Why you need to attend a LAN event

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 21 2013 18:19 GMT

With the big tournaments of 2013 looking to get rolling here in the next few weeks with IEM, MLG, IPL, etc all gearing up for March events I thought I'd finally getting around to telling you all how fucking great attending a LAN event is. If you have gone to one, I hope you had half as much fun as me in going because I literally had the greatest weekend of my life.

Last November I attended MLG Dallas as promised. I went with some new friends I made through the Texas Tech CSL group and man, was it ever worth it. I had NO money when I went, I had no big plans or anything like that. I wasn't going to do interviews for my Youtube channel or try to compete in the open bracket and hope to be picked up by EG. I was just a humble eSports fan hoping to go show some support for my favorite game SC2 and some of my favorite players.

As my friends who came with me to the event with soon discovered, EVERY player is my favorite player. Before I digress too much, I'll just get right down to it, anecdote bombs away!
**** My phone camera is all I have, I'm sorry! So my photos aren't the greatest quality. :/ Next event I'm buying as nice camera before I go FOR SURE

Reason to attend an event #1
THE FANS

best photoshop skills are best

You might be just like me. You might sit alone at 3:00 am watching GSL screaming your head off and fist pumping when Taeja is destroying his opponent. You might spend all your free time catching up on VODs and Liquipedia results to find the best games to watch and scream and cry and laugh all alone in your room. Or you might be different. I don't know. But that's how I am. So I'm used to getting into the game, I'm used to cheering and getting pumped. But NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING compares to screaming yourself hoarse when Sheth takes a game of Rain on Ohana with thousands of fellow fans. NOTHING compares to being so HAPPY for Sheth in that moment and seeing him smile and wave acknowledging the tumultuous cheers from you and the other fans mere FEET in front of you.

Esports fans are best fans. I've been to NHL, NFL, MLB, MLS, metal concerts, blues concerts, dance music concerts/raves, etc, etc. Esports fans are still the best. When I sit next to a Red Wings fan at an Avalanche game, there is no reconciliation that could bring us together. Ever. I've been in that situation a dozen times, it's never pleasant. At MLG, standing in a crowd of fans, wearing my Spirit TL shirt showing my Protoss pride, I could talk to a Swarm wearing fan, and although I might hate his guts on the ladder, here at MLG, we are best friends.

I met so many fans at MLG. Standing in line to meet Day9 I got to meet some nice people. In fact Gaulzi (the cannon rusher) was right behind me, he even took the pictures of Sean and I haha. I got to meet some fellow CSL players including the previous year's champs UNT. They were all such cool guys. When I talked to fans, sometimes we chatted about how sick so-and-so's stream is, or that SICK play we just saw from whatever player, or how chill _____ was when you met them. If you go to a LAN event, talk to people! I am an introvert's introvert. I UNDERSTAND what it's like to not want to talk to people. I UNDERSTAND what it's like to not feel comfortable. But I still manned up and did it. So can you. FUCKING DO IT. Afterall, if you're on this website, chances are you'd have A LOT in common with anyone standing around watching a professional Starcraft match, so you're already at an advantage. All weekend I met and talked to so many wonderful fans, I hope to meet many more when I go back to an event. Except for LOL, Halo 4, Fighters, etc fans. Those people suck /sarcasm.

Reason to attend an event #2
THE PLAYERS

Hwangsin showing off his "Breakout Player of the Tournament trophy"

FUN FACT: Just like Esports fans, esports pro's/celebs are THE BEST. They are just nerds. Every one of them. Just like you, just like me. They just so happen to have exceptional skill at RTS games, whereas I am mediocre on a good day.

EVERY pro there at some point made him/herself available to fans for photos/autographs. EVERY SINGLE ONE. You want to meet _____?! GO TO AN EVENT They'll likely want to meet you too. If you respect them, they will respect you. Imagine that! If Idra just lost and got knocked out of the tournament, don't go begging him to sign your EG shirt right then, give him some time and space and come back later. He'll still be Idra when you come back, so he won't SMILE in the photo he takes with you, but he WILL let you take it!

I have so many anecdotes guys... I am just gonna be throwing them at you, so get ready.

I love how awkward these kinds of pictures are. Especially when you notice that my hand is on Sheth's other shoulder. Sheth is doing well denying my advances...

