EPTSo I was just at IPL3 in Atlantic City, my first live starcraft even, and I thought I'd share some of my experiences. The entire thing was basically like living a Starcraft dream considering the venue, people and competitors there, the epic storylines of the event, and the quality of the games.
I went with the Princeton CSL crew, we left on Friday afternoon. I've been inside (an) Atlantic City casino before so that aspect (bright lights, mirrors, lush decoration and constant beeping from the slots) didn't surprise me. What did was the people we happened to randomly run into. Just walking in we spotted tsl.alive just hanging out by the elevators with the very same tsl jacket and stupid looking rolled up jeans you see on gsl. hazelynut, of Princeton CSL, had apparently talked with him before over skype/IM, but the language barrier was too much, and he's a quiet guy anyway. Just standing there, he suddenly looks past us and says hello in Korean. Of course I turn around, and it's the Emperor himself with Jessica, holding hands. They pass us, and we all get in the elevator, and who's already there going to same floor but Liquid'Ret. Ret asks alive about his games before we get off. Alive says goodbye to hazelynut before walking off talking with none other than Thorzain!
Basically this sort of thing ended up happening all weekend - pros just wandering around and chatting. Because the 2 venues for Starcraft were in different casinos (connected by a walkway) and the hotel rooms and conference/media rooms were in a still different part, there was no backstage where the pros would hang out exclusively; instead they were all over the place, and if one kept attentive amongst the hefty crowd of senior citizens playing the slots, one could spot just about everyone EFAMOUS who was there.
I was able to have at least a little time with HuK (saturday night - he told me he felt like he was able to take the event); Sheth; Nazgul (reassured me that TSL4 was definitely being planned); Mr. Chae (met him at the bar on Saturday night); Ryung (I had given him a "ryung fighting!" cheer seeing him looking downcast after his loss saturday night, sunday morning he asked me if I had slept and told me it would be good for my game
); HD and djwheat (at the sunday night afterparty). All these figures, and the others I saw interacting with fans over the weekend were just amazingly nice and polite. If you ever see them at events it's so easy to go up and say hi (as long as you're tactful about it!), just remember they're nerds just like the rest of us!The two most awesome experiences outside the games were definitely watching GSTL live with a small crowd including Mr. Chae (rooting for Prime), Catz, and Slasher (was kind of dissing MKP, making me sad); and playing mafia looooong into the night with the TL crew. Hazelynut and DarthThienAn apparently have sick connections, so I just stuck with them and eventually ended up in the TL conference/media room friday night for some mafia action.
A quick rundown of the various TL personalities at the mafia game I can remember.
Nazgul: has the face of a professional poker player, very thoughtful and of course hard to read. Usually quiet, but contributes with solid analysis of the game state
Mango: Very serious looking "game face". Also hard to read. Amazing at reading people, was able to pick up on inexperienced players who got mafia very quickly
R1CH: very quiet for the most part
Krukar (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=261313): ok this guy is just awesome. Was new to the game, and really livened it up compared to the other new people who mainly stayed quiet. Krukar's signature move was, when someone had just made whatever point, was the dramatic stand up, slap the thigh, point at the person and loudly say "Sounds like Mafia-talk to me!" in an awesome Canadian accent. Had an awesome time with this guy at the afterparty - mentioned he's gonna do more multimedia documentary-esque stuff in the future
Roberto (sorry forgot your TL name!): another just awesome guy. Whenever he'd get accused of being mafia he'd say "hey man I'm just a civilian, a beet farmer from pennsylvania"
p4ndemik: also pretty quiet, he really flew under the radar though as mafia and was on the only mafia team to take a win over the weekend - came down to the last 3 but he pulled it out
flamewheel: most of the time he was the moderator but occasionally he played - when he played he was 100% serious. One game he got mafia but was accused by a cop. lucky for him the guy playing cop (hazelynut's brother) was pretty drunk and actually went back and forth a little with the accusation so flamewheel called cop as well, and just straight out wrecked him, trying to convince us to lynch him by saying how this other guy was playing worthless for the town. He's actually a chill person though, at the afterparty he sang an...emotional...duet with HD and let us princeton kids crash in his room (sorry waking you up, motbob! at least I think it was motbob in that room...)
Anthony (forgot your TL name too..... >_<): also a majorly cool guy, he was in a different epic game that came down to 3 - the preceding rounds he became increasingly agitated with the prospect that he would be in the last 3, and began begging to be either lynched or killed by the mafia - which of course just made me more confused and suspicious!
Sheth: played his first game of mafia saturday night and immediately demonstrated why starcraft pros have sharp minds - got civvie and decided to play fake cop - now the mafia pros tell me that's actually not a good idea but it turned out well for him, that game town won pretty easy when the real cop came out. the next couple game played pretty well as town, couldn't win as mafia but then again nobody besides p4ndemik could
Hot_Bid: his reputation as master troll is 100% true. Unfortunately for all of us 90% of the games he died the first night; the games he survived he had solid analysis. The very last game I played on saturday night he was the moderator, and secretly made everyone town, just randomly killing people each night. Pros like Mango were just straight confused, unable to pick up on who was mafia, and we inexperienced players lynched the pros. He even extended the troll by one night not killing anyone, leading us to believe there was a medic, which of course everyone denied being. The masterstroke was of course leading it down to 3 including a boyfriend/girlfriend pair, eventually the boyfriend was the one forced to pick and he picked his gf. Legendary Troll Status - CONFIRMED
Just to wrap up, a few general impressions:
The event was such a smashing success that the open bar at the afterparty was extended. The bar featured drinks like "the mothership" (blue and sugary) "zerg rush" (red bull and rum I believe) and "stim pack" (a shot that was so good I can't quite remember what was in it)
Karaoke highlights were Catz singing opera, Select singing "I believe I can fly", and Flamewheel/HD singing an...interesting... rendition of "A whole new world". Temp0 (http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=CH4w7UZV3NA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL) and Anna Prosser also sang.
I don't think many of the Starcraft fans there actually gambled much, but the abundance of alcohol was most definitely appreciated among fans, casters, and players alike
Definitely appreciated the overall chillness of IPL staff. When I showed up at registration after sleeping until 2 there was only me and a dude from TCNJ there to get registered; and he had gotten some random free upgrade with gold - so the registration guy gave it to me too!
Furthermore, I have to confess the IPL was not very serious about enforcing the seating - if there were enough open seats you could just slide right into the premium diamond seats - close enough to lob visine towards the casters
Speaking of Visine, besides Stephano, they were the major winners of the event. The casters made a point of the fact that Visine sponsoring an ESPORTs event is big news because it goes beyond the traditional gaming-related sponsors into lifestyle products. Hopefully with the major love we showed them (VISINE FIGHTING cheerfuls popped up) other lifestyle product companies will step up and enrich our passion!
ESPORTS FIGHTING!
- if you were at mafia you know me as "red shirt guy" or "curly hair guy", aka jubil on TL, aka zeta.814 on B.net
