Dreamblag – what just happened?

Being a first-timer representing the guild abroad and relatively new in the guild I was inclined to write an entry about how I felt about the event and what exactly happened there. I wanted to keep this short with a ”skip the boring parts” -approach, but as there really weren't any of those I'll be going for the ”random highlights” -approach instead.

Day 1 – Tre? Tre?!?

I woke up only minutes before my alarm was set to go off in xenophics' and arx's place and after convincing myself the last night's drinking game was absolutely nothing and I'd had more than enough sleep I hit the shower. We shortly headed for the airport to complete the party with Verdisha and board our flight while constantly trolling Kolori who was a first-time flier. After some lunch in Stockholm and several trips in trains (which were way more awesome and better working than Finnish ones) we hit the pretty but rainy city of Jönköping, and I get to experience the WTF-moment of finding out our hotel rooms have ship-like windows in the bathrooms.

We soon head for the thing itself and I find myself casually walking into Dreamhack, soon to be filled with that slightly euphoric feeling when the atmosphere gets to me and I realize I'm surronded by hordes of like-minded people. We head to the Asus & Steelseries booth, the Biscuitdrome, where TotalBiscuit is already plowing through Starcraft 2 games with his commentary and the seats are full. I'm happy to find out we've got no duties for the day and quickly after meeting with the Nordrassil Radio guys dart off to explore the event. I smile at myself while walking through the main LAN event area where people applaud when they start playing a remix of the Tetris theme song so loud it booms through the hall. This is why I'm here.

Later on xenophics leaves for the hotel to get some sleep while the rest of us realize we haven't eaten for a good 12 hours and begin our search for food. If there ever was any cultural shock involved, this is when I got the feeling it might have been in the Swede's end. Or maybe they just aren't that used to larger quantities, judging from the reaction of the clerk at the kebab stall when arx ordered (really small) roll kebabs for the 3 carnivores among us. ”Tre? Tre?” She kept asking, despite me standing right behind arx, until he told her they weren't all for him, at which point she relaxed and smiled it off. We conclude the very satisfying first day by munching away in the closed Biscuitdrome while watching TB and liquid'TLO cast one of the day's final matchups.

Day 2 – TRETTIO?!?!?

This day started with some major concerns. Firstly, there were some... hiccoughs with scheduling and it was uncertain if we'd get anyone to cast and stream our raids or if we'd get to raid at all due to the SC2 tournament. Also, the hotel personnel had on saturday convinced us the only outlets for ethanol containing consumables with acceptable concentrations in Sweden were open on Sundays, which turned out to not be true. I almost want to believe they did this in purpose. We, however, don't give up that easily and proceeded to obtain obscene amounts of class II ”alcohol” and play some seriously brutal drinking games. We didn't quite get there, though, before we had to leave for Dreamhack. There we finally got some sense into the timetables and fixed a time in which we could not only raid but also have TB cast it. I was slightly concerned if anyone would really care about us, considering the drome was mostly committed to casting SC2 and there was a massive League of Legends stand right beside us which drew (I've no idea why) a lot people. These doubts shortly vanished, as I was setting myself up to raid and stream if needed some 30 minutes before the raid, and I suddenly realized the stands are already full. Not only full, but literally packed, and there had been no Starcraft on the screen for a while. I glance over my shoulder and there's already a dozen people standing behind me, watching intently as I fly around in Orgrimmar. In the end, it all went great: we didn't wipe, TB & Verdisha commentating was really solid, and I only made fool of myself on trash by dying when I wasn't paying any attention to my own screen.

Later on, we head for the bar in the nearby hotel and hand the reins to Verdisha. I find a table with xenophics, sharing her concern about this arrangement to some extent, knowing Verdisha is intent on getting us all absolutely smashed while I'm feeling I'd rather be somewhat fresh tomorrow and not get wrecked until the main party. "Imagine the worst they could come up with” she says, ”and trust me, it'll be worse.” After five minutes of waiting, I see her jaw drop and glance over my shoulder to see Verdisha approaching with a tray filled with no less than thirty shots for the five of us. Halfway to our table the abashed bartender stops him and and asks to take a picture of the tray, saying she'll have to prove to her superiors she actually sold that many. At least the bar seems to know where the party's at and we eventually get joined by the sett.fi team, TB and a bunch of other people, and Verdisha decides to make things easier and proceeds to buy an entire bottle of tequila (I found myself thinking, ”Why did it have to be tequila? I do not do well with that stuff.”) and we start working on that. Good times were had, even Kolori switched to milder drinks and myself and xeno bailed out some 20 minutes before they closed the bar to dodge the task of dealing what's left in the bottle.

Day 3 – The Party

I wake up feeling good about my decisionmaking last night and hit the breakfast with arxeno while leaving Kolori and Verdisha to sleep. Today we raid a bit earlier and clear out the rest of the content from yesterday (BWD) and I make even a bigger fool out of myself, trusting the warlock to be immortal enough to let me whore some damage. It didn't quite work out this time. We did, however, manage to clear it just in time for us to rush with TB to the SC2 grand finals, one of the absolute highlights of the event. I hadn't paid nearly enough attention to the tournament apart from watching the casting in the Biscuitdrome and occassionally peeking into Day[9]'s tent, mostly due to us spending so much time outside Dreamhack and being busy with our own stuff and fans. Despite of that, the excitement started to mount up the moment I stepped into the packed DreamArena. The best-of-five series was nervewreckingly tight and when liquid´HuK finally managed to pull a 3-2 victory over fox´Moon I felt like both my head and the arena were exploding. I was afterwards supposed to pull off an interview with DJ Sien of Nordrassil Radio, but we agreed to cut it short and continue later on as we both wanted to rush to prepare for the Player's Party. In the party, basically, good times were yet again had, and the night club that served as the venue was incredibly cool. Verdisha quickly takes us through appetizers to the actual meal and xeno enters dancefloor under the completely unbelievable pretense that she actually wants to dance to hide her blatantly obvious attempt to escape her promises to mime Verdisha's drinking. How sly. Meanwhile, a lot of Starcraft people were being met again and poor Kolori couldn't quite handle the amount of drinks Verdisha and Steelseries people were getting for us. In his defense, I do think our table managed to empty a bottle of CM in less than two minutes at some point.

Eventually we get the signal and file into the street in good spirits. Maybe even a bit too good, and some of the stuff that followed is better left unwritten. We eventually got ourselves a cab and proceeded to first take Kolori to the hotel and enjoy what he described as the longest elevator ride in his life and then left again to get ourselves some burgers to eat along with the Nordrassil Radio guys.

 We got a picture with Moon!

Day 4 – The Feeling

After 4 solid hours of sleep I slowly make my way to the hotel breakfast, not quite succeeding in convincing the reception maid with my attempt at a ”feeling great” -smile. I carefully try to eat something as we share what memories we had from last night. Eventually we manage to pack up and check out of the hotel and get to the train station, where we team up with DJ Hobo of NR and his friend Jordan who were on their way to Stockholm as well. Again, a lot of traveling ensued with us behaving badly in the silent compartment. The exhaustion of past four really long and even more fun days started to manifest itself in our group as we slowly made our way back to Finland, and I got home no sooner than 1:40 local time and dropped nearly instantly.