EPT
I arrived on Wednesday evening. I actually just moved into my apartment Monday and Tuesday right before, so I completely forgot to get a haircut so that was on my mind the entire time Wednesday. I tried to get a haircut before going to the airport but that idea fell through as half the hair places around were closed for some odd reason (vacations and not open that early, wtf).
Anyway, I arrive and one of the MLG staff members (Tommy) picked up me and another staff member that was on the same flight as me. There seems to be some running joke about me failing to recognize other MLG staff members who are on the same flight as me. Oh well. Anyway, we arrive and after checking in I ask the hotel lobby where I can get a haircut and after getting a recommendation I head out. I run into Tasteless and Artosis at the hotel entrance, say hi and meet each other in real life for the first time for the second time.
Sadly the hair salon I went to was fully booked for the day (T_T) and since I needed to get the haircut on Wednesday (mostly because I suck and thought the Koreans were arriving at Noon and not at 4 PM), I started searching the area for a barber shop or another hair salon. Except it turns out every hair salon was closed (FML) and every barber shop I walked into some how managed to be the shadiest barber shop I've ever seen (it must have gotten progressively worse). I walk into the starbucks to see if I can leech wifi and then I actually find out that Raleigh has free internet downtown. So I use that to find the most decent barber shop (Has positive google reviews) around that's walking distance and not closed. I find out, and I get a haircut except it ends up being a lot shorter than I had expected so I panic IM a few people. ANYWAY...
I get the haircut and then it's about dinner time and I sit in the downtown square area again to look for a good place to eat. I soon find out Nazgul and few of the TL members are already in. Sjow also joined us for dinner. There was some discussion about Nazgul not liking his dark beer (but ended up getting a second later!) and TLO getting serious about beer. We eat and I head back and then stuff happens and I end up at the bar with Adam (MLG SVP) and Tastosis and other MLG staff. Adam of course cracking lots of joke about how sad he is that I haven't accepted the offer yet and then we end up with jokes about trying to get me drunk off cola (since I'm not drinking this year).
And so the next day the first thing I remember is that I got an amazing roast beef sandwich at this cafe for lunch. After that I get in touch with DRG and I head to his hotel room and meet up with him, Noblesse, and Kevin (MVP's translator). I buy them some beverages after hearing about their plight and then I tell them to buy their stuff at the supermarket because it'll be cheaper and such and it turns out we've walked the wrong direction like twice while trying to get there. I eventually have to leave them to get to the Hotel since I needed to pick up the GSL invites at the airport. If there were other adventures related to that I'm not aware of them :p
Alyssa and I head to the airport and pick up the Koreans and we run into Kiwikaki and Slush and a few other MLG staff members (one of them was particularly noob, I remember. Pretty chobo I guess...). Eventually the Koreans show up and know we are waiting as they see my laptop rotating their team logos ;p. The first thing I asked Bomber and Trickster about is their team logos and what they think of it and some of the choice comments from the TL thread responses about it. I was kind of sad their jersey logos haven't changed yet. On the shuttle ride (joined by Kennigit and qxc) back I explain to them the MLG rules including extended series and such, and then I tell them some of the stuff that came up in the 1.4 patch. There's some discussion regarding that and overall they're pretty amused by the Immortal range change. Bomber talks about how all the builds are going to change and Trickster tells him that that's how it was a long time ago for Brood War too. They then talked about their pools and then we end up making it back.
We ate dinner at Sono. Nada and Coca got the nigiri set, Trickster got this shrimp dish, Bomber got Udon. Trickster and Bomber actually got the soup of the day and they couldn't drink it at all and the taste of that soup actually haunted them for the entire event since we went back to the same restaurant on sunday and they were reminded of it. Liquid joined us on a table next to us near the end of our meal so we said hi. On the way back we run into Day9 and Husky as they walk towards CVS to buy a deoderant and we wanted to join them cause we needed to go to the convenience store to buy water and stuff anyway. Turns out the CVS closes at like 6 PM or something ridiculous and Day9 almost looked like he got scandalized. The Koreans go up to rest and so I join Day9 and a few others at the bar and I basically watch Day9 eat his pizza. It was more entertaining than I had expected.
