After I found out that Gameriot didn't feel it was worth it to send people to cover StarCraft at the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and people I worked with last year (Slasher, JP, Brian, etc) have moved on to other sites, I felt like I couldn't rely on them anymore to send me to events. I thought I wouldn't have the opportunity to go to other events and almost gave up on any outside help until an opportunity fell into my lap. When I went to Denmark for vacation with my family back in May, Crow told me that the CEO and COO of Esports Nation (which MYM is part of) wanted to talk to me. I enjoyed my vacation there and found some time to stop by the ESNation office. I thought I would just meet these people and go but it turned out to be an interview and they offered me a part time job as a web developer. I told them I wasn't interested in leaving my MTV job but I could lend a hand and didn't mind some pocket money doing web work on the side. As part of the deal, they offered to send me to events as a perk. This of course caught my attention as I am always a sucker to go to StarCraft events, especially WCG and BlizzCon. I wasn't 100% about the job offer and we decided to do this on a trial basis. I started doing development and design for them in July.
Worldwide Invitational went by and I was sad to miss it but I guess the timing was off since Crow already had plans to go there with other MYM people so I accepted the loss. WCG Regionals was one weekend after another and I didn't have enough energy in me to do coverage four weekends in a row so MYM and I agreed I should skip that and focus on US Nationals. US Nationals came around and Crow told me MYM didn't get a big enough US audience to send me there and he was already going there anyway to cover a CS event. BlizzCon came around and I almost didn't make it because I had a hard time trying to get a vacation day off to go to the event and MYM wouldn't send me just for one day. After talking to my boss I finally got a vacation day that allowed me to go and I was very appreciative that MYM would cover expenses to send me there!
Past Blogs I have been to every BlizzCon since it started in 2005. I was there last year in 2007 and I was more than happy to go back in 2008.
*8/2, Thursday - Headed to LA for BlizzCon c/o Gameriot.com. Left work early. Got a taxi to SFO. Flight was at 6:50pm. Arrived at SNA at 10:07pm. Met up with Dave the photographer from Gameriot. Took a taxi to the Clarion hotel. Met up with JP and others. Had a really late dinner at the Hilton. Headed back real late and slept at around 1am or so.
*8/3, Friday - BlizzCon Day 1. Got to play StarCraft 2 before anyone else at BlizzCon. Got escorted by Paul from Blizzard. Was really nervous because I was on camera and I was giving my impressions of the game. I sounded and talked retardedly but I was very interested in getting my hands on the game. It was weird at first, the buildings seemed big. The units blended into the buildings because everything was so detailed and colorful. Later on I got used to what I saw and got the hang of playing it and creating all the buildings. I stayed on there to take notes on buildings and units. After i was done with that I moved onto multiplayer 2v2. My first game, my teammate was a noob and didn't know what to do. He was terran, I was protoss. I told him to go mnm but he had no idea how to make medics. I pretty much just told him to figure it out himself while i continued to obliterate the opposing team with my zealot rush b00y3@h.
I had so much fun with multiplayer I wanted to keep going. I won every single game. I played another game with the noob and won pretty easily too. I got the hang of going zlot goon and wanted to advance but the other team would loose too quickly. I finally got someone partnered up with me who knew what he was doing. Meanwhile some chick from Yahoo video games wanted to interview me on camera and I told her okay but I was playing. She tried to ask me questions but I was terribly distracted. The opposing team was holding up better than I expected (ie. not as newbie) but my teammate was good enough to kill them off so we still ended up winning at the end. Yahoo Video was very distracting trying to interview me though the girl kept telling me to look at the camera while I answered her questions and I tried to but come on I was busy playing! Later on I found out that they didn't use the video of me playing anyway -_-. Such a waste of a possibly good game. Whatever, I still won. I played the next game but I kept getting distracted with phone call after phone call. I couldn't get a single decent game in. =/ I found out later that they wanted me at the opening ceremony so I left my spot but it was such a waste cuz I didn't do anything there. I could've stayed playing all along -_-;;.
I saw anton after I got out of sc2 and after i saw that the opening ceremony was a waste. He finally got in touch with Jeff to get his tickets in. I got a call from Cypress and met up with him. He was hanging out with Nal_Ra! I said hi to Nal_Ra but couldn't really communicate with him. Cypress and Nal_Ra were chatting and I couldn't really join in on the conversation =/. I was gonna eat lunch with cyp and asked if Nal_Ra would join but instead Nal_Ra ate lunch with cypress at the progamer area! Aw man if I only had the powers of Korean speaking.
Later on some of the games were starting and I had my laptop out trying to cover the games. I also met up with a bunch of people I knew along the way including a big group of teamliquid people. Unfortunately, I was so busy and all over the place, I didn't get around to talking to many people. I met up with some other starcraft admins at the press area typing away at their laptops and we ended up eating lunch at the hilton. Later on we continued to watch more games. They were played at the big screen and I had fun screaming out [name of progamer] fighting!~ along with them. I talked to the Blizzard guy I knew, Stephen, and got Manifesto in as a shoutcaster which was awesome and the community loved it. I was glad I made an impact at BlizzCon.
