![day[9] and djWHEAT at MLG](https://www.spawnroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/day9_djwheat_1.jpg)
Sean “Day[9]” Plott and Marcus “djWHEAT” Graham share a romantic moment at the Major League Gaming Anaheim Championship in 2011.
I burst out laughing after this happened and when I saw this Tweet: “Wow….@djWHEAT and @day9tv just had the most homoerotic moment in eSports history #mlg” by egreco12, I decided to upload this intimate moment in eSports history.
The weekend has wrapped up and MLG Columbus is officially over. I had the pleasure of attending in person and I wanted to enlighten my readers with my thoughts, insights, and suggestions.
First, if you have the money, DON’T drive. Myself and three others drove 11+ hours to get to MLG, in a small car on horribly bumpy roads (apparently Illinois doesn’t actually use the toll money to improve their highways). If you are going to drive: DON’T drive back hung over on the hottest day EVER with NO air conditioning! Monday’s 11 hour car ride back was disgustingly hot and sticky…
Second, upon arriving in the host city, make sure you actually check out the hotels connected to the convention center. When we arrived we chcked out the Drury, expecting it to be booked or extremely expensive. Instead they had rooms for a reasonable price that included free breakfast and dinner! It was a pretty sweet deal.
Now onto the actual convention. The lines to get in were pretty long. You’ll either want to get a VIP ticket like I did, arrive really early, or arrive after the doors have opened. Otherwise you’ll be standing for quite awhile. The upside to standing around is that you can meet other gamers and if you’re lucky the players.
Which brings me to my next point: meeting the pros, casters, and community “celebrities” for the first time was actually pretty weird. You kind of realize that these are real people and not just mystical figures you see on streams and casts. One thing to note here is that if you’re planning on meeting the casters, guess again. They are even more busy than the pros and constantly behind-the-scenes working. A few rare times you’ll catch them running around, half-awake, frantically trying to figure something out. My recommendation, say hi, but let them be so they can do their job. If you stick around long enough, they’ll more than likely have a moment to pop out, sign autographs or talk with you.
Speaking of casters, I heard the stream was pretty good this time. The only real upset I heard was when that epic storm hit and flooded part of the convention center. But otherwise it was good, right?
Now let’s talk about the matches. First be prepared, after attending a live event like this, to forever be disappointed with watching streams and replays alone. The roar of the crowd added such powerful emotions to each match, it was simply amazing. The first day when we got seats at the main stage I literally almost teared up to see how much passion and intensity was surging through the crowd. eSports at its finest. I would say the best moments were: the opening match between Idra and MC, TLO’s nuke against IncontroL, the Moon vs Slush baneling landmines, MMA destroying his own command center, the Losira Nydus worm network against MC (starts at 1:00:00), the speech Sundance gave us just before the final matches, and the final matches themselves. Obviously there were plenty more, but these ones really stick out in my head as ones where the crowd went absolutely nuts.
Personally the most disappointing thing about MLG was Idra. Here’s why. When you were growing up did you watch Indiana Jones (the 3 originals)? Well I did and I loved them. Harrison Ford is the man, and I had such a great time pretending I was an adventurer like him. Well when I heard they were making a new movie, I was obviously ecstatic. I eagerly awaited the release and when I finally saw it I was crushed. So much build up, so much anticipation, and then BAM! My world crumbled around me (thanks Spielberg, you asshole). Anyways, this is what Idra’s matches were like. I like watching him, I rooted for him all event, and I was so excited for his game against MC. But when it finally happened he early GG’d and just gave them away. I couldn’t believe it. All this hype just to be completely thrown away. That was by far the low part of the weekend for me.
Alright those are the few fleeting thoughts and opinions I wanted to throw down in an article. Now it’s time for what I normally do on Spawn Room and provide you with a long list of resources so you can find everything you need to review this epic event! As usual, if I miss anything that needs to be included, email, Tweet, or Facebook me a message. Thanks for reading!
The full championship braket and open bracket on MLG.
The leaderboards on MLG.
Comprehensive team results on Team Liquid.
Official MLG Columbus VOD’s on MLG.
MMA Hadoukens Idra (or Kamehameha, whatever).
