[NASL] The Verdict Text by Waxangel Graphics by HawaiianPig

banner by HawaiianPig North American Star League Season 1

NASL - The Verdict

by confusedcrib, emythrel, JimLloyd, Primadog, and shindigs



Table of contents



Brought to you by:

Elly the ESPORTS Elephant





NASL Experiences



Feature Game of the Finals:

MC vs Puma Game 7



From the Press Pit



Conclusion:

What You See is What You Don't Get



Brought to you by: A trial.



For better or for worse, that's what NASL Season One ended up being. No other tourney has had to endure the perverse situation where the persecution of the league was of more interest to public than the competition itself.



NASL grew before our eyes, as everything must do to endure a trial by fire. Their growth culminated in the Grand Finals, a powerful closing statement to try and prove that yes, in the end, they had been vindicated.



We don't presume to give one final verdict here, because all of our experiences were unique. The best we can do is share some of them with you, and let you reach your own conclusion.









Hi! I'm Elly the ESPORTS Elephant! This article is so long, I get to show up twice! Yay! Anyway, here are the various experiences people had the NASL finals. Oh, if I'm allowed to plug myself, I now show up on TL's error pages, so check em out!





: At the NASL

: The view from Home Barcraft : Local NASL Parties On The Ground : At the NASL Stream Watching : The view from Home





One day in the cold spring of Seattle, a StarCraft fan named Glen Bowers had an epiphany, "I love StarCraft, and I love alcohol. How can I combine the two?" Thus r/BarCraft was born, or so the legend goes. These are their stories:









Photograph: Glen"o_Oskar" Bowers



I'm Oskar, and I started the BarCraft scene in Seattle. Lived and worked in the Seattle area my entire adult life, I've been a huge fan of StarCraft since SC1 came out. I was not the best StarCraft player, but I truly love the game and hosted countless StarCraft LAN parties with my friends for more than a decade. Like many in TeamLiquid, I've followed of the pro scene for a long time and always thought it would be a dream to be able to hang out in a bar watching professional StarCraft.



About the time that the NASL started up, I had been house-sitting for a friend who lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. I started hanging out at a bar called









It took a while to figure out the logistics of interfacing into his a/v system and streaming the NASL. Wednesday nights had a good NASL lineup (I <3 TLO) and was also his slowest night, so I picked that for the first test. I put up a post on reddit to get the word out on a Monday and I figured maybe 20 people would show up (half being my friends). The owner, skeptical, told me I'd get 10 max. The night came and the place was packed! I stop counting at around 120 people. It was standing room only.



I was happy, but the owner was flabbergasted. With so many e-sports ballers overrunning his establishment, it became a difficult evening for him. Since then we added regular Sunday nights as well. Now, we have 30 to 40 regulars showing up every Wednesday and Sunday, just for StarCraft. It's not as busy as the first night, but now everyone can sit down and enjoy themselves in comfort. It's a great thing to hang out with fellow e-sports fans and watch the games together in a bar.











Photograph: Nate



Even before I arrived a year ago, Washington DC has had a bustling Starcraft 2 scene. After several unofficial meets, we finally got organized and the SC2DC group was formed. We are a BarCraft, but without a bar. Starting with only five regulars, we have been roaming around people's apartments and houses to watch and play. A month later, there were 14, and we started shopping around for a bar to host us, asking for a place on any networking site we could. You'd imagine it's an easy sale to bar owners for a dozen patrons on a slow night, but for months we had no luck. Some offers would pop-up, but always fell through. By NASL finals weekend, SC2DCers numbering in the 20s were watching throughout the weekend. It was getting rather packed in our apartments, but everyone had a swell time socializing over StarCraft.



Then comes the surprise: half way through the championship set, gave a huge shout-out to all of



Without Micheal Widby, Nate OldManZerg, and myself JohnBeeMuffins, who persevered in keeping the Washington DC scene alive despite getting constantly shot-down, SC2DC would have never been a large enough group to brute force our way to Tenley Public. Don't wait for a bar to host you, network with fellow StarCraft nerds and get to work. Deric, of Tenley Public, was convinced not just because of iNcontroL, but because of the consistent numbers that showed up for our private events. For the final day of Anaheim, he is graciously opening the doors at 11AM for everyone who wants to enjoy some good new fangled Barcraft. This time, the organizers of SC2-DC can finally sit back, relax, and watch the show without worrying about coasters, foodstuffs or spills.



Our first BarCraft will be the final day of MLG Anaheim, July 31.











Photograph: Lorin "Alystair" Halpert



Just around the corner from the popular Honest Eds - I found myself on the second floor of the bustling and Sen.



No one at the meetup knew the photos we took earlier on were going to show up on stream live in front of eighty five thousand other viewers. The room exploded into deafening cheers when our photo with the Canadian flag showed up on screen during 's BarCraft shoutout.



Cya next time, BarCraft Toronto!







This is a call to arms to the StarCraft community of North America.



While sitting on cold floor at the NASL finals, surrounding by legions of rabid E-sports fans, it dawned on this fan that ESPORTS has arrived on this side of Pacific. Now it is time for every man, woman, and child of our community to do our part to let this message be known! Let us pool our resources and make it our mission to get a



A mere week after the NASL shoutout, r/BarCraft has increased the numbers of E-sports bars nation-wide from 4 to more than 10 cities, and its subscribers increased twenty-three fold! Yet, this is just the beginning. Regardless of whether you're a WP, r/sc, or a TL guy, bringing E-sports to the mainstream has always been our common goal, so remember Day9's immortal words (

"Stop asking for permission, just go f***ing do it."





I'm Oskar, and I started the BarCraft scene in Seattle. Lived and worked in the Seattle area my entire adult life, I've been a huge fan of StarCraft since SC1 came out. I was not the best StarCraft player, but I truly love the game and hosted countless StarCraft LAN parties with my friends for more than a decade. Like many in TeamLiquid, I've followed of the pro scene for a long time and always thought it would be a dream to be able to hang out in a bar watching professional StarCraft.About the time that the NASL started up, I had been house-sitting for a friend who lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. I started hanging out at a bar called Chao Bistro a few blocks away and became friends with the owner. When he mentioned growing up in Korea, I told him he must play StarCraft. He laughed and told me that he loves StarCraft and had played as long as I had. A few days later, I was hanging out on a particularly slow evening in the bar. The owner was showing the local Mariners game, but the place was dead. I asked if he would ever consider showing professional StarCraft on his TV's instead. He told me if I wanted to set it, up he'd be ok with it.It took a while to figure out the logistics of interfacing into his a/v system and streaming the NASL. Wednesday nights had a good NASL lineup (I <3 TLO) and was also his slowest night, so I picked that for the first test. I put up a post on reddit to get the word out on a Monday and I figured maybe 20 people would show up (half being my friends). The owner, skeptical, told me I'd get 10 max. The night came and the place was packed! I stop counting at around 120 people. It was standing room only.I was happy, but the owner was flabbergasted. With so many e-sports ballers overrunning his establishment, it became a difficult evening for him. Since then we added regular Sunday nights as well. Now, we have 30 to 40 regulars showing up every Wednesday and Sunday, just for StarCraft. It's not as busy as the first night, but now everyone can sit down and enjoy themselves in comfort. It's a great thing to hang out with fellow e-sports fans and watch the games together in a bar.Even before I arrived a year ago, Washington DC has had a bustling Starcraft 2 scene. After several unofficial meets, we finally got organized and the SC2DC group was formed. We are a BarCraft, but without a bar. Starting with only five regulars, we have been roaming around people's apartments and houses to watch and play. A month later, there were 14, and we started shopping around for a bar to host us, asking for a place on any networking site we could. You'd imagine it's an easy sale to bar owners for a dozen patrons on a slow night, but for months we had no luck. Some offers would pop-up, but always fell through. By NASL finals weekend, SC2DCers numbering in the 20s were watching throughout the weekend. It was getting rather packed in our apartments, but everyone had a swell time socializing over StarCraft.Then comes the surprise: half way through the championship set, iNcontroL gave a huge shout-out to all of r/BarCraft . He even mentioned us, the SC2DC group! That night, one of the first people who offered a bar space posted about it, saying that he finally had the go ahead. Tenley Public is now our new home.Without Micheal Widby, Nate OldManZerg, and myself JohnBeeMuffins, who persevered in keeping the Washington DC scene alive despite getting constantly shot-down, SC2DC would have never been a large enough group to brute force our way to Tenley Public. Don't wait for a bar to host you, network with fellow StarCraft nerds and get to work. Deric, of Tenley Public, was convinced not just because of iNcontroL, but because of the consistent numbers that showed up for our private events. For the final day of Anaheim, he is graciously opening the doors at 11AM for everyone who wants to enjoy some good new fangled Barcraft. This time, the organizers of SC2-DC can finally sit back, relax, and watch the show without worrying about coasters, foodstuffs or spills.OurBarCraft will be the final day of MLG Anaheim, July 31.Just around the corner from the popular Honest Eds - I found myself on the second floor of the bustling Victory Cafe , seeing the Teamliquid homepage projected on a massive screen and knew I was in the right place. There were only about thirty people on the second floor when I came in early to introduce myself to Chromate whom arranged the meet and graciously provided WiFi so I could use my laptop to stay in touch with the rest of the NASL team and help tame the rowdy chat room (8000+ users!) full of people flipping tables - but by the end of the night we had a crowd of 70-80, all cheering and screaming for MC andNo one at the meetup knew the photos we took earlier on were going to show up on stream live in front of eighty five thousand other viewers. The room exploded into deafening cheers when our photo with the Canadian flag showed up on screen during iNcontroL 's BarCraft shoutout.Cya next time, BarCraft Toronto!While sitting on cold floor at the NASL finals, surrounding by legions of rabid E-sports fans, it dawned on this fan that ESPORTS has arrived on this side of Pacific. Now it is time for every man, woman, andof our community to do our part to let this message be known! Let us pool our resources and make it our mission to get a BarCraft in every city and town in America, if not the world!A mere week after the NASL shoutout, r/BarCraft has increased the numbers of E-sports bars nation-wide from 4 to more than 10 cities, and its subscribers increased twenty-three fold! Yet, this is just the beginning. Regardless of whether you're a WP, r/sc, or a TL guy, bringing E-sports to the mainstream has always been our common goal, so remember Day9's immortal words ( State of the Union Address , D9D #232 pre-show, January 3rd, 2011),









NASL's live finals kicked off what is to be a great year for Southern Californian ESPORTS, with MLG Anaheim in a few short weeks followed by a few months of anxious waiting until the GSL finals at Blizzcon. Having lived in SoCal almost all my life, it feels simply amazing that the local venues will be exploding with raw ESPORTS passion for a good portion of 2011.



