EPTThat's NOT what this blog is about. This blog is a summary of an amateur caster and his adventures running a small tournament, and having a 200 tonne explosion of awesome happen with one of the coolest communities within a community, the Team Liquid Bronies.
What follows is a recount of the events of Saturday, December 4th, 2011 in an amateur tournament for fun that ended up being just that. FUN.
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Pure Awesome.
"My sides hurt from laughing so much"
"My cheeks hurt because I can't stop smiling"
"This community is why I'm doing the MC server, and why I'm doing the Mare-A-Thon, and why Rael/Endrey/BioSC is freaking casting five hours of epic Bronycraft."
"This tournament is turning out EPIC"
"Best tournament.. EVER! xD"
This and many more quotes were taken from the IRC/Chat discussing the first ever BronyCraft US tournament. I speak for myself, but I am very confident in saying that it was a giant, pony-filled success! This open tournament to anyone who stepped into this very thread and posted were allowed to join. Was there a prize for first place? No. Was there anyone who even joined up? YES. 30 people signed up to play, and while there were a few who had to drop for various reasons, we still managed to clock 5! hours of Starcraft 2.
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(Most Terrans in the tournament =D)
I will begin by saying that I was probably not the best of casters to start. I was deathly nervous going into the first game of the day, and watching the VOD back I can see it in my casting. As the tournament went on, I loosened up much more, and got into it more. I am a HUGE fan of not only Starcraft, but ALL of E-Sports, and what I lacked in technical casting techniques, I tried to make up for with my passion and love for the game. I originally began casting as a color guy, and that is the role I was more comfortable in, so when Raelcun and Endrey joined to make the casting triplet, I was right where I felt was my strongest as a caster.
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(Me at the start of the Tournament)
While I did the brackets during the tournament, I could not have even come close to the amount of awesome that was BronyCraft NA #1 without the help of Raelcun and Endrey. Both of these amazing people helped me more than I thought possible. Endrey already had plans for announcing a tournament this same weekend before I actually wrote up the post wanting to go ahead with the tournament. I felt awful, and grouped up with him to do a combo-tournament of sorts, where his and my ideas mixed and became BronyCraft. He then made this post, showing he actually laid out a map pool for the tournament, and even got to work on custom overlays/loading screens for each map, decked out in pony style!
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(My personal favorite loading screen!)
Endrey had planned on using his own live stream during the event, but due to technical issues, we turned to none other than Raelcun, using his personal stream on twitchtv to have the main stream to watch. Watching a few of their early round VODs show that these two know what they are doing and make a great pair to cast the action. Rael was on top of the Pony soundboard, here, to give the stream that extra MLP flair. Both he and myself played PMV's during the downtime between rounds/games, and generally the casting was laid back, fun, and full of shoutouts to the show we all love.
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(That's when the semifinals started.)
I won't spoil the results for you in case you haven't watched any of the games yet, but Raelcun, Endrey, and myself teamed up on Skype for the semifinals onward to cast each Bo3 match. And that's when things got a little crazy. There were dancing zerglings, manner hatches and nexues, words spelled with pylons, crazy micro, and one of the biggest baneling minefield detonations I personally have ever seen. All of this punctuated with MLP soundboards, pony questions, wingboners, and all sorts of good natured jesting.
+ Show Spoiler +
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All in all, it was an amazing, stressful, wonderful, worrisome, truly epic time, and I FULLY plan on hosting another as soon as my body will let me. A few thank you's to those who truly helped make this go beyond my expectations.
Endrey - Thanks for being a generally awesome person and helping me run/cast this tournament! I owe you one for when YOU host a tournament!
Raelcun - Thanks for taking time from your schedule to cast a simple, for fun tournament with your fellow Bronies, and thanks for answering some of my inane questions!
Cane/Alyear - Thanks for giving me the support I needed when I was very, very nervous about this tournament. You were right, it all worked out wonderfully!
And last but not least, all the Bronies. The ones that played in the tournament, the ones that watched on Raelcun's or My stream, and the Bronies that couldn't make it due to personal reasons or circumstances beyond their control: You all made it worth the effort, as always! Continue being awesome people!
As I said multiple time since the festivities came to a close: I haven't stopped smiling for several hours, and I will most likely have a stupid grin on my face for the next few days for no particular reason when I'm seen in public. Thank you all for making the first ever BronyCraft NA tournament something I will never forget.
Cheers,
~Bio
For those wondering about V.O.D's, I have all the games I casted on my channel highlighted HERE
For the Round games AND the Semi's onward, the bulk video for Raelcun's stream can be found HERE
If Raelcun hasn't highlighted them, I will probably get around to highlighting them sometime tomorrow.
PS: Yeah, we are STILL... STILL completely AWESOME!
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Thanks for reading!
