Riot trip to the World finals at South Korea

Sunday

Landed at sunrise and got an amazing purple shuttle to the hotel.

The hotel was extremely nice, though quite far away from the other 3. Made it difficult to get to see other people.

There was a little mixup with the cell phone MiFi we were supposed to be renting, so Cesar and I had to head to downtown Seoul to pick it up in person. We grabbed a cab with the assistance of Google Translate and the concierge and just hoped we'd get there. As it turns out, we got within a few blocks of it and with the free wifi at the lovely City Hall, we were able to get our bearings.

I particularly liked the facade put up around a building under construction.

Since we were out, we figured we'd get some minor tourism done downtown. Unlike Istanbul, Seoul really seemed to be part of Los Angeles just with all the signs in a different language. And way nicer looking underground walkways...

We wandered to what I thought was the palace grounds, but turned out to be just as worthwhile. We stumbled across Independence gate, which was built after they shook off the Japanese occupation following the war.

Wandered around some more, but didn't see anything else big and the daylight was starting to fade. We then grabbed something to slake our thirst at a convenience store in the middle of this park. And finally, braved the subway to get us to dinner with JJ and some of the rest of the team. This was at an INCREDIBLE Korean BBQ restaurant near one of the hotels. Had lots of food and enough soju and then headed to sleep.

Friday

Today we all got on buses from our respective hotels and went to the first scheduled events. There was an opening presentation with local musicians, drummers, dancers and a Taekwondo exhibition. Those were all very fun, though I enjoyed the music the best. Especially the composition of the League of Legend theme on local instruments.

Due to a spot of poor planning with the food, the boxed lunches spoiled in the buses while we enjoyed the show. Instead, the buses went ranging for local cuisine. We ended up at a very nice restaurant that had to be a converted family dwelling. In what I expect was the kids room, were 3 low tables and so we all sat crosslegged around them and were served some delicious local fare.

Though not BBQ, most of the sides were similar and the soup/stew was a nice change.

The folk village we visited next was neat though. They maintained a replica of old timey buildings and had people demonstrating the jobs of the time. There was a guy weaving rope out of reeds, a lady spinning several strands of silkworm cocoon into thread a blacksmith and various others.

One of the buildings was a police station an attached jail cell and stocks in the quad where criminals were publicly flogged. I particularly enjoyed the families ritually punishing their children. :)

Part of the activities of the visit were team building exercises, photo ops and calligraphy as well as just walking the grounds. I wasn't well taught, but apparently my name is legible in Korean.

It was a really great relaxing respite from the constant indoor stuff of the trip up until now.

Following the folk village visit was a huge kbbq dinner where several of the tour groups were combined. The food was again exquisite and with all the celebration, I had way too much soju. I'm pretty sure others went out afterward, but I was done for the night.

Sunday

Cesar and I killed some time today playing games in the makeshift PCBangs in the conference rooms at our hotel. Then we got on the bus to head to the World Finals! We waited in line along with all the other locals and despite backups, we managed to get everyone in for the opening show.

Which was IMAGINE DRAGONS! They played a song written for the game and community and the Anime we sponsored for it played on the big screen. Super fun especially since I loved the thing when it came out earlier this year.

The games went fairly quick and were a little onesided. The underdogs rallied in the 3rd game, but ended up ceding 3 of the 5 games to the victors in the 4th.

The victors were celebrated in a brief, but nice final ceremony presenting the cup to the winning team.

Afterwards, Imagine Dragons played a small set to a very happy crowd.

I didn't capture much video, but here's the crowd at the beginning bopping their noisemakers to the music and the second is of the fireworks.

Then another trip to Korean bbq this time with IT. It was to the same amazing restaurant though, so we were guaranteed an excellent meal. Afterwards, I finally went out drinking with the guys. Attempts to organize a huge group failed while we were in the middle of the taxi ride to the bar district. It ended up being just me, Cesar, Shelton and de Lara, but we had an awesome time. We ended up grabbing money and umbrellas right across the street from Ho bar.

It didn't live up to the name, so instead we wandered until we found a nicer place with fruity drinks for me and darts. After 2 hours of a good low-key evening we headed down the street to a place I spied called Sexy bar. Despite being greeted by a gorgeous woman in a suspiciously tight dress and the exceptionally overpriced drinks, it appears we just wandered in to a hostess bar and not anything seedier. That being the case, it seemed ridiculous to splurge on it and we called it a night.

Monday

Today was an opportunity for the departments to meet individually and discuss future plans. Since IT was not all in attendance, we decided to do some more tourism. I, unfortunately, got an early call to fix a phone issue so I missed the palace tour. Very sad about that. Cesar also had to stay for a pcbang computer issue. We did finish early enough to grab a taxi out to the local market. Basically a minor bazaar like Turkey. We managed to find the rest of the group and had lunch with them.

Then we went to a local pc bang and though got there late, we were able to play 2 games before the bus left. Lost the first, but won the second! It was likely due to an AFK, but screw it, I'm counting it as a win on Korea servers.

We sadly didn't have enough time to visit what was apparently a family reunion on another floor...

Tuesday

We had to rise earlyish for the full day of guest speakers and presentations. It was at another hotel's conference room space, but the place had a really nice view.

I found the military speaker particularly inspirational and it got me back to the gym. :)

We also got to hear from the President and CEOs. Lost of great footage of current projects to tie the entire company in with the goings on.

Final event of the trip was to be a massive party. We took over one of the more famous dance clubs and everyone slowly filed in the front door. There was food and plenty of drinks and some fairly good club music. The one of the highlights of the night was a bunch of cosplayers who joined us on the dance floor. Many characters from the game and one in a giant bear costume who turned out to be...

JJ! One of our IT brethren who's friendly with the cosplay troupe.

I had enough drinks to join the group on the dance floor and stayed there until about 1. 4 hours at a club/party is pretty damn good for me.

Yes, I was somehow loving this. Must be some kind of record.

Timetravel Wednesday

Arrived back in LA from South Korea before I left. To celebrate this fact, Cesar and I had a second visit to In n Out and headed home. I was greeted by an ungrateful cat who wouldn't let me unpack. :)