The Land of Zerg...and various other creatures.: Home Sweet Home!

We are finally, finally home from Raleigh. It was a fun trip...okay, maybe not fun, but definitely interesting. The trip was a success for me! I read a total of three books from Thursday to Sunday! I completed the Sookie Stackhouse series (go read it ASAP, if you haven't already)! On a side note - I just have to confess my love for Eric. Okay, I feel better now. I also got my book, Mockingjay, which is the last book in The Hunger Games series (again go read it, like yesterday)! I'm super duper excited to read it now that I have some closure with Sookie! So anyways, back to what this all is about - Starcraft Tournament. I got to meet Day 9, and I'm pretty sure I squealed like some tween with Bieber Fever! He was super, super awesome! He was funny and kind of embarrassed about himself. He was better than I could have imagined. And I just have to tell you that this whole thing must be a total mind-screw for these guys. It's insanity. I know that the majority of the population doesn't follow gaming and has little interest in the pro gaming world. However, there is A LOT of money that goes into it. And I have to wonder what it's like to be like Day 9. He's a normal guy going to grad school, but on the weekends he goes to these tournaments and casts. It's like he's a celebrity. People (myself included) line up for his autograph and a picture with him! All of these SatrCraft groupies (seriously - there really are video gaming groupies) make goo-goo eyes at him! I'm pretty shocked at the whole thing. I can't imagine what it would be like to be George Clooney on the weekend, and the during the week, being a John Doe nobody. It has to be completely strange. There's also some pretty crazy bullying that goes on at these tournaments, and I don't mean between players. There's all of these vendors that show up to these events that like support the cause. There was Dr. Pepper, Stride, Dorritos, and Hot Pockets (go figure). These people hire these moderately cute, semi trashy girls to go up to all of these geeks and fake flirt with them to get them to sign up for stuff! It's totally sad to see. Because these poor guys probably have never been approached by a girl before, so they're basically getting a boner at that alone. And then these girls want something from them, and they're so blinded by a REAL LIFE GIRL talking to them that before they know it they're probably signing their lives away. Seriously - this is no joke. I also blogged earlier in the hopes of there being some epic tantrums, and I'm sad to say, guys that play PC games are just too classy for that. There is absolutely no tantrums in StarCraft. No one even slammed their mouse down hard after they lost...I'm like COME ON. Give me some action. However, Halo did not fail to bring the drama. We sat in the main stage (LOL at there being a "main satge" in gaming like it's fight night) and there was this team that had such terrible manners. They yelled and screamed at each other the enter time. They were the worst sports in the history of bad sports.

This is the main stage...