but road tripping with one other person is a lot different than road tripping with two others. With only two people in a car it's a lot harder to keep conversation going and hard to keep the conversation interesting. With three people, keeping a conversation going and keeping things interesting is a lot easier because things bounce around a lot more and it's not just 1-on-1 action with each person trying to keep the other entertained.
A mistake I made was only having CDs at our disposal. When it comes to me and music in my car I burn 1 or 2, or MAYBE, JUST MAYBE even 3 new CD's every 2 or 3 months, and I just listen to those until I burn the poo out of them. (We ended up listening to the same KPOP mix ~10-20 times the whole trip.)
We arrived to the “Hotel Moonlight” around 23:00 and I immediately hopped on reddit because I hadn’t had my daily dose yet. While on, I saw This, I then asked my friend Noel if he would be down with have 2 random people stay with us, he said yes.
Adam, the guy who posted the thread on reddit, was contacted by a TL writer, Brandon AKA Atrioc, and a dude named Min contacted Adam as well, and before I went to bed I had 3 new numbers in my phone followed by "(reddit)"
Day 1: I’ve arrived
The first day was here, I was about to attend MLG Anaheim. The first thing I knew needed to be done was the purchasing of a silver sharpie. While buying the sharpie, I got a call from Brandon, He told me he was at the hotel. I bought the sharpie and we drove back. We parked the car and saw this dude with a funny looking rainbow bag and a suitcase, it was Brandon. He put his stuff in the hotel room and we were off. It was really cool meeting someone that I had only just come into contact with for the first time the night before. We made idle chit-chat and I found out that he wrote the TeamLiquid Dreamhack recap article, and had been there representing TL and had done a bunch of interviews, I was super jealous.
Jack in the Box 99c Tacos are the greatest things ever, deep-fried taco goodnees. We were on our way there when I got a call from Min and we went back to the hotel once more and met Min. He was a super chill guy, soft spoken, mature and composed. Again we were off to Jack in the Box for some NOMS. 10 tacos and 2 Jr bacons for Noel and I :D After we ate we were off to the Anaheim Convention Center.
Parking was 12 bucks... Not 12$ for the day but every time you left the venue...
After parking we walked to find the huge, huge, huge, HUGE line, like Disney Land during spring break level lines. We waited there for awhile, then Min and Brandon decided to go see what was up. They came back and told us that we could just walk right on in and skip the million hour line. BUT, BEFORE WE SKIPPED THE LINE:
I SAW LINDSEY "SPORECRAWLER" SPORRER!
After telling Min about my sighting he proceeded to chase her and get a picture, after doing so we skipped the line.
It must've taken at least a whole minute to walk from the end of the line to the front doors. Yes I did feel dirty for skipping the line, but then again, I'm glad I didn't have to wait for who knows how long to get in.
Right when I stepped into the venue I saw Liquid`Ret. I immediately walked over to him and said hello, that I was a fan, asked for a picture and walked away, all in a matter of 30 seconds. Only a few of the players and personalities did I talk to for more than a minute. The ones who I had brief encounters with I was nervous and starstruck, I didn't know what to say, Ret being the first case of this.
I went to go get in line and get my ticket and was then in the venue. It was dark and lit by blue neon light things and stage lighting up towards the stage. My first observation was about how effing massive the place was.
I realized that here in this place all of theses people were here for one thing, ESPORTS, whether it was Halo, CoD, or SC2. I knew these were my people, and I belonged with them. From then on I knew I wanted to attend every SC2 event that I could at all costs, watching tournaments with a few mates just wasn’t going to cut it anymore, I needed to be around hundreds -- thousands of others feeding of each others energy and love for the game.
We walked deeper into the venue and saw the "2nd Stage" where 4 players were set up playing some ladder games. The stage was probably elevated 2 or 3 feet off the ground and had nothing keeping fans back from the players, I could've given Sheth a wet-willy in that moment if I really wanted to.
We continued to walk around spotting more and more players and personalities that before then were only people and voices on my computer screen, I had a big banana grin the whole time.
