Of Turtles and Coincidences

Prologue

Of Turtles and Coincidences tells the story of my first attendance of a StarCraft II Event. How is this about turtles? Let me tell you. I will start with the "Coincidences" though. I had interviewed Pholon a while back about himself and his work for Teamliquid.net. I mentioned back then that I am from Germany. Pholon didn't really remember where exactly though so he asked me on Skype last Saturday if I am in Cologne that weekend because he thought that's where I live. It isn't. I live about 6 hours away from there. I asked him why and he told me that the WCS Belgium/Netherlands Nationals would be held there in the brand new ESL studio (some attendees include LiquidRet and Grubby as well as the casters Kaelaris and Templar and the host Soe).

So I made a decision. I thought what the hell, I'll drive the 6 hours and asked Shawn (organizer) if I could visit the studio for the event and he said yes. So thanks to the coincidence that Pholon thought I live in Cologne I decided to go to the event. Thanks for not remembering!

Now to the turtles...
The event was run by the guys of Turtle Entertainment who are behind a lot of the ESL productions and content. The studio's they built in Cologne are really quite amazing and all of them that I met at the event were really nice. It was a great experience overall and I can only recommend everyone to go there if they have the chance to visit a live event. The new studio has a bar in it and you are literally right there with the players and casters which makes for an amazing experience.

I am sorry if you expected pictures of turtles in this blog but behold! There's a really cute dog hidden somewhere in this blog. That should definitely make up for it!

1. Pictures

Konrad "Templar" Kleinholz (left) and James "Kaelaris" Carrol (right) casting

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LiquidRet being interviewed by Soe

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TL Admin Pholon watching the LiquidRet Interview

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Grubby warming up, watched by his fans

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Corentin "Makouni" Lacroix

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Belgium Nationals Champion Olivier "Orly" Bellemans

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Antoine "EC.Elvis" Paquay

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Templar preparing to cast the Belgium Nationals

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Soe preparing to open the event while the make-up crew does the finishing touches

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Cassandra (Grubby's wife)

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A look backstage

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There is a bar in the studio. They served free soft drinks, including every possible flavor of Red Bull (didn't know half of them even existed)

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Thanks Soe and Kaelaris for taking this picture with me (I hope it's not too evident that I slept about 1 hour the night before)

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A few people of the amazing Turtle Entertainment crew who ran the event. Thanks for having me!

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Dutch Pride

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Templar and Kaelaris casting the Netherlands Nationals

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Soe-ception.

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Thank you carni for the studio tour. It was surreal to actually be in that studio.

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Brace yourself for the cuteness. uiduiduiduiduiduiii

2. Videos

Impromptu interview with Soe.
It was so spontaneous that I even had to change the SD card in the middle of the interview.

A little impression of the tournament and the awesome studio.
Includes the moment when Grubby defeated LiquidRet on the final map.

The pictures are just a small selection. If you want to see more (including the winner's ceremony) click here!

Thank you to everyone I met there. I cannot mention everyone but to randomly name a few in no particular order: Vincent (Pholon}, Jule, Marco, carni (thanks for the awesome tour), Christian, Aladin, Bernd from Blizzard, Aveline, Soe, James (Kaelaris), Shawn, Manuel (Grubby), Jos (Ret) and Pandi and everyone else! I had a blast!