EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/S8cvN.jpg)
Gold membership, oh yeah!
HuK Encounter
As we were walking back to our hotel Saturday night we were discussing why HerO used the proxy 2 gates in HuK's base after he was down by one game. I thought it would have been better if he had played a very safe game but Phil thought it was because he didn't think he could beat HuK in the lategame. As we were discussing this, we came up to a crosswalk and waiting to cross was a group of people including HuK! I turned to Phil and said, "Well I guess we can just ask him!" Of course we didn't and we walked silently behind HuK into our hotel and then we let him get on the elevator before us because it was crowded and all three of us would not fit. And I told him good game. He seemed tired.
HuK Hi-jinks
Something else funny that HuK did this weekend: When he was playing HerO, there was a long pause before the first game started. HuK was in his booth messing around, getting his music set up, etc. Then, I guess because he was bored, he first installed Firefox (crowd loved it), and then went to the Liquipedia Strategy section and looked up this page: (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/4_Warpgate_Rush). He was highlighting text and scrolling around like he was really reading it. The crowd went nuts. It was really funny. Then after he won the first game against Naniwa, he went to find this picture (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=208834¤tpage=53) and had that up on his screen! After that the powers that be hid his screen behind ads until the game started. Sadly HuK lost the next two games but it was too late … he had made that Naniwa photo his desktop background!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pRZks.jpg)
I promise this is HuK - he's just hidden behind the monitor.
HayprO
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DExig.jpg)
HayprO begins his streak of awesome Sunday morning at booth “A.”
It was super fun to watch HayprO play on Sunday. Sunday morning started with him taking out Illusion after Illusion had defeated Sheth the night before. There were not many of us watching this game but it was fun nonetheless.
Next HayprO took out SeleCT with very impressive games.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kmkYZ.jpg)
SeleCT is like, "What?"
After that he faced KiWiKaKi and NesTea, both sets of which I did not watch because I really like KiWiKaKi and there were too many people over there by the time he was playing NesTea. Eventually HayprO went on to play MVP at the Alienware stage. I got to stand one person behind the stage in the front of a huge crowd of people. The first game was great; we were all rooting for HayprO and cheering for him. When he crushed MVP with his massive numbers of brood lords we all went nuts. After this game TLO showed up; we told him he missed the awesomeness. He was so nervous for HayprO that his hands were shaking. Throughout game two many other notable people showed up, including Nazgul, Jinro, Hot_Bid, and Gretorp. After game two we started to chant “HayprO HayprO” and then TLO had us do “1 … 2 … 3 … HAYPRO FIGHTING!” HayprO turned out such good games against MVP it was crazy. Even though he lost he had moments when he almost almost almost broke thorough MVP’s tanks and thors in the third game. It was great to see his team supporting him along with the many fans. I am a new HayprO fan after seeing all those games on Sunday.
The sign signings
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gSpex.jpg)
The sign before it got to MLG.
The first person that I got to sign my sign was TLO on Friday evening. He had just finished playing at the Alienware stage and there were a few people waiting to get his autograph. I asked him to sign my sign and he said ok and that was about it … I didn’t really know what to say that others had not said. Sorry TLO if I seemed really awkward!
Friday night I was sitting in the crowd watching the games on the main stage when Ret came and sat a few rows in front of me in the VIP section. In between one of the games I went up to him and asked him to sign. He did, of course!
On Saturday both Sheth and HerO were playing on the Alienware stage. Sheth got done first, and I snagged his signature there. Thanks Sheth for being so nice! I’m afraid I was awkward here again, not knowing what to say. TT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ONDG1.jpg)
I found HerO after he had played on the Alienware stage. He was soooo shy and cute. He was walking out of the crowd and I approached him and asked him to sign. There was no good place to put the poster so I just turned around and let him sign it on my back. When he was done I gave him a little bow and said good luck and he gave me a little bow and a tiny grin back. Super cute.
Saturday I was watching Jinro play in the open bracket and HayprO came up behind me. I asked him to sign and again he signed it on my back. Then I said, “It’s like Pokemon, gotta catch ‘em all.” He chuckled and said “You still have to get Jinro and Tyler.” I said “Jinro’s playing and I don’t want to ask Tyler.” He said “Yeah Tyler’s hard to get.” Then I told him good luck and went back to watching Jinro.