Later that night, we had our huge get together for Teamliquid.net at BJs with about 40 people! We ended up getting to BJs late and I was freaking out trying to get everyone into the taxi I got but we finally got people together. I'm surprised so many people actually did show up. I don't remember most of them, heck I didn't really get to talk to many of them except for people surrounding me. Maybe I will identify all of them someday. I hope people had a great time. I did.
After BJs, people rode back in the taxi with me and nick (tasteless) went to ride with other people but nick got distracted by some stuff along the way and didn't get back til way late. We hung out at Testie's room for a bit but it was getting soo late I ended up walking home. Later I was on im and slog told me that Nal_Ra was hanging out with teamliquid. I got a call from Trident that Nal_Ra was in Nick's room! I was torn. I called Henry and he encouraged me and I decided to go for it. I walked back to the Hilton where Nick was at and I am so glad it was close by. I met Nal_Ra in person and met Susan who ended up being such an awesome starcraft buddy later on. Nal_Ra is such an awesome person to hang out with we thoroughly enjoyed having him around.
*8/4, Saturday - BlizzCon Day 2. Such a crazy rushed day. The finals were played. Nal_Ra vs Iris was the first game. Those were the best games ever at BlizzCon. All of teamliquid was rooting for Nal_Ra! He did so great. Unfortunately he couldn't beat the mighty Savior. In the meanwhile, in between games, I was gathering signatures from players and I finally got Yellow's signature. I was still acting like such a huge fangirl with a humungous crush on Yellow. Oh man I couldn't help it. I thought I was over him =/. I was so nervous around him but later on I ended up asking if I could get an interview with yellow. Yellow was walking around everywhere like he was the man. I was so embarassed that one of the guys with me told the translator that I liked him and she in turn told Yellow that I liked him ><;;.
Later, I was with Cyric (Ben) who actually helped me out a lot by finding me a place to sit in the crowd and helping me recap what happened in games. He actually predicted one of the proxy pylon games because of a player's scouting earlier on i thought that was cool. Ben also helped me come up with interview questions because I was so nervous and my mind was drawing a blank that I couldn't think. In between games, I tried to get my camera crew together but they were busy doing another interview so we decided to do the interview after finals. I actually literally ran around and dropped my badge along the way but fortunately it was recovered. Thank God! I love keeping those souvenirs. After finals, Yellow was nowhere to be found so I asked Sue if she could get me an interview with Yellow. Sue told Nal_Ra to meet up with us after so I could interview him and Nal_Ra was nice enough to come hang out with us after and walk outside to do the interview. I have such mad respect for such a manner guy. I was really nervous with that interview too and Sue helped me figure out some questions for him. Finally I got my camera crew and I did the interview. My first interview ever! That was the highlight of the event for me - interview with Nal_Ra. I am so grateful for such an awesome opportunity. Right after the interview, I had to rush out to make my flight to New York. The taxi drivers in LA are the best people ever and this taxi driver in particular was very nice so I have a real good impression of the LA folk.
If you didn't know already, I've been working on a side job at www.gameriot.com to cover StarCraft news (since they're flying me out and covering expenses for free).
I just got to BlizzCon right before the first tournament so I went straight for the pro-gaming area where the first person I saw was InControl. I took some pictures and headed for the huge crowd of people wearing Teamliquid tshirts. I didn't recognize most of them but Day[9] waved at me and I went over to him.
I sat and wrote some chickenscratch on the Nada vs Jangbi game. I wrote an article about all the players and knew that this game would be a tough one for Nada.
Nada (T) vs Jangbi (P) - Main Stage, 10/10/08, 1pm Andromeda, Blue Storm, Colosseum
Game 1 - Andromeda Jangbi is at 11, Nada at 1. Nada builds a wall with two supply depots and barracks. Jangbi early pressure on Nada's wall with zealot and goon. SCVS repairing. Nada is building early expo. Tank comes out to drive protoss back out. Jangbi expanding. Protoss three base - 2 expos up. Terran has two bases up. Macro game. Shuttle going to terran base - DT drop killing off turret. DT targeting armory. SCVs save it but DTs attacking repairing SCVs. Turret build next to CC keeping dts away. Three tanks at front. Arbiter built. Protoss fast tech to arbiter - probably stasis for timing push to freeze cluster of tanks. Can possibly recall for main. Jangbi is taking 4th base at 9. DTs picked off with two scans in Nada's base. Nada scaned Jangbi's main base. Nada coming out slowly. Jangbi's force hidden under arbiter. Terran scans again. Protoss secures expansion at 7. Terran pushing out with tanks and vultures. Jangbi is attacking with zealots and goons. Tanks stasissed. Jangbi cleans up Nada's army. Jangbi in lead. Vultures picks off expansion at 7. Jangbi's army saves expansion. Jangbi recalled in Nada's main base. Few mines went off. Jangbi's all over Nada's main base. Vultures try to counter attack but pylon wall gets in the way. Jangbi has six bases Nada is scrambling to stay alive. Jangbi goes up the front to run over opponent with arbiter cloaking his units. Jangbi wins. 1-0 Nada. Nada never made sci ves.