YouTube channels with coverage: MLG, Team Liquid, WellPlayed, AskJoshy, Team Complexity, Cyber Sports Network, Edward Starcraft, Evil Geniuses, and ESFI World.
HuskyStarcraft also covered a few matches. MrGlobalHD uploaded a bunch (or all) of the matches on YouTube.
Official MLG photo albums.
Team photo galleries: Team Dignitas, Team Complexity, Team FNATIC, vVv Gaming
The Calm Before the Storm by Team Sixjax.
WellPlayed on yfrog. AskJoshy on twitpic. StarCrackShow on yfrog.
Raelcun’s two photo threads on Team Liquid: one and two (warning: may take awhile to load).
All you need to get ready for MLG Columbus by MLG.
Sixjax Gaming has a few MLG blog posts that are interesting and full of pictures.
NEW:Â Milkis, the translator for the Koreans, wrote up a two part article/post on Team Liquid: Part 1 | Part 2
Note: I’ll be adding more to this article as I find useful or interesting things to add.
Other Tags: MLG, Pro Circuit, COD BLOPS, StarCraft II, SC2, LoL
The IGN Pro League has been going strong and here at the Spawn Room we like to ensure all the fans and players are well connected to the content flowing out of it. So as customary, we’re going to provide a comprehensive overview of the event and all the resources you need to stay on top.
First, if you’re like me and constantly busy, your time is worth a lot. One of the problems I’ve faced is trying to determine which games to watch. I’ve mostly been relying on word of mouth but I recently found two resources that will aid you in making that decision a little easier: SC2 Tournament Ratings and SC2casts. You can also check out SC2 Casts Finder, SC2rep.net, and SC2rep.com for similar features.
Official IPL Tournament Bracket.
Match ratings on SC2 Tournament Ratings.
IGN Pro League on WellPlayed.org.
IGN Pro League YouTube channel.
IGN Pro League coverage on SC2casts. This resource lists the games with the series rating, very helpful!
IGN Starcraft YouTube channel.
djWHEAT’s YouTube channel has some match coverage.
TotalHalibut’s YouTube channel has some match coverage.
IGN Pro League official trailer.
JP McDaniel’s YouTube and Justin.TV channels feature State of the Game and Starcraft Center which both touch on the IGN Pro League among other things.
All the IGN Pro League player portraits.
IGN Pro League post on Team Liquid.
Other Tags: StarCraft II, SC2, IPL
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending another regional Starcraft 2 Open tournament. This time hosted on the beautiful University of Minnesota campus by their own Teh Pwn Gaming club. It was a great time and well worth the 4 hour drive!
The tournament was located in the Science Teaching and Student Services building, on the ground floor. There were three rooms, one for diamond players, one for master players, and one for spectators. The spectator room was circled with large HD televisions, each with groups of comfy computer chairs and tables. Two large projectors, situated on either end of the room, gave an even grander display of the games and really made it feel like a top tier event. There was even soft blue mood lighting which looked really cool and gave just enough light to walk around safely, but not enough that it drowned out the vibrant colors of the TVs. As for speakers, they were all over, so no matter where you were you could hear crisp, loud commentary. It really was a perfect setup.
The diamond and master players rooms were also really nice. Similar in design, these rooms were much quieter and darker. The players sat around circular tables and had a comfortable playing space. They also had projectors for displaying the scores and schedule which I thought was really handy. Between these two rooms there were 73 officially registered players, give or take a few that were M.I.A. Of that number, there was an even split between diamond and master skill level with a fairly equal representation of race. I talked to some of the players expecting to hear nothing but protoss match ups, but was surprised to find that quite a few had been playing mostly Zerg. Unfortunately towards the end of the tournament the remaining majority were Toss. Oh well.
There was also a small room for the newbie tournament. I didn’t spend any time here so I’m not really sure what went on; all I can tell you is that there were about 17 players competing for the small prize pool. The finals were then eventually cast during the master/diamond break period. It was fun to watch and I overheard some players saying that it calmed them down and took their minds off things. I’m guessing it probably felt good to watch them make obvious blunders and laugh about it.
