EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9FYDih.jpg)
I've been thinking that it's been an excellent year for me as an eSports fan. I've been playing the sort of games that fall under the heading of 'eSports', Starcraft, Starcraft 2, Counter-strike, even Halo, for years with my friends, but it has only been in the last couple of years that I have become a spectator of the sweet computer sciences (can I call them that? I'd really like to). As a result, only by looking back over the past year can I really begin to see the exciting things to come for me and eSports.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tJGHs.jpg)
Lets get it out of the way fast, one of the big purchases I made during the year was a mechanical keyboard. Inexplicably I'm still in bronze, I think it's defective. Blog post to follow.
Over the past year I got more serious about playing Starcraft 2. I was one of the lucky ones who got to play during the beta, which also meant, because I only really played the original at small LANs, that I was punching well above my level and it showed. I got the ladder anxieties bad.
Every bronze game I played felt like I was in a booth at the 'Eoin defends his title as "sort of competent at RTS games" in a tournament that never ends, and really that made sense to me, because that was the biggest test of skill I would ever have, I'd never participate in actual tournaments or be challenged more than when I was on the ladder. I'd talked with a gamer (actually game-designer) friend who seemed to understand the feeling, his view was that though he played Counter-Strike a lot he could never play an RTS because there is such pressure pitting yourself against another single human being to see who is better. It's the difference between chess and football (for whatever value of 'football' you prefer),
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OiCRH.jpg)
Bronze is a mix of copper and tin. I really feel Blizzard missed an opportunity to name leagues after ages of man, Bronze, Iron, Steel, Dark, that one before Internet, Internet and finally 'the 200 players so good they are criminal, so will be sent to Koprulu Sector as soon as we have the technology'.
I also got to see so many great games through the amazing tournaments that continue to be run throughout the year. I love the quality and volume of games coming out of the GSL, and the other big tournaments that cropped up through the year. This leads to what I feel was the highlight of 2011 for me, I was lucky enough to get to Dreamhack Winter in person and armed with my camera.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7AI4Lh.jpg)
Dreamhack Winter is such a huge event, an adrenaline-shot-of-eSports to the heart, that I was truly awed. You can read one attendee's recent blog here but as we all know by now it was an amazing event. I was lucky enough to help TeamLiquid with the photo coverage while I was there, I'd like to share some of the photos I took that weren't seen in the live coverage. For me it was almost a religious experience, like wandering out into the desert on a vision quest to find your spirit animal, only it was Sweden, I was mostly entirely lost and they were spirit pro-gamers.
I got to travel with SirJolt and OldManRodgers, old friends, and we got to meet a lot of new ones, some of whom are TL users. What follows are some of my personal favourite photos from the event, of friends and pro-gamers.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wOx79h.jpg)
Ret, at a decidedly jaunty angle
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wNdC4h.jpg)
Idra, or 'Idra' if you like to pronounce it wrong.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Bvgmmh.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/27ZdGh.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GQ8Sfh.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1yYawh.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/drLRlh.jpg)
White-ra is a lot like my friend Colin. We call him 'Old Man' Rodgers but he's always a gentleman.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gZp0xh.jpg)
We asked Huk a difficult question, I like to think this is his thinking face and not just a bad photo.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zEB8Sh.jpg)
It wasn't just Starcraft, we also had pratfalls! :D
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Mj50Hh.jpg)
and bazookas :|
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qrwych.jpg)
This is probably my favourite portrait I've taken in a while, Bumblebee was working while we had fun.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/faY3Yh.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/fThE6h.jpg)
WaxAngel, poor guy is all macro'd out.
As a last mention of the amazing time I had at such an incredible eSports event I'd like to show the following photos. My camera was set to manual, we were all taken over by the incredible rush of the moment and I was being hugged and high-fived all over, so this shot came completely by surprise
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nf0pah.jpg)
Considering previous 4 shots all turned out like this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/0dH8Ch.jpg)
An amazing moment in every way
There were others I met but I didn't get any good photos that haven't been shown, so I'd like to give special mention to grnp, Lip the Pencilboy, tree.hugger, 7mk and Jac
I look forward to whatever comes this year, but I think it's clear that I'm hooked. Someone (it might've been tree) said that the more events you attend the more you hate missing events, [sidenote: this was an entirely poor concept for a blog but I wanted to highlight the great time I've had meeting some TL users and gamers over last year, hope to have a great year coming!
]
