EPTOn the screen before me was a heat drawn with shift queue'd move commands in the middle of a protoss base. Naniwa and HuK were playing a game, but that is not what held my attention. From where I stood I had the best view of a game between two of my favorite players. It was only the first series of games on the first day of MLG Anaheim and there I stood behind VP's HDGamer (HDstarcraft) and watched as he took on Jedi Master FXO's qxc. My mind was filled with worry for my zerg acquaintance. With only the recent return of HD's Ladder Games on his youtube channel I was concerned about his play. The events of game two from that series erased all doubt I had for HD. I watched him slowly edge ahead against qxc applying pressure to keep him from taking his third. There were numerous army trades and HD kept expanding behind them. Things looked well for my zerg hero, but not just any player achieves an all-kill in their career and his talent became apparent in the latter half of this game. qxc began heavy harassment and managed to finally begin setting up his third, at this point he was two bases behind with a 5th being morphed by HD. Bandana Terran fighting for position secured himself and another army trade seemed imminent, but good marine spreads forced HD's mutas to retreat and left much of qxc's forces intact. Then HD with his base advantage returned quickly with another double-ling muta force to the center of the map just after qxc received a rally of reinforcements. Guided as if by some unearthly power his marines scattered in all directions like the petals of some magical flower and the banelings of HD found no soft target to transform into a scorched corpse and popped harmlessly on tanks or under gunfire. With a massively successful defense qxc proceeded to push across the map and take location amidst HD's rally paths which ultimately won him the game. HD was sent to the lower bracket in the very first round, but if that game was any indication of the events to come overall then this would surely be an amazing tournament. HDstarcraft awed me with play I never predicted, g.g. sir.
The Days Before
Preceding the trip to Anaheim everything was uncertain. There was some dark humor in receiving a notice about my past-due hospital bills. Hopefully I can negotiate something with the damned collection agencies because the hospital and the doctor were unwilling to negotiate their payment plans towards a way where I might be capable of paying it. That notice was tossed aside and I shook my head and attended my online posts. There's times that I wished I was tracking the minutes from my conversations on the phone and vent and the number of forum posts, twitter messages, texts, and PMs that were sent leading up to this event. Living in a world of the immediate where there is no foreseeable future for anything you do is a frightening thing. Tomorrow I can have nothing and it's more likely to occur for me than for most people. While organizing this whole trip I had people agree to join up, then drop out, join again, drop again, and then new people were found to repeat the process. Eventually I managed to fill two of the three remaining spots in my vehicle, but that wasn't confirmed until literally a few hours before we were to leave.
Money in my life is a fleeting thing. Dollars speed from my hand so quickly mach numbers are the best descriptive speed. After MLG Columbus I had to pay two hundred dollars out to various parties because of the borrowing I had to resort to in order to make it happen. This time fell almost similarly. At the expense of food and gas I managed to scrape together a fistful of dollars to put towards the event. That would not be enough however and I spent a few afternoons in the sun doing yard work for the remaining few dollars. My rent wasn't paid for that month. The paycheck which was supposed to put that bill to rest became our hotel. With no money in hand I would be relying on my traveling companions to pay me at the event in order to recover my costs and pay my rent. Additionally my camera person had no money and I was to take on that added cost myself. Things looked grim, but I gambled on Columbus and it turned out ok. The die was cast again and I waited for it to land. I did not look forward to watching it roll and spin with indecision during idle moments over the weekend.
