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Araneatrox
06-21-2011, 02:31 PM
First of all i want to give a massive shout out to Iggy, my girlfriend. She has followed me arround with a camera all weekend she is sleeping while i post this.

Day1

It is 4am in the morning. I am woken by the girlfriend telling me to get up its time to go to J�nk�ping(Pronounced Yan-Shopping). At this time in the morning i had absolutely no clue what was going on. But, i hear Dreamhack and my nerd-brain going into excite mode. Managing to get to the train station at 6am after getting packed and ready to go the first people we meet are a group of English people traveling to compete in the Counter Strike tournament. I was unable to check up on their progress. But we did manage to have a chat with them on Sunday after their first game. It was a win for them, they seemed excited and had high hopes for the rest of the weekend.

I am not sure what it is with small Swedish males but i have never seen stranger things happen in a train in my life. I wont go into much detail but it ended up with people having sex with each others shoes. 5 hours with these 4 people were strange but interesting.

Getting into J�nk�ping i was shocked at how beautiful this small town is. Set on the 2nd largest lake in Sweden, J�nk�ping is a small and quaint setting for the worlds largest computer festival.The people there didn't seem to mind the fact that over the weekend 15 thousand nerds would descent onto their town and manage to mess it up to no end.
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6601/dsc1726i.jpg
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5618/dsc1736n.jpg
We had a pretty uneventful cue to get into the press area, the usual affair, "Who are you? Where are you from?" Etc Etc. Getting in with no real problems we headed straight for the press area to get our Exhibitor Internet passes. Getting into the press area we met with Fredrik, he was the main press organiser and the person i emailed to get the passes for the event. He walks up to me and said "Final Boss hey? they are an awesome team. i love Pistol(a)" We shared pleasantry's and went on our way for the rest of the event. It seems as though people are quite aware of MLG and the teams that play.

Walking round the event you can really tell how huge this event actually is. There were 6 Halls in total, Hall A was the designated Sleeping area for everyone. Hall B has the main 'Event' area, with all the sponsors competing for your attention to sell you things. I can't remember how many times i was stopped by the Telia people trying to sell me cheaper Internet. I didn't mind at all, these were the people that were sponsoring the event, and providing us the entertainment for the weekend.
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/263548_10150216064974353_693949352_7055883_6099059 _n.jpg

Saturday was a pretty chill day, preliminary rounds were being played by everyone TotalBiscuit was pretty busy with interviews and commentating all day but other than that the tournaments didn't go on too late anyway. The only real upset was the Swedish Zerg, Mouz Morrow being knocked out in the group stages.

After walking round the event for a while, i manage to get some downtime for a fag and a cup of tea. While outside i catch a sneak glimpse of WhiteRa. If you have never heard of him before i will give you a little back story. Specel Tectics - During a Brood war event WhiteRa goes down 0-1 in a best of 3. This guy has never really said anything other than GG GLHF before a game starts. But this time was special. He said, "GG Now i use Special Tectics. What followed was a 2 base 12 gateway mass Zealot push that involved no Gas.
I had a few words with him, got some pictures and wished him the best of luck for the rest of the event and went on my way. While getting back in from the smoking area i bump into Liquid Huk and TLO, they are nice enough to pose for a couple of pictures and ask me where the Pro Player area is. Upon giving them directions Huk takes a look at my arm and says, "You're the enemy, Dario(TLO) don't listen to him."
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/259980_10150216048199353_693949352_7055700_7892735 _n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/264666_10150216048234353_693949352_7055701_2861400 _n.jpg

The final part of the day went without much hassle of problems, i watched some Starcraft, watched some CS and finally watched the group stages of League of Legends.


Day2

Sunday got off to a pretty good start, Refreshed after a 10 hour sleep at the hotel we are at the event before everyone has started streaming giving me enough time to get an interview with Total Biscuit about his first day and his experience in general. The video of that interview will be posted when i get access to decent Internet. The interview itself went pretty well, before we are about to start he asks "Will this be video? if so i will need to get my TopHat" It made me laugh.

Come lunchtime we had fully taken in the event. So we decide to take it pretty easy take a long lunch with nothing else planned for the rest of the day just playing it by ear. As soon as we sat down, i nearly get a massive heart attack, Startale sit down next to us. July, Bomber and WeMadeFox.Moon are sitting there chatting away while me and my girlfreind are sat next to them. I wish them all the best for the rest of the event and shake their hands and let them get on with their business. Today was a good day! The rest of the day was spent in the Day9 tent watching some of the most rediculous Sc2 games i have ever seen. Huk vs July and IdrA vs MC were perhaps the highlight of the event so far for me. Huk showcasing his Top 3 Unit control in the world throughout the day gave him a ridiculous win streak of 17-1. Good results for anyone, let alone against the best people in the world. It was about this time that i got to meet oGsMC for the first time, he may be smell but he is built really well for a Korean.

During a 2 hour break from Starcraft i went and had a look at the Battlefield 3 Tent. Ohh... My... WORD! 32 Brand new Alienware PC's running Battlefield 3 on Ultra GFX made the game look so pretty. Shell casing from the spent bullets, ambient smoke textures and amazing gunplay has made this a beautiful game to play and watch. We played a Pre-Alpha version of the game, with a 16 v 16 rush gametype on the streets of Paris, The map was unnamed at this time but i am pretty sure it is going to be the Flagship map much as Strike at Kharkand was in Battlefield 2. The first Rush sector is played in an open park area where the USMC is assaulting a entrenched position guarding Long Range Tactical missiles. USMC gain access to a Bradley Tank at this point, and because everything is destructible people knew to give it some room until the engineers can get Gustavs/C4 to take it down. It was while i was trying to take down the tank as an engineer that i got my first Knife Kill. Something i am particularly fond of in Bad Company 2. I was surprised when i was behind someone it did an animation kill. It didn't go into 3rd person like Halo Reach. But i grabbed the throat of my enemy and stabbed the Knife into the side of his neck and slashed forwards. These humiliation kills differ from the position of you to the enemy. I was only able to test out that and one other. Stabbing someone in the side of the chest not as brutal, but still a nice touch to add.

The 2nd part of the Rush gametype is played out in the Subway of Paris, USMC must assault a position near the entrance of Subway and gain access to the streets on the other side. It was at this point where i first got revived. Reviving works slightly different in BF3. For those of you that have played any other Battlefield i am sure you have reached the point where you have said to your team mates "Stop F*****g Reviving me!" IN Battlefield 3, you can now choose if you want to accept the Revive or if you want to respawn elsewhere. No matter your choice the Assult class that has revived you gets 100 points for aiding his team. That is another thing. No more Medics with LMG's Classes has been homogenised somewhat. Assaults now get access to the Heal/Revive features. Engineers remain unchanged, so do Snipers. But Support Class now has the Ammo Crates. This Stops Assault classes constantly grenade launching people with no consequence. But it also means that Heavy LMG's now have near enough unlimited ammo, making them fantastic for suppression fire. While i am talking about suppression fire. Causing an enemy to move from their position will reward "Suppression Bonuses" They vary on how much they helped, but it is still a fantastic bonus for laying down covering fire.

The 3rd part of the rush map type is set on the streets of Paris outside the Subway system. It requires you to assault 2 buildings and destroy the Mcom Stations inside. While playing my team was unable to destroy the building so we don't know if using Explosives on the buildings would have the same effect as they did to Mcom stations in Bad Company.
Throughout this Demo i tried to get word on if there would be a Commander in Bf3 like there was in 2142/Bf2 but they were pretty tight lipped about it. But as soon as i left the event i was given a pair of Battlefield Dogtags and i told them to take my money now. This was an amazing game that deserves so much more recognition than Call of Duty.

Not much else happened on Sunday, i just took it slowly and pretty chill. Now was the time that i enjoyed the surroundings as a fan of e-sports rather than as a press member.
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/263109_10150216847139353_693949352_7066858_1095359 _n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/260264_10150216846864353_693949352_7066847_6729175 _n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/264613_10150216846954353_693949352_7066849_6426763 _n.jpg

Araneatrox
06-21-2011, 02:31 PM
Day 3

The finals!

