EPT*NASL, in the title
This is going to be another NASL blog, but doesn’t really have any pictures and is mostly rambling (there is one, at the end), so feel free to stop here if you were expecting snapshots of me planking on the announcer booth or something.
Since the NASL Finals were in Toronto, and I’m currently posted about an hour north on military training, I figured I should go and see what a live event has to offer. I’ve never been to one before, and haven’t really paid attention to SC2 at all. I played on and off but never really following the proscene; you could say that I’m a BW purist, but I couldn’t miss out on an opportunity to pack into a convention center with 4000 other eager nerds. I brought along two friends of mine who are way more into SC2 than I am.
We got to the hotel at around 9pm or so, although we had no idea that there are like 4 Four Points Sheratons in a 10km range, so we went to the wrong one at first. We knew it was wrong immediately because we couldn’t see any nerds or Asians, and because the hotel bar was devoid of Kennigit. The rest of Friday night will be outlined in the Amusing Anecdote at the end.
Saturday morning we showed up to the event around 10am, feeling like death incarnate from the night before. After having some delicious breakfast Whoppers, we drank about a gallon of water each to try to make the hurt go away before showing up at the convention center. I don’t remember the order of events perfectly, but I remember watching TT1 stomp some Zerg I’ve never heard of on the mainstage before we decided to leave and get some greasy lunch. We also met Kennigit as he passed by on the way to be ESPORTS somewhere, fully nerded out in his TL hoodie and t-shirt.
I must say that there is something really cool about watching Starcraft with a shit-ton of other people who follow it, all screaming when someone lays down some clutch (smartcasted) forcefields or storms. Watching Scarlett curbstomp everyone during the WCS brackets was pretty sweet. I also saw the guy from http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=352207 in the bathroom and never got the PirateZerg reference until I read his blog five minutes ago rofl. About 20 bottles of water later, we still hadn’t recovered from our hangovers, so we sat on the red carpet to watch Stephano and Ret prison rape their ro8 opponents. The Huk-Alicia series had so much energy built up in the room, every single time the announcers even implied that they were about to mention the word “Canada” the room exploded. Some crazy nerds up here in the frozen north. Huk rode in on a polar bear with a maple leaf tattoo on his face and started chucking maple syrup into the booth-igloos, which was pretty cool. I also unleashed my sense of star and bet my friend that he was going to get 3-0’d. kekekekekeke. I had also decided that Ostijoy was awesome because of how batshit crazy he looks when he’s playing, so I was glad to find out that he was advancing to the losers bracket finals of WCS.
Saturday night we were going to go to the afterparty but decided we’d rather see a real live woman or two before going to sleep. We called a cab and got some crazy motherfucker who told us in a distinct Indian accent when I told him we wanted to go to a bar “nononono, don’t go that one, full of black people”. Funny guy. Unfortunately we weren’t exactly smart in our choice of bar and it was empty when we got in. Fuck.
Sunday we showed up to the venue just to leave for Tim Horton’s for like two hours because they were playing Tribes on the main stage. For some reason, the entire cast was in third person. From watching Halo MLG casts, I always thought that it was a given that the cast was in first person, rotating through the players, and felt that third person made the game unwatchable. Everyone just moved over to the other featured game area to watch Scarlett dismember CombatEX. Maybe if he wasn’t wearing a sleeveless shirt he could have microed better. Kekeke. We had to get back to base so we only stayed long enough to watch Scarlett kill ddoro, whoever that is. I also got to meet Aerials, which was pretty cool.
Yeah, I know, no pictures with pros, but here is the
Amusing Anecdote:
Friday night we asked the taxi to take us to a bar, and he replied with “how about my apartment?” We were reaching for the doors to make our escape when he assured us that My Apartment was the name of a club that was only open on Friday nights. We showed up, but my scrub friend was wearing sandals for some reason and they wouldn’t let him in. He offers to taxi back to the hotel, change, and meet us inside, to which we agree. We of course forget to give him one of the room keys, so he ends up somehow convincing the desk guy to just let him into the room, in what was no doubt a glaring breach of security and company policy. When he gets back, he texts us telling us that there’s a huge line outside and that they’re only letting girls in (which was kinda cool, because I have never seen a sick girl/guy ratio in a club like that before). I go out and to the bouncer and pull some slick shit to get my buddy in ahead of the line, and we go in straight to the bar. And get fucking loaded. We celebrated his entry into the bar with a jagerbomb, tequila shot, another jagerbomb, and then got into the double rum and cokes. I don’t drink often, so this wiped me off the face of the earth. I have no idea what happened next.
Flash forward to God-knows-how-long later. My one friend apparently walked 5k to a gas station to get some beef jerky before taking a cab back; when my other friend and I got back, I allegedly vanished while he was trying to open our room door. When he eventually found me, I was a floor up, down the hall, and in the following compromising position:
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Dvyay.jpg)
Luckily he had the foresight to confirm my vital signs before he took a picture and left me there for 20 minutes to find some water because he was thirsty. Fucking jerk.
