DAY 1
I arrived at the venue at about 9:00 PHT not knowing where to go I circled around the venue and saw a lot of people having the same problem as I did. I asked the guards and said there was a line at the back of the venue which I saw and was already late at coming, there were a TON of people who was already in line (I arrived at 10:10 in the line) and people were already going in.
Here is what the goodie bag contains. It was very overwhelming actually since I didn't expect much from the goodie bag. But here, we have our own ESL ONE MANILA t-shirt, 2 posters(the ones that are rolled) a ESL ONE MANILA lanyard with matching keychain. An ESL sticker, suprisingly an esl one keyboard key (lmfao), an esl one pin as well. A micro plush series two( i got pudge yay!) and a frigging powerbank sponsored by esl. Oh and the bag itself of course.
Moving on, I waited for about 10- 15 mins in line(which is unusually fast since rides in the philippines actually have 30+ mins waiting time. I dont know why I compared that but I just did)
After getting my unexpectedly comfortable wristband I went in and got in line for my goodie bag since I was a premium ticket owner. We also signed a piece of paper for the raffles which will be coming afterwards in between matches. They also gave us a sim card sponsored by smart. After that I got to my seat. I didn't even get something to eat or drink since there were a ton of people outside which was still going in and buying some stuff. There were stands outside but we didnt have a secret shop sadly . I remember ESL saying there will be on esl one manila but I don't know what happened to that. We did have an ESL shop though. Na'vi merch was sold out early day 1 even though it is actually overpriced. One thing I forgot to mention was we didn't get free food and drinks. We got the food stub but they didn't tell us where we were supposed to get them. I also didnt get the exclusive signing sessions they have for vip ticket owners. It was very cataclysmic since everyone wanted the signing sessions everyone was lining up for the signing session line even the ones without the premium tickets. I dont get the "exclusive" on that one.
At about 5 mins before the games starts I went to my seat, Everyone was hyped up by the first match Mineski vs coL. The host was really hyping it up.(Shoutout to the host he did a really great job throughout the event). Almost everyone shouts when mineski gets a kill via gank or something. But sadly coL won the series. That 2nd game was fun though.
After the game the host interviewed swindlezz and was very sad. Since Mineski is the only Philippine team playing on the ESL one manila and they were eliminated already. Swindlezz gave him and a fan a hug and we moved on because of his comfort (shoutout to swindlezz such a nice guy :D)
The atmosphere in the venue was really nice and everyone was very friendly and hospitable, ( thats to be expected since we ARE in the Philippines)
After that game, analyzers do their thing, took a short break and its on to the games again. Next series was Secret vs Ehome. Everyone was really hyped up for this game. Mostly cause of Secret and iceiceice. EVERYONE was on the secret side of the entrance and wanted to see them. I heard one fan touched Envy's butt IDEK but it was CHAOS.
We were expecting a good series but sadly it was a blowout. Secret rekt EHOME 2-0. After that the host interviewed Puppey and everyone is still raving. Oh they also called iceiceice too, and the fans gave him a pair of boxers. Pictures can be seen on iceiceice and esl's twitter I think. basically the boxers had all sorts of stuff written on it like (put tank in a mall and all those other stuff)
Everyone standing up for secret! HYPE!!!
Shortly after that, the next series came Wings vs coL, this game was not really that much of a hype since no one knew Wings coming to this event and mostly rooted for coL which defeated mineski. I myself high fived with some of the wings players before the game starts, and so That pocket strat in game 1 was really hilarious with slacks casting the game, but coL didnt push through and lost to wings 2-1.
The last game of the series was running really late it was like 10:00 when Secret vs Empire started. Everyone was so hyped up again because of secret even though its really late. We expected a great series and we did get what we expected and had a WONDERFUL series but sadly for them secret fans, secret falls to empire 2-1.
DAY 2
This time I got on the line very early and cut the line since my friend was already up in front so I stayed with him which made me one of the first ones who got in the arena. The games were delayed since esl was doing something who knows what in the arena. But because of that I got a lot of people sign my mousepad and take pictures with. namely: ODpixel, merlini, purge, maelk, etc. Everyone of them was really nice and we had a bit of chit chat about the games yesterday like me commenting about Puppey's enigma and ODpixel saying that empire rubick was playing a better enigma.
After about 30 minutes, the games started. The first game was Empire vs Liquid. Liquid was unexpectedly the favourite here and everyone was hyped up from KuroKy. ( I myself was rooting for empire since Ramzes was such a beast on day 2) My shouts and spirit for empire was not enough though since Liquid 2-0'd them, which was not was I was expecting.
After that game we had our very own macho man contest. Including slacks,Tobi , Maelk and the previous champion WinteR. Video can be seen here:www.youtube.com
Next game was Wings vs Fnatic, everyone was hyped up for fnatic since DJ the last filipino player playing on the tournament is there but UNEXPECTEDLY wings took down DJ's amazing enchantress and fnatic with him. claiming the grand finals spot for themselves.
The grand finals started early at about 6:00 , Liquid vs Wings. Once again I was rooting for wings since they played awesome and I really wanted the unexpected to happen. Again the pre game routine was me High fiving the Wings players before the game starts( I couldn't do this to secret and empire since there were so many people and I couldn't find space but when the grand finals started everyone was going to KuroKy and I had my place to where wings was going to come and it was scot free of people .) I don't want to say my jinx worked but Wings unexpectedly won against Liquid 3-0ing them on the grand finals.
Wings' winning moment!
Overall, my experience on ESL ONE: It was very fun, everyone close or willing to go to the Philippines should come to the Manila Major since esl one was so much hype who knows what manila major will do. The venue was really comfortable not like the Philippines' weather outside.