It's a tragedy that the stream had issues throughout the weekend, but I really don't think even the perfect stream could have captured the atmosphere of the live event. Despite some major day one hiccups, I still felt the entire event was really amazing and that I would definitely come back for the finale of season two - that's how different it was experiencing NASL live compared to watching it on the stream.



Streams can provide you with just about everything nowadays, but they can’t convey the absolutely electric atmosphere of a live event. After going back to the VODs, I think that it’s a shame that NASL didn’t take more initiative in trying to let their stream viewers get a taste of what it was like on the floor. Inadequate as that sampling would have been, they owed it to the fans to let them feel a fraction of the energy and passion that permeated the crowd (it should be a requirement for any true fan of competitive StarCraft 2 to attend a live event if only to know the difference.)



Wandering the show floor was also a great experience. Being surrounded by fans that were like-minded and equally passionate made all of the vitriol and animosity we see online seem trivial and absurd. People didn't care about progamer X being better than progamer Y, or whether or not personality A was hurting ESPORTS through his actions – all that mattered was the games. It's easy to be a cynic online, but it's impossible to have a negative attitude in an environment such as the NASL finals.



Going back to the game viewing experience, there was an intimacy to the NASL finals that surely can’t be captured online, and I might even say can’t be captured at any other live event. I managed to sit on the floor at the very front of the stage, where sometimes the casters and pro-players would be sitting right behind me in the actual seats. During the games you could sometimes overhear Artosis commenting to himself or those next to him about how the games were going, and have other pro players be just as surprised and excited as you when a huge upset happened.



And of course, the players. A showcase of amazing games, followed by hilarious ceremonies, and probably the nicest professional players you ever met made it impossible to actually pick a favorite player to cheer for. The crowd went wild over White-Ra's "special taktiks" entrance, SelecT's SUP SON ceremony, and would audibly chant GOD OF WAR when July took the stage. Sometimes you are disappointed when you meet your idols in the flesh, but these ESPORTS superstars were larger than life.



The event demonstrated what made ESPORTS a reality in the west. As hard as it might be to believe, the community’s primary interests don’t lie in bickering about who’s the best caster, ridiculing everyone’s smallest mistake, or spending more time reading drama threads than watching actual games. No, what we really want is to create the best possible experience for players and fans alike - players receiving the appreciation and support they deserve for their tireless effort, and fans awarded a viewing experience commensurate to their fervor.



Needless to say, you can see that the NASL won me over to their side. Live events will be a driving force in trailblazing the way for ESPORTS into mainstream culture. Lindsey wasn't the only individual who caught the excitement of everyone at the event, but my friends who just came to check out the event are now ecstatic for MLG Anaheim. Its enthusiasm and passion are contagious, and any organization that aims to help spread that passion to others should be applauded. The live experience was absolutely phenomenal, and the NASL staff deserve a round of applause, if not a standing ovation.



Oh yeah, I also did this while I was there:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDi8C7qNgsQ NASL's live finals kicked off what is to be a great year for Southern Californian ESPORTS, with MLG Anaheim in a few short weeks followed by a few months of anxious waiting until the GSL finals at Blizzcon. Having lived in SoCal almost all my life, it feels simply amazing that the local venues will be exploding with raw ESPORTS passion for a good portion of 2011.It's a tragedy that the stream had issues throughout the weekend, but I really don't think even the perfect stream could have captured the atmosphere of the live event. Despite some major day one hiccups, I still felt the entire event was really amazing and that I would definitely come back for the finale of season two - that's how different it was experiencing NASL live compared to watching it on the stream.Streams can provide you with just about everything nowadays, but they can’t convey the absolutely electric atmosphere of a live event. After going back to the VODs, I think that it’s a shame that NASL didn’t take more initiative in trying to let their stream viewers get a taste of what it was like on the floor. Inadequate as that sampling would have been, they owed it to the fans to let them feel a fraction of the energy and passion that permeated the crowd (it should be a requirement for any true fan of competitive StarCraft 2 to attend a live event if only to know the difference.)Wandering the show floor was also a great experience. Being surrounded by fans that were like-minded and equally passionate made all of the vitriol and animosity we see online seem trivial and absurd. People didn't care about progamer X being better than progamer Y, or whether or not personality A was hurting ESPORTS through his actions – all that mattered was the games. It's easy to be a cynic online, but it's impossible to have a negative attitude in an environment such as the NASL finals.Going back to the game viewing experience, there was an intimacy to the NASL finals that surely can’t be captured online, and I might even say can’t be captured at any other live event. I managed to sit on the floor at the very front of the stage, where sometimes the casters and pro-players would be sitting right behind me in the actual seats. During the games you could sometimes overhear Artosis commenting to himself or those next to him about how the games were going, and have other pro players be just as surprised and excited as you when a huge upset happened.And of course, the players. A showcase of amazing games, followed by hilarious ceremonies, and probably the nicest professional players you ever met made it impossible to actually pick a favorite player to cheer for. The crowd went wild over White-Ra's "special taktiks" entrance, SelecT's SUP SON ceremony, and would audibly chant GOD OF WAR when July took the stage. Sometimes you are disappointed when you meet your idols in the flesh, but these ESPORTS superstars were larger than life.The event demonstrated what made ESPORTS a reality in the west. As hard as it might be to believe, the community’s primary interestslie in bickering about who’s the best caster, ridiculing everyone’s smallest mistake, or spending more time reading drama threads than watching actual games. No, what we really want is to create the best possible experience for players and fans alike - players receiving the appreciation and support they deserve for their tireless effort, and fans awarded a viewing experience commensurate to their fervor.Needless to say, you can see that the NASL won me over to their side. Live events will be a driving force in trailblazing the way for ESPORTS into mainstream culture. Lindsey wasn't the only individual who caught the excitement of everyone at the event, but my friends who just came to check out the event are now ecstatic for MLG Anaheim. Its enthusiasm and passion are contagious, and any organization that aims to help spread that passion to others should be applauded. The live experience was absolutely phenomenal, and the NASL staff deserve a round of applause, if not a standing ovation.







When I typed 'justin.tv/naslseasonone' into my address bar at 11am PDT on July 8th and pressed that fateful enter key, I closed my eyes for a second, and braced myself for the worst. Unfortunately, the stream didn't actually start until two hours after the scheduled start time, and I felt that it would be unfair to judge an empty stream. When the event finally began, I was glad I had prepared myself beforehand, because it was a mind-blowingly bi-polar experience.



The Good:



Underline Entertainment's Performances

When it was first announced that Sunday's events would be kicking off with a live performance, I think we all braced for the worst. GSL's live performances are something we all begrudgingly sit through to get to the games.





Truly Yours Your Biggest Fan, This is Dan

To my pleasant surprise, the performance was one of the highlights of the event. The song was relevant to Starcraft, it was amazing to have Nick and Dan up on stage for their reactions, and the performers were, well, great performers. If you're going back through checking out the VOD's, don't skip this performance, it's a highlight.



Video production / Road to The Finals Videos

A tournament like NASL needs road to the finals videos like Protoss needs pylons. With the finals occurring fourteen weeks and hundreds of games from the start of the tournament, it was a necessity for all but the most hardcore viewers. The production quality of the highlight videos was also unexpectedly high. You can’t underestimate the amount of work that went into making them; looking through every single match, finding the highlight moments, and cutting them all into one finished product.



Day 9 as host (when you could hear him)

On day one of the tournament, after waiting two hours for the tournament to start, we were all a little frustrated. The minute I saw



Video Quality

Despite the apocalyptic audio issues, the stream was as smooth as butter, no stutters and looking beautiful. Justin.tv had some regional lag issues later on, but you have to give credit to NASL for the beautiful quality of their 1080p stream.



Crowd Reactions

One thing that the GSL misses and that foreign tournaments get right is crowd reactions. NASL, with its mic properly hooked up to capture crowd reactions, made for some great moments. When you're watching from home there is nothing that gets you pumped like Sen barely holding his third base against MC's air harass or MC revealing his hidden Void Rays in game four to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat to eruptions of cheers from the crowd.





The Bad



Road to the Finals Videos:

In the above section, I made note that the Road to the Finals Videos were a great idea and essential to such a vast league; however, the videos were far too long. Which is surprising, because they were actually only five minutes long.



The problem is that when tuning into the stream and want to watch some games, five minutes feel like an eternity. I applaud the effort, but in the future those videos need to have only be the player's wins and absolutely crucial in-game clips.



Interviews

Dealing with the subject of the interviews conducted is what has required the most amount of thought. The opinions in the community on the subject of the interviews seems to be polarized from "Those girls are really hot" to "What an idiot, she should be fired, NASL should be fired, Starcraft should be fired ahhhhhhh!"



First, I think that is great that NASL has attractive community women doing the interviews. Try not to think what they do for you, try and think what they do for the community. Anna Prosser is Miss USA contestant, and she's into Starcraft, trying to learn it for herself. That kind of publicity is amazing. Think of the different audiences that these women reach. Reaching new audiences is much more important than recycling already known community favorites, and interviews are a great way to go about it.



