[s]event_63[/s]
Due to having to work on Thursday I was unable to fly out that night which met I couldn't be at BlizzCon when the doors opened. I woke up at 5:30am EST on Friday morning because I had to fly out of Atlanta at 9:15am EST. I left my house at around 6:30am EST and arrived at the airport and to my gate at around 8:00 EST.
I finally boarded my airplane and departed on-time. I couldn't help but think about BlizzCon during my whole time on the airplane. We were already making great time, but I wanted to make the plane go faster. My flight from Atlanta to Orange County was slightly over four hours and we showed up about 20-30 minutes early. Once I got off the airplane I immeadietly headed to ground transportation to get on a shuttle bus to go to our hotel. I got the last seat on the bus! unfortunately, my hotel was going to be the last stop out of the three hotels that they were dropping people off at. The driver of the bus had mentioned something about seeing alot of youthful people outside of the convention center. He asked the people on the bus if any of us were part of the event and I answered "yes". I had to explain to everyone on the bus about the event which was rather entertaining.
At last! I finally got to my hotel and I rushed out of the bus and grabbed my bags. I checked into to my room, threw my bags down, grabbed my digital camera, and took the elevator downstairs to head to the convention. As I was walking towards to convention center I noticed how long the line was. I thought sarcasticly to myself, "I am not about to wait that line" so I called Entropy, and he told me to "Open any door and come to the front of the line". I was rather skeptical about doing this because everyone was waiting in some huge line and I would not have to. However, I managed to find my way to the front of the line where I met up with the other two GG.net crew members: Entropy and DJTyrant. It took the staff awhile to find my press pass, but they finally did, and we made our way inside the main convention area.
When I got inside the convention area you couldn't help but think about the amount of people that were there. We managed to even see quite alot of people dressed up in all sorts of costumes. You can check out some of the costumes by clicking below:
Example 1: » here
Example 2: » here
Example 3: » here
Example 4: » here
Example 5: » here
As we made our way further into the building we headed towards the tournament area where Testie was playing against Reach. I quickly managed to take some photographs of them playing to find out later that no photography was allowed when the gamers were playing. I glanced over to my right to see that NaDa was standing next to me which was quite a surprise to see. As I began to observe some of the StarCraft and WarCraft III games. I started talking briefly with Legionnaire who was able to get both NaDa and Nal_rA to pose for some photos with us. After the pictures, we managed to talk with Endurance some before we decided to go check out the press room.
We left the convention area and headed up the escalator to the press room which was full of about 15-20 computers. We added a few results to the website and quickly went back downstairs to watch some more games. I watched a couple games on the big screen and began to wonder where some of the other GG.net crew members went. I called Entropy and found out that they had gone to get some food. I walked over to join them and as we were eating we saw that several of the pro-gamers were eating at an outside table. I walked over to their table and met mnm and Cypressman. I joined them both in getting some of the players autographs. Sitting with the pro-gamers was also Daniel Lee, manager of the eNature pro team. He was shocked that we knew who these players were and as I was waiting my turn to get their autographs, Daniel said humorously "Just ask them for an autograph, they don't bite". I almost felt bad for asking them because I am sure they have already signed a ton of them. You can view their autographs by clicking » here.
After lunch, we headed back into the gaming area to watch some more matches where I met up with both i.sKy)SynTax and Excalibur_Z. i.sKy)SynTax decided to challenge Legionnaire to a jousting match, which he gladly accepted. Legionnaire might not have had a good day playing Broodwar, but he showed us all that he's gosu at jousting. As they were both jousting a TV reporter came and wanted to film them jousting while she talked. You can view a picture of this by clicking » here. I didn't stay for many of his other matches, but as far as I know he won a lot more fights until he was finally taken down by a Blizzard employee I believe.
One of the most entertaining matches of the afternoon was Mondragon playing Reach. I had heard that Mondragon had lost the first game, but was surprised to see a "gg" from Reach in their 2nd game. I decided to watch the whole 3rd game where Mondragon put up a great fight, but was unable to secure another victory. You can see a picture of both of these playing by clicking » here. I congratulated him on playing well and then decided to wonder around to check out the booths.
I stopped at a booth to purchase a World of WarCraft Atlas for a friend of mine and had it signed by a few of the creators. After getting that signed I decided to wait in a long line to get my gift bag so that I could go back to my hotel to drop my stuff off. After coming back, I decided to watch some more games on the big screen. It was around dinner time so I went upstairs to the press room to eat dinner where I met up again with mnm and met collegeBored. The press room was pretty empty except for us and a couple others including Jonathan Davis from KoRn.
