My first Dreamhack

My first Dreamhack.

A story of hope, despair and Starcraft.

Before I begin writing about my stay I want to talk about the choices we make in life and our priorities. Most of the time we do something because we want it or we like it, sometimes we do it because we want to please someone else. I can say for myself lately I have not really taking myself in consideration; I stopped playing as much Starcraft and started playing casual games whenever I could instead. I spent less and less time by the computer and more time actually do things that might be good for something… The ironic part was that it wasn’t, I have been feeling stressed lately and very down, every morning I wake up feeling “meh” about life and simply settling for a day of nothingness. That sucks. I hate it and it sucks. When I think about it I think the reason is how many things I have to do right now, and I don’t work that way. I can’t really force myself to do something I don’t like and when I do I feel really awful and hate myself for doing it anyway. As you then take away many of the things I do like such as playing guitar and Starcraft I find my existence very dull and meaningless, it’s not like I’m depressed it’s just that I actually don’t function properly if I don’t do what I enjoy. Shit, I should get back to writing about Dreamhack… I have wanted to go many times before, but I never really had the “go” in me to do it. Luckily this time was different, a friend of mine (god bless his eternal soul) asked me if I wanted to go with him to Dreamhack, and FUCK YES I wanted to go. I allowed myself for once to stop being a moron and doing what I actually want and enjoy, playing Starcraft and watching Starcraft.

I first planned to try to attend the tournament, but when I found out you basically had to qualify online to make it to the big tournament I didn’t really feel so hyped about it. The time before Dreamhack I was still in this neglecting phase were I kept not playing Starcraft and actually did homework and such worthless things, needless to say I wasn’t really feeling so sharp. Back when I was playing more I was around high master meeting GM players. But when you play like three games in two weeks you are actually really fucking bad. Now back to the story…
We would arrive at Thursday afternoon as my friend’s parent would be driving and he only could drive us that late. The only thing I remember from the way there were the typical Swedish clouds hanging around in the sky with their boring greyness. The convention hall didn’t look that impressive at first sight, although I was surprised by the majority of the people there. They did not look nerdy enough…

I was first impressed when we walked inside and got to the gigantic hall B where there were an absolutely absurd amount of computers. As I am stunned by the quantity of the computers and fellow nerds I see no one else but Dario sliding by looking like Jesus with a blue liquid shirt. I wanted to say hi and tell him I was a big fan, but my and brain instead decided that; NOPE LEO, you’re not talking to TLO. The only natural follow-up to such silly behavior is laughing which immediately ensued. It was at that moment I realized I was in the right place.
My friend and I would sit next to our friends (even though they are beginners) from Stockholm who had arrived five hours earlier than us and they seemed equally impressed by not only the quantity of the event but also by the quality celebrities. We found our places and started packing up our computers. I had the unfortunate luck of actually having a bearing pillar in the middle of my 80 cm of desk, so either had to sit with a leg on each side of this obstacle or sit very close to my pal. My friend asked a member of the Dreamhack crew if it was meant to be like this and he said that those who had built the table had fucked up and we started talking about how we were to move this pillar so I actually had enough room to sit. Then the member got a phone call which he needed to take and after saying; “I’ll come back after this phonecall.” He decided to run away to never come back. The only solution was for my friend and I to sit cozily next to each other and make the best of the situation. There was maybe ten centimeters between our keyboards where he had to have his mouse, making it so that he only could move it two centimeters to the left and the right without bumping in to a keyboard. You get the point, it was quite moronic, let’s dwell into the juicy things.

After our interesting dilemma we ventured into hall C where the progamers were playing. The had their gear seat up by a computer and above them they had a big monitor of their FPV. As we go in we see no one else but he gracken himself, IdrA. He was playing a on the computer on the side so you easily could get a shot of his face. Impressed by his actual presence and surprised by how small people you only watch on TV/streams look in real life I decided to take a picture of him. This is of course nothing spectacular, but you know that HDR button that exists as an option on the iPhone? That actually puts on lightning so as I am taking my picture with flash 1,5 meters from his face he turns around stares at me looking pissed as fuck and shakes his head angrily. The gracken penetrated my very existence with his deathly stare and I survived as I’m obviously telling this story today. I didn’t really think it was that bad, I mean he only got distracted for one second in a little ladder game. My friends on the other had started SHOUTING and calling me a retard and cursing over how I had ruined their only chance of friendship with IdrA and probably jinxing him for the rest of his and BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA BLA. I just laughed it off, I had just received a fraction of Idra’s rage and survived. Although it’s not something I would recommend and I would apologize for accidently taking a picture with flash if I was given the opportunity, but I really wasn’t so I solved the problem by "meh"ing it.

