[Liveblog] a 4-year-old dream of SC, coming true~

Hi everyone, hazelynut here.

This is a mini-sequel to my blog from nearly four years ago about SmashCraft Heroes and starting the Princeton StarCraft team in 2009. It's a sequel to all the craziness that happened since then --



I'm wondering right now - how should I describe the difference between 2009 and 2012 to the contemporary SC2 fan? At the cost of sounding ancient: back then, StarCraft was something we saw and admired on 240p, hard-to-come-by restreams at 5am. Everything was in Korea - OSL, MSL, SPL. It was a magical thing. It was also primarily a Korean thing.

So nearly four years ago, I entered Princeton and thought, "Isn't StarCraft awesome? Why don't we try to find any excuse we can to play it in college, in school, at work, wherever we go in life?" I wanted this:



in my lecture halls.

And now, nearly four years later, I'm sitting in an insane venue in Orlando, Florida, watching something unimaginable unfold. It's finally happening. CSL, what started as a mischievous series of challenges between MIT and Princeton --



-- is now a live event, cast by Day[9], sponsored by awesome companies, attended by teams from the four corners of the continent.

I'm watching this happen right now, and I'd like to invite you all to join me.



Even though I'm supposed to be attending my own graduation festivities, I'd rather watch CSL graduate from grass-roots organization to...I have no idea what. I'll be live blogging from the floor whenever I'm not running around interviewing people. Join me, ask questions, and I'll show you around!

8:52pm - You know, despite production nightmares, this event has still been a blast. I just saw a very drunk player roar off stage after a victory, only to talk about his game with his opponent in an analytic, friendly way. College (E)SPORTS.

6:20pm - I forgot how nightmarish this process can be... seems like none of the tech is going right.

6:06pm - Sneak preview of what's happening


5:57pm - After 57 minutes, we're finally live T___T

Did an interview with Ostojiy.


3:06pm - 2 hours until d-day and we're uploading as much content as possible. Here's an unfortunate bomb.


2:43pm - Oh my god Black Magic is not very magical. In the meantime, be entertained by qxc and ostojiy



11:45am - Sitting in a dark corner while the internet dies on us. Sleepy and sad. Most of us just ate lunch and UNT has officially entered the building.

10:51am - Having issues with Xsplit (Sorry, you need to be online to access this feature)! Seems to be an issue with premium users. Day[9] is still being a boss.






10:08am - We're not IP whitelisted by Blizzard! The internet is lagging! Drivers are missing! Standard LAN problems but hopefully we can get everything set up before then.


Shindigs looking intense and sleepy.


Black magic card to work some magic with cameras.


Huge TV screen for production. It's lagging a bit because of the lack of drivers but we'll figure this out.


All our swag and the stage!

9:30am - Sitting in a corner, marveling at everything. This is what everything looks like right now.