After dinner, I headed back downstairs and went to my hotel room for awhile. I was bored, so I thought I would go see what everyone else was doing so I headed across the street to the other hotel where I met up with Assem, Testie, and Legionnaire in the lobby. We decided to go upstairs to Monragon's and Enigma's room. I decided to go back to my hotel to grab my laptop and come back and when I arrived Testie was on the phone with his girlfriend. Since I couldn't connect on my laptop I decided to get on Mondragon's laptop which was difficult to type on because of the german keys. Testie ordered room service because he apparently hadn't eaten in quite awhile. I don't think he was able to finish his food despite being so hungry. You can check out some of the pictures from the room by clicking » here, » here, and » here
After we left there room both DJTyrant and I decided to see what Entropy was doing. We took the elevator up a few floors to find that he had gone to sleep. So we left the hotel and headed across the street to my room where we updated my pictures from the first day of the event. Once that was done, I decided to go to bed.
I woke up fairly early feeling really sick. I felt like I was going to vomit all morning and have no idea what it was from. I checked GG.net, took a shower, got ready and headed back across the street to the event. I signed up for the 32-man StarCraft which I made it into the semi-finals where I lost to Enigma. After the game, I watched some more games on the big screen and headed back to the tournament area. Mondragon and I watched Enigma get defeated by Redcloak in the final match. I would like to congratulate Redcloak for getting 1st place and winning an mp3 player. As we walked off I listened to Mondragon making fun of Enigma for losing which was funny to say the least.
From here until the StarCraft and WarCraft III finals I wondered around quite alot and visited the press room a few times. Once it was time for the StarCraft finals I grabbed a seat in the front row to watch some really entertaining games. All of the games were really nice especially the 1st and 3rd. In the 1st game Reach played extremely aggresive and did the cannon behind the mineral line strat which prevented Yellow from expoing. Reach went for a mass expo and was able to tech quickly to zealot speed and templars where he was easily able to kill Yellow's sunken colonies and lurkers.
The 3rd game was great because Reach went for corsair and reavers while Yellow did a nice hydralisk drop. He managed to micro very well and kill several reavers and corsairs which won him the game. Once Reach had lost almost all of his units he still didn't want to leave and kepted on fighting. However, it would be Yellow's day. You can view a picture of him after winning the tournament by clicking » here.
After their match, I went to Entropy's room to grab his video camera and recorded several videos. I watched the final WarCraft III match between Grubby and Zacard. This match brought out a ton of observers. Both matches had about 50% of all the attendees observing it. It got really loud with cheering and clapping when Grubby won. After the tournament I decided to actually go tryout SC:Ghost. Overall, I thought the game was good, but it would have been better if it had been on the PC. After playing that for awhile with Entropy I decided to head to the concert.
The line to get in was huge and I waited quite awhile to get in. When I got up to the front they asked me to remove everything from my pockets. Al I had one me was my digital camera, wallet, and cellphone. They were joking with me and acted like I had drugs in my pockets. So after they said I could go inside one guys said, "be sure to save me a blunt for after the show".
I walked into the building to try to find my seats. I finally found them and all I can say is they weren't the best. The first band was made of mostly Blizzard employees. They were a metal band called "Level 60 Elite Tauren Chieftan". All of their songs were about World of WarCraft which was very entertaining. The last song about Leeroy Jenkins was pretty funny.
The next act was the comedian Christian Finigan who's most famous for appearing on the "Chapelle Show". He based most of his comedy on the event which I didn't really expect. Overall, I thought he was good aswell, but his time on stage should have lasted a little longer. The most annoying part of this show was waiting for The Offspring to get on stage. We had to wait about 30-45 minutes before they finally got on stage. When they did though, it was all worth it. They played just about all of their hits and several other songs that I hadn't really heard before. I thought they put on a great live performance. You can view a picture of the show by clicking » here
As I was leaving the concert all these World of WarCraft players started screaming "For the Horde!" and one guy actually screamed "For the Swarm!" which I found quite funny being the nerd that I am. Once I got back to the hotel I found Yellow and Zacard in the lobby. I asked for a picture with Zacard and said "bye" to Neuro who I stupidly mistaked for Madfrog the day before. I then headed upstairs to talk some more with Entropy while we were uploading some photos. About an hour or so later, I began to get really tired so I decided to head back to my hotel room. Once I got back to my hotel room I went to sleep because I had to leave the next morning to make my flight.
In my opinion the trip was awesome and I had a great time. If they have a BlizzCon 2006, I would like to recommend anyone that's considering going to do so.
Links
Teamliquid.net - mnm's BlizzCon 2005 Recap
PGTour.net - Endurance's BlizzCon Aftermath
With BlizzCon 2005 having recently come to a close and now that I am back home I thought it would be nice to give all of you a final recap from the event. I will do my best to explain how the event went and everything that I experienced there.
