IPL3 - My view from Backstage
I promised that I would do a "TL;DR" for IPL3, but I have too many good pictures and too many peripheral thoughts I need to get out before I do. For those who missed the event, I will give a summary of the highlights of the tournament soon. This article is going to focus on my personal experience at IPL3, and some of the interesting moments I experienced backstage as a first-time staff.
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The truth is, I considered getting an eSports job to be something akin to getting into acting or modeling; I applied for the job in a state of sleep deprived, semi-delirious, boredom. Then, about a month ago, I received an email from Alex Conn letting me know that I had gotten the job. For some bizarre reason, this invitation did not make me ecstatically happy. I worried whether or not I should take the job, as it would require that I miss at least three days of courses. I waited a few days before replying to Alex. It's a bit like giving your phone number to a really nice and pretty girl, only to find yourself terrified when she calls. I accepted the job after a few days, and, luckily, it had not been filled. The final three weeks of September passed by like a hallucinated void-ray, and, before I could type gg, I was in Atlantic City.
IGN sent a shuttle to pick me and a few others up. Marcus “djWheat” Graham was in my shuttle, along with several other staff members. I sat in the very back of the bus next to a fairly good French player named Stephano. Stephano curled up in the corner and fell asleep almost immediately. I remarked, as did several others on my bus, that he looked completely exhausted. People expected Stephano, in general, to do pretty well at IPL. In my infinite wisdom, I predicted that he was going to do worse than people anticipated.
I spent the first few days in the Bally's area, where the open qualifiers were taking place. One of the first things I got to see was Huk vs. Boxer playing Brood-war together. Most of these are my own terrible iPhone photos, the rest are thanks to IPL.
That's me (in the red) next to Boxer, yeah, no big deal.
Once the qualifiers were over, we moved to Caesar's for the weekend. When I wasn't working, I spent time backstage.
I remember hearing Incontrol speaking with Idra about how well they were being treated. This seems like the consensus among pretty much all the players who attended the event. There was ample place to practice, tons of on-the-ready staff to find them when their match came up, etc. Staff was treated amazingly as well. Free flight, hotel and food, and enough of us that we weren't up all night setting up and tearing down the stage.
After the finals were over, the crowd quickly emptied the theater and headed out to gamble and drink. All the players left as well, even much of the staff who weren't hired as part of the production team left. But one person stuck around with us while we cleaned up the main stage.
Just one more reason to love WhiteRa.
IPL was a fantastic experience for staff, for players, for spectators and for online viewers. There are a few reasons I think IPL had such a spectaluar first showing. I won't go in to detail, as it might be presumptuous and seem like I'm trying to suck up, but I think that the hiring choices for some of the key IPL positions were superb. If you looked at the resume for some of the top permenant IPL staff, you will see that they are picked out of the community, just like the temporary staff were. It succeeded as an event because everyone there loves Starcraft.
I spoke with David Ting about Kiwikaki vs. Stephano shortly after their match. He was out in the audience somewhere during the games, and watched them all. I'm paraphrasing, but he told me he just "couldn't believe it" and jumped out of his seat when game two ended.
I'll finish off with my own favorite bit from karaoke at the Twitch.tv after party. I recorded this on my phone. Many have seen Select and dTing singing, but here is Anna Prosser, Catz, and HD singing some classic Disney tunes.
Thanks for a fantastic event. I will see you all at IPL4.
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
origamiaround
annaxmalina
tangentwithtanner
janainaart
kianamaiart
turnnoffyourmind
dededos
prguitarman