By now all there was left were the Round of 4 for Counter Strike, Round of 8 for League of Legends and Round of 4 for Sc2. You could tell people were starting to get tired. There was a constant stream of very tired looking people moving their computers back to their parents cars. The BYOC event was slowly dwindling. The spectator event on the other hand, it was just getting heated up. There was constantly a massive line for the Dreamtheater where all the finals would be taking place. The Dreamtheater itself was the most amazing place i have ever seen. A 1500 seat grand theater with comfy chairs and a 50ft screen broadcasting Starcraft 2 in perfect resolution.
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/631/dsc2358r.jpg

The finals were here! I sat down in the Press Pit right at the front of the stage as we sat down we were told in Swedish that Sweden's Largest TV station would be broadcasting the finals to 3 million people on Swedish TV. This was it; E-Sports had made it in Sweden. An event such as this has never happened before and it was a brilliant setting for it.
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5996/dsc2343d.jpg


Huk vs Moon in the finals, East against West! Huk was the champion of everyone outside of Korea. And ohhh boy was the West chanting his name.

Game 1, Metalopolis, Huk fakes a 3 gate expand and pushes a well timed and well hidden 4 gate and takes Moons Natural. Moon Swiftly GG's and there is a massive uproar from the crowd.

Game 2, Shakuras Plateau, Both players go for early expansions, Huk then goes for a vey early 3rd. This very early third ultimatly looses Huk the game. Moon just has far too many roaches and lings. Huk needs to GG out.

Game 3, This is where my mind starts to go blank, i am excited and nervous for Huk. I have stopped updating twitter at this point. I am just enjoying this as a fan.

Game 4, Crevase. Nice, Macro game! Wait... Wtf is Moon doing with that expansion? Ohhh.... OHHHH! Miracle defence from Huk. WHAT IS GOING ON? Roaches! My face cannot comprehend this awesomeness! What... DT’s aswell! My brain just hurts with awesome.

Game 5

This was it...
This was the final and deciding game. The tension in the room was almost audible. Taldareem altar was the map. Perfect for 200/200 army battles between full Tech 3 army's. But was is this... Even before the players has been introduced the entire theater erupts in excitement! Huk spawns at North East position and is going for a Nexus first Forge expand.

Moon spawns North West and is not building any Drones. It is at this point the entire room goes CRAZY! I can hardly hear the people sitting next to me it is so loud. The booths however do their job and Huk cannot hear what is going on outside. It is a 6 Pool from Moon. 6 Pooling on the largest map in the map pool can be devastating if Huk can't scout him first. By some sort of miracle, Huk scouts the 6 pool and hastily makes a Forge and a gateway. He is still not safe as the 8 Lings start to make their way across the map. He needs to get his Cannon down. He needs to play this perfectly, cannon first? or Pylon to plug his wall? Huk decides on Cannon first, but Moon has something planned. His drone is on Hold Position where Huks wall needs to be completed. Pulling off 3 probes he knows he needs to place a Pylon there before the lings get to his ramp. Using his Probes as a distraction for the Drone he gets the Pylon down as Lings are running up his ramp. 6 seconds pass before the lings start to his the Pylon, meaning it has barely enough HP to survive the first set of hits from Moon. Teetering on win or loss Huks cannon spawns, The crowd go mental. Moon knows that he can't carry on with this attack.

The crowd is astonished to find that Moon instead of expanding goes for a 2nd Roach all in. Huk seems oblivious and gets his 2nd Nexus down. At this point, Huk has 2 Nexus 1 forge, 2 gateways and is chronoboosting Warp Gate. Instead of going for any tech play, Huk throws down 6 gateways. 20 tense seconds pass, the crowd is silent. You can hear Day9's voice eager with excitement. 7 Roaches and countless Lings stream across the map. All Huk has to defend is 2 Sentrys and 1 Zealot. His 6 gateways are still not complete, this requires perfect execution from Huk. His scouting Zealot is taken down, his forward Pylon is taken down. This looks too tight to call!

After 30 seconds of perfect forcefields and 4 panic cannons Huks wall is breached. This looks like it is it! His final warp in of 2 Sentrys halt Moons forces as they are trying to get into the main! No one can believe what is going on. Huk stands out of his chair knowing that is has now won! The Gateways now finish! It is only 10 seconds until he has 8 warp ins of. Lings try to get into the base, 4 gateways powered by 1 Artosis Pylon(Definition, Artosis Pylon. 1 single Pylon powering 3 or more tech structures.) As soon as the lings start to attack the Pylon, 4 zealots and 2 stalkers are warped in. This is it! Moon knows he has lost, he sends in the last of his Lings hoping that his last 22 units can win him the game. At this point it is over. Huk has 60 food Moon has 30.

