NASL S3 Finals- Photos and Stories

OHAI~ Time for blog entry number 3. I have decided at this point that I will be sticking with this format for every event that I travel to for work or pleasure. A bunch of you have said super kind things, and it seems as if the reception of these is, on a whole, good. I really hope to break the 1,000 view mark with this, and transform it into something that people subscribe too. Here is a link to the previous blogs, if you wish to read the backlog. Thanks <3

There is no one I owe more of a "Thank You" to than NASL. I am bias as shit. You can look through post history of mine and see me defending them when almost everyone was anti-NASL. I would not be any where if Xeris did not give me an opportunity to enter the studio at the beginning of season 1, and let me help with the league. Without those initial connections I would have not had a solid path of networking through the scene; and I would have never worked the S1 finals. Thanks Duran, Thanks Russ, Thanks Andre, Thanks Eliot. I had to skip out on the S2 finals because of school. I reallllly wanted to go, and got quite a bit of harassment from the team. I told them that I would for sure make it out to Canada for Season 3, and I kept good on that promise. Boy am I happy I did.

Fuck Pearson Immigration. With that said, I loved everything else about Canada. It was my first time in the great white north. It was a very similar culture, but obvious differences became apparent. It was also weird to have so many people speaking french, and for it to be so warm. I would love to go back and really explore the city. One of the biggest bummers about traveling to eSports events is that you get to go to a cool city; but spend most of your time in the airport, hotel, and convention center. I got to oder my first drink at a bar while at the hotel. It was like I turned 21 as soon as I stepped off the plane. I want to try Vancouver next year.

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.JPG's and some TXT
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Adventures working production and with the venue-
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After I got off the plane (Thurs Noon), and detained by customs for an hour, I decided that I would walk the 2.6km to the venue. Didnt seem that far on google maps. At least I didnt have to pay a cab fare. >< Getting in for the first time there were new members of the crew I never met before. Mainly Mark, the COO, and all of the volunteers from Canada. Seriously you guys were fucking awesome. I also had no idea exactly what my "job" was going to be this weekend. Adventure one was simply to set up the venue. By the end of the day, most of it was done.
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The booth was made by the bad-asses from Cyber Active. It had its flaws (I hated the construction paper blinders so the players couldn't look at the casters screen), but it was way better than trying to ship a pre-made booth in. The Russian crew that worked labor getting everything set up was both super scary, and super nice. They were the same people doing security for the players walking down the red carpet.
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B stream set-up booth. The standard booth that was used for Sunday Showdowns and road events. Greg and Geoff spent a bunch of time here. Greg actually left his starcraft and twitter logged in after the first night, and I really had to refrain from posting something silly.
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Some of the amazing volunteers that did so much setting up and administrating the event. This would have been 8000% harder without their help. If one of you read this, thank you. Really. You rock. I wish I got a Barcraft Canada t-shirt from you guys. I ended up going to dinner instead of your party tho. QQ TT =[
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So all the iBuyPower boxes came, but none of the power cords showed up. Sundance..........
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View of the venue from the press box after everything was close to completion. The set up experience was very, very smooth for S3. It was nice. And everything looked great.
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Here is bitterdamn testing the main stage. Things were running good and as expected. Big props to the local man who worked the Jib for this event. He got some amazing shots and was a complete professional.
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You guys seemed to like it when tasteless did it....
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One of my favorite things about events is being able to shoot pictures. I do not have the best camera, nor am I the best photographer, but I argue that I do a good job. I strive to get better. The reason why there are so few pictures from me of this event was because at the end of the day I got thrown into doing back stage production stuff. I rolled videos, put people into games, got players what they wanted, and mic'd casters on the main stage. My camera was uber mad at me for not being able to take pictures like HuK walking down the red carpet, or Stephano kicking Lauren in the head. Damn.
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Wires. Wires everywhere.
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Everyone getting their directions and rundown from the director Morgan. Yes, Morgan is the one who tried to spin Stephano and use him as a weapon to murder lauren.
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Almost ready to let everyone in, these two doing some last second work.
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The turn out was early and huge. The line went down the block for people to get their passes. It was nerd-chill inducing.
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Barbie was hyping the line by throwing out shirts to everyone who had a cheerful made.
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Frodan was hyping the line with a high-five train. He was out of breath by the end.
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The first set of many many people to come into the venue when the doors opened. Again, the fans were flat out amazing.
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The venue filling up more and more.
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A man and his people. Everyone cheering when Sean Plott makes his way from the VIP area with the mic.
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If you didnt notice or watch, there were a shit ton of people. Jesus. Christ. The atmosphere was amazing, but it was defiantly a fire hazard. The AC was working uber super overtime to try to compensate for all the bodies.
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People, faces, and personal stories-
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The King and Queen of Drones. I met Jos when I was given the last second task of picking him, WhiteRa, and JulyZerg up from LAX. They were at different terminals, I was an hour away, and I was super stressed. I found Jos first and he was simply awesome. He spoke english (well), and was fun to talk to. He sat in the front seat on the way back and we talked the entire way to the venue. Ever since then I have seen Jos at almost event event I have been at, and we have a great relationship. We all enjoyed many laps in the pool, and drinks with Incontrol, Idra, Scarlet, and Ostojiy. He is one cool cat, and I will always cheer loudest for him. I also just took over his fan club, so WOOOO RET FIGHTING. And thanks for the bed. :3
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Drewbie and his new ROOT jersey. They are legit. He is legit.
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Ddoro had a good run in WCS Canada. We never talked. But gj man.
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Ryze is another gentleman I met for the first time at this event. Spent a little bit of time chatting with him and Drewbie.
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Lookin' Smexy Firezerg.
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Andre was testing out the computers. He is a friend of mine. I really do enjoy spending time with him. I think he is proving over and over that the hate is not deserved. We both had a pulled pork at Zets around 1am, and things like that are my favorite eSports memories.
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Serious Face.
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Frodan bleeds passion. And let me tell you, after tripping off that stage that man can bleed a lot. It was great getting to be around him. His NASL RO16 player bios were amazing, his casting is great, and he is willing to do anything. I wish the man nothing but luck for the future, and I hope we get to work together again.
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The two of them together make for some great moments.
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Tribes and Smite was at the event with HiRez. Props to all of them. Bart and Fishstix are two of my new favorite people. One of you should offer me a job. <3 Also thanks for allllll of those beta codes Bart. And sorry for not having a picture of you two casting. I will never forgive myself.
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Fans spoke. Clutch came. I think he has things that he can work on to turn himself into a staple in the scene. Backstage he was a professional and made me laugh. A lot.
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Backstage in the VIP room we found ourselves crowded aroudn a 5 inch monitor to watch the game feed. Sean, Soe, James, Andre (The russian, not the Gretorp), Torte, Mike (Huge shout out to him for doing all of the Gamespot coverage. Have fun at Dreamhack. Hope to see you soon, you rock.), and many others. We easily could have used another video source to watch the game. I do not know how this happened. But it was fun. Fun fun fun.
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Bitter had a sketch book that he passed around to a ton of people. Everyone drew something on each page. He had a lot of fun, and we had a lot of fun feeding off his energy.
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Kev loves the fans. When I had to mic him he would make sure that I knew to make his hare look good when I was done. So eSports.
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Bitterdam
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They could all be backstreet boys replacements. Look at that swag.
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Idra and Incontrol did a great job this weekend. Doing everything asked of them. The people love them casting together, and I think Anna is just a front for their secret love. Look at the lust in Greg's eyes.
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Your CSL Casters, and people who make the organization run, Mona and Tim. Looking forward to working with both of you guys for Season 6. #CSL
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Mike says there are never any pictures of him. He dos production and just makes shit work at NASL. He made it work this weekend.
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Eliot has been with NASL from the start. Through good and bad he is the man who does so much of the work back stage. He is also great to have on speed dial if you blow a tire on the freeway in Rancho. <3 Eliot
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Chris, Ostojiy, is another friend. I had him to win WCS. Thanks for that one buddy. I truly think that him and Illusion are the NA breakout stars of the future. He is so much fun to photograph because of the intense faces he makes while playing.
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Queen of the Swarm. WCS Canadian Champ. Scarlet. She has so much personality, yet is very very quite. I enjoyed watching her try to drink a white russian with Incontrol. Congrats gurl.
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Emotion.
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Jos winning the RO16. It was heart crushing going from almost 3-0 on Alicia, to losing 8 strait games.
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Stephano doing an interview on Day[9]'s Lap
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Canada CSL Champs!
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He smelled remotely of champagne.
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The End.
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You can find my complete imgur album for the event (and all of my other event photographs) here.

Thanks again for reading. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you come back again. If you ever see me at an event please say hi. I love a good random conversation. <3 <3 I also love twitter followers. Maybe soon I can break 100 =X @leafeator
Also, Gunrun has perfect feet. And he is very ashamed of them.
~Joey 'Leafeator'

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