EPTOkay so Orlando ends and Providence is roughly a month later. During this time our team partners with the Korean team IM a few weeks after Orlando, around when Blizzcon happened. Providence was around the middle of November and it came at a really bad time for me. My internet is always really not good but for the most part I can play on it except occasionally it will be unplayable. Or if the weather is really bad it can be down for awhile. 2-3 weeks before Providence my internet went into ultra shit mode and was essentially unplayable. I played maybe twenty games total during that time before Providence and that's being really generous, it was probably closer to ten.
I wasn't even sure I wanted to go at that point but the flights had been booked a week or so after Orlando and it was going to be our largest event in terms of media so I felt obligated to go. I wasn't happy about it but as it came down to the last few days I got the "meh, whatever" attitude about how well I'd play and focused on the event itself more.
Providence comes and off I go flying across the States again with my longest flight yet since Providence is quite far away from California. I landed sometime in the evening and wondered around a little before bumping into some of the people within the team whom weren't players. Mark (the owner) was there, Bryan (now titled the COO), Alex (caster) and two new people to the company, Tyler and Adam. They are event organizers and run TESPA and came to help do media stuff and whatever else they did, they also helped plan out some of the fan meeting on Friday.
Destiny arrived shortly after and we got a big supertruckvan rental and off we went to the hotel. Providence is really really small so you can get anywhere by driving within a short amount of time. Our hotel was actually in Massachusetts but since that was literally right next to Providence it was only a 10-15 minute drive.
Got there and checked in and no one else had arrived yet so I slept some before being awakened by Agh showing up. Ben was driving again and picked up theognis along the way so they got their late. Brad had his flight delayed so he didn't get there for awhile. Inka was supposed to come but he missed his flight. Our player list for this tournament was myself, Agh, theognis and Destiny. Sase had other tournaments to play in like IPL and then I think Dreamhack soon after, or GSL, whichever. For the korean side Nestea, MVP and Losira were there along with their coach.
We went out to eat after everyone got there and where did we go? Denny's! Nachos anyone? No we didn't get nachos this time, sorry Ben! Anyway we ate there. Theo had been drinking on the car ride with Ben since being in a car for four hours with him can cause permanent damage. He was in quite a happy tipsy drunky mood and kept us entertained.
Next day we had a fan meeting planned at the hotel near the convention center so we got up early to go and get that set up. Theognis and Destiny had left earlier to do some test thing where they played games while having their brain scanned. Myself and Agh went with Ben and Brad to go pick up some supplies for the event. We had a fun time going around looking for champagne and "flutes" which are apparently what you drink champagne from.
Ben claimed they existed but we were quite sure he was insane. The liquor store we went too one of the employees he asked had no clue what he was talking about but then again he had three teeth so maybe he wasn't well versed in the classier ways of drinking champagne. So we went to a Rite-Aid type store and Ben pansied out asking for a flute and instead asked for champagne glasses and what's the employee go straight too? Flutes! As it turns out they really do exist and Ben isn't insane. Off we went to find our way to the hotel and convention center with our newly bought flutes.
We arrived and there was already a fairly large line waiting outside the room we were setting up in. The IM players and coach were already there and we had a bunch of media people there as well. Taylor was our photo media guy who took most of the pictures for the entire weekend and he was a complete baller as he was always around when you needed him.
The event started when Destiny and theo got there and people came in to get autographs and photographs. Unfortunately most people were there for the koreans and Destiny which is too be expected but was a little awkward after awhile sitting there
About an hour or so later the signing ended and Ben with Mark and the Korean coach all did an official signing of the contract between the teams. After that we went outside for a group photo followed by a photo with all the fans.It was a cool event to be at despite it being a little awkward during the signing but nonetheless it was a nice experience. Everyone headed towards the convention center after and got checked in. By then it's almost I think 3am so warm-up would be over around 4:30 - 5:00pm which was a bummer as I was hoping to get at least a few games in before the tournament began. Theo eventually snagged a computer when one of the Slayers players left and then passed it off too me after a few games. I got in about three or four games before warm-up ended but at least I got a few games in ><
Opening ceremony where Sundance announced the mayor of Providence had made that day the official Major League Gaming Day, or something like that. Finally brackets came out and we all had matches in the first round, no byes this time! I had a ZvZ which turned out to be kinda silly. During my first match it felt like mouse acceleration was on as I couldn't control anything at all and ended up losing because I kept losing large groups of lings to banelings. Afterwards I turned it off and looked to my side and saw my friend whom I played dota with for a few years and 2v2 in the sc2 beta.. Great first game he sees is me losing D: He watched all my games that weekend but he was a ninja so I barely ever saw him. TL mafia is apparently very addicting. Anyway I won the next two games really easily since mouse acceleration was turned off.
