First of all this blog is a long read but it has nice pics so please read.
TheBluedweeb here, formerly theblueone and known (barely) as thebluemeaner on teamliquid.
(Don’t ask about the aliases, apparently I need to drink less)
You might have heard of me and my friends on this blog
The point of this specific blog is to share the amazing experience of finally having World Cyber Games for my country (El Salvador).
It’s enough to say that we are EXTREMELY lucky to have a WCG qualifier, ESPECIALLY in Starcraft 2. After years of hard work Starcraftsv, the Starcraft 2 community of El Salvador finally got WCG to turn their eye to Starcraft 2 in our country.
Some real sports don’t even get qualifiers, much less a budget to send a representative to international competitions. I guess this is just an example of what can happen when a bunch of guys who love e-sports get together and start striving towards a goal.
Enough with the introduction, and on to the pictures.
Yes, we had this beautiful layout right smack in the middle of one of the nicest malls in our country (I guess it was a marketing decision since malls have the most concurrence) and you just can’t complain. You just got excited to play in such a professionally made setting.
In the picture, closest to farthest Extasis, Reday, donthitme and zzeerrgg with some onlookers, by the way that keyboard you see there, we call it “el teclado del pueblo” literally, the people’s keyboard. Basically we don’t get lots of variety in gaming accessories plus money is tight so most of us play with this 11$ gaming keyboard that has an amazing feel to the keys for the price, needless to say I have one of those too.
There were some screens placed so you could watch games, lots of the viewers you can see in the picture are members of starcraftsv, mall onlookers, or parents of participants. Everybody was nervous and silent as hell as the games were TIGHT. The prospect of traveling to a foreign country because of a video game is still pretty large to grasp for most people in SV. Needless to say it can be nerve wrecking.
DanySV son of our starcraftSV player hums, and our truest younger player. We like to call him the future of e-sports. He is three years old and has the dexterity to beat Mario Kart 64 AND knows how to 6 pool, (well exclusively how to six pool). He attended with his dad a participant and his mom. Proves that you can still make it and compete even if you have such responsabilities. Mad props to Hums for that.
One of the money pictures right there, from left to right we have Hums DanySv’s dad, AcmeSV (hum’s brother and Famous Cheeser), Samsung model, Liquidsoul (not even a liquid forum member, he gets bmed about that all the time) and myself (TheBlueDweeb)
That’s me in the round of 8, with my kid brother Josh supporting me, If you want to know the pro head set I’m wearing, its basically a pair of earbuds covered with those noise cancellers you buy at hardware stores, they are WONDERFUL and let me concentrate like a pro. Jacopana in the back recovering from a game.
That is Josh the reigning WCG champion , 15 year old Masters Protoss. He apparently was born with a star for Starcraft, there he was getting ready for the semifinals with a Korean look on his face, everybody was expecting him to win and he did, mad props to him for playing at his best even with the nerves you can get a that age.
And then the final match was played.
This the organizer congratulating my brother after a grueling 3-2 match, and the next picture is here to prove a point.
Yeah that’s me, I am the runnerup, and I wanted to share this picture, just look at my face after losing to my own brother. After the hype was all over and I could see the pictures I realize what day9 meant in his famous episode 100 of his life as a gamer. Having to compete for a single spot can be really devastating specially when you are playing your brother and best friend. Look at the picture above this one, my brother had just won a trip to korea and he couldn’t get himself to smile. It’s a bittersweet feeling to know you lost, but your brother won, and viceversa.
Well after the bad part comes the good part, and this is the award ceremony, liquidsoul in third place, myself in second and josh in first. Needless to say I chose this picture because I was looking at interesting stuff.
from left to right at the back row, yankwik, dP and Ishi, Jacopana at front. It is also bittersweet to see your friends win. I have to admit, I was MOST scared of Jacopana in this tournament as he plays terran, by far my weakest matchup as zerg. Tournaments also factor a lot of luck and he got matched against Acme.sv a guy who plays much like combatex and thus can be umpredictable, I went on to knock out Acme.sv on the semifinals as zvp was my best matchup. You can still see a bit of regret on Jacopanas face. Reminds me of Artosis in that old wcg video. WCG is such a beautiful thing full of emotion and we are glad we could experience it.
Josh getting interviewed, at his young age he will travel to Seoul, Korea to the WCG Grand Finals to represent El Salvador.
There we are with the prices, unbeknownst to me, as a runner up I would get the chance to participate in the Panamerican Championships in Sao Paulo Brazil.
And finally a picture of some of StarcraftSv
Josh, dP, TheblueDweeb, liquidsoul, acme, yankwik, pimpizzle, strate, jacopana, pollinski, Ishi, and some mysterious guys in the back I cant tell. Josh pulling some type of
I just wanted to share this to show the teamliquiders of small or less developed countries that you can achieve great things if you work with other people who share a passion for E-sports. It is possible.
From now onwards for us, our goal will be trying to grow as a community and to increase our gaming level so someday we can be truly competitive with the world.
Me and my brother are working hard to make a dent on the international scene (much like the dent a mouse could make on a tire, but a dent is dent)
If anyone wants to offer us coaching for that end ;D;D;D feel free to offer your help (we are not that good so actually anyone with enough patience can help)
We also accept e-sports dollars and hwaitings, you can also visit us in facebook
I'd like to thank Gamefest ( the company that brought us WCG) for the pictures and the amazing event.
We would also like to thank teamliquid for giving us an example and the amazing plethora of resources that helped us all become true blue starcraft players…
TheBlueDweeb signing out (mad props to those that get the reference in my name)
Chobo replays if you are interested, the round of 8 plays at the masters level