Idra v Boxer:
Goodness gracious, what a match. These matches practically defined MLG Anaheim and created a shift in the metagame that made most Zergs never want to ladder again. The first map was Metalopolis, they spawn close air positions with Idra and the 7 and Boxer at the 10. Boxer opens with an early rax on the low ground, Idra spots it with one of his overlords, and the crowd goes nuts. Boxer is putting the early pressure and risque builds he is known for against Idra who hates none-standard shit more than anyone alive. The crowd waited in anticipation for what would happen next, would Idra fall to the early pressure or would he shut it down? As the game progressed we saw that the build Boxer was doing was well rehearsed with the timings to a T. As Boxer’s intentions of an elevator push became clear to the crowd fell completely silent, never before had we seen this exact build executed so perfectly. Idra fell to the Emperor on set 1 in what seemed to many a massive upset. Boxer ended up taking the match 2-0, doing the same strategy on Tal’Darim.
The result was highly unexpected! With Boxer having just dropped to Code B, and his shoulder injury, everyone expected Boxer to be the easiest Korean to beat, yet he 2-0’d arguably one of the best foreigners at the event. Everyone in the crowd was asking the same question: what can Zerg do to stop Blue Flame Hellions?
I spent most of the day watching the matches on the Main Stage, screaming, yelling, chanting, clapping for everything. When my butt couldn’t take it anymore I got up and wandered around to look for progamers and to watch the games on Stage 2. Later in the day Adam called me telling me that he had arrived at the venue after his long drive from Phoenix, AZ. I went and found him at the Dr Pepper booth, exchanged pleasantries and led him to where we were sitting.
The entire first day was a surreal experience. While watching the games on the Main Stage I would occasionally look around the crowd and think about the fact that all these people staring at the huge projector screens were there for the exact same reason, they loved ESPORTS. I would also remind myself that I wasn’t looking at my computer screen and watching the matches but I was in the same room as the players, I would look at the players in the player booths and tell myself “those guys in there right now are playing SC2 and I am watching their creation live on this large screen, with thousands of others, LIVE!” That in and of itself very nearly blew my mind.
We got back to the Motel Moonlight pretty late, and immediately went to bed. We decided that we would head to the venue around 1pm, thinking that matches didn’t start until then, but it was actually the pool play matches that started then and they were showing bracket play starting at 10am.
VIDEOS FROM DAY 1
+ Show Spoiler +
Day 2: NO SEATS ANYWHERE
Jack-in-the-Box again, their tacos are freaking good (I don’t know what to tell you if you don’t agree...) We arrived at the venue, pay 1 million dollars to park, and head inside.
This was a day of no seats. There were quite a few more people than the first day and because we arrived late we were out of luck. This was not necessarily a bad thing though, no seats meant that MLG couldn’t meet the demand. So many people standing, no sitting today, also no bringing in your own chairs. It was rough.
I complained a lot that day, I’ll admit it. But once we had been standing for 4 hours my legs started to go numb, and I was :D
Because there were no seats open at the Main Stage we spent a lot of time at Stage 2. I realized when watching Boxer v Cruncher how ridiculous Stage 2 was. The spectators were literally inches from the players. I was so close that it actually bothered me. I felt bad for the players, these matches they were playing were extremely important and I felt that they were probably uncomfortable and annoyed with the fans being as close as they were with so much on the line.
Day 2 was a day of manner, both good and bad. Idra played Cruncher on the main stage and stated once again (see TSL3) before the match that Cruncher would be an easy 2-0 because he was bad. This time he had his way, unlike TSL3, and wiped the floor with him. After the match Cruncher exited his booth and went over to Idra for a congratulatory handshake. Idra looked at him and walked off stage while Cruncher sat there with his arm out, "oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" was the sound heard from the crowd.
