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Walls of text incoming, wrote this during the flight home tonight.
Wanted to write a little on this past weekends MLG Dallas 2012. I went to the event with no expectations or any pressure on myself, one of the first times I just went to play without worrying about how anything would go. Probably because most of the events I've played in this year I've done pretty terribly in minus some WCS qualifiers in May where I was actually playing really well for an extended period of time. I was really inactive from right after MLG Raleigh till about 2 weeks before this event. Played very little over the course of August through early October (for various reasons, I'm getting back into running pretty seriously, also work got pretty busy for a while and I've just had less motivation to play starcraft in general as I still think TvZ is sort of a broken matchup and really boring to play, watch or even study) also I was planning on playing 100 games the weekend before MLG but there ended up being a hurricane so I ended up staying over my parents place for 3 days when I was planning on doing nothing but practicing. when I'm not playing alot I get really freaking bad, I'm already bad enough even when I do play alot. my best playstyle has always been refining and working on timings or learning a bunch of different builds which takes alot of practice and studying especially for terran. People who play a more freestyle and are better at adapting or creativity don't need to practice the same way or as much in my opinion.
The city
Dallas is probably my least favorite city I've gone to for MLG. It's a pretty nice looking city and is pretty big and has some nice hotels (the new Omni hotel is amazing) but I've had a few weird experiences while visiting here now for 2 MLG's and have heard so many other sketchy stories it's just not a place I care to visit much. I've gone to a bunch of cities throughout the US now for MLG's in the past 2 years, Raleigh multiple times, Columbus multiple times, Anaheim, Providence and this was my 2nd trip to Dallas. Just walking around the streets in Dallas is annoying because of the amount of panhandlers/people begging for money. I think Future and I got approached by 3 people over the course of 5 minutes as we walked just a few blocks from the convention center to get lunch in the middle of the day yesterday. (The chipotle we tried going to ended up being closed too so it was a fail all around) People just come up to you wherever you are. I ate twice at a McDonalds a couple blocks from the convention center and both times I ate there random people were walking through the place as you're eating asking for money. I'm from DC and I guess I usually stick to the nice areas so stuff like this is just weird for me. how people can walk into a McDonalds while you're eating and just ask you for money is so strange to see and so annoying to have to worry about or deal with. Ret, Naniwa and Sjow all apparently got mugged in Dallas 2011 and it doesn't surprise me at all, walking alone literally anywhere feels risky, at least just a few blocks north of the convention center. Last night I had to catch a cab back to the hotel where Future and I were staying at and I was alone because Future had gone back early. Anyway I walked to the place where we had caught a cab the last night but there was nothing there except one guy who was like "yeah I'm not working right now find another cab" and he recommended I go stand at "that corner over there" And he pointed to a corner near a grayhound bus stop where like 5 or 6 of the most sketch guys you can imagine were sitting around doing nothing, I crossed the street to start walking over there for some stupid reason and some guy tries to talk to me "hey man you need a cab I can hook you up" it was then I had one of those I need to get out of here asap moments, I basically half ran straight into the closest hotel a block and a half away and had them call a cab for me...walking alone anywhere at any time is not smart in this city, at least not beyond the 2 block radius of the convention center and the Omni. Apparently there were riots and stuff in some parts of the city not too long ago, no idea what that's about but some parts of Dallas seem to be rougher than any other city I've been to.
The crowd
Anyway on to the actual event. I've been to every MLG championship event this year and the crowd for Dallas felt like the smallest for an MLG in a while. The crowd was still pretty good but I personally felt it was smaller and/or less enthusiastic than usual. Perhaps the LoL and Halo4 crowds were quite large and sc2 for the first time in nearly 2 years didn't feel like the biggest/most important thing going on at the venue. LoL was an equal if not bigger crowd and halo4 didn't even have a stage but they had hundreds of people near the back making quite a bit of noise especially near the end, it reminded me a little of what Starcraft looked like way back in MLG DC 2010, Halo had the main stage area for that event but there were so many more people there for Starcraft making so much more noise you just felt starcraft had more life. Didn't really want to go into the whole sc2 is dying thing, I think talking about sc2 dying or thinking about it isn't really productive, instead people should just do things to help it grow instead of waste time worrying or talking about it dying.
