So BlizzCon 2011 was my first ever BlizzCon. I'm putting this blog together with some of my quick thoughts and a few photos. Right out of the door I'm going to say I was pretty disappointed with how SC2 was handled. It was nearly impossible to see non-featured stage matches, the stage matches they chose to show were questionable and there was always the issue with the maps in the back of my mind. The downtime between games led to a lot of boredom too at what was supposed to be the premier franchise event.
Day 1 It started out fairly promising. We walked in to a huge area filled with demo PCs, sponsor / vendor booths and a huge seating area for the stage. The line was really short so me and Hot_Bid hopped into a 1v1 HotS game. I went Zerg and teched up to try out the new Swarm Host and Viper. Hot_Bid meanwhile had gone Protoss and I had no idea what the new units were. As I was messing around with the Swarm Host, I started getting attacked by what I thought were my own Locusts, the tool tip for them said "Player 0" which I thought was maybe a bug, but it turned out the players are numbered 0 and 1 and HB had used the Replicant on one of my units. I was thoroughly confused for a good five minutes by this. We then messed around with air units, HB made a fleet of Oracles and Tempest and continuously denied my mining and then destroyed my entire muta ball in a few seconds. It wasn't really a serious game though, we were just messing around. I did miss the overseer, I felt like getting detection was suddenly a lot harder to do under pressure instead of just grabbing an overlord and upgrading it.
After the demo (time limited to 30 minutes) we headed down to the esports area where some games were already underway. The setup was a long desk next to a wall with chairs either side. This meant you couldn't even see half the players that were playing and there was no large display or anything - it was just watching their screen. Combined with the little standing room it was pretty much impossible to follow any non-stage game unless you were right at the front by the roped off area. MLG's open player area was way more accessible compared to what was at BlizzCon. It's also worth noting that this player area was almost crammed right into the back corner of the exhibition hall, the lighting was really dark and it made it incredibly hard to even get photos of the pros playing.
I caught one of the earlier rounds on the stage with Day9 and JP casting, the setup for the stage was really nice with five total screens, two situated half-way back so you didn't have to be right up front to be able to get a good view. The production quality of the stage matches was also very well done, they had great crowd shots, FPviews of each player, booth cams and well balanced audio. Outside of this however, the choices of what they showed on stage was incredibly weird. They have Korean pros who didn't get a single game aired during Day 1. Let that sink in for a minute. If you followed the bracket you will see there were several games where Nestea and MVP went 2-1, which would have made for way more exciting games than what they did end up showing. Showing LB matches when there are WB matches going on made no sense either.
Of course the big thing on Day 1 was the GSL Final. We actually decided to skip the first few matches and instead watched HerO play his WCG Korea Ro16 matches from the hotel room. He unfortunately fell out of the group going 1-2 after just barely missing a Nydus Worm in his main in the 3rd game.
After watching HerO, we went to the EG Friday Night Barcraft event. Apparently they were no longer letting people into the Blizzcon exhibition hall since it was so full - the crowd looked amazing, I really wish I could have gone earlier and got a feel for it in person. The barcraft was pretty packed with a good number of esports celebrities present. At this point I started drinking to drown out the sorrows of seeing HerO lose . The barcraft setup was a little odd as the main projector screen was set back in front of two columns of TVs showing sponsor logos on loop. The brightness from the TVs was contrasted pretty hard against the projector view and if you were sitting to the side you weren't able to see the full game screen. Props to their setup though, I didn't notice any lag or similar technical issues that usually plague barcraft events.
After the barcraft ended, a lot of people ended up leaving which I thought was a bit weird as the LO3 was supposed to be one of the main attractions too. I didn't really enjoy the LO3, it seemed rather loud and crude compared to normal shows and there wasn't really much time for them to do anything other than shave a few heads as the event closed down at 12:30am. Mingled at the Hilton bar for a few hours before calling an end to Day 1.
