EPTTL;DR: I got up, went to vegas, came home $1.5k richer.
Day 1: Preparation (boring)
I woke up around 10am, freshened up as usual and got ready to go to the IAD Airport. By 10:30 I was ready, had all my Razer gear packed (Shameless plug ^_^) along with all the things I'll need to survive outside my basement. To be completely honest, I didn't practice much, almost not at all for this event. I've been taking January as an off-season after all the work I put in last year, especially in Korea, as well as the situation with quantic towards the end of the year. I was invited to replace viOlet on very short notice but I am glad I went, even though I didn't show my full capabilities. I wasn't feeling too great about my skills going into the tournament but I felt obligated to attend the event because IPL invited me. When IPL5 came around the corner, I was feeling ill from all the traveling so I did not feel well prepared or at my best health to attend. It's a bit off topic so I will write about it another time but overall, I HAD to go to this IPL DICE to make up for not showing at IPL5. Anyways, aside from these thoughts I had in my head, I had a pretty standard travel day, going to the airport -> waiting in New Jersey -> arriving in Las Vegas.
![[image loading]](http://www.presidentiallimolv.com/images/Las_Vegas_Mccarran_Airport_2.jpg)
I arrived in Las Vegas around 7:40pm and took a taxi to the Hard Rock Hotel. Checking in at the front desk was actually easier than most places I've been to. While I was checking in, Lucifron also showed up after a 20 hour travel time! Most of the night was quiet but we found out we were sharing a room and it wasn't bad at all. I've had to share rooms with people who snore very loudly, not that I dislike those people but it definitely affects my sleep as I am a light sleeper and the last thing a competitor wants before his tournament is lack of sleep. Lucifron was easy to talk to, sociable and I enjoyed his company ^_^. Anyways, after we checked in we went down to the lobby and ate at Mr.Lucky's. Most of the menu was pricey but luckily I was browsing reddit a few days before and I found out about a secret item(not on the main menu). If you ever go to Mr.Lucky's, order a "Gambler's Special." Supposedly it's $7.77 if you have a card, not sure if the waitress meant a membership card(gambling) or a hotel room key but I ended up paying $10 for a small Steak + 3 grilled shrimp and a side of mashed potatoes, while Lucifron ate some spaghetti. Lucifron is from Spain so obviously the culture is different here and there. Lucifron didn't know that refills were free, so when the waiter came to our table to take our drinks and refill them, Luci actually shouted at the guy and said, "No no no, I don't need a refill!" His coke was about 1/4 full so obviously he needed one but he didn't want to pay for another drink. Of course he felt silly after the waiter told him to chill out because it was free but atleast he learned something! Here's the reddit thread with more "secret menus" where I found out about the gambler's special - http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/17yh79/what_is_the_best_secret_menu_you_know_of/
After Dinner, there wasn't much to do and like most mammals on the discovery channel we went to bed.
Day Two: Tournament Day (Hot Import LIGHTS?) VODS AT BOTTOM:
![[image loading]](http://i47.tinypic.com/2s6wqyd.jpg)
We woke up around 7:30 to get ready for the long day ahead of us. Weirdly enough, I woke up before the alarm and I seem to have no trouble sleeping early + waking up early when I'm on the west coast. Whenever I'm back at home or around the east coast, I always end up sleeping around 2-4am and waking up whenever the hell I want (which is obviously not the best choice but I'm sure you gamers can relate). After we got ready, we went down to Mr.Lucky's again to eat with IPL Staff (Frank + Jessica). It was a good meal but we were in a rush, I don't think anyone got to "enjoy" their meal but it was definitely filling and tasted good. Funny enough, my breakfast was almost 2x my dinner from the night before but it's almost impossible to find a better deal while on the strip in vegas, everything is very expensive anywhere you go.
