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!Â 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.Â 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!