Finally the sponsors. In attendance we had a NOS booth, equipped with all the NOS we could drink, some hotties working the counter, and a few friendly staffers. Unaware just how much energy these things packed, I downed my first can quickly and spent the rest of the night with shaky hands. It was awesome. They also had support from Major League Gaming (MLG) who provided some killer prizes (some even for the fans)! Myself and a few others happened to win free spectator passes for MLG Columbus in June! There were also local sponsors like Oak Street Textbooks, the Student Union and Activities organization, the Minnesota Student Association, and MTech. It’s great to see organizations such as these helping out a grassroots Starcraft 2 tournament like this.
A couple weeks ago I attended the Twin Cities Open (TCO) and met some great Starcraft 2 players. When heading over to this event I was really hoping to see some of them, but only expected a few at best. To my surprise all the best players from TCO were setup and gaming when I arrived. So let’s talk about the top players of this event and why you should keep an eye on them.
Ssok was our champion that night. His wicked fast APM, impressive unit micro, and unique strategies dominated player after player and put him in the spotlight after defeating Nozick for first place. He has a long history, plays vigorously, and has what it takes to be the best. I would definitely keep an eye out for Ssok on the ladders after you GG to his massive Protoss army.
Nozick was another impressive competitor and fellow TCO attendee. I’m not entirely sure what it is about Nozick, but the man is a beast at Protoss. He’s calm and collect when he plays, he knows the game well, and puts up some amazing fights.
EroSennin was a new face for me, but apparently he’s been around for quite some time. I talked to him shortly before his third place match and he said he’s been playing Brood War for years and reached a high enough level that he was occasionally taking on pro caliber players, competing for WCG qualifiers and reached a B- rating in iCCup. He definitely has the confidence to play well and showed it at this tournament. Definitely a top contender for the next SC2 Open.
MGRedground was another player I recognized from TCO. He’s currently playing for Mobility Gaming, a small eSports upstart trying to get a quality team together to compete in large tournaments. Redground is a solid Terran player with excellent theory and a lot of confidence. Every conversation I’ve had with him, he’s been upfront and honest about the matches. He knows when he can win and will make sure it happens.
Ack and FrozenHobo are two others that really stuck out in my mind. They had the room roaring during some of their matches and showcased some really great talent. I believe both were in the top 8 as well.
I also feel compelled to give Hollywood another shout out because it’s always a pleasure watching him do work against his competition. He’s the amazing, 14 year old Zerg player I met at TCO and again at this event. His dad was there as well, helping him out and showing support through the entire event. It always warms my heart to see such passion and support for something like this.
Finally I want to give a shout out to the other TCO competitors that showed up: RebelJHawk, JaPz, Stips, PsychonautQQ, Storm, and Happyhobo. If I missed anyone I’m sorry, let me know and I’ll throw you on the list. Otherwise next time make sure to seek me out and let me know you’re there. I always love hearing from the players!
Before wrapping this article up I want to give out a few non-player shout outs. These are some people that I met, did an amazing job and deserve credit for their actions. Thanks for providing and/or contributing to an awesome event!
First I want to recognize the casters who did an amazing job all day long. I was really impressed with the quality of conversation, insight, and energy these guys had. Especially since Siraz was the only one who had done this kind of thing before. Scott ‘Obsidian’ McGrath and Cody ‘Courbple’ Swede (I hope that’s right) were new to casting but stepped up magnificently and performed like pros. Definitely take a moment and show these guys some support!
Next we need to acknowledge Evva and Nick who were in charge of the entire events operations. These were the delegates that showed up to the TCO event to scout for players and tirelessly maintained the event on Saturday. And not only did they run the event, but they were nice enough to spend some extra time talking to me and answer a few questions here and there. I really appreciate that and felt very welcomed by them. So thanks Nick and Evva for putting on a great show and making things happen. Before I jump onto the next shout out, I’d also like to tie in one for Teh Pwn Gaming club and the CSL team for contributing as well. I’m sure this was a team effort with plenty of planning and coordination. Thanks to all you guys!
Finally I want to say thanks to Daniel McIntosh and NOS for getting so involved in the eSports community and more specifically Starcraft 2. More sponsors means more money which leads to big and better tournaments. And of course, more NOS. Thanks for keeping us powered up and showing your support!