Obligatory photo of food consumed
![[image loading]](http://i47.tinypic.com/33vlxc3.jpg)
After we finished eating, we made our way down to the venue in the Vinyl, it was actually a very cool setting, sadly not many people showed up but I think most of it had to do with the lack of advertising that came from IPL compared to Hot Import Nights. Around 10am my match with Scarlett began. Most of it went as expected, Cloud Kingdom was the starting map and I really dislike the map - my confidence wasn't as high at the start of the match, whereas if we started on a Entombed Valley or Ohana- I would've been much more confident. Anyway, like I said earlier I haven't been practicing much but enough practice to the point where my mechanics were still strong. Game 1 was a rollover after some miscontrol during the first fight at her 3rd base and she was far ahead after she held it off. Game 2 went as I expected, maybe a bit easier but a win with an unorthodox build is what I was aiming for. The map was Ohana and I opened with a 15 gas FE into Marine Hellion Pressure -> Marine upgraded attack. It's a build I've been working on for a VERY long time but I never had a chance to showcase at tournaments because I had 0 zergs at WCS, which I was actually very sad about because I was confident in my TvZ around then. (I don't want to go too in-depth with the series so I will post links to the VODs at the end of the blog). Game 3 was probably one of the more exciting games I have played in the past month, it was on daybreak which ended up with the late game TvZ battles with many nukes, Ravens, EMPS, anything you can imagine except for battle cruisers (
). I definitely could've played it better but the same could be said for Scarlett. We both haven't been practicing so we were a bit rusty (her wrist was injured). I'm satisfied with how the series played out, of course I'm never satisfied until I get the result I want but I think I showcased that I am still a competitor in the scene.![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BCciRojCEAAPLrf.jpg:large)
After my match, I watched Luci vs Grubby which was pretty one-sided aside from Grubby's hero zealots on Ohana which killed around 30+ workers. Luci closed it out with a quick 2-0 and I ended up playing Grubby right after. Our series was exciting, atleast from my point. The first game was a bit silly because I saw gateway pressure coming, I prepared with multiple bunkers but not enough SCVs. In my mind I thought it was a fake but it was legitimate, by the time I was reacting, forcefields came down and my bunkers and he danced his way into my base and I had to tap out. That game could've been completely different if I had more scvs prepared, more bunkers and stalled time until my medivacs, stim and +1 finished (they were all aligned). I shook it off pretty easily because I just made a silly mistake and I went into game 2 with full confidence. It was Cloud Kingdom and I prepared for any 1 base all ins by opening 15 gas FE, into marine tank (to hold off blink stalker + obs). He ended up doing more gateway pressure off two bases and I held it off fairly easily, the game would've been very different if he decided to not go up my ramp, I didn't have siege mode but I had enough firepower to anything that walked up my ramp. He ended up losing the majority of his army, lots of sentry energy lost as well. I attacked with bio + tanks into his 3rd and I got a great positioning onto his 3rd nexus which wasn't complete and I got a very huge lead afterwards. The game played out into my favor, had multiple drops going in many times, while doing frontal assault so I split him thin and he tapped out. Game 3 was on Ohana and started off in my favor and stayed in my favor until the end. I got a double drop off in his main, depowering all of his gateways + psiblocking him while I attacked his 3rd (he couldn't warp in at his 3rd so he lost many probes. I closed it out 2-1, feeling satisfied that I didn't finish 4th.
I ended up playing Scarlett again, for a rematch after she lost to Lucifron. Honestly, I would've loved to play Lucifron. I have played him on european ladder and I felt very evenly matched, maybe even a little bit better in TvT. I feel he is very good at TvZ and always has been but his TvT is his weakest matchup as he has a tendency to lose to a lot of random things. His style of TvZ is completely different than mine but he makes it work so props to him for that ^.^. Anyways, my match with Scarlett started on Cloud Kingdom, once again.. This irked me not because I hate the map, but because we already started on this map! Tournaments need to change it up, atleast in my opinion, in situations like these. There were only 4 maps in the map pool to start with and I think Cloud Kingdom isn't a map that should be in competitive play anymore, it's been around for a while and the map isn't the best. I will elaborate on this in a different post, talking about my opinion on maps. Game 1 she steamrolled me with quick Lair, I made a bad decision to attack and my build order wasn't good. I tried to do the old Innovation build but my lack of practice hurt me here, I virtually forgot the build order so I focused on trying to make it in my head, making my decision making in the game bad. Game 2 was really fun, I could've won if I had made more marauders in my bio composition to deal with her army. Funny thing is how little things affect my play, I had been used to playing Ohana vs zerg spawning at the bottom right, making my 3 barracks wall easy to make addons on. I spawned in the top left in this instance and muscle memory worked against me here, where I tried to make 2 more techlabs for marauders but the ramp doesn't work in favor of addons here. Anyways the game was pretty back and forth, I showcased another unorthodox build. I know for a fact that both of us could've played much better but there were some outside interferences that we could not take care of as players.
