EPT
My day 1 of the WCG started at 6am EST, when I woke up (late) to catch my 8am flight out of Indianapolis. Luckily, I made it to my gate and was the last to board. After a short layover in Memphis and circling above cold, cloudy Seattle due to runway issues, I finally landed around 12pm PST. I hurried to meet up with Michelle (mnm) and JP by the baggage claim and waited for the another Gameriot guy (Rod) to arrive. We eventually got everyone and headed to our hotel - the Silver Cloud Hotel Stadium - and I was able to freshen up a bit before heading downstairs to eat at the restaurant in the lobby called Jimmy's on First. (They have amazing prime rib sandwiches, btw.)
We got a call from Brian that he was soon arriving to the hotel as well, so we sat around and waited a bit. By then it was near 3:00pm and I was itching to get to the event area in hopes to see and interview some progamers.
To be honest, once we got to the event area, I can't say that I recall things in time order. Again, this can be due to the lack of sleep I've been having so my apologies again. As soon as we got our Press badges and stepped in, the first progamer we bumped into was Draco. Being that we had just arrived, we weren't ready to give an interview so we merely exchanged some pleasantries as he promised to do an interview for us tomorrow and handed me his number (score!). We then went upstairs to the players' area where Michelle (the popular girl she is) was greeted by several familiar faces. Apparently Press are not allowed to be in the gaming area, but because it was so late in the day, (and the fact that Michelle knew a few of the refs) we were able to get in. I guess it didn't hurt that we were girls too. We were able to catch a glimpse of iNControl during his last match and tried to scope out as much as we could on who was playing where for tomorrow's events. While Michelle was getting the update of what had happened in Round 1 earlier in the day, I went ahead and tried to get some official looking Korean guys to tell me where the Korean SC progamers were to which, to my surprise, I was actually given a phone number to one of their manager to set up some interview times. When I got back, JohnRambo had just won his match and surprised us all by celebrating with a backflip in the middle of the tournament area! (I will definitely try and get him to do that tomorrow when we interview him) We were also able to talk with ToT)MidiaN( who had just lost all three of his games
Michelle and I walked around some more, got a few more numbers and promises of interviews as we waited for the opening ceremony to occur. We stopped by the Rock Band station where we saw Tasteless crooning away Bon Jovi's Wanted, Dead or Alive before heading into the Press Center. Michelle and I met up with JP, Rod and Brian in the Press Center and we were able to take a small breather. Mondragon was also in the Press Center so we moseyed our way over to him and made some small talk. He is really freakin tall, btw. I had called the Korean manager and he told me that they would be back at 5:10pm to the event area so we were able to have some downtime for awhile. At 5:30pm, the opening ceremony started. (The Korean manager guy hadn't called.) They opened with a B-Boy dance group called HYPE and an overly zealous beatboxer who was... well... uh... he tried. Even though the long, drawn-out performances were awesome -__- Michelle and I decided to walk around again to see who else was around. With a detour to the Halo 3 station where Michelle kicked my ass. Finally the flag ceremony started. It was really awesome (no sarcasm this time) to see 74 different countries represented! By 6:30 everything was over and I finally got my phone call from the Korean manager of the Star Craft progamers. He pretty much told me that they will have to "see how they feel tomorrow" for interviews but I'm not too worried. The attendees were starting to trickle out but we felt like we needed to film at least a player or two. Michelle was able to find Nyoken and iNControl (Team USA!) so where better to start but with players from our very own country? We had a good time interviewing, but felt unsettled there too, so we grabbed Mondragon from his computer in the Press Center to give us an interview as well. It was near 8:00pm when we finally finished and so we started to get ready to head back to our hotel when (and I always do this!) I lose my phone. For about 10 minutes of panicking and talking to everyone who worked there - I was able to retrieve it from security (Whew). That was enough adventure for one day, I thought and headed back to the hotel.
Around 9:30pm a friend of mine from high school (who now lives in Seattle, duh) gave me a call and so Michelle and I decided to spend some time out to actually SEE the Emerald City. We were able to visit the (closed) Farmers Market and the Seattle Space Needle as well as the University area. We met up with one of Michelle's friends too and the four of us had some bubble tea and Pita Pit. Although our time together was short, it was really nice to be able to take a break from the hustle and bustle. It was also really nice to see this friend of mine, since it had been QUITE some time since we graduated high school. We got back to the hotel around 12:30am and after doing this and that, here I sit writing my recap. I suppose I should get some sleep now so that I can have a productive day 2. So until tomorrow, good night all.
(I realize that a lot is the same as Michelle's blog, but I guess mine's a little shorter. I'm not very good with detail.)
Spunky lil chick who gets stuff done!