IdrA playing some games.

Afterwards we returned to our seat and I played some ladder for a while and then I went to Dream Arena to watch IdrA play against Forsen. On the way there I also met a friend I know both online and IRL, and we both watched the games together. What was really awesome with the Dream Arena was this guy handsome motherfucker:

Looking handsome as usual.

I really love Sean “day9” Plott in every single way, he was the first person to give me a perspective of the beauty of Starcraft and I honestly think that he is the one person who has influenced my personality and my view of life the most, perhaps not the most, but I’d say he comes on even place with my family in terms of influence of my personality. Anyway, watching day9 casting was such a fucking treat. He is so amazing in every single way and his passion and “aura of happiness” are both very contagious and I love it <3! The games themselves weren’t really that great strategically or that impressive, but watching ling/bling wars in surround sound, hearing those banelings absolutely wreak havoc everywhere is such a great spectator experience. If you don’t want to get spoiled about the outcome of the IdrA vs Forsen series (LOL) you should stop reading now and start reading the next paragraph. The second game of the series if anyone of you remember was the game on Shakuras Plateu were Forsen managed to win. What I felt was so amazing about that game was the crowd. Why? WELL IT WAS A FUCKING UNKNOWN SWEDE MAKING IDRA RAGEQUIT LIKE A FUCKING NEWBIE!!!!!! RESULTING IN A FUCKING FUSION CORE RAVE PARTY!!!!

Fusion core dance!

Oh man I loved that! It was such a treat to actually be cheering for your own country like any other sport, I haven’t felt the same since a very special liquid member was owning it up in Korea. Even if Forsen eventually lost it was still a very exciting game to watch and even if he only basically managed to win by going for the greediest build ever and not getting punished for it in time, it was still amazing to be cheering like that for a player. You don’t do that at home, you might get very nervous if your favorite is about to lose, but it is not even remarkably close to what it is in real life to watch some play it out. I’d say you don’t even have to watch the game liv, just watching it with a huge crowd is sufficient enough! What followed on Friday was me running around watching different players and watching the big matches on Dream Arena or at the place where TB + dApollo, much love to those guys btw they are absolutely godly at casting. I know a lot of people hate TB. Fucking don’t, he is a really good caster, why? Look at the Korean casters, the scream like little girls when storms are going off! If anything TB is stepping Starcraft in the right direction. If you don’t agree that this is a great video of what Starcraft should be all about then I think you should go see someone…

Plaguuuuu

After the games ended on Friday I ate some and started laddering at what probably was the most awful computer setup ever. The chairs were really low and very, very, very uncomfortable, I actually had to sit on my pillow the entire time so I would be able to reach the keyboard properly. It must’ve been worse for even shorter people, I am even quite tall compared to most people there, about 185 centimeters and I can only imagine the horrors of being a shorty… Then were they playing really loud music 24/7 which isn’t that bad unless it’s the same 10 songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. They played that fucking one hundred ways to love a cat song all the fucking time and it is so annoying, especially when you can’t hear your own music even when the volume is on maximum. The song for those you who wish to get a bit of your soul ripped to pieces.

A waste of time for those of you who love wasting time.

I went to bed that night at like 5 am after something of 4 hours of straight up laddering and to my joy my APM hadn’t actually dropped that much, although I had like 120 eAPM with 50% redundancy. If you don’t know about the sleeping halls at Dreamhack, it is one giant ass hall (think Moria in LOTR) that stinks unbelievably much. I honestly don’t even know how people can get that fucking sweaty when they are playing computer games, to my own luck I had caught a minor cold and my own disease protected me from the stench demons. As I arrived so late it was really hard finding a place to sleep as most of the people there clearly didn’t understand how you played Tetris. After circling around for 15 minutes my two friends and I finally found an oasis in the dessert of sleeping nerds and I slept for two hours without dreaming.