Game 2 - Blue Storm Jangbi opens at 7, Nada starts off at 1. Nada is walling in case Jangbi goes aggressive. Probe harasses building SCV. Goon range from Jangbi - one goon and one zealot out. Factory building. Jangbi attacking wall with zealot and goon. Nada building fast cc. Tanks defending. Goon range is up. Nada setting up his expo. Nexus is up at expo. Nada doing a fast tank push with 3 tanks and 4 vults and 1 rine. Terran vs 4 goons. Planting mines along way. Goons picking off vults and mines but continues to run away. Nada loses one tank and lost some units - back down to two tanks, 2 vults, 1 rine. Vults die off in base. Reaver holding off push. Reaver is saving base nada's push fended off. zealot lured mine to Nada's units. Nada very aggressive. Vultures picking off probes and ming expo. Shuttle going to Nada's base. Nada over extending himself. Turret just built to keep reaver drop away. Jangbi in lead in mid game having fended off Nada's aggressive attacks. Has two reavers in shuttle. Nada setting up for another expansion at 11. Jangbi took over and expanded to 11. Jangbi has 4 bases up to Nada's 3 bases. Jangbi has a lot of goons, templars built, two reavers harassing Nada's expansion. Terran stuck, defending his expo. Jangbi containing Nada with his units right outside of Nada's expo. Jangbi takes over base at 12, increasing the area of map he has. Jangbi is pushing huge army, psi storming clusters of tanks. Mine takes out a lot of dragoons. Nada barely holds on to the base. Jangbi reinforcing attack on Nada's expo at 3. Reaver drop at Nada's expo killing off SCVs at his expo. Reaer drop at main base killing off a lot of scvs. Tanks trying to survive, barely holding on. Turret takes out shuttle. Nada has a fe gollies out to support his vults and tanks. Protoss has zlots in shuttle. Arbiter tribunal going down. Nada stretched thin. Jangbi moving in to finish off Nada's units in the middle.Arbiter providing cloak to goons. Jangbi playing safe, building up units. Terran is mining. Nada's expo killed off by goons. Jangbi attacks main base. Jangbi recalls and storms all over Nada's base. Nada overextends himself, is too spread out and loses to Jangbi. Nada GG Jangbi 2-0 Nada.
After the game, I saw Cypress and talked to him for a bit. Then I asked Panorama for game results: + Show Spoiler +
forGG 2-0 Xellos (sad, but I thought it might happen) Idra 2-0 Yellow Jangbi 2-0 Nada Wait, WHAT?!? Idra beat Yellow? That pains my heart. Poor Yellow T_T. No wait, im not a fan girl anymore. After WCG I didn't think Idra could defeat the Special Events King. Yellow is supposed to go far as Special Events King! But I guess his flame can't last forever. I'm not a fangirl anymore damnit. I'm rooting for Savior. Savior 2-0 Cloud (I expected this as well).
Savior vs Jangbi Game 1 - Troy Savior at 5, JangBi at 11. Good position for Savior as he is as far from JangBi as he can be. Early expo. Zealot attacking sunken. Drone block and zerglings saved it - 2 hp left on the sunk. 2nd sunk down with Hat blocking it to secure the expansion. Jangbi has 5 zealots and a probe threatening Savior's base. Jangbi taking expansion. Savior's spire up. Zergling aggresive at Jangbi's base. Probes protecting forming cannon at base. Jangbi's corsair harassing OLs. Hydra den up. Mutalisks out, harassing zealots. Savior's second expo is getting harassed by zealot.. killed by mutas. Hydras out. Muta hydra vs zealot sair. Mutas surround corsair and run away. Reinforcement sairs force mutas away. Mass Hydra plus hydra micro vs zealots and sair.
Game 2 - Athena Savior at 5, Jangbi at 9. Savior opens up with a 5pool. Probe scouts 3 first and discovers 5 pool later. Puts forge down. Probes help protect front with cannons form at choke. Zerglings take out a lot of probes. Only two get to sneak into the base. Savior taking two expos. Jangbi has one expo out. Lair building. Savior preventing Jangbi's scouting probe to keep him in the dark. Probe finds Savior's expo at 3. Savior's other expo is at 6. Spire up, halfway finished. Cyb core and late stargate.
