WCG and "Beyond the Game"

Oh man what I wouldn't give to not have that silly theme song stuck in my head. I did enjoy Symmetry's rage whenever the song would start to come on though. As you probably assumed from the title, I went to the WCG this weekend. About a month ago, I was still teetering on the edge of wanting to go, but being too lonely to go. Fortunately, my German friends from school expressed interest to me in going, so we hatched a plan to go. After that, I met Kiett (really wish I had met her sooner in the year, she's pretty cool and it would have been good to have an extra person to go to BW stuff with) and eventually found out she was going too, so that added to the coolness. Somehow, the word got out I was going to WCG at school and a few more people added themselves to the list which was fine, though it made planning a bit more difficult. I was able to get it done however. Shortly before (and by shortly, I mean the night before) going, Symmetry also expressed interest in going and Kiett helped him get his stuff together so he could come along too. So in the end, I went with a group of about eight people to the games and it was a really good time.

Unfortunately, due to needing to wait until Friday to leave (the Germans had finals), I was unable to attend the Thursday night proleague. Instead, Kiett and I watched it on the TV in our dorm which was quite a suitable alternative. On Friday, she left with Symmetry earlier in the morning (they were taking the slow train), then me and the Germans and the other guys came down via the KTX. The guys in my group were kind of tired, so they went out drinking while I quickly ran over to the center in Busan to catch what was left of the SKT vs KT match. I had missed the first two games (including Bisu's T__T), but I was able to see the second half (the good half) of Stats vs Soo.

It was actually pretty full for a proleague game, that made me really happy to see. I met up with Kiett and Symmetry as well as my friend Jens from school who had arrived in Busan independently of the rest of us, but was staying for Friday and Saturday. After that, the four of us got Korean BBQ and did some drinking.

On Saturday, the finals brackets were running for all the games. Most importantly though were my three Korean players that I wanted to take the top 3 were all playing. First up was MarineKing vs Moonglade. MarineKing faltered at first, but eventually regained his composure to take a relatively safe game 2 and 3 to win over Moonglade. After that ended, there was a brief break before the War3 finals, so Kiett and I ~~went Stork stalking~~ went wandering around. We found him playing a racing game.

Eventually, we went back over to the main stage to catch the War3 finals in which Lyn from South Korea won. It was pretty entertaining. I had played one game of War3 in my life and watched 1 prior to having gone to WCG, so I knew very little of what was going on, but Kiett was happy to fill me in.

Lyn brings home the gold for Korea!

After the War3 finals, Kiett and I wandered again, finding some things to do. We came across a costume area and decided to take some pictures there. This was my favorite one:

^__^

After that, we noticed Stork was going to do a race against some random guy, so we went over to watch that. It was a 3D game, so Stork had to put on some silly glasses.

After the race, Stork signed a sweatshirt for the other guy and took some pictures before starting a fan signing event. Kiett and I quickly got in line for autographs that came on a picture of his face.

Stork chuckles because he remembered her. She actually ran into him previously I guess. After the fan signing, Kiett and I joined up with Symmetry and Jens and went out to get some lunch at a nearby restaurant that served 닭갈비 (ddeokgalbi). Shortly after we got our food, Tastosis, Wolf, Moletrap, and the cameraman that has been in Korea filming for that Starcraft documentary showed up and got a meal of their own. I tried calling over to Moletrap to say hi (since he's the one I'm the most comfortable talking to), but he didn't hear me because it was loud, so we decided to let them all enjoy their meal without bugging them at all. After lunch, we went back in to catch the League of Legends semifinals between CLG from Canada and whatever the name of the Polish team was (from Poland of course). CLG ultimately lost, which was unfortunate. It was at this point though that I first noticed the huge Polish cheering section that came to the event. They were quite a fun bunch to watch cheering throughout the weekend.

After that was MVP vs Kas to see who would make it into the finals. Kas had an impressive run leading up to this game, but was no match for MVP.