IPL had Player camera's on our playing desk and for cameras to show us well on stream, they need some type of lighting. The person working the lights at IPL went on break before our match started, so we had to play the whole series with rediculous glaring lights, right in front of our eyes. This was an issue during the whole tournament but they fixed most of the problems within the first series at 10am. Of course we complained because we are players and we should be able to play in a comfortable environment, sadly the light guy was a union worker at the hotel, so he is not contracted by IPL and he gets to have a hour long break. Of course he chose to take a break during our series, one of the series where I felt that I could win after playing scarlett earlier. I'm not saying I lost because of the light but the light definitely had an impact on both of our play, I was actually tearing up towards the late game of our game 2 because my eyes were getting so dry and the glaring light was very distracting. I think you can actually see it in the VODs hehe.
Overall the tournament was good aside from the light getting in our eyes and I would definitely go again if I was invited. The setup for players was great at IPLDICE. The Desk was perfect level, the chairs had armrest choice (you could lift it up to get rid of the armrest), the monitor were 22-23 inch, perfect for StarCraft and there was a lot of desk room to setup your gear. I even recieved some handwarmers! They took every tiny mistake from IPL Hot Import Nights and fixed it all at this event except for the lights flashing in your eyes but that was out of their control. At HIN, the table was a bit flimsy, the chairs were cruddy and the monitor was wayyyy too big. I'm just glad they fixed all of those before throwing this event.
![[image loading]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BCimNFICcAATbds.png)
Day Two Pt 2: Aggressive Steak build and Rotterdam's hopeless balance.
After the interviews, quick photos, etc. I went out to go eat with Rotterdam + crew (Monica + Jordan). We had invited Lucifron to come but he seemed to be exhausted and just stayed in the hotel room. I met up with Rotti at "Fogo de Chao." You can go online and see what the restaurant is like, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a youtube video as well but basically they bring you a ridiculous amount of meet on a huge metal fork and cut slabs off for you. You get a card, one side is green indicating "I want more food" and the other is red indicating "Quit bombarded me with so much fucking food" atleast that's how all of us defined the red side. I've never eaten so many different steaks, lambs, etc. in one sitting, it was ridiculous but so delicious. They have a really cool setup and have what I suppose is a good salad bar but I didn't eat any of that. We sat down, ate our food for a good hour+ and discussed what we were going to do later that night. We had some interesting conversations such as "What never to say in a relationship" after Monica was telling us about how she tells her boyfriend that "it's just a game." Of course Rotterdam cuts in and says "Those are the 4 words you NEVER say in a relationship. It's just a game." Then we all agreed that we rage because of StarCraft, more than we like to admit. Was pretty funny in the moment and I can see it being said on some shows with the fake laughter in the audience but reading it on text kind of sounds silly(
). Rotterdam covers everyone's food which comes out to be almost $300! ($65ish per person). Thanks to Kev for that <3.![[image loading]](http://i49.tinypic.com/33dupi1.jpg)
We head over to their hotel, "Treasure Island" to get the better camera + microphone for the interview. We walked around for a while and Jordan took some cool photos/mini videos of me walking around with rotti and I'm sure they are going to turn out well. I guess I haven't really explained what this is for, NASL wanted to do some type of "mini-profile" of me and I happily obliged. It was actually a lot more time than I expected but I think it will turn out awesome! I'm not sure whether or not the whole thing will be aired live on NASL Pulse but I am 100% sure it will be on youtube so look for it soon! It didn't take too long to get the camera gear, aside