So not all is bad about the interviewers, but what is bad, is not giving them the kind of training they should have. Ms. Prosser is getting to know Starcraft, and that is excellent, but her knowledge is still at the point where she has to use the same recycled questions for every interview (How do you feel about winning? How did you prepare? How difficult did you think it was? How will you do? Koreans vs. Non-Koreans? In that order over and over again). The interviews were just of poor quality because the women knew to little about the game, but if this experience it what it takes for them to learn more, than it was well worth it.





The Ugly:



10 matches, 12 hours

This was a little bit extremely ridiculous. On the event floor, I realize that things were exciting and hectic, with interviews and player signings, but for the stream, this 12 hour event was quite the drag if you had nothing to do in the meantime. In the future, NASL either needs a ton of extra content (showmatches, commentary), or needs to cut the event time in half and do everything post game.



The Audio

The most glaring problem of all. What was most frustrating about the audio problems was that it seemed like a problem that would be so easy to fix, but they managed to have terrible audio balance for all three days. I’m no expert here, but it’s just mind-boggling that they’d have so many audio problems when it’s never an issue for any other tournament.



The Chat

By far, the ugliest part of the event was Justin.tv chat. Everything was being talked about... other than the games. From nasty personal attacks against anyone who happened to be on screen, to general fits of rage at the NASL (Fire everyone! Give me my money back!), there was just no semblance of decency to be found. I know people are going to tell me that I’m a fool for expecting civility on the internet, but it’s a truly sad state of affairs if I can’t expect to have a well-mannered discussion about the games in a tournament’s official chat room.





The Beautiful



E-SPORTS is Real, and it is happening

Sometimes it's not always clear what makes a great event. We know some things are part of the formula; on-point casting, stellar production, heated personal rivalries, and extensive pre-match hype. Yet if there's anything the NASL taught us, it's that we can throw all of these details out the window. An armada of technical glitches, a contentious history, and weird tournament format could've easily brought the NASL down. That they did not is a testament to the only remaining variable. The players.



Put the world's best players in a pot, and ESPORTS will bloom. Water, nutrient rich soil, and sunlight be damned, the NASL spread roots and budded with a vengeance. MC and Sen played a tremendous series. PuMa and MC played another one. And just like that, everything was forgiven, and ESPORTS was everywhere, in brilliant technicolor, pollinating a field of fans, and gently perfuming the smoggy Southern California air.



Back to top

When I typed 'justin.tv/naslseasonone' into my address bar at 11am PDT on July 8th and pressed that fateful enter key, I closed my eyes for a second, and braced myself for the worst. Unfortunately, the stream didn't actually start until two hours after the scheduled start time, and I felt that it would be unfair to judge an empty stream. When the event finally began, I was glad I had prepared myself beforehand, because it was a mind-blowingly bi-polar experience.When it was first announced that Sunday's events would be kicking off with a live performance, I think we all braced for the worst. GSL's live performances are something we all begrudgingly sit through to get to the games.To my pleasant surprise, the performance was one of the highlights of the event. The song was relevant to Starcraft, it was amazing to have Nick and Dan up on stage for their reactions, and the performers were, well, great performers. If you're going back through checking out the VOD's, don't skip this performance, it's a highlight.A tournament like NASL needs road to the finals videos like Protoss needs pylons. With the finals occurring fourteen weeks and hundreds of games from the start of the tournament, it was a necessity for all but the most hardcore viewers. The production quality of the highlight videos was also unexpectedly high. You can’t underestimate the amount of work that went into making them; looking through every single match, finding the highlight moments, and cutting them all into one finished product.(when you could hear him)On day one of the tournament, after waiting two hours for the tournament to start, we were all a little frustrated. The minute I saw Day 9's angelic figure on stage, it was all forgiven. Day9 is the exact person needed to open the event, his high energy Starcraft fueled passion getting everyone pumped and ready to start their tournament engines.Despite the apocalyptic audio issues, the stream was as smooth as butter, no stutters and looking beautiful. Justin.tv had some regional lag issues later on, but you have to give credit to NASL for the beautiful quality of their 1080p stream.One thing that the GSL misses and that foreign tournaments get right is crowd reactions. NASL, with its mic properly hooked up to capture crowd reactions, made for some great moments. When you're watching from home there is nothing that gets you pumped like Sen barely holding his third base against MC's air harass or MC revealing his hidden Void Rays in game four to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat to eruptions of cheers from the crowd.In the above section, I made note that the Road to the Finals Videos were a great idea and essential to such a vast league; however, the videos were far too long. Which is surprising, because they were actually onlyThe problem is that when tuning into the stream and want to watch some games, five minutes feel likeI applaud the effort, but in the future those videos need to have only be the player's wins and absolutely crucial in-game clips.Dealing with the subject of the interviews conducted is what has required the most amount of thought. The opinions in the community on the subject of the interviews seems to be polarized from "Those girls are really hot" to "What an idiot, she should be fired, NASL should be fired, Starcraft should be fired ahhhhhhh!"First, I think that is great that NASL has attractive community women doing the interviews. Try not to think what they do for you, try and think what they do for the community. Anna Prosser is Miss USA contestant, and she's into Starcraft, trying to learn it for herself. That kind of publicity is amazing. Think of the different audiences that these women reach. Reaching new audiences is much more important than recycling already known community favorites, and interviews are a great way to go about it.So not all is bad about the interviewers, but what is bad, is not giving them the kind of training they should have. Ms. Prosser is getting to know Starcraft, and that is excellent, but her knowledge is still at the point where she has to use the same recycled questions for every interview (How do you feel about winning? How did you prepare? How difficult did you think it was? How will you do? Koreans vs. Non-Koreans? In that order over and over again). The interviews were just of poor quality because the women knew to little about the game, but if this experience it what it takes for them to learn more, than it was well worth it.This wasextremely ridiculous. On the event floor, I realize that things were exciting and hectic, with interviews and player signings, but for the stream, this 12 hour event was quite the drag if you had nothing to do in the meantime. In the future, NASL either needs a ton of extra content (showmatches, commentary), or needs to cut the event time in half and do everything post game.The most glaring problem of all. What was most frustrating about the audio problems was that it seemed like a problem that would be so easy to fix, but they managed to have terrible audio balance for all three days. I’m no expert here, but it’s just mind-boggling that they’d have so many audio problems when it’s never an issue for any other tournament.By far, the ugliest part of the event was Justin.tv chat. Everything was being talked about... other than the games. From nasty personal attacks against anyone who happened to be on screen, to general fits of rage at the NASL (Fire everyone! Give me my money back!), there was just no semblance of decency to be found. I know people are going to tell me that I’m a fool for expecting civility on the internet, but it’s a truly sad state of affairs if I can’t expect to have a well-mannered discussion about the games in a tournament’s official chat room.Sometimes it's not always clear what makes a great event. We know some things are part of the formula; on-point casting, stellar production, heated personal rivalries, and extensive pre-match hype. Yet if there's anything the NASL taught us, it's that we can throw all of these details out the window. An armada of technical glitches, a contentious history, and weird tournament format could've easily brought the NASL down. That they did not is a testament to the only remaining variable. The players.Put the world's best players in a pot, and ESPORTS will bloom. Water, nutrient rich soil, and sunlight be damned, the NASL spread roots and budded with a vengeance. MC and Sen played a tremendous series. PuMa and MC played another one. And just like that, everything was forgiven, and ESPORTS was everywhere, in brilliant technicolor, pollinating a field of fans, and gently perfuming the smoggy Southern California air.















Well folks, its finally over. The finals produced some epic games and I had to choose only one of them. I felt it was only fitting to use the final game of the final match of NASL season 1. It was an epic series and while the dramatic grand final between Puma and MC can only be attributed to their own prodigious skill, we must give some credit to the NASL format as well.



People complained about the open bracket winner meeting the highest ranked seed in the Ro16 but in the end it made for one hell of a storyline. Puma ripped through seven rounds of open bracket play taking down some very notable players, both Koreans and white dudes alike, then jumped on a plane to the always sunny California to take on the best the NASL had to offer. Taking down Ret, Squirtle and July on his way to the grand finals, everyone who claims that Puma didn't earn his money should be rounded up and slapped around in the face with a large, wet trout before being tar and feathered.





Feature Game:

The Gentleman Puma Vs ObamaToss - Grand Finals Game 7 on Crevasse



The game started off as normal as possible, I even went to grab a drink when I saw Puma was going for a 14 CC. When I returned to my PC it was to see that MC was going for one of the most insane rush strats I've ever seen in such a high money game. Here is a guy playing for $25,000 and he's throwing up proxy pylons inside Puma's main there is a Zealot wreaking havoc at the back door natural and another one picking away at a constructing bunker.





Nothing to see here, move along.



Now I don't know about you but at this point I was almost passed out on the floor from constant nerd chills. Puma's multitasking and nerves were being pushed to their absolute limit, MC's championship instincts are second to none and he had smelt blood in the water, as iNcontrol would say “no one plans to put a proxy pylon inside their opponent’s main, but when the chance presents itself...”. Two proxy pylons, a Zealot and a Stalker were inside Puma's main and all Puma had to defend with were a couple of marines and some SCVs. If this were SC1 then there would be nothing to worry about, as SCVs are some of the best early combat units in the game, but these were squishy SC2 SCVs alongside crappy no-upgrade marines.



However, Puma showed that his reputation as a practice bonjwa was well deserved. His unit control in that clutch situation was just incredible. How he took down the Zealot and Stalker losing only two Marines is beyond me but down they went.





You shall not pass!



The danger was still not over, MC still had two in-base proxy pylons completed with warp-gate research nearly finished. Puma had managed to get a bunker finished at his choke but it wouldn't help at all against Stalkers warping in inside his base. Puma pulled SCVs to join his Marines in taking down the two pylons, and it became an extremely close race to kill them off before the critical upgrade completed.