After that wrapped up, there was a charity auction featuring BroodWar paraphernalia including a KT shirt signed by the team and Flash's keyboard, a Bisu signed shirt, a Leta signed shirt, and a couple Samsung KHAN jackets. Bisu's shirt sold for a high price, so Kiett wasn't able to get it since she was short on funds. She did really want the KHAN jacket that belonged to Stork though, so I helped her buy it (she didn't have enough cash on hand since it got up so high, but she paid me back so all credit goes to her here for buying it and helping the children!). We were then invited up on stage (I was hoping they would let just her go up, but they made me go too (I dislike being up on stage in front of a lot of people in that way T___T)). Anyway, it was cool and we got to meet Stork. Kiett gave him a big hug and I got to shake his hand. He signed the jacket, then we went offstage and enjoyed the jacket for a while.

There's a better picture floating around on a news site, but I don't know where it is.

Kiett with the jacket. It hardly left her hands ever again.

Happy in the new jacket.

It was hard for her to keep a straight face, she was beaming the whole time.

Kiett actually let go of the jacket briefly so I could take a picture with it.

With that done, we went to get dinner with FuRong (who I ran into right before the MVP vs Kas game. After that, we split up and the three of us went back to the hotel, then went over to a PC bang to play some games. We first did an FFA in BroodWar in which I played my normal FFA style of being super greedy, but then falling to an early attack from Kiett who in turn got attacked by Symmetry who had been safely expanding and macroing that whole time. After that game, I let Symmetry play on my KR account while Kiett and I played a bit of League of Legends. After that, Kiett was tired so we got her back to the hotel, then Symmetry and I went out with my two German friends for some good beers. They introduced Symmetry to the world of excellent German beer (I hadn't had this particular kind, but I had had some good German brews before so I knew there was quality coming my way). For any conisseurs out there, Paulaner is an excellent beer.

On the final day, we had to run to get train tickets so that we would actually have a way to get back to Seoul. This caused us to be able to show up just in time for the last few minutes of the CounterStrike finals. I must say, I don't usually like watching that game, but the game was really fun to watch. One of my German friends is really into CounterStrike though and he assured me that the two teams playing (SK Gaming and a Polish team) were really two of the best. Following that, the Starcraft 2 finals began. MVP quickly dismantled XiGua and then proceeded to take his time in game 2, much to the enjoyment of the audience. If you didn't catch the game, you should. There were good nukes and in the end, mass ghost won it.

Boom!

MVP keeps the Starcraft streak alive for Korea.

Supernova and MarineKing join MVP onstage.

After that came the League of Legends finals in which CDE was facing off against the Polish team. Game 1 had already gone to CDE earlier and it was unfortunate that we only got to see one game, but it was a good one. In the end, CDE won it to take the first place for America.

Bottom left: Regi and Dyrus having some bro-love as the CDE champions auto attack the Polish base to take the win.

After that, there was a Fifa finals which my German friends wanted to watch because Germany has a good record in that game. While that was going on, Kiett and I wandered around and wound up getting interviewed by Samsung about their product which was a little awkward. Right before the closing ceremony, Moletrap came over to say hi and to break up the thunderstick duel Symmetry and I were having. Along with him came Torch and Rachel and they talked to us for a bit before the two of them went off for some reason. Moletrap stuck around with us until after the Starcraft awards had been handed out then he headed out.

CDE getting their gold medals.

The top 3 Starcraft finishers.

Team Korea got the most gold medals and thus won the WCG trophy. MVP got to hoist it.

After that ended, Kiett, Symmetry, FuRong, and another guy from TeamLiquid got some dinner nearby, then FuRong and the other guy headed out because they were not coming back on the train with us. Kiett, Symmetry, and I met up with the rest of the crew (who didn't stick around for the opening ceremony) at the station and we all got on the train. We noticed Tastosis, Wolf, and the Sons of Starcraft guy getting on the train and Symmetry went to go look for them after we found our seats. The ensuing story is one that only he should tell and I recommend you check out his blog for that. My train ride was much less eventful, but just as enjoyable. Kiett sat next to me and slept the whole way and I just talked to my friend across the table about Starcraft the whole time. We then decided to go to a PC bang at 2am after we got back to our dorm and we played for a couple hours, then came back in and I just went to sleep.

So the WCG was a pretty amazing experience. If you ever get the chance to get out to one, make sure you do it. I was always kicking myself for missing out on the one that came to Seattle (my hometown) in 2007, but now I feel like I've made up for that. Until my next post, have a good rest of the day!

WCG and "Beyond the Game"

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