Next day we wake up, grab hotel buffet for breakfast and head to the venue slowly. Apparently NaDa thought I was older than him T___T. We grab omelettes and Trickster ends up getting this omelette with every vegetable (he likes vegetables) and he told us later that that was his most favorite meal. Anyway, we end up at the venue around 11, we do the usual tour and then the Koreans warm up. NaDa ends up playing a UMS (something like nexus wars) with his GF and the rest of them plays games on the KR servers warming up. DRG at this point apparently was waiting outside (he had to wait with the rest of the people to get in for some reason). He said he would dominate everyone and win it all because he was jealous of the GSL invited players as a joke as he waited outside.
Eventually the venue opens and Koreans do their signing (this is why you need a Gold pass btw, since the lines get so long that we always have to cut it off in the middle). DRG and I chatted a bit while the Koreans signed (he was like "why isn't anyone asking me for autographs?" and I ask him if he wanted to be up there and he responds "NONONONONO"). Amusing part was that people asked me for autographs ;;. So everytime someone asked me for an autograph I shielded myself by saying DRG is next to me so you should ask him instead and I joked about how I should have him around the entire time so I can shield myself like this (I actually pulled this off a few times with other progamers like Huk)
The games soon started and Bomber vs Idra ended rather simply with a cool gg from Idra. I actually made it a point to watch a few games with the players at the front row so I'm sure you guys caught me and one of the players quite often watching. DRG lost to Trickster and he took the losses really hard overall this tournament. I told him to watch out for Void Rays after he was over it a bit. Bomber after his match against Sjow he was pretty amazed and told me that Sjow's TvT was code S level quite a bit surprised
I also got to watch Coca play and he dismantled his group which was pretty scary to watch actually since he was really quiet and shy but in game he was pretty monstrous. Coca at the end was hungry after his final games and nearly everything was closed at that point. He wanted a hamburger and I started looking for people who could make a run to Mcdonalds for me. Hazelynut didn't have any people she could boss around to get Coca a burger sadly so I had to look around for a bit and while I was talking with Lee near the feature station I ran into Antoine who saved the day by making the McDonalds run and delivering that BigMac to Coca. You too can save esports like that! Meanwhile, I learned that hazelynut was planning on killing esports with Kpop and as you all know by now Kpop kills esports.
So the next day we grab hotel buffet for breakfast again and they head to the venue a bit early. They practice warm up and then get on with their games. Saturdays are always pretty quiet during MLGs. I caught Hero writing TL with Pylons (apparently it was lowercase!) and it was pretty cool. DRG and CoCa watched one of the games with me and at one point a female fan comes out to Coca and compliments him and after that DRG was super duper jealous. DRG has this phrase where he says "Ah... But I'm Park Soo Ho (his Korean Name)" and this was another occasion where he used that phrase ;p. Trickster and Coca had a pretty hard time cause of their match times were really late/spread out.
Oh, I actually ran into Alex Garfield. He's actually just as longwinded as I expected him to be. The first thing he did was apologize rather profusely (I kept saying "Yup, it's cool" and he kept going "No! Really! I'm really sorry about that!"). Pretty nice guy overall and we ended up having some entertaining converations. I must have made the business card joke like three times when he was lurking around the player lounge area. Also, the dynamics between Slasher and AG was pretty hilarious. When we interviewed Puma and Slasher and AG were talking, Puma was like "ARE THEY FIGHTING? WHY ARE THEY FIGHTING?" and I told him they were just joking around and Puma was like "oh okay". He's also pretty real about his own team (then again he was at the main stage whenever a EG player was playing). I asked him how Idra was doing and he responds "He needs to go to Korea".
Anyway, that was Saturday. Not much other than that other than I was supposed to be talking with Adam regarding this entire thing except he was too busy talking with the ladies so I left him alone and hang around with Rekrul and Boesthius and others instead ;p
And then came Sunday. All the players were there super early (like 8 AM) to practice. My original prediction was that it'd be something like DRG > Bomber and Puma > Coca and DRG > Puma. I actually talked about this with DRG a bit on Saturday and he was fairly confident (although he gave himself a 50/50 chance against Puma) although he whined about maps and how it's so bad for Zerg since xelnaga is a terrible map for DRG. DRG was pretty much thinking about how he'd beat Puma in Winner's Finals with Xelnaga being the first map on Saturday night. I changed my mind on who the winners would be after seeing Bomber and Coca already there, Coca practicing with MMA and Bomber telling me that he's prepared some awesome builds and told me that the matches would be entertaining (He also asked me later telling me "Did you want DRG to win?"). At this point I'm sure we all know what happened in one of the biggest thrashings I've seen in TvZ. Bomber had a pretty good reason for it all though.
