{"id":167,"date":"2012-04-08T20:24:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T00:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/?p=167"},"modified":"2012-04-15T20:53:02","modified_gmt":"2012-04-16T00:53:02","slug":"ign-pro-league-finals-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/archives\/167","title":{"rendered":"My IGN Pro League experience in Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/alpha32\/6912751586\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\" rel=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/6912751586_5c9c5a3a42_o1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"IPL4 Crowd Shot by JSudds\/Alpha32\" width=\"648\" height=\"361\" style=\"border-radius:12px 50px\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-170\" srcset=\"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/6912751586_5c9c5a3a42_o1.jpg 648w, http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/6912751586_5c9c5a3a42_o1-300x167.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nSaying that the Vegas trip to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ign.com\/ipl\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\" rel=\"external\">IPL4<\/a> and GSTL finals hosted at the super-glam Cosmopolitan was a success would be a huge understatement. I finally got to put faces to the hundreds of people I chat with on a daily basis, met new friends and potential business partners.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some highlights<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The marble floored group entrance area at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\" rel=\"external\">Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas<\/a> &#8211; welcome to luxury!<\/li>\n<li>Getting double-takes from a well-known SC2 player I had dinner with in Toronto only a week earlier<\/li>\n<li>Having breakfast with a few Barcraft organizers and David Ting, founder of the IPL and eSports GM at IGN<\/li>\n<li>Seeing the games with thousands of others around me and feeling the passion that was once only reserved for people watching &#8216;real&#8217; sports<\/li>\n<li>Watching a friend almost peg one of the Korean commentators in the back of the head during a match with the cork from an ill-aimed bottle of booze<\/li>\n<li>Chatting it up with IPL, GSL, Blizzard Ent., RIOT, AMD staff, team owners, documentary makers, and members of the press. We&#8217;re all in it together!<\/li>\n<li>Being the straw that broke the camel&#8217;s back between a group of friends to convince one of them to put all the cash in his wallet on a single high-rollers roulette table spin, and subsequently watching him lose it all. I then tried making the group feel better by ponying up my own cash at the normal tables, they chose the simple game of &#8216;War&#8217;. Ended $60 up, whoops :(<\/li>\n<li>Watching the photographers from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.teamliquid.net\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\" rel=\"external\">TeamLiquid<\/a> sort and qualify thousands of potential shots at blistering speeds and then running back out loaded with tons of gear to get more shots.<\/li>\n<li>Giving one of my casino credit stubs to a bare-footed editor that was tirelessly working throughout the entire event. Hopefully he gets more personal time next time!<\/li>\n<li>Solidifying my opinion that gin &#038; tonic is delicious, Citadel is almost as good as Hendricks. Yum<\/li>\n<li>Bumping into Brett Sperry, co-founder of Westwood Studios, while hunting for art galleries. Although he&#8217;s retired from the video-gaming industry he runs a lovely <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brettwesleygallery.com\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\" rel=\"external\">art gallery<\/a>, if you&#8217;re going to Vegas and love art &#8211; do go check it out!<\/li>\n<li>Sending a much longer business oriented 50+ point update to my co-founders after returning, all from memory<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a clip I took during the open bracket showcasing high actions per minute (APM)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MBduXjnz_90?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"shadow aligncenter\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And this is why you go exploring off the main strip&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g8OPbyVVsB0?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"shadow aligncenter\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t wait for the <a href=\"http:\/\/nasl.tv\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"ext-link\" rel=\"external\">NASL<\/a> season 3 finals in Toronto, and upcoming MLG and IPL events &#8211; THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING FOR US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saying that the Vegas trip to the IPL4 and GSTL finals hosted at the super-glam Cosmopolitan was a success would be a huge understatement. I finally got to put faces to the hundreds of people I chat with on a daily basis, met new friends and potential business partners. Some highlights The marble floored group [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barcraft","category-esports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lorinhalpert.com\/blag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}