EPT
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Day 1
It is 3am, and I am just now finding the time to write up a recap of the day. I woke up at 6:30, having gone to sleep about 3 hours prior to that. I can't complain too much though, Day[9] had less sleep, a more filled schedule, and actual things to do (high intensity casting for 8 hours off no sleep is quite a talent). This is apparently what a convention is like.
I've never been to one. I've never been to New York -- both are quite the interesting experience. You can see the results of the matches here (has replays if you click the "vs" button) and read people going bananas over games in the livereport thread here. This won't be totally removed from the games themselves, but its not a focus . Vods and our wrap-up coverage will do that soon enough.
My day began (at 6:30am, remember) by hearing HuK shout, rather excitedly, I don't know, maybe he just chokes against Koreans, man. I have no idea who it referenced and it would probably only ruin the magic of the moment so I let it go.
Walking to the convention center, we passed two girls wearing awkward graphic t-shirts a size too small for their slightly pudgy forms. Thought to myself "these girls are probably going to the con". Sick read, their badges were visible when we passed them.
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This is what it looked like at 11am, at 3 it was too full to move
We we got to the Javits Center, we spent some time trying to figure out where to be and ran into a few roadblocks. I tried to solve the problem by convincing HuK to start shouting Do you know who I am? I'm motherfucking HuK to no use. He did say it jokingly later, minor victory at least.
I was disappointed to find out no one else on staff was excited for the Tron remake with Jeff Bridges (it had a booth of some kind), or had even seen the original movie. We're certainly not lacking in general nerdiness so I don't know what's up.
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Ironically I'm the only one here not wearing a TL shirt
There were a lot of TL shirts running around. Very cool to see. More than a few people asked us who we were on TL. It was particularly amusing, as no one has met R1CH before and they all seem amazed to see him in person (including Day9). One of our staff writers, chobopeon, said something along the lines of "yo are you dudes TL admins?" after one of the players said hi as he walked off stage.
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This actually happened on 2-3 screens at once several times
A lot of the players browsed TL in between games as well. They have FP views set up to watch for all the players on stage, and it was common for them to be showing our website when not in a match. I caught more than one player checking the live report thread after his match, presumably to prepare a list of people to be purged should they come into power.
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In their element
Having R1CH around is as awesome as you would imagine. He runs up on stage to help solve technical problems, completely reinforcing his wizard status. He takes incredible pictures as well. He also deadpanned the line "swapping out computer parts, thats always a good sign," when we saw them bringing in a new tower on stage as games were supposed to go live.
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Early in the day I had a conversation with TheMango about what percentage of girls dressing up in cosplay are attractive ('doing cosplay'? I don't even know how to approach that phrase) . I said 1% was generous, he thought as much as 5%. Later on I decided he was right, it was pleasantly surprising.
The day finally ended when we went back to our host apartment, to discover a package had arrived for Mango. It was two 2TB hard drives. He already has 12TB of storage space. This is the kind of dedication and interest TL is built on.
Day 2
I began my day with lunch in a Wendys, because fuck paying food court prices. We ate at a 2 story Wendys, momentarily blowing my mind at how classy of a joint it was, until Brood told me there is a McDonalds in the city that brings your food out to you and has a piano player. Social lounge fast food apparently.
By the time we got there at 1pm the crowd was laughably huge, it was a pain just to get to the area where SC2 was. There was a line around a mile long on the bottom of the convention, presumably for people who needed to get passes yet. Some dude on the street tried to sell us passes inside, in retrospect I should have found out how much he wanted.
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teehee I am in this too
Getting to the SC2 area, some other game was on (Counter Strike,). We made the best of it and elected to spend our time at the SC2 computers they had set up, alternating ladder games (embarrassingly as a group there was more losing than winning). A guy (reporter? blogger? I have no idea) was interviewing people at random about their thoughts on the game and the experience of watching it, and hilariously enough picked Hot_Bid to do one. Convenient way for us to promote.
A trip to the bathroom made me re-think the declaration yesterday that a good portion of cosplay women are attractive. Apparently Saturday is the time for half assed costumes attached to people who wouldn't be fit even for a good costume. Sunday shall decide once and for all.
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This wasn't even when Liquid`HuK was playing
Anyone who has seen live LAN-style Starcraft probably knows this, but the game is much more exciting with a crowd around you to help cheer. Watching the first series, Fenix vs Drewbie, was a high energy experience, particularly so thanks to an incredible game 5. The games were certainly above average, but had I not seen them among a sea of people it would be a much less potent memory. I highly recommend trying to make an event to anyone who hasn't done so.
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Qxc seeing the blunder that cost teammate Drewbie the series
As HuK was playing, the girl sitting in front of me asked "is he always so calm when he plays?", completely shocked that even when down he was cool and collected. His nerves of steel are even apparent to the audience.
Today R1CH got a better feel for how to use his camera in the awful lighting of a video game stage, so there are more and better pictures. Here are some.