Bomber is actually a player I'd describe as cool, collected, and calm. When he says something there's some weight to it. His personality is also like a steel knife. He watched NaDa vs Puma taking notes on the players playstyle on Saturday I believe although he missed Coca vs Puma because we had to get lunch. He was watching Coca vs DRG later to figure out what builds he was going to use. He told me that he likes preparing builds like that the most to figure out how the series was going to go.
Puma and DRG took their losses badly (to Coca and Bomber respectively) though. DRG was pretty sad and Puma was on the computer across from him and when he saw me he was like "Where's the nearest river near here" [he's jokingly saying he wants to throw himself into a river] and joked with DRG how they should go together. Noblesse was such a cheerful kid throughout and he helped turn the mood from being a funeral. Such a nice kid, he should have more fans. [Dear complexity: please bring him back. When I got him to do an AMA later, he said that he'd win the next MLG because he said it was unlikely he'd get a chance to come back so he could get away with saying something like that]. Some comments were made about how Bomber's name stands for "Mule Bomber".
Nada in the meanwhile... someone I know described him as an "Innocent Kid who cares about the game a lot". That is a really good description of him. He's so carefree, so nice, and not much seems to affect him. He's so cool and so nice. Does not seem to judge at all but only cares about the game. I caught the end of the NaDa - Puma extended series right in front of the stage and I got such chills when he beat Puma, went to the front of the stage and said "I AM NADA!". Such an amazing moment. So happy I got to see it so close !_!
Anyway, the event ends, although the event felt like it ended a lot quicker and the awards ceremony was really really quick. Some comments about that. Reis takes an awesome polaroid picture with all of us backstage. We end up back at the hotel and on the way back NaDa was commenting on how he's the only one who lost to DRG and the rest of them beat DRG. Some jokes and then Bomber explains to Nada the secret to DRG's play. We end up back at the hotel and after finding out there's no MLG party Coca Bomber and Trickster and I go to Sono for dinner (Nada passed for some reason). While waiting for the table I touch people's hair and when I touch qxc's he threatens me that he'll break my arm and suck up my blood so he can learn Korean. Wheee! We eat dinner and pick up Puma along the way and we end up at Bomber's room. Puma takes all the Korean food Bomber brought. Some interesting conversations and then I head down and join the crowd.
I spend most of my time talking with DRG and I even get him to do an AMA on reddit, and later on Noblesse and Puma. (The rest of the Koreans were asleep pretty early... kind of bad since their flights got moved to Tuesday). One of the MLG staff members kept trying to learn weird phrases in Korean and DRG taught them and the guy kept yelling them out to people. He said something to Huk and Huk swore at him in Korean (which was adorable btw). Soon after that the staff member just yelled out random korean insults to Koreans whenever he saw them and they were all like "NOOOO" and such. Was pretty amusing. I tell DRG and Noblesse to meet at 8:30 At the lobby so we can go to the airport and I head to sleep.
Turned out DRG overslept and I waited like 40 minutes before heading to the airport (he woke up like 5 minutes after I left sadly). I ran into him at the airport and saw him off and then got on my plane... and it turned out Day9 and Husky was on the same flight and had a transfer in Chicago. I meet up with them and I see them off and then I headed home, grabbing Chipotle on the way.
Overall Raleigh was a bit "quiet" and "quick" compared to the other MLGs (although at the same time it felt like I was there for a lot longer since I was there since Wednesday. The hurricane was unfortunate and bomber was quite sad about that because he expected a bigger crowd overall but the hurricane made that difficult. He's excited for Orlando though -- he commented on how he already thought of winning back to back.
And so that's MLG Raleigh. Finally got to meet some really cool people I only knew online (sup Antoine, hazelynut, Boesthius, Nazgul) and got to run into others that I've met before once again which is always a pleasure. Hopefully I see all of you guys again in Orlando
Also, feel free to ask me anything and I'll try to answer if I can :O
