NASL Grand Finals

A little background about me: I run the Collegiate Starleague with a man otherwise known as Duran “Xeris” Parsi – UCPL founder, FnaticMSI’s manager, and last but not least, the ESPORTS mastermind behind all of NASL. I accidentally introduced my best friend from high school – a talented and beautiful girl who we’ll call “Y”eris for now – to Xeris, and now “Y”eris is behind all the wonderful graphics that you see on stream. It was NASL weekend and her 21st birthday, so I flew over as both a surprise present and CSL staff.

The plan was to arrive in LAX without breathing a word to “Y”eris, meet up with Xeris, drive back and surprise her, pick up Sen (who was staying with Xeris for the time being), have lunch, and then shuttle ourselves off to the Ontario Convention Center. Xeris calls me mid-flight and lets me know that he needs to wait for the Koreans to arrive and responsibly send them off in a shuttle to Ontario. I’m – well, obviously I’m very happy at the opportunity to see all these progamers and casters in what we call real life – and so I run off in the direction of international flights.

WeMade Fox’s manager, Moon, and Xeris were all sitting down and waiting for the rest of the Koreans. Moon is aloof, thin, pale, baggy-eyed (trivia: Moon refuses to wear make-up), and wanders off into the airport a few minutes later. WeMade’s manager speaks in English and a little bit of Chinese and I say basic words in Korean that mean “HELLO” or “SIGN THIS PLEASE,” so we begin to have a conversation. I’m wearing a TL team shirt so he perks up and says,

“Oh, are you from Team Liquid? Do you know Milkis?”

My answer is a slightly embarrassing one – no, I’m only a fan…this is a wannabe-Liquid shirt (T_T) – so I explain how it’s a fan thing and how I have Hwaseung Oz’s jacket too. Little do I realize, WeMade Fox’s manager’s hackles rise at the name “Hwaseung.” He pulls out his backpack, grabs a shirt from it, hands it to me, and says, “Throw the Hwaseung jacket in the trash! I hate Jaedong T_T he always kills my team.” I immediately changed into my newly acquired WeMade shirt. And so, this is how this picture came to be:



On that note, TSL-aLive is ADORABLE. I can’t even stress this enough. You’ve all seen him in the pictures – he is always looking at the camera lens. This also goes for any stares you give him. I kept staring at him because of his Mickey Mouse (SO CUTE +_+) and every time, he would meet my eyes. I think it must be some sort of pro-gaming reaction time and minimap awareness.


We pack up the rest of the pro-gamers in a shuttle and then off we go to “Y”eris (who was surprised!) and Sen (who was immersed in a game and entirely unaware of any going-ons in the house). Lunch is at Green Apple, an American-style Chinese restaurant, and we converse in Chinese about StarCraft. Sen’s super manner and hilarious in Chinese, although I can’t understand Taiwanese accents.

After getting stuck in infamous LA traffic, we meet up with the Koreans at the Doubletree, take pictures, and then escort them to the convention center.



“Y”eris and I then get posters and markers so that we can create these masterpieces. Our happiness is apparent. These posters are for all you wonderful collegiate SC players out there who didn’t get a chance to fly over – many of them are signed!







I had to get a taste of what it was like to work at the NASL - I wasn't doing any of the work, but everyone and everything was intense. I was mostly waiting on Xeris and Yeris to finish their jobs and marveling at the production crew and setup. They ended up finishing around 1-2am because all staff members were forcibly kicked out with the threat of convention fees over their heads. We get home around 2:00am, get up at 4:00am, and we're back in the morning at 6:00am for more.

We arrive bright and early at 6:30am. Something's clearly wrong based on the crane still being on-site by 11am, but we begin occupying ourselves with other matters. Yeris, in addition to doing all the graphics between every match, is also our lovely makeup artist.



We draw a few caricatures of progamers as they unsuspectingly sit and chat. July and SeleCT look very suspicious of us, and for good reason:



When provided pen and paper, some of our restless progamers create these masterpieces:





In the meantime, Sen hands me his pouch (think Chinese-style fannypack keke) and phone and politely asks if I can take pictures of the event for him. I can't say no to this face.



By now, times are super delayed and the stream is getting reckless. The SC2 community is getting ready to crucify NASL and here we are, nervous but excited. The projector is broken. There's not much we can do at this point except take fun pictures. aLive is as adorable as ever backstage (he wears sunglasses because he's very shy! or maybe he's BM...)





