I left my home at 1:25pm, went to the ATM to withdraw some money, then caught the bus to the train station at 1:40pm.
Arrived at the train station, waited around twenty minutes for my train to arrive. Got on, listened to some Perfume for a solid forty minutes until I arrived to my destination.
At first, I walked the wrong way towards the LAN centre we were all supposed to meet up at. Thanks to the power of smartphones however, I eventually reorientated myself towards the right direction.
One minor anecdote while walking to City Hunter, there were some cute Asian girls walking around, and with the weather being quite chilly for this time of the year, they were swagging with the short skirts and small tops. It was like Korea or some shit, but in Australia.
Anyway, that aside, I eventually got to the front of the LAN centre (City Hunter), where I met with Nazza, MrChupee, dudeman and Chogoling. Eventually youngminii would join us around half an hour later.
Unfortunately for me, the chairs were lowered pretty badly, the keyboards sucked and it took a while to figure out how to get the maps onto the computer and change the resolution to 4:3. Eventually though we solved these problems out.
First game I played was a PvT against MrChupee. Not playing Brood War for quite some time, I felt quite rusty. Fortunately for me, he was very rusty. If I recall correctly, it was just a boring ass macro game where he tried to move out off three base, I recalled into his main, killed supplies/factories, then a-moved my army to win the game.
Second game was a 3v3 on BGH, myself, Chogoling and MrChupee vs Nazza, dudeman and youngminii, all random vs random. It was ZZP (me Z) vs PPT. While we killed off youngminii, the protosses killed off Chogoling, who spawned at 12 (me and MrChupee were at the bottom at 5 and 7). Eventually, I got mutalisks out, but was met with a critical mass (and I mean critical, like 20) of Corsairs from dudeman. Could not do anything and tapped out.
The last three games we played were Team Melee, with the same teams as above (left side vs right side). A tip for those who are at a LAN with 4-6 people, Team Melee is fucking awesome to play. I played macro while Chogoling and Chupee were on army control.
First Team Melee game was a TvZ on Ground Zero (bottom right vs bottom left), we went for 1 rax expand into 5rax +1 pressure. If my memory serves me correctly, we were able to set up a contain between their third base at 9 and their expansion, and after safely securing a third base, I was able to transition into mech. 3-3 200/200 mech with Vessels beats everything.
Second game was a PvT on Jade (top left vs bottom right). After going 12 nexus, we were threatened with a 'fake fake fake fake double' marine/vulture pushed. As they weren't competent in the art of mine defusal, it took a while for us to clear the mines around our choke. As I got my third up and running relatively quickly, we had to play catch up as they also took a fast third. However they missed their timing to push out and win, and when we got arbiters out, the game was effectively over.
Last game was a ZvP on Outlier (right vs top). Going 12 pool (which Chogoling said no one ever does), we somehow get our zerglings to run by into their main. Who would have thought though that two players solely controlling a group of zerglings could die to probes? Oh well. Three base spire into hydralisks won the game in the end.
I'll add another minor anecdote from playing at a LAN center mainly filled with Chinese people, it was hilarious to hear females rage in DotA. Hilarious, but cute. Added to the atmosphere.
After leaving City Hunter, we went across the road to eat Korean BBQ. Picture of the Barbecue in action.
(We got bulgogi, galbi and samgyupsal).
Compared to the BBQ place I went to before BarCraft a month or so ago, the serving sizes were disappointing in comparison. However, everyone got a good feed, and some of the guys loved the totally non-Korean side dish of Pasta salad. It was also dudeman's first time having soju (!), and youngminii and I introduced everyone to the 'amazement' of somaek (Soju + Beer).
We eventually took the bus down to the viewing at UNSW, where we were around 10-15 minutes late. Youngminii, ultra concerned about his new shoes, decided to take them off after seeing it was raining. Once outside though, it stopped raining, poor guy. On another note, whoever decided to build the campus on a hill is a blithering idiot. Who decides to have not one, but two massive walk ways just to get to main part of the university? Good grief.
Fortunately (or unfortunately?), the finals were delayed, and we couldn't think of anything to do. Then I decided to plop on an old VOD. Jaws dropped as people witnessed an era of one base and an apparent lack of concept in multitasking.
Eventually, the finals did start at 7pm KST, where the fun began. I won't recap every game, but I'll highlight some of the key moments that got the crowd going. Obvious spoilers ahead.
Game 1: Wooki's 1 gate nexus, Bisu's storm drops.
Game 2: Fantasy's dropship trap, Flash's doom drop, Fantasy's paper planes.
Game 3: We were actually eating pizza so we sort of missed out on the start of the game... we did get back in time to see the super hero spore of Action though.
Game 4: Crazy-Hydra choking (in general). Crackling + Swarm harassments. Mines owning lurkers.
Game 5: Stats failed DT, Rain's mass mining backdoor.
Game 6: Ensnares and Plagues.
Game 7: Everything.
After saying our good byes, Chogoling informs us the last bus to the train station from UNSW leaves in five minutes. We all run just like those folk in The Amazing Race to the bus stop, where we see the bus leave. Oh well, we just caught a taxi, split the fare, then went our separate ways. I got onto my train at around 1:10am, arrived at the train station at 1:50am then walked home with a bottle of Powerade (running from one half of the campus to another took the fuck out of me) and was at home by around 2:10am.
Anyway.... that's all I can think about writing for the meet up. Big thanks to Nazza for organizing the LAN at City Hunter, Rampager (Sami) for organizing the room at UNSW for us to watch the big game, and the rest of the folk who came to make the day awesome.