First day in Shanghai and the OSL Finals!

Hi everyone! Today has been fantastic. It started with a delicious breakfast at our hostel, where we indulged in a western-style breakfast buffet. From there, we decided to head to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower to see if we could figure out how to get into the OSL finals.



When we got there, nobody at the ticket booth had any idea what we were talking about, but luckily one of the security guards did and let us know how to get admission. It wouldn't be on for a few hours, so we headed to the nearby Super Brand Mall for lunch.

Now this mall is HUGE. It is the largest one in Shanghai at 10 floors and 3 basements. It's ridiculous how large it is. Struggling with choice anxiety and getting pretty hungry we headed to the Pizza Hut. That's right, Pizza Hut and boy was it swanky.




They have evidently taken stuffed crust pizzas to the next level here, as there were some pizzas that had sausages in their crust and others with jumbo shrimp. We got the popcorn chicken pizza and it was pretty tasty.



We headed over to the OSL location and stood by the gates for a while. When they opened, we found out we needed tickets to get in-- tickets that we did not have. Without a ticket, we would be required to stand behind the gates, which was somewhat far away. Luckily for us and within a minute of finding out that we required tickets, a random man announced he had two extra he could give us, partly because we were Canadian (he lives in North York). It was so generous of him-- and completely awesome since you actually couldn't buy the tickets, you had to have them given to you at some point. So we made it into the gated section and took a seat (on the stairs) fairly close to the front. Soon thereafter, we received balloons to bang together to make noise.



When the games finally began, it was really intense. This Korean girl behind us kept yelling "Jaedong fighting!", which was great. The Korean commentators essentially stood up the entire game and were extremely animated. I recorded a couple of videos, but I think they're too large to upload right now. In the fourth game of the series, we finally got our chance to be on screen. I will embed the video here when it gets uploaded.

Update: here's the video! Fast forward to 47:10 to see us.






Oh, and we also got these awesome 4gb USB keys. There was no paraphernalia for sale, nor were there any signs to write on. Some guys at the event had made 5 t-shirts that were pretty awesome and offered to sell us one for $35, so I got it. I do have 5 of the balloons that I'll be bringing back. If you want one, let me know.

I really don't think any other post will be this long.

OSL Finals in Shanghai

I arrive in China around 7pm on September 10. I've just found out that the OnGameNet StarLeague (OSL) finals will be held in Shanghai on the 11th. For those of you who don't know, the OSL is the most prestigious gaming league in Korea, where eSports is huge. Watch the first minute of the following video to get an idea of just how big this event is.



Having followed the Korean Brood War eSports scene for several years now, it's pretty cool to have a chance to go see it live. Plus, they always make an effort to show foreigners on camera, so it's highly likely that my presence at the event will be immortalized on video. Awesome.