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Hey guys,

I'm Aiya (boss with introductions, I know) and I'm not sure if this should be a blog post or thread, as this is the first time I'm posting either but as you can tell it will be about the Internet City LAN in Brisbane city on 1/93 Albert St which was held on the 24th of November, just last Saturday. The original thread with details concerning it can be foundhere. If you don't want to read too many walls of text, probably just skip to the header "Ah..." below.

We're off to a LAN~~

Getting into it now, so the day started with my friend VanillaSlice and I getting a little bit lost being just 4 units away from Internet City while I eye the stares of a different shop because they look so similar to the entrance of Internet City before Invisions weTTowel and Xormentor kindly point out that it's right there.

So we go up stairs and find a lot of the Team Forever boys already in, set-up, practising away and looking good in their new team shirts. Clickity-clackity~~

Most people go grab some food because it's so early in the morning with the check-ups being at 9:30AM and the tournament starting at 10AM, with a few players needing to last minute drop out or arrive later because of the train lines going down that day which was unfortunate.

Ready, Steady, Go

Upon the clock ticking 10 and a limited number -- 24 computers dedicated to the tournament Jun prompty organised who would be playing first and getting people who weren't playing (me) off the computers. The brackets can be found here: Internet City Brackets and... off they went! The organisation and administration was very well done with players being able to go up to the counter to report their results or simply posting the results in the ICLAN channel with the brackets moving quite smoothly.

As the minutes pass and the "Good games" said there were more people coming in and were hanging around the computers at the back which were dedicated to the Starcraft II tournament. They were here to watch? Wow, sick, we have people coming in JUST to watch.

This LAN in my opinion attracted quite a few spectators who were watching over the shoulders of their friends and seeing those sick forcefields go off or sitting in the back room that was prepared by Jun the tournament organiser with a television and couches to be able to enjoy some of the games that were being streamed and casted by none other than Team Forever's Solis and co-casted with players who got knocked out early and Meta-Game God's Alpha also joined in casting quite a bit later into the day as well. The stream was on Team Forever's channel.

Not sure if that's going to be the dedicated stream for future Internet City LANs if there are going to be, but definitely check it out! Solis actually came in a couple days before to help setup the stream software and settings, with a rocking overlay as well. I also casted with Alpha a little bit later into the day and was offered a drink by Jun and saw that he was offering other casters drinks as well, just helping out that extra bit after players have had a long day of playing, watching, having fun and casting. Good work and thanks for that, Solis, Jun and everyone else who went up to cast and also who helped advertise it in their chat channels and personal Facebooks!

Why can't we be friends?

Though what saddened my slightly, but was completely understandable was when people were knocked out they started leaving and everything was very sociable until then, a couple more hours couldn't hurt? We have a room setup just for watching Starcraft and socialising -- the good ol' S 'n' S. I understand people might have other more important things to do but honestly... What is more important than Starcraft II and socialising?

I would like to point out that the Forever and Invision boys stayed for pretty much the whole day and we were all talking, everyone was talking -- Not just the Forever and Invision boys (Meta-Game Gods too but Alpha was the only one) -- Even the people who left early and now that I think of it, at least you guys came to play and talk even if it was just for a couple of hours. Although next time, PREPARE to stay the whole day and pump up the finalists and everyone else watching!

A wwwhhhaaa???

The actual Starcrafts going down. There were 34 players and it was best of 3 double elimination with a best of 1 lower bracket until 8 players remaining in the lower bracket which then reverted to best of 3. It was an exciting day! There were mainly South East Asian Grandmasters, Masters and some Diamonds and even a Silver! Talk about e-sports! With fan favourites such as Azz (Radiant), KjhSPR and cRSenSei actually not advancing too far intto the brackets with the exception of Kjh who reached the quarter finals it was a real fun and interesting day to be at and watch. The Mr No-Sleep-Before-LAN CyniX tearing up the upperbracket all the way to the finals knocking Philipp Brendel into the lower bracket and having him come back and nab first place and $300 with 2-1 in the first best of three and 2-0 in the extended series. VERY CLOSE MATCHES. Congratulations to him and also Invision's CyniX who won $100 for second place and Invision's weTTowel for winning $50 for third place (and mind you there were some sick plays by weTTowel in two Terran versus Terran sets against KjhSPR and his teammate iVnForbZ). There was also additional hours put on if you came 4th-6th place. Close but next time! Nice incentives : )

Ah...

All in all, I believe that this LAN was a success. The organisation was terrific considering the limitations on the number of computers available to us and Jun's communication with the players both via SC2SEA and Facebook Events page made all the difference in trying to keep the players happy and actually being able to hold the LAN at Internet City. The room setup with the television was a great place for everyone to just talk about the games being played and share some sick game moments together too! That is, the social aspect wasn't neglected either as well as making sure there were no technical problems. Lastly, I'll add that Jun also gave everyone who participated in the tournament a membership with 2 hours ($6 worth if member, $8 if non-member) at Internet City which means discounted rates and special rates which also SAVE onto your account which is sick because most internet cafes don't allow any special rates to be saved onto your account. Additionally, whatever time you put on that day would be DOUBLED. That's insane.

A note to Brisbane Starcraft II players
If you haven't been to a LAN yet, try and lookout for Internet City LANs (hopefully they're continuing to be held), Lansmash (held every 3 months, BYOC) and ACL (I think the season ended for this year). Come meet everyone else and have fun, play all that jazz~

To you who I've seen at almost every LAN that I've been to, sick. If Jun does decide to continue the Internet City LANs, this could be a good opportunity for us Bris Vegas boys to have our own "Brisbane City Hunter" and show those Sydney boys that we can press button just as fast as they can!

Lastly, Invision is really big and I wanna see a lot of friendly rivalries going on between Invision, Team Forever and Meta-Game Gods (where you guys at?!) going down at LANs and fighting for dem e-sports dollars (by our standards they're dollars).

I just wanna say, ON YA JUN AND hopefully there are more LANs to come!