[s]pictureoftheweek[/s]
There are thousands of POTWs out there, we recently found trove of them and hopefully we will keep bring them on one by one, for the delight or displeasure of our readers. We never can really predict how a picture of the week will be accepted, sometimes a picture that we are all convinced within the crew will be a hit, gets cremated publically, other times the opposite occurs. We have long since quit our quest of pleasing everyone, now if we can brighten up the day of at least one of our readers, when he is in need of a starcraft moment, we are satisfied.
For this week I was undecided between two equally important pictures from Blizzcon. One is a historical landmark in our game's history, the other is a testimony to the passion for our game. Neither less important than the other no matter how judge them. They simply are moments in Starcraft history. Bare with me a little explanation as to the importance of each, and forgive me if I dabble in my thoughts. For those who were not there, it was an awsome event if you were a WoW fan, no doubt about it; but if Starcraft was your thing the invitational tournament was our only sanctuary. Too much WoW, I personally almost suffocated.
The Marine: One of Us
The first one is a picture of a starcraft fan, who spent who knows how many hours making the best costume bar none and showed up at Blizzcon. I was not the only one who tried to get him to smile. He simply never did, he never blinked, he looked like he was in a trance but he left Blizzcon with two things. One, a first prize (with five others, they could not make their mind, an AlienWare top notch system) and two, the loudest cheering frenzy at Blizzcon. When this guy showed up what appeared to be a horde of WoW fans went up in a roar of ecstatic cheering and clapping. About half of the 5000 or so watching stood up for the moment. As a pure starcraft fan I was shocked. But it was not the only such moment, there where three such moments.
The first one was in the unit voice imitation contest. All of the imitations by the different contestants where about WoW, Warcraft and even Diablo - but only one about Starcraft. One contestant imitated the commander of a Battle Cruiser. His imitation was very good, but per se nothing particularly special, nevertheless the whole audience went into a frenzy of clapping and cheering. Two of the three moments with the most fan passion, the moments where the whole crowd clamored the loudest - were Starcraft moments. Suddenly the power of the horde which was equally strong at times, suddenly all those WoW fans which I had looked upon as fools wasting their time on weaker games, suddenly I saw the truth. Most, had been part of us, Starcraft player at one time. Who knows, maybe most still take up the game every now and then.
The last and perhaps the loudest moment, was when one of the guys in the voice imitation contest, after giving a poor imitation of some WoW character, screamed out of the blue at the end "Leroy Jenkins!" - his imitation skill was forgotten to the crowd in nanoseconds - it did not matter, when he screamed the Leroy Jenkins battle cry, all hell broke loose. Conclusion: Blizzcon was about Blizzard fans. Everyone there had been playing Blizzard games. Which? Most if not all. Judging by the age groups there were enough people there to talk about Warcraft 1 with as much joy as Ghost.
Bob Fitch, creator of the Broodwar Engine and the legend Yellow
So this leaves us now with the historical landmark, which for me was the clearest of all moments. This was when the creator of the engine of Broodwar, Bob Fitch, showed up to give a Pro-Gaming Korean legend, Yellow, a check for 10,000$. Not only was he my personal favorite pro-Gamer, he was there to shake the hand of the maker himself. Finally a moment no one could have even dreamed about four years ago when people were whispering the age of doom for our game. Finally Blizzard acknowledged pro-Gaming face to face. Finally a top Starcraft e-Sports LAN event in the back yard of Blizzard's headquarters.
Bob Fitch showed up with his 8 year old son, and by his own admission he claimed that eight years ago when his son was born and he just finished developing Broodwar, he had the best year of his life. Only one thing spoiled the moment. Boxer you should have been there, you should have been there. Next time.
Which should we put as POTW? You decide, as always.
Links
Battle.net - Source of Photos
Starcraft moments come and go, but a few stay within each of us, some are private some are shared landmarks, but we all have them. This is our game, this is our story, and it is still unfolding, year after year. Eight years going now; come on 2006, we are ready for 2007 and yes, only time will tell, but we, we will still game on.
There are thousands of POTWs out there, we recently found trove of them and hopefully we will keep bring them on one by one, for the delight or displeasure of our readers. We never can really predict how a picture of the week will be accepted, sometimes a picture that we are all convinced within the crew will be a hit, gets cremated publically, other times the opposite occurs. We have long since quit our quest of pleasing everyone, now if we can brighten up the day of at least one of our readers, when he is in need of a starcraft moment, we are satisfied.
For this week I was undecided between two equally important pictures from Blizzcon. One is a historical landmark in our game's history, the other is a testimony to the passion for our game. Neither less important than the other no matter how judge them. They simply are moments in Starcraft history. Bare with me a little explanation as to the importance of each, and forgive me if I dabble in my thoughts. For those who were not there, it was an awsome event if you were a WoW fan, no doubt about it; but if Starcraft was your thing the invitational tournament was our only sanctuary. Too much WoW, I personally almost suffocated.
The Marine: One of Us
The Marine: One of Us
The first one is a picture of a starcraft fan, who spent who knows how many hours making the best costume bar none and showed up at Blizzcon. I was not the only one who tried to get him to smile. He simply never did, he never blinked, he looked like he was in a trance but he left Blizzcon with two things. One, a first prize (with five others, they could not make their mind, an AlienWare top notch system) and two, the loudest cheering frenzy at Blizzcon. When this guy showed up what appeared to be a horde of WoW fans went up in a roar of ecstatic cheering and clapping. About half of the 5000 or so watching stood up for the moment. As a pure starcraft fan I was shocked. But it was not the only such moment, there where three such moments.
The first one was in the unit voice imitation contest. All of the imitations by the different contestants where about WoW, Warcraft and even Diablo - but only one about Starcraft. One contestant imitated the commander of a Battle Cruiser. His imitation was very good, but per se nothing particularly special, nevertheless the whole audience went into a frenzy of clapping and cheering. Two of the three moments with the most fan passion, the moments where the whole crowd clamored the loudest - were Starcraft moments. Suddenly the power of the horde which was equally strong at times, suddenly all those WoW fans which I had looked upon as fools wasting their time on weaker games, suddenly I saw the truth. Most, had been part of us, Starcraft player at one time. Who knows, maybe most still take up the game every now and then.
The last and perhaps the loudest moment, was when one of the guys in the voice imitation contest, after giving a poor imitation of some WoW character, screamed out of the blue at the end "Leroy Jenkins!" - his imitation skill was forgotten to the crowd in nanoseconds - it did not matter, when he screamed the Leroy Jenkins battle cry, all hell broke loose. Conclusion: Blizzcon was about Blizzard fans. Everyone there had been playing Blizzard games. Which? Most if not all. Judging by the age groups there were enough people there to talk about Warcraft 1 with as much joy as Ghost.
Bob Fitch, creator of the Broodwar Engine and the legend Yellow
Yellow's moment: Our moment
So this leaves us now with the historical landmark, which for me was the clearest of all moments. This was when the creator of the engine of Broodwar, Bob Fitch, showed up to give a Pro-Gaming Korean legend, Yellow, a check for 10,000$. Not only was he my personal favorite pro-Gamer, he was there to shake the hand of the maker himself. Finally a moment no one could have even dreamed about four years ago when people were whispering the age of doom for our game. Finally Blizzard acknowledged pro-Gaming face to face. Finally a top Starcraft e-Sports LAN event in the back yard of Blizzard's headquarters.
Bob Fitch showed up with his 8 year old son, and by his own admission he claimed that eight years ago when his son was born and he just finished developing Broodwar, he had the best year of his life. Only one thing spoiled the moment. Boxer you should have been there, you should have been there. Next time.
Which should we put as POTW? You decide, as always.
Links
Battle.net - Source of Photos