Puma managed to kill the pylons with about three seconds to spare and upon seeing his SCV's back mining and one expansion up, the crowd, commentators and a dare say most of us watching at home were able to breath a sigh of relief (or cry of anguish). We had come to the conclusion that if Puma could just continue to stay alive for the next couple of minutes that the championship was his.



MC of course had other ideas. His warpgate research was done and he knew he was behind. It was do or die time, he needed to do more damage or face a deficit that was too great to overcome. Another two proxy pylons, this time outside of Puma's base, were placed cunningly well. One to allow safe reinforcements to the attack, and one for offensive warp-ins just above Puma's ramp. The first round of Stalkers walked by the bunker and seemed to be heading for the back door expo where they would be quickly reinforced by the low-ground pylon, but again - God damn! Pumas unit control was so good! His starsense and reactions just made my jaw drop time and again, instantly making the correct decision by blocking the stalkers with SCVs and then herding them away from the natural while the marines fired away.





Come by, come by, whoa.



The second round of Stalkers got a little closer to the nat, well they made it up the ramp anyways. It really was like Puma was using SC1 SCVs, it almost seemed unfair how few were dying and how much damage they were doing.





Welcome to the Jungle



The next warp-in used that awesome pylon I spoke about earlier to warp right in to the high ground, but lets be honest, it didn't work out as well as MC would have hoped. Being completely pinned in to that narrow choke with twenty rabid Puma SCVs waiting to pounce isn't a place you want to be if you are a Protoss unit.



Puma did something next that made me feel the way getting in to a bath that is just the perfect temperate does, that's right he placed down two supply depots to create another choke and block off any units using the offensive pylon to warp-in. What a decision, seriously, in that situation who has the presence of mind to do something that smart? I would be barely be able to hit the right hotkeys at this point in the game if I were playing for that kind of money but it was like Puma was going “yeah I'll just pop these down, I've got fifteen SCVs here doing nothing, might as well put them to good use”. To top it all off Puma put a marine on the second level of high ground at his natural, getting free shots on any units warped in through the offensive pylon.





Aiur, we have a problem



MC must have been devastated as he moved his units forward to see a Bunker and 2 rax to his right, supply depots blocking his way forward and SCVs just waiting to surround him; where the hell do you go from there? You can't go back, you can't go forward, if you go by the bunker your units will die. This is the point where we would all say that MC should have just stopped the rush and expanded, but of course we're not all two time GSL champs here, so what the hell do we know? MC warped in one more round of Zealots on the high ground and then expanded which bought him some more time and got him some scouting information.



If you were in TL's IRC during this game it looked a little something like this:

<Jonnybronze> Terran OP

<@Chill[Puma]> This is over

<Randomnub>CHILL GET OUT

<@Chill[Puma]> still on that?

<Highleveldiamondguy> MC just needs to get templars and expand again and get collosus and archons and close the supply gap he can still win

<Aelloon> This is so over

<rockshock> yup

<oooo> everybody hates me blah blah blah

<alissy>be quiet oooo

<randomTler1> Puma's got this

<randomTler2> Puma's got this

<randomTler3> Puma's got this

<randomTler4> Puma's got this

<randomTler5> Puma's got this

<randomTler6> Puma's got this



Basically, the game was over. There was no way MC could come back unless Puma made some silly mistake like losing his entire f***ing army... which he very nearly did!



The first big engagement definitely went MC's way but the early expansion was already paying off for Puma by this point and he was able to reinforce much better and keep his supply lead at roughly twenty despite being on the losing side of the battle. Puma did however have to retreat back up his ramp to the bunkers and MC was safe from his Twilight council being sniped while Zealot charge was being researched (did anyone else have flashbacks to MMA vs Losira and the spawning pool?).



MC was looking for his famous and deadly 6gate attack, he was now in a position where he could pull the miracle comeback both in the series and the game at hand but it was still going to be an uphill battle. He decided to commit to the attack and charged up the ramp to meet the bunkers. Marines, Marauders and Ghosts weren't enough to turn him back but as soon as Puma's SCVs came in to view MC's Zealots lost their nerve and ran away.





SCVs sir! Thousands of 'em



MC was obviously doing a lot of on the spot decisions in this game, when you are playing from behind build orders tend to go out the window. In any case, his decision to go for DTs was a good one.



If there is any sure fire way to buy time against a Terran its DTs; people refuse to build Ravens because they are just so damn good against Protoss that they feel it's unfair to use them. That and the fact you have to swap your Starport on to a techlab and then swap it back to the reactor, which is simply six clicks too many compared to just hitting "4-C-leftclick." DTs also catch Terrans off guard nearly every time unless its a DT rush (ironic, really), if you have given a T no reason to make turrets then DTs will nearly always do decent damage and this game was no exception. The crowd were counting out the SCV kills like they were watching WWE and one spandex clad poser has his crotch in the face of and is pounding on the head of another spandex clad poser who is against the turn-buckles. I half expected to hear chants of “Lets go Puma” from the Puma fans followed by “Puma Sucks” from the MC fans... unfortunately that didn't happen.





1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10! *cheer* 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10! *cheer*



Unfortunately for MC the supply gap was continuing to grow. Both players were working to secure their second naturals but Puma still had the superior economy. The game got a bit boring for the next couple of minutes as MC warped in another DT and bought himself another 3 seconds of life but it didn't help the fact that his army was starting to look a bit pathetic. The only way that Puma was going to lose the game was if MC utilized the sole advantage of a live event and started to physically beat the crap out of his opponent. And while that would have been no doubt entertaining, it's just not what classy Starcraft nerds do (unless you're Russian).



Puma finally decided it was time to go win a championship already, that his days of being only a practice bonjwa were over. He broke down the rocks and headed to MC's third with the ghosts at the front carrying the banners. MC actually made a big misstep in my eyes when he moved his army out of the way of Puma, that let Puma get his back to the wall and place his bio ball in an unbeatable position. A couple of great EMPs decimated MC's army and GG came before the battle was even concluded.





Call the President-Elect. I want to congratulate him



I said last week that only ZvP had been producing the goods when it came to epic games in the NASL but boy did Puma and MC step up. This game arguably wasn't even the best game of the series it was just the most exciting and fun to write about. If you are one of the people who didn't watch the NASL finals, then shame on you, you missed out on some of the best Starcraft to date.



It’s been a fun ride over the last three months and I am a little sad that it's over. But then I remind myself that season 2 starts in a few weeks and that this time it’s only going to get better. Better players, a more seasoned production team (lets face it they've had to deal with every problem under the sun this season and that will train up anyone fast) and a new, as-of-yet unknown caster in to fill the rather large void left by a departing iNcontrol.



There’s every reason to be excited, and I hope to see you next season!





Somehow I don't think this guy is going anywhere...