My games
Anyway moving on to my actual games, Friday came along and I did great in warmups, surprisingly going like 10-3 on ladder beating lots of good players and just generally feeling better than usual. The bracket came out and I once again got stuck with a pretty insane bracket My path to group play I would have had to beat Sson/(M18M in bw), MC, Moonglade Huk and somebody else. yeah that's probably not happening so just go out and have fun+do my best(typical approach I try to apply to any MLG or tournament). So I had a bye, played a random protoss guy in round 2 and found myself against Sson in round 3, I lost game 1 pretty stupidly and won game 2 almost equally as stupidly. I did a cloak banshee build vs his 7gate no robo allin, I defended his gateway attack and a banshee killed like 20 probes and denied mining at his main for almost 2 full minutes, I almost found a way to screw up, probably was nervous when I realized I was SO far ahead. still managed to win with a marine tank push. Game 3 was actually very close and my best played game of the series but I made a few key scouting mistakes and got caught fighting in a pretty bad spot. I actually for one of the first times in over a year felt slightly nervous throughout both games2 and 3, game 3 was especially bad because I kept wondering how monumental it would be if I actually won. Had I found a way to block those thoughts out and not let myself get content by just taking a single game off him I think I actually should have won as crazy as that sounds. I was actually playing at a higher level in game 3 I could feel it, just made a couple minor mistakes that cost me. My TvP was by far my best matchup going into the event I was taking games off really good players both on NA and KR server in the weeks leading up to MLG. my TvZ is super terrible though so my ladder rating and overall stats never really showed much improvement even though I was doing so well in my TvP's.
Anyway after losing to Stardust I wasn't that sad, in fact I was really happy I took a game and played a pretty solid game 3 vs a kespa/former bw pro. Stardust lost to MC right after he beat me so he also got kicked to the lower bracket pretty early. The next day I watched most of Stardusts games and he crushed through kids easy mode all day. He made some good people like Everize and Theognis look silly, both Terran users who are significantly better players than me overall. (theognis series sucked though, for some idiotic reason neither of them vetoed Tal Darim so that ended up being the 2nd map and theognis did some desperation 1base hellion banshee siege allin...) Stardust made the championship bracket finally losing to Soulkey after winning 5 series in a row in the losers bracket. I hadn't seen Stardust play at all before this event and had no idea how good he actually was so I was mainly interested in how impressive me playing him really close was.
My losers bracket run was pretty short, I played against Flatline in losers 3 and won pretty easily, wish I could have continued playing TvP, my TvP at the moment really is pretty legit. But sadly round 4 I had to play tgun, somebody who I know I've lost to a couple times on ladder and he's knocked me out of at least a couple playhems I believe. I should have played super greedy against him because he turtled so hard, but I did builds I have been practicing more recently, 2base hellion/marine/medivac timing builds which are just pretty shitty in TvZ these days. TvZ is a very frustrating matchup to play and has been for me since at least June. I usually rotate around with different timings or builds for TvZ but nothing really works anymore so my winrate in that matchup is probably under 30% vs good/known players.
The only other notable losers bracket thing I really remember was flo vs Incontrol which drew a massive crowd. Incontrol came dangerously close to joining me in the flowned club but I think flo was nervous or just played bad because in game 3 she got ghosts ridiculously late and made a bunch of bad attacks in bad spots. She did take game 2 off him pretty easily, the feeling around that match when it was 1-1 was pretty crazy and was definitely a fun match to watch. What's next
Anyway I do intend to quit playing competitively at least for now. This was the last major tournament I plan on playing in for a while at least. The game has gotten bland and stale for me, even watching recent tournaments has gotten really boring. I feel I've seen and played vs most everything at this point. Studying games and learning new things doesn't really exist anymore because most zerg players play the same, and it forces the other two races into very specific counters or a seemingly very limited number of options. People playing the same is fine if its at least interesting to watch, but zerg players making infestors every single game just isn't that fun to watch anymore and is probably why 30k people left the MLG stream as soon as Flash lost yesterday. It just feels very demotivating and annoying to have to play TvZ, Terran is constantly on a razors edge all game in that matchup while zerg can actually make many many mistakes and still win. Hero vs Scarlett game 3 on Tal Darim on Saturday was one of the most depressing games to watch as a fan of the game. Hero had outplayed scarlett the entire game (I only saw the end, just speaking off what I heard) but Hero was unable to really finish off the main army of broodlords/infestors because scarlett kept preventing a killer vortex/archon toilet (the only real way protoss has a chance of beating maxed lategame zerg in my opinion) eventually scarlett just kept fungaling small squads of units while both of them were not mining and had no base and finally 25 minutes later Hero finally lost. I think he typed something like "good balance" during the end game when he realized he was eventually going to lose because infestors would keep fungaling/throwing infested terrans. It was pretty stupid to watch and I could tell even Scarlett after the game knew it was dumb.