from Jordan going to his room without a hotel key and coming back down to tell us in disappointment. We went out made some cool shots, got kicked off once being told we can't film there. I never understood all the vlogers complaining about being kicked out until this incident. We were told we can't film on their property but there was literally nothing that even indicated that was their property but I'm sure they have some reason... (not). We set up by the Venetian and had no problems from property patrol(?) filming there, aside from Rotterdam falling off his chair and down the steps (no injuries though!). He fell slowly but nowhere near as dramatic as the movies would've depicted it. The worst part was that none of us could stop it, although it was a slow, long fall. Being the man he is, he manned up and started interviewing me. Unlike Rotterdam, I'm pretty sure you can see me shivering in the video (like a bitch) because it was so damn cold, I didn't dress properly for late night walking but in the end, it should turn out okay. We had some outside problems while filming though, the lights randomly went off multiple times, one ridiculous loud clock that rang for what felt like 5 minutes, and some projection of the world apocalypse on a clock. I know that last one sounded strange but that was literally what it was. Around 11:30pm, I arrived back at the the hard rock hotel and made my way to my room. I think I woke up Lucifron which I felt bad for because he had a 6am flight in the morning
. Now that I think about it though, he won $5k and has been resting for a while, I should've just turned on all the lights and blasted the TV. I'm sure he had a lot of fun waking up at 4:30am to catch a flight. Of course I'm kidding about this.. mostly.. anyway I hope he had no problems getting back home and he didn't have to deal with any middle seats!After a long night
![[image loading]](http://i45.tinypic.com/bhy33a.jpg)
The warriors sleep
Day 3: Leaving (Boring)
I'm actually writing this on day 3, while on my flights + connection in San Francisco. Nothing unusual happened yet, I woke up -> flight -> oh wait. I'm actually writing a blog about my experience so I guess something interesting has happened. I'd like to think I will get home and edit this so it looks a bit more professional but most likely I'll say fuck it and just put it on TL. I don't have much to say for this day because it's only 1pm but I can definitely close by thanking everyone
. Thanks to Rotterdam, Monica and Jordan for making my last night in Vegas enjoyable - definitely want to do it again sometime! Thanks to IPL and Staff for the event and making it as comfortable as possible for the players. I also got pretty good seats on my flight, no middle seats which is great because I despise middle seats after my middle seat flight to Korea and back. Thanks to all the players for being good sports. Special thanks to my roommate Lucifron for not snoring and for complaining about how bad Terran is with me . Last but not least, thanks to the fans that watched! The hours weren't optimal for most viewers considering it was a weekday at 10am PST (school across the nation) but I hope it was enjoyable for the few that did watch. ![[image loading]](http://i49.tinypic.com/2a84yv6.jpg)
Thanks to Razer for supporting me, while I've been homeless(soon to change)
VODS:
vs Scarlett set 1
+ Show Spoiler +
http://www.twitch.tv/ignproleague/b/364975748?t=15m25s
vs Grubby
+ Show Spoiler +
g1
g2
g3
vs Scarlett set 2
+ Show Spoiler +
g1
g2
Twitters:
@Karont3Lucifron (Congrats for 1st Place!)
@AcerScarlett (2nd place)
@mouzIllusion (3rd place)
@Followgrubby(4th place)
@Rotterdam08 (Thanks for getting me to write!)
@Miss_Monikins (Rotterdam's official taxi + NASL IphoneLight holder)
@IGNProleague (Thanks for the good tour)
Thanks to Jordan as well, he doesn't have a twitter but he was the videographer/photographer for the NASL segment and he was a pleasure to work with
-Expect more blogs from me about events, the state of StarCraft, anything regarding Progaming life such as team houses, team leagues, etc. I've always wanted to write and I've regretted not doing it already so I will start now!
My Facebook!
Feel free to AMAR(elated) to the event and my trip!
EDIT: Preview of NASL Segment:
