Who’s excited for another event recap blog?!? Here is my stories from MLG Spring 2013 in Anaheim California. If you don’t want to read the words and instead just look at the pictures, you can find them by clicking on this big ol’ link.

MLG is arguably the largest eSports organization in America. For the last three years the crown jewel of the MLG circuit has been MLG Anaheim. Located in southern California, and stones throw from Disneyland, Anaheim draws an unparalleled crows in the USA. All of those nice things were true again this year, but only for 66.666666666% of the featured games at the event.

Upon entering the doors of MLG this year it was obvious that they changed up the venue floor format. Here is a very not to scale, yet artistic masterpiece, map of the show floor.

The League of Legends and Call of Duty stages sat next to each other and drew some big crowds. In the middle of them was a steel loft that featured each games casting desk elevated over the audience. This side of the convention center was sick and well planned out.

Whoever said that all of the stages were of equal size is a liar. If you read carefully up to this point you might have got some clues to tip you off about the state of Starcraft at this event. Lackluster, dull, dim, drab and uninspiring are some good words to describe Starcraft at MLG. It was as if the event was literately pushed into the corner and poorly laid out. With no featured stage and only one side of the player pit viewable the fans there was not too much to do aside from watching the main stage. There were other minor things that were bothersome such as only having one screen per stage.

I don’t really know how much of these problems are directly correlated to not being able to finalize Starcraft as a game until only a month before the event started. Maybe I am just being necessarily rough.

The saving grace for MLG was the work that was put on by the casters, crew, and players. It is very hard to stay angry when the actually show was so good. I was more excited for this player pool than any MLG in recent history. I would much rather see Incontrol cheese on the main stage, Nani bm, Bubbles, Illusion, Tyler, LZ, 11 root players, State, and Xeno play than 20 kespa players.

Saturday: 
Saturday was my first full day at the event. Friday I arrived late and spent a lot of time bitching. I decided that I should do something more productive than that so I broke the camera out. All be it there was not too much work to be done. Between Carlton Beener, GHOSTCLAW, Tank, and the MLG photographers, I did feel a little inadequate lacking a real press badge. Since the Starcraft section of the floor was rather small and players were only ever playing on stage or in the pit most pictures turned out to just be “liquipedia-esque” head shots. Boring? Maybe. But some of these nerd ballers are sexy. Are you ready for a little photo dump?

In an effort to get some main stream attention thrown at MLG; Dez Bryant, Dwight Howard, Ty Lawson, and Dejuan Blair all showed up to play some Call of Duty on stage. It was a fun little gimmick but holy shit was it hard to capture the moment with all of the people and security around the players. Dwight went over well with the local basketball fans. Some even chanted “Stay D12″ longing for him to remain a Laker. Love him or hate him, the guy is a bundle of charisma.

Normally when one attends a MLG they live off of a Doctor Pepper diet. This year Flipz pretzels was added to the list of sponsors. Now attendees can compliment their diet of Dr. P with some chocolate pretzels. Yummy. The Flipz girls spent the day showing off a lot of skin while literally throwing hundreds of bag of pretzels at nerds. It was almost as if they were trying to fend them off with carbohydrates. They really did give out a lot of pretzels.

I was refusing to eat the free crap in the venue and such was starving. [Blitz_Dota] offered me to come grab a bite to eat with himself, Purge, and MOTHER FUCKING 2GD. James was the one person in eSports who I have yet to meet and was still a fanboy over. He flew out to SoCal with Statman Bruno to go do some DOTA 2 stuff at the Beyond the Summit studio. I was pretty hype to go mingle with him over some burgers. He really is a dick, and I appreciated it.

As the day was coming to a close I spent more time snapping some player pictures with fingers crossed that some of them would be good.

Championship Sunday:
Wanna play a fun game? Next MLG count how many times djWheat says “Championship Sunday.”

Did you guys hear the juicy drama that happened Sunday? Naniwa called Polt……..a “bitch.” gasp The drama didn’t even end there! After Naniwa lost, Polt went to Naniwa’s booth to shake his hand. Nani refused and laughed. Funny how this was one of the high points of the event. I like that Nani can be the heal. I still am not that big of a fan of him in general.

Very few games played out Sunday. MLG had something super secret going on in the player pit. The main stage went along at a breakneck pace. The grand finals took place relatively early. Former TSL teammates Polt and Hyun took to the stage. The crowd was playing up Polt as an American hero since he is currently residing in Texas. They went fucking nuts when he ended up winning over Hyun and his crazy pants. I wonder if he liked the “USA! USA! USA!” chants.

Starcraft fans packed up early after the finals to head home. While exiting the roar of the League crowd was deafening. I was a bit envious. I made it back to the Hilton hotel bar after taking a shower. Everyone was getting ready for the Twitch after party that has become a staple of attending MLG. Instead of a club they rented out a sports bar. By 10pm that place was packed with everyone who was anyone. It was hard to walk from one side of the restaurant to the other. I attempted to play some billiards and 2GD thought he would be my coach. His pool advice is sub par. Some of the best networking happens at these after parties. I got to hang out with TB, djWheat, Deamon, Purge, MLG employees, Twitch folk, Alex Garfield, and even sit down for a long chat with Jaedong. Jaedong was sad that so many people were shy around him so we talked about being a celebrity and his fans in America. His English is damn good for never taking formal classes. I think if he worked at he he could become even more beloved in the west. I wish I took a damn picture with him.

After the Twitch party the cool kids went over to IHOP for some late late breakfast. By “cool kids” I mean I just went with Suppy, FireZerg, Sasquatch, 8mmspikes, Blitz, and Purge. It was a very nice way to end a crazy fun weekend.

Heading back to the hotel super tired I could not help myself but to join in on at least one Mafia game. If you dont know what eSports Mafia is, you can watch it on twitch every Wednesday night! [Stream Link]

At the end of the day/event the most unsettling thing for me is wondering what is next for MLG. Sure they announced MLG Columbus, Ohio, November 22 – 24. With all of the rumors about no Starcraft on the pro circuit, and only 3 live events in 2013, the future is disconcerting.

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Thank you for reading. The next event I will be at will be TI3. It will be my first DOTA event and I am excited. I know the majority of people who read these things are just Starcraft fans, so it will be exciting to see if there is any interest in reporting DOTA.

I want to be putting regular content up here that is not just event recaps and pictures. I will be putting together some “eSports Journalism” pieces that are a little fun and different in the time between events. If there is anything you would like to see me write about drop me a line on twitter [@leafeator]. Hell even if you don’t have any suggestions maybe you could follow me anyways. We can be BFF’s

<3 <3 <3

~Leaf

Currently working on a photoblog / personal recap of MLG weekend with these pictures and more words. Should be able to get that out by the end of the night.

A little introduction about myself: My name is Joey “Leafeator” Thimian, and I got into competitive gaming in 2005. Day of Defeat 1.3 was my lifeblood. I was 12 at the time, and I was competitive at every single thing I did. I did not care if I was bowling, playing basketball, or even a casual game of connect four; I wanted to win. Always. When I learned I could compete at DoD, the drive to be the best was overwhelming. This FPS gaming carried on into DoD:S, CoH, TF2, and Star 2. Aside from CAL, I learned about eSports on TV when I was stuck in a motorhome camping. I flipped through the channels and found djWheat casting a CSS game. I was hooked. I have been watching Lo3 since episode 1, and have a real admiration for Marcus. I got into Star 2 by going to launch night with friends. I never played a Blizzard game before, but I just won 60$ in a poker game, and decided that I would try this out. I felt the need to get better, found Husky, found HD, found Justin.tv. I was drawn into the scene because of the community, and I wanted to help grow eSports. My first chance to really do so was when Xeris gave me the opportunity to work as Assistant Commissioner at NASL. That started the ball rolling, and ever since then I have been shaking more hands of players, casters, and back stage workers. The more I network, the more I realize that I need to be working along side these awesome people in our growing industry. #eSports

And now for the real reason you all are here, the pictures. Everything shown was shot on my Canon T1i, with either the kit or telephoto lenses. I have always loved photography, but never been able to budget myself to get better lenses. I keep telling myself “one day.”
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MLG Anaheim 2012

MLG’s set up for starcraft seating at Anaheim. Many many rows of chairs with two different tiers of screens for those sitting back. Caster view in the middle with player views on each side. Most chairs I have ever seen at an MLG, and the extra screens accommodated it nicely.