Idra Interview after defeating Cruncher
Idra being introduced in match against Cruncher
+ Show Spoiler +
Manner later came from Eternal Plague’s Gimix when he was matched up against White-Ra for the second time in the open bracket. To give the “insider” perspective on the story I must go back to Day 1. On Day 1 when I heard about White-Ra’s situation I was sad for him. Rumors had been spreading that White-Ra didn’t want to play the next day (because of his forfeit which put him in the losers bracket), when I heard this I made it my mission to find White-Ra and tell him that I wanted to see him play, as did many other fans. I eventually found him and told him how awesome he was and that I wanted him to play in the Losers bracket no matter how much it sucked. White-Ra went on to win the 2nd BO3 2-0, after having Gimix essentially forfeit the first two games.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PmEMF.jpg)
+ Show Spoiler +
I'm stage right, Noel is stage left
Noel later had the idea of going into the lobby of the venue to see what progamers we could find, and we hit the jackpot. Entering the lobby from outside was all of FXO. They were a really nice bunch and it was cool to just listen to them speak Korean as we got autographs and pictures. We were then heading to the restroom and ran in Incontrol and Idra exiting the venue. I made a stupid remark to Idra, got a picture, his autograph, and then was able to chat with Incontrol for a little. Geoff is one of the nicest guys in the business, he truly loves what he does, as well as the fans and the attention he gets.
I was exhausted by the end of the day with all the standing. Our group decided we would get there early on Championship Sunday so we could get good seats, so we went to bed early to get rest for the next day.
VIDEOS FROM DAY 2
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpEJqQW6vz4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ0GK59dUy4, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLIhggKNL6w, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wUrSF7RSJo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mftX2JigghY, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXbHQfHI58o, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8SMcc8IceQ,
Day 3: This is it
We arrived an hour early, and got seats for Myself, Noel, Adam, Min, and Brandon. We were very excited to get seats today and took turns leaving to go get food in pairs of two.
When Noel and I went to go get breakfast Brandon called me and said we needed to get back to the seats as soon as possible because they were starting to give “open” seats away. I was like “HELL NAW” and we rushed back with our Subway sandwiches, barely arriving in time.
During the first few games of the morning Mr Bitter and Husky were casting, and during one of the breaks Husky said “Sean is over at the StarCraft area and he wants you to come say hi” I immediately reached into my backpack grabbed my keyboard and ran over to where I thought the “StarCraft area” was, which ended up being Stage 2.
One of my main goals while at MLG was to meet Sean, he is one of my heroes and why I’m dedicating all the free time I currently have to ESPORTS. I was the happiest fanboy alive when I found Sean. He was standing there about 30 feet from Stage 2 with only one other fan closing in on him, his hand was on his chin in a pondering fashion as he watched the game, Incontrol v Tyler. He then noticed the first fan and signed what he had. Then said to me:
“Now, I’m going to have to take a break inbetween signing to watch the games” His hand returned to his chin and he continued watching for 10 seconds or so, then I asked if he would sign my keyboard he responded with “Wait, I can sign this keyboard?”
“Yes, only you and the Emperor”
“Oh, I am flattered, look I’m blushing”
He signed my keyboard and then I got a picture, I was the happiest fanboy alive, I was starstruck, I wasn’t even thinking, and by the time I had gotten my picture we were completely surrounded. In my state of starstruckness I moved away from Sean in a daze, I reached the outside of the large mob around him and realized that I didn’t even stick around to just listen to one of my heroes just speak, sounds really weird when written out, but I was truly sad that I left so quickly. I got to meet Sean and get a picture with him, so I was happy.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0qiaW.jpg)
Later Noel and I went to get “Lunch” at Subway, on our way beck we got a really special treat. At the the intersection by the Subway I we ran into the whole TL group: Jinro, Huk, Haypro, TLO, ret, Hotbid, Kennigit, and Xxio. Hotbid pointed out Noel’s ESPORTS shirt, and my TeamLiquid team shirt as well as both of our TL pins, and we started to talk with all of them. I got to talk to Jinro while waiting for two walking signals to let us walk, Didn’t talk much SC2, mostly about how he was feeling, if he was enjoying himself, stuff like that. He seemed to be the friendliest and most laid back guy of the bunch which I appreciated of Jinro and half expected. After splitting paths we got to let our fangirl giggles out.
