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Obligatory First LAN Experience Blog
 

Evening guys!

Foreword: I was going to write this last night, but my computer broke.. well to be more specific, Windows 7 broke. Had to re-install everything (and still in the process of it) but luckily I didn't lose anything important; gotta love the option to keep everything in a "windows.old" folder before the re-installation!

Yesterday, SC2 players of Adelaide got treated to having a LAN event at Arena Internet Cafe in the city centre! It was an extremely nice experience and I am really glad that I managed to participate in it.

First, some back story. Frequency (who is a pretty awesome guy) organized the event and well quite a lot of us SC2 players here in Adelaide jumped on the chance to attend. Most people were able to go with no problems, but I had a bit of an issue. I was initially unlikely to play because I was most likely going to end up being late on the day and was going to just spectate instead. However through the persuasion of Spook and Switch, I made sure that I did my best to make it on time and joy of joys, I did.

I arrived at 12:00 on the dot at Arena Internet Cafe, and managed to sign up just on time for the event. There were around 30 of us there participating as players and there were also spectators around. I entered the tournament with absolutely no practice; I probably played about one or two games in the past few weeks. I would've wanted to get some practice done beforehand, but I was too busy and also had a weekend getaway at Mt Gambier (which I have to say was such a fantastic weekend and it was great to get away from reality for a while).

I was really nervous for the whole thing, and was intimidated by the amount of very good players in the tournament. I thought to myself "inb4 I verse Light in the first round..." and well that nearly cracked me, I was getting scared. My train of thought wasn't going right; I wanted to play in this to have fun, I wanted to play this for a good experience and of course to get that motivational kick for me to play the game more often all over again. So I took a bit of a breather while setting up my keyboard and mouse, and it calmed me down. I was ready to play, not purely to win, but just to experience being in a LAN and what it's like to be versing a very skilled player, just to have fun, and just to get my motivation back.

The ladders were set up, and everyone was set to go! On the first round I versed Maynarde. I made sure to keep my train of thought that I had going, and I just played my best. I managed to win the first game, somehow. I had my Colossus sniped because I wasn't paying attention (though it had done quite a bit of damage) when he attacked into my base, but some clutch Force Fields and a second Colossus popping out in the nick of time saved me and won me the game. The second game was also rather close, my High Templars were too far away and I lost most of my army before getting there, but managing to hit the right storms turned the tide. I won the series 2-0 and was really glad about it! Maynarde was very well mannered and even thanked me for playing games with him. Thanks Maynarde for the games too, and it was a pleasure to finally meet you and play against you on the same day!

Second round I versed TCPBuu and my 2 base plays didn't work at all against him and lost to him without winning a single game. We had a good chat after the game, and I found out I nearly won the second game if it wasn't for my poor force fielding. Ended up hanging out with this kid for pretty much the rest of the time I was there.

Much later that day, in the lower bracket I versed TCPStormz. He also 2-0ed me with his fantastic muta play (they're such a good unit). Stormz is one of the nicest people I've met; he's extremely friendly and you can very well approach him and you would get along well with him. I been looking forward to meeting him for a while now and I'm glad to have made a new friend. Hope you finish those three assignments that are due tomorrow. :P

Buu and Stormz did very well overall in the tournament. The three of us pretty much hung out for the rest of the day. I also met Kreamy, Spook and many other players. The players and people there were a very friendly bunch and it was a pleasure to meet you all. I talked with many of the players there throughout the day and also got to meet Light and Satu. I've met Satu some time last year but we didn't talk much until the LAN; he discussed to me some stuff with Zerg and also showed me how he looks at his replays which was a really good learning experience, I'm tempted to start playing Zerg now. Light was also a really good guy to talk to, and it's really good to meet him. Never thought I'd see the day that I would see two very famous players at the same place in one day and I am very happy about that.

As the day went on there was less and less people at Arena, and it was getting quieter but the fun factor did not drop a single bit. Watching the games between players right in front of you was a really entertaining experience and I am looking forward to experiencing this again. I couldn't stay for the Lower Bracket finals and the Grand Finals which was a shame, I wish I could've seen those games with my own eyes. Props to Satu for winning the tournament; he just played amazingly throughout.

To conclude, I am really glad to be part of the SC2SEA community and being able to attend this LAN. I've made new friends, met some of the most awesome bunch of people and played games with some of them and had a chat with a lot of them. I'm looking forward to the next one and I hope to see even more people there. Thanks to Frequency for organizing the event. He did very well with organizing the tournament and ensuring that the event ran smoothly throughout the day. Also he made sure that the mouse pad that I left there stayed at Arena for me to pick up earlier today; thanks mate!

I have some photos that I took at the event before my camera battery died on me. I'll upload them in the next day or two and will link it to here or the Arena LAN thread.

Edit: Pictures are up, sorry I suck at taking photos but I'll improve on it hopefully.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=e0f646c931

mGG Jieun, singing out.