EPT
I picked up Hot_Bid from SFO airport at 2 AM, t-minus two days before BlizzCon. He turned out to be quite a character; his online persona was definitely a mirror of what he’s like in real life. Confident and constantly scheming is how I’d describe him, haha. The day of his flight, he went ahead and posted a thread requesting TeamLiquid to design cheerfuls. Our goal was to at the very least have one for sAviOr and Nal_rA, if we got more, the better. Luckily, our calls were answered in less than 24 hours and we managed to get a cheerful designed for each of the Korean progamers.
The next morning, we went out for all-you-can-eat sushi and began our task of finding a place to print out the cheerfuls in color and have them laminated. The entire cheerful process made me realize how meticulous Hot_Bid is. It is no wonder the guy was able to churn out LiquiScoops monthly and heads the Final Edits project now. We definitely did not cut corners to get these cheerfuls done. Going to OfficeMax twice to redo XellOs’s cheerful wasn’t even a problem, we were going for perfection here, representing TeamLiquid. At the end of the day, we had six crisp, clean cheerful for the progamers. Along with a brand new whiteboard and a Staples Easy button, we were good to go.
Day 0
The drive from Davis to Anaheim is 443 miles, took us about six and a half hours, from 2 AM to 8:30 in the morning. We had good three hours before we could check into our EconoLodge room. A quick stop at Taco Bell for lunch and we were off to the Anaheim Convention Center. If we didn’t already have pictures on the site, it would be difficult to describe how friggin’ huge this facility was. 3 stories tall, 2 gigantic main halls on the first floor and various rooms on the second and third stories. Hot_Bid quickly whipped his camcorder and we began our quick run through of all the rooms.
We checked into the our room and crashed for a few hours. yubee phoned us around 2 in the afternoon and we swung by John Wayne Airport to pick his ass up too. When we got back, we saw Manifesto7 in the parking lot, apparently coming back from the Blizzard Summit meeting. The rest of Day 0 was waiting for other TL.netters to arrive. At night, Hot_Bid, yubee, Mani, Dknight, DJEtterStyle, omgbnetsux, Liquid`Meat, PanoRaMa, CharlieMurphy, PTC Hurricane, and I all hung out in Manifesto’s room and just chilled. We had a heads-up LAN setup where we took turns playing one vs one. Highlight match of the day was between yubee and Mani, with yubee taking it down 3-1 and spewing out shit talking galore. Good stuff.
Day 1
Eager to get there early, Hot_Bid, yubee, and Dknight left bright and early. I arrived at the convention center mid-morning and missed a few things early on. Upon walking into the main lobby, I must say the place was pretty damn packed. A Blizzard official who was handing out the passes the day before said that they sold roughly 8000 tickets for this event. Not bad… First thing I went to was the SC2 line. Played twice, one with Protoss and another with Terran, walked away fairly impressed with the game and have a lot of hope that SC2 will be more than capable to take over as the best RTS on the market. I found a crowd of TL.netters around the Pro Gamers Area where the Koreans were already underway in their games. My first impression of them was, “wow, they’re a lot taller on VODs, haha.” Height aside, they seemed like your typical Asian: quiet and reserved. In comparison however, the KTF guys definitely seemed more approachable than the CJ players.
Being a former WC3 player, I was able to follow along the Moon vs Grubby game before it got delayed because of a technical issue. But all in all, I have to say the game is not very entertaining for your average gaming spectator. 4:30 pm rolled around and a large group of TL.netters gathered on the ground smack in front of the center stage. TeamLiquid does not fail, equipped with a whiteboard and group cheers prepared, I am positive we made a scene during the first StarCraft broadcast. Props to Hot_Bid and his “Autocast is for Noobs”, “Real Men Macro”, and “MANI I STOOD FOR U.” Granted the last one was an inside joke, the crowd laughed with us whenever we put up a new sign. IriS v Yellow was a face trounce ez, but no surprise there. Storm Zerg’s muta micro could not match up with the Berserker’s macro and control.
After a few more hours of SC2 and the last game of the Winner’s Bracket, we all left the convention center around 10 and drove out to BJ’s for the TeamLiquid dinner. I sat with Hot_Bid, yubee, and the others and didn’t really have an opportunity to talk with the others but there was a good 40 of us at dinner at least. Thanks to mnm for setting it all up and a happy birthday to you.
Hot_Bid and Etter did not fail in humor that night, “Hello, I am tawt incontrol” says it all. I’d also like to say sup to XG3 who sat to my right, we chitchatted a little and left me with a good impression. And CyRiC, it’s a pity I didn’t have a chance to talk to you.Day 2
Face trounced. Curb stomped. Raped. Newbie bash. Call it what you want, but TL.net certain wrecked house on Day 2. After having a taste of SC2 from the day before, we were determined to pack as much SC2 into today as possible. We ran three teams: Hot_Bid/yubee, DJEtterStyle/omgbnetsux, and PanoRaMa/Neo. The six of us ran through every other non-TL team with ease, TL.net would be proud. We ended up playing at least 15 games each, I played Protoss in all of the games. Phoenix strongggggg. I’ll get into that later.
The progames were good, better than the day before. IriS definitely impressed me; he is now one of the few non-SKT Terrans that I would gladly cheer for in the future. His series against Nal_rA was good, though not spectacular. sAviOr vs rA on the other hand just showed why sAviOr is so feared. I’m glad rA went reaver/sair on Blitz X. I have no doubt in my mind that if I had to choose one Korean to display reaver/sair to the general public, it’d be rA and he surely did not disappoint. But even with great micro and control, the Maestro was not to be overcome. Game 2 was somewhat disappointing but simply solidifies the fact that it is exceptionally difficult to cheese sAviOr. We ended the final 4-5 hours of BlizzCon with more SC2. Definitely not a bad way to conclude the two day event.
Last Words and Shoutouts
I have been a TeamLiquid member for over five years and an experience such as this has made me glad I have been a part of this community for all this time. As an average gamer, I suppose I’d be as excited about the announcement of StarCraft 2, Blizzard titles have not failed me yet. But as a TL.netter, BlizzCon is that is memorable to me.
To those who came along-
Hot_Bid: Probably one of the most spontaneous people I know but at the same time, so very meticulous and driven. It was great having you drive down to Anaheim with me. Was definitely a pleasure. Best of luck in law school.
yubee: Totally surprised me, he talks more shit in person than he has ever in the past six months online, haha. Guess online impressions doesn’t always say everything about a person. Look forward to PvZ’ing you some more.
dknight: lol, some water will do you well
DJEtterStyle: Past exchanges aside, you’re a stand up guy. Never did have any issues with you in the past, thought I’d like to make that clear. We shared a warm parting in the end, didn’t we man luvr?
omgbnetsux: I give you the best TL.netter introduction ever.
PanoRaMa: Sup partner, let’s actually run a 2v2 team when SC2 comes out for retail. Epic hair indeed.
CharlieMurphy: Definitely not the SpoR/BloodBath/CharlieMurphy I imagined you to be, but for the better. Your antics will be remembered.
Liquid`Meat: You were probably the happiest person there. Always with a smile, cordial and totally approachable. I’m glad I was able to meet a foreign TL.netter, you certainly stayed in the US in style.
Manifesto7: Happy birthday TL.net dad, it was a pleasure meeting you. You are as humble in real life as you are online, TL.net is a better place with you at the reins. Btw, nice desktop, she is utterly adorable.
Until the next BlizzCon or TL.net gathering.
We'll be owning teh intarweb until then.
but nice write up!:-D i wish i could have gone to blizzcon
