EPTThough I plan these trips largely on my own with some help from bandito I find myself largely lacking control over anything. This is the first time it was literally thrown in my face. The whole trip was planned around planes, buses and taxis. I changed the entire travel plan to accommodate him and in exchange for letting him stay at our hotel for free he offered to drive us since he would have been driving there by himself anyway. Things were messy, but maybe they would level out. Once again I embarked on a trip built on an unstable foundation where we continue to march on a blind journey into eSports with an uncertain goal and only untutored judgement to guide us. This is my story of IPL4.
Day 0: The Thursday before.
Press check-in was the day before the event from 5pm until 10pm said an email. We drove out Thursday morning. One of the first things that irked me was when I was told that our driver would be leaving Sunday. After appending plans to accommodate him I now had to change them again with this new information. Right now the event was important and the little details of how and why were insignificant. arguyle once said "I don't care if I have to fight to get into a hooker hotel, esports!" and that's been a fair description of how we've made some of these trips work. We left Arizona and drove to Nevada. Things seemed to flow well. It was during the car ride I realized Jean was being a jerk about the car, but that he liked to plan as meticulously as I do. We were just clashing because we're both used to being able to arrange things ourselves, but now were working together. I yielded a lot because I've found recently that rolling with the changes in the moment and fixing them later is a lot more conducive to getting something done than trying to stop an event in it's tracks.
We stayed at the Excalibur hotel. This was a personal choice by me because it was going to be an elaborate joke where I made a CD for the trip that was filled with songs called "Excalibur" but that never came to pass. We were on the 22nd floor and the view was fair. We walked to the Cosmopolitan in wind that regularly checked our movement and repeatedly tried to throw us down staircases like the breath of an angry divine being seeking sustenance.
Inside the Cosmopolitan we walked an awkward distance to the escalators. I was a little apprehensive, but I tallied that up to my innate anxiety issues. While I wondered where we were going I looked around for a sign that said maybe where to go, but I found something better than a sign. Diamond just comes walking down the hall as we round a corner. It was so refreshing to immediately see a familiar and friendly face. After trading greetings we went up and got our passes then headed back to the Excalibur. We took some time to get sushi at a place recommended in a thread here on TL. It was completely worth the short drive. Back at the hotel afterward I wanted to actually sleep for once and arguyle had to fly back to Phoenix to get his paycheck and then fly back to Las Vegas afterward to make it to the event. Things worked out roughly like I wanted and I was happy with the small victory.
Day 1: IPL 4
Waking up at ten A.M. I saw that arguyle and Jean were gone and Xereith was still asleep. arguyle and I were here to work, Jean was here for vacation and Xereith had wanted to go to an event so I paid for him to come along. My budget was minor, but it was a good day. After making sure I had everything together I left quietly. While walking to the Cosmopolitan I thought many thoughts to myself as I looked around. This was the first time I'd been out by myself somewhere in quite a while. Usually I'm too worried about myself to be left alone should something randomly go wrong. It was surprisingly peaceful, but it was also ten in the morning on a Friday so that might have contributed.
This was my first event of the year. From late January until early April my weekends are all unavailable. It's something that cannot be helped as I've dedicated myself to another job and another community of amazing people during that time of year. They have been good to me so I will not let them down.
With the limited work I've put into things since I'd begun a few important lessons were learned. From interviewing TLO and Destiny at MLG Orlando last year I learned to consider the players' comfort and convenience when asking for and conducting interviews. Having talked and interviewed Machine I'd learned that sometimes it's better to leave a question out and just roll with what's being discussed should something new come up during an interview. Watching iNcontroL and Artosis on State of the Game taught me something else I hold vital now. There is a lot of quiet history among players. Some of it best left behind. The players we know now may have once behaved very differently or been involved in questionable things that don't accurately or relevantly reflect on the people they are now. For those who watch SoTG regularly you may remember hearing iNcontroL once or twice saying "I can't tell that story." and give a very brief vague description of what it was about. Beneath all of this there is a very rich story that few know. Information control is something to hold paramount. It's just one word misspoken to end up on reddit and resculpt the landscape of a person's public opinion. That in turn goes up the chain to their managers, owners, and sponsors. I try to be careful now of what I ask because from conversations with people I've met I know that there's a delicate balance here. Sometimes it's best to leave names out. Having watched Slasher, DjWheat, and SirScoots on Live on Three another lesson was learned. It's important to be critical, but in a polite way. No person likes to have the light shone on them after a crushing loss or other negative event. People want answers to hard questions, but integrating those questions in a manner which a person is willing to accept is a difficult thing. The last thing that I held in mind was from SaSe who I interviewed at MLG Orlando. Some players don't want to talk about the event they're at, or about other specific issues, and it's best if before the interview I address them and find out if anything's off limits so I don't put them on the spot in an uncomfortable position. Thank you for helping me realize these things. It's helped me a lot.
