The BlizzCon Chronicles: Party Time in Anaheim

The most distinctive thing about BlizzCon for me weren't the razor thin matches that went 3-2 when both teams nearly got kills in the last round. Or, when the team I favored the most ended up losing and the top three teams ended up being all cleaves with the 3.1.3 patch. It was the little things. Such as, when I went up to Pookz after their match with Button Bashers and said, "POOKZ! Why'd you have to do the ***** like that man!?!" and his only response was a slight smile and the words, "after the losses from yesterday, today I decided to stop being nice..."

The fact of the matter is, on every single level I witnessed firsthand why many see him as the best mage in the world. Orangemarmalade didn't have a chance. Even when they went against Whoa, the outcome was determined by whether or not Pookz played well. The general consensus among all of the pro-gamers I talked to was that while Pookz didn't carry the team, he certainly was the backbone of it. Although, i'm not sure Realz himself would agree with that assessment.

My first impression of Pookz was that if I were in a drunken bar fight, I would want him on my side. He was bigger than I expected, being 4-5 inches taller than me and 3 inches wider than myself. He was a cool guy, laid back to the point where anyone would feel they could approach him and have a friendly conversation. Realz and Enforcer had the same congeniality about them. It was much different than dealing with Veex's team, when i'd talk to Veex and Valrath and they'd be extemely confident and relaxing together, while Zilea would be pacing around the convention center sweating profusely.

I'd heard that Zilea told someone that he didn't like me too much. So, I approached him. He looked at me with his signature awkward, nervous glance and merely stuttered that he was nervous about the upcoming games, and the his partner's confidence came from the fact that neither of them were healing through the ridiculous pressure that comes from cleave teams.

Even though he supposedly told his team, "I don't like that guy" when referring to myself, he was friendly enough to lend me one of his cats before he went to bed to NOT celebrate his team's victory.

Hoodrych and I were puzzled as to why Veex and Co. were not with the rest of us downstairs in the Hilton watching Chris Metzen telling some kid to RP a NE mage and dropping Jager bombs like Hiroshima. Ariwa, the infamous forum troll of Tichondrius commented on how much of a "bro" this guy is. He's hilarious though, and probably gets more ***** than Zilea on an animal shelter visit. I'm poking fun at Zilea but he's a pretty cool guy. You should have seen the crowd cheer for him in the grand finals. His comments on winning? "I am a Global Champion." Damn right, son. *****es better recognize.

I asked my guild what they thought of the tournament, Thrrek replied, "People act like faking casts take so much skill....it doesn't." I warned him of what people my say if I quoted that and I told him I wouldn't. (j/k I'm Bodi.)

I'd like to give a special thank-you to Alex Garfield of Evil Geniuses for giving my hung over ass a ride to the train station in Anaheim. Thanks to Ariwa for taking this picture. Starfeeder and I did a 20 min video wrap up that I found particularly fun to do. I have more post Blizzcon related content coming up so be sure to check back with us over the next few days.