EPTThursday-
First day when it comes to people is always my favorite day, its the first time in a while I get to see and hang out with a lot of my friends.
on my way there it was standard.. uneventful flights, had me some tequila and quesadillas for breakfast at "Tequileria Pronto" while waiting on my connecting flight.
Arrival
Scott Ford, player manager for compLexity and good friend of mine was waiting for me at La Guardia, punctual. we discussed the possibility of going on a casino, but decided not to. drove a bunch till we were at Manhattan, I wanted to go to a Gordon Ramsey Restaurant, Scott refused.
C: How far away are we from the Hotel?
S: let me check (checked phone)... 2 miles
C: ok cool
20 minutes later we were a block away from the hotel and after looking around for a while, we found parking, if the buildings weren't enough of an indicator, the traffic definitively was, we had arrived, at the heart of new york.
Sheth
Legendary Manner-Bear had already arrived at the hotel and so I gave him a call, he came down the elevator gave me a big hug and stated that he was starving, so was Scott. At that point, I decided Scott's new name was Vinnie.(with a deep rough italian-new-york-mafia voice). I also decided I would slap Vinnie gently every time he said something I disagreed with. Sheth Agreed, after all we were in New York.
we were then wondering what to do so we gave Hotbid and R1CH a call and headed towards the TLHQ, about a 30 minute drive. the plan was to get there, park and walk to get food, unfortunately, there was no parking there either, so we drove around to find parking, and when we did, we were restricted to that area to get some food. We walked around and found a Cuban-Peruvian-Brasilian-Colombian restaurant...
C: Watcha think Vinnie?
V: eh... I don't know man, its whatever
S: (with the worst new york or mobster accent ever) lets go in
C: (slapped Vinnie gently) remember what happened to Bennie next time you feel like disagreeing
S: laughed (nothing like a mobster)
Team Liquid HQ
We ate and went back to the TLHQ, where we found parking this time around, Hotbid R1CH Heyoka and Waxangel were all there working like madmen, I kind of thought they would all be chilling and playing video games all day, but they discuss everything so much and work so hard on making this site function its insane, every banner gets everyone's approval and criticism, and when they crop an image to fit the main page, they don't want a pixel off, to any of you wondering, Hotbid is not JUST a troll. Team Liquid is extremely lucky to have these 4 in their team.
Mr.HuK was also there, playing non-stop, HuK barely noticed our presence as he had loud music on, so Sheth decided to press escape on HuK's keyboard... unfortunately the timing of it wasn't the best, he canceled one of HuK's gateways in a PvP... I think HuK won that game anyways. We hang out there for a while, and then I started feeling like SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT. it suddenly got really warm
C: isn't it super warm in here guys?
H: aren't you from Peru? don't you live in florida?
C: I need some fresh air, be right back
When I got back I was still feeling like shit, I apparently got food poisoning from Peruvian food, while Vinnie and Shawn were just fine... I kinda felt like a puss, but I really just needed to lay down. Good-Guy-Hotbid offered his bed, so I went there and took a 10 minute nap before my body betrayed me, I tried to make it to the bathroom but I couldn't in time, so I puked, all over the team liquid head quarter (not really, just in hotbid's room) I apologized, had my latino instincts kick in and cleaned it with all kinds of disinfectants and what not, after puking I felt a lot better.
Hotel again
Vinnie had to go to work, Shawn and I headed back to the hotel and had a goot idea, ask the front desk names to see if they had arrived I knew a bunch of people weren't there yet, so I first thought of my 2 smoking partners and goot friends, Socke and Ret so I had the front desk about Jos de Kroon and Giaccomo Thus problem was I didn't really know how to spell Socke's last name at the time so we just got Ret's room # and headed there, we woke him up, but he got ready in a few minutes, Sheth, Ret, Audrey and I headed downstairs, then I told Jos to spell Socke's last name and we gave him a call, but he was sleeping. then we called B-b-b-b-b-ennie and the Jets (DeMusLiM) went to his room, amazing hipster and EG player manager Evoli was there as well, then the Gracken was summoned and we were ready to go eat.
Eating
We all had some hot chocolate at Starbucks and then proceeded to go on our way to grab some korean food, just a couple of blocks away from the hotel. on the way there we saw a few of the koreans, so stopped to say hi and what not, I was particularly happy to see Nestea, before we played last MLG, drewbie suggested I do the "cutthroat gesture" I thought it was a great idea, and Nestea answered back with the same sign, he's really funny, after he smashed me that MLG we added each other on the korean server and I've had the pleasure to play him and talk to him a few times, so we talked there for a bit, quick exchanges of how are yous and what not and continued on our way. We got to the korean restaurant, it was relatively expensive, we ordered some food and some Soju but mostly food, even though MLG started at 6pm the next day, everyone decided to be semi-responsible. before food got to the table I called my best-est friend drewbie who I figured should be arriving at around the time I called. he picked up the phone
C: sup doooooooood
D: not much, just arrived
C: ok sick timing
and I asked him to meet me on the streets of new york. so we met there, gave him a giant hug and we went to the restaurant to meet up with everyone else. Ate, had some fun, discussed the possibility of Karaoke, failed, drank some more, and headed back. everyone went to their rooms, drew and I were wondering if Chad Motherfucker Jones (Minigun) had arrived yet, cause his flight got delayed. eventually we got ahold of him, he was hungry too, as he had just arrived and had no food so we decided to go for a walk
Time Square
we walked and talked and just hang out for a while, heading towards Time Square, we got there, took a couple of pictures on chad jones' phone (only thing available) and continued to walk. We ate at the most popular restaurant in Time Square : Mc Donald's. hang around, listened to a couple of bad drewbie jokes and headed back to the hotel, at around 2-3 am, it was also raining at that point but no one gave much of a shit. on the way back, I spotted the Empire State (building) and I told drew and chad how I thought it wasn't as big as I remembered and stuff, drew said, "that's because that isn't the empire state"(building).
C: yes it is
D: wanna bet?
C: sure dood how much
D: idk, 20$?
C: ok
then I proceeded to ask a local, excuse me, where is the empire state (building)? he pointed at the Empire State building (the one I said was the right one) and made me the easiest 20$ ever, obviously didn't let him pay for that, it was just WAY too easy.
Friday
breakfast
Woke up and went to grab some breakfast with drew (breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day, was on MLG). at breakfast we met with Sjow ThorZaiN and Merz, 3 pretty awesome swedes, later joined by Ret Audrey and others, we had a nice breakfast, drew and I went to walk around new york for a bit, I needed toothpaste, and somehow i managed to forget to bring more than 2 pairs of socks so I had to go buy some too, we walked for a bit and when we got back it was time for MLG to walk us out for lunch and to the MLG offices. all the koreans were down at the hotel lobby, except for DRG and Leenock. DRG arrived a bit late, and Leenock's flight got delayed.
lunch
we all walked through the streetz of new yawk, only stopping whenever Nestea wanted to take some pictures. we had a nice lunch, Sundance, Lee, Adam and other MLG staff were there as well sitting and talking to us. After a nice lunch we headed to the MLG offices, in the 32nd floor of a nice building, with an amazing view of the city, everyone got set up and started warming up. Everyone I hadn't seen yet was there so it was quite nice, I got to give my mentor DRG a huge hug, I just yelled SABUUUUUUUUU!! and he answered JEJAAAAAAAAAAA!!, DRG is the best.
drew didn't have to play till nine and so we decided to go rest for a little. we got back in time for drew to warm up before his match, JP and the MLG staff gave me the opportunity to jump in and do some commentary/analysis. I told them previously, if they needed anyone i'd really have not much to do and i'd love to help, i'll talk about all of this when I tell you guys about the event in itself.
Where iz you? drinking?
After I got out of casting, drew and scott were gone, I asked my mentor DRG where they were and he said they headed back to the hotel, I went to the hotel (which btw is not easy for me, I SUCK at directions, so i took an extra 15-20 minutes. they weren't there though, I figured knowing Vinnie (Scott) they were probably at the bar, so I headed there and gave them a call, they had been there and went back to MLG to look for me and grab some food (aren't they just sweet)
I told Scott I was at Legends and to just come meet me so we met there hang out for a little grabbed some drinks and food, and called it a night.
Saturday
breakfast
woke up in time before drew's match and went to subway for breakfast, when drew came to fort lauderdale for a few months, he had a post it note where he wrote "Favorite Restaurant : Subway" which I always found hillarious for a couple of reasons... first reason being, why would anyone's favorite restaurant be Subway? I mean its good but really? the other reason is, why would anyone have to write what their favorite restaurant is? LOL
anyways drew said that it was because it was a security question to some account he doesn't even remember what it was for, but I still give him shit for it. Sooooooo, we went to droobs favorite restaurant and then decided we were in new york and so we needed new york haircut. I also was starting to grow a neck beard and needed a shave. We asked around and found a small barbershop ran by people of 50+ years of age.
the barbershop
However it looked very new-york. the Owner, definetly over 60 years old, was listening to music in spanish but without lyrics, music that almost no one my age or a couple of generations up should know. I recognized some of the songs and told him 'great song dood' and he got pretty excited and told me he recorded them from a long play to a cassette he made himself, at this point we were talking in spanish, while I was getting a haircut from a russian and drew was getting his own haircut from a dominican woman. He asked me where I was from, I said Peru, he asked the same question to drew, when he said he was from canada he asked if he knew how to speak french, drew knows some french so they started talking in french. Old man knew 6 languages apparently, unlike the russian cutting my hair, he only knew russian, and by that I mean, he didn't really know english. after a lot of sign language he understood what I wanted and went for it. He had the sickest mustache, the russian barber did. And man he had skills, good mechanics, but beta build orders, he didn't keep up with the meta game of cutting hair so it wasn't easy.
back at the offices
After the barbershop we went to MLG again, hang out with everyone again, I got to cast again while drew was playing and we even got to cast a game of DeMusLiM vs HayprO when drew was done. Drew's my best friend but I've never casted a game with him before, so that was fun, it was also a bit awkward cause we can't just be like "yeah dood he got own-ned" or use words we'd normally use in a casual conversation, but it went good I think. DeMusLiM vs The Muslim is what we started the game with, good intro. Unfortunately it wasn't the best series ever, HayprO was a bit sick that day and in my opinion didn't perform any-what close to what he can normally do.
Gracken
I really enjoyed a lot of games on saturday, IdrA's games both vs Nestea and vs Oz were really unlucky for him. I want to say, I have never been a huge fan of IdrA's play or style in general, not to say that I didn't think he was a great player, but I always rated his mechanics far above his descision making. Truth is, I felt like the games against Nestea were build order losses and the games against Oz were really close well fought games. The third game in particular, ZvP on shakruas isn't easy, but IdrA was ready for all of the early game shenanigan's and deflected it really well. He was ready for the warp prism with a spine as well, throughout the game he made great decisions and switched techs easily. as Oz took a 3rd, IdrA decided that was the time to make it or break it and to be completely honest I think that was also a good descision. unfortunately he made 1 mistake in my opinion to attack through the choke with most of his ranged units, and Oz hit storm at the perfect time. While this was going on, not shown on stream was a warp prism that warped in zealots and killed a lot of drones back at IdrA's main, with or without that the game was basically over and no one should say 'yeah he shoulda stayed' he had no chance really, I think we all saw a new IdrA in that regard as well, that fought Nestea's all in till the last drone, where perhaps a few months ago he would've just left instantly. Earned a lot of respect for him as a player, and I wanted to point that out.
Later
After all that, went to Legends again with Minigun, Socke, drewbie, Audrey and Ret (scott/vinnie met us there later) we got there before MLG was over so there was still lots of people, barcraft/onog organizers bought us drinks, other people bought us drinks and then other people bought us drinks, point is... we had A LOT of drinks at the same time on the table, it was pretty nice.
we all got pretty drunk just chilling and having fun, some fans would stop by to take pictures and what not every once in a while, it was pretty nice...until some dude asked for a picture, I said "sure dood come sit here" but he was mb a bit fatter/clumsier than I expected and he spilled A LOT of drinks onto minigun drewbie and I... he got up and said "at least we got that story now catz" which I didn't find particularly funny, drew and chad didn't either. but hey, at least I got this story.
The Bum
I went out for one of the many cigs I had that night, drew came outside that time too and a bum approached us. he said "hey, I don't want to be rude, you're probably twice as tall as me (drew) and you look build up like a body guard (OBVIOUSLY ME).. im just really hungry, I don't want money, but is there any chance you could buy me some food, the foodstore is right around the corner"
I said... ok sure dude (I usually assume bums want money for drugs and this guy didn't so it was a relatively easy call, plus he complimented my non existing muscles) when I said ok sure his eyes just lit up "yes?!?" I was like 'yeah brother lets go' he started walking super fast towards "the food store" so i started jogging, it was just a couple of buildings down around the corner, it was a burger king. I went inside but he stayed outside for about a minute, then he came inside
C: what were you doing ?
B: checking the menu I wanted to see what's in offer I think sometimes they got 2 for one, I be right back
The guy at the register told me 'you know he probably can't read right?' anyways he came back and asked the guy at the register what was 2 for 1 and the guy at the register said the chicken sandwiches were.
B: Would that be ok brother?
C: Order anything you want man
B: ANYTHING?!
C: anything
well I kind of ment any 1 thing, motherfucker ordered 2 chicken sandwiches 2 double whoopers and a drink, it came up to 19$ so i just payed with a 20 and gave him the change. I told him "I kind of ment one thing, but whatever" he said "im hungry brother, you said anything"
then he said "thank you.. no wait, first, thank god and he looked up and said thank you lord" and then he looked at me and said, ok, now thank you. as we walked out of the burger king he asked me if I believed in god, and I told him I don't, I told him I believe in people and good faith, probably fucked his brain over a bit. we parted ways as drew and I went back to the bar.
After the bar
After a couple more drinks and laughs we all decided to go back to the hotel and call it a night, but on the way there drew wanted to go to the empire state building. It was freezing cold and im not canadian, so I said, chad do you wanna go? he said "not really" I agreed and said "ok you guys go i'll c u later" minigun and I walked back to the hotel, I went to my room took a shower and fall asleep. I woke up about 3 hours later, and I hadn't heard from drew, I mean it doesn't take 3 hours to go up and down the empire state (BUILDING) I figured he'd be with socke I gave him a call and he said they were just eating at wendy's. they had gone to another bar, instead of the empire state building, standard. I met them downstairs and smoked one last cigarrete of the night, Sjow joined me as he was just getting to the hotel as well with Thorzain and Merz and Sase. Apparently Sjow made a bet with Merz that he could stop using that Snuz tobacco thing, so instead I guess he smokes? I hope Sjow realizes he's losing a bigger bet there. Drew mentioned how ThorZaIN seems taller every time, to which Sjow replied "kid's still growing"
Sunday
woke up, kind of late, pretty tired a bit hung over, but it was the last day so you gotta tough it up. went to the MLG offices, it was over all a nice quiet day, I didn't try to jump in and help with casting or commentary as I just kind of wanted to sit around and relax. Hang out with Bravo and the koreans a lot on sunday as everyone was just watching the remaining players in the cool-kids room. (players lounge)
All of the koreans who went there are pretty awesome, marineking is hillarious, I did an interview with him, Nestea's awesome, TheStC is awesome, Oz always has a huge smile on him, Hwanni is pretty damn cool as well, I asked him for his scarf to take some pictures and he gave lend me it which at the time was normal, but later at the bar he told me he had never lend anyone his Scarf before, and I was super honored. Just in general, everyone at the event was great, but this blog is already running too long, so i'll tell you guys about a little guy named
Leenock
the entire weekend I called Leenock baneling, cause he kind of looks like a baneling, i'd poke him and say "BANELING" and he'd answer "NINJAAA" (i have no idea why) at one point he was walking around with a bag on his belly instead of his back, and he looked even more like a baneling. I said "BANELING" he pointed at the bag, and started saying "POISON, POISON!!" it was pretty funny, but anyways, later at the players lounge, as we were all observing a game, drew and I were talking to Leenock, Leenock and I were making fun of how bad we think Ultralisks are, not to mention Hydras, I said Hydra... ughh... he said "Hydra... UNIT? Hydra not unit, Hydra just Byung Shin, which he explained ment stupid, but when I looked it up, it said it stands for "Psycho or Deformed Person" which kind of suits Hydras better I guess... Either way Leenock used Byung Shin a lot, mainly when talking about either dumb units or units that are too good, we talked about how useless neural parasite was, and Leenock had really funny sounds and gestures instead of units name, if you ever see him, ask him to do a colossus or a mule impersonation, he called those two byungshin as well.
As we were talking drew told Leenock how someone (thinks violet) told him to never say "Shibal" in korea. Shibal is kind of like Fuck, but apparently the strongest word out there. viOLeT told drew that if he said it, he could get beat up or something, Leenock started laughing at the fact drew got trolled by viOLeT that and said its not true, and then the best reverse-troll began.