Day 1: Half Travel and Half MLG
Leaving my house at 3am was nothing special. Having slept for only an hour was a problem. My poor camera person had to drive the entire length of the trip both ways because no one else knew how to drive a manual. The drive was somewhat eventful, but otherwise typical for a roadtrip. That story will be told in video eventually. We were meeting friends who had flown into town and had made it there before us. One noteworthy highlight was seeing Team Liquid's Ret walking on the sidewalk as we were driving to our hotel. Leaning out the window I shouted "Hey Ret!" and he turned to me. "You're awesome!" I shouted giving a thumbs-up to him. Seeing Ret smile was awesome. I can't even imagine what it must be like to get a response like that from fans. Maybe someday in the far future when I do something good enough or bad enough to get noticed I'll have an experience like that. After some confusing with two hotels having very similar names we ended up at ours. Since we were a little bit early for check-in we left to cash Bandito and Arguyle's paychecks, went back to check in, dropped our things off, and then made our way to the convention center.
Before us was a line, but no one knew what it was for. Walking down alongside it towards the front we found another line which like the other seemed to have formed without an identifiable purpose. After making it to the front of the lines there was a gap between them both and the entrance doors. We decided to step inside briefly and ask which line was which. Once inside we found a short line and an empty line to buy player passes. Being not the type to question good fortune when it occurs we stepped up and paid for ours. As we walked away the players of team Evil Geniuses walked into the room. Quickly I stepped over to greet them after having met some of them before at a local LAN in Arizona and at the previous MLG in Columbus. The exchange was brief as they still had to check in so we parted ways. Back outside we looked at the line and after some mental math I discovered one of the lines was for spectators and one was for players. After asking a few people in both lines the players in the line were still waiting to check in and the people in the spectator line were waiting to buy passes. I found this to be odd considering my friends and I simply walked in, purchased ours, and walked out. Saying nothing about it we left to get lunch. Only one of us was concerned about getting into the venue right away. From my experience at Columbus I had learned that it matters very little if you are one of the first ones inside unless you really want a chair to sit in. The fun part of MLG doesn't usually kick off for a while. As we departed the area I stopped to introduce myself to VP's Dopa who was at the back of the player line that had formed. He and I had spoken briefly over the asc2 website's forum where he announced his moving to the state for school. Hunger grasping at me the talk was brief and the exchange ended with the intent to catch up later.
Chinese food doesn't count without stuffed won tons, cream cheese ragoons, or whatever those delicious slightly fried and creamcheese/crab filled morsels of sustenance are called. While passable in all other ways I was sad that the nearby place didn't have that particular side dish. Others opted for subway, but the line there was long and I have learned to value time. For those of you who spend as much time as I do encoding, rendering, and editing video then time must seem more valuable. Any moments spent in line, in traffic, on the phone, or doing anything else where my hands cannot be put to the purpose of making content is time wasted in my opinion. I wish I was a workaholic when it came to any of the other activities I'm involved in. Well, the ones that are left anyway.
Arriving back at the venue the line had doubled in size and it was big to begin with. After receiving no straight answer about this line's purpose we applied the same process to this as we did the last, walk to the front and ask there. At the front of the line we asked the man there what the line was for. His reply, "You gotta wait through the line to get in." and without a moment's hesitation I raised my arm to show my wristband and asked "What if we were already in, do we have to wait through the line again?" The reaction was so impulsive I didn't realize what I had said until after the words left my mouth. "Oh." The man said then paused looking at us. "You can go ahead in then.". He stepped aside and we walked by into the venue. I looked at my friends and asked aloud, "Did that just happen?" After a moment of confusion we shook it from our minds and went about our business.
Finally inside I moved quickly through the venue stopping to talk to as many people as I could. Seeing the familiar faces of Sheth, TT1, Painuser, Skew, Gatored, and qxc made me feel somewhat at home in what some would consider a chaotic environment. Few had time for much talk other than traded "hello nice to see you again"s, but my goal was simply to let everyone know I was back and looking for some interviews again. I'd only been starstruck twice when it comes to Starcraft. The first time was when I met QxG's iNkA at the Hotkeyit Arizona May Open and the second time was when Liquid's Ret approached outside at MLG Columbus late afternoon during day 3 and asked "Did you want to do that interview now?". Perhaps I'm a little bit over it after having met nearly all of Evil Geniuses' players at local LANs and from meeting so many at MLG Columbus. I didn't feel nervous at all however when I approached TLO at Anaheim. There was a short line and I stood patiently through it before stepping forward to shake his hand. After introducing myself again he asked, "Are you coming to all of the MLGs?" That was a happy moment for me. "Yes I am." I replied with a nod and a smile. Being recognized by TLO was an awesome moment. Thankfully it wasn't until afterwards that I began stumbling over words when retelling that exchange to my friends. I hope that I get to interview him at one of these events. There's several questions about his time playing Supreme Commander I want to ask.
The first paragraph describes my thoughts on the first games that were played, but that first broadcast game with HuK vs Naniwa felt a little familiar to me since I'd seen them play in recent events and was not as nerd-chill inspiring as I think an MLG game should feel. After writing it I wonder if the sentence before this one is correct, but even if it is not it was the best way to describe my thoughts at the time. When the second game's broadcast begun that is when me among many put everything else aside and watched the screen with rapt attention. Once again the clenched fist clad in spiked gauntlet that was a representitive of foreigner talent took the stage. There he stood before the Bonjwa as Gandalf stood before the Balrog with his presence speaking "You shall not pass". I feel as if everyone was watching that game. This was the beginning of a road where BoxeR once again was more than just BoxeR. BoxeR is The Emperor and he was here to remind us of just who people were dealing with. Many would herald his downfall upon forums and in person broadcast online, but most assuredly his day is not done. Sure he may struggle to don his armor and lift his weapon, but once he is armed foes will fall as numerous as leaves in fall while he battles his way to the top. In this writer's opinion BoxeR is deserving of being called "Champion" once again. If only for once more in his career it should be so and would the pose the question whether or not it counted as his 6th or 1st championship. We could use a Michael Phelps of Starcraft 2. HuK seems well on his way.
Disappoingtinly IdrA fell as BoxeR began his crusade through pool play. The Bonjwa-Emperor of Terrankind shoving aside those who opposed. While this happened I had to set my mind to it's task and while sad IdrA was defeated I was overjoyed that BoxeR had won. Turning back into the crowd I spoke to many and the day passed swiftly for me. I left at only midnight, but knew games would go on for longer. Unlike at Columbus I had a bed this time. Thought not perfect it was adequate. One hour's sleep does an easy time make.
Day 2: Temprament + Hosptial = weird day
The second day of MLG Anaheim began with a more personal trip. Leaving my friends behind that morning I told them I would be late to the event because of an important breakfast trip. For almost six years I played World of Warcraft, but have since had to quit due to a lack of money to keep playing. Fifteen dollars isn't a lot, but even with friends offering to buy the Cataclysm expansion for me to help with costs I still can't manage that fifteen bucks. A brief history is that I started around patch 1.9 and played until just before Cataclysm launch. During that time I played two characters. The first was a human mage named Gandair and is the name I carry with me today. Playing on Kil'Jaeden server I was spec'd for frost and pvp'd a lot. I joined a guild named <VATOCLAN> and with them played in a lot of battlegrounds, did goofy things with world pvp, and raided a little. During late Original WoW and early Burning Crusade the founding members left because of a move to Hawaii and while gone petty drama revolving around one of out warlock officers divided the guild somewhat. This division was made more apparant with 10-man raiding in early Burning Crusade. During that expansion I left to play on Dethecus server as an undead warrior named Ceria with my RL friends. Their guild fell apart shortly after I joined and I ended up playing solo and joining a guild on my own eventually getting into a top-tier content guild killing Illidan regularly. I did 2300 dps on Gorefiend once, it was a great time. Feeling guilty for leaving my <VATOCLAN> friends behind I went back to Kil'Jaeden to reunite with them. Many changes had occurred and shortly after being recruited again I was kicked by one of the newer officers for trash talking. A little trash talk was never an offense before and he "never heard of me so I must not be important" so my arguments to get back in were in vain. Speaking to my friends later they resolved it and offered me a spot back, but I declined preferring to play solo. I kept in contact with them periodically as I played. Over time I saw fewer and fewer online. When it got to the point that the only ones I saw were Shawt and Grundge I became sad and started playing less, eventually ending my playing there. That is the brief history of me and WoW. There are many more stories, but this is about Starcraft.
During my time on Dethecus server I met Kakao a troll priest. Her and I have spoken regularly over the years and I found out she would be in California for unrelated reasons so we decided to meet up for breakfast. It was wonderful to see her in person. Going into that meeting I was so worried things would be strange, but it was just like meeting any other old friend you hadn't seen in a while. That morning brought me great joy and I realized that this was a rare moment in my life where there was no stress, just happiness. Leaving that meeting with her I smiled. Freedom is how I would best describe that morning. Walking alone on the sidewalk back to the convention center I could do whatever I wanted, and go wherever I wanted. There was no one here to stop me. Typically there is always someone looking over my shoulder or some time-sensitive engagement to keep me down, but here in Anaheim nothing held me back.
Inside the venue again much of my time was spent orbiting the player area like some sort of eSports media satellite searching for players, broadcasters, and producers to interview. Short trips were taken outside to look around for people as well. I noticed that there seemed to be far fewer players around this MLG. The few that I did see were busy going to meetings or I would only catch them as they were on their way to lunch. Someday Catz I will interview you! It's understandable though that they would be so busy and I'm never bothered when a person declines. I'm here to add to eSports not to take away from anyone's experience. It was somewhat distressing though. In Columbus there were so many bright prospects and people to talk to, but here it seemed many times to be only me.
On a standard walk around the player area I saw something which didn't make any sense at all. A player known as Temprament was sitting down playing a game in the lower bracket. I looked on puzzled. Temprament is a player I knew from Arizona. He had played in a few of the Hotkeyit Arizona Opens that had been held there. I went outside despite the obnoxious sunburn I had to sit and ponder the absurd randomness of the situation. While outside I looked around for Ret who I hadn't seen at all since the first day. Having spent most of the day rarely seeing a player outside the player area and catching the few I did find as they were on their way to more pressing matters I was a bit annoyed. In my head I saw a future where I went home with no content to show for my effort or worse in my mind, only a couple interviews.
On my way back into the venue I saw Sheth as he was heading out. He asked me how my work was going and I told him terrible, not a single interview yet. Stopping where he was he told the people he was with that he would catch up in a moment and said I could interview him then if I'd like. Sheth is awesome and someone should make him fanart. It still looked grim leaving that interview, but I caught up with TT1 inside and was able to get one with him as well. I'm so thankful to have been able to follow up with him. TT1 is one of my favorite protoss players alongside iNkA and HongUn so it was wonderful to have the chance to talk to him at Anaheim. Still looking toward an uncertain future for my weekend's content I felt better having been able to get two successful followups. If my luck with interviewing them continues for the rest of the MLG season I will be very happy. After another pass around the player area I went back outside and saw Temprament sitting on a bench.
Stopping to talk to him I learned he was playing SlayerSAlicia next. I was surprised he was even here, but he had family in town apparantly so it wasn't a terribly difficult trip to make. He voiced some concerns over the protoss vs protoss matchup and we discussed the possibility of the matchup's volatility turning into a win for him. Earlier on I had encountered Dustin Browder one of the designers for Starcraft 2. I spoke to him briefly and thanked him for the work he does. Coming from world of Warcraft I know how far-reaching even simple patch changes can be. When I mentioned meeting him to Temprament he got really excited and wanted to know if I had a picture. After showing him the one I had he energetically talked about finding him later to complain about protoss vs protoss. During this conversation I got a phone call.
I hate getting phone calls. When my phone rings the large majority of the time I just don't give a damn about who's calling me or what they're calling about. The most common subjects are Dungeons and Dragons, being asked where I am, or being told news that I don't care about. Texts go mostly the same way. Most messages are about Dungeons and Dragons, being asked where I am, stupid forwards, or single word texts like "hi" that three to four texts later translate into a real question or comment. I once received the following, "Hi", "What are you doing?", "Can you do me a favor?", "Do you work Friday?", "Want to trade shifts with me on Friday?". All of that could have been condensed down into one text of, "Do you want to trade shifts with me Friday? I work 4pm-11pm. Text me back yes or no when you can." That fits into a single text and saves a ton of time. Have a character limit, put it to use please. Like I said above earlier I value time a lot. Unless these boring calls and texts are from a particularly hot girl or a really good friend I don't care. Dungeons and Dragons questions can be handled at the weekly game session. Odds are wanting to know where I am is important just so we can be bored in the same place as opposed to seperately. Maybe I'm a jerk and shouldn't care about little things like this, but dammit I want to be excited when I get a call or text, not shrug and be indifferent.
This time my phone rang and I said aloud to those present, "Watch this isn't important." and ate my own words. Damn did my words taste like soured milk mixed with pork fat. Our friend Phil was in the hospital. Confused by this I told two of my friends to take the car and go check it out. I continued my work at the venue now panicking because my name was on everything involving this trip. A couple hours later I discovered he fainted from beind dehydrated. After thinking about it that made sense. He hardly drank on the ride to Anaheim, and went to bed early the first day and didn't wake up until late the second. Since he didn't drink while sleeping obviously, and didn't on the seven hour car ride it made sense considering the heat and how much we spent outside on the first day. Thankfully he was ok and came back later that day. I have a heart problem. It's entirely possible to scare me to death. Panic and I do not get along.
Near the end of the day I saw Temprament again. He lost, but his games went well again Alicia. In detail we talked about what happened in them and he saw two opportunities to win. I hope he can go to Raleigh because I didn't know how good he was. I left the venue at midnight. Throughout the day I'd seen a guy grabbing interviews constantly throughout the weekend. He didn't have a press pass and I didn't recognize him from any production. It was confusing and I was irritated. I kept asking myself what he was doing that I wasn't which was giving him content. Was I doing something wrong? Am I just not that good? It was bothersome and I slept poorly.
Day 3: 67 vikings and not a party to be found
It took me a week to begin writing this story and I got as far as the title to this section in one sitting. Now it's four days since then, my hard drive is failing, my monitor is also failing, I went on a date with what appeared to be a very nice girl which turned sour when she laughed in my face when I mentioned any further meetings, I'm missing a piece of video from what I recorded on the road in California, and Raleigh is only three weeks away, but I haven't been able to secure a flight yet. The arms of my best friend are far from me and I am sad. However among all of these unfortunate things of wildly varying seriousness there is one thing that makes me a combination of happy and sad. There is a specific word for that feeling, but it escapes me.
Standing in the crowd at MLG Anaheim my amazing (words don't accurately describe just how amazing) camera person was there with me. The lovably talkative Weaklink stood with us as well. Looking to my left I could see qxc smiling and talking to the people standing near him in the crowd. Thinking back on it that would have been a great picture to have taken. Looking back over my shoulder at my camera person I smiled before stepping a little deeper into the crowd. Playing on the screen before us was The Emperor SlayerS_BoxeR playing against Fnatic.MSI's Rain. BoxeR's smiling face throughout the event and joyous celebration when he won dismissed the clouds of worry that commonly lingered in my mind. Watching as the map was split, M.U.L.E.S. became weapons, a field of missile turrets was erected, and the shining disco of lights from point defense drones colored the batttlefield. Sixty-seven vikings was an unheard of number. Rain was running out of gas. Both players had downsized their worker count in favor of more offensive power, but neither would yield position.
Countless words were traded among the spectators. People were breaking down the army compositions and trying to figure out what the best answer would be in this situation. Could BoxeR take some of his impressive viking count and use landed vikings to divert Rain's force or would it leave him without adequate defense should he be pushed during the maneuver? Would it be possible for The Emperor to drop medivacs full of ghosts and make use of multiple nukes to disable Rain's last mining base while somehow avoiding detection from the missile turrets and sensor tower? Both players seemed to know everything that was going on as Scanner Sweeps were in abundance and thors stood tall as they watched over their precious air support. Seige tanks on the streets of Metalopolis would have been served parking tickets in any other circumstance, but in this game their crews looked on timidly wondering if they would make it out of their position safety with capital ships overhead. BoxeR broke the rapt silence of the crowd with uneasy laughter as "David Some Why?" appeared on the screen. Rain's "lol" response provoked broken chuckles from the masses.
Slowly we watched our hero be backed into a corner. BoxeR came to this MLG and made it clear to all in attendance that he is still a powerful player. With a 5-0 score in group play he was the fist of the Bonjwa spirit being thrust into the face of foreign Starcraft 2. Several tense retreats of BoxeR's vikings from Rain's Hunter Seeker missiles allowed Fnatic.MSI's newest player to inch forward. Nukes from Rain's silos dropped closer and close to BoxeR's starports forcing them to retreat backward. Ghosts from both player's forces encountered each other in quickly decided exchanged of EMP and Snipe. Being encroached upon from the three o'clock and nine o'clock pathways toward his entrenchment at twelve BoxeR made the first move. The bloud of gray hovering outside his base burned brightly with orange as his air force's engines came to life blasting them forward into battle. Rain's many raven's filled the sky with point defense drones and the biggest lightshow in all of starcraft 2 began. There was a brief exchange of yamato cannon fire as BoxeR micromanaged his vikings back and forth to minimize the damage they were taking. With no soft targets in range Rain focused all of his raven's onto the battlecruiser cluster of BoxeR. Hunter Seeker Missiles bore down upon The Emperor's capital ships and BoxeR's weapons of mass destruction fell from the sky. Sending his vikings in to attempt to reduce the battlecruiser count of Rain was a vain attempt as those long idle thors sent a volley of shots into the viking cloud forcing their retreat. Rain landed some vikings in BoxeR's main to begin emptying bullets into his production structures as the tanks finally free to move set up right outside the tweleve o'clock base wedging himself amongst the reinforcement paths of BoxeR's buildings.
Then something unexpected happened. The orbital command at the twelve o'clock position took to the air as there was another exchange of vikings in the sky. Retreating from that engagement BoxeR escorted his final building to the upper left corner of the map. Tense moments passed as he babysat it with his four remaining vikings. Rain had no more vespene gas, there was no more on the map. If BoxeR could remove the last of Rain's vikings from the sky then the game would be a draw as his orbital floated out of reach of Rain's thors. Fortunately for Rain he had one remaining raven after the final big exchange and it's point defense drone ultimately secured him victory. That was only the first game of the series.
Throughout the remainder of the day I struggled to find players I could interview. Complexity's CatZ was on his way out to do things with his team. qxc just wasn't feeling up to it. Team Evil Geniuses was nowhere to be found. The members of sixjax and Liquid had made themselves scare as well. That Sunday was devoid of the talent I sought to showcase for the fans. While discouraging at first I did manage to track down two of the players I was most excited to encounter, Evil Geniuses' LzGaMeR and VP's dOpa. Lz was high on my list to speak to because of his tecent attendance of a local LAN in Arizona where I live. He does not live there so it was a major treat to see him play then. VP's dOpa is a player I've enjoyed watching since I found games of him on HDstarcraft's channel several months ago and I recently had been introduced to him through Arizona's local website azsc2.com.
As the day wound down MMA and MVP battled to see which combined letters of the alphabet were more powerful than the other and the crowd dispersed quickly once the final game had come to a close. Stepping outside I was sad. For one I was worried that my lack of content would be poorly received considering the success I had with Columbus, but something else was pulling at the back of my mind. My freedom was soon to leave me. To me MLG had been about community and about expression. Being able to come to an event where everyone immediately has something in common and everyone is excited to play games or see their favorite players/games play/be played is a remarkable thing. Here at these MLGs it matters not what race, age, gender, or skill level you are because everyone is welcome. People who play the games casually or not at all are welcome. Anyone can attend and anyone can be involved as long as they decide to do so. It always surprises me how good this community of Starcraft 2 is and how cheerful everyone seems to be. Whether it's players like qxc, Sheth, TT1, TLO, HDstarcraft, Machine, producers like SirScoots, Day9, DjWheat, JpMcdaniel, Destiny, MLG staff like Katie Goldberg, Slasher, Sundance, Lee, community authors and media like Leah B. Jackson, Raelcun, Josh Suth, Hot_Bid, and local Arizona players like Temprament, Gatored, and Piro, everyone stands under the same umbrella.
While walking back to the hotel I was saddened that I was unable to find out where the parties afterward were being held. Personally I am rather shy and am not one typically to approach other people despite what my chosen method of eSports may suggest. I was really hoping for another opportunity like I had at Columbus to speak to people candidly about eSports and life in general. The most memorable conversation I've had so far was with AskJoshy at a bar after MLG Columbus. Speaking to him gave me a lot of insight and helped me refine the focus of what I wanted to do for Starcraft. Truthfully I was somewhat bitter after asking a few people and being brushed off with "sorry it's invite only" and "It's kind of more for known people" that I went back to my hotel to pack in a soured mood. Though that one experience is only a small bump in the road as I look forward to Raleigh, if I can make it there that is. It will be the most difficult event for me to attend. After speaking to Slasher at Anaheim and hearing him speak of "I've known a lot of people like you. They show up eager to work, but burn out quickly and that's it." I have become more resolved. Slasher I will do my best to burn brightly and consistently.
One Week Later
Here I sit finally finishing this article. There's many time when I find myself with a lot to say, but no one to say it to. Hopefully my words are of interest to some, but if not I hope you can instead find pleasure in my ridicule. I enjoy trash talk especially if it's funny. Perhaps that comes from my background in FPS games and PvP during WoW. I am fearful about my ability to attend Raleigh. After hearing what Slasher said I do not want to be another person who burns bright, but briefly. My desire is to be a consistent source of illumination for Starcraft. As long as the total time people spend watching my interviews (views multiplied by video length) exceeds the amount of time I spent recording, editing, and uploading them then I have done my job. Anything beyond that is just a bonus.
As it stands now Raleigh will be hard. My flights haven't been coordinated yet and I haven't found any other people willing to get involved on the tip. The event in Orlando should go well and Providence will be amazing, but my eyes are on the present, their pupils dilated and watchful. I began to type this as "I hope I will see you all there" but I changed my mind in favor of, I will see you in Raleigh, if not before then. For better or worse I will make that trip regardless of how bad a financial decision it may be. No one ever got anywhere quickly in life by playing it safe. Win big or go home is my plan, if there's a home to return to that is.
With ths posting of this MLG Anaheim is finally over for me. I am happy to put that event to rest and am hopefully for the futre. Special thanks to my camera person and my friends which attended the event with me. Thanks to Slasher, Leah B. Jackson, and Raelcun for the conversation. Some of things you guys said really helped set me straight in my mind about stuff. Thanks to HDstarcraft and qxc for that amazing game 2 of your first set of the event. Thanks to Dustin Browder for being awesome. Thank you all for reading this and thanks to those who watch my interviews and/or subscribe to my youtube channel. Lastly, thank you KimZ and Nessarose. When I find myself overwhelmed by life one of you seems to always be there. None of my work with Starcraft would have started without your initial and continued support.
The Interviews: For your viewing pleasure here are my interviews (audio fixed now) from Anaheim.
Attero
dOpa
Xeris
LzGaMeR
Sheth
TT1