+ Show Spoiler +
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Notice TLO's doppleganger in the lower left
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Fenix in his match
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He has a very unique keyboard position
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Qxc watches his teammate
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Crowd is pretty deep
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Drewbie has a clean victory
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Discussing strategy before game 5
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Hot_Bid, Brood, Me
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Qxc in action
After the games were over we went to dinner as a party of 22 TLers, completely filling up some tiny Thai restaurant (and angering our waitress just by sitting down). On our way to the subway later, we ran into Qxc, Drewbie, Fenix, and their friends (and probably more gamers I didn't recognize). It led to this, from HuK.
Good luck tomorrow Qxc!
Bad luck Drewbie!
...
Nah I'm just playing
When we got back I had a small feast of Korean snacks, courtesy of TheMango. Several hours of 4v4 later I had booked a solid day.
Some funny staff moments:
-Translator CSheep pronounces the word "iron" as "I run", none of us had any idea who he was talking about when discussing GSL.
-Banling micronesia, moderator Brood, translator CSheep all lose 1v1 games on battlenet while we wait for SC2 to come on.
-Micronesia thinks Sonuvbob's real name is Hugh G Wang because of TSL credits.
Day 3
Day 3 was a little less exciting, as the match HuK had to play was a bit less high profile. We couldn't eat at Wendy's in the morning because they refused to open the upstairs section I was so excited about, so we had to go to McDonalds.
It was quite the rush of emotions, first they were only serving breakfast when we arrived, and then as I was complaining about it someone went through and rotated all the menus to the lunch menu. IEM truly has delivered nonstop excitement.
Once we got to the arena the cosplay situation was disappointing, more similar to Saturday than it was Friday. I'm not sure anymore if mine or Mango's intuition was more correct about what percentage of cosplayers aren't terrifyingly disgusting, somewhere in the middle I suppose. Later in the day there was this guy however made up for a lot of the bad costumes.
The immediate issue at hand was the 3rd/4th place playoff between Drewbie and HuK. Money, glory, and honor were all at stake. A chance to reclaim some dignity after a tough loss the day prior. Also, third place received a novelty sized check whereas 4th did not.
While the CS finals were being played behind them, the players began warming up. CS is one of the least interesting things in the world, but luckily there were 42" TVs set up in front that displayed the players first person view. As HuK was setting up, Gretorp walked by to say hello and wished them all luck in their matches before going on his way.
Warming up his hands, HuK searched ladder...only to find the aforementioned terran as his opponent. He was using the computers in the standing area to kill some time by laddering. It didn't go well for HuK, the game ended with "how am I supposed to beat Drewbie when I can't beat you while you're standing up using bad mouse" in chat.
Last night at dinner HuK boldly proclaimed he would either mothership or carrier rush Drewbie sometime in the series. Game 1 on Blistering Sands began with just that, HuK went straight for a fleet beacon and the mothership was on its way while his ground force was only a few stalkers and zealots.
It went about as you might expect, Drewbie sent a lol when he saw it and after a minor scuffle and a vortex he killed the mothership then went on to win the game. Game 2 HuK decided he hadn't had enough, and teched to carriers immediately on 1 base. The end result was the same, forcing HuK to play seriously for the next 3 games which he was able to edge out Drewbie for a spot on the podium.
The entire time all of this happened, Counter-Strike was played on the big screen while SC2 fans were forced to watch the much smaller FP views. The audience must have been entirely Starcraft fans, there was much more clapping at the events on the FP screens than anything that happened in the CS game.
While Qxc was getting ready to play his game, someone on his friends list messaged him. He wanted help in getting to platinum 3v3, Qxc's reply was a simple "I have to play the finals in some tournament". Some tournament.
The games in the finals were stellar. Unfortunately for QXC, Fenix outclassed him in nearly every area. All through the tournament, Fenix would find himself at small (or in some cases large) disadvantages in the mid game only to pull through with clever drop and bait tactics.
After the ceremony to give the players their respective giant-sized checks we were out. We said goodbye to all the TLers in the area, and were briefly harassed by some dude who could have passed as McLovin's twin.
The best part of the day was as we walked to the subway home. I was holding HuK's third place check while we passed through the crowd leaving Comic Con. A few people stopped and asked what it was, and to congratulate me on winning (the name on it says "HuK" so I went along).
Eventually some guy came by who was so impressed that he wanted a picture from me while we were crossing the street. Right in the crosswalk I stood with the check out and a big smile, and let him take the photo. I can only hope that right now he is showing his friends that picture and telling them about the time he met famous starcraft player HuK.
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Yeah, this was Awesome! Great write up!! That's me at the bottom of the "Ironically I'm the only one here not wearing a TL shirt" picture with my hands on my face (the matches were so intense! I wasn't ready for it!) It was great to see TL there holding it down! (even though I didn't know who was who either!) Fenix... wow!
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