I haven’t found a link for the brackets, but as soon as I do I’ll provide them here.
NEW: Replay Pack
NEW: Teh Pwn Gaming on Justin.tv
Official event post on CSL (with link to Team Liquid)
Facebook Event post and relevant discussion
Other Tags: CSL, LAN, NOS, StarCraft II, SC2, TPG, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, UMN
The Dreamhack Stockholm Invitational is complete and as usual I wanted to bring you a comprehensive resource for getting all the updates, videos, and pictures you need. This seems like it’s getting old now, but as always, I will update with the bolded “NEW:” text as I come across other cool resources. Oh and I wanted to mention that the State of the Game crew spoke very highly of these matches and the production values of Dreamhack, so don’t miss this!
A heart warming story about Jinro returning to Sweden for the Invitational and receiving a supportive welcome home. Here’s the Team Liquid English summary.
Other Tags: DH, SotG, StarCraft II, SC2
Last week I saw a listing on Team Liquid for a Starcraft 2 LAN tournament in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Fueled by my interest in eSports and the lingering excitement from MLG Dallas, I took this as an opportunity to network with some local and regional gamers. The event was hosted at a collectible card and LAN gaming venue called “LAN World Gaming“, which funny enough has the exact same WordPress theme as me. What are the chances?! :P
Upon arriving, I began touring the tables and watching each player as they competed. The tournament was broken up into two divisions, one for bronze through platinum players (12 participants), and one for diamond and masters (26 participants). There seemed to be a pretty wide range of skill in attendance which made for some interesting games, with a few key players that really stuck out. The final few matches of the diamond-masters division is where we really saw some skill at work. Notably the champion SilentScope aka Redground from Mobility-Gaming who brought his Terran A-game. We also saw the runner-up PsychonautQQ repeatedly stomp the competition to take his second place victory. Third went to a protoss player with incredible Brood War-esque micro under the name of Ssok. There were so many other players that were also showcasing amazing talent, but I don’t have time to list them all off. If you’re interested in seeing more, check out the brackets linked above and below.
The upper division finals ended just before midnight which coincided with the event schedule. I was impressed and very pleased with this because by about that time I hadn’t eaten in roughly 11 hours, I was running on nothing but Amp, and had a 2 hour drive in front of me. So getting to see the finals before I passed out later that night was a great treat! Unfortunately I think I missed the lower bracket finals. I hope everything worked out there.
Having had some time to digest Saturday’s event, I have two suggestions for the event coordinators. The first is to provide a means for spectators to quickly see the updated brackets. I attempted to check them on my phone a few times, but the page didn’t render correctly so I had to rely exclusively on the players. The other suggestion I have is to create a seating chart as people arrive at the venue. There were a few times when I overheard players wondering who was who and where they were sitting. I think a seating chart would be a simple and effective solution. But besides these two minor points, I think everything else went well and I had an excellent time.
Before wrapping this article up, I wanted to give a shout out to Hollywood, the youngest competitor at the event. This 14 year old Starcraft 2 player is ranked Masters and is taking his first steps into the world of competitive gaming. I had the pleasure of talking to his father who was excited to tell me about his sons skills and the history of their lives as gamers. I was extremely happy to see such support because I feel a lot of parents still look down on the gaming habits of their children. It’s a shame because it’s important and Starcraft 2 is redefining how we look at eSports and the opportunities it provides. So a big shout out to Hollywood’s Dad as well!
Finally, I wanted to say thanks to everyone at the event for being so friendly and making me and my cause here at Spawn Room feel welcomed! I had a great time meeting everyone and I hope to see you all in the future! If you want to get in contact with me at any time, you can do so by replying @SpawnRoom on Twitter, posting on Facebook, commenting here on the site, or emailing me directly. Thanks for reading!
LAN World Gaming’s Facebook Page (updated with photos from the event)
Other Tags: TCO, LAN, Saint Paul, St. Paul
The Ultimate Gaming Championship came to a close Sunday and I wanted to give it some sort of “comprehensive” write up. Unfortunately my efforts were focused almost entirely on MLG so I probably missed quite a bit of unique content I could have hit up in the Twitter streams. Oh well, it was worth it. The format for this article will be similar to MLG’s and we’ll start it off with Brackets & Results! Updates will be added as I find them!
