Waking Up
The entire team went to be early the night before, coping with varying degrees of jetlag. I woke up three times during the night to use the bathroom and most of the other iQ guys said they'd woken up at various times during the night as well. Fortunately everyone reported that they'd slept well (the accomodations were spectacular) and felt rested in the morning because we needed to be up early. We had been told by ANet to meet in the lobby at 8:30AM for breakfast and walk to the game show together.
That did not stop Pally and Justin (Hello Apollo) from knocking on our door at 7:35AM. Fortunately we'd set our wake-up call for 7:30 so they got to hang out in our room...while we showered and brushed our teeth.
The first picture shows Justin waiting bright-eyed and expectantly for us as we get ready. The second shows Augie fresh as a rose as we channel surf while waiting for the bathroom to free up. They were showing the Olympics with English coverage, surprisingly enough, but that wasn't nearly as amusing as Taiwanese commercials which we eventually settled on.
Breakfast was excellent, just as it was every day we were there. This time I indulged at the pancake/waffle bar and helped myself to the watermelon juice we'd discovered the day before which tasted just like you'd imagine drinking a watermelon would taste!
After breakfast we made the long walk between the hotel and convention center. Here's a photo that someone later remarked looked like it belonged on an album cover or as some kind of David Hockney tribute.
The wall on the right is the hotel.
The wall on the left is the convention center.
At the end of the alleyway we made a left and walked about 20 meters to get in the doors and onto the game show floor.
Scouting the Competition
We had some television crews following us around this day obviously hoping to catch some Izzy cartwheels on film. They didn't have any luck as Izzy was too busy bull-rushing and trying to tackle Augie this morning. (Not shown) Instead the t.v. crews had to settle for talking with us while we waited for someone to show up explain in Chinese how important we were. I'm sure we must have looked pretty comical rolling into the convention center with 75+ people and a few different t.v. cameras only to get stopped at the entrance because no one with us spoke Chinese. It was sorted out in a few minutes when someone showed up with the equivalent of backstage passes and let us onto the show floor 20 minutes before it officially opened. It was still a good reality check to have cameras recording us on one side and security guards stopping us on the other- pumping and deflating our egos simultaneously.
The 9:00 AM hour was devoted to making guilds stand on stage and look foolish. On the left you can see Te being coached into some sort of ferocious pose for the cameras while in the middle LuM appears to be checking the other booths for the girls who were arriving early for work. We had a chance to meet most of the Te guys on the plane and we were already familiar from playing in the same region, but I hadn't met the guys from LuM yet so this was one of my first impressions. I would later get the chance to hang out with both Val and LuM and I had a great time with both teams, but that story will have to wait for day three.
The last picture shows Val facing EvIL in some kind of staredown, being coached by Jeff Strain with a camera crew on hand.
Te Photo: (from left to right)
Stepn, Kriegar, Lulu, cRUMMY dUMMY, PaulO/Hutto, Trexton, Bobangry, Awowa
LuM Photo: (from left to right)
empeh, hiet, conzpi, deya, blaag, juhazi, Thrasheri, casa
Background, left: Val. Background, right: EvIL
Foreground, left: Jeff Strain. Foreground, right: Camera man.
The first match of the day got underway quickly with Te facing LuM. It's fair to say Te would have been the favorites in Vegas if Vegas had been paying any attention, but LuM surprised them with a strong defense that wouldn't crack in game one. We watched them fight on the big screen for fifteen minutes before rushing off to the Guild Wars booth and the computers already set up there. While the main stage had a bunch of monitors hooked up they had problems getting the display right. We were able to observe the matches live (not on a fifteen minute delay) but we could only see one party menu at a time and all messages were in Chinese. Switching between teams always meant staring at a blank screen for three to five seconds while the monitors readjusted. On top of that no one thought to put the morale chart up during the first match and the minimap was tiny, making it difficult to get a sense of what was happening or who was winning.
Running over to the personal computers after fifteen minutes let us log onto observer mode and we'd already discovered how to change the language options from Chinese to English due to our familiarity with the menu windows. Obviously the live match ended before the first observer instance and we heard that LuM had won, but we'd been able to see exactly how they stood up to Te in the first minutes of the match.
Te came back in game two with a build we are quite familiar with and put on a good performance, sending the match to a decisive game three. Meanwhile the announcers had been asking the audience whom they thought would win each of the matches and giving out prizes to the winners. The prizes for the first two matches were posters and CDs but for the third game they brought out a brand new ATI videocard that I will try and get the make and model number of later. Te decided to go with a fast-cast Mesmer/Ele air spike build, that they later confessed was a bad call, while LuM played a similar build with two copies of Nature's Renewal (and Oath Shot) to help fight hexes they had seen in game two. Te lost game three and they were understandably upset about losing in the first round and were especially upset that game three had been restarted because neither side had gone in with a referee. They later complained that LuM had brought extra copies of Prot Spirit after getting a look at their build but both LuM and ANet/NCSoft have said nothing was changed in the builds for game three between resets.