Back to top

Well folks, its finally over. The finals produced some epic games and I had to choose only one of them. I felt it was only fitting to use the final game of the final match of NASL season 1. It was an epic series and while the dramatic grand final between Puma and MC can only be attributed to their own prodigious skill, we must give some credit to the NASL format as well.People complained about the open bracket winner meeting the highest ranked seed in the Ro16 but in the end it made for one hell of a storyline. Puma ripped through seven rounds of open bracket play taking down some very notable players, both Koreans and white dudes alike, then jumped on a plane to the always sunny California to take on the best the NASL had to offer. Taking down Ret, Squirtle and July on his way to the grand finals, everyone who claims that Puma didn't earn his money should be rounded up and slapped around in the face with a large, wet trout before being tar and feathered.The game started off as normal as possible, I even went to grab a drink when I saw Puma was going for a 14 CC. When I returned to my PC it was to see that MC was going for one of the most insane rush strats I've ever seen in such a high money game. Here is a guy playing for $25,000 and he's throwing up proxy pylons inside Puma's main there is a Zealot wreaking havoc at the back door natural and another one picking away at a constructing bunker.Now I don't know about you but at this point I was almost passed out on the floor from constant nerd chills. Puma's multitasking and nerves were being pushed to their absolute limit, MC's championship instincts are second to none and he had smelt blood in the water, as iNcontrol would say “no one plans to put a proxy pylon inside their opponent’s main, but when the chance presents itself...”. Two proxy pylons, a Zealot and a Stalker were inside Puma's main and all Puma had to defend with were a couple of marines and some SCVs. If this were SC1 then there would be nothing to worry about, as SCVs are some of the best early combat units in the game, but these were squishy SC2 SCVs alongside crappy no-upgrade marines.However, Puma showed that his reputation as a practice bonjwa was well deserved. His unit control in that clutch situation was just incredible. How he took down the Zealot and Stalker losing only two Marines is beyond me but down they went.The danger was still not over, MC still had two in-base proxy pylons completed with warp-gate research nearly finished. Puma had managed to get a bunker finished at his choke but it wouldn't help at all against Stalkers warping in inside his base. Puma pulled SCVs to join his Marines in taking down the two pylons, and it became an extremely close race to kill them off before the critical upgrade completed.Puma managed to kill the pylons with about three seconds to spare and upon seeing his SCV's back mining and one expansion up, the crowd, commentators and a dare say most of us watching at home were able to breath a sigh of relief (or cry of anguish). We had come to the conclusion that if Puma could just continue to stay alive for the next couple of minutes that the championship was his.MC of course had other ideas. His warpgate research was done and he knew he was behind. It was do or die time, he needed to do more damage or face a deficit that was too great to overcome. Another two proxy pylons, this time outside of Puma's base, were placed cunningly well. One to allow safe reinforcements to the attack, and one for offensive warp-ins just above Puma's ramp. The first round of Stalkers walked by the bunker and seemed to be heading for the back door expo where they would be quickly reinforced by the low-ground pylon, but again - God damn! Pumas unit control was so good! His starsense and reactions just made my jaw drop time and again, instantly making the correct decision by blocking the stalkers with SCVs and then herding them away from the natural while the marines fired away.The second round of Stalkers got a little closer to the nat, well they made it up the ramp anyways. It really was like Puma was using SC1 SCVs, it almost seemed unfair how few were dying and how much damage they were doing.The next warp-in used that awesome pylon I spoke about earlier to warp right in to the high ground, but lets be honest, it didn't work out as well as MC would have hoped. Being completely pinned in to that narrow choke with twenty rabid Puma SCVs waiting to pounce isn't a place you want to be if you are a Protoss unit.Puma did something next that made me feel the way getting in to a bath that is just the perfect temperate does, that's right he placed down two supply depots to create another choke and block off any units using the offensive pylon to warp-in. What a decision, seriously, in that situation who has the presence of mind to do something that smart? I would be barely be able to hit the right hotkeys at this point in the game if I were playing for that kind of money but it was like Puma was going “yeah I'll just pop these down, I've got fifteen SCVs here doing nothing, might as well put them to good use”. To top it all off Puma put a marine on the second level of high ground at his natural, getting free shots on any units warped in through the offensive pylon.MC must have been devastated as he moved his units forward to see a Bunker and 2 rax to his right, supply depots blocking his way forward and SCVs just waiting to surround him; where the hell do you go from there? You can't go back, you can't go forward, if you go by the bunker your units will die. This is the point where we would all say that MC should have just stopped the rush and expanded, but of course we're not all two time GSL champs here, so what the hell do we know? MC warped in one more round of Zealots on the high ground and then expanded which bought him some more time and got him some scouting information.If you were in TL's IRC during this game it looked a little something like this:Basically, the game was over. There was no way MC could come back unless Puma made some silly mistake like losing his entire f***ing army... which he very nearly did!The first big engagement definitely went MC's way but the early expansion was already paying off for Puma by this point and he was able to reinforce much better and keep his supply lead at roughly twenty despite being on the losing side of the battle. Puma did however have to retreat back up his ramp to the bunkers and MC was safe from his Twilight council being sniped while Zealot charge was being researched (did anyone else have flashbacks to MMA vs Losira and the spawning pool?).MC was looking for his famous and deadly 6gate attack, he was now in a position where he could pull the miracle comeback both in the series and the game at hand but it was still going to be an uphill battle. He decided to commit to the attack and charged up the ramp to meet the bunkers. Marines, Marauders and Ghosts weren't enough to turn him back but as soon as Puma's SCVs came in to view MC's Zealots lost their nerve and ran away.MC was obviously doing a lot of on the spot decisions in this game, when you are playing from behind build orders tend to go out the window. In any case, his decision to go for DTs was a good one.If there is any sure fire way to buy time against a Terran its DTs; people refuse to build Ravens because they are just so damn good against Protoss that they feel it's unfair to use them. That and the fact you have to swap your Starport on to a techlab and then swap it back to the reactor, which is simply six clicks too many compared to just hitting "4-C-leftclick." DTs also catch Terrans off guard nearly every time unless its a DT rush (ironic, really), if you have given a T no reason to make turrets then DTs will nearly always do decent damage and this game was no exception. The crowd were counting out the SCV kills like they were watching WWE and one spandex clad poser has his crotch in the face of and is pounding on the head of another spandex clad poser who is against the turn-buckles. I half expected to hear chants of “Lets go Puma” from the Puma fans followed by “Puma Sucks” from the MC fans... unfortunately that didn't happen.Unfortunately for MC the supply gap was continuing to grow. Both players were working to secure their second naturals but Puma still had the superior economy. The game got a bit boring for the next couple of minutes as MC warped in another DT and bought himself another 3 seconds of life but it didn't help the fact that his army was starting to look a bit pathetic. The only way that Puma was going to lose the game was if MC utilized theadvantage of a live event and started to physically beat the crap out of his opponent. And while that would have been no doubt entertaining, it's just not what classy Starcraft nerds do (unless you're Russian).Puma finally decided it was time to go win a championship already, that his days of being only a practice bonjwa were over. He broke down the rocks and headed to MC's third with the ghosts at the front carrying the banners. MC actually made a big misstep in my eyes when he moved his army out of the way of Puma, that let Puma get his back to the wall and place his bio ball in an unbeatable position. A couple of great EMPs decimated MC's army and GG came before the battle was even concluded.I said last week that only ZvP had been producing the goods when it came to epic games in the NASL but boy did Puma and MC step up. This game arguably wasn't even the best game of the series it was just the most exciting and fun to write about. If you are one of the people who didn't watch the NASL finals, then shame on you, you missed out on some of the best Starcraft to date.It’s been a fun ride over the last three months and I am a little sad that it's over. But then I remind myself that season 2 starts in a few weeks and that this time it’s only going to get better. Better players, a more seasoned production team (lets face it they've had to deal with every problem under the sun this season and that will train up anyone fast) and a new, as-of-yet unknown caster in to fill the rather large void left by a departing iNcontrol.There’s every reason to be excited, and I hope to see you next season!















After three days of non-stop live coverage, Primadog spent yet another weekend around the NASL house collecting even more delicious media content.





TeamLiquid Interviews Everyone



White-Ra: "My favorite Harry Potter character is IdrA."



Though the other interviews here are transcribed for those who don't have the time to watch videos, we realized that words cannot capture the experience that is White-Ra. You must discover it for yourself.









NASL Sponsor - iBUYPOWER Gaming PCs: "We'll expand our presence in the E-sports space."



Announced at the Grand Finals,



+ Show Spoiler [Interview] + Most of us at TeamLiquid are not familiar with iBUYPOWER, could you introduce the company?



iBUYPOWER is one of the largest independent gaming computer makers in the United States. We’ve been in business since 1999 (almost 12 years now!). Our company philosophy is based around three pillars: Freedom of choice, quality of build, and value of products. We have more component choices than most system builders in the market, build a quality system (backed by our 3 year limited warranty), and are able to do it at a price point much lower than many of the “boutique” builders out there today.





When did iBUYPOWER decide to delve into E-sports? Is this iBUYPOWER's first foray into the scene? It must been a difficult sell to your superiors!



We've had our eye on the community for a long time, but the NASL is iBUYPOWER’s first major venture into e-sports. Ultimately, the NASL made the sponsorship decision easy for us.





So how did the NASL partnership come about? Which party approached the other? Why NASL over any other tournament?



The NASL approached us before there even was a NASL and we’ve been building the relationship for a long time. The management of NASL are extremely passionate about expanding e-sports in North America, and they’ve taken huge risks to get to the type of success that they have today.





From a fan's perspective, this sponsorship seemed to come out of nowhere. Was it intentional? Why so late into the season?



We’ve been talking with the NASL since before the season started, and for various reasons, we couldn’t jump in at the start of the season. Obviously, we followed their progress closely throughout the season. They came back to us about 2 weeks before the event and wanted to see a system builder in their finals, and we jumped at the opportunity.





What does iBUYPOWER hope to gain from this venture?



From a business side, we’re hoping to expand our outreach into the ESPORTS. From a people side, we’d like to see the e-sports scene grow. A lot of us are gamers ourselves and follow the scene closely, in our free time.



We’re hoping that one day, we’ll see gaming superstars in the states with the kind of prominence of our sports superstars. What we see in the ESPORTS community is that it’s a very tightly knit community that are extremely passionate about the games they play. Sometimes, this community is overlooked by the mainstream media, partly because they've pigeonholed all of us into a “nerd” stereotype, and partly because the community is weaker here in the United States, compared to other mainstream events and compared to the community overseas. We don’t think there’s any reason why gamers eventually can’t reach the type of recognition of a Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan in the states, but first that community needs to grow into mainstream acceptance.





What can we expect from iBUYPOWER going forth? For example, can we expect iBUYPOWER to come out with product lines catering specifically towards to our needs?



If there’s interest in an ESPORTS-oriented gaming desktop, we’d love to hear about it. Feel free to spam our inboxes or our





Let's talk ROI, has the sponsorship with NASL make the returns you expected? Do you see further involvement with ESPORTS in the future?



The NASL has been a good partner for us. We are exploring options to expand our presence in the E-sports space.





Thank you for your time. Any last shout outs?



Thanks to the Starcraft community for making events like this possible! Thanks to the NASL for an awesome three days of Starcraft playoffs and a nail biting 7-game final series! Congrats to for winning. The NASL has taken huge risks to expand the North American E-sports community, and they deserve a lot of credit for getting to where they are today. Make sure you check them out for Season 2! iBUYPOWER is one of the largest independent gaming computer makers in the United States. We’ve been in business since 1999 (almost 12 years now!). Our company philosophy is based around three pillars: Freedom of choice, quality of build, and value of products. We have more component choices than most system builders in the market, build a quality system (backed by our 3 year limited warranty), and are able to do it at a price point much lower than many of the “boutique” builders out there today.We've had our eye on the community for a long time, but the NASL is iBUYPOWER’s first major venture into e-sports. Ultimately, the NASL made the sponsorship decision easy for us.The NASL approached us before there even was a NASL and we’ve been building the relationship for a long time. The management of NASL are extremely passionate about expanding e-sports in North America, and they’ve taken huge risks to get to the type of success that they have today.We’ve been talking with the NASL since before the season started, and for various reasons, we couldn’t jump in at the start of the season. Obviously, we followed their progress closely throughout the season. They came back to us about 2 weeks before the event and wanted to see a system builder in their finals, and we jumped at the opportunity.From a business side, we’re hoping to expand our outreach into the ESPORTS. From a people side, we’d like to see the e-sports scene grow. A lot of us are gamers ourselves and follow the scene closely, in our free time.We’re hoping that one day, we’ll see gaming superstars in the states with the kind of prominence of our sports superstars. What we see in the ESPORTS community is that it’s a very tightly knit community that are extremely passionate about the games they play. Sometimes, this community is overlooked by the mainstream media, partly because they've pigeonholed all of us into a “nerd” stereotype, and partly because the community is weaker here in the United States, compared to other mainstream events and compared to the community overseas. We don’t think there’s any reason why gamers eventually can’t reach the type of recognition of a Babe Ruth or Michael Jordan in the states, but first that community needs to grow into mainstream acceptance.If there’s interest in an ESPORTS-oriented gaming desktop, we’d love to hear about it. Feel free to spam our inboxes or our facebook group with suggestions on what you think the “perfect” e-sports gaming desktop should be able to do. If there’s enough interest and it’s different enough from a “standard” gaming desktop, we’ll make one. Throw it in the comments if you want, we’ll read them… I’m assuming people will be able to leave comments on this interview.The NASL has been a good partner for us. We are exploring options to expand our presence in the E-sports space.Thanks to the Starcraft community for making events like this possible! Thanks to the NASL for an awesome three days of Starcraft playoffs and a nail biting 7-game final series! Congrats to PuMa for winning. The NASL has taken huge risks to expand the North American E-sports community, and they deserve a lot of credit for getting to where they are today. Make sure you check them out for Season 2!