Zerglings ran up the ramp. 5 lings through to main base. Zealot kills off 3 lings. Probes and goon finish off the other 2. Mutas building. Scourges kill off first sair. Mutas vs sair and goon. Savior going uber muta micro. Took cannons out. Scourge kills off sair. Mass mutas take over Jangbi's main. All probes gone. Mutas have overtaken Jangbi's main. Scourge and mutas fend off goon and sairs. Nex goes down. Savior puts up another expo. Jangbi switches to reaver. Jangbi attacks with 3 sairs. Savior responds with eight scourges and eight mutas. Jangbi is turtling up in his expo. Jangbi attempts to retake his main but Mutas kill off rebuild. Jangbi sends out shuttle with reavers. Scourges at expos to protect. Savior sends scourge to kill off shuttle. Hydras and mutas finish off last reaver. Mass hydras from Savior. Jangbi tries to regain control of main. Still turtling in his expo. Huge bunch of ols head over to expo. Reavers kill off big chunk of hydras. One reaver left. Good defense by JangBi. Savior takes fifth base at 3. Burrowing zerglings around Jangbi's base for intelligence. Reaver drop on Savior's expo only unleashes one shot before the drop is chased away. Zealot reavers and sairs at mid, savior runs back to retreat and bring army together. Lurkers out. pushes back zealots sairs and reavers. Savior setting up lurker contain in front of Jangbi's base. Templar archive building. Savior spots building expo at 12 and kills it off. Savior has five bases right now. Jangbi's army headed towards savior's expo. But savior has too much. Jangbi GGs. Savior 2-0 Jangbi.
After Savior vs Jangbi, I had the honor of interviewing Savior. Nervous as I was, I did the best I could in front of the camera. Much thx to Idra for hooking up the interview! He's flying high right now and is enjoying his time at BlizzCon. This video interview should be up on MYM soon. Jonas is editing the video right now.
I was supposed to interview Idra after but he disappeared. =[ You owe me one Idra!
While Nada played a game, I prepared to interview him. LosingID was kind enough to serve as our translator this time. Nada's interview was very inspiring as he still really wants his fans to support him. Check out the interview at MYM. It will be up soon. I'll post the link when I get the opportunity to.
Game 1 - Colosseum Jangbi starts at 1. Nada at 11. nada double proxy shield bat from jangbi Nada looked like he had it with a lot of scvs and marines attacking but Jangbi makes use of shield bat and takes the lead, pushing Nada back. Zealots overcome the marines and Nada ggs. Jangbi 1-0 Nada
Game 2 - Blue Storm Jangbi at 1, Nada at 7. Nada barracks wall at choke. Protoss harassing with goon and zealot. Sees only one marine behind the wall. Tank comes out to push back harass. Jangbi gets Robotics facility. Nada going vultures. Jangbi sitting with goons, expanding. vultures out moving towards Jangbi's base, laying mines along the way. Jangbi didnt get to block off wall. Nada killing probes. Jangbi ggs.
Game 3 - Andromeda Nada at 1, Jangbi at 5. Nada early expos. Jangbi's goon and zlot finds the ee. SCV saves depot. Tank deflects rush. Jangbi expos. Templar archive up. Nada atacks with 3 vults and 3 tanks. DT discovered. mines arent up yet. DT fending off attack. Mines laying down now. Jangbi lost some units but managed to defend his expo. More vults mining in expo. Arbiter up cloaking Jangbi's uits against Nada who is spaced out with mines vultures and tanks that are containing him. Stasis on tanks but Nada gets arbiter. Another arbiter comes out. Expo again for Jangbi - 3 bases. Nada has 3 bases. Nada's contain is reinforced. Mine kills off a bunch of Nada's units. Jangbi's starting to expo at 7. Jangbi recalls in Nada's base. Nada cleans it up with units quickly. JangBi recalls into Nada's expo. Jangbi ggs.
I just did an interview with JangBi and Idra after the games. I felt a lot more comfortable doing interviews with the Koreans and I think having LosingID as a translator helped a lot, esp having the time to think about my next question. However, when I interviewed Idra, I messed up a lot cuz I didn't have time to think in between and I couldn't even ask my questions correctly. Towards the end though, I just went on to a normal conversation and I got more comfortable with that. I think from now on I will try not to rely so much on ready made questions and instead think of categories to talk about. I hope I am improving.
Yesterday had the most action at the earlier part of the day. As hard as it was waking up, I managed to get to the quarter finals match by 10am where they had JangBi playing against Nada.
I posted yesterday's post right after the game, talked to Plexa about his views on SC2 and such (got a bit of video of it cuz I was practicing my interviewing a bit.. and i thought his views were perceptive and good to document) and then watched Savior vs Nada right after grabbing some lunch.
Game 1 - Andromeda Savior starts at 11, Nada at 5. Proxy Factory at middle. Savior spots middle fact. One vult gets out barely survives vs few lings. Nada does add on to factory at mid. Sunken protecting expo. Spire up mutas building. Terran is containing. One gollie is protecting tanks vs mutas. Siege tanks pushed back. Gollies vs Mutas. Factories at middle attacked by Savior at middle. Nada expoing. Protecting middle with gollies. Zerglings and mutas going vs gollies. Nada GGs Savior 1-0 Nada
Game 2 - Othello Savior starts at 4, Nada starts at 1. Nada 1rax cc. Pool among minerals in gap for savior. Savior hat, expo, extractor. Lair while focusing on drones. Nada building up rines. Lings scouting expo. Picking off Power Generator at Nada's expo. But pulls lings off to stay away from marines. Spire building. Nada using firebats to kill off lings. Nada tried to pick off sunks but Savior trapped him with lings. Counter attack at Nada's base with lings that got killed off easily. Spire is done. Savior muta micro harass at Nada's base. One ol selected along with his other mutas. Picking off turrets at Nada's expo. Picking off rines that are trying to defend expo. Nada's rines dying to muta micro. Lurks out. Hive going up. Savior has 3 base. Savior teching to defilers after effective muta harassment. Scii ves up Savior expos again - 4 bases now.. going on 5. ling lurker scourge. Nydus up. Nada goes for 10 expo of saviors but savior nyduses over to save his expo. Nada backs off. Ultralisk cavern up. Nada has six vessels Savior got a vessel or two. Eight bases to Nada's three bases. Nada attempts to go for 10 expo again. Trying to break the ramp. Saviors nydus over and decimates Nada's army and kills off all Nada's vessels. Savior going for nadas main with ultras. Nada scans all saviors bases and GGs Savior 2>0 Nada
MA JAE YOON FIGHTING!!!
