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My First Major Starcraft 2 Tourney Experience was also Our Biggest!

G'day all, while I am still riding the high from WCS (even after a 13 hour drive home) I thought I would make a bit of a blog about my thoughts and experiences. There will obviously be spoilers.


I'm just going to dot point a bunch of things here that I want to cover, too much stuff in my head to come out with a cohesive essay-style post.

Stand Out Games/Series

Saturday held the most impressive/entertaining series for me. Tt.PiG vs Nv.mOOnGLaDe

These two players forged an amazing backstory in this tournament. PiG really impressed me, he has clearly put his head down and practised (especially his ZvZ). There were a few games from other series that were amazing but overall the matches between these two were amazing. I was hoping for another meeting of PiG and Moon in the finals of Sunday but fate had other awesome things in mind instead.

A special mention to TGun as well, who won me over with his performance against Mafia. Mafia showing some emotion in the finals was also quite touching.

The Venue and the Organization

The venue was cool, it was a nice place but it is not well suited to an esports event. Natural light is the enemy of gamers. For those who werent there, there was a massive skylight right above the projector screen, which made it impossible to see the games (barring tv huddling) from 11am to 4pm.


As I mentioned in the video I think this is just a case of inexperience in organizing a tournament of this scope in Australia, which is to be expected in our fledgling esports industry. Not a big deal for the stream but it is definitely a lesson to be learned for the future.

Everything else was absolutely and impressively awesome. Attention to detail on a scope not seen at major events in the US.


Small touches like this really make the event special. The pies were above expectations too, I value this very highly.


Casters

Firslty, I have to show some love for our local casters.

Maynarde did an amazing job MC'ing, he was a natural. It's like he was our connection to the US casters and I couldn't have picked a more passionate guy to work the stage for use.

Infeza: the casters kept mentioning your obs work and they were not joking. You. did. not. miss. a. beat. Catching nukes going up in there air and finding every single one that dropped I don't even know how. Wow man. I think we don't think about how important the Obs work is and you made me realize what a difference it can make.

Now, obviously the big names coming down for us is a big deal. Each one of them brought in a ton of viewers who now know about SEA and what we have to offer. I could go on and on about this but I think everyone knows how big a deal this was. I'm most happy with how much we personally impressed and affected them with our cheers, our plays and our passion.


The Crowd

You guys make me super proud of Australian/Oceanic esports.

Every cheer of the crowd held a passion beyond what I have ever heard in esports. Highlander said that it did not translate well to stream, which is extremely sad (crowd facing mic is a must). But anyone who was there knows. This includes the casters, Blizz reps etc.

This was the biggest thing of the entire event for me. It made it a memory I will never forget.

Special Mentions

@Mayo It was good to finally meet you. It meant a lot to Amy especially as she is a huge Tt fangirl. Sorry it was in the last minute that we finally got a chance to speak to you though! Thanks for the awesome swag!



@Hwaygo Thanks for letting me crash the night! Pretty cool that I still made it back in time for the Diablo Herald podcast! haha.

@Cwnanwn I wasn't sure who you were when you came up and said hi, sorry! I figured it out like an hour later and facepalmed. I didn't see you again after that. It was great to meet you regardless!

Sorry to everyone I didn't get a chance to meet! Next time

Thanks for reading! Feel free to share your experiences below!