After an exciting weekend, the first MLG major LAN tournament has come to its end. There were some remarkable upsets and surprises that went beyond the expectations of many. One of the most prestigious performances came from none other then Dignitas.Naniwa, fighting his way through the open bracket, into the finals without losing a single game. It wasn't until the finals against ROOT.KiwiKaki that his flawless 24-0 record turned into 26-2 during an extended series, granting him the #1 prize and a great seed in the upcoming MLG events.
Dignitas.Naniwa winning MLG Dallas with an amazing 26-2
Some of the BO3 sets were nothing short from amazing and intense: ROOT.Drewbie showing Liquid.Tyler just how potent drop play can be in the hands of the right terran player. ROOT.KiwiKaki destroying everything in his pool and being the only player to actually take games from Dignitas.Naniwa. EG.Idra showing his versatile style, EG.Incontrol showing everyone just how strong his play can be, Liquid.TLO causing massive chaos in his games, even getting nukes off! I could go on but if you want to check out all the great games that went down, be sure to check out the MLG website for the VODs and replays!
Lag is a gamers best friend!
While MLG Dallas turned out to be nothing short of amazing, it did have its fair share of problems. One of the big buzzkills this time was definitely the lag that seemed to plague the tournament all the way through. Many games had to be paused or simply redone when players started disconnecting en masse, or getting heavy lag spikes at crucial moments.
To make matters worse, the connection problems caused the high quality stream of MLG Dallas to be taken down to keep ANY form of streaming up and running. Meanwhile the normal quality stream kept being cut off until the HQ stream was shut down. This in combination with 2 hour delays on games that were being broadcasted due to all the connectivity issues, left a bad taste for some of the online followers and the competing players at Dallas.
But thanks to the awesome casters in the form of Djwheat, Day[9] and JP McDaniel there were lots of viewer opportunities to ask questions directly to them, and to some of the players being called into the casting booth. This helped bridge the significant downtime and just shows why these guys are so popular in their role as casters. Let's just hope that the next MLG will not have these same issues.
JP interviewing EG.Idra on the Main Stage at MLG Dallas
Keeping it cool, the true power of a pro.
This weekend turned out to be a great showcase of the traits that a true pro gamer has, that allows him (or her) to play his A-game even while under heavy pressure, and with all kinds of problems occuring. Well-known progamers like Grubby and the almost flawless victor Dignitas.Naniwa were the best examples in Dallas this weekend.
Grubby had to pause one of his games against DDE for almost 2 hours. During all this time, he kept his cool and just saved up his focus for the moment where the game would be continued. This is no small feat to accomplish. Here is where most players that simply don't have as much experience under their belts tend to crack and lose to their nerves.
The sole reason why Dignitas.Naniwa was able to go into the finals unscratched, winning 24 games in a row, was also the power of patience and control. When being interviewed shortly before the finals by JP, he answered to the question: 'How do you feel, being undefeated and going into the finals?' as follows: 'Okay I guess, I just want to win this, and then the MLG grand finals of 2011'.
But how does one keep his cool and focus while in games, and while waiting? Most of the progamers have a few neat little tricks for that. These include:
-Staying in the now, not thinking about the outcome of the game you are playing. Just focusing on the macro and mechanics, and executing it as crisp as possible. This instead of the normal reaction of most people to feel like they are winning after holding off a big push, getting way too excited and then losing because they lost their focus. Focusing on your own build and mechanics alleviates some of the pressure because you are basically playing yourself.
-Sticking to what you know. Most players tend to start worrying about a lot of possible threats during tournament games, and start doing all this extra scouting, getting extra tech and playing more defensive. Some even go as far as to try a totally untested build just in hopes of catching the enemy player offguard or out of panic mode. Most of the progamers stick to the builds they know, keep their scouting up properly, do minor adjustments based on what they see and generally keep a stable gameplan going.
-Getting all tense and pumped up before or during games. Many people start to doubt their own ability shortly before they have to play their matches. They get extremely nervous and pumped up and then just give away games for free due to their fears taking over their ingame decision-making. Top players will often just focus on keeping their body relaxed, their posture proper, and their gameplan the same. They get nervous as well, but they embrace the nervousness as something they will just have to deal with. Taking a small 1 or 2 min break in between games with your opponent also helps a great deal in getting yourself together and release some of the tension.
Grubby playing with focus while his wife Cassandra stands behind him
The most important key element to dealing with all the adrenaline and excitement though, is just plain experience. If you want to attend a major tournament, go to smaller LAN events first. Join Bnet games where a bunch of spectators are watching you play versus someone else. Play ladder games even though you are facing people way better then you.
Don't be afraid to lose, see it as a valuable lesson to be learned. If you never lose, you can never learn and grow into a better player overall. This goes for everything in life. Making a mistake is not failing, it is simply learning how not to do it, and finding out what works best...for YOU.
~Masayume signing off
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