The interview after was great because he spoke in english and said he destroyed everyone haha. So awesome.
There wasn't much for the rest of the day. I went to go play more StarCraft 2 with Froz, Sara, Qyx, collegebored, and Qyx's friend. Tried to check out more of the units. I kinda wish I had more time to play. After that we took some pictures, walked around, watched the comedian (he wasn't that funny), then headed out for some dinner at PF Changs. Headed back to the hotel after that. I fell asleep right away.. before midnight even.
Right now I'm still at the hotel, about to eat some breakfast and heading back to NY in a few hours.
2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - StarCraft Invitational Tournament The StarCraft Invitational Tournament is the heart of BlizzCon for me. It is the main reason I go and it is the event that gets me the most excited. I LOVE being able to watch the players from right behind them and seeing their screens move and seeing the hotkey and mouse click action in person. I LOVE being able to see how the players are in person and getting a little glimpse of how they think when I interview them or hear others interview them. I LOVE the atmosphere, being up close to the action and being able to cheer with the rest of the crowd, "MA JAE YOON FIGHTING!!!" The support of the crowd and being able to be part of that is one of the best feelings I get from going to this event. I made sure I was there on time and up front with the rest of the StarCraft crowd whenever they had a stage match.
It is unfortunate that I can't get to watch every match. I tried doing this for many many events and it just ends up making me confused. I think I did well this year to just focus on knowing what happened on the stage match and getting the results for the other games immediately after.
These were my predictions as I posted in my StarCraft Preview on MYM: forGG > Xellos Yellow > Idra JangBi > Nada Savior > Cloud
Having done my research on every player, I was scared that these new players were so good that they would stomp on the old favorites. Most of my predictions came true except for the Yellow vs Idra match which surprised me a lot. I admit I don't know much about Idra. I heard he is a great player. I did know that he recently lost to G5 and Nony at the WCG US Finals. I also can't help but fall into the large population of people that think Koreans auto win against foreigners (although I often times hope against it). I do think it is great that Idra represented foreigners well and beat Yellow but I do admit that I have looked up to Yellow for such a long time that I was sad for him to lose so soon. Tournaments aren't the greatest at telling people who is better than who considering there is an aspect of luck involved but the fact that Idra 2-0ed Yellow tells me that he is doing something right.
The match on stage was Nada vs JangBi. It was more like an 'impending doom' match to me. I wanted Nada to win but I knew JangBi was strong and hard to beat. I also know that Nada has lost to JangBi multiple times before so it wasn't a big surprise when JangBi defeated him.
The second round games went as I predicted. I know forGG is also a very strong player nowadays but I had faith in Savior. Sure he is slumping but he is still doing pretty well and he pulled through for his fans when he managed to defeat forGG. I wish this was a stage match. This was probably a very good match to watch - top old school vs top new school player.
Third round solidified Savior's dominance as he 2-0ed JangBi. He pretty much made sure the new school players had no chance by kicking them out of the upper brackets. I was a bit surprised that forGG didn't do better in this tournament but he did go against the best old schoolers. Nada proved to everyone that he wasn't going down without a fight with his wins in Rounds 3, 4 and 5. He sought revenge against JangBi and fed off of the support of the fans and made his way to the finals. I was inspired after having interviewed him right before his match against JangBi. I knew he had the fire in him and I couldn't help but cheer him on.
The finals was amazing. It was so great to watch our favorites battle each other again on the BlizzCon stage. I was still rooting for Savior all the way but I was glad that Nada made it to the finals as well. I felt a lot of zerg pride as Savior dominated. I half wanted the matches to go on to the next best of 3 but I also wanted Savior to secure his win. I was very much elated when he won. His interview was great too. It was awesome that he prepared a speech in English. It just shows that he does think of us and he loves the support of his foreign fans as well.
2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - Interacting with Players The language barrier sucks. I don't like just standing there right next to them, wondering what's going on in their minds or wanting to congratulate them and not being able to communicate that with them. All I could do is look at them and maybe smile or bow. I did say congratulations and good luck a few times, hoping that they understood enough english to get it through to them.
