EPTMy first live esports experience was GamesCom 2013. I was a quite quiet (until I discovered LR threads which I did pretty late) watcher of BW streams and, much more, SC2 streams. In 2010, I didn't even care for beta access, so I guess you would not have called me a "dedicated fan" or something.
What changed it? Oh hell, the players did! The production guys did! The events did! Of course, my WoL master's placement did, too, but hell who cares for that anyways.
What I want to talk about is the IEM Cologne that just happened. I went to GamesCom to attend Season II finals. I just got into inStarcraft.de, which is a germany based fansite, existing since 1998 or so. They would let me cast some games for them and write some news; also I had the great pleasure to cast the "Germany Cup" with pros like HasuObs, HeroMarine, Socke and others. Basically, these guys sent me to GamesCom (along with some more skilled people than me, I was really "fresh" in that side of the scene - well, I still am) so I could do event coverage for them.
I ended up attending the WCS Season II finals, talking to some pros and fans at the Teamliquid meetup. And I decided: "Oh hell, you gotta have another live experience!"
When it was clear to me that IEM would settle again in Cologne, I recruited two friends and instantly went there, completely as a fan. I could only attend final day (but hell, what a final day it was), and I really want to say this:
I do not know why ESL does it, but - free Red Bull, free Coke, Sprite, Water, even freaking cheeseburgers for everyone in attendance - and that for a really cheap ticket! We had the luck to sit in the main area (where the WCS Ro8 is played, too), and it was just great to be so close to the people you do not always get to watch.
It's just great to see Leenock and HerO have a laugh together (oh, and High-Fiving Leenock is also fucking great!), seeing ToD getting tired and Ret checking Reddit for his own name, it's awesome to see Redeye preparing for his next few minutes before the game, seeing the players actually smile and communicate. I understand that it's not everyone's thing to interact with fans (HOLY CRAP INNOVATION SIGNED MY TERRAN T-SHIRT WITH A SMILE!!), Ret seemed to be either tired or in a "go away" mood when I approached him, ToD is such a communicative guy (he's like the john wayne fighting swarm hosts I feel), and just to see Jaedong leaving the room when he lost to HerO was such a unique thing, he literally made me wipe a tear out of my eye because he looked so sad and destroyed, even after he got his sick nerd baller award.
The crowd was too small to create that huge "cheer" that we all want to have (remember some dreamhacks..), but just the possibility of being so close to everything is astonishing. I felt like a six year old in disneyland, and I basically want to thank everyone for their efforts towards esports. I mean, we all know esports wouldn't exist if you couldn't earn money somehow. But at least the ESL people feel more like guys that love what they do and don't do it for the money solely, but more for the sake of reaching their personal dreams. That might be true or not, but I kind of like to keep that naive picture of ESL up
. So, time to say a huge THANK YOU!
(no order given)
Thank you,
..production team, for doing what you did! Great stuff!
..cheeseburger guy, for bringing joy and cheeseburgers to all nerds in attendance (except me, I hate cheese lol)
..Intel for doing a freaking StarCraft II world championship!
..All the players for providing so much fun on a long, long weekend!
..All the casters for NOT GIVING UP at 3am (and casting for like 15 hours or so)
..Red Bull for, well, free Red Bull
..ESL in general for providing so much esports! so wow
..the fans from belgium (and the guy from freaking china!) for some real trash talk during cigarette breaks
..Redeye for being such an eloquent, skilled an professional host
..Apollo for being the greatest caster out there (you signed my paper at GamesCom, it's framed already)
..ToD and Ret for excellent ingame analysis (especially ToD) and replay skills
..Funka for sick observing throughout the IEM as a whole and, in detail, the all-over-the-place-game-6 (oh screw it, the whole series!) between Polt and HerO
..HerO and Jaedong for giving me nerd chills and excitement that I didn't have for such a long time in StarCraft II - Bros, watch Game 5. Seriously!
I could continue that list for so long, but after all, it's time for a conclusion.
Thank you for making so great events.
cool to hear from people in the audience and how you got into the scene
