EPTDespite all my time on this site, however, my participation in large offline events has been nonexistent. I've never actually been to -any- tournaments - LilSusie for years fulfilled me with her pictures of flash and everyone else. Last year, however, my friend Gay (one letter changed for the sake of anonymity) dragged me into working Blizzcon with him. It was alright. I helped out at the Warlords of Draenor demo area and had a decent time of it. A fair amount of my school chums were in the mix, so we chatted amongst ourselves while bearing witness to, among other things, the miracle of eighty-year-old ladies pwning young whippersnappers. With a positive experience in mind, I decided to "work" this year's Blizzcon as well.
Training for this year was last night. It was scheduled to last two hours, but I was in and out in about 15 minutes. Still getting paid for two hours though. Did some irrelevant things on top of that like meet up with community college friends and go out to KBBQ afterward, but whatever.
-The actual story starts here-
Blizzcon Day 1 begins for us workers at 8 a.m., but I'll fast forward because it's hours upon hours of nothing but telling people to get on and off of computer chairs (and the entire network crashed, but hey).
With the coming of every break in my labor, I would exit into the atrium between halls B and C, push a button, and take drags from my vape. If I have to regret anything about habitually smoking, it's that I'll never get all that money back. Vaping has become my substitute since March 2014, but it's still something of an addiction and I can't deny it. My lunch break had been pushed up three hours to 11 a.m. and I really wanted to sit down at 2 p.m., so I asked my area leader if I could take my scheduled 3:15 break at 2. I ended up leaving at 2:15 because shit started hitting fans, everyone started actually looking busy, and I didn't want to bother them.
I once again found myself outside, where I once again touched tip to lip and once again inhaled the not-healthy-but-not-so-unhealthy vapor into my lungs. I started up a conversation with a guy from Canada named Aman about the Belmonts he was smoking - I'm (still) a total snob about cigarettes.
Once that journey adjourned (he gave me his phone number and told him to say "hi" if I ever found myself in Toronto), we decided to head inside. To avoid the awkwardness of bidding farewell and walking in the same direction and doing it all over again, I decided to take the longer route back toward my station. That was when I saw it: a blue shirt with a horse logo on its upper back. It didn't register at first (read: person wearing shirt was kneeling on the floor talking to someone else and I didn't want to interrupt), but PowerOverwhelming kicked in and I inched my way over.
I cast an awkward finger at the duo, signaling a request for their attention. The not-TL guy motioned toward me, casting the girl's gaze in my direction. The first details to catch my attention were, in order, "TeamLiquid", "girl", "Korean girl". Given the fact that I was wearing my glasses and not on drugs, I judged that this could only be one person.
"E-Excuse me," I stammered, "are you LilSusie?"
"Oh, no, I'm Meru," LilSusie responded.
Shit. In my zeal, I'd forgotten how many of Meru's photos and interview videos I'd seen, that she's a girl, that she's Korean, and that she's on TeamLiquid. I could already smell the meat sauce.
I shook her hand and we proceeded to chat for a bit. I should note that I've had experience in meeting celebrities at all the signing events that Anime Expo has held over the last five or six years, and that my friend totally peed next to Scarra (of LoL fame) at last year's Bilzzcon. I should also note that I'm a total idiot and lose my mind. Every time.
I mentioned something about not knowing that people from TeamLiquid would be at Blizzcon at all, to which she kindly responded that TL's Hearthstone players were in the tournament. The fragrance of starch boiling wafts tenderly into my nostrils.
She follows this information by telling me that all the TLers are actually in the SC2 section. At this point, I'm hysterical. I mean, yes, you're cute and all, Meru, but by God who would have ever thought that I'd get to meet someone who's TEAM LIQUID FAMOUS. To put this into perspective, I'd feel morally obligated to buy Rekrul a beer and just listen to him talk if I ever actually met the guy, and all I really know about the guy is that he's ranted about how every K-Pop idol is a whore for twenty-thousand dollars... I don't even know if he's on this site anymore.
So here I am, giddy as Gilbert Gottfried, and I've just found out that TLers are actually all over the place. I have no idea who you are or if I've even heard of you, but by God I hope to bump into someone and yell EYYYYYY TEAMLIQUIIIIIDDDDD! in all caps in real life.
Our conversation more or less ends with Meru offering to follow me back on Twitter should I follow her. "Oh, God," I hurl, "now I have to start a Twitter!"
F'real, this is about as spaghetti as it gets, but when it's actually happening, I feel like the most socially inept person on Earth. She thanks me (I assume for saying "hi") and I scream, "No, thank YOU" in her face like a moron. We walk off in our separate directions, myself to my work station and Meru toward the SC2 area. My body spasms in joy one more time 'cause >famous< and I laugh back onto the clock.
But then I realized that I never got to take a picture. I'd wanted one to commemorate the occasion because I'll never meet Flash and I had a mental breakdown watching Jaedong browse through his Facebook backstage at Blizzcon 2013, and meeting an "executive" sort from TeamLiquid is as exotic a fantasy for me as meeting a Korean player.
So, Meru, if you see this, I hope you'll a) remember who I am, and b) visit the Hearthstone booth and find me to take a picture. I'll be the one cowering before your TL T-shirt. But not really 'cause I know you're busy taking photos and being a badass interviewer.
But f'real.
Dear Meru,
You're pretty cool. Thanks for being cool. Thanks for being cool in the face of all that. And sorry about interrupting your conversation with Michael. Meeting you has given me a positive image not only of you, but of the TL staff at large, and I now hope to meet all of them over the course of my life at large. This instead of, you know, avoiding all of you.
Sincerely,
OH SHIT YOU'RE ON THE WCS STREAM RIGHT NOW
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Also, whoever was doing the winner's interview with Life is awesome for doing her own Korean-English translations.
I'm not a big superstar, I don't even post regularly here as I prefer lurking more 