I personally hate interviews. I apologize to every site I have worked for but I know and the rest of the world knows that I am just not very natural in front of the camera. I do feel like interviews are important enough that I will get over my dislike of them in order to do them. I only hate interviews because I get very nervous and I know I stumble over my words a lot when I am not prepared. I do love how it is a great way to very quickly cover an event, explain situations, give the world a better view of the people we look up to, and get answers that so many are curious about. I have a personal goal of being more comfortable in front of the camera as time goes by. I know I am naturally introverted and shy but I know that around gamers, I can get over that. On one on one situations, I can carry a normal conversation with people and once I get into that mode, I love learning about what they have to say and what they are all about. Gamers are interesting to me and thus, I believe that if I just pretend the camera isn't there and I get over nerves, I can carry a normal interview. I do believe that I am getting better over time though and I'm getting a better handle on the task.
I did four interviews at this event - Savior, Nada, JangBi and Idra. I think I came up with pretty good questions and I genuinely wanted to know a lot about them through these questions. I wish I had time to come up with more but I didn't want to take up too much of their time. I was ridiculously nervous with my first interview but I did calm down a lot over time so that by the time I got to JangBi, I was the most comfortable. I love getting a glimpse of each player's personality whenever I interview them. Although Savior was my favorite player among them, I enjoyed interviewing Nada the most. He just seemed so much more full of fire, willing to work hard to win, finding importance in the support of the fans and asking that they continue to cheer him on. He is one of the greatest StarCraft players ever and I have a lot of respect for him. As always, after I interview a player, I feel more of a connection with them and I end up rooting for them more. I have interviewed four Korean Progamers so far (three this year and Nal_Ra last year) and I look up to and respect them all.
Interviewing Idra threw me off though. I got so used to that lag time to look at my questions and having that time to think while the translator took his time translating that I screwed up big time interviewing Idra. I didn't have time to think so I couldn't even ask the questions normally. I kept stumbling over my words and adding in a lot of umss and uhhs. By the end of the interview though I ran out of questions but I ended up getting into a normal conversation with him. People told me that this was what I needed. I shouldn't rely on my questions (what I call my "build order") so much because the interview goes a lot better if I just let the conversation flow. It ends up seeming a lot more natural. I figured that next time I do rounds of interviews, I will just have categories to talk about and have more faith in my conversation abilities. I don't know if Crow will post up that Idra interview as I messed that one up so much. I do hope to have more opportunities in the future to do interviews so that I could get used to it. There is so much value to the things people say that I do believe it is important to capture these things on film.
I also want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to LosingID8 (from TL). I tried to recruit Cypressman to help translate interviews but he was too busy with yg. Jonas and I tried two random translators. The first one did an okay job but the answers translated in English seemed so short compared to the amount of Korean that was being said. The second one was just horrible. I had to repeat myself a gazillion times and his English was AWFUL. I'm so glad LosingID8 came to save the day. I hope to put in a good word for him so that Blizzard could use him as an official translator at their events. I hope to see more of him in Korean interviews. Please support him as a translator! He does a great job (at least this is also what I hear from Koreans who understand the interview).
2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - StarCraft II Gameplay Whenever I got into a StarCraft II Game, I just wanted to win. I can't help it. It is part of my competitive nature and I quickly forgot that I was there as a journalist. They only had 1v1s whereas last BlizzCon they had 2v2s. Not sure why they switched it up. I played as zerg this time. It was my first time finally being able to pick that race! My first game was pretty short. I did early rush/harass tactics, expanded and went mass speedlings. My second game I went muta ling.
Couple things I noticed: 1) I can totally play this game just like I do regular StarCraft. It felt familiar enough that it was easy to pick up and the hotkeys were the same so I didn't have any trouble with it. 2) They modified MBS (Multiple Building Selection) a bit so that when you select a bunch of buildings and select a unit, you have to keep pressing that key for each unit you want to build. Last time, pressing the key would make a unit for every building (which was ridiculously ridiculous). 3) Lurkers weren't as easy to make or maybe I just didn't know how to make them. I saw that they were still in the game as it was used on the onstage match but I couldn't get to it using the conventional method of just upgrading Lurker Aspect at the den. Weird thing - the Den evolves to a higher tier building if you make this other building. 4) Zerg buildings that were killed would blow up into a ton of broodlings that attack the opponent. I would've been dead without these but I felt like the game was saving me and I wasn't saving myself. It was a bit of an issue with relinquishing control. 5) The drones were hard to control sometimes as it would take a couple of clicks to get it's attention to make it do something. 6) Every time I play this game I keep feeling like the buildings are so big that it takes up too much of the screen space. This just makes me span and move around the map more. 7) I don't really like how peons automatically mine. I feel like this was an aspect of StarCraft that made it more challenging and it was part of determining the difference between a good player and a noob. Do we really want to get rid of the 'problem' of idle peons?
I played from the point of view of someone who didn't want to take too much time to learn and just wanted to dig in with what was familiar but along the way, it became frustrating not knowing what units and upgrades were available to me. I suppose the part of the fun of playing StarCraft is the familiarity with it. I believe this is something that can be overcome with experience playing the game but it is a hurdle to get past. I played another game where I was just trying out new units and new buildings. I feel I will need some time to just explore everything without feeling threatened or feeling the need to attack.
