My NASL Experience

So you all know about the
Team Liquid BBQ, right? I was planning on driving up from Rochester, NY at around noon to show up for that, but an email I got the night before said there was a media day starting at noon. I had to get up at 9 instead and planned to go see what I could do there. I was fortunate enough to be helping out with SC2Ratings so I could go to some extra places in the venue as press.

So I get to the International Centre at around noon and head in. And holy crap was it beautiful.






I was there for maybe an hour or two, all of it feeling weird cause I didn't know anyone there. Well I mean personally at least, cause most can say they know all the big named people and the players and such, but it still felt really grand to me. I saw pretty much everyone in groups of 2 or more and I was just wandering around feeling like a black sheep.

After I felt awkward for a few hours, I took the chance to go to the TL BBQ :D. That was really cool, big thanks to Durp for hosting it, that was really cool and met some awesome people there! Coming from the US, I didn't have a full idea as to how many people were gonna be there and if they knew each other or not, but it was nice to see that not everyone was from the Toronto area. After the BBQ, I drove a few people back to the hotels (Sorry for getting lost Joey, Tyler, Justin, and Neder (not sure about that spelling) DX. The Sheraton was really cool, because all the staff/players/such were there, it's cool to casually walk up and talk to all of them, everyone in Canada really is super nice!

Saturday morning rolls around and I head to breakfast at this diner a bit past the International Centre called :The Airport Grill" or something. It advertised breakfast and best prices in town. As we drove closer we saw a bunch of paramedic cars and stuff around, and wasn't sure what to think of it. So we get in and see they're eating there lol, what a relief haha. It really was a very good place for breakfast with absurdly cheap prices ($3.25 for choice of bacon or sausage, 2 eggs, toast, and homefries). Anyhow, you don't want me to rant on about food, lets get to the Starcraft!

Now let me preface this by saying if you don't know about CSL, it's one of the coolest things around for Starcraft imo. It's really cool to just meet up with people at your school and talk about SC and the like (Find me if you're at RIT :D).
So I saw this post on the CSL fb before I got to the venue. When I got there around 9, there was a huge line of people waiting to get in. Luckily I could get in for press, so I just waltzed right in while everyone else was waiting in the ever-increasing heat of summertime.

So, I get in and search for Xeris or Hazelynut. So I go in and ask if they still needed help, and it seemed like they did. So I was told to just chill around the CSL Area {Picture} and help the players and stuff. I feel like I was being super in the way, but I tried to help however I could. The computers were acting up a bit as fate happens upon any and all event involving a computer. Luckily all those were resolved and the players got to playing :D. Somehow, one of the ethernet cables went missing/wasn't there so we had to go and get one :O. SO, the CSL games were all great as both the semi sets went to a 2-2, all depending on their aces. UT took out Waterloo and Western Ontario took out UBC, I love it how they get so pumped about the victories; you cheer 100x harder when one of your friends wins a game than anyone else.





That was most of the day, and I got to see some of the games on the main stage, and it was nice to see foreigners beat Koreans ;D. Dat crowd was so hyped up, and not even close to everyone had a chair.





Not gonna lie, Canadians really have waited for a big event long enough, they cheered so much this weekend, it was such an amazing thing to be a part of. So after the final match on the main stage, I headed back to the hotel for the Esports Canada Party with Neal of SC2ratings. I really expected a lot less of the big name people there, but they showed up. The VIP section at first seemed less than exciting, but as the place filled up and more people came, I guess it became more important to give the players space to relax.




So iNcontroL and IdrA get 3 drinks each, Rotti comes in a few minutes later, gets 5. I felt like he was trying to one-up them haha.


Also got to play Cards Against Humanity with a big group, biggest group I've played with before was 5, so 12-ish people was just ridiculous!!! For those of you don't know about this game, it's like Apples to Apples, but not designed for kids.


I left at around 1:30 to get some sleep for...

I get up and go to breakfast again yada yada, and then get to the venue. It's the money day today, where the real dollars get given.



That line :O.

So much suspense in the air to see the winners of each of the tourneys. First up was CSL. Toronto vs. Western Ontario.

Western first in to practice. It paid off.

That was great, but there was a bit of running around for it, making sure everyone got their shit working, unfortunately for the 2v2, UT was having Skype issues for some reason. We couldn't resolve it in time :/. Other than that it was a fun thing to watch.

Oh, you may have remembered when Day[9] threw SSDs very far.

He wasn't lying, one of the Waterloo guys caught it haha. Funny thing was he really wanted to talk to Sean earlier in the day, guess that passion turned itself into a sick Solid State!

Most of the day after that I spent in the press room. I spent some time with the people from the BBQ, but when I left and came back after Tribes, there were no seats in the event area anymore, so press room it was .


I regrettably missed the 3rd/4th place match for CSL, UBC vs. Waterloo seemed like an exciting match, gonna have to watch that sometime in the near future .
So up in the press room it was kinda weird cause I'm there mainly to watch the games while they are getting shit done, I feel like such an underachiever when I see all these people work hard to push out info for the internet to see.

Big shoutout to all of them and all the hard work they put in for their respective sites!


Torte De Lini Practicing for the HerO interview that never happened. He would've done great if it happened, but HerO was too tired ><.


Kennigit may or may not have been on Torte's acct XD.

Scarlett, damn is she good and confident at Starcraft, I feel like that was more of a story than Stephano winning it all, as this is only her second big tournament appearance, hopefully she goes to more events from now on.

Scarlett vs. CombatEx

Stephano dominated Alicia, glad we got to see such a great celebration afterwords, it kinda makes me wonder what would've happened if Alicia had won O.o.

Me and Neal chilled for a bit while he got quotes and opinions for this. We headed to the hotel for a bit so he could get more opinions and such, and got to meet Ben who does liquipedia editing and the like.


Also found out he's from Buffalo; we need to have an Upstate NY gathering one of these days, that's where all the cool people are at! Anyways I think my rant about this is long enough, I should end it soon.