Needless to say, a lot happens. I don't quite remember the order of everything that happened. I get a lot of pictures with progamers in between games, enjoy the Ro16, and stand in lines for fun (I saw Ret backstage a lot but the line for his autograph was so long that I didn't want to cut D: ... and at some point I stood in line for Sen and he thought I was trolling him so I got a "fuck you" (in jest))

It's strange, you know - in StarCraft 2, and even in StarCraft Brood War, so many foreign fans (Nada/Jaedong/Bisu fanboys aside - they've been cultivated throughout the years) watch for the commentators or the high skill. And that's okay. I like watching Dreamhack when I know it's going to be cast by Day[9], or GSL finals when I know the best in the world are playing.

But at an event like this, I began to genuinely want players to win. Sheth was so GM that I...well, I actually cared about his games beyond the level of, "That's some good SC." When it came to Sen's game, Yeris and I yelled endless "SEN, 加油!" to the extent that Artosis and Tasteless thought Sen had a disproportionate number of fans (our cheerfuls for SEN were pretty much in the casters' faces from our front seat). People in the TL thread heard our Chinese cheering.

Just to illuminate this phenomenon a little further, let me tell you something about Yeris - she's amazing at graphics and she loves Xeris and me (I think) for who we are (SC nerds), but she thinks of drones as "butterfly dudes who bring the rocks back to the main dude." And yet when Sen played Zenio, each baneling and mismicro made our hearts stop. So why did we actually care about Sen? We knew him. We've talked to him. Before he left to go on stage, Sen promised to buy us drinks if he wins. He's joked around with us and explained his practice strategy: "take it easy! No special practice ^_^". And everyone at NASL got the chance to see a progamer in person - who knew that aLive wears sunglasses out of shyness, or that PuMa tugs at his shirt when he's nervous, or that Sen and Gretorp have a charming bromance of their own?

So during Sen's match, I actually find myself trying to touch the projector screen like a smartphone and saying, "no, baneling, don't go over there." I think I pray at some point midgame to a god I don't believe in. It's beyond thrilling. Sen wins. Xeris spots me in the front row and asks me to translate for Sen (since we've talked before about SC2 and since NASL didn't have a specific Mandarin translator).

Unfortunately, I am now known for my awkward moment of uselessness, shorts, and mistranslation. I'm...happy with that. Thanks Rutgers and JiYan and Jyvblamo (I think...) for recognizing me! I read the comments in the TL thread...This community really has gotten bigger ^_^;　I'll try my best to do more for the community so I don't appear so chobo again.



Other than that, I meet up with some super cool CSL people (GHOSTCLAW and shindigs from UCI and others from USC). Unfortunately, I meet one guy from Pomona who you all probably recognize:













I can't remember when we got home, but it was late and I was sleepy again T_T need more coffee.

I'm not entirely affiliated with NASL other than the fact that I want it to succeed (and maybe because I <3 XY-eris and want to see them succeed too). I can't say that the twitter and reddit responses were unjustified in any way, but it was getting frustrating reading and then experiencing two very different things...or reading things that were downright mean and not useful.

We arrive again at 6:30am in the morning. GHOSTCLAW and shindigs, veritable TL members and CSL oldies, roll up their sleeves instead of sitting back to watch NASL fall (not that it would necessarily fall without another two pair of hands, but at least we can turn disappointment into donuts). They're here by 7:00am but since there's not much we can help with, we drive out and GHOSTCLAW buys two dozen donuts for staff, progamers, and casters. We wave down PuMa and aLive (so cute! always together) and try to tempt July, but the Koreans sadly do not take the bait.



The games begin on time (yes! all thanks to the donuts IMO) and since Sen is playing DarkFoRcE in the quarterfinals, Yeris and I sit in the front row, signs a-blazing and ready to cheer. We're a little worried about ZvZ (is it a coin flip?) and Sen shows the answer: no.



I meet Diggity and Moletrap again and they are awesome as ever - it's always great seeing BW commentators who used to cast in whispers in dorms suddenly move out to Korea to cast GSL. I also meet Lindsey - who is absolutely the sweetest thing and not catty or stupid or whatever you want to call her - who asks me a few...odd questions and inspires this meme:



After lunch at Panda Express with the CSL kids, it's Sen vs oGsMC in the semifinals - we know the chances aren't good, but Sen is a beast. I don't think I breathed that game. For me, it was probably even better than the finals. At some point, I remember turning to Yeris and saying, "He's got this. He's going to 3-1."

