A Single Bound

LAX had some nice views upon leaving and an interesting art exhibit in the International Terminal. Also, fun fact, the Boeing 777 has the largest 2 engines I've ever seen on a plane.

Decided to drop the money and upgrade to Comfort class on the Turkish Airlines flight. Worth the extra money for the extra legroom and seat width alone! But in addition to that, there was slightly fancier food and supposedly a better movie selection.

But I wasn't able to stay awake the entire time. After sleeping for maybe 4 hours on the flight, I ended up tired and dragging myself through the airport.

I get through baggage and customs and lo and behold a nice gentleman named Mahmoud is standing outside with a placard that says BRIAN LANG...

Wow.

The trip back to the hotel was like any taxi ride through a big sprawling city, but what I liked most is the minarets and mosques that makes the skyline here so unique.

I'm in a small but fancy 15th floor room at the Radisson Blu hotel. I would say not much of a view, but judge for yourself.

Anyways, I'm going to try and shake this headache and entertain myself for 4 hours. Then maybe try to sleep again after a proper evening.

7/7/2014

Welp, the plan to sleep didn't necessarily work out. Woke at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep until 7am and then had to wake at 9 for work. I may be messed up for half this trip. Went in to the office today and got the grand tour. Did some busy work but headed home early to rest.

7/8/2014

Today I headed directly to Ulker Sports Arena. Home of the best Turkish basketball team and various other events.

Very little was set up, so I kept myself occupied with emails and TV. Eventually we tested the internet line and confirmed it was good.

After an indulgent lunch (where I was not initially given an English menu and Turkish delight was in a bowl up front), the three of us headed back to the Riot office. Not much to do, so I sorted a couple photos of the trip and kept up with things in LA. Oh, and enjoy the view.

They also have excellent taste in games.

7/9/2014

The infiltration continues. Walking to the Arena this morning a woman honked at me and stopped to ask directions. :) The beard and I are locals.

Again the arena crew did not have enough finished for us to set up on stage or do major testing. I went back to the office and busied myself there with password resets and antivirus scans.

Also got a request for a picture with a fan who happened to be in the hotel lobby where I was having dinner. Flustered enough by this that I wasn't much good for conversation, but hey, Riot didn't hire me for my ability to shmooze with fans.

7/10/2014

Stage finally got rolling.

Screens are up, pods are built and we're able to bundle cables to run through them. After the physical setup, I'm hanging out on stage and hear a noise above me. That mental voice says "I should probably not stand here under that guy in the rigging". I move further out towards the center of the room. Not 2 MINUTES LATER, that guy drops a light's barn door on the exact spot where I was standing. Looks like those lessons learned on the boat about trusting the inner voice quickly finally sunk in.

We had a lot of waiting around until everyone was able to do a playtest.

The test went great, I got to play Lulu and our team won. Following this, Metin got all the Rioters and his girlfriends friends to hide in the VIP room while he toured his girlfriend around the venue and then proposed to her on stage. Not just a normal proposal mind you, he had an image prepped to be up on the big screen, the video production people had music playing, the lights and smoke machines were going and the two cameras on cranes were capturing the footage. It looked amazingly professional and I'll post the video as soon as I can snag a copy. (I neglected to take pictures because both my hands were busy applauding. However, someone else was less preoccupied...)

7/11/2014

Loooong day. 10am to 9:30pm. We got two rehearsals and two playtests in. I found various issues and relayed them to the video production and events team and generally tried to make myself useful. Lunch consisted of Turkish burritos. Meat, pickles and what I thought were french fries all wrapped up in a half meter of deliciousness!

I got to be in the second playtest and we ran through it like the actual event. Tolgay, the announcer, said the team names and we all rushed out to the cheering of 4 people in the audience.

So yeah, we are ready to go!

Other pictures of the day were the huge mosque on the walk to the arena both in the morning and at night. And the Riot and League of Legends flags flying outside the arena.

7/12/2014 : Türkiye Büyük Finali! (Turkish Grand Finals!)

8am call today so my usual jetlagged wakeup of 5am is paying off. All hands meeting and then just plenty of sitting around waiting for the event to start. Crowd arrives and packs the stadium!

And the show starts... The crowd goes wild!!!

