6.30, my phone is buzzing trying to wake me up. About 15 mins later I summon the strength and willpower to sit up and immediately look at Krock who's staying at the same place I am and who also just woke up. Chit chat, shower and I'm ready to go ! He however takes his sweet time and in danger of missing the bus I go on ahead.
I take two busses to get to the Bellevue Westin, about 25mins. I get there and can already see two Dota fans in front of me (I assumed, I'm shallow like that). They both enter the Westin and I follow. There was a neat little desk setup near the entrance where you'd state your name and provide valid ID to get your badge. I had purchased my ticket with my sister's credit card and showed her ID, got my badge and headed upstairs. It was kinda confusing at first because it just said "Hospitality Deck Third Floor" and we weren't sure whether hospitality deck means spectator area.
It meant spectator area..or well, everything basically. Taking the escalator upstairs, the first thing you see is another desk setup with people that guide you through everything in case you have any questions. But what you also saw was the big breakfast buffet. Lots of stuff to drink, lots of stuff to eat. Pretty much everything you could want for breakfast - you got it. Including smoothies that were pretty good. Hotel staff made sure that there was always enough food at the buffet and restocked almost immediately - definitely VIP service. On the other end of the floor was the analyst desk, a cool setup. A bit small for my taste, I preferred the one at ESL One, but given the space probably the best option.
So there's the bigass spectator room with 5 different screens and lots of space. I really want to mention how much space there is. Like the rows offer enough space for people to move and sit at the same time without the guys sitting having to stand up or something. That is something really small but really convenient. I hate it when in the middle of a fight I have to get up because someone wants something to drink/eat - which would generally not be an issue, more later on.
So right next to the spectator area is where the little "LAN Center" is set up where pros can practice and pub around. It's a cool setup, pros can move freely between the two and usually sit in the spectator area to watch the game - I mean some still watch it inside the LAN area but I assume it's to analyze the game (at least I suspect that's hat the chinese where doing when I saw them sitting/watching there - again, shallow guy here)
It's a cool setup that allows us VIP ticketholders to interact with the pros in a very intimate setting. They dont get jumped on by 50 people at once and you can still grab a picture. You can also eat properly at the tables while watching the game, so amazing. I have to stress how amazing the whole buffet thing is in general since Valve in no way indicated that VIP ticketholders would get free food/drinks. I suppose it makes sense because the alternative would be to have to go outside and grab something from the mall across the street - which wouldn't be so difficult and I was fully prepared to do that (I scouted the location the day before, the mall is pretty cool).
Either way, during the games they would show the 1v1 matchup as well, but not with commentary but rather just a DotaTV feed. Which wouldve been fine if they had actually chosen GoDz' camera work. This way we didn't get to see the CS chart, instead kills/deaths was up most of the time - which is probably the most pointless chart to have.
Obviously today was a special day, since only one real match was on at the same time, which was broadcast on all 5 screens. Gonna be crazy tomorrow! The multicast function was pretty neat, but definitely something they need to work on. The "crowd" was not pleased that they missed kills multiple times just because they switched to the other game. Maybe a picture in picture function could work.
At like noon the hotel staff prepared lunch and that was just awesome. Burgers, fries, sandwiches, much more. I was just satisfied with the burgers and sandwiches, they tasted amazing. Too bad though, because I wasn't really hungry anymore when I tasted the sweet potatoe fries. Amazing !
There was also desert in the form of cake and something in a glass. Tasted a bit like rice pudding, don't know what exactly it was. it was pretty good, but the cake definitely took home 1st place (not for the day though !).
Games were good but World Cup was better. I emailed Valve the day before and they said they'd set up a screen for the World Cup match. As a German I was fully prepared to miss a day of TI4 to just watch that match, but luckily didn't have to. The screen was in the hallway and somehow people didn't get/realize/care that Phil (shoutout!) and me had setup our chairs so we could watch both Dota and the WC match. So they stood in front of the screen. Again. And again. Luckily the game was over pretty quickly (Liquid vs. CIS game 1 I think?) so we could focus on the WC match. It was a livestream from some tv channel i think and I think someone on the other side of the room had another livestream open with less delay because someone was screaming way earlier than we could.
Also, since it was a livestream, it was running through a laptop and the mouse cursor was in the middle of the screen. I didn't notice until some guy told me about it and I could not unsee it. Damn you. We told the guys at the reception but they were busy I think and nothing happened for the first 15mins. So IceIceIce - who was watching as well as many Chinese pros - took matters into his own hands, opened the laptop and the screen froze. The second goal was just scored and we didn't know if it was offside or not (our freezescreen indicated an upset German striker). By the time we checked it was already 3-0. It was a cool match and it was - for me anyways - great to see that most if not all Chinese pros were cheering for Germany.
At some point they streamed the match onto one of the bigger screens inside the spectator area, so we could actually watch both the Dota as well as the WC match.
It was sadly freaking cold inside - maybe because they didn't want anything to overheat - that kinda ruined the viewing experience a bit, but I'll just pack warm tomorrow.
The games were done by 4pm-5pmish and apparently we were also getting dinner. So everyone who waited till 6.30 got dinner. Pretty delicious one. (Fried) Rice with sesame chicken. There were other options, but I felt this was the superior one. There was also another set of delicious desert. More delicious cake and chocolate mousse.
In the meantime, a lot of pros came by and ppl got to talk to them. Toby also came back (Oh yeah the casters are actually at Valve's HQ, but it aint too far away) and took his time talking to fans. In fact he even had dinner with them. Truly awesome.
So yeah, that was pretty much the first day. A very chilled experience and adding the food value, definitely worth it. Personally, I just like this intimate setup. At ESL One, sure it was amazing (also in a stadium), but with like 500 people in the premium area (or supposedly 1,000, dunno) it feels a bit crowded. Also players were almost completely separated from the premium area at ESL One, whereas here they are fully integrated (a bit too much maybe, don't know how they feel about it. Kuro said he's fine either way)
Oh also Gabe Newell stopped by during the 1v1 Grand finals. He took his sweet time talking to a few people and also let ppl take pics even though he wanted to see the finals. Very cool guy.
Also, TL guys are pretty good at ping pong.
VIP Perks (Day 1/Group Stages)
Free Food/Drinks (Like real food, also healthy stuff)
Intimate, chilled setup
Pro players hanging out
Shuttle Busses to Seattle and back
500$/500$ would pay again. (seems to be the general opinion of the people I talked to)
http://imgur.com/a/3ICSe (imgur album with lots of pics)
Shoutout to Greg for being Greg. Follow me on twitter for real time updates and more pictures (@SkimGaming)
also special Ryuu album (pics taken within seconds): http://imgur.com/a/2cpx4