BIG hearts go out to my man Sheth. He had a great tournament, especially his series against Rain. I talked to Sheth probably seven or eight times over the weekend, as he is so nice he can't say no! haha. He was always super SUPER cool to me, was very sincere and open. We talked about him going to Korea someday again, about how he hoped to do/how he did in the tournament, and a cool idea I had for a Sheth tshirt

. They don't call him the nicest guy in Esports for nothing guys. You HAVE to go meet Sheth. If you aren't a Sheth fan, then FUCK YOU. :D But seriously, you will BECOME a Sheth fan if you talk to this guy.

Yep that is me with Taeja. No I was not dreaming.

Taeja was actually the first Pro I met funnily enough. We had been there for about 3 hours on the first day, watching the open bracket games from outside the player's area (we'll come back to the games later) and catching as much of the action on the big screen across the way at the same time. Between watching 5 games of Starcraft, trying to keep track of just how many pros were just ambling about, and talking to fans and my friends, AND my blasted shyness, I hadn't talked to or approached a single pro despite about two dozen glorious opportunities. Then finally Liquid' MOTHERFUCKING Taeja comes along. Everyone around me that saw him did the classic "shhhh... look its Taeja" point and stare..., but FUCK THAT. I had a tshirt to get signed (more on that later too) and I LOVE Taeja...'s play. Ahem. Anyway, I walked up to him, "Will you sign my tshirt?" He nodded and grabbed my tshirt/sharpie, then grabbed my shoulders, spun me around and made me bend over (chuckle chuckle) so he could sign using my back as a table. Then I handed my phone to my buddy, and he snapped this keepsake of us. Then I shook his hand and wished him luck and he mumbled "thank you, thank you" and proceeded on whatever mission he had set off on initially. I was so pumped up on adrenaline I was shaking.

From that moment on my motto was "Shyness be damned. I'm meeting everyone I want to meet." And I did.

Ya you jelly. I met Rain.

The funny thing about most of the Koreans is that they are just as willing to meet fans as the nicest foreigners, but they speak NO English. So it's just really awkward, and we all know what it's like watching Koreans being awkward... But really, if you hand someone a tshirt covered in autographs and a sharpie, they know what you want. So it's NBD.

I love this picture. Crank actually knows some English so this was only 3/10 on the awkwardometer.

When I told Crank that I was a Protoss player too, and that I watched his stream now and again his reply was "You watch my stream more. You win many game. I make you big player." Haha. Crank is the man.

TB and Genna are so cool. Genna laughed so hard when I told her I wanted her in the picture/autograph session too. But she plays it off pretty well in the photo. Also, not sure what our faces are trying to convey...

I know they're not players, but caster/manager/sponsor/awesome people counts for something right? Crank's sponsor and manager couple the Bain's are also, collectively, the man. They were exceedingly proud when I mentioned how amiable and hilarious their (at the time) only player was. I wish only the best for Axiom. They really have great leadership in Genna. Axiom fighting!

Flo is a tiny person in real life. But she'd kick my ass in Starcraft mouse only. So it's cool

I got to watch Flo's series against Incontrol first hand. Flo was SUPER stressed out, so much so that she was having a mini-crisis in between games 2 and 3. But she pulled herself together and put on a great show, made me feel like a pussy quitting ladder after ONE bad loss. She almost took game 3 too. I think that game got the biggest crowd around the player's area until the later stages of the tournament. Great series, well played. I am glad Flo has picked up another sponsor since then! She is super nice in person. It was funny to watch all her doubters in the crowd stunned when she took Incontrol to game 3 too, all the "she's just sponsored cause she's hot" chatter shift to "wow, she's actually pretty damn good" over the course of the series.

Speaking of tiny people...

Machine is such a baller. I had recently tweeted with him about some music he hadn't ever heard before, so when I met him we actually had something to talk about. Plus he is nearly Sheth-nice, so it was a great time meeting him. Machine is one of the pro's I could actually hang out with I think. I've always been a big Machine fan, and meeting him in person didn't lessen that at all. I think that was what made the weekend for me. All these pro's I looked up to, watched all the time, etc, and not one of them disappointed. There was no instance of the dream being better than the real thing like is so common when meeting celebrities from any scene. Like I said, Esports personalities are the best. Go to an event and meet some, you won't regret it.

