GMPGL Blog Day Zero by ReiNNNN

Me and Ren waiting for dinner. Hair is messy cause I just woke up.

Excitement or paranoia, that were the two thoughts going through my head when I arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport five hours before my flight. For many weeks now, I have been rather excited about the trip but a combination of Haylan Super Thypoon and articles upon articles on how to avoid scams in Philippines got me scared. In fact, right before I boarded the airplane, I posted a picture of the plane on Facebook with the caption, "Here I come Pinoys, please don't scam me". It's only funny because I got overcharged three times in my first two hours in Manila. Well technically, I paid 400 Pesos for a SIM card when it is suppose to be only 40 Pesos, I paid twice the price of a normal Coke, and I paid 600 Pesos for the taxi ride to the hotel as well. It's fine though, it isn't much honestly.

The real nightmare began in the car. I was stupid enough to book the flight which arrives at 17:30 local time, not knowing the traffic condition in downtown Manila. Quick tip, it was horrifying. It took me and Ren (he came to pick me up) two hours to get to Timog Avenue before we got lost trying to look for Tune Hotel. The only consolation we had was the hotel is located somewhere along the 4 kilometres long street and we had to ask dozens of people before a samaritan told us the location of the newly built hotel. By the time we arrived, we have hiked for a good kilometre with my luggages and whatnot.

Sweaty and exhausted, I checked in and crashed on the bed while Ren was busy looking for a charger for his dying phone. Almost immediately, Chin Yi 'chenizace' Chen, manager of Titan, asked us out for dinner and we obliged. We walked down Timog Avenue and settled for a buffet restaurant called Mr. Miyagi. The food was pretty good and we could barely move after we chowed four plates of barbeque meat. Ren insisted on paying for the meal because we are in his territory now and according to him, "I am the boss around here".

We had a short talk and left the restaurant to see a bunch of Impervious and First Departure players chatting in the hotel lobby. They left for a club shortly after and we retired to our respective rooms later on. Mineski told us tomorrow (today) is a free day and I can basically do whatever we want provided I don't get kidnapped. I ended sleeping at 8 in the morning only to be woken up by a hotel staff an hour later stating, "This is the wake-up call". He was suppose to hand me my McDonalds breakfast but I slammed the door on him immediately. I feel bad.

The famous Jeep. Only 30 Pesos for this ride.

To my knowledge, nobody went sightseeing or anything and rather rest before the big day tomorrow. I went out for a walk along Timog Avenue and took some pictures and had lunch in a local bar and grill. I was surprised to find my delicious steak only cost me $3. It almost rained the whole day because Super Typhoon Haylan reached Philippines mainland earlier today. It was a little wind but it wasn't too bad, at least not as bad as 315 kph winds in badly affected areas. I rushed to the hotel immediately as soon as it started raining again because I did not want to get my camera wet. I did stop to take a picture of the "Jeep" (above), a very cheap mode of transportation in Philippines. Ren told me it only cost 30 Pesos ($1) to get to many places.

I was told that there will be a dinner for all the international teams and media at 6 P.M. While waiting for the dinner, I read live reports about the typhoon and caught up on some sleep. My handphone woke me up from my nap at 6 P.M sharp. After putting some pants on, I headed for the lobby where everybody has pretty much gathered to go to the restaurant, about five minutes walk away but it was raining really heavily. Mineski ended up using one car to send us, five by five to the restaurant, and although it took a while, I was thankful that we got a ride.

The food was rushing into the booked area of the restaurant as soon as I stepped in alongside Ren and DotaTalk members. The food is DELICIOUS. Props to Mineski for choosing the dishes because there were a lot of deliciously cooked meat and the salty eggs cake at the end was just the best. Ren told me that the cake is only available near Christmas but I guess, Pinoys celebrate their Christmas early!

Many of the players went to Mineski's LAN shop to practice for their games tomorrow and most of the media, either went back to their rooms or go for a massage. As much as I want to go for a massage, I came back to write you fanatics this blog. All in all, I had a spectacular time so far in Philippines and I am really excited for the tournament tomorrow. From my talks with some of the players, they went for photoshoot yesterday and they had to do 10 seconds poses (much like G-League) indicating Mineski is raising their production value. They want to make it similar to what Valve did for TI3 and although that is not very possible, I am glad Mineski is spearheading the currently stagnant SEA scene. I wonder what sort of pose ninjaboogie would do.

Here are some of the fascinating stuff I came across in my short stint here:

1. "Massage parlours" are called health clubs
2. Tune Hotel in Quezon City is a lot better than any others I have seen.
3. Ninjaboogie's plan to win GMPGL is to get everybody drunk the night before
4. Mineski tried to get me drunk because publishing "I am drunk, goodnight" is a thing now
5. WinteR is tired since he came directly from Korea (standing-in for Dignitas). He is happy they won Speed though.
6. WinteR will be popping his live casting cherry tomorrow.
7. They will be an analyst panel tomorrow but it will be in Tagalog
8. Tune Hotel do not provide tooth brush. I had crushed up mints as my toothpaste today. Nah jokes I bought some.
9. CNN is the most exciting channel on my 99 channels TV.
10. Pinoy people are soooooo nice. Almost too nice.
11. Think skateboarding at midnight is cool? Pinoys play checkers on the streets at 4 A.M. Top that shit.

Anyways, signing off now. We will have to get up at 8 A.M tomorrow to eat our complimentary McDonalds breakfast before heading to Sky Dome for the tournament. I will post more pictures on our coverage page tomorrow and drop a blog at the end of the day to update you guys on what is going on. Internet here drops every 10 minutes or so, thus, doing video content is impossible.

Manila airport terminal one. People aren't allowed to cross the fence without boarding passes.