Friday

I woke up freezing, it was really cold and combined with the power of odor of sweat I had no other choice but to escape this Moria of sleeping nerds. My comrades had abandoned me, but I escaped easily after walking over the minefield of the weak, they who still were lying defeated by the sleeping monster. I found my friend from Gothenburg still sitting by the computer when I came back, I asked him if he had slept. He simply my answered my question by staring at me with empty eyes inclining that it indeed was time for sleep. I also did what a lot more people should be doing then, changing dirty cloths and brushing your teeth. I know it’s a big LAN and that being overall hygienically disgusting is something that is a norm. Don’t let it be a norm, we are a gamers and play like animals, but we should not try to imitate their exterior. After not being a pig I decided that it was time for food, and the food at Dreamhack was surprisingly tasty I must admit, or tasty if you bought the right things. They had this absolutely wonderful waffle stand which made the most glorious waffles that I happily devoured. The problem was although beverage if you’re not a big fan of soda. I generally don’t like Coca-Cola and that kind of stuff and finding something that wasn’t tasting like it consisted of 99% sugar was really hard… Eventually I found a machine which sold Festis (I don’t know the English word for Festis… wtf), but it was quite expensive. What would really be awesome would be of they sold juice. I love juice and I always drink it when I’m gaming, we did eventually go out and buy stuff and the only thing I bought then was juice <3

After my breakfast it was time to go back to some Starcraft. I don’t remember exactly in what order things are from now on, but I can do whatever I want because this is my blog trolololololo. Anyway, I --think—I was going to the players’ area and watch the pros play. The pro player area quickly became my favorite place, I usually watch a lot of streams especially when I was still in this silly omg,-Starcraft-so-scary-game-I-don’t-want-to-play phase. I can tell you that it is amazing to watch these players play live, watching their hand dance all over the keyboard and the precision of the mouse and their attitude and action against other players and the crowd. Some of the players stood out more to me than the other. The player I was probably watching the most was Puma and I only have one thing to say about that guy. FUCKING HELL THAT GUY IS GOSUUUU! I was watching him keep his calm continuously throughout every single game. He did not only have absurd APM and precision and mechanics, what I think is his biggest strength is his ability to be indestructible. That guy has this ability to just look fucking beastly, if anything he has the-eye-of-the-fucking-tiger and I honestly believe that it is first when he loses a bit of that eye-of-the-fucking-tiger I think he can lose. Some might say he is cheesy and that he can’t macro and whatever. You guys are really wrong, he is absolutely beastly at most aspects of the game and he is showcasing them to some extent in all of the matchups. I specific series I remember was when he played against Huk, his TvP was absolutely monstrous that series, I remember the TDA game the most because he made a big blunder. You know when you accidently bind units to control groups because you accidently hit shift? Well Puma did that too. At the worst moment possible, as he was going back to his base to fix it Huk forcefielded quite the bit of his army and a part of it died for nothing. BUT STILL THAT GUY DIDN’T FUCKING FLINCH. I absolutely loved Pumas play, even if he sometimes tends be a little cheesy he is still a really cool guy. I regret not getting his autograph, but I at least told him I was a big fan of his play. Here is a picture of me not watching the man in focus but watching his coldblooded contender to the left of him.

[image loading]

Of course looking retarded is mandatory when watching brilliance in action.

One thing that actually disturbed me was how bad mannered some players were. Not only were they acting childish and selfish, they were overall rude and mean, as mentioned by Artosis in a later podcast. Two players who fortunately stood out were Sheth and White-Ra. Both of them were not only very interesting players to watch, but also players with very good work ethic and manners. I loved watching Sheth play I felt like his positive approach to the game was reflected in his play. He always played his heart out and never seemed to suffer from any bigger mental restrains unlike another American Zerg. I also liked the after game manner which was displayed. I saw White-Ra beat ToD and after their series White-Ra thoroughly talked about what ToD could’ve done differently and their discussion was ended with a friendly handshake and all was wonderful. Another cool story was when both Sheth and Naniwa had made it out of their group. Naniwa walked by Sheth, who with open arms said: We’ve made it through friend! Naniwa just looked at Sheth with his usual its-ok-look, looking very uninterested at Sheth’s open bear arms. As Sheth is awaiting the not coming hug of Naniwa a random guy happily jumps into Sheth’s welcoming arms and receives the warmth only a manner-bear can provide.

Another player that really stood out was Sase. What I found interesting was not his incredible play style or micro. It was his actual mechanics. I don’t understand the real point of this, but he makes very aggressive moments with his mouse hand and he taps the keyboard really hard so whenever he is playing the entire table is just shaking, a lot. His monitor was wiggling like crazy and it looked like it was about to fall down from the table. Luckily it didn’t and he won most of his matches like the Swedish boss he is.

One player who not only lived up to my expectations but exceeded them was DongRaeGu. His APM is out of this world it is not even funny. I don’t understand how he even can reach so much APM with such precision and redundancy. When I think about someone who has 300+ APM I didn’t actually believe it would look like that. Unfortunately I don’t have any video of this amazing machinery, but it is not the same thing. You seriously need to watch it live where you can see the thought and reasoning behind every click. How DongRaeGu’s brain doesn’t implode from all the information its processing is insane. Now are probably a lot of you thinking: “But this is Starcraft 2, it has nothing on BW omg”. But we are so far away from the skill ceiling, I see a lot of mechanical mistakes in his play, there are a lot of things he still can improve. And that is fucking amazing, I love how hard Starcraft 1 + 2 are and it is what makes them good games solely. That people can compete and work their asses of in these games. How ten hours of practice each day still doesn’t actually make you perfect is beyond brilliance to me. Perhaps it is because I am a little sadistic or because I am insane, but watching DRG make mistakes that I could identify was one of the most amazing feelings ever. Also his decision making and decisiveness was so cool to watch live, he made things happen. He just made it happen and it felt like there was nothing you could do about it. I really love DRG and he is probably my favorite zerg player!

Before I talk about the last player I want to talk about a hot topic as of late, Protoss. First and foremost before you read any further I warn you I hate everything about Protoss, I find everything about how the race actually plays out disgusting. The extreme bipolarity, the overall “dumbness” of the units and how childish they all act. So now that you know of my bias please take everything I say with a grain of salt will ya

Protoss players have been losing a lot lately and the defeatist attitude that followed was the most depressing and frustrating thing to watch as a spectator. When I see Protoss player A say the game is broken after getting eight high templars EMP’d I feel like they are just missing the “point” of StarCraft. There is clearly a way to circumvent the problem of getting your clumped ball EMP’d which is the not have your ball clumped. I’m not saying that Protoss is fine, as they need to rely a lot on coin flipping (especially in the early game against Terran with), but watching them trying to refine a boring stupid style just feels very wrong.

Then we have Hero. Hero is amazing and I feel like either he is the only Protoss player out there or he is not playing Protoss at all. He is the only Protoss player I enjoy watching. Then I don’t mean like: “Oh this game is so exciting I wonder who is gonna win!!!!” I feel like he can’t lose if he gets to the late game. The crazy multitasking, the genius micro, it just looks beautiful. Hero’s stalkers don’t look clunky or stupid they are all a part of a big machine, a beautiful machine. Nothing about Hero feels wrong, nothing about Hero makes me hate Protoss. He just has this flow in his play, where he constantly does as much as you honestly can. The games you see him lose never get this feeling of Hero getting outplayed. Needless to say watching Hero play was more than amazing, he is unbelievably good. His game-flow is just so different, everything about Hero just feels so unique. His ability to never surrender and always do things to the maximum constantly all over the map is really something you need to watch live. He also has this minute in each of his games, this minute which if he manages to pass he can’t lose. Kind of like July, but instead of attacking he just wins instead.

Now as I’ve passed 3500 words I should probably try to round up things a little bit… Well, Saturday eventually ended with my friends and I trying to find a place to sleep at 5 am, but both the sleeping halls were full and we were forced to bounce between them as the crew was incapable of providing us with any useful help. We eventually got to sleep at something like 7 am after standing in a queue for one hour, and that at least fucked me over royally.

Saturday

The first thing I did when I woke up was checking my phone. It was 11.50 and I had overslept brutally, I had missed the opportunity to get to talk to day9 as his signings were between 10.00 and 12.00, I had missed White-Ra’s and Sase’s games and they were both eliminated. I felt horrible and things would only get worse.
To watch the Starcraft final live at Dreamhack you need an AMD Sapphire pass, a pass you could buy online for one SEK with your ticket, but for me their site was bugging out when I was trying to do it at home. I tried to contact their support but wasn’t able to and I simply had to buy the tickets there, no problem I thought. When I got there Thursday I went and talked to the guy who was supposed to sell the passes but for some freaking reason he didn’t have them there or something. I remember checking by on Friday before I went to sleep, but there was no one there so I had no choice but to wait until Saturday. The first thing I did on Saturday morning was heading to the counter and ask if they had any passes for sale. They were sold out.

