EPTI established everything at home after coming back from Thailand, now I can take this time to address a few things. I plan to create a few topics during the next few days - I will start with the most pleasant one first.
I will say a few words about certain aspects of the tournament, and then will get to the clue of this post.
Tournament was played in the Thailand PC Bang - we had enough computers for every player to practice between the games.
Our goal was to cast EVERY SINGLE GAME of the event, although we had to skip a few of them, because every computer after restart was coming back to the default settings, so we had to install everything from scratch (bnet, starcraft,obs,mouse settings etc.). During the first day of the event, we had only two webcams available, so after every match I had to go to every player computer, install the programs I needed to capture the camera, plug in the camera and set up on my side - that's why we were behind with the schedule and had to skip few games.
Cast quality: I prepared a lot of materials about the players, maps etc just to give you something to look at, when we are preparing the players, banning the maps etc. I had more ideas / plans for the cast improvements for the next few days, although installing everything from the beginning took too much time and we had to go with what we had - especially that my computer crashed 2/3 times between the games, so I had to install everything again quickly, when everyone was waiting.
Fortunately we had Mr. BabyMagiK, who was casting the LAN in Russian, and was extremely helpful with installing all the software, which was needed on players computers - without his help we would have to skip even more games.
Audio issues were pretty big - I couldn't make a second audio source to have listening live, so we had to set up everything on the stream live. We also were casting in the same room as everyone else, so adjusting the mics well was a struggle every day - huge thanks for Sayian for helping with that.
Admins: Rus_Brain was doing an amazing job taking care of the map bans/picking, setting up next matches for the cast, updating all the scores, giving us feedback about audio or other issues and more - it allowed for continuity and shorter breaks between games. Saerjaar was taking care of everything we needed as a casters, he even helped with preparing the profile for the players, who didn't fill in the required data in time.
Their help is even more appreciated, as they were the hosts of the LAN, so they had a lot more things to take care of.
Casters: For the first days of group stage we had kinda open mic for casters, as you noticed in few threads - we had Rapid as you all noticed, but we also had Sayian, Jumper, MiStrZZZ, Rus_Brain, spx, iopq, Artosis and few more guests. From the bracket part, the majority of the games was casted by Artosis and Sayian - huge thanks for them for their help and amazing job.
Conclusion: I learned a lot during producing this LAN, and if we would make it again with the same conditions(computers restart to default settings), I would prepare everything differently at home, and would be more ready for it. Also it would be great to have someone being ready to make short interviews with the winners after each match, as well as some camera for the venue / observers for the break time. Also I think it’s worth investing into a headset with microphone for future, as it’s pretty hard to use standing mic in LAN.
Few words from myself
Tournament was really amazing and I had a great time producing it. Even though I was working hard and I got sick because of the AC, it was a blast.
Looking at the bigger picture, this event gave me an injection of energy to work more on StarCraft, showing what the end-of-year tournament should look like - the real finals of the year. It also motivated me to try to organize / help to organize offline events regularly if I only have occasion. I believe having such an event regularly would be a big deal for the players, because it gives them purpose to practice hard and dedicate more time for it. This tournament fits perfectly into the ideal vision of a yearly event for the players - just like WCG back in the days. I'm 100% sure that EVERY player who attended this event will try their best to qualify for the next one - because qualifying for the event like this is a reward itself.
The most important thing: I am extremely grateful that I could be a part of this event, especially since it was my first vacation in 4 years, even though I worked most of the time - in such an atmosphere it was not noticeable, apart from physical fatigue. The opportunity to meet all these wonderful people and get to know them was the most valuable thing! Everyone, literally everyone, turned out to be a great person. We were ALL a tight-knit group spending time together at the pool, going out to eat or shop together. I personally already miss all those people and I feel like we build a real bond between each other. It felt like hanging out with the family or best friends.
That's why I would like to show my deepest gratitude to eSport.Fund aka Rus_Brain, Saerjaar and Mixer for making Bombastic 25th Anniversary LAN in Thailand possible. Without their true love to the game it would never happen.
When I agreed to help with this project, I wasn't aware how wonderful the journey would be. Obviously I love offline events and I always knew that LANs are the best way to spend time around BroodWar, but this extended my deepest expectations.
The amount of great stories I have is crazy, but to respect everyones privacy - what happened in Thailand stays in Thailand
Attenders:
Players:
Bonyth, 
Dewalt, MiStrZZZ, 
OyA, DooMo, 
Jumper, Mazur, Squizen, spx, 
TerrOr, 
UltrA, 
Artosis, ProSCVRush, 
Sharp, Julian, 
iopq, 
Saiyan, ZZZeroArrivers:
BabyMagiK, 
LML, Rapid, Homesmac, 
Dreamer, Peak, 
Sonko, 
Florin, Cardinal, sYnDroM, 
Danjim, Grandpa (Age65Apm40) (If I miss someone, excuse me - please let me know and I will make update)Here are some photos I made:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/82ZiUMDpsJbgf8jS7
I feel grateful for meeting you, thank you guys and till the next one!
