#raidcall ems one

[shockcake]

RaidCall EMS One Summer 2013: some pics & my impressions

Just a heads up, this will be a rather lengthy post. I'll put a read more after the pictures. So let's start off with these:

mindrebels, Fnatic.n0tail & me

This one was already posted, but just to have everything in one place. N0tail is an awesome guy, long story short. He was really excitable during the games, even shouting "FOR FUCK'S SAKE, BAMBOE!" at the top of his lungs when Bamboe made a play. :D Really provided a bunch of entertainment, especially with the EraXn0tail massage. Such a funny guy.

Fnatic.Era & me

Sorry for my uninterested expression, but it was almost midnight when I had this pic taken and also my friend pretty much tricked me into it. I was a little shy about approaching the players so he just went up to Fnatic when they were wrapping up, told Era something and came up with him to take the pic. :O Now I'm pretty grateful. Anyway, can you imagine my utter shock when I found out this guy is actually like 4 months younger than me?!

mouz.syndereN & me

Picture speaks for itself I think! Synd is just as great as he comes off online. A lot of renowned players tend to have an inflated ego, but jeez, syndereN doesn't have a single mean bone in him. Talked to the event-goers really happily, didn't seem to be bothered by the crowd that gathered to get a picture with him at all. Really great guy, probably one of the most genuine Dota personalities.

mouz.FATA- & me

Not that much to say about FATA-, but me and syndereN in the above picture were actually laughing at him, cause he was just passing by when we were taking the picture and screaming at synd "Oh yeah, smile synd, you're so sexy!". :D So he seemed fun, sadly didn't interact that much with everyone.

mouz.paS & me

Even less to say about paS, sadly! Picture is actually quite funny because I had 2 people taking the photo and we looked into two different cameras, haha. Also, totally random unrelated fact, but he and FATA- were the only two people who didn't put their arms around people when taking pictures with them. (Not that I mind it or anything, I can totally understand why they wouldn't wanna do it!)

mouz.Black^ & me

Someone on tumblr actually requested a pic of Black^, so I was twice as glad to have caught him! Despite that he got no sleep the night before the first day of the event, he was still really awesome talking to people and taking pictures after their games. 

mouz.qojqva & me

To be honest I was more worried about approaching qojqva than anyone else, since he didn't seem to interact with fans at all, but in a spur of the moment kind of thing between games I just asked him and he agreed. (Actually thought he would be the kinda person not to put his arm around people's shoulders, but evidently I was wrong, haha). After the tournament he became one of my favourite players, so in retrospect I'm really glad I came up to him :)

TobiWan & me

Tobi and Wagamama barely even left their commentator booth during the first day at all, so when I saw Tobi standing around on the second day just chatting with someone I was like "Well, I might not get another chance". He was really polite and friendly as expected and his casting with Waga was great, I thouroughly enjoyed it despite the BTS guys being my favourites in casting.

Wagamama & me

Waga had amazing cast synergy with Tobi. We actually chatted with him for a while about the state of Polish eSports and a bunch of other stuff. Really amiable guy, had no idea I would like him so much since I wasn't such a fan before going there. :)

Sadly I didn't manage to snatch any pics with EG, kinda chickened out on the first day, the second day they only showed up for their games and bothering them after they'd been playing for 7 hours straight felt kinda iffy. Maybe next time.

I'm gonna talk a little about the event and team's performances after the read more. If you guys wanna ask me anything about the teams or anything about the tournament, please do!!! I'm dying to talk about it.

I'm gonna have to go ahead and say that mousesports went up to my top 3 favourite teams, if not my favourite one. Partly because the players are actually really approachable and likeable, and partly because my. God. They've picked up their game so fast after syndereN joined like 2 months ago? And they're already standing up tall next to the likes of Alliance and Na`Vi. I can't help but root for the slightly unappreciated team, and seriously, why is no one talking about qojqva's INSANE offlane??? He's improved so much since he joined mouz, and I think I can safely say his Lone Druid can only step up to AdmiralBulldog's, and that's saying something. I think he is definitely the most consistent player on the team, he's always putting on a great performance no matter how bleak the game looks for his team. While FATA- plays a Puck like no other, even he happened to make some heavily affective misplays during the tourney. While Black^ is often recognized as the best carry player in the Western scene, even he is sometimes caught off guard. But qojqva is always putting on a great performance, if kills are not going his way, he manages to farm until they do (six-slotted Batrider 40 minutes in anyone?). 

I can't wait for mouz to cause upsets on The International 3, I feel like they have so much potential with great skilled players, good drafts and synergy. I really want them to succeed, they deserve it.

Fnatic disappointed with their play a little I believe, H4nn1 just didn't seem to be in his best shape in any of the games, same with Trixi, n0tail also underperformed slightly. Era played great as usual, but it wasn't enough. I'm actually very surprised and worried that they got taken out by EG, who are not going to The International. Then again, just a few hours ago they managed to beat mouz, so they seem rather inconsistent. A little worried for them at TI3, hopefully they won't be destroyed as badly as mousesports last year. Then again, the pro scene level of play seems a lot more equal than last year's, so we'll see.

EG managed to fight their way through the tournament without throwing that many games, how unexpected! :D Really impressed with their play, seems like they've improved lately. Haven't been following them that closely but I like their decision to put Fear on the carry role, he really excels at it.

Not really familiar with the other teams that attended as they were all kind of semi-pro teams I believe, but dargoneblaydes playing against iNfernity.gaming was a lot of fun to watch despite that I wasn't really rooting for anyone. 

I liked the organization of the tournament, the delays were minimal and any technical issues that popped up were fixed immediately. Also really like how the organizers were genuinely concerned with how we were enjoying the event, we spoke to one of them while we were leaving and he came out for a smoke. He was so happy when we said we were having amazing fun and listened to all of our (little) critisisms. I know the event has received flak for 'lacking hype and personality', but I genuinely feel like they're trying their hardest to make the best event possible, it's just not their fault ESL is really neglecting Dota 2 in favour of LoL. As I was told next season is supposed to be held in a bigger, 'cooler' venue, so I'm looking forward to that.

Overall, I'm immensely happy that I got to go this tournament and I swear I will be so heartbroken if next season is not held in Poland. Supposedly a lot more top-tier teams will show up then, perhaps the audience will broaden as well. Sadly Poland is a LoL country and it doesn't seem like Dota 2 events will gain significant popularity in the upcoming time. Either way, I'm glad tournaments like these are being organized regardless, it's really an amazing experience.