Gretorp: "you know how a bear goes into the stream and there's all these salmons in the water. The bear is just picking up the salmons and eating them. That's me and qxc."





On the way to the 's run in the US Open, replacing , and his feud with FXOqxc.



Part 1

+ Show Spoiler [Transcript] +

Let's start off with something interesting: Sunday night, you were crying in my arms after the show in the player area. What happened? What were you feeling?



I was just overcome with emotion, man. It was the first time I ever broken down in tears, from what happened. I think it was just, NASL was always near-and-dear to my heart. It was actually a very risky investment, coming from an actuary background, it was a very risky investment.



To have all my passion investmented in this, and to really come out on top. It made me, so overcome, so overcome with that emotion, I couldn't contain it anymore. It was a great feeling. It was great.





This was the first time I ever let a grown man cry on me, but I felt the same way, something special happened that night.



I think there's a lot of implications for E-sports as a whole. There's a lot to come out of this. I think NASL was very daring. We made a bold move. You know, when it comes down to it, it was a step in the right direction. With all the adversity to overcome, it was definitely a step in the right direction.





zemotion" of team Infinity Seven. Jinn "" of team Infinity Seven. www.zhangjingna.com

Overall you think the NASL ended on a high note?



High note, yes.





At the same time, you're fully aware there were a lot of disappointment from the community in the beginning of the season. With a full season under your belt, how do you evaluate yourself and NASL in general, as its anchor?



Oh those are very, very deep questions.



I'll first go with NASL. I'll first go with the NASL. Of course, we didn't start as well as we wanted to, unfortunately. NASL did, as I said, overcome allot of it. There are still some issues, but they're more cosmetic though, than anything else. The best part about it is that we have very loyal fans and a community that are willing to point it out.



I know that, people are going to be, "Well, of course we're going to point it out," but if you look into it. I read every single NASL thread possible, people are very meticulous at what we need to do, and how to do things. Now what that ends up doing is what the community brings to us, we can put all these together, and we can focus on these specific things.



You know, it's one thing to complain about something, and it's another to complain and give constructive criticism. That's what the community has been so good about. If you have seen the first day of production and the last day of production, it is night and day. Now we're just starting to curtail ourselves a little bit there, and a bit there. Fixing the cosmetic things to make it look like the star production quality we really want, the best casting possible, the best games possible, and have a good process flow and everything, as we give information flow of everything related I think NASL has done an excellent job of taking in information and change very dynamically based on that information.



Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. I don't want to take away from the fact that NASL has made big, big accomplishments in improvement, and just in overall production. I am very, very happy with... when I said production, I don't meant just our actual production, but also everything as it is. Producing the content, producing the actual material, everything.



As for me, oh God!



How do i think I developed? I think have developed more than anyone caster have developed in that amount of time. I can say, without a doubt, that I have casted more games than anyone else in the world in that amount of time. In the course of three weeks three months, I casted over four/five hundred games.





I believe, if my count is correct, 499 games in the regular season alone.



That is an astounding number. Not only that, I need to mention that I did the SGL tournament, I did the GosuCoaching Premier League, things like that. Other things that we don't count for NASL, I still did it. Recently, we have a White-Ra vs Sen Showmatch, we did that. I definitely put in the most time.



In terms of analyzing myself, I probably analyzed more of myself than anyone ever had. It is good improvement, I know where I need to work on. I know what I lacked, but one thing that is kind of tough, I'm going to go on a tangent here - one thing that is tough about the scene - is that I don't think people understand the role of the caster yet. In particular, the types of casters.



We always say there's two types of casters, there's the play-by-play, and there's the color commentator. I'll say I am more of a color commentator than anything else. However, there's different kind of color commentators and how we analyze. I have a very specific brand of how I do color commentator that no one else has.



It is kind of interesting that everyone's input in my casting. I obviously have changed. The Law of Large Numbers, if I continue this on, is this going to be the best casting method? I put in a lot, a lot of time into it.



This is the first time second time, since I have been here, that I am actually going outside of Rancho Cucamonga. Which is insane. The first time it was for two hours, to a sushi place at Venice Beach, and we came back because we have NASL the next day. This is the first time I ever get to relax, chill out, get outside of NASL.



I hope that shows my commitment to not only casting, but to the industry in general. I want it to succeed, and I want E-sports to succeed.



[T/N note: Gretorp attempts to kiss sleeping princess Sen while he's asleep and vulnerable]





, the face of NASL for the first season. Do you think he is replaceable? NASL will lose iNcontroL , the face of NASL for the first season. Do you think he is replaceable?



No.



iNcontrol is a specific brand that no other person on the face of the planet can replace. He is a valueable asset, and losing him, it stinks. It really does.



I am very biased because he's my close friend in the E-sports community. We've done a lot together, we went shopping together, we went to the casino together. We went on man-dates. Anna was getting jealous, so what can i say? It really sucks, losing a friend that I have grown so close to, over the entire half year, it is unfortunate.



That being said, I felt like our casting styles, not similar, but overlap to an extend. Looking at it, purely objectively, it was the reason why it was a bit slow to gain that chemistry. I talked slow, like a week, it was slow was the fact that we have no pre-determined roles, so we just went with it.



When we overlapped each other, the things that we prepared for, the things you prepared to say has already been said. Then, you need a level of improv to go over that, then you need to fill space. What casting should be is not to fill space. You're looking for room to talk. The big things about casting, for example, these units are going from Point A to Point B. There are many different ways to say that, you want to say is,



"The Marauders are attacking the Nexus."



You don't want to say,



"The Marauders are traversing the entire map, yadda yadda yadda."



Because what you want to do is create more time to talk, the ability to say more things, and potentially give more time to the color commentator to talk. Analyzing the map during downtime is what takes up more time than the play-by-play commentary.



That being said, because we both filled the color commentary, not only the overlap. A lot of the time, it became Gretorp for an extend amount of time, then iNcontroL for an extended amount of time, and sometimes we'll bounce questions at each other. That dynamic doesn't flow as well for the first week. I will even say the first couple of weeks. What iNcontroL and I started doing was realizing we have strengths in individual fields, so we start to pass off to each other quite frequently. We will go into play-by-play game situationally, because we both have very different styles of play.



I am more of a theoretical player, this is what you should always do in this position, that type of deal. iNcontroL is more based on the type of player, you can cut corners, this way.





Certain amount of intuition and experience?



Yes, he [iNcontroL] has a more intuitive, experienced style. We'll both pass it off, based on the players. I felt that added a very deep level of understanding, with the StarCraft community. I think that's a big reason why, you can say there's much insight into this, because you can get into the mind of a player. What the pro is doing, something that not many other casters can do.



Day9, , and , they can do it. Other than that, you don't have allot of people that can do that. I felt that's a very interesting dynamic that we brought to the table, and we have very different styles, even more so than Artosis, Tasteless, and Day9.



Back to the question, it's going to be tough to replace someone like iNcontroL. Do I think there's room for a better combination? Of course. Is it going to be hard to find one? It'll be hard to find someone to fill the spot left behind by iNcontroL. Whether we can fill that analysis role and do the pass-off, or analysis and play-by-play. Time will tell.



What is my preference? I think I do like the play-by-play [plus color combination]. Total_Biscuit and I, we had a wonderful time. Diggity and I, we had a good time as well. We'll see. Time will tell, all I can say is I am looking forward to the time to come.





You have gained many anti-fans, haters if you will, but you also gained many fans. Many more people know about Gretorp than before. Do you have something you want to say to your haters as well as your fans?



I don't think it's haters so much. I don't want to label them as haters, because I don't think they actually hate me. I don't think they actually hate me, since it takes so much to hate someone. I do think they're more disappointed with their expectations. Whether their expectations were [too] high or low, I am not sure yet. I think they are disappointed with some of my results.



I think something really, really magical has happened over the course of NASL. I think have I have turned a lot of the disappointed people around. Maybe not completely around, instead of 180, maybe 70, 90 degrees. It's the fact that the people who were disappointed are still very open-minded, and they still want E-SPORTS to succeed. They see how hard I am trying, and how much I am working, and they're getting behind me, even though I am not fulfilling all their expectations.



That's very... that's a good feeling. It's a great feeling.



I have built a fanbase, overtime the time. To them, I am extremely happy that you guys have been supporting me the whole time. What will E-SPORTS be without the spectators and fans, you know? They're the backbone.



I am humbled by it. I don't consider myself fan-worthy yet. I have much work left to go, and I have to put more time into this. Obviously I sacrificed, the fact that people already seeing that I had done all that, that I have worked so hard, they're willing to come behind me and support me, and be my fans.



