tl;dr: I’m a girl. I went to IPL 3. I took a picture with MMA. eSports is cool.
The following is a shameless recap of my weekend trip to Atlantic City. I wasn’t there to play blackjack or go clubbing, though. Actually, I was attending IPL 3: Origins, an eSports tournament (no, not extreme sports, though some might call it that…actually, eSports refers to electronic sports). Are you sensing a wave of immeasurable nerdiness coming your way? Yeah, just brace yourself.
Here I am sporting my Press Pass (great perk of working for Her Campus)!
Why, you ask, was the sundress, heels, and mani/pedi-loving co-founder of a women’s magazine attending such an event? Believe it or not, I’m actually a huge fan of Starcraft 2 (read: huge nerd), one of the most popular video games around and the main competitive event at IPL. Dear collegiette, you probably haven’t heard of Starcraft before, so here’s a very pared down explanation: it’s like chess, but you can’t see what your opponent is doing until he attacks you. It can be played 1v1 or in teams. You train and lead units and use special abilities to destroy your opponent’s base while protecting your own. And here’s what it looks like:
Look familiar now? Yeah, this is that game you see your guy friends playing, prompting you to roll your eyes, pivot, and exit the room.
IT’S ACTUALLY A GREAT GAME.
(Trust me.)
IPL, hosted by IGN Entertainment, is one of several annual eSports competition extravaganzas to which professional gamers and amateur gaming enthusiasts flock to compete against one another for prize money (at IPL 3, the pot was $100,000), or just to spectate. Players go by aliases, so I’ll be mentioning usernames alongside usernames throughout the post. And that’s pretty much all the background info you need to know. So without further ado, here are my top three impressions/takeaways from my weekend at IPL 3!
Takeaway 1. Bring a camera. Bring a sharpie. Keep them eyes open. You might share an elevator with gaming royalty.
Within five minutes of arriving at Caesar’s, the IPL venue, my friends and I got in an elevator with one of the most notorious professional Starcraft players around, Greg “Idra” Fields (pictured at right). This guy is known as much for being a formidable opponent as for his “bad manners” (swearing, quitting in a fit of rage) in-game. Of course I was too busy fiddling with my snazzy VIP badge and TOTALLY missed the moment. I quickly learned from this encounter, however.
The next day, we were tickled to see that Gordon Hayward (an amateur Starcraft player better known as an NBA player with the Utah Jazz) was offering to play Starcraft against anyone who wanted in. Of course my guy friends jumped on the opportunity and signed up (Video games + NBA?! No brainer for the dudes). And that’s how I scored an autographed photo of Gordon Hayward.
Of course, there was also MMA…
[pagebreak]
Takeaway 2. You may just meet the love of your life at a video game tournament.
I did (only half joking). His name: Moon “MMA” Sung Won. His hood: South Korea. His look: badass.
I got to watch MMA, currently one of the best Starcraft 2 players in the world, play several times during IPL before he finally lost in the semi-finals. I vowed to get a picture with him if I could. My opportunity came when I saw him walk by on his way to his room. I gathered up my courage to approach him and shyly squeaked, “Will you take a picture with me?” while putting on my best smile. He gave a simple “Sure.” The below is my picture with MMA, and a record of this highlight of my life.
By the way, it’s worth mentioning that the guy:girl ratio at these types of events is something like 100:1. Any girl trying to find a nerdy boyfriend need not look further. It also means that girl gamers are quite the hot item. MMA plays for a team called “SlayerS,” and this team recently made news by recruiting and signing Kim “Eve” Shee-Yoon, the first female Starcraft 2 pro-gamer ever in Korea. Any girl trying to get nerdy boys to pay attention to her need not look further than her Starcraft 2 installation, her mouse, and her keyboard. Of course, I expect it helps if you are as cute as Eve.
There were other, non-gamer girls there too. These girls were hired by IGN to usher attendees around:
[pagebreak]
Takeaway 3. eSports is young. Get on board now for the best experience you’ll ever have as a fan of something.
The fact that MMA was just walking by with no entourage and no security. The fact that Idra took the same elevator we did. The fact that we randomly chatted with Ilyes “Stephano” Satouri, the eventual champion of IPL 3, while waiting in a line together. These scenarios would never occur at, say, Wimbledon. It’s not because these eSports players are any less world-class. It’s because eSports is still hovering, underdeveloped, on the fringes of popular society. A geek thing, for geeks. Not yet embraced by the masses. Still strange, still new. And that means now is the innocent, free, Eden-like era of eSports history, when fans can enjoy a remarkable closeness to their adored celebrities. It probably won’t be like this for long. It’s worth taking a look into eSports, if only to admire this rare phenomenon.
As for the atmosphere during the matches, I had no idea what to expect, since I had only ever played and watched games from the comfort of my humble swivel chair-and-desk setup. At IPL, the several hundred-person crowd filled one of the theaters at Caesar’s, and some people were holding up pun-filled signs, much like you would see stadium-side. There were jumbo projections showing first-person views of each player’s own screen, and the players sat right on the stage in soundproof booths. Two commentators manipulated the camera on one central projection to highlight key plays in real time. When big blunders or brilliant moves were made in gameplay, dramatic lighting would illuminate the theater, and the crowd would collectively groan or cheer ecstatically, depending on who you were rooting for. In these ways, eSports closely resembled any other professional sporting event I’ve attended.
But again, I have to emphasize that the intimacy of the setting (both physically and emotionally) really sets eSports apart. As soon as any match concluded, the players were interviewed on stage, and there was a real sense of rapport established between the player and the audience. As Lim “BoxeR” Yo Hwan, the undisputed “Emperor” of the original version of Starcraft 1, talked about his occasional temptation to quit gaming due to his less successful Starcraft 2 career, the crowd roared in his defense and pleaded for him to never do so. He then mentioned that that kind of encouragement and support he’s received throughout the years – particularly from fans not even from Korea – really made playing worthwhile, ending with an endearing and enthusiastically received “I love you!” to the audience. Quite precious.
Finally, to give you a sense of the sights, sounds, and emotions of eSports, here’s a hype clip for MLG, another eSports tournament series. Hope you learned a thing or two about eSports, and next time, give playing a try :)