Beyond the new units and buildings, I still worry about the visual spam a bit. You do get used to the 3D world enough to play normally but the fact of the matter is, it does get in the way. There are many times when buildings look so much alike that it is hard to distinguish one from the other. I did think that there were so many squiggly things on my map I didn't know if it was a unit moving or just my hatchery. I couldn't tell the difference between zerglings and broodlings. The zerg units seemed so much more bug-like and I actually prefer that it didn't.
The overall consensus seems to be that a lot of people will get into it. There will be a lot of support for this game, at least initially. People will try to make it into an e-sport. However, there is a lot of doubt surrounding the longevity of the game. I don't know if it is quite up to par yet with it's predecessor. I hope that Blizzard will focus on multiplayer and improve gameplay more.
2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - StarCraft II Trilogy Given the following options Blizzard presented to us about how to approach the problem of wanting a bigger, better game, "A) Simplify the Campaign, B) Make Each Campaign EPIC, But Release Them Each As A Separate Product, C) Compromise in the Middle, But Delay The Game Greatly", it seems like B is the best choice and the entire audience was delighted to hear the decision Blizzard came to at the StarCraft II Gameplay panel. However, it still leaves that empty feeling - the feeling of getting your hopes of hearing a release date just shatter in front of you. Is this really the best solution?
I admit I was blown away with the cinematics and big plans for the single player aspect of StarCraft. It is a good marketing plan to separate the game into three, thus securing more financial gain from it's loving fans. Plus, it leaves the developers to keep the future open ended. It's sort of similar to how Lucas secured himself six movies in his contract for Star Wars so that no matter how much it sucked in the end, it would be produced and it's broad and loyal fan base will support it. The story seems very intriguing. And I do want to see what it is like to play as StarCraft's big heroes, especially through the eyes of Kerrigan! I want the open ended environment, the multiple threads in the storyline and the well developed plotline. But isn't this just another game? Sure, the ideas sound great but the big draw to StarCraft is the multiplayer aspect, the custom maps, the tournaments, the competition. This is what is keeping it so huge in Korea. Who cares if the best single player gamer out there beats the game? We want to SEE the best multiplayer gamers out there show their skills!
I personally don't mind having the trilogy as long as it doesn't greatly affect the multiplayer aspect. I want to learn more about the plans for multiplayer. I'm happy that Blizzard is focusing on single player and are excited to develop it but what about MULTIPLAYER? All I will say is that they better make sure the multiplayer is very solid. They cannot afford disappoint their audience.
2008 Post-BlizzCon Blog - Teamliquid BlizzCon is ridiculously busy for me. I have a tendency to get easily distracted so I can barely keep my attention on one person. There are so many people to meet and talk to that I end up spreading myself out too thinly sometimes. I wish I could spend more time with the teamliquidians but I was often too preoccupied. I am grateful for being able to develop friendships through BlizzCon and other StarCraft events though.
At BlizzCon last year, I was able to make friends with lilsusie and XaI)CyRiC as they supported me through my interviews and overcoming fangirl-ism. I was also proud of being able to play a big part in getting Manifesto to cast with Tasteless for the on-stage matches. I believe I also finally met LordofAscension this year. The BlizzCon before that, Cypressman helped me out a lot by introducing me and getting me pictures and signatures with the progamers.
This year, I spent a lot of time with Qyx <3, collegeBored (as always.. he started me with teamliquid), Froz and Sara.
Press: I got to talk to Plexa a lot at the Press Room. It was great learning about his thoughts on StarCraft II. I got some of it on video but he filled up my memory. He went on to talk about a lot of MSL and OSL games he had watched. He definitely has a lot of enthusiasm about the game, especially when it comes to following the professional leagues. I, of course, spent a lot of time with The.Crow too as he was there to take the interviews and post them up. I admire his quick video editing and dedication to posting news up quickly. I am also grateful for his help in calming me down during interviews. He also took a lot of great pictures with quality that my camera will never reach. Xeris looks so damn different it took me a while to realize who he was. Dang.
RTS Stage/Progamer Area: I loved how people from teamliquid were so easy to spot since most of them were wearing Teamliquid tshirts =D. Thanks for your support, guys! The first guy I recognized there was incontrol. He was right next to Machine. They were pretty easy to spot. I was so happy to see Day[9] in the audience. I hadn't seen him in a while and it was great hanging out with him in the crowd and also at BJs. It was good to see Tasteless and Artosis doing their thing on stage. I am glad Blizzard got them to do the casting. I kept poking Panorama for updates on games I didn't watch. He is so easy to spot with his crazy hair. I got to see Cyric again, briefly. It was nice seeing him again. I saw Cypressman here and there. I saw the old Gameriot guys - Slasher and JP. I was with LosingID8 also during my interviews as I mentioned earlier. Last Romantic - Go Bears!I also saw Virii there. He didn't recognize me. I was all like.. dude, you interviewed me -_-;; =p. I got to talk to LordofAscension for a bit while waiting to get into the BlizzCon fansite mixer thing that I ended up giving up on. I got to meet Peanut briefly (but I kept getting interrupted -- sorry bout that).