The favorite team went on to win the first two games. It looked like it would be a lock, but then the underdog started pulling ahead in game 3. They gained a lead and then slowly lost ground but after a couple amazing plays ended up winning. The crowd went CRAZY!!!

Their luck did not last in the 4th game however and they lost ground eventually losing. So, sad for underdog, but yay for the winners!

And yay for the Turkey IT team. They put on a technically flawless show and I couldn't be prouder of them.

We celebrated at the Posh Brasserie by the beach. Dinner was delicious and I ended up at the table for foreigners enjoying their company. That meant Jenny from the LA office, her fiance, Chopper from esports and, oh... SIV INDUSTRIES!

I knew SivHD and Mommie were fairly famous streamers/youtubers, but it hadn't really sunk in so I didn't suffer from being starstruck. They (and KP) were just the nicest group of people. It was just a little strange that I'd watched them on the web and had seen a walkthrough of their house. :) Most of us were exhausted and retired at 10:30 instead of the long night of drinking that the Turkish rioters had planned. I still hadn't had gotten over the jetlag yet. I'm using that as the excuse for not having pictures also...

7/13/2014 - A day of sightseeing

We got to sleep in due to planning for hangovers from the party. Then set out in a party van for the old city. Again, it was the foreigners from the previous nights table. The rioters, SivHD and his gang and our guides.

Our first stop was the Aya Sofia. This was a gorgeous and huge domed building that if I remember correctly was a church converted to a mosque. In one of the pictures we think we saw a crucifix covered up with other symbolism. Loved the scope of the building and the view of the Blue Mosque through some of the windows.

The giant chandelier was hanging from the central dome way above our heads and the circle thing on the ground was the coronation site of Eastern Roman Emperors! O.o

Upon leaving, we tried Turkish Sherbet. Basically just flavors of fruit juice, but the "Tamarind" one was cinnamony and delicious.

Also there was a windowcat as we exited. Very cute...

We didn't go to the Blue Mosque, presumably because they don't allow non-Muslims in or it was Ramadan or it was just closed that day. Little sad about that, the building looked similarly amazing. Got a random picture of it from the courtyard though.

After there, it was on to the Topkapi Palace. Beautiful grounds and gardens. Garvey was bold enough to ask one of the machine toting guards to take a picture with him. Dude got a big smile on his face and said sure.

Lots that we couldn't take pictures of, but the royal jewels were beautiful, there were plenty of ceremonial weapons, and other treasures, but by far the best rooms were the religious artifacts. Some were ancient swords tools and weapons attributed to figures I believed. They even have a beard from the prophet Muhammad. I have difficulty believing that they actually had Moses' staff however. The palace did sport amazing views from an open courtyard on the corner of the complex facing the Bosphorus. Can imagine royalty hosting part of a party out there.

After the palace, we made quite a long trek back to the van and then on to the Grand Bazaar!

Which was closed for the holiday. We wandered the adjacent streets which had shops set up. But our guide was somehow able to find part of the Bazaar that was open or a secondary bazaar so we at least got the experience. It was very different than anything you'd get in the states.

Lots of shopkeepers yelling about what they were selling. And lots of shops, though most selling scarves or food or jewelry. While the rest of the group did the shopping, I limped along. Thought it was silly for me to be there, until I found an excellent little painting of a mosque that seemed a fitting souvenir for the trip.

We were all pretty tired after the bazaar and hungry for dinner. We turned a corner to see another beautiful mosque and then took the van to Galata Tower.

The tower was originally built in 528AD as a lighthouse, but eventually after the city was sacked and the tower destroyed, it was rebuilt as for various purposes over the years. First for defense, but eventually an observatory and then as a watchtower for fires. Anyway, I didn't get a photo of the tower itself, but here's what it looks like. First from our table and then a panorama from upstairs on the balcony. And the view was amazing. We were able to see everywhere we visited today.

And there's a picture of the entire tour group at dinner that should be sent out shortly.

7/14/2014 - The long flight home.

Got up very early to make sure to accommodate for traffic. We arrived super early, I was able to upgrade my seat, grabbed food and killed over two hours in the food court with Jenny and Garvey. Flight started normally and we got a very nice view of the skyline.

Seat next to me was broken so I got the entire row to myself. Ended up playing games, watching Life of Pi, some anime, some TV and finishing a book during the 14 hour journey. Was very productive but I was very relived to be back in LA. Not sleeping well for that long was exhausting.