Anyway that's that, very fun event overall, some nice mafia games in the late night and it's always amazing seeing all of my friends in the community. time for a few shoutouts before I'm done, future for hooking me up with a room, storrzerg for being an awesome manager, Grant(theBOOCH) for picking me up from the airport and housing me on the first night again. Zaranth for making me an amazing poster/cheerful, and anyone else who's helped or supported me through any MLG 2012 event, it was a great year. I don't know what 2013 will hold in terms of MLG and HoTS but 2012 was a great year and I'm really glad I was able to attend all 4 championship events this year.
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Interesting read, not really aware of you in the scene. Nonetheless read it all, enjoyed the interesting view point you gave of the tournament..
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Your from DC and the bums from Dallas got to you? Well, I can see why you would want to stay away from the downtown Washington. The last time I was there bums were everywhere and no, they weren't afraid to approach you.
You'll find many bums where I'm from too, but you get so used to it that it doesn't phase you.
My worst experience I'd say of getting haggled was Morocco. That was quite something else.
As for the fans. I'm surprised some of our old practices of shouting countdowns and yelling the players names with a hwaiting afterwards got forgotten. Sure, there were some Flash chants and some other player chants after big wins but other than that. Not much substance.
MLG doesn't really help itself either when it comes down to the award ceremonies, loud live music, etc.
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Nice blog Rob, weird that you haven't experienced people asking you for money like that, I thought it happened in every major U.S. city (at least it does to me in New York).
Also I was sitting behind Scarlett when she was playing Hero and she kept looking back at me throughout the game when she was walking around with the spines just because of how silly the situation was. After the game she said how bad Hero outplayed her too and how imba zerg is
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Awesome post man, thanks for sharing so much. And yes, the 30k thing was just sick to watch.
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I mean I've experienced bums asking for money before but it just seemed way worse for whatever reason this time around. Maybe I just got extra unlucky but every time I walked anywhere basically it was happening multiple times. It was more the excessive amount of times it kept happening to me was more surprising than anything.
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Great mlg great games vs the kespa pro too
On November 06 2012 12:18 LuckyFool wrote: I mean I've experienced bums asking for money before but it just seemed way worse for whatever reason this time around. Maybe I just got extra unlucky but every time I walked anywhere basically it was happening multiple times. It was more the excessive amount of times it kept happening to me was more surprising than anything.
not going to lie that was creeping me out too :/
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I didn't run into anyone asking for money but one of the academy members had a run in with some sketchy dude. From what I hear this MLG had sick online viewer count.. whether LoL carried it or not I have no idea, but I'm willing to bet there was a large draw for Kespa players
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Sounds like a pretty good time, I know I enjoyed MLG here at home.+ Show Spoiler + I have to admit, I felt a bit heartbroken after seeing Flash go down (those first two wins he had were some of my favorites though!), and knowing it was gonna be a ZvZ finals. And furthermore I stopped watching after about 2 games in, the series itself sounded interesting but it just didn't hold my attention, so I relaxed with some Tower Defense Tycoon with MLG in the background . I personally am wishing I caught that Scarlett v. HerO match, fairly epic (Infestors notwithstanding) from what I hear.
Other than that, enjoy a bit of a break, man. I agree, the game has gotten a bit stale, with no balance changes coming with Blizz busy with HotS most players are going to stick with some of these same builds because SC2 just isn't quite as refined as BW is, and thus the metagame tends to get stuck for very long periods without balance changes. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, but needing a break from the current monotony is absolutely understandable.
So enjoy a well deserved long break, and come back when you (and likely the game) are fresh! Just promise to come back, or check in every now and again... 'cuz I'll miss ya. How else will I know what it's like at DC lan events or at big tourneys like MLG?
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Wow, sounds incredibly unpleasant. Reminds me of any day in Seattle in the fall and winter. During the day, beggars, druggies, and various street people; at night, well, your car will get jacked, you will get mugged, and stalked for several blocks. Basically, big cities suck.
"Beggardom" is spreading, though. On every street corner and on/off ramp miles from the city is another beggar. I've seen people much younger than me begging. Well dressed and able bodied. Even if you can get a few bucks from a handful of people, it's still a considerable profit. Frequent beggars are now making well-made signs, usually complete with a handicap sticker for a vehicle. Old men are setting up ploys at gas stations, too. The last time I gave money was to an old man, I mean at least 70, easy. He said he needed a few bucks to put in his car. It was a sad looking car, it was clearly his, too. So I did. Oops. Turned out he told the same story to my fiancé at the same pump a week ago! I should have snatched my money back when he did not immediately pump gas and waited to haggle someone else.
People suck!
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Nice blog although a little to much hate on zerg but that's expected in any zerg being mentioned .
Also in the finals you sure the stream lost 30k viewers? It was at 77k then finals started and it did lose 17k and I saw it at 60k viewers for the first 3 games (I had to go to work so didn't see last 4). I doubt the stream fell 30k, but I think had it been a tvt/pvp finals it probably would have dropped just as much.
I don't blame you on taking a break from sc2, I have been doing the same thing just because it's kinda boring to play sc2 as a zerg, especially zvp as the only way to win in zvp/zvt (I rarely see zergs beat a terran in the mid game with a normal composition as well always have to get that hive tech to be able to win) is get that bl/corr/infestor army :/.
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good blog, pan handlers seem to be becoming a bit more prevalent in cities, even small ones like Maine boasts.
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Korea (South)11557 Posts
Rob. I have told you for 2 years now. Play the game you like more.
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Awesome blog It's a pity you're going to stop competing for now. I wish I had seen Scarlett vs. Hero.
Nice job against Stardust!
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On November 06 2012 13:00 blade55555 wrote:Nice blog although a little to much hate on zerg but that's expected in any zerg being mentioned . Also in the finals you sure the stream lost 30k viewers? It was at 77k then finals started and it did lose 17k and I saw it at 60k viewers for the first 3 games (I had to go to work so didn't see last 4). I doubt the stream fell 30k, but I think had it been a tvt/pvp finals it probably would have dropped just as much. I don't blame you on taking a break from sc2, I have been doing the same thing just because it's kinda boring to play sc2 as a zerg, especially zvp as the only way to win in zvp/zvt (I rarely see zergs beat a terran in the mid game with a normal composition as well always have to get that hive tech to be able to win) is get that bl/corr/infestor army :/.
It's not hate, it's realistic and justified. No one wants to see this game die or lose viewers.
No viewer is stupid or ignorant either. You can only go so many games watching as a spectator and realize something is very, very wrong when in every match-up, including ZvZ, the infestor is literally being massed (with broods)
Fundamental design principles in any RTS game say that if a unit is so powerful that you can literally mass only that unit and have good success at winning...that unit needs to be nerfed, immediately.
The longer such imbalance remains in a game, the more chance the game has of dying or losing players/viewers when it is not addressed. I've seen it happen with smaller RTS games, specifically the cnc scene from command and conquers 3 to red alert 3. These games had no where near the e-sports/progaming fanbase that SC did and does, and yet they are an example of what is currently happening with SC2.
Those other RTS games had glaring balance issues that were left unaddressed balance-wise, and the company that supported the game basically stopped supporting it. We don't have that second fear with SC2 so much, but the first one is the underlying issue - the game balance is not being addressed for one reason or another, whether it's because the developers have been forced to move onto working on HOTS, or because they are incompetent.
30k people almost immediately left the stream after Flash lost the games to life, and the finals were going to be a ZvZ finals. You can chalk this up to flash being a draw, or kespa players, but it boils down to - viewers everywhere are getting sick and tired of this shit.
You can only pretend everything is ok for so long. The infestor is a balance issue currently plaguing SC2 players and spectators, and needs to be addressed. The sooner you, and everyone else gets blizzard to put forth action, the better.
Commentators have a very unique and able position considering they are literally sitting and commentating these very same games, yet they seem to all be happy to sit on their paychecks and watch infestors every game and yell "amazing fungals."
Viewers are not stupid.
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I went to MLG Dallas in 2011. Got asked for money twice. Also saw a nasty car wreck.
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Some guy asked for a cap and you got scared? Soundsl ike a case suburbanite fear :D. J/k.
I've been to all kinds of different cities and I didn't really get that bad of a Vibe when I visited Dallas. Perhaps living in LA kinda helps but w/e. Yeah I wish was the crowd was a little enthuasstic. Seem like watching the stream there was always little golf claps here and there. There was a few loyal fans there but It didn't seem to have that Anaheim vibe
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T.O.P.
