"Out of all of the places in the world to visit, you chose Korea. Why?"

This was the question posed to me by the American immigration officer after my long-haul flight from Seoul finally landed back home in the United States. The answer to that question is a bit more involved from the simple reply I gave of, "because I wanted to attend a video game event and a concert."

You see, it had always been my dream to be able to fly out to Korea to cover and take photos at a Brood War event, be it Proleague or a Starleague. That dream seemed dead with the transition of Proleague to StarCraft II and the end of the last Brood War OSL in Jamsil Student's Gymnasium. Despite all of the events I had had the ability to photograph, the fact that none of them were for Brood War always nagged at me.

Enter Sonic. After years of running a bedroom operation in terms of both his business selling shoes and the Brood War tournaments he sponsored and organized, Sonic had finally made it in both endeavors. OnGameNet picked up broadcasting for the tenth Sonic Starleague, and the grand finals for that event were announced to take place on February 15.

Due to a confluence of events, I discovered that I would be able to fly out to Korea that weekend. I almost blindly booked a flight and excitedly bided my time until the trip date. Then it arose that anybody who wished to purchase tickets to the finals needed to have an iPIN or Alien Registration Card, two things I did not have and could obviously not get in time at all. I must credit both CaucasianAsian and DoA for pulling through and making sure that we could have press accommodations to the event. Without their help, this trip would have been a nearly unmitigated and terribly expensive disaster for me.

I'll skip to the heart of the matter. The live grand finals was completely out of control. It truly had the atmosphere of a Starleague resurrected in the very same place in which it died not too long ago. From top-down the production in the venue was spectacular, with nothing seemingly going awry like they have done at the multitude of events that I have been able to cover in the past. Even the trophy ceremony was a step ahead of other events, save probably Blizzcon's confetti-filled bonanza last November.

The games themselves were good, and sSak certainly showed off his preparation for the finals by when he executed his vulture strategies which seemed to put Last on tilt. I expected the series to go to five games, but I feel that Last became impatient near the end with greedy yet inherently unproductive proxy barracks play, and his decision served to firmly shift the momentum of the series in sSak's favor.

I will be blunt: I have not felt this good about a photoset of mine in quite a long time. It was a pleasure to be able to finally live out a dream and attend a live Brood War finals, camera (and camera, and lens, and lens, and still more lenses) in hand.

Hopefully the future brings more trips to Korea, of a longer duration, for myself. Only time can tell. To the rest of you all: Stratos, Xenocide_Knight, masterbreti, and FuRong, I hope to see you all soon!

Photos

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Souma

2nd Worst City in CA8938 Posts

February 18 2015 05:19 GMT

Awesome photos man.

How close were you to IU!?

ShiroKaisen

United States1082 Posts

February 18 2015 05:24 GMT

I fucking love the picture of the two of them staring down with the trophy in the background. So good.

itsjustatank

Hong Kong9169 Posts

February 18 2015 05:25 GMT

On February 18 2015 14:19 Souma wrote:
Awesome photos man.

How close were you to IU!?

thanks. right at the photo line so, uh, five feet away?

TelecoM

United States10700 Posts

February 18 2015 05:25 GMT

Awesome pictures!!!

drazak

United States479 Posts

February 18 2015 05:29 GMT

Congrats on getting to live your dream Tank!

FuRong

New Zealand3089 Posts

February 18 2015 05:29 GMT

The photos are amazing, especially the first few ones of the venue. It looks even better than it did in person.

Good having a drink with you man, hope you'll be back to Korea.

shiroiusagi

SoCal, USA3955 Posts

February 18 2015 05:31 GMT

No food photos 1 star.

prech

United States2948 Posts

February 18 2015 05:35 GMT

Sonic looks so gloriously happy, so glad his efforts with both SBENU and Brood War are succeeding

Hope taking these terrific pictures didn't deter from enjoy the experience too much! I imagine being able to share things with so many BW fans, on three (!) big screens, must have been pretty special

itsjustatank

Hong Kong9169 Posts

February 18 2015 05:39 GMT

#10

On February 18 2015 14:31 shiroiusagi wrote:
No food photos 1 star.

Relevant face in photo.

d3_crescentia

United States4054 Posts

February 18 2015 05:44 GMT

#11

I regret that I can only 5-star this blog just once

itsjustatank

Hong Kong9169 Posts

February 18 2015 05:48 GMT

#12

On February 18 2015 14:35 prech wrote:
Sonic looks so gloriously happy, so glad his efforts with both SBENU and Brood War are succeeding

Hope taking these terrific pictures didn't deter from enjoy the experience too much! I imagine being able to share things with so many BW fans, on three (!) big screens, must have been pretty special

I'm going to sit down and watch the games more closely when I have time later this week to look at the vulture timings. Other than that though, the photos didn't detract from the experience; they were the experience.

I honestly started to tear up when I walked into the venue the first time and saw the stage set-up and lit. It only got better from then on until the end.

itsjustatank

Hong Kong9169 Posts

February 18 2015 05:49 GMT

#13

On February 18 2015 14:29 FuRong wrote:
The photos are amazing, especially the first few ones of the venue. It looks even better than it did in person.

Good having a drink with you man, hope you'll be back to Korea.

yeah i'll be sure to hit everyone up when I come back eventually