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Greetings lovely TL! Meru here with my second post live-event blog. My first post ever was on IEM NY at NYCC, where I met a ton of awesome people and fell in love with the game even more. This past weekend I went to Redbull Battlegrounds NYC, and was once again blown away by the love and passion demonstrated by everyone around. I love you all.
It started weeks before the event. When battlegrounds NYC was announced, I immediately and successfully persuaded some friends to go see it together. I even managed to get an extra ticket, where I held a mini contest here on TL and gave away the ticket to spread awareness of eSports. I never updated the contest blog with the winner due to the lack of response in the thread, but I’m happy to report that someone AWESOME did spent 3 hours teaching a friend how to play SC2 and won my ticket, and now the friend is enjoying the game as well. Spreading eSports love one baby step at a time!
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Fast forward to the event. The night before battlegroudns, there was actually a meet and greet with all the players and hosts presented by Redbull and ONOG. There was a lovely panel discussion, signing and mingling with all our favorite eSports personalities. One thing I would like to point out is the lack of advertising and PR for the event. Throughout the weekend I keep running into people that go “WHAT? There was a MEET AND GREET? I didn’t know and wish I could’ve been there!”
I’m pretty sure I unlocked a major life achievement at the meet and greet. The barcraft meet and greet had a SC2 themed menu, and I got to share a drink called the “Oracle” with Day 9! Oh, and My friend and I got to kiss day j, and we absolutely loved it. It never occurred to me that Day 9 is that tall!
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Panel at Barcraft meet and greet
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Derp Day J is Derp.
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Panel at meet and Greet at Barcraft
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Day9 drinking my oracle like a pretty princess!
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So much taller than I expected...
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Stole someone else's teemo hat. Wrong game buddy!
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Mr Bitter and I!
And now, the day of the event. The stage was beautiful, the games were awesome. Some of the best Starcraft games were played on that stage that weekend. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the epic Bomber vs. Scarlett game. The link takes you to the daily on that game. There were familiar faces in the crowd, and I was fortunate enough to meet many new people! I now have faces to go with so many of the names I’ve only heard of online.
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Below are some of the pictures, and I do want to sincerely apologize for the quality. I didn’t have my fancy DSLR with me this time due to technical issues, so all the photos had to be taken on my potato of a phone. I know they are nowhere near the quality of my IEM pictures, but still thought they are interesting. I’m sorry and I will do better next time!
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View from VIP Mezzanine
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Mike Morhaime, Co founder of Blizzard
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We all love Temp0! He said his real name means "Born on a saturday"
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The champ!
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I asked golden to also sign his korean name, and golden pauses and goes... " EHH I FORGOT HOW!"
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Sign I made for Snute!
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Reunited with Yoshi!!
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Theresa from CSL and Zombiegrub. Lovely gals!!!
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Wax being wax... Grumpy-lax.
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xVixen and Adama from Clarity Gaming
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TL writer Cosmicspiral. There was a better picture, but I think the derp photo speaks to him better.
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Everybody crowding around the TV watching an intense game. We got daniel photographer extraordinaire, spiral, wax, QuanticSchAmToo, Zombiegrub, Theresa, and Deric from ONOG.
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Wax and monk working hard. Interview with Snute and Yoshi
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Adama, Yuna, and xVixen, Golden
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Adama and Zombiegrub!
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The afterparty. Have you ever seen Starcraft on the screen at the sportsbar at the same time as Monday Night Football?? Because I have!
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Snute had to wait outside of the bar to finish his delicious tasting MCDonald's... haha
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Wax and monk were fed up with me at this point I think. I'm sorry you had to put up with me.
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So towards the end of the night, Day 9 showed up to the afterparty. It was below freezing weather and he only had a hoodie, but Day being Day stood outside for forever greeting fans.
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Freezing cold weather? doesn't matter. Greet fans. My friend Jeff who went to the event with me
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:o
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Handsome Rob!
Some better stage photos taken by my friend Jeff. Below photos are creds to him!
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