My MLG Anaheim Spectator Experience

I left with 2 of my friends at around 10 am. Since we were driving from the San Fernando Valley we got there by around 11:30 because of traffic. There was a line going down the side of the convention center. We didn't know what exactly the line was for, obviously it was for MLG but whether it was the line to enter, buy tickets or check-in was unknown to us. My only goal for the weekend was to meet Boxer and it turns out that they were doing a "Meet the Koreans" thing at 1 pm. Seeing the line made me not so confident about my chances so I decided to buy a gold membership to get in 30 minutes early. I asked an MLG employee where the gold line was to which he replied, "I don't think there is such thing." -_- This type of answer would be a common occurrence throughout my weekend. I asked another lady and she says its at the front.

My friends didn't have the cash for the gold membership so they went to get food while I was in line. As I'm waiting in line for the gold membership I chat with the guy from imba.tv, he's super chill. Here's my conversation with the guy I'm buying my gold membership from about the gold line: "Uhh there isn't one" "So, it's just gonna be a huge bum rush?" "I guess so...". Lol. So I decide to just chill in the front while I wait for my friends to get back. I see a bunch of pros walking around so I decide to shake a few of their hands and just wish them good luck. I approached Incontrol, Idra, Slog, Moonan, Oz, Rain and Naniwa. They all seem pretty tired.

So it's getting to be around 12:55 and I see no signs of a line for gold members. So just by chance I walk in and one of the security tells everyone with an orange wristband (normal spectators get orange, gold get yellow) to leave and go wait outside. The guy next to me asks, "What about gold members?" and the guard replies "Gold members go over there" and he pointed to an area left of the doors where no one was waiting. o.O I ended up being second in line to get in lol.

I head to the MLG booth to wait for the Koreans to come. I'm third in line behind 2 other guys and we start chatting with the MLG girls about random stuff. One of the guys bring out his Razer mousepad that he wanted Boxer to sign. One of the MLG girls asks what you put on it (She said after she thought it might have been a touchpad or something) but I blurt out, "A mouse? lol". I didn't mean to make fun of her! If you ever read this MLG girl, I'm sorry!

So the Koreans show up but I overhear Milkis say that they're tired and only wanna go for 30 min. Good thing I got my gold pass! I get my SC2 box signed by all the Koreans and had Boxer sign my mouse!

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I go up to the SC2 stage and reserve seats. Apparently my friends just skipped the line and were able to get in when the doors opened for everyone else at 1:30. So the big line outside was for nothing. Nothing else really eventful happened. I was sitting in the 4th row. Incontrol sat in front of me and in front of him was Mike Morhaime, Chris Sigaty and later on Dustin Browder joined them. When Idra made his comment about seeing invisible units on a certain graphic setting you could see Browder just sigh and say "Ohhh noooo" lol. Also Browder was going insane during Huk vs DRG. He was jumping up and pumping his fists anytime Huk did something cool.

We end up leaving at around 1 am and I get home at about 2.

We decide to sleep in so that we're not worn out and can go all out on Sunday. So we leave late, at around 2, and plan to leave early. We decided to just walk around cause there was no way we were getting seats. Like people have said they really needed double the amount of seating because there were just as much people standing as there were sitting.

I manage to catch SlayerS'Alicia get knocked out by ToD. It wasn't even anything funky. ToD straight up outplayed Alicia. As were walking away we head to this area at the right of the venue which had some computers and look around. My friend taps me and goes "Hey look its Boxer" o.O We walk over to him and manage to get a picture with the Emperor!

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SlayerS'Jessica pulled him away after, leaving a few fans disappointed.

One thing I wanted to talk about is the venue itself. There is a lot of empty space near the front. There was at least 50 ft between the Dr. Pepper booth, the feature SC2 stations, and the booths on the left and right. Blizzcon does a much better job of filling space and making it feel like there's a lot going on. I feel like MLG should maybe work on that. They could've pushed the open player area back and added more seats.

We then saw SlayerS'Alicia just standing out in the open talking to somebody and we were able to get a picture with him as well.

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He's incredibly nice in person. All the Koreans were in fact. We didn't do much else. We watched some Halo and some SC2 and left around 9 to get there early Sunday.

I wake up at 5 am so we can get there super early and get seats. We get there at around 7:30 and see there's already 4 guys in line to get in. By the time the venue opens at 8 am there are approximately 30 people in line. We all rush to SC2 Main stage and get our seats. I can't see too far back but by 10, all the seats are gone. :O

I decided to go get some breakfast and as I'm waiting I see Liquid'Tyler waiting there too. I got him to sign my Teamliquid shirt and just wished him good luck.

One thing I will say is that security was out in force. They made it a point to say that you couldn't reserve seats. Even to the point where if you left for the bathroom you would get people moving in asking for your seat. It was pretty ludicrous. We were afraid to leave our seats because of this. Eventually they calmed down and we left one at a time to use the bathroom.

I don't know how it was on stream but the crowd was going CRAZY during the 1 hr Boxer/Rain match. You could feel the tension there. It was great. Another moment that might not have been caught on stream is a little bit after the beach balls came out, a security guard took it and was walking away with it. The crowd then started booing and just as she was leaving, she threw it back in and everyone started cheering. Good times.

Since I didn't leave my seat after that I didn't see anything else happen that didn't happen on stream. All in all, it was a great event. The crowd was electric and I don't think the stream gave them any credit. It was LOUD. Especially when everyone was chanting MMA and MVP's name. The only major thing that needs to be fixed is, like most have already said, is the seating.