My day opened up with claiming my all-access “e-sport” badge and eating dinner in my hotel room.
Because I had to release the super secret project today at 8 AM PDT, I didn’t get a chance to go together with the team to the convention center, which was a problem. I ended up going a few hours later by myself, and took somewhat of an eternity to actually find out where they were.
Apparently, even with my all-access pass, there were some security guards who had no clue what they were doing, and told me I couldn’t go where I wanted in order to figure out where my players were. To make things worse, I was carrying around a bunch of apparel for the players, as well as a mouse pad for a player who had forgotten his at home. Fortunately, I was bold enough to ignore security guards and keep searching the convention center for real help.
After about an hour or so, I finally found someone from Twitch hospitality, who walked me to the correct place. The player practice area was apparently within the actual main area, off to the corner.
Twitch hospitality also set up a place for players to relax away from the main convention area. With Twitch being Twitch, they lit up the room with nice dim purple lighting.
At first, I had quite a bit of difficulty figuring out how the Hearthstone and Smash tournaments were going, but luckily, our Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team was easy to find and help. They had a game early on in the afternoon, so I went on stage with them to help them set up and settled in the playing area.
Unfortunately, the day was filled with delays, with our CS:GO team being the first of many. Our coach’s laptop had some severe audio problems, so I ended up sitting behind the players on stage for about 20 minutes trying to figure out a resolution to a problem that the DreamHack techs sort of gave up on. Eventually, I found some obscure line-in setting in Windows that fixed the problem.
Next up was Heroes of the Storm. Our team’s first match was against Astral Authority, a team that sort of came out of nowhere. They started out as King of Blades Alpha, left the organization to form Gust and Bust, and finally got a new sponsor, Astral Authority. I’m usually not too interested in other teams, and generally funnel my energy entirely into just Tempo Storm, but the manager of AA is pretty kind-hearted, so I pay at least a little attention to them.
Our delays continued when the Internet connection at the convention center started wavering, and our Heroes of the Storm players started to randomly disconnect from the game. At first we assumed that it would just be a short pause before we would be able to resume playing, but it ended up taking much longer than that. To avoid getting bored, Zixz loaded up a Taylor Swift song on YouTube so he can sing along with his favorite artist.
After over two hours of delays, we finally got everything back up and running. Unfortunately, we ended up dropping the series to Astral Authority, and dropped into the losers’ bracket, where we had to face COGnitive Gaming.
While our HotS team’s second series of the day was going on, our CS:GO team was also playing their second series of the day.
To keep things simple, our CS:GO team smashed, while our HotS team got smashed. Our CS:GO went 2-0 in series today, so they will be skipping tomorrow and advancing straight to Sunday’s matches. Our HotS went 0-2 in series … and got eliminated on day 1. -__-
Because I was keeping tabs on all our esports teams from our entire organization, I didn’t get to watch all the HotS team’s games, as I was either with the CS:GO team, or in the Hearthstone area with Reynad. However, from what I’ve heard, apparently, up until they lost the game, they were winning.
Our HotS run is now over, but we have competitors still going strong in every other game. Check back tomorrow (or the day after) for more updates.
Our non-disclosure agreement ends tomorrow at 8 AM PDT.
New HotS content will be posted at 
I had a morning flight this time, which was nice, because I would be able to make it to my destination before it got dark, and would have a chance to actually look outside a bit and relax before the day was over. As usual, I departed O’Hare International Airport in Chicago with American Airlines.
I was able to claim a window seat for myself again, so I was able to get some photos during the flight. The one above is shortly after take-off, when there were two hours left to go. The one below is when we entered Texas and were getting ready for landing.
After a smooth, uneventful, and relatively short flight (because I’m usually used to flying to California, and this flight was half the duration), I made it to Austin-Bergstrom Airport in Austin, Texas.
The airport was extremely small compared to other airports I’m used to. I’m pretty sure there were no terminals, and only about 30 gates in total. This is a huge difference because I’m used to going in and out of O’Hare, which is large enough to supposedly have an entire zip code to itself. When we landed, the airport was small enough that we were right next to an entirely different airline’s gates – Southwest Airlines.
While I was on the plane, I texted the private driver who would be dispatched to transport me from the airport to the hotel. I let him know that the flight would be landing about half an hour early, and he was welcome to come to get me earlier if his schedule allowed it.
Hilariously, the number I texted apparently wasn’t for the driver, but rather, the company that dispatches the rides. The response I got? “Rest assured, your driver will be on time!”
Once I got to the hotel, I realized that I was extremely early, and was the first one in the Heroes of the Storm division to arrive. Check-out wasn’t done yet, so Twitch hospitality gave me some snacks and drinks while I waited for the hotel staff to get my room cleaned and prepared for me. The estimated wait time was a little under two hours before I would be able to get my room.
But, just like magic, within several minutes, the hotel staff was able get everything ready – I figure they prioritized my room, seeing as I was already there, and I was technically a “big customer” because DreamHack bought my room – so I was able to cut out the waiting time and settle in right away.
We’re in the heart of downtown Austin, so I don’t really have a great view out my window. But, that also means that I conveniently have a grocery store across the street from me, which will be useful to get some relatively cheap food during the time the convention center isn’t open yet and DreamHack doesn’t have free food for me.
Tomorrow (Thursday) is regular travel day for everyone else, and will more-or-less be a relaxation day for me. The convention and the tournaments start on Friday afternoon. 
Most of my fame came from doing general comedy a long time ago, and I’m not really too heavily involved in the Heroes of the Storm esports scene, so a lot of people didn’t recognize me when I appeared on the ESL broadcast.
Of course, the immediate reaction to that was to call me TrumpSC, a well-known HearthStone streamer who is also Asian, and has a similar hairstyle as I do.
Apparently, ESL thought it was hilarious that Twitch chat was spamming “TRUMP? TRUMP?? TRUMP???” so they kept on zooming in on my face and showing me in the broadcast at random times when I was on stage, for no particular reason. So, the VODs have a lot of me just standing there, doing nothing, and listening to the team talk while we were in picks-and-bans.
Yesterday was my flight back to Chicago. I snapped a photo when I was at the airport:
On the flight from ORD to LAX, I stayed awake for most of it and was on social media on my phone for literally about two-thirds of the time. On the flight back from LAX to ORD, I pretty much got knocked-out tired right away, and slept for a majority of the flight.
When I got back to Chicago, my buddy Josh, who dropped me off at the airport, was ready to pick me up.
After I got off the plane and left the airport, I somehow magically made it to the drop-off area instead of the pick-up area. If you’re not familiar, the drop-off area is usually a lot more peaceful than the pick-up area. Realistically, there are about 10 cars at the drop-off area at any given time, while in the pick-up area, it’s pretty much a constant flow of clogged traffic.
I thought I was doing Josh a favor by going to the drop-off area, so he wouldn’t have to struggle through the river of vehicles. Apparently, that didn’t matter, because Josh had already taken the road to the pick-up area, and he couldn’t figure out how to get to the second level of the airport, in the drop-off area.
So, after a nice struggle, I finally managed to make it down to the pick-up area, and watched about a thousand cars go by before finally finding Josh and getting in.
The strangest thing is that I got on the airplane in 80°F weather, but when I got off, I was in nice and freezing cold Chicago, where it was hailing and sleeting at the same time.
…
I’ll have all the highlight reels of Tempo Storm’s games cut, rendered, and uploaded to Tempo Storm’s YouTube channel soon, so keep an eye out for those if you’re interested in seeing how Tempo Storm did, but wasn’t able to watch the full games live.