StarCraft II WCS Nordic Finals - My Experience

About two weeks ago, I went to Stockholm for the WCS Nordic Finals in order to experience some awesome StarCraft. I also went there to attempt to conduct some interviews. Some of you may think that this blog comes kind of late, but the explanation is simple: How could I have written this blog without revealing the persons I conducted interviews with? I wanted to keep it semi-secret, and therefore I waited until the interviews were published :)

I began my trip by taking the train to Stockholm at 9 AM sharp. the train trip really wasn't that spectacular, as I went by myself, and therefore had nobody to talk to. So during the train ride, I decided to put down some notes for the interviews about what I could ask the players about to pass the time. By the time I was halfway to Stockholm, after about 2 hours, I thought I had a pretty good amount of questions.

These questions were almost the only thing I had planned beforehand. You see, originally I was just going to the WCS as a spectator. However, I asked a friend of mine if I could borrow a camera from him, since there were some players there that I wanted to interview in the future. He then asked me whether I wanted a photo or film camera, and then suggested that I could try to interview some players.

This was how the stage looked before the broadcast started

The trip really could've gone either way interview-wise, as the only players I had any contact with prior to the event was Marcus 'ThorZaIN' Eklöf & our own Jesper 'Bischu' Johansson, so I placed my hopes on getting the attention some of the players when they had some time over, and ask them if they would be up for some interviews. I arrived a tad bit late, so I immediately took the subway to the Ericsson Globe Arenas, and went to Annexet, where the event was held.

After getting my entrance bracelet (or whatever they're called, you know those things you wear around your wrist), I went to find my friend, who was in charge of the steady-cam during the event. They were very stressed, but he graciously took some time to teach me how the camera worked, and then I went on my way to find people to interview.

It didn't really get off to a flying start, though. Most of the players were busy playing, so I decided to start off by taking some photos, and bide my time. By the way, you can see the photos here on the website, but for some reason, I don't think they made the greatness of the event justice. I guess I'll have to improve on my camera skills.

I was mostly around the Swedish player area, partially because I felt more comfortable speaking my native tongue, and partially because I knew that the Swedish Finals were scheduled to be last, which therefore meant that I would have more time to interview the players from Sweden. 

Things starting picking up for me after ThorZaIN met Johan 'NaNiWa' Lucchessi in Round 4 of the winners bracket. He beat NaNiWa 2-0, and Marcus was so happy. It was like he couldn't even believe it. He took his glasses off, covered his face with his hands in disbelief, and then proceeded to give his girlfriend a long hug.

It was a really emotional moment, which I didn't want to disturb by taking a picture of, so I let the camera be. I'm no paparazzi, and not all things that happen need to be documented in pictures. After his win, I asked Marcus if he was up for an interview, and he asked for permission on Skype from his team straight away, which he eventually got. And outside we went to find a place suitable for an interview.

When we got outside, I asked if his girlfriend could be in charge of the camera during the interview, since my friend had forgotten his tripod at home. I asked her if she was familiar with cameras, which she said she wasn't, so I explained how to work the camera to her. However, I got trolled really badly, which I will touch upon later. The interview went by smoothly, although I felt that I forgot to ask some important questions. Perhaps that was due to nervousness, which was probably only natural, seeing as that was my first ever video interview.

ThorZaIN focused on playing while MorroW & Cytoplasm watches

After the interview, I went back in, but couldn't find any opportunity to interview any other player, and since you could try out HotS at the venue, I decided to give it a shot. There was a slight problem, though. I was alone, and therefore I had to wait for another player. Thinking to myself "Well, this is gonna take one hell of a long time", I started preparing for minutes of wait. However, that was when fate struck.

A guy from Definitive-eSports also wanted to play. We played on Metropolis, with me as Protoss and him as Terran. Wanting to explore the new units, I attempted to build an Oracle. This was far from smart, as Terran has this one unit known as the Marine, which is pretty good at dealing damage. So after my completely failed mineral-line harass, I transitioned into pure macro, getting my upgrades while holding off some drop aggression from him, and eventually took the game with superior numbers.

After the game, I stuck around him for a while and asked him what he was doing at the venue. Turns out he was also there to conduct interviews with players, and we immediately got along well. 

When we'd finished playing, we went off to eat, and just kept talking about events we've been at, balance and StarCraft II in general. It was one of the few times I've ever discussed the game face-to-face with another person, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We forgot to introduce ourself to one another, and only did so after we'd finished eating. His name was Sam, and he was such a nice guy. So a huuuuuuge shout-out to you, Sam! He also let me in on something I didn't know earlier.

Turns out ThorZaIN's girlfriend is a photographer, and a pretty accomplished one at that. So I had actually tried to explain to an experienced photographer how to work a video camera. Needless to say, I got trolled pretty hard, and touched on the subject when I was talking to her later, which we both got a good laugh at.

Seiplo, the second player I interviewed

When I got back to the venue after eating, I managed to get a hold of Seiplo, and we did our interview then. I was 100% sure Seiplo was my age, but it turns out he's actually one year younger than me, which kind of surprised me. Regardless, Seiplo is such a chill dude, and the interview went by swimmingly!

After the interview was finished, I went back to the venue & met up with Sam to play yet another game of HotS, and then watched the Finnish Finals, where Santeri 'Naama' Lahtinen emerged victorious over Samuli 'Elfi' Sihvonen in a really tight series. When he got down from the stage, I asked if we could do an interview, which he gladly agreed to after he had completed some other interviews. I told him that I would be near the HotS area, and waited there.

Things didn't really turn out as I planned there, though. You see, while I was standing there at the HotS area, I spotted a familiar face, namely James '2GD' Harding, who I proceeded to greet. I've spoken to James one time before, when I was working as crew during DreamHack Winter 2011, and he let me be in the player area so that I could ask players to come for their player photos, which the part of the crew I was working in was responsible for.

I kind of looked a bit diferrent back then, as I had my head shaved just a little while before DHW11 (No, I will NOT link any pictures of that). But James did actually remember me, and I thanked him for allowing me into the player area, and then he asked why I was at the venue. When he heard that I was doing interviews, he recommended that I interviewed Auguste 'Semmler' Massonnat and that I did. The Semmler interview was really long, but to be honest, I would've wanted it to go on even further, because Semmler was such a great conversation partner, and that interview was my favorite one.

Coming back from the interview with Semmler, I realized that I'd forgotten about my interview with Naama, and I kinda botched that interview. I'm so sorry about that, Santeri! As we got back inside, the losers semis between Kim 'SaSe' Hammar & Rickard 'SortOf' Bergman was fully raging, with SortOf coming out on top, taking out SaSe 2-0. After his win, I managed to get an interview with him as well, where fellow progamer Jonas 'Cytoplasm' Larsson did the camera work.

Since they were kind of in a hurry, that interview was the shortest one, as I didn't want to keep them for too long. After the interview, a group of friends approached SortOf & wanted to take his picture. Stefan 'MorroW' Andersson & Cytoplasm also joined the picture, and I had the honor of being the cameraman. To be honest, that picture came out really well!

SortOf, quite possibly the biggest story of the event.

Now that I had four interviews, I decided to transfer them, as well as all the picture I had taken, over to my laptop, which I had brought to the event. And during the rest of the event, I was at the main stage because that was where my laptop was at. Which was good, because I got to witness the Gangnam Style dance-off which was.... special, to say the least, as well as SortOf's incredible run through the losers bracket first-hand. During the finals, I was completely on the edge, and those two series of TvZ's were the best I've seen played out between two European players in a long time. 

Of course, as most of you probably know, ThorZaIN went on to win the WCS Swedish Championship after a really close series, and once again he sat in the couch as a champion. After the ceremonies, I stayed at the venue and talked a bit with Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen, who's probably one of the nicest and most elegant progamer ever. The group of friends that I'd taken a picture for of SortOf, MorroW & Cytoplasm wanted a picture with Grubby as well, and once again, I was more than happy to oblige.

As people approached him with their Mousepads asking for autographs, I remembered that I wanted an autograph as well. However, my pen was all out of ink. Upon hearing this, Grubby replied: "That's OK, would you want some stickers instead?" And ran to fetch them. He didn't go "Oh, how sad for you", and in place for an autograph he gave me something else to remember our encounter by. I really appreciated that, and want to find the best place possible to stick those stickers.

I also caught up with Goeff 'InControL' Robinson to thank him for all the hard work during the event, and I also showed him a picture I took of him during the event. There were admittedly some delays in the schedule, but Goeff managed to make the time fly by sooo quickly.

You know that Gangnam Style Dance-off I talked about earlier? That was his idea, and what a brilliant idea that was. Honestly, I'm certain that if he decides to quit being a progamer, he'll still have work in eSports as either a host or a commentator due to his friendly & playful personality.

When every spectator had left, I still stayed behind to help pack some things up for my friend, because that was the least I could do to thank him for letting me borrow his camera, and by doing so allowing me to conduct these interviews with all of these amazing people! I had no idea that so many things was needed to film an event. There were tons of stuff, and SO many chords. It was insane!

My friend drove me to my Bed & Breakfast place, where we finished transferring all of the pictures, and after that, I went to bed when the clock was half the number of the beast (o3:33). I woke up with feelings of emptiness, as you oh so often do after an event produced by DreamHack, but also satisfaction due to the knowledge that this was something I would remember for a long time.

A worthy end

Thank you so much for reading through this, and if you liked it, feel free to follow me on twitter @OckeSC2!