We told Leenock it was true... I mean obviously we know more about korean culture than he does.
C: Look DeMusLiM know? (Ben/DeMusLiM was sitting in front of us)
L: Ok
C: Look his Arm, Ben show him your arm
DeMusLiM showed him you know the arm he breaks on a daily basis, he has a sick scar on the elbow, ben was quick to join the troll as well. "Leenock, DeMusLiM got that scar because he said Shibal on the street.. in korea" Leenock looked shocked at first, then started laughing non stop. his laugh was really contagious while laughing he started talking,
L: you say 'Shibal' korea street... they hit you????!!
B: yup... they just started punching me
Leenock was out of control laughing, he kept looking at me and asking "REAL?!" to which obviously I confirmed: REAL!
Then we told him it was 10 Koreans who did that to him, no matter how silly it sounded Leenock just kept laughing, and calling DeMusLiM stupid.. we added so many silly facts to the story.. Leenock believed them all.
C: yeah it was 10 koreans...DeMusLiM stupid... he say "Punch me anywhere, but not my right arm" "I am a pro-gamer, need right arm" so the koreans say "ooohhh right arm huh?" GOGOGO PUNCH RIGHT ARM!
L: (Laughing his ass off) NO RIGHT ARM!! REAL??? STUPIDD!!! he kept pointing at DeMusLim while laughing uncontrollably saying he was stupid it was SO FUCKING FUNNY.
Drew, Ben and I just kept adding onto the story, eventually it got ridiculous to the point I gave up, I couldn't believe Leenock was just falling for it so easily, and I said "yeah it was 10 BLACK koreans" <<<< doesn't make much sense but Leenock didn't seem to realize that, drew said that maybe he didn't understand or hear that part. most people at the player area was listening to our conversation over the game at that point.. we had a really good laugh for a really long time, next time Leenock asked me "REAL?!?!?" I looked down and said "no real... troll... sorry" then Leenock's smile kind of faded away, he was a bit ashamed, Hwanni told me he couldn't believe he got trolled in america and not korea. Then Leenock I guess realized how silly the story was and started saying "aaaaaaaaaahhhhh me so stupid" Then Leenock every time he saw DeMusLiM he'd just say "come korea next time... FXO house... 10 korean, 10 korean"
I continued to talk to Leenock and watch the games, we met on the korean ladder a few times before, I lost to his zerg a couple of times, but beat his terran, he said my zerg was good, and that he beat a lot of good players with his T, when I asked who, he named about half of Code S. Then he challenged me to a TvZ my zerg against his T, he said if he wins I have to buy chicken for the entire FXO house, I asked FXOBoss how much it would be and he said probably over 100$ he also said "i've seen his terran man you don't wanna go against it".
C: What if I win?
L: hrmmm... you win I say "ok you are best"
didn't seem like the best deal so I told him i'll think of something better than that and take his bet one of these days.
Bartime c u
Not long after it was time to say good bye to everyone who wasn't going to the bar including Leenock. and I had to convince DRG to go. He did lose in the finals so he wasn't feeling great, I was sad for my mentor but happy for MKP, MKP is also a really nice guy and he kind of really deserved a win
Parting also approached me before the bar and told me that he watches my stream all the time and that he thinks im gosu, that his second race is zerg and he learns it from my stream, I was super honored.
Bar
This time everyone was at the bar, it was awesome, MLG booked the top floor of the bar, served a nice dinner and drinks were on them. needless to say I had a blast there, hang out with just about everyone, had a nice talk with Grubby and Merz about cultures and people, Merz was pointing out how people in sweden are really into their 'space' and aren't all that friendly at all until you get to know them, Grubby had a nice theory, he said that he thinks the warmer the temperature is, the warmer people are, and of course the colder it is, the colder people are. Seemed like a silly theory but I the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, Latin American people are really friendly and warm in general, I pointed out.
