EPTBack when IPL3 was announced I decided I was going to choose between this event and MLG Orlando. Considering I had been to 3 MLG events this year already, and Atlantic City is a 3hr drive vs a 10hr Orlando drive it ended up being a pretty easy decision to attend the IPL event. I think I can safely say I'm really glad I attended this event. I competed in the event and did decently, (came 1 round away from qualifying) met so many awesome people in the sc2/TL community, got to see Boxer play BW live, find out how awful I am as mafia in mafia...among many other things!
This event was also a great chance for my current team in sc2, (Team NrG) to get players out there and compete. Many people still don't realize NrG has been rebuilding for the past 3 or 4 months now. The sixjax break off really crushed NrG and very nearly killed the team but it's been a slow progression back up the esports ladder and soon I think the team will be poised to take things to the next level. All in all we had 4 players and our manager attend this event, NrGMonk, NrGListal, NrGMihai, me plus NrGNeverExpo. Pretty impressive considering NrG is currently unsponsored (on the most part...) which honestly is a shame since I think most of our players are pretty good, everyone that competed came 1 round or played in the qualifying round for top 32 at the event which I think is pretty good. We are literally one step away from achieving big things again and a big part of it is having such a boss manager. It's always awesome to hang out with people you talk to daily online. I realized during this event though that I don't really have a standard circle I hang out with at live events, I know too many people perhaps because I know people from all circles, I know IPL staff members, askjoshy/Catspajamas, I know a bunch of the volunteer staff, I know a bunch of the players, the TL/DC community always has people at events, plus my team is at this event. I found I was off hanging out with one group of people wondering if I should have been elsewhere...it was strange but I kind of just went with what was happening in the moment. Everything turned out nicely I think. I think I had meals with different groups of people each night haha!
Highlight of the weekend was definitely seeing Boxer play bw live in person. I don't care if the game itself looked like a C-/C iccup game it was fucking amazing. People were standing on stacked chairs 6-7 rows deep all around the pcs trying to get a glimpse of the most legendary broodwar player doing his thing. Huge props to CaucasianAsian for helping make this possible and for casting. I did not go to this event expecting ANYTHING like this and honestly it ended up being the most surreal/epic/awesome thing that happened the entire weekend for me.
Mafia games with TL staff and friends late night on Saturday was really entertaining. I'm not really cut out for that sort of shit, I can't lie/troll. So when I get called out I'm pretty much a goner. I found myself really wanting to improve at this though, for a couple of the later games I was sitting next to Naz who was quite good and was talking about alot of things that I don't really think of like noticing people when their lying "Yeah "x" has this eye twitch whenever he's lying, very easy to spot when he has a role." unfortunately side conversations with Naz during one of my last games ended up with me getting taken out by the mafia quite early because Naz was mafia LOL. :D I think if I practiced and got better at lying I could be really good. I started getting good at observing and picking out suspicious shit which was soooo fun.
All in all I thought the event was run amazingly espcially for the first ever time for IPL to host a live event for sc2. The only issues were really outside of IPL's control, (shitty qualifier area tables, internet issue on friday) were literally the only 2 bad things of the entire event. For the most part the staff was helpful and did their job well, some of the refs should have been a little more helpful though, one funny moment I had was when I was vs slush in winners round 3, I had a sound issue and no ref wanted anything to do with it I called for a pause and notified my match ref who was like...I'll get back to you and went to like 4 other match refs who just had deer in headlights look...wasn't until a manager came over did I realize I was being a retard and had mic plugged in instead of speaker.../facepalm :D
the PMS/H2O gaming crew seems pretty sweet, I played KiF1rE a protoss player on day 2, luckily for me it turned out I had watched him super closely on day 1 because he was against my teammate Mihai in round 1 winners. Seeing his preferred PvT style I felt super confident going into those games in losers R4 and won 2-0. I know PMS also sent Aurora a pretty good female zerg player and had a manager or two there as well. I hope that organization continues successfully!
Stephano played some of the most amazing star2 I've seen to date (especially for a foreigner) I'm really excited to see him play at MLG Orlando I think he's one of the favorites to win the entire event over ANY korean attending. There was some debate in the live report thread about Stephanos win not being that impressive, having sort of an easy road through IPL, not playing code S koreans etc etc blah blah. While it's true he didn't have to play gods like Nestea and MVP, he played almost perfect games of starcraft through the semifinals/finals and it was amazing to watch regardless of his opponent. You could just feel him playing at another level which is something I've rarely felt in starcraft 2 so far and makes me really excited for the growth of this game. As players like Stephano lead the way I feel the vast majority will slowly improve behind him helping grow the game which I'm really excited about.
All in all this weekend was amazing and I need to give my shoutouts;
CaucasianAsian for being all around awesome, HatchetWound/Hooktits for being an awesome carpool dude for 2 MLG events and this event so far, NeverExpo and Ahhboxahh/Mihai for being ballers driving all the way from Canada to attend this event. All my teammates @ NrG that came, (Listal, Monk, gear guy/troll Stimilant) zyz for being NrG fam. Vorosh for helping kill esports by lynching an innocent Sheth in mafia. (lol I kid I kid <3) Megumixbear for being an awesome floor interviewer...it's refreshing to have someone who knows so much about the game in a role like she was in. although too bad didn't see her much at all, must have been backstage at Caesars majority of the time interviewing players and working 8+ hours a day each day. catspajamas for all the retweets of my twitter, for being an awesome caster and asking my opinion of the event afterwards. I basically watched catspajamas rise into his position at IPL and I'm really happy for him and think he does a great job. <3 askjoshy for pretty much the same reasons although not as close to him on bnet as I was with catspajamas he's still an awesome guy who cares about random mid tier players like myself opinions and takes time to listen. Something no one at MLG events seems to do or care about. all kinds of faces I remember but don't know their TL names during the TL Staff/friends mafia games. everyone who helped worked this event and make it happen, everyone who watched and supported the event on livestreams...
Man I owe so many more people so many shoutouts that I'm sure I missed.
Next live event I'm attending is MLG Providence and I can't wait, already counting down the days...
I leave you with some NrG pictures now...+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/O0mIN.jpg)
NrGMihai
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kB1Eg.jpg)
NrGLuckyFool+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/elhbt.jpg)
Mihai vs Machine+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5w8pb.jpg)
more mhai playing really srs down 0-1 in round 1 to KiF1re+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hwS3t.jpg)
NrGListal+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3gBXQ.jpg)
the NrG crew! from left to right, Mihai/Ahhboxahh NeverExpo, Listal, LuckyFool, Monk
![[image loading]](http://www.backhandofjustice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/short2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.eyes4less.com/wp-content/uploads/csi%20miami%20sunglasses%20yeah.jpg)
