My First MLG (was a bit ridiculous)

This adventure began with dark, grim skies and freezing temperatures in New York City. Over one thousand miles later, I was in a shockingly bright Dallas, Texas, trying to cope with the sudden 90 degree heat and the violent butterflies in my stomach.

Dallas marks my first major event as press and, therefore, is something like a professional litmus test. If I screw up coverage, nothing good will come of it. On the bright side, I couldn’t be more excited to meet and watch dozens of players and people I’ve been a fan of for years.

Well, here goes nothing.

A little after noon, I called the cab that would take me to the event.

The cabbie, a black man with a cowboy hat and a southern twang mixed with used car salesman, asked where I was from and then immediately started talking about the booming economy in Dallas and why I should move there to become an entrepreneur and make a killing. I later learned he was a tourism ambassador for the city or so he told me.

A few minutes into the drive, the cabbie began to stress the quality of the city’s nightlife and gave me his business card in case I wanted to go out that night. Soon, he was talking about the local gentleman’s clubs and the beautiful women employed by those fine, fine organizations. Before he dropped me off, he nonchalantly offered to take me to a nearby brothel for a modest extra fee. He instantly produced a few pictures of the women (one black, one white and one Asian along with promises of 30 more) and reminded me that I had his card.

Call me tonight, he said.

“Sure, I’ll do that.”

Arriving


The event wouldn’t be starting for hours but the line was already long and loud. I walked by the masses to get my press pass and get ready for the private tour of the facility. Upon entering, I saw the big and dark room housing the competition and featuring three main stages (StarCraft, Halo and Call of Duty) as well as the corresponding playing areas for all other matches.

As the event started to slowly fill up, I saw a ton people I recognized. Among others, I met AskJoshy, FishStix, Evoli, CatsPajamas and Cassandra early on. I watched Tyler play with a group of onlookers standing a foot behind him, all discussing how he was a favorite to go deep into the tournament. I wondered what it felt like to try to concentrate on the game while a half dozen guys within earshot were calling you the next coming of Christ. To his credit, Tyler seemed to be taking it in stride and continued to practice.



In the course of meeting and greeting the stream of new people, I heard that a dealer was selling Adderall to Halo players in the bathroom. The group I was with briefly wondered if StarCraft players would be purchasing the illicit goods but short of taking a hidden camera into the bathroom, we thought it best to move on to another topic. Personally, I’ve decided that next MLG might have to include a undercover drug sting by yours truly to spice things up.


The teams started strolling in later than most of the press and fans. When they finally arrived,.heads turned and conversations ceased. Complexity and Evil Geniuses arrived around the same time. In fact, they had stayed at the same hotel. In a beautiful stroke of fate, Cruncher and Idra had ended up in the same elevator on the way to the competition. Upon realizing the situation, Cruncher grinned and said, “Hello Idra!”

Idra responded curtly and left the elevator. Even now, no one is sure if Idra recognized the smiling Cruncher, his TSL nemesis. Truthfully, no one can decide which would be funnier.

As the pros warmed up, I took the time to explore the secondary playing area. FXO, Root, VT and more were out in force. A number of lesser known teams working hard were on the scene, waiting for their shot at the big boys.

As play began, I spoke to Spades, Naama and, later, Pokebunny about their expectations and results.


Naama, the Finnish Terran, talked to me about his hellish trip into the states. His delays and long flight left him feeling drained. I wasn’t too worried for him - he looked very tired but it was the first day and, with any luck, he’d easily walk through his opening matches and get much needed rest during the night. When we finished filming, he said he read SK-Gaming.com and knew immediately who I was, easily one of the coolest moments for me - a Naama fan - thus far. I wished him luck, we shook hands and went our separate ways.


Pokebunny, the 15 year old prodigy Terran from New York, walked through a no name opponent in the first round of the open bracket. Pokebunny was coming off of a strong showing at PAX East, a result that had raised his already considerable fame in the community. I told Pokebunny that I had seen his name in a several places listing him as a very strong dark horse candidate to do well. He reacted with shyness and modesty, quickly explaining that there weren’t many big names at his previous events, that he hadn’t made his mark on the scene quite yet.


The games were in full swing by this point. Using and abusing my press privileges to the fullest, I sat in the front row at the main stage and watched Idra take out Socke 2-0 with impeccable ZvP and scary usage of burrow. The StarCraft crowd loved Idra and cheered every chance they had. In fact, our crowd seems to be at least as loud and excited as Halo’s and certainly rowdier than the Black Ops group on the opposite end of the floor.

I saw the impossibly famous ROOTDestiny walk by and jumped at the chance to interview him, a guy who is blazing trails in the streaming game as the most profitable streamer in the community by a comfortable margin. Like everyone else I’d spoken to, Destiny couldn’t have been nicer. When I asked him about his expectations for the event, he acknowledged that most people were expecting him to fall flat on his face because of his fame being somewhat disproportionate to his skill. He said he had been working hard sparring with excellent players in the run up to the event and would take improvement slowly and surely, simply trying to win as many games as he could.

I wished him luck and he went off to find his friends.


It was at this point that I decided to take a trip to the press room in the dungeon of the building to see what my pictures and videos looked like. I walked downstairs feeling fairly pleased with myself: I’d met a ton of new people, I’d taken some decent pictures and interviewed a few good names in the StarCraft community.

The press room is a small, bare box with a few tables and chairs set up next to a good internet connection. I started up my laptop and transferred the media, ready to see the fruits of my labor.

Whoa.

Several of the videos were midnight black. I’d noticed it was dark in the competition area but it looked like I was filming a horror movie. Spades was a silhouette and Destiny was invisible in the blackness. Pokebunny was wreathed in shadow. This was a Halloween horror movie where the characters were replaced with StarCraft voices.



Like I do when watching any horror movie, I panicked. This was not the sort of thing you want to send your employer as a first impression.

“Uh, yeah boss, I tried to do my job but learned that I’m terrible at it. That’s okay, right?”

Unsure of what to do with my strangely mixed work, I headed back upstairs to take in the sights. It was about this time that Machine and Tyler were going at it. Tyler, the much talked about favorite, was going down 0-2 to the Evil Genius. After the game, Machine spent the next 45 minutes with a banana grin on his face.

Idra was floating nearby, signing autographs and taking pictures with his many, many fans.

It’s hard to grasp fandom in StarCraft if you’ve never been to an offline event. The community is used to seeing forum posts and streams but at live events, the true nature of the fan boys and girls is revealed. Everyone wants an autograph with their StarCraft hero, the player they’ve spent hundreds of hours watching and studying. As you might expect, Idra has one of the largest followings of the players in Dallas.

I went down to the press room once more to attempt to make the best of the situation.


My options were few and far between. It was an easy decision: what better way to deal with a botched first attempt at coverage than to give a first hand account of a newbie’s journey to MLG? What better feature than a gonzo piece complete with drugs, bad camera work and a long list of heroes and villains?

I’ll see you guys tomorrow! I will be working hard to make sure that tomorrow’s coverage includes visible human beings and a competent camera man. Wish me luck!