EPTI started playing starcraft 2 around 6 months ago and shortly after I got interested in the starcraft community and would browse the TL forums and watch player streams when I had a chance. This is actually my first post here on TL, and I wanted to make it count.
Living in northern New Jersey, IPL 3 was the perfect event to attend. To be honest, other than my other friend Bob who came on Friday, I did not know ANYONE else going to this event.
I came in on Thursday late morning, just around the time of opening ceremonies to pick up my pass. I had a platinum pass and when I picked it up, I mentioned something about a possible upgrade that Playhem and what do you know? Upgrade to diamond pass! In all honestly though, the seating areas were not too enforced anyways.
I decided to watch more of the open bracket games rather than the pool play games since so many games were going on at once and I was able to be closer to the action. Also the AMD area that had Battlefield playing was a good area just to play some Starcraft and meet people. I met some of the Diamond/Masters playing up there so it was pretty cool.
All the pros I met that day were all very nice and personable.
I also watched a couple matches they had broadcasted in the open bracket (Minigun vs Incontrol and Trimaster vs Spanishiwa) I left to go gamble for a few hours since I had to check in to the Taj (20 minute walk) and came back around the time open bracket matches were done for the day. I went to check out the Live on 3 show. There I met TheGunRun (everyone that uses Justin.tv pretty much knows him) and Team AZK, the team that Violet the Korean joined. I suppose the fact I was Filipino made initial conversation easy haha. We all then went to the Wild West Bar which was filled with pros, staff, and other personalities at the event. I was able to talk to Mr. Chae from Gom.TV for a while and a couple of cool staffers.
Friday was another eventful day. I just managed to wake up on time to see more Open Bracket matches. Unfortunately this was when the internet was down for a while so not too much was going on. However, I did see Boxer and Huk playing Brood War since that game has LAN abilities... unlike SC2. I saw a couple other people playing BW as well, like Catz and Socke. During this time, I was able to meet Spanishiwa and even talked to him for an extended period of time. He mentioned to me that he had to play his teammate Vile.State in order to qualify for the Championship Bracket. I even helped him with a strategy he would have done if there was a need of a third game. It was funny because he kept having to look around making sure State wasn't around. Let me just say it was a very well thought out strategy. Oh and here is one of the pics I took of Spanishiwa practicing... and staying disciplined while doing so.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JhTBm.jpg)
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Since there was so much time due to the lack of internet. I actually was able to get lunch with team Spanishiwa and the rest of team Vile that was there (State, HasHe, and their manager). When internet returned I watched more open bracket matches, and of course, I watched Spanishiwa vs State. Luckily he didn't need the secret strategy and beat State with a nice zergling/bane drop in his main and a solid push in the second match.HasHe almost made the Championship bracket too, but unfortunately he lost to EG.Machine.
Randomly during that day, I overheard Catz talking to a random guy and he said, "You must be a Destiny fan right?" The guy had no idea what to say, and Catz pretty much said he looks like Destiny a little and wanted to be a copy cat? haha
My friend Bob then arrived so I hung out with him for a bit. We met up with his friend, who is actually TheMango and got food. After going around the venue some more we met up with a lot of TheMango's people, which included a lot of people from TL and the people who help head up the CSL. This is when we did crazy games of Mafia. I can't even explain how funny and even intense some of the games were.
Saturday was another great day! Since I was cool with Spanishiwa, I checked out the Open Bracket area because his match was there. Half of the other 1st round matches in the Championship bracket were there too so I got to see some great games. Spanishiwa had a tough match vs Thorzain and lost 0-2. I went over and also saw DeMuslim's loss to Ret and Violet beating Strelok.
I later saw hung out with the crew from Vile and then went over to the player's lounge area where State wanted to ladder so I just watched the IPL stream of the championship bracket matches since I was a little lazy to go to Caesars. I was watching the stream with Violet and Thorzain which was cool. This was the time of the crazy Stephano vs Kiwikaki match that everyone was so into. I got to talk to them for a while and they even showed me around the backstage area later. Thorzain was a very nice person to speak to.
I then later went to dinner, Bob, TheMango, and more of the TL people, even Spanishiwa randomly joined the crew. There was some baller out there who got the check for us. He did not have to do that, but he was soooo nice to pay the bill.
So after dinner and watching more matches, what happens?!? MAFIA again! haha. And man, there were over 20 people at one point playing, we even had to split the game up into two different groups. Sheth was there playing as well, he was a natural at the game. Unfortunately, that first game he played the town lost, (I was a cop that game) and Sheth was next to me. During the game, Sheth says during one of the discussions that he is the cop. In my head, I'm like. WTF?!? Then he goes and whispers to me, not knowing I was a cop and tells me he is metagaming everyone! LOL! At the end of this crazy game, it was two townspeople and 1 mafia, with Sheth being a townsperson. I have NO IDEA WHAT THIS RANDOM GUY WAS THINKING, but he decided to KILL SHETH, and the town LOST THE GAME.. This was one of the very few games that the mafia actually won.
Okay after hours of mafia again. Championship Sunday! Unfortunately for me since I slept late I did not wake up till around noon. I missed Idra beat Thorzain and Violet losing to Stephano
. The rest of the matches I watched of course. Notably, Inori is a great PvP player, sucked Idra lost to the STC, and Stephano played great that day. He pretty much rolled through the Semifinals and Finals against Koreans in the end beat 4 Koreans in the championship bracket. Crazy. It makes me think though how Kiwikaki could have done if he got through Stephano. He played really well in that match.Once championships were finished, it was time for the afterparty! The afterparty was awsome. Thanks TwitchTV for hosting it! Having free drinks is great TwitchTV! Props for having the almost $3500/$4000 tab for everyone just to party and drink. I saw some great epic karaoke singing from SelecT, Catz, TheGunRun, and Dennis who I met as well.
I was able to meet many of the other staffers from IPL there too. Joshy was a incredibly chill guy to talk to, and many people were always surprised who I introduced myself as, since my name "Nobel" is not a common name. A lot of people actually thought I was a staffer/player too. I guess because I was able to meet the right people early on and hang around the players and staff a lot. There was a random funny moment I remember when I was talking to Joshy and Trimaster came by. Trimaster looked drunk and Joshy told him "GET OUT OF THE BAR!" (jokingly of course) but then Trimaster actually leaves the bar...LOL. I troll Joshy saying he's such a mean guy, since I know Joshy also represents Complexity.
The night still was not over, of course we need to play Mafia! haha. Professional guest that night was Spanshiwa. The last game I played, Spanishiwa was Mafia and he almost won. He died on the last turn... thank god.
Monday I snuck some gambling since it is Atlantic City and then headed home.
Considering the fact that I only knew ONE person, my friend Bob, and then was able to meet so many pros, TL staff, and other great people. I say this was a very memorable weekend.
I have so many shoutouts I can't even begin. Pretty much everyone I already found on Facebook and the great IPL staff, TL staff, and pros at the event. I need Sheth to metagame Mafia again and play again with all the crazy good TL mafia players.
And like I said again, this is my first post here on TL. Hope I made it count!
-n00beLeT