It was really nice to have Socke and Ret around as our smoking timings are just perfectly sync'd always, never have to go smoke by myself, but this time, there was a lot more others we'd see outside every time... you see smoking is really bad for you, but its kind of nice to step outside and hang out with people while smoking and just have nice casual chats. Tasteless, Artosis, JP, Sundance, Lee and everyone else was also at the bar. My good friend and one of my favorite casters djWHEAT was always outside smoking an E-Cig as well. It was just great. I got to talk a bunch with Marcus and Tasteless, Tasteless told me a fun fact, that me or im sure any of you could probably never guess, he usually actually gets really nervous before casting, every time, and he feels a lot better when people just tell him "YOU LOOK GREAT NICK!" "YOU'RE GONNA DO GREAT!" that just made me laugh so much, Tasteless is probably the funniest motherfucker out there, every story he tells and the faces he makes on a consistant basis, its pretty impossible to stop laughing, really a great guy. I got to talk to Artosis also and he told me that he thought I did great, and that I am a great personality and should try to do more casting once in a while, it was really such an honor, sitting down and analyzing a series with him and commenting on some of those matches with Nick, Dan, Marcus, JP and Rob was just a really really awesome experience for me. So thank all of you for that. Not long after it was time to say goot bye and see you soon to everyone. Chad Jones didn't go to the bar and his flight was early in the morning, so drew and I went to his room and knocked on his door to say goot night and c u soon, fucking love chad motherfucking jones.
Monday
C U
Laaaaaaaaaaaaameeeeeeeeeeeeee its almost over =/ is the first thing I thought monday morning, pretty much everyone was gone at this point, Slept until it was time to leave for the airport, drew and I both flew out of La Guardia, everyone else flew out of JFK, saw a few of the koreans downstairs but everyone was gone for the most part. my flight was at 6:40 or so, drew's was at 4:30 but the taxi was coming at like 1pm, either way we couldn't do much more there, cause 1pm is check out time at the hotel.
We headed to the airport, drew flew with Air Canada, I flew with US Airways, no problem I thought, we get dropped off at different terminals, then i'll meet you at your gate and we'll go grab lunch or something. but apparently La Guardia's terminals aren't connected at all, found that out as the taxi driver told us, so I just went to drew's terminal and we hang out there for a couple of hours just sitting and talking, at around 3:40 or so drew had to go through security and all of that to make sure he'd get in that flight, so I gave my best friend a Hug, handshake AND firstbump and headed to my terminal by foot, pretty sad the event was over. Smoked a couple cigarettes, had plenty of time to kill before my flight
Airport
went through security, and decided to go grab some food. I saw a mexican restaurant connected to a smoothie place, connected to an asian bistro connected to a pizzeria, I was confused but they shared registers and everything even though each one had a different theme.. anyways there was this classic bitch lady in front of me. The lady that worked the register came out from the kitchen and -Bitch lady- just stared at her "aren't you going to apologize for making me wait 3 minutes?" (literally, not 5, not 10, 3, she said it) The Indian Lady who worked there said "I didn't know you were here, if someone else asked you to wait, it wasn't me, but if you'd like me to apologize, I am sorry. What would you like to order?" Bitch Lady got kind of embarrassed and gave her her order, then asked her name and tried to become besties with the lady at the register, I said "excuse me, its probably non of my business but aren't YOU going to apologize to this lady for being so harsh for no reason?" Bitch Lady got even more embarrassed and apologized to the Indian Lady. Bitch Lady proceeded to order a burrito, and asked the Asian Lady on the line "I dont want pico, can I get sour cream and guacamole instead?" Asian Lady said, no sorry. bitch lady insisted "how about just a little bit" god i fucking hate people like that. she got a little bit of sour cream "That'll do it!" said bitch lady and got the fuck out of my way. I ordered a burrito, indian lady thanked me, and I asked why all the restaurants were connected. She said "all of these are owned by the same person, our boss is 16 years old and has a ton of money. I said "oh wow really?" she said "you don't believe a 16 year old can have so much money?" I said: "no I can believe that part, but that'd he'd choose to open and run 4 restaurants even if its just fast food is kind of astonishing" Indian Lady replied "well... he doesn't run them, we do" I smiled and left with my food towards the terminal.
