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I just want to talk about my experience at today's lan in the washington DC area. First of all the obvious shoutouts to Gretorp for winning the tournament, Luckyfool for hosting another great lan, and even getting 2nd place after an epic epic series with lastshadow.
I did not participate myself in this tournament because I was tilting so hardcore around signups that I decided it wasn't in my best interest to play this time, we'll see how that works out in the next LAN.
I'm not sure how I want to format this blog, I think first of all I should summarize what had happened and what I did. Since I did not play in this tournament I helped out how I could by moderating the stream (standard) and updating the brackets and trying to post on team liquid as results came in. Tried to help out Torenhire, Luckyfool, and GenoZStriker setting up all the matches and results and attempting to piece things together, no joke, Torenhire and Geno are some of the heroes of this lan. I had fun watching over a few peoples shoulders, seeing how quick some of these players are is absolutely incredible. The series between LuckyFool and LastShadow is one of the best series I've seen yet where Luckyfool is a pretty big underdog but was able to come out ahead. Hopefully those replays will be put out because the Game 5 was truly incredible.
I learned a lot of things at this lan, the ability to run a smooth tournament is pretty difficult but I think that everything that could have been done under our control was done the right way, and nobody is to blame except Battle.net 2.shit
Time to make a big list of thanks and just general posts about everyone:
Luckyfool: Amazing games, your TvT is definitely one of the most underrated and just a really powerful matchup, hopefully you can pick up some new builds and work on all 3 matchups and get up there. Thanks for the amazing LAN, thanks for everything as always.
Torenhire: I met you once way back in May but I don't think I've seen you mroe than once or twice (at the most) ever since then, was great to be around you and see that you were able to run the tournament as smooth as can be, its pretty incredible we got through the whole tournament in such a timely fashion.
GenoZStriker: Dude I've been talking to you for a long time now on EG vent, I've always read articles on myeg.net and it was awesome to know that you lived in this area and that we were finally able to meet, you're a freaking awesome guy and really a true gem and service to the community.
LastShadow: I know that lastshadow might be one of the most polarizing figures in the TL/starcraft community, but unfortunately I think that nobody can really know what he's like til you've met him in person. I'll admit, I always thought of LS as the ex-hacker that has been banned permanently from teamliquid but what a shame that is, considering nowadays there are a lot of high level and professionally signed/contracted players that used to hack at one point. These guys are considered to have mended their ways after 1-2 years, and now they're openly allowed on teamliquid. LS is one fucking HELL of a player, and one hell of a skilled player. He's been to so many LAN's ever since he was caught for his bad deeds in the past, placed amazingly in many, and is just an overall nice guy. He was extremely friendly to everyone at the LAN, showed a hell of a lot of amazing play, and in my opinion needs to have been forgiven and have his permanent ban removed from TL, after a full 4 years of being punished. I was a skeptic of LS before but now I have so much respect for him it is incredible.
Caucasian: You've always been great to me, you've given me countless rides week after week ever since we met in May, you even helped out by driving my two CSL teammates back and forth to and from the LAN center and really, you've always been an awesome friend, hopefully I'll see you in 3 weekends.
Shiver: Was nice seeing you on SC2 again for once, you did an amazing job and it was pretty awesome to see you vs orb actually match up in the RO16 . The brackets couldn't have worked out any better.
Storr: I wore your Oz jacket wheeeeee <3
I am so thankful that I am in one of the best TL/SC communities in the US. The DC area truly is one of the best and most up and coming areas to live in, and it was great to meet old and new faces at this tournament. To have like 50 people play in the tournament and countless others come just to watch was really an awesome experience. Seriously, to anyone who lives in the Maryland, DC, northern virginia area you need to come out to events like this, we're all friendly (or most of us at least  ) and its always great games and good times. The prize pool for these tournaments will only get bigger and bigger each time, as we can hopefully get some sponsorships and larger prize pools along with the more entrants that come in to compete each LAN.
tl;dr version:
Luckyfool's lans are awesome
Toren/Geno are amazing administrators
Games were awesome
Lets get Lastshadow unbanned from TL, he deserves it, and he is an amazing guy.
Thanks again to everyone, see you all in 3 weeks at MLG DC. Say hi, let me take videos of you all in blogs and interviews etc. I'll be cheering hardcore for all my friends that I've met and all the friends I will meet at MLG.
Peace~
-Zlasher
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Zslasher =/= Slasher
:D it was great.
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I fell asleep, just like I was during the lan
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Nice blog,  Julyzerg.
So BM forgetting Nokarot and me.
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What was I gonna say about you  calling me julyzerg
I should just write Thanks to Sadistx for losing 22 scv's to a single psi storm, and thanks again to him for losing ~20 scvs but 15 of them on a single hellion strike.
