Blog: WCG Seattle Diary - Trinelin

Wednesday (Day 1)

You would think that I would be tired by going up at 3.30 in the morning to get ready and head towards the airport, but actually, I was not tired at all. This was going to be my first big gaming event and the first time I would play shootouts and I was very excited about it. My flight left at 6.30 and I started my morning with a Starbucks White Mocca and a Harry Potter book on the way up to Seattle. I had prepared for the cold weather by buying a new coat and I was wearing my black leather boots.

I am actually from Sweden and have only lived in the warm climate of San Diego for about 9 months (people always say that I should be used to the cold but that is actually one of the biggest reasons to why I moved away from Sweden) so as soon as I stepped out in the cold of Seattle I immediately got reminded of the reason for moving away from home. While waiting for my baggage I got a phone call from my team mate Alana (Ms.X) that was supposed to arrive one hour after me. She told me she had missed her flight and would not arrive until about 4 hours later. Oh No! The worst part was that she did not have time to give me any address or directions to the hotel so I was more or less stuck at the airport while waiting for her. Fortunately I had my new iPod Nano and my book to play with while waiting.

A tired Alana showed up in the afternoon and we finally took off towards Seattle and our hotel. My first impression of Seattle was that it was a very nice city with a beautiful skyline and the different colour of the trees and the feeling of an actual autumn almost made me home sick. We parked the car at the hotel and went up to our nice and big hotel room and crashed on the beds. I had started to feel tired and Alana needed to rest before doing anything else so that’s what we did. In the evening we took the car and went out in Seattle to meet up with my Swedish friend Alexandra (Lancia) and to have some dinner. Lancia was also there for the WCG since she is a reporter for a Swedish gaming website. After the dinner we went to meet one of Alana’s friends, Rance, he’s a super nice guy and a shout caster at the event. We had a couple of beers and hung out for a few of hours and then took him back to his hotel before returning to our beds to get some sleep before the first day of hard work at the Razer booth.

Thursday (Day 2)

Woke up at around 7.30 to get ready and be able to go to the event at 9.00. We were very hungry and since there was almost nowhere to eat close to the hotel, room service was our only option. I ordered oatmeal, probably the most expensive one I have ever eaten, for $12! And it didn’t even come with anything fancy on top of it! Well, at least it filled me and made me ready to play games for a couple of hours. When we got to the event my sweet Lancia was waiting outside with a gift for me: Swedish candy! One of my favourites that is impossible to get here in the US: Salty liquorish. Now, what Americans call liquorish is not really liquorish since it has to be black and contain salmiak so raspberry vines does not count.

At the Razer booth we met all the Razer people and started setting up our computers. This took a while and Alana had some problems getting Quake 3 to work so both of us played some shoot outs in UT2004. I was really rusty and lost a couple of games to two really good guys that obviously had been competing before. I was still pretty happy with my performance and the first shoot out of my life.

The venue was really cool in my opinion. I heard other people complain about different things but since I had nothing to compare with I was content with it. It was amazing to be among all the people that have the same interest as me although it seemed like a lot of the guys had never seen a girl before. I also met a lot of people that I had only talked to online before which was really awesome.

After a long day at the event I and Alana and a bunch of guys walked to the restaurant of our hotel to have dinner and some drinks together. Then we took the car and headed down to the player hotel and to the STOKED Lounge! The Lounge was basically a big room for all the gamers to hang out and party in. They had Halo 3 on Xboxes, free pizza and of course, as many Stoked Energy Drinks as you wanted! All the Stoked people that I met were really great and friendly and I met a lot of new cool people there as well. We spent a few hours with all of them, talking and eating and drinking. I actually tried Halo 3 too but I have to admit I have a big problem aiming with the controller and not the mouse. Some time past midnight me and Alana headed back home to central Seattle and our hotel. Over there, our friend was waiting to hang out and I tried to stay awake for as long as possible but I think I passed out in bed in the middle of a conversation

Friday (Day 3)

Friday morning started out with a breakfast meeting with Razer. We had pancakes and discussed gaming. Since I had the morning shift in the shoot outs I walked to the event after breakfast and Alana went back up to the hotel room. Friday was a lot busier than the Thursday and I was now warmed up in my game and ready to kick some ass. I sat down at the computer, warmed up and then started taking on challenge after challenge. My game felt a lot better today and it was fun playing with a shout caster and a big crowd. I did not loose a single game and I really really enjoyed playing UT again! I also did two interviews and got filmed by Dutch MTV which was really cool to me. In the late afternoon Alana came to relieve me and to kick some but in Quake 3. She didn’t loose a single game either so it was a good day. While she was playing I went out to dinner with some new friends I had met IRL for the first time. They are all really awesome people and we went to a restaurant and had Cajun food and a very good time.

In the evening we went down to the player hotel again and to the Stoked Lounge. Today, Lancia came with us to party as well. We hung out in the Stoked Lounge for a while and then walked over to the room of the Singapore team for a few drinks. Team Fnatic was also there to party and it was nice to see some more Swedes! The trip home this night took a lot longer than it should have since we managed to get lost and drive in the complete wrong direction for quite a long time. The funny thing is that when we drove back we actually managed to miss our exit again and drove in the other wrong direction for a while (two blondes makes no right?). When we finally figured out where we were going and managed to get home it had taken us about one hour instead of 15 minutes.

Saturday (Day 4)

I was really tired this morning but since I had the morning shifts I crawled out of bed and down to the hotel restaurant for some more expensive oatmeal. When I came to the Razer booth it was already a long line of people that had signed up to play me. So it was just for me to sit down and start playing again. I played for many hours and I was really getting tired in the end. I think the highlight of today, and all the shoot outs, was this 6 year old boy that wanted to play me. He was the cutest gamer ever and he could hardly reach up to the keyboard and see the monitor. I could tell he had played the game before and I of course let him kill me and win over me. The little kid was just SO happy when he won a brand new Razer keyboard and it made me really happy too! In the afternoon Alana took over playing Quake 3 again and I did some more interviews. This time in front of a camera for the first time which was very interesting even though they had some technical trouble?

The Stoked Lounge opened as usual in the evening and we went there to have a meeting with all the people involved in Stoked. We came up with a whole bunch of ideas of promoting the brand and had a very interesting discussion. It was really nice to meet the rest of the people behind the drink. We also got to taste two new flavours that will either make you cold or warm, called “Wind Chill” and “After Burn” I really liked After Burn. Later that evening we were once again invited to a party with the Singapore team. Since there were no shoot outs tomorrow morning I could actually party a lot, and that’s what I did. The Singaporeans were really generous with liquor and ordered chicken wings and pizza for us all (such sweet guys!). I think we got home around 6 am and I passed out in the car. So it was a good party!

Sunday (Day 5)

For some reason I woke up pretty early. Maybe because I thought I had to do shoot outs or something. This morning’s room service was the best one ever made by Alana: 10 glasses of cold water for about $6 haha! But I’m pretty sure it was worth it. I packed all my bags and then went down to the venue around noon and I did not feel very good at all. There were people ready to play me even though I wasn’t supposed to do any shoot outs today. But as soon as I saw the computer and UT I felt that I had to play again. So I played maybe four games with shaking hands and no aim and then Alana finally came. Since her flight left in the afternoon we had to leave and say good bye to everyone and then go out for lunch. We had a quick lunch at the Pikes Marketplace (at least I got some sightseeing) and then we headed over for the airport. With my usual bad luck when it comes to travelling my flight was of course delayed and I didn’t get back to San Diego until 1am and reached my wonderful apartment around 2am.

This was an amazing event to me. I met so many new people and made a lot of new friends and I managed to do well in my first shoot out, which feels really good. I also liked Seattle a lot and I can’t wait to go to another event. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.