Now I KNOW you jelly.

Anna Prosser (now Prosser-Robinson) is my favorite personality in the entire scene. Hands down. When I got this picture taken with her, I had already talked to her a number of times. She helped me to track down Idra and Machine when I was trying to find them for autographs/photos and when she wasn't rushing off to do an interview or whatever, she would actually stay and chat, for real, sincerely. Not the normal celebrity "oh. Ya. Ya. That's cool. Awesome. Ya. Well, it was nice meeting you." I've had a chance to talk with Anna since MLG also, and turns out she isn't faking her personality ever. She really is cool and nerdy and nice to everyone. She really does try to promote Esports and the community every day, for real. It's awesome and very inspiring. I have nothing but good things to say about Anna. Please go to an event and meet her if you can. She is a boss.

Hey look, it's me and Hwangsin in this SUPER blurry photo!

Hwangsin was one of the pros that no one seemed to recognize. I guess that was the whole idea of "Breakout Player of the Tournament" though. He was super jazzed when I went to talk to him, since barely anyone was doing so. Also because of that, he was totally open to chatting a little, or at least as much as his English could enable. Which wasn't much to be honest, but the friendliness and sincerity made it through translation alright.

I literally crack up every single time I see Moonglade's face in this picture

Moonglade (and all the NV guys from down under) we so cool. Moonglade had a prolific run through the tournament and turned a lot of heads, including mine. Since he wasn't one of the "mainstream" pros though, not many people were talking to him, getting pictures, getting things signed etc, so I actually got the opportunity to talk to him a number of times throughout the weekend and every time he ACTUALLY talked to me. We talked about how bullshit ZvZ is sometimes, we talked about the games on the main stage while watching them, we talked about how rough it is being from Australia as he can't stream very often/at a high quality, so everyone in the NA and EU scenes sort of forgets about him when he's not at an IEM or MLG or something. The point is though, that I got to have a number of very real very fun conversations with fucking Moonglade, so yes, going to events is AWESOME. If you haven't been watching State of the Game recently, shame on you first of all, and second of all, Moonglade has been on it, and is awesome every time. Especially when arguing with/getting trolled by QXC about TvZ.

Don't worry guys, Incontrol is only 5 times bigger than me, NBD. Side note, don't worry about what my right hand is doing, also NBD.

Geoff (and Anna)(and every pro basically) responded really well to fans. When my buddy and I talked to Geoff for a minute about his stream (we both watch the EG guys pretty regularly, my friend almost exclusively so) he was laughing and chatting away with us, despite having recently been knocked out of the tournament. Although, Suppy did have an epic run, and all the EG team/fans had a good time off that wave of excitement so that might have helped his mood. Geoff (and most of the EG SC2 team) get a lot of flak and hate, mostly IMO due to their relatively high level of exposure to the community. Well, I will have none of it. Like I said when I started, EVERY pro is my favorite. I have some favorite favorites, and racial bias of course (no not Korean/Foreigner) but really, all the pros are just people who are doing what they love and entertaining us day in and day out. And not many people work harder to make me smile than Geoff and the EG team. I made sure I told him how much I appreciated him when I met Geoff, and I hope it stuck. Fuck haters, Esports love for life. ♥

I took this approaching the finals (during the quarter's i think?) so all the EG had finished and a number of them were just chillin. Suppy was still pretty high on life after his SICK run, but he still made time to talk to ME. Classy guy.

My buddy that I had come to the event with had gone to buy a Zerg tshirt to start getting autographs and go to the bathroom. While at the urinal, he was next to none other than Conan himself. My friend, being a Zerg player, huge EG fan, and also a Biologist in grad school, had a lot to alk with Suppy about haha. So they talked for a while outside the bathrooms oddly enough and when my buddy came back over to where I was watching the main stage games he told me all about how AWESOME Suppy was. How they talked about SCIENCE and STARCRAFT and PISSED NEXT TO EACH OTHER. It was a great story to tell the truth. I was laughing the whole time though, as the night before he was Mr. Incredulous at how I had gotten so many autographs and met so many pros and how they were all really cool in person, and here he was telling me about his awesome encounter with one of his favorites. Classic. Right as he finished his story Suppy walked by and we all started talking again, and I got his signature/photo and my friend wasn't lying, Conan is a boss. Insanely down to earth. He seems like just some kid walking around, smiling and chatting to people, not a fucking Zerg prodigy that just made it about 100 times farther into the tournament than anyone would have predicted.

