EPT
Written by: Timeless
Homepage: http://www.cyworld.com/ansang2
Title: Do You Know TeamLiquid (TL)?
If you type in the keywords 'Team Liquid' (TL) on Naver, you will get the result 'TeamLiquidNet' in Korea, as well as the address link http://www.teamliquid.net/.
- What is it about?
If you search it up, it says it is an American Starcraft fansite, covering game tournaments, progamers and misc.
(If you browse the site, you will be amazed by the sheer volume of content they have.)
- Why suddenly?
I went to the recent Blizzcon 2009, and I've met a few friends there who browse that site.
Do you remember back in 2007 when pgr and TL contacted each other regarding their translating forums and other issues?
- What happened (in Blizzcon)?
During the tour to the Blizzard headquarters, the long-legged youth sitting beside me just came forward to me after seeing my name tag.
'PGR21'
That was what was written. His name was James, one of TeamLiquid's moderators (ID: Kennigit).
We exchanged greetings, talked about various stuff and later on, he invited me and my friends to their 'OSL Finals party'.
Next night at 10pm, there was an OSL Finals party in one of the hotel conference rooms. There were around 100 American TL users, moderators and staff from the site, all whom played Starcraft. Their main goal was of course, to watch the OSL finals which was to start in 2am (American time).
Around 11pm, there was a meeting with the CJ Entus progaming team. There was a signing and photo-taking session, as well as a quiz where each player asked 5 questions regarding themselves and gave CJ uniforms to those who guessed the answers correctly. Here, I was really surprised.
Questions were something like these:
Hometown? Birthday? Longest winning streak? Which opponent the player faced in which finals?
When I asked how did they get the questions correct, they said that they had a progaming database in TL. Isn't that amazing?
(On a side note, I got Effort's longest winning streak question correct. Haha)
And until the finals started, people drank beer and 2 people went forward to play 1:1s. There were even commentaries. Because the main purpose was to enjoy themselves, there were lots of vulgar chatting going on, as well as physical activities which were all very fun.
As it got closer to the start of the finals, we tuned in to watch the channel and it was interesting to listen to people (who were sitting beside me) talk about what the commercials were about ^^;
And finally! When the games started, everyone shouted 'one, two, three, Park Myung Soo Hwaiting! Lee Jae Dong Hwaiting!' Haha.
(Of course, I joined in as well.)
That was how I spent the night, and we met them again at Blizzcon the following day. In the afternoon, after the meeting with the reporters, we met them again. We talked about many things over dinner. A few of them knew quite a few things about pgr.
Also, there are a few similarities between TL and pgr.
1) People have full access to the entire site (other than posting) without the need to register
2) After registering, for 10 days, they can only post comments and not make threads.
3) When unsuitable posts are made, posts are deleted and sometimes, bans are given out.
4) There are around 8 people operating the site, similar to PGR.
Isn't this fascinating? ^^
I never knew there were such meetings outside of Korea involving genuine Starcraft fans who were so interested in the Korean leagues, players and teams.
I was deeply moved by their passion and love for the game, as well as their well manners. They really know how to enjoy Starcraft.
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you and hi to James (Kennigit), Joseph (LosingID8), Jeffry (intrigue), Tom (so no fek), Cameron (aers), Darren (blabber) as well as other TL friends and Edwin (Kore from SC2GG), who was banned. (Of course, I don't think I can see them again ^^).
)