Day 2 Woke up early since we had an interview with Dustin Browder scheduled in the morning (which should be posted pretty soon right Kennigit?? ). I won't go into details as you should watch the interview, but it ended up being pretty good and we managed to ask all the questions that made it onto our list. After the interview we had to head back to the hotel to edit and post-process etc and grab lunch, by which time most of the other SC2 games had already finished. At this point the lines for the SC2 or Diablo III gameplay demos were stretching well outside the roped off areas so I wasn't able to get any more hands on time with either game. D3 looked pretty similar to the beta, although I saw some kind of PvP arena thing which I wasn't really that interested in (PvP in Diablo has always been kind of stupid since it's more based around equipment than skill).
I wandered around for a while trying to get some photos until the finals started. I luckily managed to find a seat near the back and watched one of the silliest final games I've ever seen. Yes I was amused and I enjoyed it but without going too much into the whole match fixing thing, Nestea definitely was not playing like a normal pro gamer would play Zerg with 15k resources banked. It left a bit of a bad taste knowing that they didn't really care about the match.
After grabbing a fancy IHOP dinner, we met up with a ton of other TL staff and users for the quickly-becoming-traditional games of mafia. I sat out the first few rounds, electing to ferry drinks up the room for myself and Sheth. The final game had the moderator try to stack the deck to make the mafia "dream team". I'm usually pretty quiet in Mafia games but after a few drinks, me and Ghostclaw were owning it up. Destiny ended up joining us and I was pretty sure he wasn't mafia since I was trying to get him to vote with me and Ghostclaw against other people. At the end of the round he told me he was going to kill me. And then he did . Luckily the remaining five people figured it out and we ended up winning. We played until 2am at which point we left to go to the airport and fly back to NYC. Then I wrote this blog!
It didn't really feel worth flying out for two days of Blizzcon. MLG seems to have it right - three days seems the perfect event length. IPL 3 felt a little too long at four days, but that might also have been the lack of interest in the first two group play days. Blizzcon definitely seemed short at two days though.
Overall it was a fun event, but definitely a lot less than I had anticipated. After the first few hours on the first day, lines for the demos became excruciatingly long and I didn't want to waste my time. For SC2 fans there wasn't really much else going on. I did wander over to the Diablo 3 section for a couple of hours, but again, outside of the actual gameplay there wasn't much in the way of activities. There were a lot of panels where they discussed design, artwork and other topics but I felt like there was missing stuff to actually do rather than just listen to. I barely even saw the SC2 progamers on the event floor, understandable I guess but outside of the signing with Liquid and SlayerS there wasn't much in the way of fans being able to interact with players. Don't even ask why the BW pros were there... didn't see them once the whole event.
Photo Gallery
On that note, BlizzCon really sucked for taking photos. The convention center was pretty dark, but the area where they had the SC2 pro-gamers set up was in some far back corner up against a wall making it even worse. It was nearly impossible to get a good angle let alone enough light for a good exposure. The stage was set up in such a way that you couldn't really get booth photos either due to parts of the stage, booth structure or camera equipment that was in the way. I took a few hundred photos overall but I wasn't happy with the vast majority of them which is why there's only a small sampling above.
Your camera is hardcore lol. Well, since you tried out a HOTS game with HB what do you think of it? It seems like you were getting owned though by the new toss units (Unfortunately, of course) <.< >.>
On October 24 2011 10:05 RogerX wrote: Your camera is hardcore lol. Well, since you tried out a HOTS game with HB what do you think of it? It seems like you were getting owned though by the new toss units (Unfortunately, of course) <.< >.>
It wasn't really a serious game, we were both mostly just testing stuff out. HB could destroy me any day in SC2 so it didn't make sense to try and get a feel for balance or anything. A lot of the stuff they showed probably won't make it into release. Wait for our DB interview to go up for some more about that.
Totally agree with the venue being too dark and having bad lighting. I too deleted a lot of my photos for that reason as well. Who was that bald guy with the TSL jacket? I saw him often over at the RTS stage, but didn't know who he was. If he's someone I should know, I'm sorry for being newbie and for failing. T_T
On October 24 2011 10:08 SpearWrit wrote: Totally agree with the venue being too dark and having bad lighting. I too deleted a lot of my photos for that reason as well. Who was that bald guy with the TSL jacket? I saw him often over at the RTS stage, but didn't know who he was. If he's someone I should know, I'm sorry for being newbie and for failing. T_T
On October 24 2011 10:05 RogerX wrote: Your camera is hardcore lol. Well, since you tried out a HOTS game with HB what do you think of it? It seems like you were getting owned though by the new toss units (Unfortunately, of course) <.< >.>
It wasn't really a serious game, we were both mostly just testing stuff out. HB could destroy me any day in SC2 so it didn't make sense to try and get a feel for balance or anything. A lot of the stuff they showed probably won't make it into release. Wait for our DB interview to go up for some more about that.
Alright sweet, I'm definitely looking forward to it. Great read
On October 24 2011 10:08 SpearWrit wrote: Totally agree with the venue being too dark and having bad lighting. I too deleted a lot of my photos for that reason as well. Who was that bald guy with the TSL jacket? I saw him often over at the RTS stage, but didn't know who he was. If he's someone I should know, I'm sorry for being newbie and for failing. T_T
Great write up R1CH!
That's Carmac from IEM. Damnit Naz, no sniping in my own blog .
Thanks for the writeup. I don't really understand most of the complaints. I think this Blizzcon was the best one they have ever had so far, and my only complaint was certain games not being streamed but I also didn't expect favoritism so I was ok with it. Hopefully next year's blizzcon is just as good. I guess there were more issues for the people actually there in person which is never good.
It was exactly like this last year, as well. Except that last year SC2 hadn't quite exploded in ESPORTS so you could actually stand a chance of meeting Tastosis and Day[9] and TLO and such and getting to briefly chat it up.
The biggest issue is that Blizzcon is about the convention and not just about the Invitational. They should probably do a lot more to support the Invitational as a nearly independent event like GSL that just happens to take place at Blizzcon, but I think they just treat it as a something extra that happens while you do other conventiony things.
On October 24 2011 10:18 Torte de Lini wrote: Does the viper need additional tech after lair to be made or what? Is it morphed from a queen or something?
Lastly, does it have detection or you can only give it? awesome pictures, I see some familiar faces in the mafia photos.
David Kim just told me it comes at lair. It definitely doesn't require spire, but I don't know other than that. You would have to assume just lair as DT timings would become way to powerful otherwise. There have been so many threads calling certain units useless, broken, etc. when the game isn't even in the beta phase. Beta for WoL had several units that got taken out, completely remodeled, and nerfed. I'm impressed with the current state (for an alpha) and I think the release will give me some motivation to play again.
Thanks for the write-up! When you started discussing teching up to see new units I was expecting a HB cannon-rush with the new attacking pylon thing :D Ah well, sounds fun anyways!
On October 24 2011 10:30 boesthius wrote:If you only play SC, you're going to be massively underwhelmed. The tournaments are cool, but unless you have a shitton of people to hangout with you're going to be finding yourself with a lot of downtime. If/when I go next, I'm probably just going to go to hangout with ESPORTS people and not even buy a ticket :x
I agree. I usually have a great time at Blizzcon but it's because I go with a good group of friends and get to see people I only do at Blizzcon and E3. It isn't great if you're totally solo. You also need to manage expectations of how much there is to do there, because there isn't really a lot compared to most conventions outside of developer panels and playing the demos.
Starcraft 2 matches definitely need to be scheduled better. I believe that Blizzard wants to give equal time and showing on the main stage to everyone, which means that players you've never heard of get stage time while amazing players with huge fanbases get skipped. It is a nice sentiment but the fans don't really care about that, they just want to watch great games from players they know are great.
To be fair, MLG also has problems with showing all the games I want to see, but that is the product of having so many players grinding out so many games. At least MLG is trying to remedy that with increasing to four streams now.
If you treat Blizzcon more like a party with some live Starcraft 2 in the mix, it's a great time, but you have to be ready to make your own fun with friends and afterparties and such. If you just depend on the convention itself it kind of isn't worth the money IMHO.
I don't want to be too negative btw, I had an amazing time watching the finals on both days. The crowd was by far the most electric of any live SC2 event I've been to so far. Diablo 3 Deathmatch was also incredibly fun.
omg im jealous mafia was lots of fun at ipl. by the way I was the blue shirt guy there on saturday night (i believe) with luckyfool. I will be at providence hopefully there will be mafia there, u guys can count me in ^_^
I finally got lucky Blizzcon 2011 was my first year as well and my legs are still sore. For me, I didn't actually enjoy the panels too much. They felt really bland. What I did enjoy and ended up doing for the most part was running back in line so I can play Heat of the Swarm and Blizard Dota over and over again.
One thing that did bother me about Blizzcon was at Heart of the Swarm panel Q&A, no one asked questions about Battle.net like LAN connection, watching replays with friends, clan support, etc and by the time it was nearing my turn, there was no more time.
Another thing that bothered me was the translator for Blizzard Starcraft tournament. The translator had no idea what the hell he was talking about and was basically making it up as he went. It may not be a big deal for most of you guys but as a Korean it made me die a little bit inside... and maybe for milkis too. Basically in the interviews, the players were basically saying that they practiced and worked hard to get to the position they were currently in. They were mostly modest and said that they were gonna try their best to show great games... not destroy the other guy and make him look like a total noob. Also, they didn't "expect" the crowd to cheer for them, they wanted them to.
What Nestea actually said in the finals was that MVP doesn't know what it's like to be Zerg and if he played Zerg, he would never make it to the finals (and how easy Terran is). Also, Nestea also said that if he played TERRAN (NOT ZERG), he would win the tournament 10 times in a row or something along those lines.
Anyways these are my 2 cents about Blizzcon, overall enjoyed although I thought it was too expensive. The Blizzcon tournament and GSL finals were one of the best games I have ever seen and it was so much better being the middle of the crowd and cheering and...
On October 24 2011 10:02 R1CH wrote: After grabbing a fancy IHOP dinner
I must be a fatty since SC2 IHop seems like the highlight of this story. Screw Barcraft, I want IHop....craft.
Anyway very interesting. I always felt that since Warcraft 3 and BW were removed from Blizzcon that somehow the event had lost some of it's importance. After all, for those two games Blizzcon was really one of two major tournaments that foreign players could really shine in an international setting. I've never gone though so it's sort of interesting to hear you say that MLG seems like a better tourney.
On October 24 2011 12:45 Grettin wrote: Carmac likes to carry everyone. Great write-up, thanks!
You can tell when he is about to do it to someone too if you know what to look for, not going to reveal his secret though . Actually pretty surprised I got that picture since he did it in the dark area next to the pro-gamers, ended up being a 1/4 sec exposure. Yay IS!
Overall it was a fun event, but definitely a lot less than I had anticipated. After the first few hours on the first day, lines for the demos became excruciatingly long and I didn't want to waste my time. For SC2 fans there wasn't really much else going on. I did wander over to the Diablo 3 section for a couple of hours, but again, outside of the actual gameplay there wasn't much in the way of activities. There were a lot of panels where they discussed design, artwork and other topics but I felt like there was missing stuff to actually do rather than just listen to. I barely even saw the SC2 progamers on the event floor, understandable I guess but outside of the signing with Liquid and SlayerS there wasn't much in the way of fans being able to interact with players. Don't even ask why the BW pros were there... didn't see them once the whole event.
This is pretty much how I felt when I first went to Blizzcon. If you only play SC, you're going to be massively underwhelmed. The tournaments are cool, but unless you have a shitton of people to hangout with you're going to be finding yourself with a lot of downtime. If/when I go next, I'm probably just going to go to hangout with ESPORTS people and not even buy a ticket :x
My Blizzard event participation has consisted solely of debauchery lol.
EPT
. The barcraft setup was a little odd as the main projector screen was set back in front of two columns of TVs showing sponsor logos on loop. The brightness from the TVs was contrasted pretty hard against the projector view and if you were sitting to the side you weren't able to see the full game screen. Props to their setup though, I didn't notice any lag or similar technical issues that usually plague barcraft events.
. Luckily the remaining five people figured it out and we ended up winning. We played until 2am at which point we left to go to the airport and fly back to NYC. Then I wrote this blog!![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4OVZk.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9tWsZ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KpMli.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/R1CH/BlizzCon11/thumbs/_MG_7546.jpg)
(Unfortunately, of course) <.< >.>
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/R1CH/BlizzCon11/_MG_7541.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VOS8G.png)