Looking back on events past I had a better grasp for how to conduct myself and was eager to work on improving myself and my product. I've found that media work is a lot like playing a game. It requires practice and conscious focus on improvement. The downside is that it's sort of impossible to actually practice and you need to get all your experience live. It seems the best way to improve is to just work as much as you can and let it come with time knowing that your showings may be poor for a while.
Once I got into the venue I stopped to watch a game of League of Legends. My friends play that far more than Starcraft 2 and as a result I spend a lot of time playing that game. I was determined to watch a little while I was here, but I didn't want to waste too much time so I settled on watching a game each day. After that I peeked into the main room for SC2 and lastly made my way to the open bracket room. Though I am a very minor person in this eSports world it's always a joyous day to be exchanging greetings with people I've met. These are people who once I only watched play games from behind a screen at my home. Now they say "hello" and "good to see you again how have you been" which is a little surreal. I couldn't be happier than when I am at an event. The pace was fevered and many people couldn't be pulled away from watching Scarlett. I managed to get an interview with It's Gosu's ViBE which is an interview I'd sought since MLG Columbus 2011.
For the day it was less successful than I wanted. I'm very shy of being a nuisance to people so I'm a little reluctant to talk to players especially as they're busy between matches or worse if I catch them after they're eliminated which happens with regularity with two players. It seems like every time I catch them they'd just lost. A lot of talk was made, but not a lot of content was created. A little sad I left during the last round of the open bracket. People kept me awake that night for a little while bickering over game mechanics for a pen and paper RPG, but it could have been worse.
Day 2: There was work
Walking to the Cosmopolitan I walked with my camcorder on. On the second day of an event is when I like to do a walkthrough of everything. It was a little tough to come up with commentary. I get out of breath easily since things started to go randomly wrong with me and there are a lot of stairs in Las Vegas. Back at the Cosmopolitan I trekked through the venue and found it much more sparsely populated. Bracket play was this day and many of the eliminated were nowhere to be found. Usually most of my interviews are gotten on the third day of an event, and some on the first, but never any on the second. Here I got three interviews which was strange.
Axslav and Machine are awesome guys and a lot of fun to talk to. I wasn't done learning lessons because Axslav had another one for me. It's ok to talk about Starcraft 2. This is the game that ties us all together and it's what we're passionate about. It's ok to ask things about the game. When I first started doing this there were two things I wanted more than anything else. The first was to not ask the tired "What do you think of your matches? or other questions that really don't produce anything worth a damn. The second thing I wanted was to highlight that the players were more than just Starcraft 2. SC2 is what brings us all together, but there's other things that a player's fans may want to know. I'd been shy about talking about SC2 because that's what they are always asked about. Talking to Axslav however it became clear that that's what we want anyway. We want more of the players we like and SC2 is a very definite part of that. From that I've started asking more questions about gameplay and builds. I've made a mental note to research players a little more fiercely so that I have better things to ask them in regards to their play. Thank you Axslav it was great talking to you again. The interview with Machine I also thought was good. Being able to talk to him about his match against Dimaga was awesome. When I first saw those two sitting across from each other I was worried and watched both sides of that match. Seeing Machine win made me so happy.
We waited until the end of the SC2 broadcast before leaving that day. Then we went to Fat Burger and it was awesome. On the way back to the hotel I recorded the walk back and got some decent shots of the moon with my camcorder. When we got back to the hotel arguyle and Jean wandered off to buy vodka and left me and Xereith to make up something to do. We decided to drink and walk around the hotel. After a while we somehow ended up in the Luxor and got rickrolled by a bar we were walking past. We never went outside, but we were somewhere else. It was like we were in another dimension or went through some sort of trippy portal. Eventually we did find our way back several drinks later. It was a good day.
Day 3: In with a press pass and out with a piano. Alternatively, this is my hallway, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
Sleeping in was awesome, but incredibly irresponsible considering I'd only gotten four interviews from the event by that time. Having a press pass was extremely fortunate and meant I was doing something right or that other people were doing something wrong. I wanted to do well at this event so that we might show IPL that we were worth giving a press pass to and I felt as if I was failing them.
Waking up I got my things together and everyone else followed suit. Jean and Xereith were leaving that day. As I left the room I told Xereith to take my soap back with him so I could keep it because I couldn't take it on the plane. We stopped for breakfast before going to the venue and once there set about our business. This was a venture short lived when we found out that most of the players were watching matches and I would feel inconsiderate if I tried to pull them away from that. A couple good things happened.
Later in the day I would get an interview that I'd wanted for a long time. I ran into CatZ in the lobby. Upon asking if he had time and felt like doing an interview he said yes and I instantly forgot everything I ever wanted to ask him. This was an interview I planned and kept notes for, but when it actually happened I promptly forgot it all and facerolled the entire interview. I'm not sure if it was a good interview or a terrible one. It was overall strange. Some of the standard things I like to ask fell flat. CatZ is an awesome guy and I feel like I botched that chance at some awesome video. That interview along with the Destiny interview from months ago are two I wish I could redo. I was off my game but I was also on camera so there was nothing I could do about it. When Stephano sorta came crashing into frame I thought about maybe reshooting, but I like things to be authentic and organic for better or worse. I liked the interview even though I have mixed feelings about how I performed in it.
While walking around I ran into Gret0rp who had just shown up that day and I also got to meet Orb. Meeting Orb I was strangely starstruck. I'd watched him stream and seen him cast, but for some reason meeting him in person was almost overwhelming. He's also taller than I expected. After those encounters I watched more starcraft. Polt was playing against someone who's name escapes me for some reason. Between games I went out to see if there was anyone I could get on camera and after a few minutes I walked back to the SC2 room as most people seemed to opt to stay seated. When I got to the entrance there was Polt standing there talking to the door guy. Polt didn't have his player badge and the door guy wouldn't let him in. "No no no, I don't pay, I'm player" Polt said after the door guy told him he needed to buy a pass to get in. I'm not sure what possessed me but I walked up to them and looked at Polt. "Polt?" I asked to make sure it was in fact him. Sometimes I get my Korean faces mixed up but he had the same hoodie on as when I saw him earlier. I wasn't about to take any chances. He looked at me, "Yes." and nodded once. I held up my pass to him, "Where's your pass?" I asked. Polt shrugged. Briefly I recalled reading somewhere that Polt spoke an ok amount of English, but I wasn't sure quite how to word my next sentence so there was an odd pause. "Want me to get GOM?" I asked him and he nodded rapidly replying with a "Yes, please." and a little bow. I looked at the door guy and addressed him, "Excuse me, this is Polt, he's playing on the main stage in the event that's going on right now." to which door guy countered with him needing to have a pass. "Sir, there's thousands of people waiting on him, can you please let him through?" I asked. Then the door guy looked at Polt and I then at my badge. "Is he with you, do you know him?" he asked me. In that moment I would have said anything to get Polt past this guy without raising a fuss. "Yes he is." I blatantly lied. "Oh, ok, well make sure he has his badge next time." was the response I got. I started to walk into the room and motioned for Polt to follow me. Polt looked at the door guy and he nodded. "Good?" Polt said. I nodded and patted him on the back. "Yes, good luck." I said as we parted ways. That's the most surreal moment of everything so far and strangely it wouldn't be the last.
When I sat down and retold the story to arguyle my phone rang. arguyle was calling me, but I was sitting right there. After mentioning this to him he reached for his phone but couldn't find it. I told him I'd take care of this and told him to stay there while I investigated. Standing outside in the lobby I called his phone and a girl answered. It turns out she had found the phone and wanted to return it. Back inside the SC2 room I met with her and reclaimed the phone. The two that found it, Miranda and Yue, were super nice and actually had helped us earlier when arguyle had dropped his money on the floor. Thanks you two for being so considerate.
As the night progressed I found myself talking to caster NostalgiaTalex in the hallway. After a little back and forth I interviewed him about his casting. My ultimate goal is to be a platform to help bring exposure to people who don't currently have a lot of traffic. Granted I have to get somewhere myself before I can really achieve this. The idea was sort of inspired by TotalBiscuit's "WTF is?" videos on YouTube where he takes an indie or lesser talked about title and showcases it. Someday I want to be able to do that with players and broadcasters. It's a lofty goal, but I hope to be able to attain it.
On another trip through the halls I approached the door and saw Squirtle talking to the door guy. I stopped and just stared mouth open and could only think to myself "Really, again?" After walking up to door guy again he looked at me. "Excuse me..." I began to say but was cut off. "He's got a game right?" I was asked and then he motioned for Squirtle to go in. "Yes, sorry about the badge thing." I said impulsively even though I didn't have to. "Just make sure they have them please." He told me and I nodded. I couldn't help but think that this was insane on so many levels and was a mixture of amused and dismayed at it.
On another trip into the hallway I met Translator John. When I met him I didn't know quite what to say. He was talking to Wolf and someone from GOM, but still surfing whatever feeling of confidence from helping Polt earlier I broke into the conversation to introduce myself to John. It was Translator John's speech during GSL 2 that spurred me to do all this. I gave him the brief explanation of what I do and why I started doing it and thanked him for that. It was a lot to fit into a short amount of time, but he told me was glad that he helped me. I excused myself and apologized for butting into the conversation and made my way back into the SC2 room. As I walked I heard Wolf say, "See you're famous John." and that made me smile. I'm sure what I told him didn't have much of an impact because it lacked context, but it matters to me that it was said. Were it not for that encouraging speech on a day when I simply wasn't feeling very good it highlighted what eSports means to me. I don't think I could ever thank him enough.
Later while standing in the hallway I got a chance to talk to HD briefly and as I returned to the SC2 room a very familiar melody struck my ears. I spun around frantically looking for the source of the sound. That song was important to me it was from a game that I played. A game which I enjoyed during a time when I was very depressed and hopeless about life. During a time when things were bad I played a game and it made things suck a little bit less for a while. After frantically looking around the hallway I saw the Piano. How I had missed it every single time I walked this hallway rendered me dumbstruck. I stood behind him and started recording quietly. I'm very cautious about recording musicians because sometimes they play their best when no one's watching, when they're comfortable. To be put on camera makes things a little different mentally. While I stood there I was reminded of so many good things. The music was from the Touhou series of games and the person playing picked sporadically through songs for a couple minutes before noticing me. After turning off the camcorder we talked for a bit and remembered we had met at MLG Raleigh 2011. We talked about the music he was playing and how he learned it and he asked me to record him playing the song Doll Judgement. It was nice to hear it in it's entirety. During MLG Orlando 2011 I got to hear someone play the theme from Halo. Every event needs a piano because nothing but good things come from it. You can see some of the piano play near the end of a video I'll link at the end of this post. The Doll Judgement video is his so it's not included.
Inside the SC2 room again I watched Squirtle come back and take it to a final Bo5, but I was dreadfully tired. We had to fly very early in the morning. arguyle chose to stay, but I walked on back to the Excalibur feeling defeated. At this event I had not performed well. IPL4 was an amazing event and I spoke to amazing people, but I had little to show for it. Again I felt as if I had let IPL down and as if I didn't deserve the press pass I wore. Sometimes I'm just not sure what to do.
Day 5: I don't know why this is called Day 5
Early we woke up and check out of the hotel. Grabbing a cab was simple and we rode to the airport. The flight was short and soon I was in an airport wondering how I would get home. Walking outside I took a bus to the light rail, to another bus, to the mall, and then a friend of mine came out to get me from there. As soon as I got home I started working on the video, but premiere misbehaved a bit and slowed me down. The rest of my day was spend playing xBox 360 while encoding and editing. For a brief moment things were good.
Today: It's been almost 10 days since IPL4
Now I sit at my computer typing this with mixed feelings about the event. IPL4 was amazing, but I don't think that I did a very good job. Below are the interviews from the event. This blog post is quite late, but as soon as I came back from IPL4 I worked the next day and did until Friday and I had five days off in a row. That has not happened for multiple years so I decided I would be myself again, game, and just be normal for a change. It treated me well. My troublesome headaches still plague me and the random painful muscle spams are still ever present, but while I was at IPL4 I was happy. Nothing else mattered except that I was contributing however minorly to the thing and the community I love most. In the future I hope to do better. You all deserve so much, but I feel like I'm limited in what I can give. Everyone has just been so nice to me every event I don't quite know what to say.
Thank you Teamliquid.net, Translator John, arguyle, nessarose, bandito, KimZ, Machine, Gatored, and iNkA for your kind words and support that keep me on this crazy path. Without those people and this website I'd still be sitting at home wondering "what if?".
These are my interviews from IPL4 and another video where I tour the venue and at the end it has some of the Touhou piano play I mentioned earlier played by a nice guy named Peter who was working for IPL at the event.
ViBE
Axslav
NostalgiaTalex
Machine
CatZ
Walkthrough and Touhou Piano
With the posting of this blog my story of IPL4 comes to a close. My next event will hopefully be MLG Anaheim.