Day 1
Due to having to work on Thursday I was unable to fly out that night which met I couldn't be at BlizzCon when the doors opened. I woke up at 5:30am EST on Friday morning because I had to fly out of Atlanta at 9:15am EST. I left my house at around 6:30am EST and arrived at the airport and to my gate at around 8:00 EST.
I finally boarded my airplane and departed on-time. I couldn't help but think about BlizzCon during my whole time on the airplane. We were already making great time, but I wanted to make the plane go faster. My flight from Atlanta to Orange County was slightly over four hours and we showed up about 20-30 minutes early. Once I got off the airplane I immeadietly headed to ground transportation to get on a shuttle bus to go to our hotel. I got the last seat on the bus! unfortunately, my hotel was going to be the last stop out of the three hotels that they were dropping people off at. The driver of the bus had mentioned something about seeing alot of youthful people outside of the convention center. He asked the people on the bus if any of us were part of the event and I answered "yes". I had to explain to everyone on the bus about the event which was rather entertaining.
At last! I finally got to my hotel and I rushed out of the bus and grabbed my bags. I checked into to my room, threw my bags down, grabbed my digital camera, and took the elevator downstairs to head to the convention. As I was walking towards to convention center I noticed how long the line was. I thought sarcasticly to myself, "I am not about to wait that line" so I called Entropy, and he told me to "Open any door and come to the front of the line". I was rather skeptical about doing this because everyone was waiting in some huge line and I would not have to. However, I managed to find my way to the front of the line where I met up with the other two GG.net crew members: Entropy and DJTyrant. It took the staff awhile to find my press pass, but they finally did, and we made our way inside the main convention area.
When I got inside the convention area you couldn't help but think about the amount of people that were there. We managed to even see quite alot of people dressed up in all sorts of costumes. You can check out some of the costumes by clicking below:
Example 1: » here
Example 2: » here
Example 3: » here
Example 4: » here
Example 5: » here
As we made our way further into the building we headed towards the tournament area where Testie was playing against Reach. I quickly managed to take some photographs of them playing to find out later that no photography was allowed when the gamers were playing. I glanced over to my right to see that NaDa was standing next to me which was quite a surprise to see. As I began to observe some of the StarCraft and WarCraft III games. I started talking briefly with Legionnaire who was able to get both NaDa and Nal_rA to pose for some photos with us. After the pictures, we managed to talk with Endurance some before we decided to go check out the press room.
We left the convention area and headed up the escalator to the press room which was full of about 15-20 computers. We added a few results to the website and quickly went back downstairs to watch some more games. I watched a couple games on the big screen and began to wonder where some of the other GG.net crew members went. I called Entropy and found out that they had gone to get some food. I walked over to join them and as we were eating we saw that several of the pro-gamers were eating at an outside table. I walked over to their table and met mnm and Cypressman. I joined them both in getting some of the players autographs. Sitting with the pro-gamers was also Daniel Lee, manager of the eNature pro team. He was shocked that we knew who these players were and as I was waiting my turn to get their autographs, Daniel said humorously "Just ask them for an autograph, they don't bite". I almost felt bad for asking them because I am sure they have already signed a ton of them. You can view their autographs by clicking » here.
After lunch, we headed back into the gaming area to watch some more matches where I met up with both i.sKy)SynTax and Excalibur_Z. i.sKy)SynTax decided to challenge Legionnaire to a jousting match, which he gladly accepted. Legionnaire might not have had a good day playing Broodwar, but he showed us all that he's gosu at jousting. As they were both jousting a TV reporter came and wanted to film them jousting while she talked. You can view a picture of this by clicking » here. I didn't stay for many of his other matches, but as far as I know he won a lot more fights until he was finally taken down by a Blizzard employee I believe.
One of the most entertaining matches of the afternoon was Mondragon playing Reach. I had heard that Mondragon had lost the first game, but was surprised to see a "gg" from Reach in their 2nd game. I decided to watch the whole 3rd game where Mondragon put up a great fight, but was unable to secure another victory. You can see a picture of both of these playing by clicking » here. I congratulated him on playing well and then decided to wonder around to check out the booths.
I stopped at a booth to purchase a World of WarCraft Atlas for a friend of mine and had it signed by a few of the creators. After getting that signed I decided to wait in a long line to get my gift bag so that I could go back to my hotel to drop my stuff off. After coming back, I decided to watch some more games on the big screen. It was around dinner time so I went upstairs to the press room to eat dinner where I met up again with mnm and met collegeBored. The press room was pretty empty except for us and a couple others including Jonathan Davis from KoRn.
After dinner, I headed back downstairs and went to my hotel room for awhile. I was bored, so I thought I would go see what everyone else was doing so I headed across the street to the other hotel where I met up with Assem, Testie, and Legionnaire in the lobby. We decided to go upstairs to Monragon's and Enigma's room. I decided to go back to my hotel to grab my laptop and come back and when I arrived Testie was on the phone with his girlfriend. Since I couldn't connect on my laptop I decided to get on Mondragon's laptop which was difficult to type on because of the german keys. Testie ordered room service because he apparently hadn't eaten in quite awhile. I don't think he was able to finish his food despite being so hungry. You can check out some of the pictures from the room by clicking » here, » here, and » here
After we left there room both DJTyrant and I decided to see what Entropy was doing. We took the elevator up a few floors to find that he had gone to sleep. So we left the hotel and headed across the street to my room where we updated my pictures from the first day of the event. Once that was done, I decided to go to bed.
Day 2
I woke up fairly early feeling really sick. I felt like I was going to vomit all morning and have no idea what it was from. I checked GG.net, took a shower, got ready and headed back across the street to the event. I signed up for the 32-man StarCraft which I made it into the semi-finals where I lost to Enigma. After the game, I watched some more games on the big screen and headed back to the tournament area. Mondragon and I watched Enigma get defeated by Redcloak in the final match. I would like to congratulate Redcloak for getting 1st place and winning an mp3 player. As we walked off I listened to Mondragon making fun of Enigma for losing which was funny to say the least.
From here until the StarCraft and WarCraft III finals I wondered around quite alot and visited the press room a few times. Once it was time for the StarCraft finals I grabbed a seat in the front row to watch some really entertaining games. All of the games were really nice especially the 1st and 3rd. In the 1st game Reach played extremely aggresive and did the cannon behind the mineral line strat which prevented Yellow from expoing. Reach went for a mass expo and was able to tech quickly to zealot speed and templars where he was easily able to kill Yellow's sunken colonies and lurkers.
The 3rd game was great because Reach went for corsair and reavers while Yellow did a nice hydralisk drop. He managed to micro very well and kill several reavers and corsairs which won him the game. Once Reach had lost almost all of his units he still didn't want to leave and kepted on fighting. However, it would be Yellow's day. You can view a picture of him after winning the tournament by clicking » here.
After their match, I went to Entropy's room to grab his video camera and recorded several videos. I watched the final WarCraft III match between Grubby and Zacard. This match brought out a ton of observers. Both matches had about 50% of all the attendees observing it. It got really loud with cheering and clapping when Grubby won. After the tournament I decided to actually go tryout SC:Ghost. Overall, I thought the game was good, but it would have been better if it had been on the PC. After playing that for awhile with Entropy I decided to head to the concert.
The line to get in was huge and I waited quite awhile to get in. When I got up to the front they asked me to remove everything from my pockets. Al I had one me was my digital camera, wallet, and cellphone. They were joking with me and acted like I had drugs in my pockets. So after they said I could go inside one guys said, "be sure to save me a blunt for after the show".
I walked into the building to try to find my seats. I finally found them and all I can say is they weren't the best. The first band was made of mostly Blizzard employees. They were a metal band called "Level 60 Elite Tauren Chieftan". All of their songs were about World of WarCraft which was very entertaining. The last song about Leeroy Jenkins was pretty funny.
The next act was the comedian Christian Finigan who's most famous for appearing on the "Chapelle Show". He based most of his comedy on the event which I didn't really expect. Overall, I thought he was good aswell, but his time on stage should have lasted a little longer. The most annoying part of this show was waiting for The Offspring to get on stage. We had to wait about 30-45 minutes before they finally got on stage. When they did though, it was all worth it. They played just about all of their hits and several other songs that I hadn't really heard before. I thought they put on a great live performance. You can view a picture of the show by clicking » here
As I was leaving the concert all these World of WarCraft players started screaming "For the Horde!" and one guy actually screamed "For the Swarm!" which I found quite funny being the nerd that I am. Once I got back to the hotel I found Yellow and Zacard in the lobby. I asked for a picture with Zacard and said "bye" to Neuro who I stupidly mistaked for Madfrog the day before. I then headed upstairs to talk some more with Entropy while we were uploading some photos. About an hour or so later, I began to get really tired so I decided to head back to my hotel room. Once I got back to my hotel room I went to sleep because I had to leave the next morning to make my flight.
The End
In my opinion the trip was awesome and I had a great time. If they have a BlizzCon 2006, I would like to recommend anyone that's considering going to do so.
Links
Teamliquid.net - mnm's BlizzCon 2005 Recap
PGTour.net - Endurance's BlizzCon Aftermath
