Hello everyone on liquiddota.com.

Just came back from the Commerzbank Arena after having an awesome weekend there.

Let me just share some pictures of the event

Day 1 Pictures:

Queuing up in the morning...

They actually only had 2 gates open and I was kind of worried that I might miss the first game, but (thankfully or not) the start of Day 1 was delayed, so nothing was missed.

The setup viewed from the Premium ticket area:

What I found extremely cool was how the players got out from the catacombs of the stadium (just like in football matches), gave the entire thing a real epic vibe.

Besides watching the amazing matches, there was lots of other stuff to do in the exhibitor area, one of them was this reactionspeed game, where you had to hit the flashing fields as quickly as possible. Other stuff included bullriding, the secret shop (which was sold out of mini plushies and demi-heroes in record time T_T) an archery area outside and lots more.

I might be slightly nitpicky here, but I was kind of disappointed that they did not change the areas up a bit from last year, so you could actually switch between seating areas and exhibitor stands without having to re-enter the stadium after leaving it.

This was a really funny feature on the stadium grounds. They basically left a couple of markers there and everyone just scribbled whatever on it, from the obligatory "cyka blyat" to "EE-Sama take my energy!" and of course "kappa".

Lunching Mushi spotted!

Food in the Premium area did improve a bit from last year, but it is still an area with room for improvement. At least there was more than just Bratwurst this year!

Kuroky getting introduced to Team Secret's personal Cosplay-cheerleading squad:

Vici Gaming signing session (in the Premium area):

Speaking of Cosplay..the Top 5 of that contest lining up before they got their prizes awarded to during one of the commercial breaks. That Timbersaw still blows my mind, unfortunately I did not get a good shot of it from the front :/

Banana-Man was also very entertaining!
All in all the atmosphere in the stadium was ridiculously good. Best crowd in esports?

Night falls as Secret prepare to pick techies for some firewokrs!

Day 2 Pictures:

A wild Undying(?) appears over the caster station

Axe calling to the analyst desk:

Faceless Void or maybe Enigma spotted

The great wall of scribbles halfway through Day 2:

Pudge awaiting new victims within the stands, joined by storm (and nightstalker in the far back)

Hello Tobi!

Loved his casting during the event, especially during the Techies game although our cheers and screams drowned the casters out so many times :DD

Some hiccups in the Production:

Standing ovations as Secret takes the title:

All in all it was a well run events with some room for improvement, but already a good step from last year's. I will surely attend again if they announce one for 2016

Thanks for reading/looking at pictures!

-ShiaoPi

Jinxed

United States6450 Posts

June 21 2015 22:16 GMT

Picture blogs like this are always so cool after events.

Looks like it was a good time.

goody153

44289 Posts

June 22 2015 00:27 GMT

this is really cool !

OmniEulogy

Canada6600 Posts

June 22 2015 04:37 GMT

thanks for the great pictures

fixed_point

Germany4891 Posts

June 22 2015 07:43 GMT

Hey! The Asian looking guy in line with the blue jeans and blue liquid hoodie in the Vici signing picture was me! Were you the person I got the T-shirt signed for?

ShiaoPi

TAIWAN NUMBAH WAN5956 Posts

June 22 2015 08:03 GMT

Hey, funny to find someone else on Liquiddota :D
But the guy for whom you got a T-shirt must have been someone else. I just passed by on my way to the secret shop. And unfortunately there was no secret signing session

fixed_point

Germany4891 Posts

June 22 2015 08:12 GMT

On June 22 2015 17:03 ShiaoPi wrote:
Hey, funny to find someone else on Liquiddota :D
But the guy for whom you got a T-shirt must have been someone else. I just passed by on my way to the secret shop. And unfortunately there was no secret signing session

Yeah, they actually promised a team secret signing session on Saturday but it didn't happen. Wasn't too gutted though; got everyone's signature except for theirs and a team picture with Fnatic.

Dagobert

Netherlands1858 Posts

June 22 2015 08:42 GMT

jD has a picture of Timber. Third from the top. + Show Spoiler [copypasta] +

www.joindota.com

Archeon

3272 Posts

June 22 2015 10:19 GMT

As someone who only got the normal ticket i've gotta say that there were many things that left something to be desired. It was never an issue with production value, you could see that esl pumped a ton of money into the tournament and that overall had many cool effects.