Sold out.

I would not get to watch the final of the tournament I had travel to and followed religiously. I couldn’t believe it. I asked the guy if there was any way around this and he nonchalantly responded and said that they “might” have some tickets for sale later. I just felt like dying, White-Ra was out, I had missed Day9 and I wouldn’t get to watch the finals. I didn’t feel like doing anything, I would’ve happily just lain down on the floor and slept until it all was over. But for some reason I didn’t. I just walked. Not in any certain direction or anything, but I feared that if I stayed still I might have been devoured by the earth beneath me. I somehow ended up by my desk and met my friends who were going to go to Tastosis’s signing and I decided to join as I am a big fan of both of them. After roughly 45 minutes of waiting I finally got to meet them.

Seeing someone you usually see on TV in real life is the most surreal thing ever. I didn’t know if they were real or not, but when I stood one meter in front of Dan Stemkoski himself staring into his Starcraft-loving eyes I felt an incredible surge of happiness. I could not believe I was actually there and the caster I see every day on the GSL was in front of me giving me his autograph. I told him what he probably hears every day, that I am his biggest fan and how incredibly he is and how amazing his casting is. But with Dan I felt like he listened, that he cares. He has one of those auras of passion and by only talking to him for roughly one minute I felt like an entirely new person.

I met a man who makes his living by casting Starcraft professionally in Korea and he was grateful for me being there. How cool isn’t that? Next to this astral baller was another guy who has been getting a lot of shit lately, how he has lost his passion, how he doesn’t care about Starcraft anymore. I got one thing to say to you haters: Fuck you. Fuck every single one of you hating on goddamn Tasteless. He is most likely the reason you even fucking have casters in Starcraft. Meeting Tasteless was so spectacular, he is not only very handsome in real life. He also has this aura of eSports that all the eSports celebrities have. He also has a very “playful” look and just looks like a winner. I was also surprised with what gratitude he actually thanked me for coming to Dreamhack and supporting eSports, I didn’t actually realize how much they care for their fans and how important we are for the growth of eSporst. But the best thing of meeting Tastosis was what happened in the end. Tasteless said to me as I was leaving with all his sexiness.

"Hey, nice belt man!"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!TASTELESS GAVE ME AN ACTUAL COMPLIMENT!!!!! ABOUT MY LOOKS TOO! AFTER ME BEING AWAKE NONSTOP GAMING FOR TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At that moment my body just didn’t work properly. A sudden smile reaching from China to America emerged on my face and everything felt absolutely amazing. I even got them to sign my keyboard which feels really good, knowing that I am now playing with the blessing of Tastosis.

Might not be the prettiest signature ever, but damn there is a lot of power in it.

After I got to meet my favorite archon the problem with the pass still was there. I went back to the counter but he couldn’t help me in any kind of way. So I started asking random people if they wanted to sell their pass to me. I was only offered ludicrous prices that weren’t reasonable in any kind of way. I was running out of options, quickly. So I simply let the problem be for the moment and went to the players’ area instead of worrying and watched a lot of beautiful Starcraft. But time was running out. I watched the first semifinal through the stream. It was horrible, somehow even in the fucking venue where I have the best internet in the world it was lagging. That is just unacceptable, that is unfair to everyone except those who are in the arena watching the game live. At this point I was really mad, I was mad at myself for being retarded and not actually getting the ticket booked, I was mad at twitch for their stream lagging. I was mad at everything. It just felt so ridiculous that I was actually about the miss the grand final after not being able to book my pass on their site due and after trying to buy a ticket from the guy at the counter for five times. I even remember posting in the LR thread hoping that someone could help me, but I realized that I simply had to solve that problem by myself.

On November 27 2011 01:57 Mr_Wo_Ot wrote:
Hey guys, im wondering if anyone of you have an AMD sapphire ticket for sale, i got fucked by myself... I thought i had it ordered but as I was ordering their site was lagging and I thought that I could fix it here at dreamhack instead. Turns out all tickets were sold out very early T_T

I would be really glad if someone could let me buy one, I'm sitting at b25:57 at dreamhack please come by if you have a heart I will love you forever. <3

On November 27 2011 02:12 Mr_Wo_Ot wrote:
FML

I cant buy a fucking ticket, because derp herp derp herp derp im retarded.
Im literally at the fucking venue with the best internet in the world and the stream is lagging!?!?!?!!?!??!!??!!?!?