GG comes from Moon. Huk has won! His first major tournament win since MLG Raleigh '10. $16k better off and with a massive cheque Huk seems relaxed and calm. Everyone else cannot believe what they have seen! Perhaps the best game 5 of any finals i have ever seen.

Interviews are given, and everyone is cheering. This has been Dreamhack, and it has been amazing to witness.

Random things that happened throughout the weekend.

oGsMC playe League of Legends.
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/2272/dsc2292l.jpg
I managed to meet Day9
http://img863.imageshack.us/img863/708/dsc2561e.jpg
Day9 Signed my Tattoo
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/9123/dsc2563t.jpg
These people loved the Koreans
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6779/dsc2270v.jpg
Swag we got over the weekend, i came home with 7 more Tshirts than i went with,
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/263876_10150287852761070_688241069_9678486_3503476 _n.jpg

I am now sitting on the train back to Stockholm, only 4 hours to go.
I have been Araneatrox, and i hope you have enjoyed everything i brought you from this weekend! Until Dreamhack Winter, so long and thanks for all the fish.

D2theHass
06-21-2011, 03:09 PM
Nice! Looked like tons of fun. Are these open to everyone or how do you get in? Selling any of that merch haha?

Araneatrox
06-21-2011, 03:38 PM
Nice! Looked like tons of fun. Are these open to everyone or how do you get in? Selling any of that merch haha?

I am sure i could be willing to part with a few of the items. But alot of the single signed items i got will be for my collection only.

D Moralize
06-21-2011, 03:46 PM
great read, sounds like a great time, the sc2 finals were so insane, and I think I can safely say im rethinking my whole i want to go on a long train ride idea.

Itz McFluffy
06-21-2011, 03:47 PM
OMG@!!!@!#!#!#!$!$!@#$@!$%!%!@$!@#$!%!@$% I am Jelly with jealousy!! NEVER WASH UR ARM!

Morgan
06-21-2011, 04:08 PM
YES! Picture + autograph from Day9!! Thanks for fulfilling my request haha! Looks like an awesome time :)

Uncouth426
06-22-2011, 01:03 AM
I read Dreamhack is like the World's Biggest PC LAN, I wanna go to that so bad.

Araneatrox
06-22-2011, 06:05 AM
I read Dreamhack is like the World's Biggest PC LAN, I wanna go to that so bad.

Not just worlds biggest LAN, the worlds largest technology event.

With over 12,000 competetors and 15,000 attendees it is massive.

Uncouth426
06-22-2011, 11:04 PM
Where is Dreamhack Winter being held?

Mastertouch
06-23-2011, 12:53 AM
Great Write up!
and uncouth i think its goin to be at the same place
http://www.dreamhack.se/blog/2011/
on the bottom they show a map and dreamhack summer + winter are in the same location

Uncouth426
06-23-2011, 03:08 PM
How am I gonna get all the way to Sweden? Damn it.

Lefthanded
06-23-2011, 09:53 PM
Ahhhhh You met DAY9+HUK+White-ra+TLO....so jealous. Must've been an amazing time!!! :D

Good write up too!

yEsrr
06-24-2011, 10:11 PM
sick. thanx for the recap! Huk Fightinggg

garymcbride
06-26-2011, 06:08 PM
Awesome write up!! Loved watching dreamhack and Huk dominating from day 1. I really am jealous you got to meet Day9 and got your arm signed by him, i would love to meet TLO and White-Ra as well they seem such nice people.

Hopefully i will get to meet Tastosis soon, chance to go to Korea in October if i can save enough money. Hopefully that happens :)

Araneatrox
06-26-2011, 06:17 PM
Cheers everyone for the Feedback, I will hopefully get the interviews + videos i took of Dreamhack uploaded this week. But its been exausting trying to get a video edited in a different language with dodgey laptop

.Apollo
07-10-2011, 07:42 PM
Dude....I have to say, that is freaking insane!! Sounds like a blast!