Games I appreciated on Day 3:
White-Ra vs Select:
The crowd favorite White-Ra had worked his way through the brackets from Losers Ro1 to the final day of play, what a feat, of course everyone would be rooting for him, but for this set I would be cheering for one of my favorite players: SelecT.
One of the things I noticed at MLG was the bias that existed, whether it was bias between the players playing or bias between the ESPORTS going on. I should have expected it coming from a sports background myself, but for some reason I thought it might be different with ESPORTS. I thought because of how passionate we viewers and players are about what we love that there would be no restrictions, bias, or prejudice that existed at events like this, but alas this was not the case. The times when bias was most evident to me was during this match, Rain v Boxer, and Drewbie v White-Ra, and anytime the Halo crowd cheered load enough to disturb the oh-so-entitled SC2 fans. Now the only time the bias really upset me was when the SC2 fans got mad at the COD or Halo fan’s cheering, seriously, the fuck? This is MLG not SC2-ONLY-EVENT.
The series between Select and White-Ra was a close one, I cheered hard for both players but hoped Select would pull off the win, and indeed he did, 2-1.
Boxer vs Rain:
Introduction
+ Show Spoiler +
Holy balls... Talk about being thankful that we had seats for this set, more specifically the first game. The first game went over an hour on Metalopolis. I think the simplest way I can describe the atmosphere of the crowd during the game is to related it to a stadium full of soccer fans. In soccer the game doesn’t halt except for fouls and out-of-bounds calls. The game is constantly flowing and each time it seems as though a team will score the crowd begins to rise to it’s feet and let out a cheer, grunt, or moan, depending on the outcome of the strike.
The crowd of the Boxer v Rain game acted in the same fashion that the crowd of the soccer match would: cheering, grunting, and moaning every time it seemed the game was about to end.
The hour long game ended with superior positioning by Rain; Throughout the entire game Rain had slowly been pushing forward and eventually he was able to overwhelm Boxer, because of how drawn out the end of the game was the end crowd reaction was extremely dull.
I ended up recording the last 30min of this game watch if you want to see the crowd's reactions
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgixlAw74TU, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_4QjDGweso,
Boxer was able to easily take the next two games with Blue Flame Hellions, and move on to face MVP in the Winners bracket final, to whom he lost 2-0.
The MLG Anaheim Finals: MMA v MVP
The battle of acronyms, Terrans, Blue Flame, the returning champ against the newcomer. So many storylines were wrapping up with these games, and we could not have been more excited. Because MMA was coming from the Losers bracket he had to win two BO3s because of MLG’s Extended Series rule. (bleh extended series)
Because the Halo and CoD matches had come to an end, SC2 was being broadcast on all the screens. It was a beautiful sight. (Grats to Instinct for bossing it up at MLG Anaheim, going undefeated in all games the whole tournament)
The crowd was pumped, I was pumped, Sean and Marcus were pumped, this final was going to be fantastic. Both players were ready and in their respective booths. Large cheers erupted from the crowd during intros for both players, you could feel the energy and emotion racing through the venue.
MVP took game one, and MMA took the second. If MMA won the third game he would get another BO3 to try and retain his title, but, alas, he lost, and MVP was crowned the MLG Anaheim champion. (I apologize for the lack of content about the finals, no excuses will be made)
As both players emerged from their booths chanting started for both of them, they shook hands and it was time for the closing ceremony.
One of the coolest things about the whole experience was the closing ceremony, the crowd chanting “MVP MVP MVP” and even cheering for the runner up “MMA MMA MMA”. You could tell that they didn’t know how to react because they just kind of stood there awkwardly. Standing there clapping and chanting with thousands of other people was a highlight of mine, it felt so right... It was so right.
Closing Ceremony
Team Liquid Player Lounge
We stuck around inside the venue as long as we could but eventually made our way out. Brandon then surprised us all by saying that we could head up to the TL player lounge, and who were we to turn down such a great surprise.
We walked over to the hotel where the Player Lounge was and took the elevator up to the top floor (maybe it wasn’t the TOP floor but it was high), made our way down the hall and entered a room only to be greeted by all the Dignitas players, FXO players (Koreans included), vVv players, Quantic gaming players, as well as Tyler, Haypro and many other progamers.