It's more than I can ask for. I am very, very grateful and thankful for everyone out there.





Thoughts on KiWiKaKi's run in the WSOP?



He's the boss man.



KiWiKaKi, for all the ones that don't know already, is in the main event for the World Series of Poker [at the time of the interview]. He was a poker player before, he was a professional poker player, that's how he makes his living. And he's still a professional StarCraft player, it's very inspiring to see him succeed in both these areas of expertise.



Of course, he ran good, he had to run good. He beat out Ace-Ten against Pocket-Kings. You have to be very lucky, but I am sure there were many other times when he was at risk. He does fantastic, a mind-game player, mind-game reader. I expected nothing less of KiWiKaKi.



KiWiKaKi FIGHTING!!!





As a player, with so much casting, you had much less time to practice, and because of that, you have dropped out as a seeded player from MLG. Did it hurt, personally?



No. I don't think so.



You know, the big reason I got into the Top-16 is because of I attended all the MLGs, so a big reason why I was seeded is because I got all those points. To an extent, i deserved it, and to an extend I didn't. I finished top 17th place every single time, so I am very consistent with how far I go in every MLG, so i deserved to be in that spot at that time. However, more players are coming into it, and it is exactly what I expected.



These MLG runs, they have been pretty tough for me and my psyche. I know where I have my problems. It is definitely my style. I just don't have the mechanics to deal with my style, so I do have to change it up.



Maybe I have to go into Special Tactics. is teaching me allot of special tactics. He's an invaluable asset in the NASL house. I was asking him, "White-Ra, how do i beat Protoss."



He answers, "Just Push!" [T/N note: actually White-Ra]



Since then, I have been going 30-0 in my TvP.





So you recommend White-Ra as a teacher, a coach?



Oh yes, I endorse White-Ra as a coach and a teacher.



I expected for me to bust out of MLG Top-16. It was a great time, great experience. Will I competing in more MLGs? Absolutely!



I am forever going to be a competitor. , he's always going to be a competitor. It kills us not to be playing. At the same time, we are still casting. We are seeing all these high level games, so we understand the system so well. We can still grow as players, and keep up to an extent, if we keep up with our casting.



Now I think personally, tangent again, that playing is essentially if you want to be a caster. You cannot be a good analytical caster, if you are not playing at a good level. I have a lot of chance talking to good players about this. The WeMadeFOX manager, Mr. Daniel, he gave me a lot of insight on how the [GSL] commentators train, how to play.



He said, "You have to play. You cannot give up playing. StarCraft casting is just like the schedule you do for StarCraft playing. You have to play as much as possible."



Every single time you cast, you play. That is because you get a good feel of everything: you get a good feel of the maps; you understand what's strong and what's weak; you understand the timings. You know I kept up with it.



One thing I have to start doing is getting into random play, as soon as possible. It is going to be quite challenging. Learning the mechnanics, my muscles have to learn the mechanics, but it'll be pretty awesome. I can't wait.





So for you, it's not about giving up one for the other, you see a synergy between the two roles.



It has to be a synergy. My line of casting... [T/N: equipment failure at this point]

I was just overcome with emotion, man. It was the first time I ever broken down in tears, from what happened. I think it was just, NASL was always near-and-dear to my heart. It was actually a very risky investment, coming from an actuary background, it was a very risky investment.To have all my passion investmented in this, and to really come out on top. It made me, so overcome, so overcome with that emotion, I couldn't contain it anymore. It was a great feeling. It was great.I think there's a lot of implications for E-sports as a whole. There's a lot to come out of this. I think NASL was very daring. We made a bold move. You know, when it comes down to it, it was a step in the right direction. With all the adversity to overcome, it was definitely a step in the right direction.High note, yes.Oh those are very, very deep questions.I'll first go with NASL. I'll first go with the NASL. Of course, we didn't start as well as we wanted to, unfortunately. NASL did, as I said, overcome allot of it. There are still some issues, but they're more cosmetic though, than anything else. The best part about it is that we have very loyal fans and a community that are willing to point it out.I know that, people are going to be, "Well, of course we're going to point it out," but if you look into it. I read every single NASL thread possible, people are very meticulous at what we need to do, and how to do things. Now what that ends up doing is what the community brings to us, we can put all these together, and we can focus on these specific things.You know, it's one thing to complain about something, and it's another to complain and give constructive criticism. That's what the community has been so good about. If you have seen the first day of production and the last day of production, it is night and day. Now we're just starting to curtail ourselves a little bit there, and a bit there. Fixing the cosmetic things to make it look like the star production quality we really want, the best casting possible, the best games possible, and have a good process flow and everything, as we give information flow of everything related I think NASL has done an excellent job of taking in information and change very dynamically based on that information.Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. I don't want to take away from the fact that NASL has made big, big accomplishments in improvement, and just in overall production. I am very, very happy with... when I said production, I don't meant just our actual production, but also everything as it is. Producing the content, producing the actual material, everything.As for me, oh God!How do i think I developed? I think have developed more than anyone caster have developed in that amount of time. I can say, without a doubt, that I have casted more games than anyone else in the world in that amount of time. In the course ofthree months, I casted over four/five hundred games.That is an astounding number. Not only that, I need to mention that I did the SGL tournament, I did the GosuCoaching Premier League, things like that. Other things that we don't count for NASL, I still did it. Recently, we have a White-Ra vs Sen Showmatch, we did that. I definitely put in the most time.In terms of analyzing myself, I probably analyzed more of myself than anyone ever had. It is good improvement, I know where I need to work on. I know what I lacked, but one thing that is kind of tough, I'm going to go on a tangent here - one thing that is tough about the scene - is that I don't think people understand the role of the caster yet. In particular, the types of casters.We always say there's two types of casters, there's the play-by-play, and there's the color commentator. I'll say I am more of a color commentator than anything else. However, there's different kind of color commentators and how we analyze. I have a very specific brand of how I do color commentator that no one else has.It is kind of interesting that everyone's input in my casting. I obviously have changed. The Law of Large Numbers, if I continue this on, is this going to be the best casting method? I put in a lot, a lot of time into it.This is thesecond time, since I have been here, that I am actually going outside of Rancho Cucamonga. Which is insane. The first time it was for two hours, to a sushi place at Venice Beach, and we came back because we have NASL the next day. This is the first time I ever get to relax, chill out, get outside of NASL.I hope that shows my commitment to not only casting, but to the industry in general. I want it to succeed, and I want E-sports to succeed.No.iNcontrol is a specific brand that no other person on the face of the planet can replace. He is a valueable asset, and losing him, it stinks. It really does.I am very biased because he's my close friend in the E-sports community. We've done a lot together, we went shopping together, we went to the casino together. We went on man-dates. Anna was getting jealous, so what can i say? It really sucks, losing a friend that I have grown so close to, over the entire half year, it is unfortunate.That being said, I felt like our casting styles, not similar, but overlap to an extend. Looking at it, purely objectively, it was the reason why it was a bit slow to gain that chemistry. I talked slow, like a week, it was slow was the fact that we have no pre-determined roles, so we just went with it.When we overlapped each other, the things that we prepared for, the things you prepared to say has already been said. Then, you need a level of improv to go over that, then you need to fill space. What casting should be is not to fill space. You're looking for room to talk. The big things about casting, for example, these units are going from Point A to Point B. There are many different ways to say that, you want to say is,"The Marauders are attacking the Nexus."You don't want to say,"The Marauders are traversing the entire map, yadda yadda yadda."Because what you want to do is create more time to talk, the ability to say more things, and potentially give more time to the color commentator to talk. Analyzing the map during downtime is what takes up more time than the play-by-play commentary.That being said, because we both filled the color commentary, not only the overlap. A lot of the time, it became Gretorp for an extend amount of time, then iNcontroL for an extended amount of time, and sometimes we'll bounce questions at each other. That dynamic doesn't flow as well for the first week. I will even say the first couple of weeks. What iNcontroL and I started doing was realizing we have strengths in individual fields, so we start to pass off to each other quite frequently. We will go into play-by-play game situationally, because we both have very different styles of play.I am more of a theoretical player, this is what you should always do in this position, that type of deal. iNcontroL is more based on the type of player, you can cut corners, this way.Yes, he [iNcontroL] has a more intuitive, experienced style. We'll both pass it off, based on the players. I felt that added a very deep level of understanding, with the StarCraft community. I think that's a big reason why, you can say there's much insight into this, because you can get into the mind of a player. What the pro is doing, something that not many other casters can do. Artosis , and Tasteless , they can do it. Other than that, you don't have allot of people that can do that. I felt that's a very interesting dynamic that we brought to the table, and we have very different styles, even more so than Artosis, Tasteless, and Day9.Back to the question, it's going to be tough to replace someone like iNcontroL. Do I think there's room for a better combination? Of course. Is it going to be hard to find one? It'll be hard to find someone to fill the spot left behind by iNcontroL. Whether we can fill that analysis role and do the pass-off, or analysis and play-by-play. Time will tell.What is my preference? I think I do like the play-by-play [plus color combination]. Total_Biscuit and I, we had a wonderful time. Diggity and I, we had a good time as well. We'll see. Time will tell, all I can say is I am looking forward to the time to come.I don't think it's haters so much. I don't want to label them as haters, because I don't think they actually hate me. I don't think they actually hate me, since it takes so much to hate someone. I do think they're more disappointed with their expectations. Whether their expectations were [too] high or low, I am not sure yet. I think they are disappointed with some of my results.I think something really, really magical has happened over the course of NASL. I think have I have turned a lot of the disappointed people around. Maybe not completely around, instead of 180, maybe 70, 90 degrees. It's the fact that the people who were disappointed are still very open-minded, and they still want E-SPORTS to succeed. They see how hard I am trying, and how much I am working, and they're getting behind me, even though I am not fulfilling all their expectations.That's very... that's a good feeling. It's a great feeling.I have built a fanbase, overtime the time. To them, I am extremely happy that you guys have been supporting me the whole time. What will E-SPORTS be without the spectators and fans, you know? They're the backbone.I am humbled by it. I don't consider myself fan-worthy yet. I have much work left to go, and I have to put more time into this. Obviously I sacrificed, the fact that people already seeing that I had done all that, that I have worked so hard, they're willing to come behind me and support me, and be my fans.It's more than I can ask for. I am very, very grateful and thankful for everyone out there.He's the boss man.KiWiKaKi, for all the ones that don't know already, is in the main event for the World Series of Poker [at the time of the interview]. He was a poker player before, he was a professional poker player, that's how he makes his living. And he's still a professional StarCraft player, it's very inspiring to see him succeed in both these areas of expertise.Of course, he ran good, he had to run good. He beat out Ace-Ten against Pocket-Kings. You have to be very lucky, but I am sure there were many other times when he was at risk. He does fantastic, a mind-game player, mind-game reader. I expected nothing less of KiWiKaKi.KiWiKaKi FIGHTING!!!No. I don't think so.You know, the big reason I got into the Top-16 is because of I attended all the MLGs, so a big reason why I was seeded is because I got all those points. To an extent, i deserved it, and to an extend I didn't. I finished top 17th place every single time, so I am very consistent with how far I go in every MLG, so i deserved to be in that spot at that time. However, more players are coming into it, and it is exactly what I expected.These MLG runs, they have been pretty tough for me and my psyche. I know where I have my problems. It is definitely my style. I just don't have the mechanics to deal with my style, so I do have to change it up.Maybe I have to go into Special Tactics. White-Ra is teaching me allot of special tactics. He's an invaluable asset in the NASL house. I was asking him, "White-Ra, how do i beat Protoss."He answers, "Just Push!" [T/N note: actually White-Ra]Since then, I have been going 30-0 in my TvP.Oh yes, I endorse White-Ra as a coach and a teacher.I expected for me to bust out of MLG Top-16. It was a great time, great experience. Will I competing in more MLGs? Absolutely!I am forever going to be a competitor. Artosis , he's always going to be a competitor. It kills us not to be playing. At the same time, we are still casting. We are seeing all these high level games, so we understand the system so well. We can still grow as players, and keep up to an extent, if we keep up with our casting.Now I think personally, tangent again, that playing is essentially if you want to be a caster. You cannot be a good analytical caster, if you are not playing at a good level. I have a lot of chance talking to good players about this. The WeMadeFOX manager, Mr. Daniel, he gave me a lot of insight on how the [GSL] commentators train, how to play.He said, "You have to play. You cannot give up playing. StarCraft casting is just like the schedule you do for StarCraft playing. You have to play as much as possible."Every single time you cast, you play. That is because you get a good feel of everything: you get a good feel of the maps; you understand what's strong and what's weak; you understand the timings. You know I kept up with it.One thing I have to start doing is getting into random play, as soon as possible. It is going to be quite challenging. Learning the mechnanics, my muscles have to learn the mechanics, but it'll be pretty awesome. I can't wait.It has to be a synergy. My line of casting... [T/N: equipment failure at this point]





Part 2

+ Show Spoiler [Transcript] +

You mentioned the NASL house , you been living there? Since when? How was it?



I have been, since February 4th. It was good. Really, really good. It's the place where the editors and I go and live, and those two - Sen and White-Ra.



It is good to work with people you been living with. I know it sounds crazy, but it gets you so focused. Everybody gets up in the morning, and with only thing on their mind, its the NASL. It's "Let's do this. Let's go!" The continual support from everyone in the house.



People have to realize, that this is a small business, and this is a passion project. We started with 4 people in the NASL , we are now double that. You think other organizations, they have a lot more than 4 or 8 people in it.





(and the volunteers!)



There are great volunteers, such as you Primadog [T/N: \o/]. I highly, highly thank you for everything. You wake up in the morning, you realize this is what you want to do, because you love it. This is the feeling that not many people can say. Not many people can go to work everyday and do whatever, and they're not doing what they love.



I can say for sure that I am doing the number one thing that I love.





It must been tough, moving away from your family like that.



Ya, it is very tough My family are very, very near and dear to my heart I take everything family related very seriously.



My brothers, they actually are able to come out and visit me for the NASL finals. My two brothers, older brother [Sean] and younger brother [Brandon], and they just came to support me.





All the way from Maryland New Jersey?



Jersy shore, fist pump, boom.





. Supposely, there are rumours that you'll settle this at Anaheim, in a week. Who will win? Is there underground betting going on between all the pros? TeamLiquid user, ECHOZS, asks, "There has been a feud between you and FXOqxc . Supposely, there are rumours that you'll settle this at Anaheim, in a week. Who will win? Is there underground betting going on between all the pros?



I wouldn't call it a feud. I am not sure it's the exact word. I don't know what's it called, but you know how a bear goes into the stream and there's all these salmons in the water. The bear is just picking up the salmons and eating them. That's me and qxc.





Who's the bear?



Obviously me.





[Glasses]

qxc, I am coming for you.

[T/N: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]



I do have say, I have ligament damage on my right knees, so we may have to postpone it at Anaheim.





Shout-outs?



First and forthmost, huge shout-out to everybody to NASL. We're a family right now, we've grown together, we go out together, it's great. Everything with them is amazing.



Another huge shout-out is to the volunteers. Primadog is one of them [T/N: yours truly is a chat-mod on the NASL channel].





Bee and Alex and...



They're just trying to further ESPORTS as much as possible. It's the same motive that gets me up in the morning. A lot of times people say things, and it really gets me down, and I want this to work. Not NASL in particular, but ESPORTS to work. If NASL is the medium for ESPORTS to succeed, then of course I'll use that. I am very passionate about that and I want it to grow, and of course the volunteers help out.



All you people that are still 50-50 about it or whatever that might be, or whoever that have an open-mind about the NASL, I want to give a huge shout-out to them. At the end of the day, it's us pouring our heart into it and people appreciate it. It's like my baby, you know. Do you appreciate my baby or not? If you do, I love you. If you don't, look at how cute my baby is, you know.



On top of that, I want to give a huge shout-out to the communities.



Of course, TeamLiquid, first and forthmost. I been with you guys since god-knows-when. I have no clue when I started TeamLiquid. I been there forever. I am a TeamLiquidian, and I am proud to be there.



Of course, we have reddit. Just new to it, this year actually. They're very supportative, very awesome people in the community. Again, we been able to turn some heads in reddit as well.



Last, but not least, is WellPlayed. WellPlayed is NASL's community organization. They been doing a fantastic job as well! They've done our Top-10 videos, and they have been awesome, awesome as well. It's really amazing that all these communities converge and support the NASL.





Off to lunch, right? What we getting?



We are getting Vietnamese food!

I have been, since February 4th. It was good. Really, really good. It's the place where the editors and I go and live, and those two - Sen and White-Ra.It is good to work with people you been living with. I know it sounds crazy, but it gets you so focused. Everybody gets up in the morning, and with only thing on their mind, its the NASL. It's "Let's do this. Let's go!" The continual support from everyone in the house.People have to realize, that this is a small business, and this is a passion project. We started with 4 people in the NASL , we are now double that. You think other organizations, they have a lot more than 4 or 8 people in it.There are great volunteers, such as you Primadog [T/N: \o/]. I highly, highly thank you for everything. You wake up in the morning, you realize this is what you want to do, because you love it. This is the feeling that not many people can say. Not many people can go to work everyday and do whatever, and they're not doing what they love.I can say for sure that I am doing the number one thing that I love.Ya, it is very tough My family are very, very near and dear to my heart I take everything family related very seriously.My brothers, they actually are able to come out and visit me for the NASL finals. My two brothers, older brother [Sean] and younger brother [Brandon], and they just came to support me.Jersy shore, fist pump, boom.I wouldn't call it a feud. I am not sure it's the exact word. I don't know what's it called, but you know how a bear goes into the stream and there's all these salmons in the water. The bear is just picking up the salmons and eating them. That's me and qxc.Obviously me.[Glasses]qxc, I am coming for you.[T/N: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH]I do have say, I have ligament damage on my right knees, so we may have to postpone it at Anaheim.First and forthmost, huge shout-out to everybody to NASL. We're a family right now, we've grown together, we go out together, it's great. Everything with them is amazing.Another huge shout-out is to the volunteers. Primadog is one of them [T/N: yours truly is a chat-mod on the NASL channel].They're just trying to further ESPORTS as much as possible. It's the same motive that gets me up in the morning. A lot of times people say things, and it really gets me down, and I want this to work. Not NASL in particular, but ESPORTS to work. If NASL is the medium for ESPORTS to succeed, then of course I'll use that. I am very passionate about that and I want it to grow, and of course the volunteers help out.All you people that are still 50-50 about it or whatever that might be, or whoever that have an open-mind about the NASL, I want to give a huge shout-out to them. At the end of the day, it's us pouring our heart into it and people appreciate it. It's like my baby, you know. Do you appreciate my baby or not? If you do, I love you. If you don't, look at how cute my baby is, you know.On top of that, I want to give a huge shout-out to the communities.Of course, TeamLiquid, first and forthmost. I been with you guys since god-knows-when. I have no clue when I started TeamLiquid. I been there forever. I am a TeamLiquidian, and I am proud to be there.Of course, we have reddit. Just new to it, this year actually. They're very supportative, very awesome people in the community. Again, we been able to turn some heads in reddit as well.Last, but not least, is WellPlayed. WellPlayed is NASL's community organization. They been doing a fantastic job as well! They've done our Top-10 videos, and they have been awesome, awesome as well. It's really amazing that all these communities converge and support the NASL.We are getting Vietnamese food!







zemotion for sharing her professional photography with TeamLiquid. Jinn is 