Official UGC Brackets:Â Quake Live |Â Starcraft 2 | Call of Duty 4 | PES 2011 | Super Street Fighter IV
SK-Gaming’s Tournament Coverage page.
SK-Gaming sums up the Quake Live coverage.
Tek-9 has some great coverage pages of the event.
The UGC Facebook has uploaded a bunch of pictures!
SK-Gaming: Image Gallery
own3D.tv: Stermy’s uploads from UGC
Stermy: Stermy’s YouTube Channel
QuadV: QuadVtv’s YouTube Channel
popsQ2: PopS YouTube Channel
Furiousvlog: Furiousvlog’s YouTube Channel
If there’s anything juicy I missed, contact me on Twitter (@SpawnRoom), in the comments, or on Facebook!
Other Tags: COD4, COD 4, PES2011, PES 2011, QuadV, QL, StarCraft II, SC2, SSF4, SSFIV, Stermy, UGC
The first pro circuit of the Major League Gaming 2011 season has concluded in Dallas, Texas and a lot has transpired. I wanted to go over some of the random articles, websites, pictures, and videos floating out of this event so you can find them all in one spot! Update will be continually added this week as I discover more and more content.
The first thing I think we should address and something I’m sure a lot of people are sensitive about is the streams. Both Friday and Saturday were plagued with problematic streaming issues and lag at the venue. Our promised online eSports extravaganza took a turn for the worse as MLG was unprepared to handle all the traffic pouring into their website. Too bad really, I think a lot of people were extremely excited for this weekend and ended up somewhat disappointed. So what can we do? Well here are the important links so you can follow up on what MLG is doing to rectify the situation:
MLG News: MLG Addresses Site Stability Issues | Update #1 from MLG | Update #2 from MLG
MLG Forums: MLG Addresses Site Stability Issues
SK-Gaming News:Â MLG Dallas has chronic issues, MLG responds
I also want to make note that on Sunday, MLG’s Sundance DiGiovanni, the current CEO, made a live apology to the MLG audience, fans, players, and everyone else. It was heartwarming and I believe that the vast majority of MLG supporters are still behind him. The rational minds know that sometimes, shit happens, and I believe MLG and their staff did everything possible to fix the situation. So thanks for the effort, it was still a great weekend and I look forward to future MLG events!
I also want to throw in my appreciation for djWheat, day9, JP McDaniel and the rest of the commentators. You guys are amazing! Good job all weekend.
For those of you wanting to follow up on brackets and results, here is a list of resources for you to check out:
MLG: Championship/Pool Brackets – Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach
MLG: Open Brackets – Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach | Call of Duty: Black Ops
Team Liquid: Event Coverage
Here are some match coverage links and resources so you can find all the games you missed, or want to rewatch:
MLG should be uploading VOD’s of the matches to their MLG TV section.
From what I was able to watch this weekend I thought these SC2 games were of notable importance:
Ret vs seleCT (SC2)
INcontroL vs TLO (SC2): Game 1 | Game 2 |Â GIANT QUESADILLA
NEW:Â EGidrA vs HuK – idrA’s infamous BM after HuK hallucination win, then the rematch later:
I think this video starring Hitler sums it up well.
NEW: Here’s another awesome idrA interview where he calls HuK “retarded”.
The finals between Naniwa and Kiwikaki we’re awesome! Had a lot of funny rooting for Kiwi to get to the 3-3 game and make Nani nervous, but awesome job anyways.
Obviously there are tons of great games that happened this weekend and unfortunately I will not be going over each and every one, because that’s not what I do on this website. But I will be providing as many helpful links and resources as possible so you can find and watch the best matches.
GosuGamers has uploaded some replays from the event in case you can’t find them elsewhere or the VODs aren’t available.
NEW: An interview with Naniwa.
