EPTMan was 2012 an exciting year for me in terms of traveling and meeting all you cool community folk! I suppose I should reflect on the year and give some well-deserved thanks.
NESC2League Finals:
Man was this a blast. I cannot believe everyone over there pulled off such a great tournament with an incredible prize pool; it was great meeting a bunch of people from over New England (and the guys that came up from NY/NJ) and spending the weekend in the Microsoft NERD Center.
This was only my 2nd "big"(ish) event I was at (the first being MLG Providence). I'm so glad we got to have full on sponsors and have raffles; was definitely some great fun with what didn't really feel like a tournament; the finals was more like a big Northeast family get together
.I wanna thank everyone that made this possible and allowing me to help out that weekend Drogith, m155G33k, Anachromy, Jethro, Unctious, etc. You all worked so hard can't wait to see you all in 2013 <3
NASLS3 Grand Finals:
This was some of the greatest timings for a tournament in the Northeast that I could have asked for. Working in Rochester, NY over the summer was great, because this was only 3 hours away for me!
The pre-NASL BBQ was really fun, getting to meet some TL-ers was a really fun time, thanks to Durp for hosting it; I was kinda worried that everyone was from around the general area and I would have been the odd one out being the guy from the states ><, but that wasn't the case and it was nice running into them at the event, I should go up to the area more often when RIT isn't kicking my butt.
Now onto the actual event, I really wanna thank CSL for letting me help out in the player area over the weekend, standing right next to JF seemed so cool and intimidating at the same time... because HOLY CRAP it's the one and only IefNaij :O! The whole event was packed, and although everyone was mainly watching the main stage, CSL really interested me a lot. RIT's CSL team last school year was nothing to laugh at (YaTa and Usin O.o), so I followed our school's team very closely, and it's always great watching groups from a school play and talk to each other; it's not everyday these guys get to have their games streamed to thousands of people.
The excitement on their faces when they win is just a sight to see. Western Ontario's 2v2 team was so enthused when both of them won, one of them even checked to find out how many viewers there were for their match. I think I find more enjoyment out of watching lesser known players because they're a lot easier to approach and have nice conversations with
. The rest of the weekend was great as well; HuK's walk down the red carpet and Stephano's victory celebration were electrifying. The crowd was roaring and the venue was shaking with excitement, and after a crowd like that, I would be shocked if there wasn't another event in the Toronto area 2013.
Thanks go out here to Durp for the awesome meetup, CSL for letting me help out, Neal of SC2Ratings*, and Drazak for offering me food/drink at the hotel.
MLG Raleigh:
Okay so having money from my job over the Summer, I was convinced by both Drazak and Jethro to go to this event. It's kinda weird going to an event where you know absolutely nobody but I heard that both of those fellows that I should go to Raleigh. Obviously my job wasn't enough to pay for a flight, so I opted for a 14 hour drive instead (it seemed shorter staring at the distance on mapquest, and it seemed like an excellent idea).
Swung by DC to pick up Drazak, then we were on our way; I think it's kinda funny that I live an hour away from him in New York, but have only seen him in Canada and the Eastern/Southeastern US. Anyways, he got me food at Denny's right next to the hotel we stayed at for the night, so glad it was there.
Now this is where I really started to meet people, thanks to Ben. I previously made some MLG Cupcakes and brought them down to Raleigh to share, and got to give those out while getting to talk to some people, but the real talking came when it was time for Mafia... That was some fun times; my friends and I have played the SC2 Mafia before, but I had never played a live game. It's a whole different game :O. I was/still am pretty bad at it but it was fun nonetheless.
MLG Raleigh and WCS NA were both really good; the crowd might not have been the biggest, but damn were there some exciting games. As an example Caliber vs. QXC holy what even happened there! As I keep going to these events, I start to notice I put less of an emphasis on the games and more on hanging out with people and getting to know more people from the SC community. I'm sure when my brother introduced me to BW he didn't expect me to be going to all these different events!
I really wanna thank Jethro for splitting a hotel room and DivinO for getting me food, as well as ONOGMuffins for those tasty pies and Twitch for those Pit leftovers (for some reason, I'm really thankful for people that feed me, I don't usually consume much I guess, I ain't no defiler!). Also obviously Drazak for introducing me to many awesome people.
MLG Dallas:
How in the hell did I even get there? I am still shocked that I won the MLG/ Dr Pepper Video Contest. I only have 2 years of video experience from high school, so it's odd that there wasn't anyone that made a better video. I'm thankful though, cause the Omni is the sickest hotel I've ever stayed at.
It was cool seeing the guys that I met at Raleigh, I really expected nobody to remember me, cause I'm not that memorable a person ;;, and it's nice knowing I can go to events and chill with people I know, I wonder what it's like being some spectator that's the only person in his/her group of friends that goes to an event O.o.
It was fun being able to go down there and forget about school right before my finals week and just have some fun not at my own expense (A large amount of thanks to MLG and Dr Pepper for giving my video the win!).
How this won is beyond me:
SC2Ratings :
I really wanted to save this for last because I cannot thank anyone more than Neal and SC2Ratings. Some time early this year, he was asking for people to volunteer with putting in VODs for the site. Now at MLG Providence, he fed me food at Dave and Busters, and I thought the site was a cool idea, so I asked if I could help.
I've read many a closed thread about "the old boys' club" with people thinking that you need x years to be noticed and that's just not true. You have to get out there and talk to people. I wanted to do the most I could to help get SC2Ratings some notice from people. It was pretty tough for us to get a following because of hectic schedules and inability to get things out right as VODs came up (a small group of people can only watch so many tournaments without messing up your schedule ><), but I think at the end of the year we managed to get our shit together and finally get some consistent viewers. So glad Proleague doesn't keep spoiler free VODs of their league, that probably helped us a lot ;D
Without SC2Ratings, I wouldn't know what I'd be doing right now, because I might not have gone to Raleigh/Dallas, and might not have been able to help CSL at NASLS3 finals.
After I stopped working over the Summer, I decided to apply for one of the writer spots for CSL, and didn't get an interview (cause my writing is terribad ;
. I might not have been wanted as a writer for CSL, but I'm glad I could find somewhere in the StarCraft commmunity that would accept my help!Joking aside, biggest thanks to Neal/SC2Ratings for giving me the chance to help out with the site, hopefully next year I'll be able to contribute more and help with the continued growth of the site! Maybe once HotS comes out there will be a surge of traffic!
2013:
With all that has happened in 2012, I'm not sure what 2013 has in store. If it's even half as good as 2012, then I'll be in for a good year. My resolution is to go to 5 live events and hopefully get more people to know about SC2Ratings; I got a feeling of what live events could be like and now I'm ready for what will come these next 12 months!
TL;DR: 2012 was the best, 2013 will hopefully be better. Also thanks to SC2Ratings for being amazing.