I sat at the terminal as the flight before mine was departing, it was 10 minutes before departure but the doors were already closed, a black lady came running and yelling "IM HERE IM HERE" they apologized and told her that the gates were closed and there was nothing they could do. she started fake-freaking-out and saying "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND MY SON IS HERE" next flight is in 2 hours they said "NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND I HAVE TO GET TO MY BEST FRIEND'S FUNERAL", really sorry they said again, she was fake-crying as well, she kept yelling and asking for them to open the gate, nothing was working for her so she proceeded onto the next trick "What's yo name?" (silent thread to report an employee for poor customer service) she was given their names, and asked to go talk to customer service to reschedule, just down the hall. As she walked there, her face changed from desperation to pure anger, "ima fuck ya'll over you motherfuckers" she said as she walked her 5-or-so year old kid to customer service. I had a laugh and went to sleep. Went to bed, boarded and got back home. uneventful flights back, I had a lot of sleep to catch up on.
- ABOUT THE EVENT, SUNDANCE AND MLG -
I wanted to make this a separate part of my Blog. let me start by saying, that I am a person who good or bad, doesn't like to keep opinions to himself, if I have a problem with something, i'll say it out loud and if I have to praise something/someone I will do that as well. I was not asked to come to MLG as a caster or anything like that, I decided to come by myself to hang out with drewbie, chad, drg and all of my friends in NYC. I was not asked by anyone to write this, but I felt the need to do so.
Fact is MLG is FUCKING AWESOME. I told Hotbid as soon as I got there that I felt it was silly not to feature them on TL and I hope that changes next time, regardless of it costing money or not. The way I always saw the whole situation is: OK, they are still doing all of the other tournaments, but on top of that, they are adding more... ASSHOLES?!???. I think at this point most people realize that MLG gets it, and that we need to get behind them and every other league and support them and help Esports and Starcraft II grow even more. I hope next time every team gets behind MLG and to try to spread the love and make it an even more successful event.
This event costed the teams... well nothing pretty much. MLG took care of all the costs for the players flights, hotels, transportation and 3 meals a day, they really don't brag enough of how nicely and smoothly the event went and how much they did for the players, having people walk the players back and forth from the venue to the hotel, booking them an entire top floor of a bar, listening to criticism... I know that sundance has converted a lot of people with his interviews, but if anyone has any doubts... Sundance leads by example, everyone at MLG worked their asses off for the last few weeks to make this a successfull event, and every single employee was happy. "how are you doing man?" "Tired as hell but I couldn't be happier" is the idea you get from asking that question to everyone who works there. It is amazing to see, that they are reading every tweet and every forum post and feed off of criticism and get happy for compliments, when I see MLG I don't see dollar signs in their eyes, I see people who love esports. (don't get me wrong, everyone needs to make the monies, but you simply can't make the monies if you don't have passion for what you do, and that is what makes MLG so successful in my opinion)
I am not saying this cause I casted a few games for them, but rather, I offered to cast a few games and help as much as I could for them because of how awesome they are. You see I am applying for an O-1 Visa, it is basically a visa for people with "extraordinary talents" (how cool does that sound?) the premise of it is: I am making money here, paying taxes and not taking anyone's job. anyways the reason I mention this is because I asked Lee and Sundance last MLG if it would be possible to get a recommendation letter, now bare in mind, i've never been one to do good at MLGs or anything like that, but Sundance was happy and agreed to it instantly, now for a man this busy, that was surprising, he asked me to send him an email and I did at the time:
"Hi sundance! this is CatZ I hope you remember me, we talked briefly @ providence, I am gonna need all the help I can get to get my O-1 Visa and as I mentioned during the weekend a letter of recommendation from you would be amazing help."
this was his answer:
Of course I remember you. Happy to help. I'll work on something this week.
If you haven't heard back by Friday please email me to remind me.
-sd
I was happy, and told him I'd send him some info to help write the letter, however, in my lazyness and streaming addiction I didn't get it to him by friday. I didn't have to remind him though, he did.
Dude – you still need this?
Happy to do one for you – just let me know.
-sd
now this is what made me a fan, before that, it was a guy being really nice and responding to what I asked, now, he was a fucking boss, who actually WANTED to help me.
I was happy to go to MLG and do some casting for them and I was extremely happy that the event went as good or better than they planned. Sundance even tweeted to thank me for all the help after the event... who does that... this guy is just a fucking hero, and so are MLG's Lee, Adam, JP and all of their amazing staff. Even MLG Ryan who was Missing in Action is a boss.
So to all the teams, fans and viewers, lets get behind this, and not just this, but also IPL and NASL and everything else, and lets make this shit grow even more.
