more NGL ONE matches, 1 month "respite":) and S7

Thanks to everyone who's been checking back here regularly. I'm never going to apologize for the lack of content for any period of time - either I blog or I don't. I've been there before, saying "whoo I've been away for such and so long", and once you start like that there's no end to it :) If I'm not blogging, there's probably a good reason for it like me being really busy or I'm traveling for example.

So what's new right now? If you hadn't seen it yet, 3rd place for Evil Geniuses at WC3L, finishing above SK, nGize and World Elite for example. Credit to mouz&wicked for playing so strong despite the unideal conditions. Not going to bore you with a list of conditions, to be honest I just play with whatever I have to play with.

I'm going to be at home for like a month with some important on-line matches like NGL ONE for example. After that it's one of the most important tournaments of the year for me, Blizzard's tournament and its qualifier in Cologne starting at 26th of June.

FoV & Fly are my next NGL ONE opponents - both strong opponents, especially Fly whom I lost 0/2 to recently.

O yea I just won ZOTAC in another cool final against FoCuS (3-2 just like last time). Whether you usually like Orc vs Orc or not, I think the whole series is a recommendation (if you like to see me win, haha).

So that's it for now,

greets,
Grubby

First round fixing for WC3L Playoff 25-27 May

VS

That's right, EG vs Wicked. Representing EG will be Happy & Grubby, going up against FoCuS & Shy in first round.

Maps are:

1on1: Twisted Meadows,
		:
1on1: Secret Valley,
		:
1on1: Turtle Rock,
		:
1on1: Echo Isles,
		:
2on2: Gnoll Wood,
		:

Not so good 2v2 map for us at all, but the solo maps are quite good. We should win this, probably placing ourselves against nGize in the WB finals. That's my predictions. nGize & Mouz are the two strongest teams at the finals, I think, so either one would be a terribly difficult opponent. Still, only first place is really worth it for us, so that must be our goal. Yet, it would be somewhat of an upset too.

Well I'll be leaving home soon, still gotta clean up, pack my stuff, sleep, shower, ETC... :D As usual won't be getting much sleep, but I should get some in the airplane, and hopefully a good rest in the Hotel as well.

EG fighting!!^^

Recent results & schedule for coming weeks

Recent results:

• Grubby 1:2 LucifroN @ NGL ONE
• Netherlands 3:2 Norway - Netherlands qualified for ENC mainround with better chance than ever of finishing high.
• Grubby 2:1 TeD @ NGL ONE (now 9W 4L score at NGL, ranked #2)
  

Schedule for the coming weeks:

• 25-27 May 2009, WC3L Season 15, China - Beijing
• 31 May 2009, NGL ONE vs FoV
• Somewhere in June: GOMtv start. I know the starting date but not sure I can reveal it yet =)
• 1-14 June: within this date I'll play mouz.Fly100% for NGL ONE
• 24-26 June 2009, Blizzard S7 Regionals, Germany - Cologne

Happy's Blog @ EG & WC3L previews

Have a look on the EG homepage in the blogs section, Happy's written a few paragraphs previewing WC3L. I'll be doing an interview tomorrow regarding the same thing, you should be able to find the link to that probably here or on myEG.net as well.

Today I had a necessary win against TeD in NGL ONE. There is definitely room for improvement on my side - if Orc is as imba as some people say it is, I should never lose a map again. (ohh sarcasm, my dear friend)

I meant that part about improvement though=)

We'll also be going somewhat earlier to China, Beijing, to get settled in, rested and definitely some LAN experience practice once again before starting, hopefully.

Netherlands vs Norway

Will update later here when I got time. But u can discuss here.

WTV failed @ g1 creo/me. We'll try to get it in g2.

Was TR, AI is next.

Here's match link:

http://www.esl.eu/eu/enc/2009/wc3/clanwar/qr3/match/13278344

Aw man that's really bad haha ;D I wanted to play too showy, that I end up giving away g2 easily and losing on g3 at a macro strat (his micro wasnt so good at g1, but his mind is really good as always ofc). Well I just felt weird playing against Creo, should've played 100% at all games but this is how it went.

Felt like I didn't have much to win playing against an Inactive player (even one so good as creo), but if I knew I might lose I would have just played grunt/raid/walker at g2 -.-

At least Rdam won his match against Targa.. =X

End of Birthday Party ...and Shootout results!

Thanks to everyone who visited yesterday. It turned out to be a really special day for me, and I hope for everyone. I had no idea how it would turn out exactly. I knew about ~25 people would be attending who are in some way related to me through gaming - friends, acquaintances, and some interesting strangers. That's apart from the family that visited.

I'd like to thank everyone again for the great presents I received! I got about 15 books I think (that'll take me until the end of the year 2009?), I got a couple of movies which otherwise I may have never found out about, and flowers. Some special beers (I'm not a big drinker but I like trying a few special flavours from other parts in the world - Belgian and German beers) and even a neat bag of M&M's to go with one of the movies.

A visitor from the east of Germany brought a guitar (he says he brings it everywhere he goes), and while he started with a modest birth day song (which was the first song I got for my birth day this year), later on the guitar took a life if its own. He was playing on it and people were singing along. It's not as lame as it may sound to you - you'd have to be there, but while I was playing the Warcraft 1v1 Shootout tourney, I was utterly enjoying the live music on the background. My mother was singing along, and guys as well.

One guy even has singing/guitar skills by himself, and he was singing some cool rock song - he was really quite good! (ikbencool)

Well, it started at 1 PM but one guy was too early... I had Boomz0r pretend he didn't formally come in yet. I was considering whether I shall leave him to wait outside for the smallest of moments. What? I didn't actually tell him that :D although he did ask "are you going to make me wait outside?". I quickly opened the door further and let him in - social faux-pas avoided.

It went on till 1 AM actually! After I had played about 10 matches, a group of people had to go so we proceeded to awarding some prizes. When I mentioned I was going to send the first prize to someone, a lot of people echoed my private thoughts by yelling out that eea)ReaL. should win the prize! I agreed with them, and a loud applause and cheering ensued. He got his pick of a mouse pad and I think he was very happy with it. Congratulations to eea)ReaL. for being the closest to defeat me, using a DH+Mass hunt + AP rush strategy!

Second prize went to Tadpole for doing the most efficient execution of strategy with the least mistakes (apart from losing, of course). He went home around midnight in order to catch the last train.

Third prize was awarded to jmt, who, although he didn't play, won the lucky draw of the evening and took home the 3rd mouse pad.

to all the winners!

Thanks to all the other participants of the tournament as well: Kiezel, Zerter, morflinQue, WDG.Kevin, FunFunAll, Mista_Masta, Ins0mnia, Syophan, Infantrist and ikbencool.

Special mention to Ins0mnia who, although admittedly playing practically the worst of all, was the only one to score a hero kill on me. The crowd erupted in mad cheers - he was all suave coolness as he wore his sunglasses (inside the house. at night.) and laughed while losing footmen to green creepcamps and killing my hero subsequently.

Cassandra and me had so much fun, we'd definitely like to do this again next year. Even though she had to spend a lot of time cooking for more than a score of hungry youngsters :D It was ideal for me. Great sushi, great time, meeting great new people and even playing some WC3! xD

In the Middle of the Shoot out at my Birth day party

We started the shoot-out now, and after discussing with everyone at the party we decided to do it the classical way; 2 pc's and a new challenger every map.

We carried down Cassandra's and my PC and stationed them on the living room table and we've got a default gear (for the people that didn't bring their own stuff - a few people did ;).

So far I've played 5 people, Zerter (NL), Kiezel (NL), morflinQue (DE), WDG.Kevin (NL), FunFunAll (DE). At the end I've gotta judge who performed the best ( or, if I lost, I guess there could be no doubt) and they'll walk away with the prizes. We've got 3 hardwares to give away, namely professional gaming mouse pads.

It's turning out to be really fun. I don't know everyone who turned up (although now of course I do), but such an interesting assortment of people showed up. We've got a father of 2 girls, people from East and West of Germany, and the coolest Dutch people that exist.

IkBenCool is playing on the guitar now (which a German brought) and I'm about to play my 6th opponent now - Mista_Masta. There's about 20 people signed up for the tournament so I won't be done any time soon yet =D but it's really fun.

Greets and more later,
Grubby

What do you do for a living?

When I'm asked that question in the Netherlands, it always gives me pause. Either I give a vague answer or I answer truthfully. If I answer vaguely, I can usually dodge the question because it's not polite to dig when someone is being vague. At the same time, I try to remain polite and not throwing up a "verbal wall" where someone is like "whoops, did I just stir a trauma patient?"

A mixture of respect, skepticism and disbelief

The other choice is saying that I'm an independent entrepeneur; a professional gamer; an esports athlete."So you play computer gameS?" is often the retort. It's a question mingled with a mixture of respect, disdain, disbelief all at the same time. People usually cannot hide their first reaction very well, when they are surprised by something like that. Invariably, the stereotype makes its entrance in my conversation partner's mind. They take another good look at my physique; perhaps my eyes are a bit squarish, and perhaps those pants are more baggy than they looked like at first sight.

My dear readers, this blog continues at:

http://myeg.net/blogs/user_blog.php?blog_id=350

A party invitation to all Dutch Warcraft III Gamers

Hey Dutch Warcraft III Gamers!

You are all invited to Grubby's birthday party this coming Sunday. Any Dutch Warcraft III gamers or even any gamers living near to The Netherlands(eg, Cologne) are welcome to the party to socialize with the other Dutch gamers.

Here's where and when the party is happening:

Venue : Grubby's home in Nieuwegein in the province of Utrecht, The Netherlands. Email cassandrappg@gmail.com for the address if you are interested to join us for the party.
Date: Sunday, 17th May 2009
Time: opens from 1pm
Snacks: Help yourself to lots of home-made Japanese Sushi (Egg roll sushi, Salmon sushi, Tuna sushi, Prawn sushi and Salad Prawn Sushi..)
Drinks: soft drinks, beer, cocktails..


No need to bring any presents, but if you really want to, Grubby likes English science fiction and fantasy books, doesn't matter if it's first-hand or second-hand.

Warcraft Shootout Tournament
A Warcraft III 1on1 shoot-out tournament will be held at the party in the evening (We'll arrange two computers). We are giving away some equipments as prizes. Do bring your own equipment if you want the best conditions for your play!

See you there!!

Greets,
Manuel and Cassandra

EG, SteelSeries, GomTV

Hi everyone,

It's been less than a month since I've been in team Evil Geniuses. And I already feel snugly at home. I think a lot of people are wondering how it looks like to be on a team from the inside. I hope one day you will find out, but at least I can say that there's almost always more to know than you can see from the outside!

Inside EG
So how does it look like in EG? Well, as you may know I've been talking to EG since before we actually joined on April 16th. Since then I've been sending in feedback for their website development team. It seems my Warcraft 3 expertise can be applied in other areas too, like sniffing down bugs on HTTP's. Hoping they'll fix them soon, although I think the website is already serviceable and pleasant to use! But when they fix 'em we should be able to stay logged in and so forth.

Travels
Even though we had only been in EG for a short while, they already quickly took care of our travel expenses for ESWC Korea. That was quite worrying before, when we weren't sure whether Frontspawn was going to survive or not (and especially when we knew they weren't). If we had no team, we'd have to pay our own travels if we wanted to go to ESWC Korea. I've done so a lot in the past when I was in 4Kings, but it costed me a lot (the prize money I won was more than enough to earn it back, but 'twas still a big drain... if you consider how often I went to Asia & America and so on).

Redeeming myself
For my team I and for myself I felt bit bad that I finished poorly in ESWC, but shit happens sometimes. Looking at the bright side, I met a bunch of EG peeps and we did some promo vids (in which they said I did really well, so luckily I had a redeeming quality there in Korea). What I really want is to perform well under EG's flag though so I can make them proud.

Tested out this new SS product..
Being in a team can mean more than just playing, giving interviews, getting paid and going to tournaments. There's a certain excitement involved in being allowed to test new products before anyone else gets a chance to do so. Getting free stuff is one of the best parts of being a pro-gamer. Eventually I'd like to work very closely with peripheral companies to give them my feedback on how the products could be better. Recently I had a chance to test a new product that SteelSeries is developing. I can't say much about it yet because it's classified, but I'm looking very much forward to doing more playing time with it. It seems great... It should be very exciting for people who like gaming equipment. Well, I guess we might find out soon what it is =P



GomTV
Oh guys have you heard about GomTV? They'll be holding an invitational league soon, here's part of their announcement:
"GOM has planed GOMtv World Invitational for WARCRAFT 3!! ( hereinafter to as the ‘GWI’ )
GWI will be an on-line warcraft 3 frozen throne league. GOM staffs make the best line-up like Sky, Lyn, Grubby, Moon, etc."

Another new tournament for Warcraft 3! And who said we're dying out? =D

13 May - The News

What have I been doing recently? Well of course I've had my birthday, and although I didn't officially hold a party, nearly all my close family came to visit (most of it in surprise). It turned out to be very fun.

New practice structure
I've also been trying to create a new practice structure; I can't reveal exactly how, but it's safe to say that there's more to practice than just "playing a lot of games" and "watching replays". The "how" matters just as much. I'm practicing every day to achieve targets that I've set for myself. If I don't reply as much to queries, don't stream at the moment or if I'm not on-line on MSN as much - it's because I'm trying to get into the zone for WC3L Finals and what's beyond.

For the rest, I haven't read news the whole day yesterday and took a quick look to get a summary.

The news

• I just read that 4Kings is acquiring a new team for CounterStrike:Source. It strikes me as odd that they are hiring new teams (whether for some, low or no salary - it doesn't matter. Even sponsorship for travel means expenses)... when they still have so much debts to the old 4Kings.wc3 team. And it's not like they paid off even one single euro since we left the team.
  

• EPS Germany coming to a close - SoKoL and dArk doing well for themselves, currently residing at 2nd/3rd place. XlorD dominant as usual, with a flawless season comprised of only victories. Say what you want about the level of EPS.DE, but I think it's definitely not low. And even then, getting straight wins every season implies a consistency of gameplay and level that's admirable nonetheless. HLA at unexpected 4th place (I thought he was half-inactive?) and HasuObs sharing that 4th place with him.

• ReiGn playing Orc against Top Undeads FoV & TeD (both of whom I will play in the next playday), winning 3 out of 5 maps. He was always good with Orc against Undead ever since many years ago, as UD's would help each other practice by playing Orc against the other (especially on LT). That's how FoV developed some of his special strategies back in the day, because Undeads have more patience with each other than an Orc and Undead have with each other (don't ask me why).

• Team Giants - a new WC3 contestant for Team Leagues. Interesting constellation of players and obviously I wish SocceR the best of luck in this new team. They have the potential to break into WC3L if they can stick together and play to the best of their abilities. Suggested 2v2 team; SocceR & Elfi.
  

A day from NGL ONE to ZOTAC

So I took it quite easy while at the same time preparing timings which I felt would work. Without pressurizing myself too much. I picked up a 2-0 win against LiiLD.C. in NGL ONE as a result. That puts me back to shared rank #2 (instead of shared rank #3), with only Lyn leading at #1.

I went right on to play ZOTAC, whose admins had a fair understanding that it'd be running a little late, luckily I'm usually seeded so that means I get freewin first round.

Then I saw that they put Road to Stratholme in the map pool, well I can only imagine that they did this to give some disadvantage to Orc cuz this map is really bad for Orc =D maybe they want more non-Orc ZOTAC winners. Anyway, it's only in R2 so it doesn't matter for the Single Elim Bo1 bracket, but I can imagine that it's probably in the map pool now, so other races can pick it in Quarters/Semis/Finals.

Haven't really looked at who else is playing yet, so I'll just take it 1 game by 1 game! Gonna have some lunch now, be back later here to discuss my games =)

Greets
Grubby

Coming home to Netherlands

I got home on May 7th, somewhat in the early afternoon. I was able to stay awake until 6 PM, and then I went to sleep. Woke up at 2 AM, decided that that's just too weird, and slept until 5 AM ^^ Since then I've been awake, had to do groceries (our fridge was really empty) had 2 breakfasts, lunch, and watched the replays of WC3L Mouz vs WE. Watched some catch-up replays as well.

Then something funny happened. I went to lie down on the floor in my PC room and I just fell asleep. Slept for like 6 hours ^^ from 5 to 11 PM. So strange... guess it's jet lag or something. Then I woke up, started playing a lot of games (luckily there were still people awake) until they all went to sleep now (2:40 AM).

So my thoughts about being at home: I really miss Seoul's opening times: 24/7 for most important things like food, internet café and metro etc. It's just so strange to come home and realize all stores close at 6 PM except supermarkets which close at 8 or 9 PM usually. Also had a lot of fun with XlorD and Eric strolling the streets of Seoul, playing games and talking trash.

I've also eaten really nice food in Seoul, luckily we were able to find a perfect restaurant when we were with Eric and XlorD so that I could really show them how good a BBQ meal can be with beef Galbi =)

Well in about 12 hours I'll be playing LiiLD.C. for NGL. Currently I'm ranked at #3, shared with ReiGn, with 7-3 score. Above me are Soccer (8-3) and Lyn (8-2) so if I win this one I could at least advance to shared 2nd place. Well there are plenty of matches to go for me (13) so there's margin for error and I shouldn't pressurize myself too much. Just going to have fun and go for the win.

About WE/Mouz: I'm surprised that WE lost even with map choices. Seems like a huge advantage to be able to choose your starting maps especially with the new WC3L system. In hindsight I guess you could say WE had a really bad season, perhaps adjustments to the new system. That means the 4 attending teams will be:

• Evil Geniuses
• nGize
• Mousesports
• Wicked

The play-offs grid can be found here: http://www.esl.eu/eu/wc3l/season15_playoffs/rankings/

That's all for now, good morning/good night :P

Upcoming Schedule & Meeting EG CEO

Next events on my schedule:

1. WC3L Season 15 Play-offs: 25-27 May
2. Battle.net Season 7 Europe Regional Finals: date not announced yet
3. Maybe eStars Seoul? Depends on vote/admin's decision :x
4. NGL On-line season of course as usual
5. (next matches: LiiLD.C @ 9 May and LucifroN 16 May)

What I'll be working on: becoming a more perfect player in every sense of the meaning. Even though I don't think my result at ESWC properly reflects my shape at all, I will find an even better formula for performing at top level every time when it matters.

Meeting the CEO
It was great to meet the CEO, the head of website and the CS team from Evil Geniuses. We did a lot of video footage together and I got to know them just a bit better. I also got my EG Team Wear Shirts from them. I'll feel proud about wearing those at the next events I'll be attending :)

By the way, here was my last blog on EG about my stay in Seoul:

http://myeg.net/blogs/user_blog.php?blog_id=307

You can find Happy's blog there as well. Obviously he wouldn't be too happy with 4th place but I think he did great personally.

Hard beds, Lunch, Dinner with mayor

The bed is hard, the towel is small and there is no shampoo. I guess you should always be prepared when you travel, even to very well off countries like Korea. You never know if you're gonna miss something, and I guess we forgot our shampoo :) at least we got free wi-fi internet (the best, because both me and my manager got our laptop on this trip - so we don't have to share a PC and I can watch replays/read news any time as well).

It's funny when you travel really a lot every year, there's something you may forget, maybe not every time, but every other time. In a way, that's also the charm of it.

The worst part I guess is the bed, I'm quite used to softer beds and in China and Korea the bed can be quite hard sometimes. That's ok if you're used to sleeping on your back (maybe better, even) but I usually sleep on my side and then it doesn't support your skeleton very well, like your spine and neck and so on. And since I'm quite a lean guy, I don't have much meat to cushion myself :P

As a result, my neck hurts a lot and I can hardly turn it sideways... LUCKILY, the screen is always in front of me so I got no problem.

As for the schedule, I heard there are some changes. I never fully trust what I hear about schedules because there may be changes. So I'm like water in that regard as well, just go with the flow. Now I heard we'll already be playing on May 3rd (not 4th), in the evening, after the Korean Qualifiers finish. And the Korean Qualifiers got extended to encompass 2 days (starting today, in like 1 hour.. which is 6:30 AM Dutch Time) and finishing tomorrow morning/afternoon.

Groups will be announced later today I heard, which means evening probably. Which means afternoon Dutch Time (CEST).

--------------------------------------------------

Now we're going to have some lunch and at 15:30 KST we'll be gathering up for a bus. About half of all players will attend the opening ceremony with Korean pop star performances, and about half of the players will attend a privileged banquet with the Mayor of Cheonan. Nicker, Happy, Cassandra and me will be going to the Mayor's dinner party because we arrived yesterday (that's how they separated it).

So long, until next time!

greets,
Grubby

Arriving in Incheon - Arriving in Cheonan

Hey everyone,

There was a minor delay on my first flight today, so I was worried I wouldn't be making it in time for my connection. Luckily it was only half an hour so it was no problem to make it, and I also think that they inform the connections of such delays.

I brought 3 books on this trip, and already quite quickly wondered if that's been a mistake; I nearly finished the first one. Well, I guess I'll be doing most reading on the airplanes back and forth. That's also the main reason why, to the surprise of many non-gaming friends/family, I usually don't mind long travels at all :-) althoug I must say today's travel was extremely exhausting; no whining just the truth. It's fine really and i dont mind much, because I've slept some on the way.

The book I'm reading now, I think, is so funny and rich in imagination. It's called Mothership, author John Brosnan.

I've brought 140 mb of replays to study when I've got any time. Now it's 1:32 AM Korean Time; and I'll be hitting the sack soon. I've been told that tomorrow there will be the opening ceremony, and they've also decided to move the Korean Qualifier forward. So around afternoon in Europe, and in the morning in USA already, we should know who will be the last 2 extra Korean players to join ESWC Cheonan. Any time I got I'll be looking at replays, hehe.

There was not much to eat around here when we arrived (23.30), only one eating bar/café with fried chicken, so I went for it. It fills the stomach pretty ok. Hope to find some Korean food tomorrow! &_&

Good night all and talk to you later,
Grubby