Next let’s cover some of the great pictures coming out of the event:
Evil Geniuses: EG on yfrog
compLexity Gaming: Image Gallery
Team FNATIC: Image Gallery
Team Dignitas: Image Gallery
Sixjax Gaming: Article
Astro Gaming: Astro on Twitpic
WellPlayed.org: WellPlayed on yfrog
Root Gaming: A few uploads from Root Gaming on Zannel
Cyber-Sports Network – CSN on Twitgoo
ESFI World: Image Gallery
NEW:Â HuK getting frisky.
NEW: A victorious INcontroL.
NEW: AskJoshy’s Twitpic account.
NEW: JGrindal’s flickr
NEW: Joshtacular’s MLG Dallas collection
NEW: vVv’s Image Gallery
The last section I want to cover is the videos and channels coming out of MLG. There’s undoubtedly going to be millions of them, so this list will just contain the ones I keep seeing on Twitter (which are probably the best ones anyway). As always, I’ll throw up that fancy bolded “NEW:” text as I find more over this week.
Team compLexity:Â compLexityINSIDER on YouTube
AskJoshy:Â AskJoshy’s MLG Coverage on YouTube
SK-Gaming:Â SK-Gaming’s MLG Dallas Channel
EdwardStarcraft:Â EdwardStarcraft’s Channel on YouTube
Cyber-Sports Network – CSN on Youtube
Houie Louy – You won’t find these by searching on YouTube, or these: Root Gaming Forums
If there’s anything I missed, as always contact me on Twitter (@SpawnRoom), in the comments, or on Facebook. Also, if you have some favorite matches from this weekend, let me know which ones and I’ll add them to the post! Thanks.
day9 is surprised by JP McDaniel’s news.
Other Tags: COD BLOPS, MLG, Pro Circuit, StarCraft II, SC2
![day[9] and itmeJP at MLG](https://www.spawnroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/day9_itmejp_1.jpg)
JP “itmeJP” McDaniel tells Sean “Day[9]” Plott about the HuK vs IdrA match and Day9 reacts in surprise. From the Major League Gaming Dallas Championship in 2011.
I couldn’t help but upload this video because I laughed super hard after it happened. Such a weird thing to happen randomly during a broadcast. Also, amazing job this weekend to all the casters, especially after having to deal with some serious technical difficulties.
I wasn’t going to write something while the event was happening because I wanted to have all my attention focused on the games, but what with the streams going down, the site going down, and the noisy commercials. I decided to step away, give them some time and write a little ditty. First off, if you’re like me and resized your windows so you could have multiple streams open, then you may have also spent more time than necessary looking for the brackets. I feel stupid now because they were right there in front of me, but what are you going to do? So to help you out and anyone else still looking for them, here are the links:
Championship/Pool Brackets
Open Brackets
Starcraft 2 | Halo: Reach | Call of Duty: Black Ops
I think a big topic of discussion tonight, tomorrow, and post-MLG Dallas will be the streaming issues (obviously). Both the free stream and the HQ stream have been failing miserably. Up one minute down the other. This is disappointing because from what I’m told, MLG has a lot of money! I would think Sundance and the boys over there would have expected a potential mass of viewers trying to get all this eSports goodness. So that means they either didn’t plan appropriately or there’s just that many viewers that it was unpredictable. Even still, people like myself have a right to be pissed, we spend the money to support the organization and then can’t access any of the features. Hey Sundance, how about some free t-shirts or something?
But I won’t be too harsh. In fact I can totally understand what it must be like over there. Technology is unpredictable, you can only do so much before an event this large to test it and even then the numbers it brings back are only theoretical. And don’t forget, there’s not much else like this going on in the United States. It’s not like eSports has been around for nearly as long as other sports that got to test, retest, and perfect their mediums of distribution over time. MLG is more or less “shooting in the dark” and hoping that it will work. Give em’ time. I’m sure they’ll be up late tonight fixing these issues and getting the streams all stable for tomorrow and Sunday. At least they better be!
Oh and I try not to “shamelessly promote myself,” but if you have a minute and want to support an aspiring eSports…whatever I am, check out our Twitter and Facebook page and show us some love! Thanks a lot!
Other Tags: COD BLOPS, MLG, Pro Circuit, StarCraft II, SC2
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