Hong Kong4685 Posts
Yeah there were like 90k viewers during Flash vs Life. I think everyone was cheering for Flash, zerg players like me included.
SC2 is a game of counter units. But the infestor is the one misfit unit that doesn't have a counter. Even in zvz, zerg players figured out that the only counter to infestors is more infestors.
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And brood lords. And ultras @.@
Good blog rob. Hopefully you make it to hopefully anaheim next year, or some event where I can make it XD
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Great write up Rob! I really wish MLG was broadcasting more Open bracket matches I would have loved to seen you vs Sson or Flo vs Incontrol(they maybe casted it and i missed it)
Hopefully 2013 turns out to be an even better year ^_^
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On November 06 2012 14:14 TheRealNanMan wrote: Great write up Rob! I really wish MLG was broadcasting more Open bracket matches I would have loved to seen you vs Sson or Flo vs Incontrol(they maybe casted it and i missed it)
Hopefully 2013 turns out to be an even better year ^_^ THey didnt cast it. Or any of Suppy's games, or many of any open bracket games. I missed the two premium streams ;(
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I think the Dallas mayor actually had people arrest homeless people during some event to make the city look better. It's actually continuing quietly. Every major city I've been to has the problem though. I grew up near Dallas and I don't really notice a difference between it and any other large city.
If Flo had beaten Incontrol...
!!
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I'm from Texas and I think that Dallas and Houston both are pretty shady cities. In fact, I remember driving up to the convention center from the south end being like, wtf there are homeless people everywhere. Anyways, it was my first MLG and I enjoyed the atmosphere quite a lot. I did think the day 3 crowd was a bit lacking in the audience, but I heard the stream numbers were pretty big
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Nice blog, I pretty much agree with every word you said. I went to this MLG as player manager for ROOT, and I experienced basically everything you did.
This was the first time in my life that I was literally scared walking in public. Random people quickly walking up to you at night when you are alone on a sidewalk is very scary. It was unbearable how many people ask you for money, or for food, or try and sell you something. This makes Dallas literally somewhere I will never visit or go to again unless I have to because of the experience I had.
You are dead right about the crowd. It wasn't as intense or big as usual. I can't really put my finger on it but this MLG just didn't have that "aura" or feel of importance / excitement. Although when Sheth stole a game off Rain on main-stage it was an awesome moment and the place did get buzzing.
I'm not gonna get into the "SC2 dying debate" because its not going to happen, SC2 will be fine.
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SC2 won't die.
It just won't be the biggest esport on the block.
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Definitely not a fan of the Dallas area. Not only is it sketchy, but there were hardly any decent places to eat near the convention center. Eating McDonalds and concession stand food for three days was not fun .
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Nice blog, yes it can be very annoying to meet up with panhandles on every block / corner... I am from a big city so I understand how unbelievably annoying it is. Sounds like you had a nice time though besides being hassled for money, that is a real amazing experience to be able to play an ex KeSPA pro! Especially M18M...I agree that SC2 is getting more and more boring and stale, I guess it is time that we all go back to the game we love, you know .... I don't even need to say it. ^^
5/5 blog. GL in future! What games are you considering playing now while on your hiatus from sc2? (that is if you stop playing)
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After this MLG I probably won't be watching as many tournaments. Flash vs Naniwa vs an exciting series, but watching late game zerg (especially ZvP) feels so stale and boring. Leenock vs Oz was good just because of the crazy mid games, but in general, I'm pretty sick and tired of seeing infestor broodlord every single game.
Fungal is such a boring ability to watch. I certainly won't be watching as much as I have the past years mostly because of it.
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As somebody who has lived in Dallas for the past 9, almost10 years, yes, it is a rough city, and there's a lot more shit in it than a lot of other places, especially downtown, where as a lot of people have mentioned, there is a lot of evidence of poverty. The only reason why it gets a "good" rep is because the growing suburbs like Plano, Frisco, and Lucas (I'm from the NE side of the city so there's probably a lot of others) give off this vibe of safety (its seriously one of the most boring places I've ever lived/visited). Really, the people who choose locations for MLG should think about San Antonio more, the downtown area's always been entertaining and fun for me, Houston's a bit ehhh as well. And yeah infestors LOL.
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FYI, I will be keeping that cheerful for next time. :-)
Nice to meet you in person this weekend!
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