Day 1: The Road/Beginning of the Fail

My brother and I woke up Wednesday morning at 6:00am so that we could leave by 7:00-8:00. We got to the car rental place and get a car and this took a bit longer than expected and i think we finally hit the road to Texas by about 10:00. The drive was super boring because it was pretty much one road the entire way. We stopped off in Louisiana around 7:00pm to see a long-time friend  and clan-mate of mine, samer. We finally arrived in Dallas around (can’t remember because I was so tired) 2:30/3:00am CDT (we got delayed big time. Long story, don’t ask..) and immediately went to bed when I got in the hotel because, for some reason, I can’t sleep in a car and it was a 12 hour drive (fml). We had to wake up around 8:00am so that we could have time to eat breakfast, take showers, and drive to the venue since our hotel was about 10/15 minutes away. We arrived at the venue on Day 1 with cfebns and we had absolutely NO idea where to go because the Hilton Anatole was FUCKING HUGE. I’m talking like the size of a small city. It didn’t seem like much from the outside, but once we got inside we were instantly lost. after a 15 minute walk across the hotel we finally found where we were supposed to be. The line was stretching from inside the venue (obviously) all the way back to the hotel (you had to go outside to go to the venue) which was probably, ohh…100 yards? Basically, the line was long…Luckily we spotted RottenRose and she got us into the QdQ (QuakeCon done Quick) Registration line. After waiting for about 30 minutes we finally got to the front of the line, but one of the Volunteer guys asked us if we had pre-registered to be in the QdQ line (they basically paid $20 to be able to register faster, and now that i think about it, that wouldn’t have been a bad idea…) and obviously we didn’t. Luckily he took us to the front of the regular registration line and told us we had to do it there (he basically helped us cut everyone already in line LOL- SORRY EVERYONE!). So we registered all of our stuff and got out badges and we thought we were good to go…wrong. We then had to get our items checked in since we were playing in the tournament. They put bar-codes on our headsets, mice, keyboards, and laptops and scanned it all in. So…FINALLY we were in the BYOC and ready to get things started. After roaming the around and checking out the other booths for a minute, I found my way to the QL.tv booth and met all the staff. I then had to immediately go to the Tournament Area to meet up with my team and get ready to play (already…?) We had our team picture taken and we registered our team so that we could be placed on the bracket and to let the people know that we were actually competing after signing up online. We got sent to our section of the Tournament Area and started setting up our equipment on the computers.

Let me take a second to just thank all of the sponsors of QuakeCon, but specifically Alienware. The computers and peripherals they provided us with were absolutely amazing (even though I didn’t use their keyboard/mouse because I brought my own). The monitors were 21.5″ flat screen LCDs and the computers were Auroras and Aurora ALXs. These machines were absolutely beast and the monitors were very crisp, responsive, and clear.

Anyways, we got all of our stuff setup and we were ready to get in-game and start jumping around/shooting around so that we could tweak our configs if needed and so that we could get used to the LAN feeling. Needless to say, it’s is hard to do so when there’s an electrical fire and the network goes down. So we sat there for hours hitting refresh on quakelive.com in desperation thinking that it would be up any moment…what a great utilization of time, right? I thought so too, but that’s when I looked over to my left and cfebns is trying to stack 2 chairs on top of each other so that he could sit up higher because he didn’t like the height of the tables and n1k0n is making the outside color of his computer blink like a strobe light and playing with the other colors that you were able to customize on the desktops. It was about that time I realized (GONNA BE ABOUT TREE FITTY NAH!) I was wicked hungry because the “breakfast” at my hotel was beyond uber-fail so I went to the QL.tv booth and dominated a family size box of cheezits and sat there for a while and checked out some more displays and such. Around 6:30ish Stevo let us know that the tournament had been called off for the day due to network issues and we were to come back the next day at 11:00am to start the CTF tournament. So the rest of the day was dedicated to t-shirts. Lets just say I left Texas with 6 new shirts without buying one and my brother got 13, once again, not buying any (what a bastard). We went back to the hotel that night to meet up with Avenged because he got there that night around 9:00pm and hung out with him for a bit until going to bed so that we could get some sleep before the next day because we both knew it would be pretty hectic.

Day 2: Bare Naked….Men…?

Seeing as how my brother and I aren’t insane, we bypassed the pathetic excuse for breakfast at our hotel because we learned from the previous morning and just went straight to the venue without eating (not the best of ideas). We arrive and show Avenged around a bit and get him all checked in and we check in ourselves and report to the Tournament Area ASAP. We meet up with cpy_/N1k0n/cfebns and get setup on the computers again and, thank you God, the network is finally working and we are able to play! We get in our server to get ready for our match with .403. and jump around and make any changes to our configs necessary. By about 12:00 we start our match and it is also shoutcasted as the first CTF match. We played very well and won the first map, Japanese Castles, 8-1. The next map was our pick: Ironworks. With confidence from the last map we went all out and took the map in about 10 minutes. I told everyone on my team to play defense to make sure they didn’t cap and I ran offense by myself for those 10 minutes and collected all 8 caps with much needed and appreciated cover in mid from my team. So match 1 gets completed and it was quick and painless for us and we are feeling pretty good afterward even though our next match was against the #1 European CTF team and possible favorite to beat EG: Fnatic. But, that match was to be played at 2:30 and it was around 12:30 the the time so we had a little downtime to go and eat/watch the masters duel which is what I did. I went back to the QL.tv booth for my beloved cheezits and hurried back to the main stage to watch sparks vs prozac. For those of you who haven’t met prozac…the dude’s nucking futs. Like, for real…He was perma-fucked up on something, I’m not sure what, but he was absolutely crazy (or maybe that’s just how he is). I told you that to tell you this. After his match with sparks (he lost 2 maps to 1 I believe), he was cool about it and went back to the tourney area and apparently got naked. Now, he claimed to be changing his shorts but that would mean he was going commando all day, not surprising really. But still, it was awkward, weird, unexpected, (anything else I missed?) and he eventually got thrown out of qcon because of it.

As 2:30 rolls around my team and I get all ready to play against Fnatic. We go over strategies, positions, and what maps we we want to do. We get in the server and we’re all ready to go, but Fnatic is telling the CTF tournament director that they wanted to play their duel matches first for some reason. So of course they get to play their duel matches first and we have to wait for another 5 hours before we can play. as 7:30 comes around we are once again in a server and ready to play. We are all warmed up and feeling good about playing, but that’s when the fail started happening again. Every 2 or 3 minutes there would be about 1 minute of complete lag out (on LAN, wtf?!). Don’t ask me because I don’t know how it’s possible, but thats what happened. So we wait around for 30 minutes being told not to ready up and finally they call off the match and tell us to come back at 9:00am to play our match. Awesome…

Day 3: STFU dude I’m trying to sleep…

My brother and I wake up a bit earlier so that we could get to the venue a little early so that I could have time to warm up and and wake up. Avenged and I are the only ones from our team that actually show up though…and it’s 9:20…So I call cpy_ about 5 times as well as cfebns around the same amount. No answer. So i texted both of them and then called cpy_ 1 last time. Finally he answered and he sounded really tired. “Whats up?” “Well…we were supposed to play at 9:00am and you guys aren’t here…” “Really? I thought we played at 10:00.” *Faceplam* “Nah man, you guys need to get down here right now because they might FF us if you’re not here in the next 5 minutes.” “Aight be right there.” And right as I hung up the phone I get a text from cfebns (him/N1k0n/cpy_ were staying in the same room btw) saying, “STFU man I’m trying to sleep.” LOL!

Anyways, cfebns and N1k0n show up within the next 5-10 minutes and they look like freaking zombies. Cfebns sits down at his computer and just sits there staring at the screen not moving. N1k0n looked like he was still asleep but at least he was moving and trying to get ready. We all get on vent and the first thing we hear is cfebns say, and I quote, “I just woke up in a pile of my own puke…” Man, this is just getting better and better. Apparently the night before, cpy_/N1k0n/cfebns had been drinking, but N1k0n didn’t drink as much, he was simply tired from going to bed so late and waking up so early. But cfebns got mega-plastered and, as he said, woke up in his own pile of puke. Not to mention he punched the flat screen TV in their room because he is apparently and angry drunk (expensive repair bills by the way). So we get in the server and extend the warm up as long as we can to give cfebns and N1k0n every chance to wake up and get their shit together. After making Fnatic wait as much as possible (even though they made us wait 5 hours the night before and we still didn’t play) we didn’t have any other choice but to F3 and cross our fingers. So the first map was Siberia (ctf8) and we had N1k0n on defense, cfebns on RA/High D, and I was kind of just a roamer, helping wherever and whenever I could. We were doing pretty well for the first 10 minutes, surprisingly; they were only up 1-0 and we hadn’t gotten a single quad. So we were feeling good, but that’s when the chain-caps started rolling in for Fnatic. Needless to say we ended up losing 6-0. Next up was their map pick, Japanese Castles. Talk about a cluster fuck. Absolutely nothing went right for us and we had no idea what we were doing. 8-0 them in like 13 minutes. So the tournament is over for us but QuakeCon wasn’t.

The rest of the time I was there I was attempting to win raffles, watching matches and, most of all, waiting for the finals. The semi-finals were awesome matches to watch. EG vs QUAD and Fnatic vs Loaded. EG handily took care of QUAD but Fnatic seemed to have a bit of trouble with Loaded only beating them 2 maps to 1 with all 3 games being very close. So QUAD was set ot play Loaded for the 3rd place match. I have to say, a lot of people were expecting Loaded to take care of QUAD rather easily but they didn’t, at all. QUAD came out balls to the wall and took out Loaded in just 2 maps to capture 3rd place . Congrats to them for their achievement. So the finals roll around and guess who it is? Yes, a rematch of last year’s semi-final between EG and Fnatic. what more could you ask for for a QuakeCon CTF Grand Final? It’s all or nothing. USA versus Europe. Steelseries versus Steelseries. Sexy hair versus buzz-cuts. A team of impeccable consistency in winning versus a rather premature CTF squad that has only been together exactly a year at the time. I’m sure most of you guys watched it live, and for those who didn’t, remind me to slap you. It. Was. EPIC. Everything a final should be; all 3 maps, close as it could be, and remarkable comebacks on just about every map. It certainly was a treat to watch along with the Duel final between Cypher and cooller. Once again, another epic set of matches between 2 duel masters. Just as the CTF finals went, all 5 maps, insane comebacks, and another amazing win for Cypher due to his clutch performance and  keen ability to keep his nerves in-check.

Day 4: Back on the Road…

My brother and I didn’t attend the after party since we had to leave early the next morning and we were already really tired from being up so early and having the tournament end around 11:30. With Sunday being nothing but the tear-down day for Qcon, and Saturday’s epic matches being the conclusion of the tournament, it was time to go home. I had classes starting the next day (Monday) and the drive home was 12 hours (I guess it was really 13 since we gained an hour coming back to the east coast). Needless to say the drive was just as boring on the way back. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for “breakfast” (it was like 12:00pm lol) in Dallas and hit the road for good around 12:30. The only other time we stopped for food was at a McDonald’s in Mississippi around 7:00pm. We didn’t get home until around 2:30am and we had to unload the car and get all settled in again. I don’t think I went to bed until around 4am which gave me about 6 hours to sleep before my first day of classes. Next year I am, without a doubt, flying because that drive was so long and so boring. For those of you who drove from further away than Georgia, I’m sorry. But I think we can all agree that it was worth it. ;D

There was no better way to end my first QuakeCon than with those amazing matches. I met a lot of friends and had a great time with each and every one of you. I had such an amazing time and I can’t wait for next year (hopefully I won’t have anymore drunk teammates to worry about)!

I had pretty much gone unprepared because a couple of days before, I had had to make a pretty big decision on whether or not I wanted to take my PC or a laptop with me to Quakecon. I ultimately decided that I would bring a laptop with me so that I wouldn’t be tempted to play any video games while I was there, that I would strictly work. I am comfortable saying that we all busted our asses to make the falling pieces stay together at Quakecon, and that I, particularly, learned a lot of things that will help me with events in the future. And while my laptop wasn’t as well equipped for working on videos and overlays, it was much easier to have on hand than a wired PC and still functioned well.

Thursday night was probably the most enjoyable night I had with the Quake-Live.tv crew: we were invited to a VIP party which started around 8 PM and ended at 12 AM, although we ended up leaving the event area at about 9:30 PM and catching the last bus ride back to the hotel at 11:45PM. Immediately after we got back from the VIP event, some of the staff went straight to work with others that had not attended the event in order to continue working. As this was only the first night of three, things weren’t quite as hectic as they would become, but we were still busy. I also made so many new friends and developed a better bond with the staff members of Quake-Live.tv that it was hard to tell I was beginning to pull 12 hour workdays.

Now, in response to why Mattcom and I made an “after hours” video around 1 am one late, Friday night (while working), Mattcom and I spent about 6 hours trying to transfer videos off his computer onto my laptop to start rendering them, but unfortunately, his laptop kept memory dumping on us. We eventually gave up and went to help out with other tasks that still needed to be completed, but once we were finally able to transfer the video content on to an FTP server for me to download onto my laptop, I started to work right away on overlays and editing videos. It took about ten minutes to get a video off the FTP onto my laptop, then about another 30 minutes to mess with the audio and cut up the video. (Keep in mind that this was for videos that were anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes long.) After that, I finally got to render the videos, but what was I supposed to do when it rendered a 6 minute video in a whopping 30 minutes? After waking up at 7:30 AM everyday and working untill about 12 AM every morning (with little breaks in-between the work), we decided to just mess around with the BYOC setup we had in our booth. It was a nice setup going nearly to waste and did in fact need experimenting with to ensure solid streams, so we went ahead and multitasked on it while waiting for our videos.

Later in the event, we had four different locations in the Hotel: Grand Ballroom, Mainstage, QL.TV booth, and BYOC. The latter’s setup was moved inside of the BYOC’s NOC from our booth. Some of the staff had to move the BYOC streaming setup we had at our booth (located inside of the vendor area) to the BYOC’s network area. Moving and setting up the equipment required three people to get it done quickly and precisely. Also, at about 2:30 PM on Saturday, they told us we needed to set up three computers for streaming in the Grand Ballroom, which was where the re-stream of the Mainstage would be taking place. Now, if you’ve been to the Hilton Anatole venue before, you know that that’s not the shortest distance between the two, but we got our part done in less than an hour and the rest of the delay was due to not being able to get any internet inside of the Grand Ballroom. With all these setbacks happening in such a short amount of time, we started scrambling to keep shit organized, but the distance between our staff members and the inability to communicate with each other apart from text messaging was tough. Despite all of the shit that went down, we were still all having such an amazing time at the event, and so was everyone else attending the finals – and what an incredible finals those were!

But, after all is said and done, I believe that we’ve all taken away a lot of knowledge and wisdom from this event and that we’ve learned how much effort it takes to keep the event going, even when staring down a one way tunnel and going the wrong way. You’ll only see improvement in the years to come, so be sure to stay tuned and keep supporting Quake-Live.tv’s coverage of other events. We all do this out of the love for the game and the community!

Be sure to follow us on twitter: @QuakeLive_TV, @fishstix, @greasedscotsman, @mattc0m, @jehar, @TC_RottenRose, @stlava
and @kaneslaughter

http://quakecon.quake-live.tv/gallery/quakecon-2010/

The first morning of QuakeCon itself was comical. My initial (somewhat joking) suggestion for an interview couch came through. We actually had a couch rented, paid for, and delivered! From then on out pretty much everything went wrong. We lost internet periodically, didn’t have access to tourney or BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer network) from the booth, the BYOC was having network issues, we lacked proper communication between the stage and the booth, etc… We basically ended up running around like chickens with our heads cut off looking for our food pans. In between work, though, I had chances to meet some names that I had only dreamt of meeting in person. These people are not the pro players as some would think, but rather personal heros such as the TastySpleen community members. I actually became considerably apathetic toward being adjacent to professional players, moreso than I would have ever expected.

The majority of my time at the event was spent doing odd work. Sometimes I would monitor IRC, but often this was interrupted to do something more important. I moved, set up, tore down, and tested equipment, crimped cables, and at one point even fed Scimech as he was too busy to take the pop tart to eat by himself. I also spent a lot of time coordinating BYOC to try and make sure it was covered, relayed information from all over, and took on most any random task that was available and needed to be done. The best work was always interfacing with new people in all areas of the event, as was the case for acquiring our own crimping equipment and finding spare rigs. Most of what I did involved handfuls and handfuls of small but important tasks, and it turns out there are enough of these to fill up an entire QuakeCon.

When the BYOC casting was available, I jumped on it. After much running and deliberation with many people, Stlava and I pulled together a casting setup in the NOC (big restricted network admin center in the BYOC area). Jehar and I casted a tiny piece of Warsow on the first day of BYOC tourney, but network issues came to slow us down. Delay after delay happened which led to nearly all of the players going to bed. This is probably the saddest moment for myself as I was looking forward to getting Warsow some spotlight. The second day of BYOC casting was more fruitful as Jehar was able to catch the Quake 2 Team Deathmatch with myself showing up at the tail end of the last match. We then caught the finals of the QuakeWorld tournament which was happening at the same time. The QuakeWorld match turned out to be pretty silly, but it worked out by giving Jehar and I  time essentially video-logging our experience up to that point.

Quake Live TV is an incredibly dedicated, hard-working, and underpaid (zero dollars) bunch. Seeing everything come together as well as it did was extremely rewarding in a way that money could never be. I had been doing so much random work and helping out at all available moments that I neglected to take a look at the booths or pay attention to the matches being played. That said, I wouldn’t trade the experience for a signed copy of Rage and a brand new rig to play it on. Meeting big names is always cool, but to be honest meeting and strengthening relationships is so much more satisfying. My only hope is that I continue to provide for Quake Live TV in the future like I was able to do at QuakeCon, and I’m certainly looking forward to QuakeCon 2011.