TL Meetup: I was thankful for semioldguy's organization of the TL meetup at BJs. Also to Brian who took me to my hotel. I remember Kingkosi in the car but I couldn't remember the other guy's name -_-a. Their self-made versions of the pony shirts were hilarious. I wish I took pictures of that. It was great seeing Trident again. I haven't seen him since I pwned him in WCG 04 qualifiers ;p. I recognized CharlieMurphy. Got to meet Sp1ralArch1tect. I have a video of everyone at the TL meetup. Check it out below! (scroll down)
Savior vs Jangbi Game 1 - Troy Savior at 5, JangBi at 11. Good position for Savior as he is as far from JangBi as he can be. Early expo. Zealot attacking sunken. Drone block and zerglings saved it - 2 hp left on the sunk. 2nd sunk down with Hat blocking it to secure the expansion. Jangbi has 5 zealots and a probe threatening Savior's base. Jangbi taking expansion. Savior's spire up. Zergling aggresive at Jangbi's base. Probes protecting forming cannon at base. Jangbi's corsair harassing OLs. Hydra den up. Mutalisks out, harassing zealots. Savior's second expo is getting harassed by zealot.. killed by mutas. Hydras out. Muta hydra vs zealot sair. Mutas surround corsair and run away. Reinforcement sairs force mutas away. Mass Hydra plus hydra micro vs zealots and sair.
Game 2 - Athena Savior at 5, Jangbi at 9. Savior opens up with a 5pool. Probe scouts 3 first and discovers 5 pool later. Puts forge down. Probes help protect front with cannons form at choke. Zerglings take out a lot of probes. Only two get to sneak into the base. Savior taking two expos. Jangbi has one expo out. Lair building. Savior preventing Jangbi's scouting probe to keep him in the dark. Probe finds Savior's expo at 3. Savior's other expo is at 6. Spire up, halfway finished. Cyb core and late stargate.
Zerglings ran up the ramp. 5 lings through to main base. Zealot kills off 3 lings. Probes and goon finish off the other 2. Mutas building. Scourges kill off first sair. Mutas vs sair and goon. Savior going uber muta micro. Took cannons out. Scourge kills off sair. Mass mutas take over Jangbi's main. All probes gone. Mutas have overtaken Jangbi's main. Scourge and mutas fend off goon and sairs. Nex goes down. Savior puts up another expo. Jangbi switches to reaver. Jangbi attacks with 3 sairs. Savior responds with eight scourges and eight mutas. Jangbi is turtling up in his expo. Jangbi attempts to retake his main but Mutas kill off rebuild. Jangbi sends out shuttle with reavers. Scourges at expos to protect. Savior sends scourge to kill off shuttle. Hydras and mutas finish off last reaver. Mass hydras from Savior. Jangbi tries to regain control of main. Still turtling in his expo. Huge bunch of ols head over to expo. Reavers kill off big chunk of hydras. One reaver left. Good defense by JangBi. Savior takes fifth base at 3. Burrowing zerglings around Jangbi's base for intelligence. Reaver drop on Savior's expo only unleashes one shot before the drop is chased away. Zealot reavers and sairs at mid, savior runs back to retreat and bring army together. Lurkers out. pushes back zealots sairs and reavers. Savior setting up lurker contain in front of Jangbi's base. Templar archive building. Savior spots building expo at 12 and kills it off. Savior has five bases right now. Jangbi's army headed towards savior's expo. But savior has too much. Jangbi GGs. Savior 2-0 Jangbi.
After Savior vs Jangbi, I had the honor of interviewing Savior. Nervous as I was, I did the best I could in front of the camera. Much thx to Idra for hooking up the interview! He's flying high right now and is enjoying his time at BlizzCon. This video interview should be up on MYM soon. Jonas is editing the video right now.
I was supposed to interview Idra after but he disappeared. =[ You owe me one Idra!
While Nada played a game, I prepared to interview him. LosingID was kind enough to serve as our translator this time. Nada's interview was very inspiring as he still really wants his fans to support him. Check out the interview at MYM. It will be up soon. I'll post the link when I get the opportunity to.
On October 11 2008 20:34 [X]Ken_D wrote: Idra is the first foreigner to beat a progamer at a Blizzard event no?
White Ra beat stork 2-1 I think on WCG 2 years back orso? But that probably was a throw for more ideal brackets for the korean player.
Last edit: 2008-10-11 20:46:28
For remember, that in the end, some are born to live, others born to die. I belong to those last, born to burn, born to cry. For I shall remain alone... forsaken.
Rekrul San Diego. October 11 2008 20:49. Posts 13053
i dont care if u go to mym or not im just putting content there bec they r sending me to blizzcon. now whether u go to mym or not, i dont care. this is a blog of my experience at blizzcon.
ive always posted on a gazillion sites bec i believe in collectively sharing starcraft news. mym wont let me post the whole news here so with respect to their company policy, i share it for anyone who cares. theres a reason why i didnt make a tl forum post about this instead.
ps. without mym i probably wouldn't even be at blizzcon
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