EPTThis past weekend I got to experience the thrills and headaches of esports event. This time however I was not pampered in a hotel/casino, nor was I sleeping on the floor like last time.
MLG Providence was the last stop of the 2011 Pro Circuit, this was the culmination of a full year of hard work across the board by MLG. I honestly never watched any MLG’s until MLG Anaheim, and really had no clue what I was expecting since this would be the first event I’d go to using the “traditional” convention center layout.
Day 1:
On Thursday November 17th I was charged with picking up ESFIWorld’s Jacqueline from LaGuardia Airport and making sure she and I caught either the 7pm bus to Providence, or catch the Amtrak an hour later.
My day started out with me going to my job in Times Square, and working until about 4pm, when I headed out to Queens to pick up Jacqueline. I won’t pretend I wasn’t a little anxious as I’m a bit of a stickler for punctuality and the likelihood of us making the 7pm bus was fading quicker and quicker. On my way to the airport I got lost.....yeah I know, I was supposed to help the Canadian navigate NYC and I got lost on the way to the airport....but on the plus side I ended up at Citi Field which was the first time I've ever been there.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KNVD5.jpg)
Jacqueline and I had been tweeting back and forth about her travel status until she finally got to the LGA baggage arrival only to be told to report to the baggage claim desk. There she found out her suitcase was left in Minneapolis when she has a 20-minute layover and would not be getting back into her possession until the next day. Thankfully the lady from Delta worked with us and got the bag to be rerouted to the Providence Airport for us to pickup more easily.
We headed back to Manhattan and by that point I made the executive decision to just head straight to Penn Station and take the Amtrak. Jacqueline was able to find out that our other ESFI Reporter, Emily Tran, was there along with some of MLG’s staff.
We all headed up to Providence on the train and arrived to our hotels without issue, save for Jacqueline’s bag which decided to take a more scenic route to Providence.
Day 2:
Friday started off rough for me, I had to wake up at 6am to start working remotely from the hotel room as I was unable to truly take the day off. I worked until about noon when we headed over to the convention center thinking we could get into the press room and start setting up for the long weekend of work that lay before us. Unfortunately MLG didn’t want us to get our press passes until 1:30pm, when the doors opened. I won’t say anything negative other than, I wasted a good amount of time playing Words With Friends thanks to MLG.
After we got the press passes we headed up to the press room and met up with Mary Ratliff and the GoodGame crew, Justin Agnew and the StarNation crew and a few other media personnel from Complexity, Team EG, Quantic, and Fragster.de
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/K2kAU.jpg)
The next step for me was to shoot the venue walkthrough with Emily, which we did and were fine until I realized there was an error with my camera and had to reshoot the whole video. Thankfully the second take turned out perfectly, so then our next mission was to get some players and personalities to do brief interviews with us.
When I was at IPL 3 the now familiar “not really” response from players asked to do interviews didn’t affect me as much. Thankfully though, Emily had known players like HayprO, TLO and other Team Liquid members from when she worked at IPL3 as staff for that event. HayprO was kind enough to be our first interview, which given his tremendous run in the tournament, I take credit for as he received the “ESFI Bump.”
We were able to shoot some interview with players and by 11pm were done with most of our stuff at the venue. We headed back to our hotel, and then tried something that we felt was needed; an end of the day review being streamed live from our TwitchTV account. ESFI staff member Derek Staley was able to host and stream the video, which turned out fine. The downside? I didn’t go to bed until 4:30am because I was up editing/figuring out some lingering issues with my camera.
Day 3:
Holy hell, why does my body hurt so much? Oh yeah, I’ve been sleeping on a couch for the past few nights.
After breakfast we headed over to the convention center where again Emily and I took to the floor. We got to talk with some players and fans about various aspects of esports and MLG specifically.
TLO, Hot_bid and other players/personalities filled up our shooting for the rest of the day. I was also able to help Nate from ESPN do some interviews with DjWheat, Sundance and Nestea.
A personal highlight for Day 3 was when I met up with Nate “Kilian”, George “Ski” and Alex “Shew.” Kilian and Ski were there as guests and helping Shew out while he was participating in the Open Bracket. Shew is a great kid and performed really well, + Show Spoiler +
placing just outside the Top 32, but was the highest-ranking unsigned player in the tournament.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/R8PU6.jpg)
(shew playing MVP with Nestea watching on)
Towards the end of Day 3 I was definitely getting grouchy. I was tired from lack of sleep, and hungry from lack of food.
Thankfully Day 3 came to an end and I was able to go to sleep before 2am, which is apparently rare.
Day 4:
Championship Sunday was upon us and as we headed to the venue all I could think about was how much going to work the next day would suck.
The day went smoothly, we shot a lot of various content and interviews with players we were unable to get the past two days.
Emily and I also had the opportunity to watch HayprO play against Nestea and win. Sadly though I was a little distracted by my phone, and Emily was too busy giving herself an ulcer.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/X1Y3b.jpg)
(thats me not paying attention)
HayprO did really well and went on to face MVP in the next round, less than 5 minutes after defeating the “King of Zerg.”
The rest of the day went smoothly, and I was somewhat able to watch the finals between Naniwa and Leenock. As a former Zerg player (I now play random) I was cheering for Leenock, and the 16 year old prodigy didn’t fail me.
Right after the finals I sat down with Mary, Justin and Jeff Alejos (director of Sons of Starcraft) and had a brief roundtable discussion with them about their documentaries, which hopefully will turn out well. I definitely need more work in front of the camera after being behind it for most of the past 18 months.
Right after that interview ESFI was able to interview Leenock on his incredible win. Really who expected him to win? Who even was keeping an eye on his games? Not me.
After the interviews we headed to the TwitchTV after party. I was really exhausted, and knew that in the morning I had an 8:30 bus to NYC and from there would go straight back to work.
I went to the afterparty, met up with Patrick “Chobopeon” O’neil, and just had a few drinks then made the choice that sleep/relaxation was more important than listening to dubstep ruin my eardrums.
In the morning Jacqueline and I headed over to the bus station and got to enjoy the site that is “Occupy Providence”
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6nMIB.jpg)
We took the bus back to NYC, we had the opportunity to talk to a spectator who was on the same bus which was cool and pretty much tried our hardest to catch up on much needed sleep on the ride.
When we got to NYC I helped Jacqueline take the right subway line to Queens where she was too meet with a few of the Team Liquid staff as I was going to be preoccupied and unable to help her get back to LaGuardia Airport for her fight.
All in all MLG was a blast, it was incredibly grueling as a reporter and I honestly can’t understand how players can do that many games in one weekend. Thanks to Sundance and the folks from MLG, I’m in need of a new body. GG MLG, you win this round.