T_T

Things weren't really looking good at this point.

The Starcraft grand final would start 11pm and before that the Quake finals would be played, so my plan was to buy some guy who was just there for the Quake finals pass and then be able to get in. I did one last attempt, but this time at the information desk. I was telling them my story and how I had tried and I told them that there were a lot of empty seats in the arena, just that they were on funky places. The guy I was talking to felt really emphatic and he said he would look into it, but there was really nothing he could achieve. He was also the nicest crewmember I met at the event as most others actually were quite rude and arrogant.

As the clock is getting closer to 11pm I decide to walk towards the great arena in one last try and as I walk there I see a pile of shit 50 meters away. This pile of shit was the most beautiful pile of shit I have ever seen. Why? You might ask yourself. Well because in this pile I saw something red and almost sparkling. I rushed from the spot, not caring for the hundreds of people watching this maniac dwell into garbage looking for a red band. The moment my hand grasped this miraculous ticket I suddenly felt amazed by life. I don’t really believe in destiny, but finding that ticket made me feel like it was meant to be. I have never in my life considered myself lucky or overly zealous, but as you are on the brink of failure and something for no sudden reason happens it’s easy to interpret it as anything.

After my divine intervention from the eSports gods I was finally back on track. The grand final would be held in a hockey rink if you didn’t know this and it wasn’t huge, but you could really squeeze in a lot of people there. I arrived before the Quake finals were over and I got to watch the ending which was pretty intense. Even if I didn’t understand the game it was still pretty impressive to watch their incredible accuracy and precision. As I was there alone I thought it was easy for one to just sit on a lone chair, but that wasn’t the case at all. I scouted the arena for a suitable place, but most of the chairs were preoccupied and I didn’t want to start any commotion. To my extreme luck (again) I met a friend of mine spontaneously and I no longer had to sit by myself like an awkward psycho. He was confused about my presence as I had tried to watch the semifinals with him but I wasn’t allowed in. I told him the story and he was baffled about my luck.

Around us the arena was really starting to get crowded, the rows were really steep and you were all sitting very packed together which resulted in a very tense atmosphere, we were all here to watch some of the best players play the game we love. One thing that surprised me was the percentage of foreigners around, at least I’d expect mainly swedes to be there as it is in Sweden. Which is really awesome, it is insane how passionate fans can be for this game and I loved hearing people behind me discuss Starcraft in languages I don’t understand.

The setup on the stage was also utterly genius, Dreamhack really took advantage of every single one of their resources. I loved the casters couch, I loved how they talked about the games in a discussing fashion, I loved how all of the casters got to contribute to the continuous hype of the games. I don’t know if you saw this or not, but in the beginning and the end of every game the casters would cheer and scream like small Korean fan girls. It all felt so professional, whenever the staff would’ve needed some more time to kill it would’ve been easy for the couch to get a hot topic going. As important as the casters are, there are exactly two people in that arena who are more important. These two people who had traveled from the outskirts of the earth only to travel to Sweden, to little nothing-ever-happens-here Sweden, they were here to play Starcraft. Although as much as we all love both of them, there could only be one who could succeed.

You know the feeling you get when you wake and know that this day will be a good day. Where all overlying problems seem to be gone with the wind and whatever you are going to do for work/school just seems very interesting and fun. That feeling of invincible happiness, that can’t be destroyed no matter what, that was the feeling the surged through my body when Puma first walked into the arena. The crowd absolutely exploded, all was perfect. Interestingly it would somehow only get better after this. Suddenly a very handsome Korean in a blue t-shirt entered and hundreds of swedes just ignited, myself I did my very best impression of a Korean fan girl screaming LEQEEEEED HEEEEEELO HWAITING with all the power I possessed, something I continuously would do under the night and let’s just say my throat didn’t agree upon this decision. I find it very hard to describe the atmosphere from now on as it just is so goddamn genuine and filled with passion. For me to describe it to someone that person would’ve probably needed to attend several finals as well. I found every part of it absolutely amazing and everything bad that had happened earlier that day was suddenly gone and I watch Starcraft without having something worrying me.

