This is my first blog so I uh, don't really know what to type, but I'll give it a shot. I'll try to keep it short and sweet if I can.
So after spending 3 hours in the car and getting lost multiple times, myself and 2 mates finally find the Cityhunter cafe. It's only my second LAN event and their first so we nervously begin setting up our gear in the corner of the room. I start glancing around to see if I know anyone, and I spot a few familiar faces. Sitting next to me is Dox, he seems to be a pretty cool guy, and next to him I see a screen with 'Rank 1 Grandmaster' displayed.
mOOnGLaDe says 'excuse me' and brushes past our seats to his computer. THE mOOnGLade. He sits down, glances over at me and says 'hey man I'm andrew.' We shake hands and I reply 'Hey, I'm Jaryd, uh I'm a little starstruck.' WTF *Facepalm*. Of all the things I could have said to him I say that, wow I'm an idiot haha. I try to act normal after that and distract myself by playing a ladder game. I lose.
The organiser stands up and starts going over the rules, he states the map pool etc and that the tournament will be a BO1 UNTIL THE ROUND OF 8. Cries of disbelief fill the room. We come all the way to this LAN and pay $40 for only 2 games? Apparently it's a time issue but Dox will have none of it. He storms down the front of the room and has a few words with the organiser. It's now a bo3. Dox.
The bracket is out. My first opponent: YoonYJ. Why oh why! I was really hoping to make it past the first round so I wouldn't be shamed. He told me pre-game that he was hungover, rofl like it's going to make a difference in the result. Oh well time to cheese. I do my 3 gate Voidray build, one that never lets me down on ladder, even verse grandmasters. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. He crushes it completely, it wasn't even close.
You know when you get that sinking feeling of hopelessness? Well that was what I was feeling just then, though I guess it's Yoon so I can't be too hard on myself. We start our second game on The Shattered Temple and I went for a more macro oriented play style, a 1 gate expand, whilst he did a 1 rax expand (I'm pretty sure). Anyway I don't want to bore you, but he did a double drop to kill my main whilst my army was halfway out on the map, and it was pretty much one sided from there. I go up to him and shake his hand, he's really nice and says 'good game man, well played,' despite my utter crushing.
My next games in the losers bracket are against TAdeL. We both state how much we hate PvP and he suggests we both random but I laugh it off. Two 4 gate vs 4 gates later and I'm 0-2, and out of the tournament. Why do I always make the most embarrassing mistakes whenever I go a LAN? I approach TAdeL and he says 'Gg well played man, unlucky it was PvP.'
So I'm out of the tournament. It was fun whilst it lasted and I met all the faces behind the names. Everyone was so nice and cool (I guess?) which made it a super fun event to go to. Special mentions go out to Seguer, who was awesome to chat to during the whole tournament even though he wasn't participating, Dox, who was also really cool to sit next to and spectate, and Lochy, for having won an epic epic epic 2 hour long ZvT bo3 and going out of his way (and his brother) to drive me 3 hours to the event.
And lastly, mOOnGLaDe. He is the nicest guy you will ever meet. Seriously. He took 10 minutes out of his time to have a game with a nobody like me, and even though I got crushed he still said 'gg well played man.' He didn't complain when like 10 people were standing over his shoulder watching him play/distracting him, and still took time from his busy schedule to have a game with me and go over my mistakes. And he won the tournament so convincingly. Fan Forever man .
I'm pretty sure Dox will be uploading footage and pictures of the event to put some perspective to my recount, so yeah, I hope I didn't bore everyone too much. Lastly I would just like to say how awesome the SC2 community is. You guys are so smart, cool and nice, it's no wonder the SC2 community is growing exponentially.
FrOst
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It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
Nice blog frost! I wanted to come say hi but you had to sit next to glade didn't you! So crowded lol and then I was busy with my games and I guess you left rather then spectate for tbhe nest 8 hours! :P
vsing bronzies through diamond its not fun if you make them feel like shit lol, not that i was going easy on lochy but in general i just practice a build order and keep the game at fun/reasonable macro level
Haha I didn't have my hair spiked at the event, but yeah... It's funny how people are so much different in real life than they appear to be on the net ^^.
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It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
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