In my head I was fanboying out, but because of the rules we were under I had to hold my fanboyism in.
We all ended up sitting down for a bit and chatting with people there. I ended up chatting with vVvTime, who turned out to be a really friendly guy and was also quite the chess player. I also talked to FXOChoya for a bit using FXOSlog as a translator, it was a super cool experience. We talked about his games and how during his match against Jinro his mouse acted up on him and he was upset about it, he didn’t complain about it during the game and ending up venting to Slog a little bit. I also learned his name in Korean, Hyung Seop, I had never heard “Seop” before so I had a hard time understanding the pronunciation because of his heavy Korean accent.
After talking with Choya I went and joined some people playing chess, Min and Time were playing to try and find the best player to play Joe, the host of the party. While watching the chess game there was a knock at the door, and once opened Huk entered and said “Sup bitches?!” behind him was the rest of the Liquid squad, Jinro was looking real fresh in his black dress shirt and shades.
A while later White-Ra entered and immediately went to the open bar and struck up conversation with Select and got a drink. After talking with Select for a bit he came over to where the chess game was going on and provided us with the in-depth analysis that only a Eastern European could. He would show moves and say what would happen next and tell us counters and laugh. We asked him to play but he said “No no, I no good at this chess.”
I ended up eavesdropping on a guy named Chris and someone else, they were talking about the growth of the industry and exchanging cards and such, that got me thinking about what I currently am doing for the industry, what I eventually want to be doing for the industry, and what I wanted to start doing to get there. When Chris and the other guy were done talking I stood up from my seat and introduced myself. He told me his story and I told him mine. Chris is a freelance writer for IGN and works on his own WoW related web comic, he was a super chill guy. The one thing he told me that I’ll never forget was “don’t worry if what you’re doing doesn’t get noticed, just keep doing it, keep helping what you love grow, also... make sure to post it on reddit/”
He told me this because at the time the only thing I was doing to help the industry was pay for VODs, but now I’m starting to do more and making ESPORTS my number one priority.
As the night went on players trickled in and trickled out. Chess was still a big hit with Joe playing Time, Joe would give analysis on the game and sometimes make comparisons to SC2 and ask Tyler or Hayder for their opinion.
Eventually it was time for us to leave, but before we did Brandon spotted this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cLkm1.jpg)
And that was the end of MLG Anaheim.
Things I learned:
1. Reddit is a great tool, not only for wasting massive amounts of time, but networking with others and making it possible for 3 people otherwise unable to attend to attend.
2. Progamers are people just like you and me, BUT they have put the time and effort into what they do that us casual players have not.
3. The players are stressed during the competition and many while competing do not like to be disturbed. I learned this most from Tyler whom I meet and spoke to on several occasions, he just wasn’t into the whole fan interaction while competing. At the after party he seemed to be in a much better mood.
I used to compete at the highest level of high school and college Cross Country and Track, being a top 5 recruit from my state in 2010. On competition day I did not like to talk to anybody but my teammates and coach, when anyone else approached me or tried to talk to me I was a complete jackass. Having this experience but not realizing how progaming was the exact same when it came to being a competitor until after the event made me realize how much of a pest I was to a lot of the players, always asking for pictures. I would even approach some players after they lost T_T. I want to apologize to all the players for not making the realization until after the fact, I apologize.
4. You don’t have to be Day[9], Tastosis, djWheat, JP McDaniel, a team manager, sponsor or player to contribute. Chris made me realize it’s not just about getting noticed or being popular but it’s about doing what you can, when you can.
5. I fucking love StarCraft and Progaming.
See you at Providence.
Photo album of MLG
+ Show Spoiler +
http://imgur.com/a/4PVNB
Much love to HappyMan, everyone in wellplayed irc, CSL casters and Tim, Team Liquid for being the first place I learned about SC, screddit for making laugh daily, and myself for staying awake for 33 hours to get this done before MLG Raleigh, while also crushing nerds on the ladder and watching GSL
edit: Added photo album
edit2: I meant Providence not Raleigh... lol
Anyways keep at it man!