I will not write about the actual strategic implications those games had involved as a lot of other people had done a damn good job of doing already, but what I want to highlight is what it actually is like to watch a Starcraft like a sport live. First of all, great battles and dazzling micro is incredible to watch with extreme surround sound and ultra-beautiful graphics on a giant screen. Storms sound like actual storms melting little knowing marines. The game get more nail-biting and exciting as the battles give you a more influential physical effect, when the entire arena trembles as an army is dying and the entire crowd is roaring and clapping you immediately get interested in the game. Although even if the constant claps and explosions occur what really stood out to me were these silent moments. When the entire crowd was hypnotized - no one daring to speak a word as it would probably break this spell was truly fascinating.

You constantly hear people discuss the game all around you, in rapid fashion discussing what would be the best strategy for their favorite player right now. Or you could hear many green Starcraft players simply discussing how sentries work. What surprised me was how many people who didn’t seem to know much or play much of the game actually were there. I felt like this could have been any sports event. Everything was there for it to be one, the tension, the audience and the passion and love for the game. I sincerely hope we could get more people to experience this in the future as it was at least for me the most exciting competition I have ever seen. Before game seven when Puma had managed to tie up the series one game before you could feel every person’s energy being aimed towards one of these two players, wanting them to succeed and collect the victory.

The last game of Dreamhack, the one game which would determine the outcome of both contenders’ endeavors was absolutely perfect for the moment. That both players had the mental strength and power to dare to go into a macro game against each other after such an intense series takes balls. I knew Puma had balls, but Hero’s confidence won him that last game. The only thing that I think has been holding him back was his decision making and his nerves, two things that are linked with one’s confidence. Finally seeing Hero overcome himself was wonderful. When the manner nexuses went up and the last storms tore through the remainder of Puma’s army the crowd climaxed over Hero’s skill. Chanting and deafening clapping was imminent. When Hero finally moved out on the stage you could feel and hear every person in the arena not only praising his incredible skill, but also thanking him for showing us where passion and skill can take you.

The best shaky photo I had from that night.

My friend and I wanted to thank or even see Hero so we walked closer to the stage, but he was gone. Very well deserved, but it would’ve been lovelier if he was there. Throughout the event I realized I didn’t take many pictures or got many things signed. Sure I got my keyboard signed by my favorite archon, but beyond that, not so much. To my joy I found a top-3-Zerg-in-Korea chilling with his intelligent fellow by the stage. I quickly introduced myself as a humble fan and got a nice picture of us together. I asked them why none of them won, to which they only replied with laughter. Then I asked them if they were going to return to Sweden and I even made DRG promise his return.

A happy guy in the middle who is not giving a DongZerg the hoverhand.

Remember what I said about our choices we make in life and what they depend on? Visiting Dreamhack for the first time was one a good choice. Then I don’t mean a good choice as in picking chocolate ice-cream instead of vanilla ice-cream, I mean of those good choices that can change your life. Watching people play for their lives, seeing them win and lose gave me perspective on things. There was no easy way to success, there were no shortcuts. Hero didn’t win because he was lucky. He won because he had practiced harder and was playing superior to his opponent. Accounting balance into your skill and playing games that haven’t been played yet is silly and you never let anyone ever stop you…

….And if they do, THOU shall release upon their mortal souls the wrath only countless hours of preparation can give.

Hero doesn’t let anyone stand in his way, he never stops fighting, and he is constantly doing everything all the time with such an urge for excellence it is ridiculous. We all want to be like Hero sometimes. Wear a blue t-shirt with pride, be insanely good at Starcraft and have extremely pretty hair. We all want to be Hero, but being him and just wanting to be him is what sets us apart from the players.

This realization got me thinking, I had been doing things wrong for a long time now. Too many times had I been putting my wishes and dreams on the shelves of my priority list and slowly watched them wither away with time.

Why do we people do that? Why can’t we all be like Hero?

Honestly I think we can, we just don’t dare yet. Note that my previous sentence ends with a word implying those things eventually will happen, that we one day will pursue our own lives and live freely from prejudices. Why can’t we let that one day be today?

// A guy from Sweden who clearly doesn’t know his own priorities, but still writes about the importance of them.

Thanks for reading!

My first Dreamhack

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming