EPTBut first, a bit of a prologue to this story. My adventure began at 8:30 AM, struggling to find a non-existent bottle of conditioner to tame the wild growth upon my scalp into a more manageable, complacent form. Following my misadventure in a bath robe hunting the wild Conditionerbottle in some tall
As I departed from the house and locked the door, some asshole SEPTA train driver decided it was the right time to pass the nearby (audible) crossing traveling in the opposite direction to force me to dash madly to the station that is immediately past the cul-de-sac by my house. As a result, I was 4 minutes early for the train and slightly warmer than I had intended. Plus, a passing bush put on its douche helmet and buried a thorn a few millimeters into my forearm. Fortunately, I am manly, and this did not affect me other than a small amount of blood trickling away from the wound.
Immediately after this incident, however, I was blessed by the serene Barcraft gods, and literally nothing bad happened from this point on.
I sat down on the train, unhurried, to practice Linear Algebra concepts for my exam on the morrow. Row-Reduction, Matrix Multiplication, and representing algebraic expressions (involving i) melted before my intellect whilst The Glitch Mob eased the final minutes of my regional rail travel before I began my 15 block (number estimate courtesy of Evbo, a friendly Barcrafter whose shirt I envied) trek to the fabled land that would rain down beams of glory upon us all. The walk to Mikey's was fairly uneventful, though I did pass an astounding number of affluent young white people. And a Unitarian Church. More on that later. The most terrifying part of my quest to reach this SC2 Mecca was passing the bridges over the Schuylkill River. There was joggers there, out in force, and if Law and Order taught me anything, it was that joggers draw rapists like moths to a flame.
Fortunately, no ominous *dum dum* of a gavel was needed, and I made it to 31st and Chestnut and Mikey's. There I met two of the organizers of the event, and as we had all arrived a bit early we spent some time chatting. This was my first time going to a Barcraft (I missed the other two PhillyBarcraft events due to work and illness) and the atmosphere, even just hanging out with those two guys before the bar opened, was fantastic. It felt good to be able to glory in nerdy SC2 talk without having to be on a forum.
After a solid thirty minute wait, 'the guy with the key' showed up, and the two guys, Dennis and Stu, went in to set up while I hung out in the bar for a few before bringing out A Feast For Crows to while away the time before MLG began.
Soon, the stream was up, lagging horribly, and after some fiddling with twitch.tv and the MLG stream, we settled on something passable. Then on came the food (I ordered a delicious burger, which was split between myself and Dennis in exchange for half of his pizza) and soon we were almost completely ignoring the back to back crazy Roach/Infestor/Broodlord/Nydus/Muta ZvZ games that were being played. The atmosphere was great, the attitude of the organizers (and participants) was fantastic, and I can honestly say that for my first official Starcraft 2 event, I was blown away.
At some point during the earlier series, Dennis pulled out his laptop and began laddering. It was hilariously fun and funny to help him play out FilterSC's Bronze->Master Zerg strategies, and I had a blast looking over his shoulder and telling him to MAKE MORE OVERLORDS.
After MLG's event ended (quite early, they were quick games) we continued on with a replay of MC vs Stephano, while Stu continued to drink and stare at this one waitress every time she passed by. I'm sure there's an interesting story there, though sadly I don't know it.
In any case, it was beautifully organized, even without a true set structure. I left on foot to catch my train, said my goodbyes, and carried away character codes and names for future play. The day was made fantastic by the people.
High five for awesomeness.
Oh, and about the Unitarian Church. I attended a Unitarian Church with my family at one point, and they really believe in accommodating everyone with incredible amounts of tolerance. Except for things like sex, which is totally an exclusive behavior unless you get into sticky topics like orgies. But that's a story for another day.
I feel like I should have some awesome pictures, but I don't, so I apologize.
