EPT
Even though I go a lot of tournaments, each one is unique in my mind because of the different mixes of people and environments. In the early years of StarCraft II everything was new and thrilling to me, the scene was expanding and it felt almost like justification for all the time I spent raving about Brood War. Vindication that I knew I had found a wonderful pastime that not enough knew about.
MLG in 2010 was amazing because we were all (mostly) people who hadn't met yet. It was incredible finally seeing everyone in person. Intrigue (author of The Elephant in the Room) bragged about how many pancakes he could eat. I saw Orb get stopped and asked for his first autograph and he froze, confused how to deal with it. White-Ra kept buying everyone drinks in a hotel after the event, and eventually we gathered eight or so people and drove around to bars, clubs, and at one point a strip club. We got McDonalds at 2am and ate it in a public park because the driver couldn’t get into his house or something.
I started hanging out with the CSL group in my college (in Wisconsin) and eventually an MLG came to Columbus which meant we could drive there as a group. Talking about esports in a car for eight hours for the first tiem is an unforgettable experience and we arrived just in time to see IdrA play MC that Friday night. To this day that might be the most fun I’ve had watching a series live, the atmosphere and rivalry lined up for the perfect storm of energy. IdrA later ditched that game vs MMA he was likely winning to further cement his place in history. Milkis (who is incredibly fun in person) introduced us to all the Koreans and translated awkward hellos. July told me he remembered beating Nazgul in a OSL qualifier when I told him I was with TeamLiquid - Nazgul later told me he had a sick build that got owned when July cheesed him.
This was also my first time having gamer impressions shattered. Up until then I had bought all the hype from the Korean media, pictures and press statements that made July sound like an unapologetic badass and stone cold killer. He was the God of War after all, a man who would Sauron Zerg you into submission no matter the cost. In reality he was bubbly and fun, a weirdly energetic goof. Later the same happened when I met Bisu, who is not a murdering revolutionist as I had looked up to, but rather a goofy kid who looks like he doesn’t know what room he’s in half the time.
IPL3 was crazy when internet went out and we had nothing to do but bullshit, until someone downloaded Brood War using their phone and we played showmatches between Boxer and HuK and whoever else wanted to play (I think it stopped at 1-1, with HuK losing on Lost Temple in a long game and winning on Python after TT1 told him to 10-15 gate). The auditorium was a few hundred yards away from the room where most of the games were being played, with a place called The Wild Wild West bar in between. They had $2 beers and the degenerates among us spent a lot of the event with yoyoing BAC levels.
When I first moved in with R1CH and HotBid we would stay up all night every important GSL match (generally Liquid players, or semifinals/finals). I don't remember a lot of the games but I remember how comfortable it was to watch it so casually with friends and talk about the games. After spending years only communicating online, alone in my apartment, the ability to do it every day was mindblowing. Everything was exciting at that time - even when an eccentric Own3d executive invited us to his sister’s apartment in midtown to try to sell us their service for TSL.
At MLG Providence I first met a huge amount of people I would later work with and greatly respect. Conrad (QuantumPope), Cody (Evoli), Greg Laird (who Dota people might know as The Gerg), and Kennigit, people I still gossip with regularly. I met a woman who I spent most of the final day with and was sad for days thinking I’d never see her again. We later briefly fell in love.
At an MLG in Anaheim and later IPL5 I met a group of most of my oldest TL friends, people I still talk to every day even though none of them have watched SC2 in years. We played the first Heart of the Swarm beta and trash talked while using those ridiculous Tempests that had a billion range and the Swarm Hosts that could attach air. Blitz and Purge (later champions of Korean Dota) came and entertained a growing group of people because that's how they are. I don't think we watched StarCraft at all.
For one of the MLG Arenas a few players came to our house (the TLHQ was in Queens at the time) to hang out. CatZ arrived, said he wasn't feeling well and went to sleep on a futon that was in HotBid’s room. He came out about 45 minutes later and told HotBid he threw up on his carpet. I think they later did an extremely long interview about Taco Bell. Wax and Sheth played a game of Brood War and Wax soundly beat him TvZ, and for some reason that I don’t remember they never finished the best of three. I still have the replay on my pc.
The first time I met Alex Garfield I told him about an idea to write an article naming progamers after the seven deadly sins and use HuK as greed. He told me it was insulting. I was going to do it anyway but it turned out to not be very entertaining and ditched it.
The first time I went to The International was in 2012 and left me astonished. The scale and size of it, both for prize pool and physical scale, was far bigger than any of the North American events I had been to before. Valve gave all press access to the player room, which had fully catered meals and tons of snacks. More astoundingly, I was blown away by how everyone attending really loved Dota. StarCraft II at that point was right around its peak and both players and fans became more demanding than loving, and in my mind a lot of the community was purely expressing negativity and entitlement. It was an incredible breath of fresh air, a game with people like Artstyle who would constantly retire only to come back months later because they simply can’t be away from Dota. It was reminiscent of the later foreign Brood War community, a group held together by nothing more than an intense passion for the game. It was also where I first met Blitz who, even now, is one of the most energetically positive people I’ve come across in any scene. He spent most of the weekend showing me around and introducing me to everyone he knew, which was practically every player there.
You can often tell what someone’s passion is in life is by how specific their memories are - this is because memories are burned in much stronger when certain emotional elements of the brain are activated. I could tell Dota was the aspect of his life he couldn’t live without when, as we first met, I mentioned a game we had played together months earlier. He remembered not only who was in the game, but exactly what happened in more clear detail than I could. For a game that happened months earlier to a man who was playing maybe a dozen games a day.
It's difficult to think of a single highlight, each moment in time is new and interesting for different reasons. To take a cue from my 90’s American upbringing, each is an important flavor that makes up the melting pot of experience. Or salad. I don’t know. They changed it midway through my education.
Distinct flavors essential to the final product. There are always new people to meet and weird games to watch with them. There will never be an end to new experiences. It's sappy, but for me it's all about the people that I spend time with and the memories inherent to that. It's a fulfilling life and an amazing ride. I'm lucky to have fallen into it.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XJ2i7iB.png)
