So I had planned to do a nice write up of NASL's amazing finish to season 1 today after getting a good night's sleep after the weekend's excitement and as I'm going through my usual business of checking teamliquid and r/starcraft I see this:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=243062. My mind is still blown. Here I was thinking it was amazing that I get to experience the NASL finals and then follow it up in 2 weeks with MLG Anaheim but now Socal is also going to be host of the GSL FINALS. I'm at a lack of a proper analogy for how awesome that is for both ESPORTS in North America and for me as a fan hailing from Socal.
On the second day of NASL, I was sitting next to some of the gosu's of the epsorts community; Megumi, Ret, Select, and Squirtle just thinking to myself how awesome it was to be watching some of the most amazing games ever to take place on American soil with some of the greatest Starcraft II players on the planet when SLAYERS FUCKING BOXER strolls out of the players area and sits behind us to watch the rest of the game. I didn't even know what to say to him, the man is a legend and pretty much invented ESPORTS. Luckily, before I could start drooling or something foolish he noticed I was wearing my Slayers jersey (reppin like a BAUS), chuckled and told me I had a nice shirt. I shook his hand and calmly went back to watching the game (giddy as hell though). Later as I was tweeting that I could now 'check one off the ESPORTS' bucket list I had a quick thought of some of the other major things I want to do that would go on said list. Topping that list currently are to attend a GSL event and to get to cast a major event in EU or KR. So yet again it looks like Starcraft is moving even faster than my lofty hopes and dreams can keep up with.
So back to NASL. I'll be honest here: Day 1 was a disaster. I love NASL and despite all the ups and down of the season etc., I believe in and appreciate what they are doing for the scene in NA. Being at the event generally allows you to be blissfully ignorant of any issues that might be happening on stream (ie. mlg dallas) but even at the venue the experience was a rocky one. The projectors had gotten messed up, they were using the smart pan/ ai observer for much of the first day, and audio issues were popping up all over the place. It was hard to watch and it was sad that I couldn't just dismiss all the rage posts on reddit as typical internet over reaction. However, that being said, day 2 and 3 were a fantastic turnaround. The entire staff worked incredibly hard to fix most of the issues that had crippled day 1. The next rounds they had GunRun (mad props) do a lot of the observing, fixed a bunch of sound issues, and readjusted the projectors. The fan experience was "excellent" ; ) there was fantastic gameplay, surprising upsets, and awesome performances by TempoStarcraft. The crowd was also fantastic; when MC was hunting down Puma's medivacs in the finals you could feel the tension and suspense pressing down on you as hundreds and hundreds of nerds held their breath just waiting to see if MC would blink or feedback in time... and when he did... they ERRUUPPPTTEEDDD. I was blown away by how enthusiastic the crowd was and so were the Koreans.
In summary, both MLG and NASL are just going to keep on getting better as they improve on their past performances and as we esports fans continue to do the important job of spreading the world and drawing more awesome people into our wonderful community. I met a lot of people who said that NASL was their first major SC2 event and that they were going to try to come to MLG as well because of how much fun they had so I expect to see even more new, happy, nerd faces (and the familiar ones) this upcoming MLG (July 29th-31st), NASL season 2 (starting in August), and GSL + Blizzcon (October). So take notes: this isn't just a North American Starcraft/ESPORTS bandwagon... it's a god damn BATTLECRUISER.