We were all devastated when Sen lost to MC. Sen, though - don't worry about his mentality. He has the mentality of a true progamer. Losses don't affect him (a loss is a loss, what use is there worrying?) and the only thing holding him back right now is probably time commitment. I remember him joking in the car - "Koreans practice at least twelve hours a day - I have school so I practice when I can. Besides, if I practice too much, I'll win too many games and too much money ^_^."

"Oh, so you're a natural-born genius? If you practice too much, you'll destroy the ESPORTS scene with your domination?"

"You know me so well!"

After the semifinal match, Sen leaves pretty quickly. Diggity invites us to Outback where we mostly drink and talk about overcoming comas of ESPORTS. It's a pretty depressing night for us, but it's fun when shindigs sexually harasses all the boys and scares Moletrap into moving his seat across the table.

We arrive at the convention center around 10am. Not much to do on this last day since there are only two matches, so I head off with Andre (Gretorp), his brothers, and DarkFoRcE to breakfast. DarkFoRcE is very cool, although he says something along the lines of:



After a breakfast of trolling (Germany...right between Norway and France, right?), DarkFoRcE punches Andre right before we drop him back off at the Doubletree. We return to the convention center where it's time for Sen vs July...

...but where is July? O_O

July is missing and so GHOSTCLAW officially becomes an ESPORTS HERO on a mission to find July from the depths of the Doubletree. I call his room number with limited Korean: "Hello. I am NASL person. Where are you?" and luckily we find July around the corner.

When we get back to the convention center, I see Sen sitting backstage and I ask if he prepared last night. He responds along the lines of: "You go to Princeton...did you study the night before the SATs? It's better to just relax :D! Everything you've done builds up to this moment."

And then...


He wins a check which DOES have his name written on it - I'm so sorry it didn't show up on stream T_T I was given a blue and silver pen, so I thought blue would show up...sorry Sen fans!



We watch the finals happily and I end up cheering for whoever I think will bring the series to an epic 3-3 situation. Backstage, PuMa is pacing with aLive and stretching. He looks a little nervous and he's sitting behind his booth, so I go up to the stairs, look at him, make a fighting sign, and he laughs and responds, "Hwaiting!" When he's on stage, I yell PuMa and he actually looks down at me and nods!

I loved the crowd - everyone gasped at the right moments, yelled "DROP, DROP, DROP," counted imba DT kills, and stood up for a standing ovation. It really was an unforgettable experience. I am now a lifelong Sen and PuMa fan.



Throughout the course of the weekend, we get progamers to love CSL ^_^





When it was all over and done, Gretorp turns to me with this banana grin of his and said, "Who would've thunk it? Rutgers vs Princeton..." - and here he looks across the emptying room where stacks of chairs and empty bottles are the only proof of what happened this weekend - "to this."

...and then he forcibly signed my arm in silver sharpie -_-. Read the mood yo.

I have no idea how much I'm allowed to say. I know pictures weren't allowed...are words? :D Well, I'll take this down if there are any complaints. Joe, hoster of parties and maker of happy people, hosts an afterparty for NASL in the Governor's Suite at the Doubletree.

Shindigs is already at the party by the time we got there - half drunk and kissing everyone. We say hi to Ret and Zenio (Ret says that Zenio likes pretty girls lolol...I try to say hello in limited Korean but he acts cool. He really cultivates a cool and aloof demeanour, moreso than Moon even), and since aLive seems a little off to the side, we find him and the fun begins. Bad spelling incoming. This is what the conversation sounded like:

Me: "SNSD, chowa hae?"
aLive: "SNSD? Me, style, no."
PuMa: "me, f(x)."

Me: "Kdrama, chowa? City hunter?"
aLive: "PARK MIN YOUNGGGG"
Me: "LEE MIN HOOOO"

aLive: "Me, English, chobo. You, Korean, chobo."
Me: "Me, Korean gosu."
aLive: "Chobo chobo."
Me: "BAD MANNER."
aLive doesn't understand.

WeMade's manager walks by and I ask how to call aLive bad manner. He responds, "nappunam," so I respond: "wanjeong nappunam." aLive and PuMa are surprised and laugh, and then aLive calls me a chobo again -_-; then they leave for their secret Korean party.

ESPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORTS