Tuesday, February 28, 2012

BarCraft Tucson!

This past Sunday I hosted the first BarCraft in Tucson at Skybar!  We watched the latest Major League Gaming event known as Winter Arena, where 32 of the world's best StarCraft players competed against each other for over $25,000 in prizes. 

I'll admit, it took a lot of effort to organize the BarCraft.  My friends at IBM had been talking about wanting to have one, but no one had any luck getting a bar to agree to it.  I walked into Sky Bar one day and asked to talk to an event coordinator, who turned out to be someone I knew.  He hooked me up with the e-mail of the owner of Sky Bar and Brooklyn Pizza, and I shortly reached out to him to try and sell him on the idea.  He accepted and the rest of the time I spent organizing and advertising the event on Facebook, reddit, Team Liquid, making posters and handing to the U of A eSports team to help spread the word.

The end result was a successful showing at the first BarCraft in Tucson.  About 70 people showed up when I was originally just hoping for 30-50.  People from all over came to support BarCraft and I actually had a lot of fun, finding myself and everyone else cheering for the games that were being played on the screen.

It was a great opportunity to meet other StarCraft fans from around Tucson and people are already excited for the next BarCraft.  I would like to host another, but it did take a lot of effort from my side and some out-of-pocket expenses.  However, I learned so much about how to make future BarCrafts even better and so we'll see, maybe I'll look into having another one soon!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Blogging About Linsanity

If you don't know who Jeremy Lin is by now, you're probably not much of a sports follower.  So for those of you who are, I'll cut the background story and get to the blog: Jeremy Lin and his impact to the NBA, American culture, and myself.

Ever since he's been dropping 20 points a game and putting up tons of dimes on a nightly basis AND winning games, Jeremy Lin's success has been blowing up my Facebook.  There are tons of Lin idioms out there, stuff that some people didn't even come up with until now.  I think the success story of Jeremy Lin is a great one for the NBA and for the world.  He's a smart guy (assumed because he graduated from Harvard), a hard-worker with good morals (from what we can tell so far), and he's the first successful Asian basketball player to be American born and even plays the Guard position.  He's basically who us American Asians like myself idolize: being an Asian minority successful in this non-Asian dominated society.  To have gained the respect of all types of people from around the world so quickly is refreshing and gives hope to the world closing it's racial gaps.   I know there are some Lin haters out there (a la Tebow's story), but there always will be and that's fine, people are entitled to their own opinions.

I can't say that I jumped on the Lin bandwagon right away.  I first noticed his name last year ago in a box score for the Golden State Warriors when I was checking up on Monta's stats.  I immediately clicked his name 'cause it's not often you see the name Lin floating around in anything remotely meaningful.  He never got a chance in GS behind the Baby Faced Assassin and Mississippi Mile, so I didn't think much of him at the time, especially for Fantasy Basketball purposes.  Even when he had his breakout game this year, I was skeptical and didn't rush to the waiver wire to snatch him on my teams.  Like everyone else, I had my doubts about him as a player and the Knicks team in general (Douglas and Shumpert were subpar in their chances as starters).

Lately I have actually sat down and watched his games on ESPN and League Pass and I find myself rooting for the guy all the time.  Usually I only root for my players, which come and go from year to year.  But there's just something about Jeremy Lin and honestly for me, it's the Asian factor and the similarities: same last name, both Taiwanese decent, both good at basketball. :)  I can only tell you how hard I was cheering when watching the game vs the Raptors recently where he had an AND-1 that tied the game and then eventually his 3-pointer to win the game!  I just enjoy the guy's game right now...he's playing at such a high level.

I hope he continues to do well in the NBA and I see him as a 15 PPG, 8 APG kind of guy, which are solid point guard stats.  I also see the Knicks making the playoffs this year with him at the helm, but they won't top Miami.  I also hope he stays healthy and out of trouble too, because you all know what happened to my last favorite player (Agent Zero).  And for the record, I still like Dwight slightly ahead of Lin at the moment, but who knows, maybe that will change over time if I can get him on my fantasy team eventually. :)

As for me, I enjoy all the Lin idioms being thrown on my Facebook!  It gives me a sense of some fame, something I'll never get to taste in my lifetime.  I will also probably buy myself a Lin jersey eventually (2012 Halloween Costume?) and ride on the bandwagon for as long as it lasts.  Go Jeremy! You are a Linspiration to myself and to all!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

2012 IBM Basketball League!

The IBM Basketball League starts tonight for the 2012 season!  I more excited this year than past seasons for I have accepted a role as a team captain.  I now personally have the chance to draft and lead a team to a championship!  The draft was held Monday and I basically got everyone who I wanted: my two guests Ryan and Cooper, my department teammate Matt and our friend Loren, and my friend Mike from IBM Bowling.  Funny enough, everyone on my team except me is new this year. :)
And just an extra cool stat, I was the 5th highest scorer in the league last year out of all returning players.  Wish us luck!