EPT
Kingdom)I am currently in South Korea, undergoing a 4-week internship at KBS. (That's probably a subject for another blog post, but anyway.) So of course, being a member of TL and having a passing interest in Starcraft, my trip wouldn't be complete without attending a live Brood War match, right?
So today, I attended the match between KT and SKT at the eSports stadium at Yongsan I'Park Mall.
This wasn't the first time for me though - I had attended Proleague back on the 29th of January (a few days after I arrived in Korea) but since I arrived 15 minutes before the games started, I had to make do in the standing room area (check out some pics I took of that day here).
But today was different! First off, I arrived there at 11AM, an hour early. But already there was a massive line...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RyCpAl.jpg)
But none the less, I stood in one of the lines, and somehow, miraculously, I ended up with a seat ticket...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UuTFTl.jpg)
A5 on the away side (SKT). That's front row!
So, to explain sort of how seating works... When you arrive, you'll see a screen showing the layouts of the seats. Allocated seats will be marked yellow, while free seats will be in white. I think people line up a lot earlier than an hour before, because when I arrived, there were very little seats left. Also I think team fanclubs grab a whole bunch of seats too (the two outer columns of seats on the away side were pretty much exclusively for SKT fangirls). What I think happened to me was that they were giving out the last few remaining seats, and I happened to be near the front of the line and snagged a seat.
So anyway. Fastfoward 45 minutes or so and suddenly the stadium opens up for ticketholders to sit down. All the seats have these placards on them, that you fold into fans and then you whack with your hands.. makes quite a bit of noise. I saw people handing out KFC and coke to the people at the front of the KT section (should have sat in the KT side T.T)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Yyg5wl.jpg)
I made my way to my seat - it's pretty damn close to the booths.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/D35fHl.jpg)
Anyway, it just so happened that BW veteran and caster Kingdom is in the seat to my left! Holy shit! Sadly didn't manage to get a picture with him or his autograph (didn't bring a pen, bleh) so I don't really have any proof haha, but none the less he was there. He was talktative throughout the games - probably explaining and discussing what was happening with the dude next to him. Wish I was able to understand what they were talking about!
As for the actual matches... well it's just a totally different atmosphere when you're there in person. For instance, you see who gets in the booths before the actual matchup is shown on TV - when Flash walked into his booth there was just a buzz, and everyone started cheering. Chills down my spine, man.
During the game, every little moment of one-uppance - like a drone kill or some nice micro and the crowd reacts. It's one thing to be watching it on your computer while chatting with people on IRC, but when everyone around you (including the various qt fangirls in the seats) knows what's happening and they react to it (sometimes really loudly)... I'd never been to a barcraft or an MLG or anything, so that was really the first time I've been in that sort of environment. I'm glad to have experienced it now, it was awesome. I had brought along my camera but found myself just not whipping it out and taking pictures because I was just engrossed in the games. (Here are the pics I managed to take, mostly with my phone and mostly before the matches started)
After the match ended, I headed off to the war memorial - I would have stuck around for Ace vs T8 but I wanted to visit the place and I only have one more weekend here! So I don't have any details on post-match meetups or anything like that, sorry. But I think they all just go to the courtyard/outside area nearby - I'm sure you can just follow the crowd.
Oh, and I went to the toilet after the 3rd match... I go out of the stool and there's 4 SKT players standing around in the bathroom... I was fixing my hair next to soO and Sacsri lol. So you'll probably find yourself walking past a commentator or player or something during the breaks in between the matches
Anyway, if you ever find yourself in Korea, try and get to a live match, even if it's in the standing area. And bring a pen or texta - they provide paper to write cheerfuls on! (I didn't manage to get on camera today, but last time I went I did...)
Feel free to ask me any questions about whatever, and if you're in Korea and want to get a drink or something, I'm down! I'm near Anam station and I'm here til the 1st of March.
