UPDATE: CONTEST IS NOW OVER!
Update: Contest Winner!
Hey everyone, first of all I want to thank every one of you for all your replies! It was really inspiring reading through it all, and it really is heart warming hearing about how your family and friends keep your passion going.
I really really wish I had unlimited resources and have all the tickets in the world to give to everyone, but unfortunately I don’t have enough. Towelie I’m really sorry you can’t make it to DC for the weekend, your writeup was definitely the most touching to read personally and I would’ve loved to given you the ticket.
With that said, the contest winner this time is hdk703. I want you to be with your little brother, and thank him for your win because he’s the reason you got into SC at all! I don’t need your balcony seats, but maybe work something out with someone in this thread that has no ticket at all like protagonist777? I think what hit home with me is the day j daily #100. That’s pretty much how I got into the sceen as well, watching dailies, and especially that episode. He just has a charismatic way of getting to you, doesn’t he?
HDK please PM me your email so I can send you the ticket PDF to print.
A9arnn- I’m sorry you didn’t get a response fast enough from RB. Maybe the messages didn’t send to the right person? Maybe try their social media outlets and ask next time? They’re pretty responsive there. It seems odd that there’d be no response at all :x
AgaveOtter – Seems like there’s a lot people that have balcony but want to trade up, I had to pick HDK because I don’t want to split a family up ><. Thank you for your understanding, and I’m sorry!
Hello there my beautiful TL! Meru checking in again!
Hello handsome/beautiful, hope your day is going great so far.
As the title states, I got an extra ticket (possibly two, pending on needs) for this weekend's redbull battlegrounds finals in DC for both Sat. and Sun.
Come meet your Day J, Nate, Rotti and all your fav. players IN PERSON!
As of now, all the FLOOR tickets are SOLD OUT. But You can win one right here! No strings attached. I gave away a ticket for last year's RBBG in NY too, i guess this is an annual thing that I do, giving back to the community :p
Get Down to Business.
All you have to do is tell me this:
What do you love most about StarCraft? The game & the scene.
That simple! Post below and tell me why you love SC2. Tell me about your games, how you got started, how you started following/watching tournaments, and what you love MOST about it all.
Feel free to answer it even if you don't want tickets. Just please, be sure to indicate if you want to enter the ticket contest!
A winner will be picked on Friday the 19th at 5PM EDT. You then have the option of meeting me Friday night in DC to claim the printout tickets, or I can email you the PDF so you can print yourself.
Claim these for free!!
I'm super excited for it and will def. see everyone there! Spoiler alert, wax & monk are temporarily coming out of retirement and are going too! Expect great coverage right here on TL!! I'll be sure to pack my pokeflute in case grumpy saintsnorlax falls asleep mid-job.
IEM Toronto
Ah, what a learning experience IEM Toronto was! It was my first time doing video interview coverage for TL, and it was both terrifying and fun. I definitely learned that audio is super important and difficult to manage at events like this, especially when they are inside a large expo like FanExpo or ComicCon. Moving forward for the future, I will definitely not skimp out on audio equipment and bring proper recorder and mics. You live and learn and improve on your mistakes!
Aside from the technical difficulties, I got to meet TL strat staffers Jer99 and ZeromuS who were based in Canada, as well as a good number Team Acer staff. What they say about Canadais are so true, everyone is so nice! We had a great conversation wtih Drekkonis talking about American health care, and we blew everyone's mind with just how TERRIBLE the system is in the states.
Between us we manage to get some really fun photos, A terran strategy interview with bunny, an inside scoop on the world of observers, as well as a fun/silly Q&A with some star personalities.
Wishful Thinking
I quickly learned how difficult it is to do all this on top of having a 9-5 day job. I'm an interactive designer with an agency during the day, and design responsive websites/apps/UX/Information architecture. I'm completely tired by the time I come home on the week nights, sometimes it's a bit hard to kick myself to do additional work like editing interview videos. I love my day job and I love TL projects, I just wish there's more than 24 hrs in a day, or I didn't need sleep ever.
Last Thoughts
I usually include some of my fav. shots from the event in my post-event blog post, but you can just refer to the existing posts for now since they are all out. But, in the spirit of tradition, here's some random photos taken with crappy cellphone camera while we were out :D
I made polymer clay charms of the ESL logo for my ESL crew friends before the event ^^ I think they liked it.
Apollo & ESL Honke hitting on girls at the bar... No they didn't get their numbers sadly.
Nathanias repping TL in the bar!! :D
The lovely Canadian Acer staffers made goodie bags for all the players. I got lucky at the end and got one too!
So I made a promise with Snute before his series vs. Flash. I promised him I'd buy him that Yoshi if he beat Flash, and everyone in staff chat was yelling "PREPARE YOUR WALLET!" when Snute went 2-0 in the beginning. I was so sad when I couldn't spend that money afterwards D:
But we made it up and got Snute a smaller yoshi instead. :D Next time Jens! Win and I'll get you the huge yoshi!
As usual, here’s my Flickr for the event photos, and buzz me anytime you want @misayi Cheers!
♥ Meru