MLG Anaheim, Soulja Boy & Kalgan,

A week has passed since MLG Anaheim... but this is the first time I have written since then so you guys get to hear some of my thoughts on it all.  First off I'd like to say that I think the field of teams at the event was very strong as you had arguably the best team from both Europe and Korea as well as a very strong field of North American teams.  Knowing that going into the event you had to expect every single match to be very hard, and know that anything could happen, and anytime could win.  I knew there would be no easy matches at all, and that we would have to play well to be competitive.

I had a great time over the past weekend, both playing at the tournament and hanging out with everyone who showed up both to watch and cheer as it really made it a lot more fun.  It's always a good time hanging out with and meeting the different people you know online so thanks to everyone who showed up.  That said, I was very happy with how we played as a team throughout the tournament, and looking back I really have no regrets.  Sure I was dissappointed that we didn't make top 4 due to the tie-breaker, but it's hard to feel too bad about a loss in which you're happy with how you and your team played.  Obviously mistakes are always going to be made, and some of them cost us matches including ones from me which when combined with some LAN jitters cost us our series against Button Bashers, but we were quite consistent overall.  All our series were close win or lose, and hard fought from both sides so I hope that it was entertaining for everyone watching at home.

I definitely think that it was vindicating for not only myself, but both Smatin and Tenderloin to be able to come to the event and show everyone not only why I chose them, but also that they belong at that level.  There were extremely low expectations for us being such a new team with unknown players, so trash talk was expected but I am happy that it didn't really affect us and we were able to play our game.  It was especially nice for me personally to be able to beat Fnatic knowing how amazing of an RLS they are in a series which was very close every game because whether it's fair or not, the majority of the community will base their opinion of teams off of mirror matches.

I think that the other thing this tournament proved is that you really don't need to be a well known player to be able to perform at an event as we saw a lot of new faces there who played well.  WoW has an extremely massive player base, and a lot of untapped talent so there will always be amazing players out there who are just waiting for a chance to be given to them be it online with big name players or at an event so that they can begin to make a name for themselves and build their own reputation.  Every big name WoW player was unknown at one point or another, and I think that this tournament shows that as long as there continues to be interest in WoW as an E-Sport that there will be players who're able to perform at the level required to entertain fans and keep it competitive.

A great example of that for me was Snutz from BHMS who I was particularily impressed with, as he showed he's a great Warlock who deserved to be there and I believe he's only 15 years old.  The majority of players are 20+ so imagine if he's still going strong and into tournaments in 5 years, it's a pretty crazy thought as if he stays motivated to improve and surrounds himself with the right players he could really dominate down the line. 

Many of the original LAN players have moved on or are no longer competitive, and as time goes on there will always be a natural progression of people being replaced who're not able to adapt or simply are moving on in their life to something else.  I think that the game has only gotten more and more competitive as an E-Sport and it has come a long way from the original tournaments where there were only one or two teams in real contention to where it is now.  Even the MLG events last year which were far more competitive than the WSVG days had some local teams which were basically free wins if you were fortunate enough to get them in bracket play.

To me MLG Anaheim was a great sign of things to come for WoW as not only were Button Bashers able to overcome the odds to win the tournament, but there was a great influx of new players and the majority of matches were 3-2.  It's just simply far more entertaining to watch close fights than blowouts, and it shows that every team that was at that tournament deserved to be there regardless of how they finished in the standings.  Although I've heard some hating on SK US, with a bit of luck or a little bit better play they could've easily been on the opposite end of the spectrum as they finished with a ton of 3-2 losses as well.  People need to realize that someone has to win and someone has to lose at every one of these tournaments and not be so quick to trash teams for one bad showing, because it can happen to anyone.



I also met Soulja Boy over the weekend... and although some of you have probably seen the picture floating around only a few of you have heard the story.

Soulja Boy was at the event representing Gunnar, and hanging out on a massive party bus type thing that Gunnar had there.  I was on the bus doing an interview, and had heard he'd be on there as well so after I finished my interview I decided to try to get a picture with him thinking it'd probably be pretty funny.  Unfortunately I really had no idea what he looked like, as I haven't really ever heard much of his music and don't watch any music videos really, and he was there with an entourage which made it a bit more tricky.  I looked and saw a guy who I figured was probably him and asked the people I was with if that was Soulja Boy, and they thought it probably was too so I went over to ask for the picture.  It pretty much went down like this -

Me - "Hey man, think I could grab a picture with you?"

The guy turns to me and just gives me the dirtiest look I've ever seen, like I was just the biggest idiot he'd ever met.  It was pretty uncomfortable and I was kinda just sitting there not knowing what to say while I was getting stared down by them for a few seconds of awkward silence.  Another one of the guys turns around and looks at me and goes..

"Uhhh.... yo, you mean me?"

Me - "Yeah... thanks"

Turned out I had the completely wrong person so I ended up looking pretty stupid in the process but I did end up getting a pretty funny picture / story so it was worth it in the end and the people I was with got to have a good laugh at me.

 

I was also able to chat with Kalgan a bit, and I really do think that he has a very strong sense of the game and is playing at a much higher level than people would expect.  He's probably in the top 1% of arena players as far as rating goes which is impressive as far as I'm concerned, and also inspires some extra confidence in him and his decisions as far as the game goes.  I definitely think it was cool that Kalgan as well as a ton of other Blizzard people showed up to not only enjoy the matches, but to get a better sense of the balance of the game at its highest levels.  It really shows how much they care about the game, and that they're willing to go the extra mile to improve the game not only for its largely casual fanbase, but also for the hardcore players in order to make it a stronger E-Sport.

 

Whether or not you agree with the majority of decisions Blizzard makes for the game, it's impossible to argue that Blizzard being closer with MLG is not a great step in the right direction not only for the game in general, but also more specifically for the game as an E-Sport.  Allowing the Blizzard staff to have access to the games top players, and to observe their matches and get the insight is a fantastic way for them to get an even better sense of the state of the game.  I think that the next step would be to have certain players help to brainstorm or find new ways to implement the ideas and balance solutions which could come out of something like this.  Personally that's something I would love to get involved in, as helping Blizzard not only helps the community and game as a whole, but helps me individually as the more the game improves the better it is for someone like me who has been fortunate enough to get as much as I have out of it.

 

That's it for this week!

Until next time....