LAN B4 Time III @ Berkeley 2008
Past topics:
Berkeley 2007 LAN B4 Time II
Zalfor's Berkeley 2007 LAN B4 Time II Blog
LAN B4 Time III yesterday on Friday was great. I took several pictures and the organization of the LAN was so much improved from last year, I was really impressed! This year they had snacks for sale, air mattresses, people with good cameras taking pictures, broadcasted finals on a projector (with Zalfor commentating), and they recorded us playing. Things, although they went smoothly, were a bit slow, but overall very fun! Unfortunately yosh or G5 didn't come, but it was fun regardless and I think the turnout was even greater than last year even though there was such short notice.
I began the day excited. At 7:00 I arrived in Berkeley and my brother had to eat some dinner a bit before we left - we arrived at Dwinelle at about 7:35 and there were already several people there. Many people I did not recognize, but I met Anthony (phase) and Nimue and Aaron (Gearitup). My brother's friends also showed up and I met them for this first time. As I began to set up the laptop and warm up, guess who showed up?
Evanthebouncey! bLAHAGHAagahgghahgahAHAGAHGAH!!!
I had met Evan the last year, and he is very fun to be around!
My brother Jing and his friends: Jing, Joey, Tren, Young
General overview of the room at about 8:30 - Zalfor at the far left, GreenGloop (in the green shirt), Nimue at the front of the room in the HYE shirt, Heathen (LxRogue) at the far right
People crowding around Anthony (phase) and his fast Terran hands, from left to right: Joey, Tren, John (Zalfor), Young, Anthony (phase), ?
Hey, it's paper! paper came last year and is a very cool person, although he didn't play any Starcraft and just obsed for about 4 hours or so (probably left to play DotA, LAWL)
Don't know the names of all the people in the picture but they are all watching Evan play some epic Starcraft, in the center of the picture are paper and evan.
From left to right: Allen (Nimue), Heathen (LxRogue) and Aaron (Gearitup). Aaron was referred to as 'the white guy' and Heathen was referred to as 'the other white guy'. They were the only white people in the tournament. On the board is Starcraft DeCAL - some course sometime next semester that Nimue (?), Yosh and some other people are going to be teaching that involves Starcraft strategy afaik. Heathen is left-handed and actually used the mouse with his left hand and macroed with his right hand, and it was quite interesting to watch. Nimue was some 380 apm C- Protoss and was really fast.
Evan
Evan warping in a pylon! =O
Evanthebouncey!: "Reebo!!! Reebo!!! Reebo reebo reebo reebo reobeobeoboeboeboboeobobobo!!!"
People crowding around to watch my brother play vs Evan. Look at the smiles and laughs on my brother's face as his reaver owns Evan's probes, and then look at Evan's gaping wide mouth as he is astonished by the incredible damage.
We had 3 girls at the LAN - one was playing the just-released WoW: Wrath of the Lich King (pshhh), and the other two played Starcraft ;D
A picture of me taking my miracle Starcraft drink in preparation for a game
Me playing vs John (Zalfor) ZvZ in an epic loser bracket semifinals. More on this later.
The finals - me and Heathen were set to another room to play while it was broadcasted on the projector in the other room.
My face of determination!
Heathen stares/glares at me with a wicked smile in an attempt to intimidate me... your actions do not phase me!!! Or do they =(
The main coordinator (I still forgot to ask his name this year) of the event informed us of what we were going to do. Heathen has his black screen of death.
Our first game on Andromeda begins.
The projector screen showing our match live, with commentary by John (Zalfor)
A mutalisk battle takes place. I had superior micro to him and was able to constantly take out his larger forces, but his economy builds and my lack of damage to him eventually led to my demise as he overran me.
Very fun event. I had lots of fun. Last Romantic also popped in for about 10 minutes and mingled around, but left because he HATES STARCRAFT!!!!%!@I)%!#*%^)#^T) %T*@V%_@TIFW
I got 2nd place in the tournament and $20, Heathen got 1st place and $40. The only sets that I lost were to Heathen, when he dropped me to losers' brackets and then again in the finals. However, I was very very happy with the outcome and found out he was about C+/B- rank too. Although I originally was going to leave early at around 11 o clock or so because of a volleyball tournament the next day, I could not leave because it was so fun (I wanted to continue playing in the tournament to see how far I got) and I stayed until almost 2:30 AM, and had to run on the tournament today with 3 hours of sleep. Didn't affect me much though!
The majority of all the people were Zerg, with a few Protoss and only one Terran afaik. Thus, I played many ZvZs and just only one ZvP and no ZvT. Heathen dropped me down to losers' bracket with a good hydralisk build that I did not counter effectively because I wasted too many units in defending a far away expansion. The second game he overran me when 6 of my scourge hit one mutalisk.
Next, I played some more people and 2-0'd them, and I finally came upon Zalfor in the losers' brackets. In an epic ZvZ set, I triumphed 2-1. First game I lost pretty badly, and the second game I was able to come on top. The last game was easily the best, with both of our apm jumping 20-30 more than average (we both had about 205 apm). Zalfor has not been playing much recently, yet he is still extremely strong. Last year he took 2nd place to yosh, this year he was dropped to losers' brackets by Heathen as well. It was a great series and I only saved one of the replays, but I hope Zalfor saved the rest, although I'm not sure if he did.
Finally in the finals after beating Nimue, I went in unconfident because I was already 0-2 vs Heathen. Regardless, I tried my best. Both of the games were fairly good, although I'll still have to check the replays to analyze his play more, I think he did some sort of 9 overpool fast expansion and lair. First game I went 9 overpool and we were fairly even until his expansion was able to kick in and overrun me. Second game I was behind the whole game and almost came back with 2.5 control groups of lings I sent at him as I was dying, taking out his entire main but only getting his last hatchery down to mid-red before he fended it off with newly hatched eggs and mutas. I was still alive at this point, but with only 2 drones vs his 2 drones (and 6 lings and 12 or so mutas), I had to type out.
The LAN was great fun and can't wait for the next one! Thanks for reading.