Workers around the world shed tears when they heard about your games 
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On September 26 2010 14:08 ZlaSHeR wrote:
LastShadow: I know that lastshadow might be one of the most polarizing figures in the TL/starcraft community, but unfortunately I think that nobody can really know what he's like til you've met him in person. I'll admit, I always thought of LS as the ex-hacker that has been banned permanently from teamliquid but what a shame that is, considering nowadays there are a lot of high level and professionally signed/contracted players that used to hack at one point. These guys are considered to have mended their ways after 1-2 years, and now they're openly allowed on teamliquid. LS is one fucking HELL of a player, and one hell of a skilled player. He's been to so many LAN's ever since he was caught for his bad deeds in the past, placed amazingly in many, and is just an overall nice guy. He was extremely friendly to everyone at the LAN, showed a hell of a lot of amazing play, and in my opinion needs to have been forgiven and have his permanent ban removed from TL, after a full 4 years of being punished. I was a skeptic of LS before but now I have so much respect for him it is incredible.
Lets get Lastshadow unbanned from TL, he deserves it, and he is an amazing guy.
Just like to comment on the Lastshadow bit. He's definitely polarizing. I think the first time I heard of him (before the LANs) it was just like you described. He kinda seemed like he'd be the braggy uptight jerk type (no offense LS), I just kind of had a not-so-great image of him in my head.
I'll be damned, LastShadow is a great guy. He's a hell of a guy to hang with at the LANs. Really well-mannered, can be kind of intimidating when he gets in the "zone" when in a match, but I think alot of the heat against LS is just pre-judging. He's off the hacking bit, and he is still a really strong player. In both BW and SC2. I've watched him play a couple BOx over his shoulder and it's just ridiculous. I imagine seeing any really good player in person gives off a similar wow-factor, but I just think it's time to put the past in the past and give him another chance.
He's definitely one of the LAN favorites, he's not hard to get along with. It's not my call, anyhow, but hopefully a good portion of us can vouch for him and maybe something will happen. *shrug*
Thanks for the kudos, Z. I'm pretty sure we met waaaay before May, just I'm so infrequent you forgot me and then re-met me. Lol. Thanks for helping out, hopefully we can get another big one going in a few month. Mr Kim is more than happy to get us back in there, and that place is 187239567264983427639487x better than Seoul PC.
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So sad I couldn't come, sounds like it was really awesome though!!! Nice job Rob on 2nd! And yeah, LS is a lot different than most people think.
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Lol Suppy, someone (I think Storr or Chris) was talking about how this morning they were at the supermarket or something and saw your doppleganger haha
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Thanks so much for blogging about this Zlasher, not enough people blog about our events!
I hope everyone had an awesome time. <3 u all (except orb who was very unprofessional in his actions today, but I'll be addressing this in my own post)
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United States22883 Posts
Well mannered? Tell that to Silver.
On top of that he was caught rigging maps twice, cheated during WCG qualifiers and abused in TSL. No, I don't think I support giving him a sixth chance. You reap what you sow, and this is it.
Aside from that, nice write up.
EDIT: Also, I don't think he's particularly polarizing at all. 99.9% hate him, that's pretty strong unification if you ask me.
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and 99.95% haven't met him. And lets be serious, manners aren't the reasoning behind bans, otherwise there are quite a few people who wouldn't be on teamliquid, but just because they're large profile names they can get away with it, or even get featured as a stream for it. Also, there was another certain someone caused for cheating in WCG qualifiers this year, and there are people who were proven to abuse in TSL and were caught hacking that I won't name, but lets just say they are quite high profile names in the SC community.
Four years ago he was banned and four years he hasn't posted on TL. Were you as mature as you are now 4 years ago? Were you as mature at age 8 compared to age 12, or 12 to 16, or 16 to 20?
Fair enough though, I haven't been around here as long as many of you guys, maybe you wont award him his share, it is TL's admins and moderators decision to make and I understand the reasoning behind their decision to keep him banned, I'm just saying I HAVE met him. He is as highly skilled if not better than the other ex-hackers/abusers/cheaters that roam happily on team liquid just because they're on a pro team or were on a pro team.
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United States22883 Posts
Fair point, I just think the history is too long. I don't think the other cheaters that have been let back in had serially done it, and even then I think it's at least a year before they're allowed back in just for doing it once. Just so you know, I'm just speaking for myself, not the moderation staff on this.