Adrian, KawaiiRice, playing on the featured stage vs Idra. Team Light fighting~~

During the game, Idra’s computer took a shit. They brought out a new one, and then everyone was watching the replay to see the status of the game. In the end the game was replayed as the game was inconclusive as to who would win. Idra went on to 2-0 Kawaii. I think this could have been a much bigger story of Adrian went on to win this game, as from my perspective Idra would have won the first game pre-crash.

The Twitch player lounge was the best this event. Players and VIPS had a really cool place to hang out, complete with food, drink, tvs, couches, arcade cabinets, pc’s, and fooseball.

Liquid Players, and HuK in the player pit. It is really obvious at events the love that Liquid and HuK still have for each other as friends.

MC loves his foreign audience. I wish more Koreans would be silly like him.

Socke had arguably one of the hardest groups. He did one hell of a job this weekend.

Idra draws a crows everywhere he goes. Here he is sitting in the player pit with his fans all around. The majority of them couldnt even see what was going on.

The KESPA players did signings on Saturday and Sunday. Both days people lined up 2 hours early to meet them. The line was unreal to see them, and I think they had a great time interacting with their audience from oversees. I was never into the broodwar scene, so I did not have the admiration that others had for these men. It was really obvious tho how many people adored them all.

DRG is a fucking boss.

TT had awesome bags. I am happy to own one myself. All of their sponsored players have one, which includes KawaiiRiceLight. Kawaii is a rather small human, and I enjoy the comparison of this bag to his body.

Ret and Sheth playing an elimination match in the player-pit. Sheth won. I was sad. Damnit Jos, win something so you can take me to dinner.

Day[9] was not casting this event. At the start he got quite a bit of shit for it. What he was doing tho was walking around with blizzard and their cameras doing promotion for HOTS. Sean interviewed this little guy on film asking him how he got into starcraft.

Sean interacting with his people. He spends so much time being able to shake everyone’s hand and listen to them. I had the pleasure of eating dinner with him, and I hope to be able to do this again. The man is an inspiration.

Alicia. Who knew. Going into the weekend I would not have put money on him being in the grand finals. In fact I had to ask others to point out which Slayers player was who. Sure I know an MMA or Boxer, but now I know Alicia’s face.

Grubby is a cool guy. He spent a bunch of time taking to his fans, and his fans love him. Here he is pointing out something ridiculous on the main stage to others. His expression was amazing, and I did not go a great job capturing it.

I met SaSe in an after party for Red Bull Orlando. He is one funny guy, and he went on a tear in MLG. So many great players were eliminated by him.

Stephano on the main stage. No idea what he was doing on his iPhone. Probably sexting Bling.

I got to hang out with Ostojiy at CSL. I really enjoyed his company and sense of humor. He had a decent run this MLG, but I have a firm belief that he (along with Illusion) are going to be in the limelight soon.

Dat’ Smile

Idra doing an interview. I snagged a picture of him and think it turned out good. I have never really met Greg, but heres hoping.

Incontrol. I worked with Geoff in the NASL office. I feel awkward at events because I feel like he has no fucking idea who I really am. If you read this Geoff, Hi. We should have a drink. I think you’re cool. Sunday Night Barcraft was funny.

Grubby has a big face, and is very expressive. Here is one of my favorites of him.

Hot_Bid. I was hanging out in the Liquid room at E3 with Jos when he walked in. He got really close to my face trying to figure out who the hell I was. We precoded to joke around the rest of the night and watch the Thunder win the West. I really enjoyed meeting him, and would like to think we are on our way to becoming friends. He introduced me to Maffia (ALONG WITH HANNAH, ONOGBEE. I LOVE YOU BEE) , and I must have done a good job, as I prompted him to give me the bird after he killed me.

People decided to bring their own chair to MLG.

Ridiculously Photogenic Tyler. I also met him in the Liquid E3 hotel room and shared some laughs.

H to the usky Husky, playing some street fighter. He was super enjoying himself.

djWheat and MamaWheat. Marcus <3

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAHHHHHHHHHHH. DRG wins MLG.

I think this explains itself, but in person this felt like a super powerful moment.

DRG holding up his trophy.

The Kiss.

CSL Grand Finals at UCF

Want to win a headset? How about a push up contest hosted by Day[9]. On a side note, I can not spell Sergeant.

StarcraftAlaska casts for Playham and CSL. He is one of my absolute favorite people in eSports. He is working on his phd right now, and still finds the time to be an eSports badass. If you ever get the chance to meet him, please do. Also follow his work. He just might be the next big caster.

I can not believe this is the only photo I have of Spanishiwa. I had the pleasure of picking him and his girlfriend up from the airport. I look forward to seeing him at future events, as he is one chill dude.

North Texas getting in some reps before their big finals series. They won.

Adrian grips the mouse weird.

Sleep is a precious commodity at esports events.

Ostojiy played one hell of a series vs KawaiiRice. LOOK AT THAT INTENSITY. Chris, you’re a cool dood. If you show up at NASL3 I am buying you a drink.

QXC was playing in the All-Stars tournament. He used my laptop for a few hours to listen to some KPOP and play some custom games. I enjoyed the time I spent joking with him, as we both are rather sarcastic and dry.

Day[9] and the CSL crew saving the day after the streaming computer crashed. This story blew up on reddit, and I was happy to report what happed. I was quite surprised that it took a positive spin, as Shane was quite literally holding the webcam for the stream pointed at the second ref’s laptop screen. It was really ghetto.

Chris being cool some more.

KawaiiRice was shaking after winning a 70+ minuet game to put him in the grand finals.

University of North Texas winning a game. They had a group hug celebration on stage, and it was quite the powerful sight.

Lawrence Dean Vanderpool. Arguably the reason UNT won CSL. He was sent out aganist CaliberLight and won the “upset.”

Carnegie Mellon winning a 2v2 on stage.

BinskiLight won an ace match vs his teammate KawaiiRiceLight to take home the win for his team, and the CSL Championship Title.

The teams watching the final games of the CSL Grand Finals. Emotions were running wild.

UNT emotions as they are losing Game 6 of the Grand Finals.

Your CSL Champs in their winning interview.

QXC won the RaidCall All-Stars tournie, beating KawaiiRice in the finals. What a stud.

Red Bull LAN Orlando

This is me pandering to redbull. I like the picture. :3

The crowd at Full Sail Live. Really awesome venue that was outfitted nicely for the event.

Parting and Nani doing some practice games and talking about strats.

Thorzain and HasuObs playing some games on stage. This picture shows its aged based on Thorzain’s shirt alone. I did not spend much time talking to Thorzain, but at the after party Hasu proved to be quite the cool cat.

Redbull and Cigarettes. Jos, Nani, and their women practicing.

djWheat is someone who you should go talk to if you ever get the chance. I would not be writing this post today if I never heard him shoutcast years ago. It is crazy to be able to meet the people you have looked up to, and I am still in awe that this man is now a friend of mine.

Sean putting on a clinic of how to sneeze when you are casting.

JYP looks displeased with me trying to take his picture. Lo siento por favor.

Jos in the booth. I was giving him quite a bit of shit about how he was going to get wrecked in the tournie.

Marcus playing games on stage with the pros, he was excited to do some monobattles.

The next big thing. Illusion.

Redbull had a twitter wall projected behind the stage. Thousands upon thousands of people tweeted in, and sheth was reading the support for him between games.

The Redbull booth was really cool. Locking both of the players in one room is probably my favorite setup.

Marcus watching Marcus. They have the same name. That is the joke.

Morrow and I could not be in SaSe’s hotel room when room service delivered 40 bottles of Heineken. I enjoyed talking to him and his mentality of being better than everyone.

HasuObs practicing. He follows me on twitter now. Makes me feel special.

Ret went through Nani, SaSe, and Parting to win RedBull. What a sick nerd baller. One of my favorite parts of Red Bull was getting to hang out with Jos during the event, so him winning was need for much celebration. Those 1’s.

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I hope you enjoyed what I posted here. If you would like to see more, I have been uploading practicably everything I take to my imgur page (leafeator.imgur.com). If this trial blog is a success I will definitely be taking the time do be doing more of these. If you want to use any of these pictures for anything, feel free to contact me at leafeator@gmail.com. Or a PM. Or on Reddit.

Thanks again,
Joey “Leafeator”

Adrian, KawaiiRice, playing on the featured stage vs Idra. Team Light fighting~~