Goodbye 2011: Part 2

So in part 1, I waxed poetic about GCPL Season 1 and TSL3. Part 2 is just as romantic...and just as verbose. Enjoy my ramblings of my favorite tournament in late 2011 and a few shoutouts.

MLG Providence

StarCraft 2, Where the fans don't fuck around.

So this was a lot of firsts for me: my first LAN, my first MLG, my first StarCraft 2 tournament, and my first time watching (T)

SeleCT live. (Yeah, obviously I saw other matches but…) Reader if you’re interested in reading about my favorite (T)

SeleCT match of the weekend please refer to my old post.

HE CHECKS SETTINGS LIKE I DO!!

On Friday 11/18, I arrived after a 8.5 hour drive. Where I was standing I was trying to watch (P)

Tyler ladder, (P)

LiquidHerO versus (P)

HongUn, and a match with MarineKingPrime I was so out of it and already I was stunned at how I had arrived at the StarCraft 2 mecca. There was something in the atmosphere that was magical. Or maybe that was just me being so incredibly hungry that I was lightheaded and dizzy. I also literally almost ran into (P)

iNcontroL, (P)

Axslav,

StrifeCro, and Anna Prosser. Shit was wild but I was so out of it I couldn’t form words or hold a conversation at all.

Saturday I watched (Z)

Cheticus, a fine gentleman and friend from the 518, start his loser’s round run through the open bracket. My boy had the misfortune of running into (P)

Axslav in the first round. You know it’s a good tournament when pros are playing in round 1. So I spent a couple hours on Saturday morning watching him play. I think he made it to round 3 in the loser’s bracket. I know everyone shows up to watch the heavyweights but I thoroughly enjoyed watching up-coming talent and future gosu battle it out.

Afterwards, I went to the Team Dignitas meet and greet. Guess who I talked to? Guess who I embarrassed? Yup. ¯\_(?)_/¯

After those specific details, I forget the exact matches and when they were played. I remember the thunderous cheers during (T)

BoxeR versus (Z)

NesTea. And then the crowd around the Emperor on Sunday. I remember seeing (T)

LosirA and identifying him solely based on haircut. I remember no one recognizing (Z)

DongRaeGu as he walked around with violet until a fangirl squealed and drew attention. I remember talking to (P)

KiWiKaKi and having him bemoan his Championship bracket fate. (His first two matches were against (Z)

DongRaeGu and (T)

MMA.) I remember watching (T)

SeleCT versus (Z)

HayprO and telling (Z)

Ret the score and then chatting with him a little. I remember how jealous I was when I realized (Z)

Cheticus wasn’t joking and actually knew (Z)

Ret and his girlfriend Audrey; he was sitting with them in the player seating area. I remember being the first one to cheer (Z)

Sheth for his victory against MajOr; no one else cheered until (Z)

Sheth turned around and smiled. I remember the mass texts that my friend BAH sent me, while I guarded our seats on Sunday, when (Z)

HayprO was playing (T)

MVP at the feature station. And the tears I held back as I screamed Haypro Fighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-v0VeSE8dk

And I still don't think this video portrays how loud this cheer was.

I remember scaring (Z)

StrifeCro while walking to get lunch by yelling his name and holding up a fist. I remember checking the Liquipedia bracket about 39487 times the entire weekend because Liquipedia is so good and had the most up to date information. I remember how while following (P)

KiWiKaKi and his girlfriend on Sunday, 5 nerds next to me could not stop talking about the booty on said girlfriend….and then the smirk on (P)

KiWiKaKi’s face. I remember (P)

HuK trolling (P)

LiquidHerO by pulling up the Liquipedia guide to 4gate in Protoss versus Protoss…And then watching (P)

LiquidHerO actually going 4gate. I remember the heartbreak as I watched IdrA fall to (Z)

Leenock and then watching the following match where (P)

HuK lost as well. But most of all, I remember I put my hood up to hide my bitter disappointment as I watched (P)

NaNiwa get steamrolled by (Z)

Leenock. ( (P)

NaNiwa, why did you not switch your builds?! Why!?)

