TL Meeting at Gamescom 2010: Pics & Impressions

misterG420

Germany152 Posts

August 21 2010 11:49 GMT

[b] UPDATE:
Unfortunately, the 10 GB bandwith limit was exceeded after just 12 hours. I didn't find any site without a limit, but some people suggested switching to imageshack. Hope it works better. If not, please PM me a good suggestion where to permanently upload the pictures. Sorry for the inconvenience if you could not see the pictures yet. Feel free to do so now

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Warning: This blog contains spoilers of the recent IEM games at the Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Germany. If you do not wish to be spoilert in any extend, please stop reading now and return whenever you are ready! Also, I want to mention that pretty much every second picture has Demuslim in it, no idea why, but who cares. He is awesome, friendly and just fun to be around. Also, especially in the restaurant, I had huge problems with the light in the room. The standard flashlight of my camera is a total pain and the room was originally too dark to take good pictures without a decent flashlight. This caused some blurriness, I beg to apologize. Also, it's quite a number of pictures (38 so far, more might come later when I have slept)

Before I start giggling and can’t stop writing about how awesome the TL meeting was, I want to thank fishyjoes again for having organized the event, he did the restaurant reservation for a ton of people and he did a real good job overall. Someone has to get a meeting like this started, and he did it well! Thanks from everyone.

Now to the fun stuff:
My original plan was to go to Cologne just to see the IEM games on the Saturday. So, as a good and loyal fan and member of TL.net I prepared myself well for this event. In the hope that during the games the camera men would actually show the cheering crowd, I made little comics for every possible occasion and for every player that I was cheering for:

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Unlucky, that neither the commentators nor the cameras could really catch such a thing.

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Uhh, who is hiding behind those monitors? Could it be? Really? No kidding?

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Ya, It is Day and Apollo!!

Day9 and Apollo were sitting with their backs to the crowd and the camera was pointed for 2 seconds at the crowd and that only if they had nothing else to do. Soooo, my pictures were somewhat of a waste, but since I had to kill 5h in the train, I might as well do something, right? Day9 and Apollo were pretty much the most positive aspect of this event. They were a true dream team and I hope they cast more games together!

Due to some fantastic railway problems, I arrived 2,5 hours later, so that I could only see the last three games of Idra vs that unknown Terran. But holy cow, that was a dramatic series. I thought my heart stopped during the first big attack on the last game (Blistering Sands):

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Dying mutas trying to save the expo, Zerglings dead for ages, Medivacs in the air zapping away, total panic and annihilation in Zerg town. What’s going on in IdrA’s base? Happy-Drone-time. Where every Zerg in the universe had panicked in the face of his immediate defeat, he was super calm, did his thing, survived the attack and slowly secured his quarterfinals.
He stood on the stage during the (quite useless) commentary about his games and the crowd applauded. Well played, IdrA.

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After the games, not much was going on on the stage. Some Quakelive, a strange racing game and Counterstrike, which I thought was replaced by something “modern” but apparently I was wrong. So, I wandered around trying to sneak in a short cue for some good Diablo 3 or Call of Duty games. But waiting lines started from 3-4 hours. So, that was kind of not good to do. I decided to circle around, always keeping the IEM stage in mind just to not miss any SC2 action. Although the IdrA games were the last casted games of that day, I was still able to see some of the players practice right next to the IEM stage. Here are some impressions and players:

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TLO with a pretty darn good shirt...

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Mister Ret!

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MorroW and some weird freaky looking Quakeguy.

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More Practice, more practice...

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Demuslim looking friendly and awesome as always! Sorry if you feel over-represented in the pictures, but my camera, my rules :p

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If I may repeat myself, Artosis: "Not nearly as handsom as you and your shirts..."[/spoiler]

Shortly before the assembly at 8 pm, I met 7mk, talked about sc2, the games, the event and all the good stuff. The TL people met at the south entrance and this is what it looks like when 40 TL guys are standing around waiting for more awesome people to come:

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On the way, we sort of lost the more important second half of our crowd (which is the players), so a little panic going on, but everything turned out ok and we proceeded. Just a couple of minutes later, we arrived the restaurant:

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And guess what: I got a perfect seat right next to Demuslim, Nazgul and TLO. Oh my, had I red cheeks:

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The whole restaurant was literally TL property right now and the mood was awesome. The players were so open and friendly and blended in perfectly with the mortal casual gamers. They answered pretty much everything, laughed, drank beer and had a good time. Yea sure, we had to wait for ages until our food came, but who cares if you can sit next to so awesome people and wander around and take pictures, right?

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Demuslim with Fishyjoes!

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Day9 talking to someeeeeeeone....

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Now, whatch what happens if Day9 is feeling totally comfortable... he sees a friendly lady, talks nice to her and then...

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... busts out the big nerd heart. Isn't that romantic? You are such a cutie, Day.

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Haha, Oh jeeez. I will never forget this funny standing guy. Something with BierKiller-Something? Looking forward to play some games with you!

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Tarson and MorroW on one table.

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Apollo screaming something to someone. Problably complaining about the never coming food :D

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Pretty bad photo, but the light was too bad and the flashlight is super bad. Just to see the "endless table of Teamliquidians".

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IdrA up to for a chat and some T-Shirt signing later on.

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Tarson and Artosis.

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Uh, what a fresh new photo with... Demuslim!

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Who cares about your name, if you can just be THE MAN. Hope you got home safely...[/spoiler]

So, of course I took opportunity of this relaxed environment and let everybody sign my fake TL shirt that I had prepared the night before. Never in the world will I sell or even use this shirt again. It shall remain a silent witness of the most awesome community on the planet. Thanks everyone for singing and exchanging sc2 names and stuff

Ignore my right foot there... You got enough pictures without any feet...

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*Giggle*

The IdrAling is my painting, but Artosis is just right about his comment. No reason to argue here. Just true man-respect :p

Unfortunately, at around 2 am the group began to fall apart. Some players still had to play tournies the next day, some were just dead tired (like a certain mister Plott, who looked like a dead sleepwalker anyway, which didn’t affect his aura and his charisma at all) and some just stayed a little longer in the restaurant. I had to wait 1,5 h for my train back, but I had warm memories in my heart and on my shirt

Thanks Teamliquid for an awesome meetup.

Artosis: You are smaller than I expected, but you truly are the most handsome Nerd on the planet. It was so nice meeting you and your signature has a sweet spot on my shirt. Never stop giving content to TL. You are awesome!

IdrA: I didn’t lie when I said that I cheered for you to win these games! I totally believe that you will win this tourney. I really wish you best of luck for all things you do!

TLO: Actually, you are smaller than I expected as well, but who cares if you are THAT awesome?! Really liked your open and friendly mindset. I really hope you enjoy your time in Korea and that you remain as fun and creative as you are.

MorroW: You are a beast! Best of luck in all tournies you participate. If theres a Swedish lan around and you are playing, I will come over and lead the crowd :d

Dimaga and WhiteRa: God, why are you all so friendly? I didn’t really have the time to talk to you much, but you are a bunch of awesome guys and I hope that will never change.

Day9 and Apollo: Oh snap, why didn’t I listed you earlier? Probably because its 1 pm and instead of sleeping after having to wait for the train all night, I am writing this blog and upload pictures. But, I just want to say what everyone knows. You two are sooo brilliant.

Tarson: You don’t suck, never write that on my shirt again! You played good games, its fun see the games, you are a super mannered friendly guy. You shall rock, remember that

Enough! I need sleep. Really. Thanks for all the people that came. I can’t name you all, but I will truly remember you all! And hope to see you guys (and 3?) girls next time!

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