The entire setup however didnt seem to be thought through. The normal places never had more than a 45° arc of view on any of the screens, which to some extent was a result of the two screens at the sides being almost flat on the ground (the tilting was less than 30°). Unless you were standing, you could see next to nothing on the side screens. The average distance to the main screen was more than 30 meters, which left a slightly short sighted person like me at times guessing what the first ban was.
The setup was separated from the rest of the entertainment/food area. As a result of the relative short pauses I only went to the entertainment area like three times.
Overall I've gotta say that the setup was way better last time, even though it looked like they put a lot more money into it this time.

The food prices were what you'd expect, the drinks however were not. Paying four euros for half a liter of water is simply daylight robbery, we werent allowed to bring drinks into the area except for 0.5 liter-tetra packs (which I believe I have never seen in my life and didnt see anyone having at the event having either). We were there for close to 13 hours each day, which meant that you had to drink.
As a result we packed lots of food and drinks on the second day and just had lunch on the parking lot. I saw many people doing the same. We dont want this and it can't be what the sellers want either. But I'm not paying 16 € for the two liters of fluid that I'm supposed to drink each day, that's ridiculous, I'm not drinking champagne.

That aside the event was still fun, the cosplayers were cool, especially venge and timber, the atmosphere was nice, the crowd was amazing at least for secret and the games were good.

Atoissen

Norway1737 Posts

June 22 2015 12:17 GMT

#10

Looks great! Im sad we never gonna have something like this in Norway

hfglgg

Germany5372 Posts

June 22 2015 14:17 GMT

#11

On June 22 2015 19:19 Blackfeather wrote:

The entire setup however didnt seem to be thought through. The normal places never had more than a 45° arc of view on any of the screens, which to some extent was a result of the two screens at the sides being almost flat on the ground (the tilting was less than 30°). Unless you were standing, you could see next to nothing on the side screens. The average distance to the main screen was more than 30 meters, which left a slightly short sighted person like me at times guessing what the first ban was.
The setup was separated from the rest of the entertainment/food area. As a result of the relative short pauses I only went to the entertainment area like three times.
Overall I've gotta say that the setup was way better last time, even though it looked like they put a lot more money into it this time.

have you been sitting on the lower ring? i was on the upper ring both times and the screens were fine, well except that the ground screens were unusable when the sun was shining, but that didnt happen anyway. i think the setup with 2 seperate screens on the ground were questionable anyway because they were only really viewable from the very edges of the seating areas and didnt offer anything anyway. food / drinks were available on the isle that connected the different blocks, so you neither had to leave the stadium nor walk very far.

could it be that you were sitting on the lower ring on the edges? because those were most likely the worst places in the whole venue.

konadora

Singapore66364 Posts

June 22 2015 16:44 GMT

#12

that looks like ohayo, not mushi :p

Masamune

Canada3401 Posts

June 23 2015 06:49 GMT

#13

5/5

Great write-up! Iiked all those pictures of random Fuddx balloons and the cosplayers.

unsaeglich

260 Posts

June 23 2015 11:15 GMT

#14

I agree with Blackfeather, too. I am from Frankfurt, and I bought the Sunday ticket for 20 €(including 5€ steam card), and it was a nice event. But I only came for the 2nd Half final, and the Final. After the games ended 3-1 I was very happy, because like the whole stadium I really cheered for Secret and especially Kuro, but I also was very tired from sitting on these chairs for such a long time. For me the event was amazing, and I felt very good and a little proud about it. Just the communication with the crowd was amazing. My friend sadly couldn't come, so I was there by myself, but that wasn't a problem because where ever I went I was able to talk to everyone, and now I added a few guys from belgium on steam. It's also a good feeling if you realize the community that plays dota are actually a lot of handsome friendly people. And Tobi and Capitalist made watching the games a fucking pleasure. The prices for food were actually quite good (crépes w/ nutella for 3€? nice!), but ya, I smuggled a bottle of water and some apples and bananas in (knowing the stadium prices^^).

Pros: The atmosphere, the people, meeting the casters (and possibly the players), the games (finals were amazing), the screen quality was very good, sound was good (not too loud)
Cons: Seating isn't made for such a long time, you sort of have to smuggle in something to eat and drink,

next time I ll look for a way to give some guys free or very cheap sleeping places at my families house I think

(2 stations from the stadium away^^)

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