EPTTo start with I am by no means a veteran of TL, eSports or StarCraft. Despite being a gamer for ages it wasn't until last year I got in to competitive gaming and StarCraft after catching it at an MLG. I was pretty hooked on the whole thing and have watched almost every tournament since then. When I actually hit the ladder I managed to crawl my way up to Masters, a quick search for MVT on Liquipedia shows a few entries of tournaments I managed to qualify for and bomb out of. Realising I was just getting frustrated more than anything with losing on ladder due to silly mistakes and that I'm never going to be a pro gamer I just gave up playing to only watch.
While I have found many other tournaments interesting and exciting to watch there is something about the idea of the WCS that just adds that something extra. While other games and organisations may have also been throwing massive amounts of money behind their own tournaments I just think Blizzard have done it better. Yes there isn't a first place of a million dollars plus but think about what there has been instead, hundreds of paid trips and lesser prizes just for players qualifying for their national finals. And what is better? Giving another million to the absolute best players who don't have money troubles or giving out money and opportunity to break out for many, many lesser and unknown players. Personally I think Blizzard got this completely correct and the whole year long spectacular has kept me interested throughout and when over 10,000 people played some part in trying to qualify for a WCS event in Europe it shows. While unfortunately I can't have the pride of cheering on someone from my nation when Shanghai rolls round I'll most definitely be hoping for a European Champion, even if for one of them they only view it as money in the bank!
After Blizzard I have to give massive respect to everyone at DreamHack and ESL for the whole WCS Europe process, from individual qualifiers to the grand final. The nation finals have all been immensely interesting to watch and really felt like they were building to something big with the European Finals. While I've also got to give shoutouts to WCS Australia / Oceania and China for being tournaments that, even if I didn't feel particularly strongly about, seemed to mean so much to the communities in those countries. I can't comment on the South American WCS events as I missed them but I do feel the other WCS events I haven't named have really been a let down, a side show to something else and so much less than they could, and should, have been. I don't know what the Asia and Global finals will do to try and top WCS Europe but I can't wait to find out. It's also no wonder DreamHack keep pushing the boundaries and putting on amazing events, everyone involved with the organisation is so passionate. There may only be 9 full time employees but when you get people who fly in from other countries just to volunteer at their events it makes it clear how much everyone involves with it cares. I was lucky enough to have a quick word with Mr Ohlen himself and Greykarn over the weekend and when they say they do everything for the fans you truly believe it and comes across with all the things they do. There are so many others involved who do great things, from the awesome videos made by Xenoqen to all the rest of the crew behind the scenes who helped put on this brilliant event.
This was the first live event I've ever been to and while I managed to do the entire event on a pretty small budget I still had a few nagging doubts if it would all be worth it. It only took walking in to the Globe on Saturday to make me realise it was. For those viewing it on the stream it may have taken until later on in both days for the place to fill out and seem special but I don't think the people actually there had such problems. To see the players come on to stage, national flag in hand, to receive their medal and confirm they'll be representing Europe in the Grand Finals was excellent. Also a big congratulations to Stephano, his Champagne spraying may not quite be up there with Formula 1 podium celebrations it's getting there. If you're reading this and have never been to a SC2 event in person before I recommend it so highly. If you save up and book things early enough it doesn't have to cost the earth and while it may not quite be as amazing as WCS Europe the chance to experience it all first hand, to walk around the tournament area and see the players battle it out while you stand behind them and be there with so many SC2 fans is really something I have to recommend to anyone.
Something I'm sure I've been guilty of in the past but really annoyed me after this event was to read some of the disparaging comments on line. When I see people moaning about Tasteless, yet glancing over to the casting area during games I can see him standing up and getting in to the match. When I read posts on /r/starcraft about Seltzer isn't interested in being there and yet when I got the chance to have a word with her she mentioned how while her and Torch were backpacking around Europe they made sure to go to DreamHack, even if it meant sleeping on the floor. It's stuff like that which makes you realise the people haven't got to where they are for no reason, it is deserved. That's not to say no one should ever criticise anything but unless you're actually in possession of the full facts it's probably best to just stick with the adage if you can't say something nice then don't say anything at all. It's so much easier to tear something down than build it up but you don't have to dedicate hundreds of hours to trying to be a pro gamer or cast endless games to next to no viewers to help the scene. It only takes a TL account to edit liquipedia, rating games you've just watched on www.sc2ratings.com/ or helping add to www.reddit.com/r/spoilerfreesc are other great ways to help quickly. Even if it's just making a post or a tweet supporting your favourite player go ahead and do it. Sure they may not reply but while I was standing behind DeMusliM watching him play he'd check his twitter and the LR thread between his games. What you says does make an impact.
As a form of TL;DR just a massive thank you to Blizzard, DreamHack, ESL and all the others involved with the entire WCS process. To those who have never been to an event before I implore you to try and get to the next one close to you, nothing beats actually being there. I found the whole experience so great that after I finish this post I'm going to do something I haven't done in around 6 months. Actually ladder.