It breaks my heart that this photo is one that didn't turn out well at all. Still though, it did happen, here is proof. Oh and by the way, MC is in fact the BOSSTOSS. It's not just a legend. It's real life man.

MC was one of the busier pros there. There was a translator/guide/bodyguard/coach guy with him ALL the time who was always rushing him off somewhere. Or he was hanging out with all his groupies like EVERY KOREAN IN ATTENDANCE. MC is one popular guy I'll tell you that much. It's not really any surprise at all that most of the Koreans stuck to the player's area and stuck together since they were the only people within 100 miles that spoke Korean basically. And they all hung around MC. He was like the jock in high school who everyone congregated around at lunch, except he isn't a douche who got a Mustang from his parents at 15, he's fucking MC and is super funny and nice. When I met him, he was leaving the players area going to do an interview for SK Gaming (his sponsor, in case you didn't know), so he had NO TIME. When I asked him "MC, can I get a picture?!" as he ran by he stopped, then his guide/translator guy very politely said "No, MC is busy. We must go interview now. Thank you." then MC turns to him and says something quick in Korean, turns to me and says "Ok, I will picture" and poses with me (thus the rushing of the shot), and even signs my shirt quickly (but still super legitimately) and goes to run away again when like 5 more fans try to hop on my coat tails, but the translator wouldn't be foiled again and MC escaped to the dismay of many a fanboy. But I prevailed. I fucking met the Bosstoss, hell I didn't just meet the Bosstoss, he made time for ME and took a picture with me when he needed to be somewhere :,) BOSSTOSS IS BEST TOSS.

Grubby is King

Grubby is such a cool guy. Like cool in the James Dean, Steve McQueen sense, not the amiable, laid-back way. But also in the amiable, laid-back sense haha. When I met Grubby, it was approaching the end of the event, and I had just been running around meeting Korean after Korean and when you don't speak the same language as them, it's easier to just say "hello. Will you sign?" and they get the gist. Then you hand them your shirt/pen and wish them luck, say your a big fan, maybe throw up a hand heart or something, then move on. So when I met Grubby, I was very much in the "Will you sign?" mode and started to hand him my shirt and pen when he turned to me. He waved them away and in my exhausted state I was admittedly a little confused. What was Grubby playing at? Did I just not get a signature? So when I started to motion the shirt forward again he laughed "no no!" and grabbed my right hand to shake it. "How are you? It's nice to meet you." I was so taken aback at his manners it was all I could do to shake his hand back and not limp-fish it, and say "I'm good, good." I then told him how amazing it was to see him play Flash on the main stage and how much I watch his stream as I am a Protoss player as well. He smiled gravely at me at the mention of his vs Flash series. "I tried very hard to win, but at least I proved that he is not a god, I made him bleed, showed that he is human." Epic speech IMO lol.

Classy, is the best word to describe Grubby I think. I was a fan of Grubby pre-meeting him for sure, but he was just a regular favorite, not a favorite favorite. Ever since then though, I watch his stream and his tournament matches as much as possible. Anything I can do to repay such unabashed kindness to a stranger.

I'm posting both of these photo's because together they make one decent one. But one alone is either REALLY blurry (thanks a lot Gaulzi... sheesh) or I'm caught halfway between smile and talking in the other... so embarassing

I could literally write the whole story of my meeting Day9 in bold, caps, italics, enlarged text x5 and underlined and you wouldn't be reading it half as excitedly as I would be saying it. Meeting Sean was like meeting my best friend for the first time, but who I had known for years. I'm positive that I'm not alone here in the sentiment that Sean IS our friend, just one that we always hang out with very one-dimensionally a few times a week for a few hours at a time. I have been watching the daily since double digits and I've seen at least 90% of them. Certainly every Funday Monday at the very least. I am a huge Day9 fan, but nothing can prepare you for meeting Sean Plott. When you wait in line with literally a thousand people to meet someone, it's big freakin' deal, obviously. But the mistake people make is in thinking that they're about to meet their hero Day9. Typically when one meets his heroes he is disappointed by the real life version of them and is crushed. In Sean's case you expect to meet your hero Day9, and instead get to meet Sean fucking Plott, who is cooler than anything you have ever imagined, even himself, Day9. When I finally made it to the front (I was lucky and standing very nearby when he started so I only waited a total of 10 minutes probably) this is what happened, no spin, no asides, as it happened:

"Hi! I'm Sean!"
"Er- I'm Shane."
"Have we met before? I'm pretty sure we've met before right?"
"Unfortunately not, maybe I just have a common face or something."
"No... Are you sure man?! I'm pretty sure we've met before."
"I promise we haven't."
"Oh alright, well then it's wonderful to finally meet you!"
"haha, same to you."
We then pose for pictures. And I pull out my tshirt/sharpie combo and ask him to sign it for me.
"You can sign it wherever you like man, you can even sign giant if you want, doesn't matter to me."
"I'll take the top center position, right above Incontrol I think. Sweet shirt by the way!"
"Haha, thanks, I've been working on it pretty hard all weekend."
Sean proceeds to direct me in proper shirt signing technique where our arms are sort of tangled up holding on to the shirt, but the selected location is stretched taught for maximum signability, it was pretty hilarious.

Then I asked him about math stuff, cause I'm into that kind of thing too, and we talked about math which is awesome in and of itself since I don't get to do that very often, let alone with Day fucking J himself. Then I had to share with him that he was my friend do to his magical ability to make you feel like he's hanging out with YOU on his daily which is what makes it great IMO, that he was an awesome and incredible person for all he was doing in the Esports community, and that I was looking forward to the next match he would be casting. He then informed me that it would be the finals, so I told him I'd be up front cheering.

"Go ape shit man!" And then we shook hands, "It was nice meeting you Shane!"

And that was what it was like meeting Day9. I don't know if I can say it any better than this: I would have paid all the money I did for travel, lodging, entry, food, EVERYTHING, only for the experience I just described. Sean is, without a doubt, my hero and great friend. Even if you don't watch the daily, for whatever reason, PLEASE PLEASE go meet Day9 somewhere, sometime. He will brighten your day regardless. I can't wait for the next time I get to meet Sean and this time when he recognizes me from somewhere, I'll be able to tell him exactly where from.

The ONLY player photo/anecdote that deserves to be saved for after Day9 is this one.

While unimpressed by all things, unimpressive He is not. Amen.

If I'm standing to the left of God, doesn't that make me Gabriel? I don't even know what to say guys. I didn't get to talk to Flash much, as his English is non-existent, but he did sign my shirt, and obligingly took the best spot on there for himself haha. HOLY FUCK GUYS I FUCKING MET FLASH HIMSLEF OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG There. I got it out of my system. If you still aren't convinced you should go to an event... That's blasphemous. Lee Young Ho is unimpressed.

That's all the posing with player pictures I have, but it's not at all the end of the list of who I met and how awesome they were. Here's a quick rundown of mostly everyone else. This post is getting extensive quick, but I'm trying to show you how awesome LAN events are and I can't lie to you by cutting all these wonderful people out!

Thorzain
+ Show Spoiler +

Marcus is a pretty quiet person, so when I first met him he was just chilling in the back row of the SC2 area watching Bomber play and we talked about Starcraft and how awesome Sweden is. I never really had one big conversation with Thorzain, but over the course of the weekend I think I ran into and talked to him the most times nest to Moonglade. The last time I talked to him was right before he was going to be interviewed by LivinPink, the autograph I was seeking having gotten Thorzain's long before. By then we had talkedquite a bit and so while LivinPink was signing my shirt Thorzain gestured to my, well me, and said:

"So what is up with this man?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm hurt you know. Really hurt. I thought you liked EG."
"OH! Right, sorry. I didn't mean to offend you Thorzain, I'll try harder next time to not wear any Team Liquid stuff.

"
"Good. I am merciful today, so I will let you slide this one time. Next time though..."
"I'll be wearing an EG jersey for sure."
"Good. I will make sure."
"I promise I won't let you down!"

Literally. I had this conversation with Thorfuckingzain, the King of the North, the Spoon Terran, the first foreigner to take a game in Proleague in seven years. Thorzain fan for life right here. And yes, I am going to wear an EG jersey to my next event. How could I not? I promised.

LivinPink
+ Show Spoiler +

You might not have ever watched her stream. It's relatively low level for SC2, and she plays a lot of LoL which might not be your style, it isn't mine, that's for sure, but LivinPink is great. I discovered her through some of her interviews, and besides Hot_Bid and the TL crew she has the best/most interview to come out of most events. She is somewhere between a fan and a community personality, but it was great to get to meet her. I got to talk to her for a good 20-30 minutes and we talked about all sorts of stuff, but especially Platinum league woes. This was on the first day, and I got to chat with her on the following days too and every time she was super cool. She isn't super popular yet, but she puts in the time and effort and has the passion to match, so I think you should tune into her stream sometime if you can and also try to say hi at an event. Who doesn't want to talk to a hot girl who loves Starcraft anyway?

Vibe/Major
+ Show Spoiler +

Being a Colorado native myself, I have a special bromance with Vibe. I always love to root for the underdog, and being an American makes you exactly that in Starcraft 2 9 times out of 10. Plus Vibe is really cool and laid back. He was just shootin' the shit about Starcraft and some obligatory high level mumbo jumbo with Major when I went to talk to him. Vibe was genuinely interested in talking to me, which, while it is still a cool feeling now, at the time he was the 3rd pro I'd talked to so it was still a novelty that hey are so chill. Major was just kind of awkward as I'm sure you would expect having ever seen Major do anything in your life. haha. But seriously, they are both worth trying to meet if you go to an event they attend. Colorado bro's for life Vibe.

Naniwa
+ Show Spoiler +

Talk about a polarizing personality, when you talk to a fan about naniwa you either get an earful about how big of a douche he is or you hear about how fucking awesome he is. I subscribe to my own opinion that he has awkwardly hostile moments, but is really very laid back and more than likely a nice guy given the chance to be, but I wasn't really a FAN of Naniwa, in that I was mostly neutral. Turns out I am right. When I met Naniwa, it was nearing the end of day 3 and he was talking with Grubby and Babyknight + Show Spoiler +

I would tell a story about Babyknight too but it would literally be this: Babyknight acquiesced, took my pen, and wrote "Babyknight" on my shirt in tiny print and handed it back to me and smiled, then walked away.

. If you remember back to MLG Dallas, Naniwa had played a series against Flash on the main stage. Two in fact, due to the extended series format. And they both were excellent amazingly well played series. I feel very privileged to have seen them first hand. Anyway, when I met Naniwa, he was on the upswing from being super down about his loss to Flash. While he was signing my shirt which he did graciously, I told him how much I enjoyed his series against Flash and that I was really really pulling for him, especially as a Protoss player. He didn't smile. He looked up at me with a very serious and solemn stare and replied "I tried so hard to win. I am sorry I could not win." Not a balance jest, not a "what would you know scrub?" or a "Oh gee thanks, a random fan thinks I played well, la-dee-freakin'-da" That one line from Naniwa singularly placed him in my top 10 favored players of all time. The sincerity, the truth in what he said was palpable. I felt so sorry for Naniwa, and so proud of what he had accomplished in spite of the odds. IMO no one should hate on Naniwa again, he tries so hard. And he tries to entertain US, the fans. Whatever his faults may be, he told me to my face that what I thought about him mattered. <3 Naniwa.

QXC
+ Show Spoiler +

MLG Dallas last November was right after State of the Game made it's comeback and QXC had been on the new lineup. I was iffy on it at first but warmed to it immediately. I don't always agree with QXC but I can respect his thought process most of the time and so his input seems valuable to me. So when I got the chance to meet him I was pretty interested to see how he'd be in person. Turns out it was one of my favorite encounters of the event. QXC was kneeling beside a computer with a teammate one row of computers into the players area while a fan to my right kept shouting "Hey Sasquatch!" at the Complexity player QXC was talking to. For about 2 minutes this went on "Sasquatch... Hey, Sasquatch! Hey! Hey Sasquatch!" I kid you not. Finally QXC stands up and goes "YO! This isn't Sasquatch. It's Goswser." The fan sort of lost his nerve at that point, and I don't blame him, but everyone around us was cracking up. Someone got QXC's attention while he was distracted from Goswser so they both got up and came over to talk to some fans. After a minute QXC came to me and while he spent about 5 minutes working on his signature I told him about how I thought he was awesome on SotG and to make sure JP kept him on. While Goswser signed my shirt QXC explained to me that if I got the entire Complexity team to sign my shirt, that when I wore it I would be transformed into the Complexity gaming power animal: A giant brown bear. I have no idea where he was getting this, but I was cracking up listening to it. And he went on perfectly serious: "Ya, so if you manage to get us all, and all of us aren't here so it might be a while, you can put that shirt on and have mystical bear powers. Don't tell anyone I told you that." What??? lmao. Still my favorite QXC story to date. Made me a fan forever. Then we got to talk about other cool stuff, like what it's like living in the pro house and training with academy members and such.

TL;DR Complexity's power animal=Bear, QXC=Awesome.

Kennigt
+ Show Spoiler +

I know I've been talking up a lot of progamers and Esports celebs, but I mean, c'mon, what beats meeting THE Kennigt? NOTHING. Flash? Psssh... Day9? Psssh... Please. You haven't lived until you've met this guy. Seriously.

+Many other acquaintances made that I won't drag on about, there's enough of that going on already

Are you convinced yet?

Reason to attend an event #3
THE GAMES

How much do I need to say on this. Not much I think. Live=better is true here just as it is in real sports. Except the NFL, that's better on TV. Everything else though, Live=better.

What would the fans and players be without our games? Nothing. Just nerds. I don't care how much you enjoy watching at home in 1080p on you big screen. Nothing beets screaming your head off when Sheth takes a game of Rain. Or when Naniwa takes Flash to the brink. Or when Life reverse all-kill's Flash in an epic comeback. Or Scarlett and SoO are locked in a crazy ZvZ struggle for dominance in the unbroadcasted open bracket. Or one of the UNT CSL players has just proxy hatched and spine crawler rushed into nydus-ed Stardust and is inches from beating a HEAVILY favored opponent with the most epic, cheesiest cheese you've ever seen. Ya, the games are worth it. I'm sure the same could be said for Halo, LoL and the fighters and such, but I wouldn't know so I won't comment.

Some highlights:
Mainstage games all weekend long were great. Rain vs Sheth, Flash vs Grubby, Flash vs Naniwa, Leenock vs Bomber, Life vs Leenock, etc etc etc.

Open bracket play was grueling for the players. It really makes you appreciate the magnitude of making it through the brackets watching pro after pro battle it out over two days and hours and hours of waiting before epic conclusions. Flo vs incontrol was crazy, Scarlett vs SoO, Scarlett vs HerO (the controversial spine crawler lift w/ BL infestor crazy long game), WAY WAY too many other sweet games to mention. In the grand scheme of things, these games may have been mediocre, and I might have been a much harsher critic had I been at home lounging around watching the streams, but I was there man. I saw things... And so the games were made so much more visceral and epic that way. I highly recommend going simply for the love of the game, even if you talk to no one. It's worth it.

Reason to attend an event #4
THE SWAG

This one might be a little personal, and not for everyone, but my memories of the event are tied to one object, and that is the tshirt I've been mentioning. And now I'll show it off, because FUCK YEAH I'm proud of it. I am fucking proud of my tshirt guys. Bask in the jelly, cause I know you so jelly.

Before:+ Show Spoiler +

I'm poor as shit in college, so I just made this myself. Handwritten and everything.

After:+ Show Spoiler +

Ya, I got a lot of signatures. Each one is a special memory too. So many happy memories.

+ Show Spoiler +

Grubby

Hwangsin

Goswser

Golden

Thorzain

Naniwa

QXC

Incontrol

Day9

Slasher

LivinPink

Anna Prosser

Suppy

Idra

SoO

Leenock

Major

Flo

Moonglade

Taeja

Sheth

TheSTC

Kennigt (THE Kennigt)

Scarlett

JYP

Bomber

Revival

Vibe

Life

Ret

ToD

Rain

Stardust

LzGamer

Demuslim

First

Crank

Heart

Machine

Hero

Soulkey

Flash

Polt

Genna Bain

Total Biscuit

Violet

Babyknight

ESPORTS FOR LIFE!

WikidSik

Canada382 Posts

February 21 2013 18:39 GMT

i went to the NASL season 3 Grand Finals in Canada. It was the highlight of my summer. I +1 the go to a live event. Its just another level of awesome.

kollin

United Kingdom8380 Posts

February 21 2013 18:52 GMT

This blog is so, so good. Wish there were big events like MLG where I lived, but alas no

PolskaGora

United States547 Posts

February 21 2013 19:48 GMT

After being really into the scene for about 3 years, I finally went to my first event at MLG Anaheim 2012, and it was the most incredible thing I had ever experienced. Since then, I try to go to as many events as possible and every time they are just as fun and amazing as the first time. Seriously. It never gets old or boring. The amount of joy and happiness that permeates the atmosphere at live events is MIRACULOUS. You forget all your real world troubles and just have fun.

Great blog man, I rarely see such detailed, coherant write-ups and yours is very, very good. In fact, it sums up my impressions of when I've gone to such events quite perfectly.

jpak

United States5045 Posts

February 21 2013 22:17 GMT

You haven't REALLY experienced an event until you have played mafia with fellow TLers.

[image loading]

playing mafia in the middle of MLG Providence 2011

Nice blog.

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 22 2013 02:32 GMT

Thanks guys!

And jpak I concur. I've actually never even played Mafia, let alone with TLers. It's something I look forward to for sure, having heard so much about it.

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 22 2013 02:54 GMT

On February 22 2013 03:52 kollin wrote:
This blog is so, so good. Wish there were big events like MLG where I lived, but alas no

In the UK? You gotta make it to a Dreamhack man. Save up and go for it. It'll be worth it I'm sure.

Mothra

United States1448 Posts

February 22 2013 03:27 GMT

You are awesome. Great blog. Makes me feel like I was there.

Chairman Ray

United States11903 Posts

February 22 2013 03:32 GMT

you got a pic with Flash! Awesome!

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 22 2013 03:52 GMT

#10

On February 22 2013 12:32 Chairman Ray wrote:
you got a pic with Flash! Awesome!

haha. Indeed. It was epic. Watching all the Koreans stand around him in awe was pretty funny too. He is pretty awe inspiring...

Burrfoot

United States1176 Posts

February 22 2013 03:55 GMT

#11

You should have pulled a hair from every player as they walked away and then made a small troll out of their follicles to pray to before every SC2 match. That would sell on ebay too!

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 22 2013 11:09 GMT

#12

You're right. That way I could be an esports creeper, not just an esports fan. That's some next level shit. But now they might know what I look like and be on their guard. Looks like it's up to you then! Post the eBay link when you sell it though.

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 22 2013 11:12 GMT

#13

On February 22 2013 12:27 Mothra wrote:
You are awesome. Great blog. Makes me feel like I was there.

<3 thanks bro, lmao. Maybe I'll see you at an event someday!

Dranak

United States464 Posts

February 22 2013 14:23 GMT

#14

Agreed very much, especially that parts about Sheth and Grubby (seriously, they are awesome in person). I flew cross-country for IPL5 and it was an awesome experience. If you're wondering if you should go to a live event or not, the answer is yes. I went by myself, wound up meeting a few people and overall had a blast.

Megaliskuu

United States5123 Posts

February 22 2013 14:34 GMT

#15

#1 reason, the lovely smell at day 3 of MLG.

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 22 2013 16:51 GMT

#16

On February 22 2013 23:34 Megaliskuu wrote:
#1 reason, the lovely smell at day 3 of MLG.

LMAO so true. They need to get an Old Spice sponsorship or something, so they can hand out free deodorant sticks with the free Dr. Pepper.

gaulzi

Iceland24 Posts

February 23 2013 04:39 GMT

#17

It was a pleasure meeting you and taking those awesome pictures! ;D

Kommatiazo

United States579 Posts

February 23 2013 05:10 GMT

#18

On February 23 2013 13:39 gaulzi wrote:
It was a pleasure meeting you and taking those awesome pictures! ;D

lmfao

EPIC. Thanks Gaulzi! <3

I_Love_Katheryn

United States41 Posts

February 23 2013 05:22 GMT

#19

Incredible blog. Man you are a boss.

free_cat

3 Posts

September 18 2013 11:03 GMT

#20

Hi, I'm in Seoul until the 22nd. I wanted to attend a live game. I checked on Gomtv website and there are no live games until the 23rd.
Is there any other live games not organized by Gom tv? Any game I can attend live before the 22? thanks.

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