Everyone else won their matches as expected. We had to wait forever because of the delay between round 1 and round 2 so we went to eat at the most overpriced food stall at an MLG to date. It was basically like the lunches you got when you were in middle school, the fake tasting bland food that is probably killing you as you eat it.
We went back to the venue and played the next round. I had another ZvZ ;_; But I won it without any problems (eat that MOUSE ACCELERATION). Round 3 was against a Terran and thankfully my ZvT was still fine despite not playing for two weeks and won it 2-0. Agh and theo both won but Destiny lost against Machine which turned out to be my opponent for round 4 winners.
The games were quite close. I won the first map doing a +1 roach all-in because he went mutas against Destiny so it looked like he was doing that vs. me. Game 2 was a bit meh, everyone playing had a good 30 seconds of waiting due to the internet lagging. I was trying cut some corners that game and lost too much after the lag went away so ended up in too bad of a situation so Machine took game 2.
The last game was on Tal'darim. I picked it because I hoped he'd go mutas like the first game, and knowing Machine he doesn't usually ever cheese. Normally I'd never pick that map ZvZ but I felt somewhat confident that I'd play alright if we both went muta. What followed was a 30 minute game that came down to the wire. I caught his infestors alone at one point with my lings and basically killed them all for free. Shortly after I caught all his mutalisks with mine and a couple fungals.
So now here I am with my mutas and infestors alive and his not so I instantly go and attack him and rally behind it hoping to win it there. We had a good five minute fight at his natural but unfortunately I didn't take out his expansions he took early on so his income was too good and had a good bank so despite having numbers advantage initially he eventually fought me back.
After that I went for his expansions and we back and forth'd it for awhile but in the end he accumulated about 20 infestors and I couldn't deal with it so he won. It was a really close game >< Had I made a few different decisions, most notably sending my rallied units to his expansions I'd probably have won.
It felt really shitty to lose like that especially when I felt like had my internet not been so shitty for two weeks I'd have been in good enough shape to take the series, but in the end he won 2-1. Incontrol was sitting behind watching and I got to meet him for the first time which is kinda odd since I've been to all the MLGs that year but somehow never met him before despite being a big fan of him.
Agh lost to Heavonearth which from the way he described it he should have won. Theognis ran into MVP which he lost x.x So we all lost in round 4 (except Destiny). We made our way back to the hotel and went to bed not long after. Saturday we didn't have to go to the venue for a long time, around 5pm if I recall correctly. So myself, Agh and theo went out to eat with a bunch of the media/events/peoples from Quantic. Eventually we made our way to the venue where the losers bracket awaited us.
Destiny had to play in losers round 4 but he had won his matches before we got there. We all played in losers round 6 and I was against a terran I'd never heard of. Needless to say I won it fairly quickly. Destiny had to play ostojiy but lost to him and Agh lost as well vs. Ruff. Unfortunately Aghs mouse basically broke the night before so he went into his match against Ruff using Bens mouse and he wasn't at all used to it. It was shitty too because he should have taken that series easily >< Theognis played Attero who he managed to beat despite being really worried beforehand because his TvP was his worst match up.
So now it's myself and theognis to carry on our honor. But that's short lived as I ran into mr MarineKingPrime in losers 7. Game1 on Shakuras he does double 11rax at his choke and follows it up with a 5-rax all-in, scvs included. I was close to scouting it but alas it killed me so game 2 I go with metalopolis (naturally).
What happened that game is he played a weird style of mech that I have not seen before where he plays really aggressive with a lot of hellions and a few thor/tanks mixed in and just pokes around a lot. I got behind opening speedling because I was worried he'd double 11 me again and it's harder to hold on meta so by the time I knew he was meching I wasn't in a great position. After he took the gold the game was basically over but I held on and he decided to go battlecruisers. It wasn't pretty and obviously he eventually won. I felt shitty because I felt my ZvT when in good condition (aka actually practicing) I'd have had a good shot of taking at least a game off him buttttttt oh well.
Theo played Painuser and took forever to win (TvT ;_;) but won the series 2-1. Now he's the last player for us (except the koreans) but he lost losers 8 against Spanishiwa. It was unfortunate because his TvZ is beastly but he got too far behind game 1 to a roach rush and game 2 he got all-in'd. He could have held it game 2 but he didn't lift his depot on time T_T;
Now we're all out with a somewhat poor showing. There was some shitty luck involved though like theognis running into MVP in winners and myself running into Marineking in losers and Aghs mouse dying. But that's how the open bracket is at MLG. The koreans did well and beasted through the open bracket. Nestea and MVP did well in their winners bracket too after making it through the open bracket.