If you’ve never been to an MLG, you MUST GO. Don’t do it because I told you to or Day[9] said so or “for eSports”, do it because you’ll never spend a better $25 as a StarCraft 2 fan. I literally got ~27 hours of the highest quality StarCraft 2. Live. If GCPL made me a fan of tournaments, MLG Providence gave me an addiction to live LANs. I’m hoping to go to as many as possible in 2012. Just for all the little things. Oh, and for the matches. And perhaps a (T)

SeleCT victory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsvq6kP7Gto

Go to MLG just for the cheerfuls; It’s all about SignCraft and the fans.

Shoutouts

World All Stars

+ Show Spoiler +

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUb40awTL0k#t=0m15

Don't tell anyone about our special tactics. Then fast forward to 4:58 where you'll see the best thumbs down ever.

Who remembers this insanity? Remember when it was Brood War all over again? The foreigners were done at this time. We had no hope. But with (P)

White-Ra at the helm and my boys (Z)

Sen,

HuK, and

MorroW, we had a chance. Who would’ve thought that it would’ve gone all 15 matches? What a team effort. Like (Z)

HayprO at MLG Providence, the World All-Stars show that foreigners always have hope. Keep the faith.

[image loading]

White-Ra knows what's up.

Dreamhack

+ Show Spoiler +

I just remember always being surprised at the quality of the Dreamhack tournaments. It’s not that the Dreamhacks were bad, I just never got hyped up the way I did for MLG or TSL3. But I always was drawn back to them, whenever they were on. In April, I was at The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in Worcester, Massachusetts with Fallen. As we were waiting for a terrible band to stop playing, we were desperately trying to find out match scores for Dreamhack Stockholm’s round of 4. Obviously we were cheering for (P)

White-Ra and IdrA and were mad later to find out what an incredible tournament we had missed. Months later I found myself watching Hero versus Puma at Dreamhack Winter, again with Fallen. And that round of 4 was filled with amazing matches. Even (P)

NightEnD versus (T)

PuMa; we didn’t expect much from (P)

NightEnD. Also, I loved how (P)

LiquidHerO’s heart had a pulse of 4 at one point and clearly on camera, he was chugging a Red Bull.

But by far, my favorite moment was after (Z)

DongRaeGu beat (T)

ThorZaIN at Valencia. The image of DRG popping bottles is probably one of the best memories of 2011.

[image loading]

"All terran, ezpz"

IPL

+ Show Spoiler +

Season 1 was by far my favorite in terms of IGN’s big tournaments. Even though I felt Season 3 was a bit of a failure, I always enjoyed their Fight Club, Team Arena, Team Arena Challenge, and other smaller but more frequent events. It was always nice to have something to watch on a random Tuesday night. And it helped that I got to see some of my favorite players like (T)

ThorZaIN play those “random” matches.

MLG Global Invitationals

+ Show Spoiler +

Somehow, I felt like the Global Invitationals slipped under the radar. It had a solid casting duo, decent prize pool, great players, and sick matches. One of my biggest regrets is not driving 110mph on I-90 on 11/18 to make it to Providence in time to catch the finals. I would have LOVED to see (P)

NaNiwa crush (Z)

NesTea.

Battle.Net Invitationals

+ Show Spoiler +

Another set of tournaments that I felt flew under the radar. My favorite two sub-tournaments were the North American and European Invitationals. (Z)

Sheth had a sick run only to be stopped by my hero (T)

SeleCT. And (Z)

Ret remembered that he was an animal and just rolled nerds.

Day[9]

+ Show Spoiler +

As I surf TeamLiquid, I keep seeing the signature that says “I was an atheist until I watched a Day[9] daily.” I don’t think I’ve seen a truer post. Day[9] is the reason I survived my fourth year at college. Nothing is better than ending an 8 hour school-work filled day by watching a Funday Monday. The one where he requires all Terrans to float their base to another one at the beginning? I’m still laughing at that one. All the Newbie Tuesdays about how to ladder and improve? So good.

Guys, I like Day[9] so much that when he announced he was ditching MLG Providence for a wedding, I almost cancelled my trip. I like him that much. He’s helped me become a better gamer in so many ways. <3

It’s amazing that in just a year, I have all these amazing memories to look back on. I can only imagine what 2012 will hold.

Edit: The TLPD button is confusing....not sure how to get it to pull from just the SC2 database. For example, if I TLPD Idra, I still get his symbol as Terran.

Goodbye 2011: Part 2

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming