It was awesome. I was able to watch the majority of the StarCraft events as well as some other things. My wife and 1 year old came out to California with me so it could be a bit of a mini-vacation for us all, and it ended up being a really, really good time!
I went to provide coverage for The Weekly All In, naturally. We didn't have press access so I mostly contented myself with getting good photographs for the articles that would eventually be written for our BlizzCon Special issue.
It was awesome to really get behind the camera again. I took a photography class in high school and dabbled with it and photoshop a little here and there for the following few years. This was the first time in years I really made an effort. I was using a borrowed camera (my wife's grandpa's digital Rebel). and really did my best to get in there to get the good shots. I figured this may be my only chance to got to BlizzCon, or do press coverage of an event, or get photographs in a magazine (even a digital one), so I should really go all out.
While I am definitely an amateur, and my shots reflect that, there were a few that turned out really well. I'm putting some of my favorites here. There is (or will shortly be) a link to the rest in the sidebar.
You watch BlizzCon at home on twitch (or maybe you don't, it could go either way) and it's really fun and exciting. But when you're there, in a room with tens of thousands of nerds and you're 15 feet from the stage, it's incredible. One of the single coolest experiences of my life. More fun than turning doughnuts in the snow as a teenager. More exciting than the time I possibly caused increased security on the Haitian-Dominican boarder.
Mike Morhaime, Founder and President of Blizzard and all-around good guy. This was probably my first photo of the event that was actually in focus. Such a cool guy. Glad I at least got one good shot.
Eric Dodds, lead designer of Hearthstone.Again, I'm just so happy that it looks half decent.
Chris Metzen. VP at Blizzard. All around bad@$$. Possibly a pirate.
The Future of StarCraft panel, with all of those guys that people like to threaten on forums. A pretty well-framed shot, if I say so myself.
Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen. One of my StarCraft heroes that is now a commentator for Heroes of the Storm. Such a nice guy. Really happy with the lighting and the pose on this one.
Lim Yo-hwan, or "BoxeR" as he is often known, is something of a StarCraft legend in the professional scene. He dominated competition for years back in the Brood War days. Very exciting to get to see him in person.
Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski and Nick "Tasteless" Plott. The bromance between these long-time StarCraft nerds runs deep. I wish there had been an opportunity to met them personally, but I'm glad to have gotten a few good shots all the same.
Chris "HuK" Loranger (center) and Jang "MC" Min Chul. Huk was my very first StarCraft hero, and one of the few that still actively play. The only problem is that he usually looks kind of pissed, for like the last three years. I was really excited to not just see him (and MC!) in person up close, but to get a pic of him looking genuinely happy about something.
The stage for the StarCraft competition was awesome beyond words. Three screens (two for a POV of each player, and one for an observer's perceptive). The stage was mostly just a white, blocky, frame. However, ~40 projectors would simulate an animated stage that changed for each map and each race, complete with victory animations. This is a shot where Life, a Zerg player, won a match, so the stage exploded with a green acid effect.
Kim "sOs" Yoo Jin kissing the trophy after winning the tournament. Possibly the best photo I have ever taken, or will ever take. This shot is completely unedited.. I'm super proud of it. I also had to kneel on the cement floor in front of the stage for about an hour to be up close for the opportunity to get it. Worth it.
My editor and one of the other writers really drilled the importance of getting good photos of the eventual winner into me. After about 100 shots of sOs right here up close, about two feet away, I realized that I hadn't actually had a fan moment yet. I hadn't given him a high five or get anything signed or anything. So I stopped taking photos (and got the camera out of his face) and got the high five and got my badge signed. Such an incredible day.
Between games, I would check in with the rest of The Weekly All In guys to say what pics I got and ask if there was anything I should be looking out for. Near the finals, they started to say that they could see me on the stream (!!!). I haven't gone through and watched all of the event just to look for me, but I knew I'd definitely be at this part and one other. Can you see me?
Get this, I've streamed SC2 twice in two days! BOOYAH!!!
It's been a very busy few months, and my company is in crunch time for CES still (I worked ~70 hours last week), so I haven't had much time for uninterrupted gaming. But I should be getting back into it in the next few weeks. Maybe I'll even make it into Gold league in Starcraft. How exciting would that be? I played several games as Terran because I like their music so much. But I sucked at it and started BM'ing people when they started to do offensive GG's. Rude! Sticking with dat Protoss!
To make things official, HBA: Live is no longer a regular feature on the stream. I'll probably be sticking to esport games. like Starcraft, Hearthstone, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Spoiler alert, I'm not actually very good at any of them, and I've not been inclined to drop a few hundred bucks on the new set of cards in Hearthstone. Either way, I'll probably just be streaming whatever I'm feeling like at the time, and try not to drop games because I have to go change a diaper or rescue my wife for copious amounts of infant vomit. At least not too many.
On a sidenote, Heroes of the Storm just isn't that fun yet. I want to spend money every time I open it up, but I have no desire to play it. I know that's totally random, but it just doesn't do it for me. I played yesterday on stream and I just didn't have any fun. DOTA is still my go to MOBA game. Sorry Blizz.
I'm doing well. As the title indicates, I'm at work and I'm bored. I work at a great little company called inthinc. Shortly put, we produce vehicle tracking devices that are used by companies with large fleets of vehicles. I work in Tech Support, which is definitely the bottom of the barrel, but it's a great gig for someone who hasn't finished (or has no interest in) a college degree. I have very high performance overall at work, if I say so myself, and sometimes (like today) I finish up all my work early and don't have anything left to do for the rest of the day except wait for phone calls.
It is during this waiting time that I struggle. Playing on the internet is discouraged and there is quite a bit of traffic by my desk, so I try to be discrete or to find new projects. I've decided that blogging will be a better use of time than Facebook or taunting people in the Tech Support group on Skype. Most of the posts on here will still be the same kuality jernilizm you have come to expect on this site. But if I'm not in the mood to work on those, I'll just write up a more personal post. Like this one! I know I have a personal blog...but I'd rather keep it all in one place.
Anyway, It's January. The time of the year when people try to get their ducks in a row. As for me, I'm trying to get school and career things more in order. I'm doing really well at work and I keep my eye out for new positions here but nothing has panned out yet. I would totally go to another company for more money, but nothing tempting has come up for that either ;).
This past Fall, I was informed that I was on academic suspension for the next year so I can't take any classes. Blerg. My GPA was too low after taking three classes.... Kind of pathetic. I did very poorly on my first course at the end of 2012 because I started my new job and life stuff. Apparently my next two courses were not enough to pull me back up, so now I have to wait. I know there are several classes I can get credit for by just testing out of them. I'm trying to get in contact with my adviser to see if I can do that while I'm suspended or what, but I haven't heard anything back yet.
Also, I want someone to pay me for being involved with video games. Playing games, making games, writing about games...any of those would be nice. The writing part can be improved by this blog. The making part is harder, because I need to get better at programming and school problems make that hard. I know I could just do it on my own, but it's hard to keep up on without deadlines. The playing part would mean streaming, which is a lot of fun, but my laptop struggles with it. Last night I wiped out the hard drive and we'll see if that helps it at all. I think it will, but we'll see how it goes. I do think I'll be able to get up to a pretty high level of competition in Hearthstone, which should get me some viewers, especially once it is officially released. I'll depend on all of you to watch my stream and tell your friends about it! Or, at the very least, open up the stream and mute it and leave it running the background somewhere so I get a viewer boost :P.
Hearthstone. It's a really fun game. And I'm doing really well at it right now! So well in fact that I'm going to start streaming me play it, especially if I really can get into the top league. How awesome will that be!? I still only have my crappy laptop, so that makes things a little difficult, but I'm thinking if I clean it out and reinstall Windows or something that will be an improvement. We'll have to see.
Anyway, I just wanted to check in with that. Overpower3d.com didn't really work out in the end as things got busy with work and school and life, as it does. But it was a good experience and I hope to keep on writing and streaming going forward. Now all I need to do is create content worth reading/watching! ;)