Hotel and Back
We went back to the hotel for lunch but this time we left the buffet-style dining behind for the restaurant-bar Cheers. We indulged in all the bar had to offer with the lunch specials. A few lobsters and a handful of $6 sodas later we were recharged and ready to go out again. We wandered the streets for a bit, getting a look at the shops. We stopped in at 7-11 and I picked up a sharpie so I could get some autographs. On our short walk we saw 7-11, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and TGI Friday's as we wondered aloud what to make of the spread of American chain stores.
Game Show Again
We headed back to the game show to watch the match between EvIL and Val that would decide who we would face the following day. We had a strong suspicion that it would be EvIL and their build was strong and their play equally strong.
Oh that's right, they had cheerleaders onstage. Cheerleaders that sometimes performed during the middle of the matches, complete with their own dance mix which was pretty good. It was nearly unanimous that we preferred the SMASH STAR dancers, but at the moment we had more important things to pay attention to like EvIL winning both matches.
After the matches a few of the guys decided to snap more photos with the girls working at the show. Notice how Sarus bee-lined towards my favorite booth girl from the day before. Note that it's been a week and that tattoo still hasn't come off.
Banquet
We headed back to the hotel after watching the matches in observer mode to make sure we had all the important information written down when we got some great news: the missing luggage had arrived! The guys were relieved that they'd now be able to wear the tuxedos they'd brought for the occasion. We sat down for another brainstorming session before dinner and hammered out our final plans. No one fell asleep this time.
Dinner was in a banquet room at the hotel which had been set up with projectors to show a loop of Guild Wars videos while we ate. The scenes were mostly from presearing so it was rather nice to have in the background. After the meal a few prizes were handed out at random before we got to the "game of skill" which turned out to be Break the Ice. I then realized why some of the ANet staff had snickered when I had asked if we were going to play some ice breaker-type games earlier.
It was supposed to be a guild leader vs guild leader challenge but Trex bowed out due to inebriation. Ensign went up to represent us and we drew the Valandor in the first round. We thought for sure that both Finnish teams had the advantage with any game involving ice, but thankfully Seppo (the Val player) had been drinking as well and smashed the ice with abandon.
The final round came down to Te versus EvIL with EvIL winning and taking home flash players for each of their players.
Lantern Festival
The banquet ended and Tommy from ANet asked us if we had time to do an interview with one of the television crews, so we donned our iQ sweaters (made and delivered by Pally) and headed off to a private room in the hotel. We had met the t.v. crew before and they seemed like young, fun guys. They threw us mostly softball questions and asked us to give background info on ourselves while they filmed. We might have nubbed it on a few questions but I told the guy doing the final editing to be nice to us. After we signed away our lives, as they put it, we were rushed outside where the tour buses and the rest of the guilds were waiting.
On the way there our tour guide regaled us with facts about Taipei, such as the 200 or 2000 7-11's in the city, this was the year of the dog, scooters were very popular, and to be sure to count the 89 steps on once we arrived at the Lantern Festival. I sat in front of Seppo and Kuntz on the bus while Seppo complained about his motion sickness and Kuntz tried to talk him through it. I was pretty worried that he'd vomit on the back of my head but he held out and we all made it there without puking.
The festival itself was fine and gave us a good reason to walk around and explore at our own pace. Some of the lanterns were pretty impressive, especially the giant dog that shot lasers and smoke. Zrave dissapeared from our group so we had to send a search party after him, then once we'd assembled everyone we had to walk around the outer perimiter of the festival for maybe two miles to meet the bus, which had been unable to pick us up anywhere near where we had been let off.
The walk gave us a chance to talk with Gaile about the city and introduce ourselves to Mike Gills, the tournament coordinator. Mike is something a renaissance man and appears to have travelled all over the globe and worked for a myriad of companies including Disney and Wizards of the Coast (for M:tG). Mike has been a tournament coordinator for years and definitely impressed us with his knowledge of competetive play and his ability to engage us in discussion about it. More impressive was his understanding of Guild Wars, particularly since he had only been hired about two and a half months ago to work for ANet! He picked our brains for feedback about the event so far and for our input on future tournaments which we remember and appreciate. It's certainly an honor to qualify for a world championship but feeling like we had a chance to mold and improve future tournaments made us feel like we could make an impact beyond playing the game. Thanks.
We got back to the hotel and the teams dispersed pretty quickly. We went to bed with match against EvIL looming in our thoughts but confident in our planning. We wouldn't face them til the following afternoon but we wanted to be up early and feeling well-rested for our first World Championship match.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for another report on Saturday in Taiwan where I make friends with my favorite player from EvIL and get stood up by some NCSoft employees!
-Scaphism
But seriously it does sound so darn fun. And you get to meet Gaile in person! 
looks like you really had fun. anyway, I wish I had been there 
