DreamHack Austin has come to a close, with the fortunate news of the rest of our teams doing much better than the Heroes of the Storm results we got from day 1. Our highest finish was our CS:GO team, scoring second place and falling a bit short to Luminosity Gaming.
For our Heroes of the Storm team, the day consisted mostly of doing interviews and getting their photos taken. Apparently, Blizzard is doing a television show related to Heroes of the Storm, and they wanted to make sure they had all the player assets they needed.
Out of all the crowds, the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive crowd was the most excited and passionate about their respective esport. My favorite moment was when Luminosity Gaming, a Brazilian team, was defeating Cloud9 15-0 in a set yesterday. For those who aren’t familiar, competitive Counter-Strike goes to 16 points, so Luminosity was about to sweep the United States’ Cloud9.
Through some black magic, Cloud9 managed to take a game off Luminosity, bumping their score up to 15-1. Upon this win, the crowd erupted in cheers, sending vibrations through the convention center. The production team didn’t properly adjust the crowd audio well enough in the television broadcast to properly show the energy in the crowd, but it was truly ear-shattering. They proceeded to chant “U.S.A.” until Luminosity managed to get their 16th point and defeat Cloud9.
Because of their passion, I made sure to snap a photo of the CS:GO crowd. This wasn’t the same crowd that was there for Luminosity vs. C9, but I’m figuring that a lot of the people were the same, and the stands were just as full.
I also spent a decent chunk of time with Reynad, the founder and CEO of Tempo Storm. As expected, he got pretty unlucky, and dropped from the tournament on day 1 due to some ridiculous Internet problem that made him lose a won game. So, yesterday, instead of competing, he spent time enjoying the convention and talking with members of the team and with fans. He also spent some time playing Smash with fans – this is Reynad and Frodan playing 2v2 against some con-goers.
Unfortunately, due to some miscommunication with our team manager, we were sent home a day early, before the convention ended. Because there were a bunch of people headed to the airport at once, we took a limousine bus instead of having private drivers.
After being taken to the airport two hours early, and having to wait an additional hour for delays, I got on my flight at Austin-Bergstrom Airport to head back to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL.
I ended up taking a nap at the airport because of how long I had to wait. The ultimate troll decided to put a “Reserved seating for special needs” sign right next to where I was sleeping, while I was already seated there and asleep for a few hours … lol
I used to not really like going to conventions or traveling, but I think I’m sort of getting used to it. It’s very chaotic and busy, especially considering how involved Tempo Storm is with so many different esports, but it’s inspiring and motivational watching the level of passion and excitement coming from the fans.
I also used to hate flying on airplanes when I was younger because I would get airsick so easily. I guess I’ve grown out of it, because I usually browse social media and text people using the in-flight wifi, and take a nap, and the flight isn’t really that bad.
I’m not entirely sure when my next event will be, and like usual, I most likely won’t be revealing more details until I’m 100% sure of my attendance. But, even though I thought I would never say this … I’m actually somewhat looking forward to getting back on a plane and attending my next tournament and/or convention.