So we left the venue and went back to well... drink, basically. I didn't but theognis and Agh drank quite a bit. At one point ole Agh was doing a vodka unicorn where you hold the bottle of vodka on your forehead. He gets a bit out there when he drinks. Anyway the media guys wanted to do some interview things with us so we went to the hotel lobby to do it. Theo and Agh were both uh still under the influence so they had some very entertaining interviews, plus the questions were kinda silly. When we all three finished theo fell asleep in the chair at the lobby and Agh decided to tie his shoelaces together.
When the rest of the interviews were done Agh gently slapped theo to wake him up. Theo jumped awake and got up and tried to walk but didn't realize his shoes were tied together and ended up falling face forward almost into the christmas tree that was in the lobby. Matt, one of the media guys, recorded it on his ipod but I don't think its been uploaded yet
Sometime after that we went to bed.Day 3 aka spectator day came and I don't fully remember when we went to the venue, but we eventually got there. We didn't really want to be there because standing around all day isn't very fun. We watched some games and unfortunately Nestea and Losira got knocked out kinda early (early for them) but MVP made it through until losing against Leenock for 4th place. We left at that point but almost as soon as we got to the hotel we had to go back again to the venue because we were having dinner with the team and koreans when MLG ended. We made it back in time to watch the finals which were fairly anti-climatic but the crowd was nutty and went insane when Leenock won.
We eventually found our way to the bar/restaurant/whatever that we were having dinner at. I got a fist pump from Nestea when they arrived and introduced us (somehow we didn't meet at the fan meeting) and said I was a zerg player which was quite awesome (really awesome
). MVP and the coach weren't there as they both weren't feeling very well. Dinner ended and someone had a bright idea to go out and walk to the TwitchTV party. Providence is cold mind you so we were out traversing the streets hunting down a place we weren't sure of where it was. Finally someone brought out their phone and GPS'd our way to the place.It was a club thingy and it was full of people and very loud bass heavy music. I've never been to a club before so it was uh interesting. The place was actually kinda small and a little bit uhmm shabby looking, of course you couldn't really tell with the lights off.
Story time! There was only one bartender and since we arrived kinda late there was an hour or so before the place closed because bars stop serving alcohol or whatever at 1am in Providence. Anyway we got there kinda late and Ben managed to snag a drink fairly quickly. After that he ended up waiting 20-30minutes at the bar for a drink and when the bartender finally came over to him and was about to take his money... the lights turned on. Boom no more serving. Ben wasn't very happy
Having not drank anything we went back to the hotel after walking through the frigid lands known as the Providence streets and finding Ben's car. As the 1am rule applies to bars it also apparently applies to everywhere else so we drank some of the alcohol Ben had brought (which turned out to be soju). It was a purty uneventful night at the hotel but I stayed up all night since my flight was at 10am and I had to fly ALL day (literally). Monday morning rolls around and I get freaked out because we leave really late and my flight was soon. I managed to get to the gate with 5-10minutes remaining.
My flight turned out more interesting than usual as I sat next to someone with a sign from MLG. I asked him about it and this eventually led to him asking me to sign it too. That was cool and a first time meeting someone who was at MLG outside of... MLG
We actually had the same connecting flight too but we didn't have the same seats. The flight got delayed and again I was worried as my connecting flight less than an hour after I'd have landed if we were on time. I got to Houston and power walked my way to the gate with another 10minutes to spare, and after that it was ezpz on my way home with a four hour flight ;_; Total flying time was something like 8 hrs that day and I had been at an airport since 9am EST arriving in California around 7pm PST.
Providence was of course the last MLG of 2011 and so was also my last event of the year. Prior to 2011 I had never been to a LAN or a hotel and only went out of California once (to Hawaii). So it was a really good year for me, getting to fly around the States and attend those awesome events. I wish I had done better but I hope people realize the open bracket is not an easy tournament and skill factors in almost as much as luck does. Hopefully the system changes a lot next year and it won't be so hard to do well at these events (and no team kills! ><).
As for 2012 well I'll still be playing and hopefully our team will get a team house so I can escape my shitty internet. It has been really fun playing Starcraft 2 this year, not only at the events but watching all of the amazing events online.
I'd like to thank Shuffle for being my clone and making it a fun year being on skype calls for 12+ hours everyday. Ben for being an awesome manager and friend as well as Brad for being awesome despite getting 40$ steaks by himself... and thanks to my team for sending me to all the MLG's ^^
Here's to hoping 2012 is equally as awesome and even more awesome than 2011~ Feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer them. And I promise this is the last part!
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