Sunday morning I was watching HayprO defeat Illusion and snagged Nazgul just before he left to watch another match.
Finally, I got Jinro to sign as HayprO was beginning his second match against MVP on the Alienware stage. I said “Can you please sign this before the action gets going?” He was very nice and said sure and signed the sign.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1VKpy.jpg)
My e-famous TeamLiquid sign! Complete with signatures!
I did not ask Tyler for an autograph on my TL sign even though I walked past him about 6-7 times. I respected his wishes not to bother him. (See? I pay attention during State of the Game.) Therefore I have all other TL members’ signatures except for his (and Zenio now I guess). Tyler, my birthday is coming up in December … so is Christmas!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OGIs1.jpg)
Tyler, this space is for you!
Getting Interviewed
Saturday morning, I was making some signs with the Girls of Starcraft. A couple people wanted to take our pictures etc, but one group asked to film us. We said sure and asked who they were. Turns out they were making the Sons of Starcraft documentary about Tasteless and Artosis. This was great because I had made a sign on pink posterboard about Artosis having a baby girl that read “Baby Tosis We Approve.” The “O” in Tosis I turned into the women symbol. Then Sunday morning when I was watching HayprO beat Illusion I was asked to do a quick interview because of my TeamLiquid sign. I talked about why I made the sign, who I had got to sign it, and what got me into Starcraft II. I shamelessly plugged Day[9] and teamliquid.net. The funny thing about this interview was the guy misread Liquid’Ret as Liquid’HuK and I had to correct him and say, no that’s not HuK that’s Ret …
After HayprO lost to MVP I was standing around after the big crowds left the Alienware stage because I was hoping for a sighting of Tyler. A lady with a mic came up to me and asked to do an interview for NPR. I love NPR and so I said sure! She asked me about my sign and I explained it and talked about wanting to get Tyler’s signature to complete the poster. Again I shamelessly plugged Day[9] and teamliquid.net. This was a longer interview and I tried to explain the awesomeness of Starcraft II and why it is so popular. I defended my support of the game and the players and compared it to the support of any Red Sox or Patriots fan who will religiously watch their team and their favorite players. I explained how intense the game is and how much practice it takes to be really good. I tried to be a good ambassador for ESPORTS and SC2 in general. I hope I did a good job!
Note: This interview should be on a show called Only a Game (http://onlyagame.wbur.org/) this coming Saturday. I guess the show is aired early Saturday morning, but they do have a podcast so make sure to check that out and give them all the ESPORTS love they can handle.
Overall Experience
This was my first MLG and I had a great time. I would have liked to hang out with people on a more social level but I was so tired in the evenings it would not have been much fun to go out. If I go again I will try to adjust to “gamer time” and stay up late and play some mafia and have some drinks with cool people. I thought the venue was great, though of course lacking in chairs.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/37tMf.jpg)
What a sad amount of wasted, empty space.
I don’t know why this is still an issue, but hopefully it can be remedied next year. We saw some great games by the best players in the world. The casting was excellent, but I would have liked to see more Tastosis on the main stage Friday and Saturday. I think my favorite cast was when Artosis and Ron Simpson casted together – Artosis just couldn’t resist making fun of Ron, especially when a mothership was built! (Look, what a great unit, in fact such a good unit that it didn’t make it into HotS … etc.) I didn’t agree with any booing that went on, I think that simply not cheering is fine if you don’t like a player. However, this is a maturity level that many many sporting communities lack so I don’t think we need to make a big deal out of it. One thing that I did miss was being able to see the results of all the games that were played. There was a large poster showing the Winning and Losing bracket but only of the championship. I wanted to know who Tyler was playing in the open bracket, and that information was not available. I realize that the surface area needed for such a chart is immense, but perhaps between games the recent results can be shown through the monitor. I loved being able to watch the first person view of the players. I hope that MLG can somehow incorporate this into the quad-screen view that they currently use on the stream. It was really insightful to see the players reacting to drops and managing their armies. It added a whole other dimension to the viewing experience.
Notes
Please forgive me if I have the day/time of these events incorrect. A lot has happened this weekend and my memory is not perfect. Please feel free to correct me if I have made mistakes.
Also I don't know how to make the images smaller and I'm too tired right now to go looking for info on that. Sorry for the large images but better than nothing. More images will be incoming in another post.
and you get HerO sign. awesome.