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When I was 15 years old, I played some Dota and was one of THOSE guys, I played counterstrike where being BM is a requirement lol. LS hacked 4 years ago, he doesn't now, he's placed well in tournaments, he might have BM'd people before, maybe he still does now, hmm...I'm thinking of a few certain team liquid members (as in community members, not players) that are known for BM, he might have boosted in TSL, then maybe a TSL3/4 ban can be implemented, but I'm pretty sure he's learned a lot of lessons over the course of 4 years. TL is a rare community that I have found to be welcoming and allowing people the chance to repent, and some people might not learn their lesson after a 2 day, 3 day, 7 day, 14 day, month long ban, but its hard to argue that someone who has taken 4 years off the largest foreign starcraft community and still stuck around to read the news, read posts, watch streams, and place well in tournaments hasn't learned some sort of lesson, especially if its 4 years of the teenage years lol.
I guess that should be all about that though? :x
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While arguing my point likely won't change anyone's mind or decisions - Even the guys who abused the TSL ladders aren't banned forever. He's definitely a different person nowadays, he lost his BM, disrespectful attitude and he's a really swell guy. At multiple LANs he's proven that he doesn't need hacks to be a high level player anymore.
If folks mind are made up, though, there's no point in getting into it. I just feel like a permaban is too harsh on a guy who's as nice and helpful at LS has turned out to be. We talked about it today at the LAN, he's (obviously) not all that happy about it, but he never made any nasty comments about mods, or the people involved in banning him. All he really said about it was that it sucked that he was permanently banned when others have been given a chance to come back into the community after hacking/abusing. It's been four years, he's "grown up" so to speak.
My own 2c. I understand your reasons, Jibba, and it makes sense. Unbanning LS won't go back and undo what LS did by cheating. And I know it's not hard to say "He did it a bunch before, what's gonna stop him from doing it again?" but I just feel like he's not the type to go back to doing that. Cause and effect though. You reap what you sow is pretty much hitting the nail on the head. Was worth mentioning, at least.
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awesome thread i really like it everything that u say i agree ^^. i shoulda done something similar to this but im soo tired too xD hope to see you all at mlg!!!!
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God damn it, I'm so mad I couldn't go. I neeeeeeeed to get to some DC-area events/meetups!
Hope to see some of you guys in the future.
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Baltimore, USA22259 Posts
Doesn't matter what he's like now, LS can't un-do what he did. Even if we don't actually believe he'll ever cheat again, that's not the point. He's burned his bridges here too many times.
Don't expect the ban to be lifted.
That said, I really wish I could have been there.
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Korea (South)11595 Posts
This was LS apology thread, http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=63802
I for one respect LS way more than I did even 6 months ago. Meeting him, makes you really realize he's not the 14 year old kid he was 4 years ago.
I mean, shit, I used to hack when I was 13 or 14 years old on fastest maps and no rush 20 games all day. Got my CD key muted for it and everything.
Everyone fucks up when you're a young kid. I'm sure everyone has cheated at something when they're at that age.
He doesn't cheat anymore, he even went to Slog4[pG]'s house and played on ICCUP against B/A rank players to prove it. I respect Slog, and if he says he thinks LS is good, then i'll give LS credit. He isn't bad mannered at all, he's easy to get along with, and all of that shit.
If you want to look at other hackers that are now hugely respected members of the community, we can look at other players.
1) Elky/Smuft for hosting the WDT tournament, and not allowing the winner to go to Korea and try to be a pro gamer.
But Elky/Smuft grew up and are now apparently a fun group of guys to hang out with if you make it to Seoul or Vegas or wherever they are at the time.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=76779
2) TT1 for being the sole reason BrainClan (private Korean BW server) banned non-korean IP addresses for hacking on their server.
Now he has a featured stream, and a well respected player.
3) DinO hacking, then going to WCG and smashing people, and iNControl/Xeris says "yeah, he's good" and everyone forgives him. lol
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=70094¤tpage=5
4) Testie - old time hacker, famous for hacking. He was actually caught hacking not once, not twice, but three times. Admits to it, and was still invited to rS, ToT, and Nal teams despite his reputation of being a previous hacker.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=10047
5) Haypro & Selector, both players were banned from Templars of Twilight ( ToT ) because of hacking against Strelok in a Qcup match. Now Haypro is a part of Team Liquid in Korea.
http://www.mymym.com/en/news/11548.html
There's many more people like this, who the community has hated for a while, and after they prove themselves they are allowed back in.
I think even Semih or TAD[nnilf] should be allowed back into the community if they clean up their act a ton, and prove that they have matured.
In my eyes LastShadow has at least.
Everything besides the LS Drama, I had fun at the tournament. Played a game on orbs account in a random custom game (made him think I was playing ladder LOL JAKE!) Learned a ton about Starcraft 2, nuked StorrZergs army, ate chipotle for the first time in years, and many other fun times.
Hopefully I'll see you all soon again!
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United States22883 Posts
He cheated in WCG and TSL after making that thread. ;o For me, that's where he reaches unredeemable territory.
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EPT
