[Pics] My Year with TL

IEM Cologne 2011 felt quite different compared to the year before. In 2010 everything was new, I didnt know anyone, I just dived in not knowing what to expect. This time was definitely not as exciting as the first time, and it felt a lot like work (the good kind though), going around shooting photos and doing interviews for TeamLiquid. But hey, I'm most certainly not gonna complain, I get a lot of things in return, I once again got to meet a lot of new people, I got to know Zatic better, I got to meet Huk (which I somehow failed to do the year before ^^), saw awesome people from last year again, like Nazgul, Dimaga and White-Ra ( I was really happy when I saw him again and he immediately recognized me from last year :p) and maybe most importantly got to meet my clanmates from 9k (9knights.de ), since our best player Deloader was trying to qualify for WCG Germany and others came to support.



My clanmates Deloader and Sky with possibly the two most charismatic starcraft 2 players

The TL meetup was once again very nice, I met drooL, cool guy, and hung out with BeWat3r and my clanmates, the day after I had a nice meal with Huk, TLO, Zatic and Sase, (Huk devoured a good amount of kangaroo meat there, to take revenge on Moonglade who had knocked him out that day :p) and the players party afterwards was pretty fun as well, although this time there was no epic dancing, just a lot of talking with dimaga and of course the infamous dimaga fans.


TLO was nice enough to take a picture of huk, me and my clanmates


Dimaga is boss

Other than that the Justin.TV party at the last IEM day was nice, a pretty gorgeous location with the EA Sports bar right in front of the Rhein, free drinks, pizza, I met Mr.Bitter's incredibly friendly girlfriend Connie (I hope I spelled that right), had a good talk with Socke about the old Starcraft1 days and watched dignitasKiller convince Mr.Bitter that he could be a GM player within a week if only he got coached by the Chilean Zerg. (Thanks to Gunrun for the invitation! =))

So yeah, overall I had a very good time, it wasn't as amazing as the first time, but I dont think any event will ever be and I'm cool with that :p

I was really looking forward to this one, not only because I had high hopes for the tournament itself but because this time I would not only get to meet Sheth, Haypro and Hero, but also I would get to hang out with my fellow Teamliquid community members.
Grnp did a nice amount of organizing for me and the rest of the crew:
Lipthepencilboy, Tree.hugger, Waxangel, jac, and of course the infamous SirJolt.
Sirjolt also brought two friends with him, UltimateHurl and OldManRogers.
The first I already "knew" from google+ and I knew that his name was spelled Eoin so I just assumed it was pronounced sth like Eeeee-oiiiiin, turns it its just a funny way of writing Owen.
With the latter there was a funny moment where he shamefully registered on Teamliquid.net, admitting that he wasnt a member of the forums yet :p





Why u so handsome, TL?

(grnp, Waxangel
OldManRogers, Lip
Sirjolt)


We got to Sweden a few days before the event started and hung out a lot in the PC bang, I got to watch HerO play some practice games, among them the sickest comeback I have ever seen in an insane game against ret, where he just killed infinity roach infestor with just a handful of blink stalkers and his mothership, sniping overseer after overseer after overseer.
I was already a fan of his from watching his stream which to me was more impressive than any other protoss stream I had watched, including MC's, but this was something else still, and I knew there were big things to come for this man.


Don't be shy, you're actually pretty good...


When the event started there was always a lot to do, I think we were pretty industrious, shooting photos, doing interviews (except for that interview video still not being released... lawl..), and just covering this event in general. It was exhausting with the dozens of thousands sweating teenagers around but it was fun nonetheless.


I tried to make Huk look big by shooting from below... didnt work out so well


Here's a big man though, when he's not busy slaying evil geniuses he's busy looking badass

However, by far the best moment was without a doubt the finals of the Dreamhack Winter.
As you probably know it was in a bigass ice hockey stadium, there were like 4000 people in there and the atmosphere was awesome. We got to sit at the press area which had power sockets which made it easy to cover everything with our laptops live.

And then those games...

Hero rising

Such a rollercoaster of emotions, when puma tied up the series I just had this terrible, awful feeling in my stomach.
Before the last game started I left the press area to go down close to the stage, to shoot some photos and to be able to rush the stage in case HerO does win after all.
But I wasnt really thinking about that, instead I was just thinking how sad I'm gonna be and how disappointing it's gonna be to have such a nice event end with such a massive disappointment.

But then amazing things happened, as you know, and during the last moments of the game I just kept shouting „YES, YES“ by myself like a maniac, before Puma finally typed GG. My neuroreceptors were overflooded by a shitload of hormones and only a few seconds later when everyone was already on the stage I realized it was time to join them!
I ran / jumped towards the stage and hugged everyone in reach, these were moments I will never forget



Photo by OldManRogers, I'm the one with the fist pump =)

while busy just being ridiculously happy I then hastily also tried to shoot some photos so that TL would have some nice winner photos, but I was a bit overcharged with the situation and didnt end up with too many satisfactory photos

I like this one though, Emotions overwhelming!

Afterwards we went to the TL hotel room to let TLO do an interview of HerO

Yeah he was a little exhausted...


cutest interview ever?
+ Show Spoiler +

The only bad thing to say about that day was that since we arrived late to the afterparty I didnt even get to drink anything, they had just closed the bar and were about to throw everyone out, so after a bit of talking we headed home to our hotel. The short time we were there was nice though.




Wife-Ra actually looks prettier than in this photo but i like it nonetheless

+ Show Spoiler +




DRG as usual with a big smile on his face. Is this a sign of whats gonna happen in the GSL finals?


Naama might have had a little sth to drink



One last thing I wanna mention about how badass HerO is.
When I was with him at the airport I asked him what he thinks about how tough it will be once the really good BW pros switch over, particularly Flash and Jaedong.
He responds "oh it'll be ok, I beat them in BW too"


So yeah that was my dreamhack experience.. I could talk a lot more about it, but I'll just leave it with the wish that we're gonna see each other again at more awesome Dreamhacks in the future.

STFU I'M NOT MEXICAN!!$"$%"

Also, I facebook stalked your gf... good job haha

Take comforting Huk after a loss



Zatic and TLO.. holy shit he looked different without the beard, haha


TLO lost two of the most heartbreaking series I've seen against Socke and AiHonor in the WCG qualifiers that day... not long after he switched to Zerg ^^
This photo was taken before his last game against Socke


Carmac teaching SangHo some important English phrases like "Koreans own white dudes" and "You're my bitch"


Herp, derp




Goody Pavarotti


SC2 needs more Mondragon


A TL knight


drooL and Dimaga watching Stephano choke as he drinks Absinthe for the first time in his life

Huk giving HerO advice about how his next protoss opponent plays. HerO always so touchy :p



Casting Stars


Buy these shirts if you wanna be as sexy as Mr.Bitter and Lipthepencilboy




Liquid`Bumblebee




At the airport with Mana and HerO

My doggy

my gf being super excited during a Barcraft for HSCIV ;p


Babies are awesome models

Big shoes to fill...