 |
Mount Ranier on the Seattle Approach |
Mount Ranier on the Seattle Approach
Brian took us to the Boise airport and we had an uneventful flight to Seattle. We took the hotel shuttle to the nearby Hyatt Airport Seattle hotel, got checked in no problem. We walked 10 minutes to "13 Coins" for an early dinner (Veal Parm, French Onion soup, Carrot Cake), and turned in early to get ready for the big day tomorrow!
Up at 0500, and on the 0800 shuttle to the airport. Check-in was confusing as there was no signage for Korea Air, and the kiosks didn't like either my passport or my airline confirmation code. But never fear, the flight is operated by Delta and we found the "Delta International" check-in line and got our boarding passes, and checked our bags.
We bought travel pillows at the Hudson in the airport, thinking that they might be a good idea for a 12.5 hour flight. Post flight, mixed reviews. Mine was most useful as a set of earmuffs, dampening the noise so that I could hear the movies (John Wick 4, Michael Clayton, The Gentlemen) over the roar of airplane engines.
Waiting for Immigration
But the flight was fine. We departed at 11:30 AM PDT as promised; the duration was 12 hours instead of the expected 12.5 hours, so we arrived at 3:30 PM KST. Navigating the Seoul airport through quarantine (closed, no Q-code required), immigration (perfunctory), baggage claim, and customs was a piece of cake. Ditto for finding the "international taxi" for a two hour, 90,000 won ($75) cab ride to the hotel. The cabbie spoke limited English, and we were all tired (including the cabbie who dozed off and drifted out of his lane once!), so not too much conversation was had.
Carol's bath has a view of the city
We got to the hotel about 6:10 PM. The Park Hyatt is a pretty fancy place in the Gangnam district (Gangnam is home to lots of shopping and restaurants), and it's a two block walk to the Starcraft II venue. Our room was the "City View" style, with a floor to ceiling window looking out over the Seoul equivalent of Times Square. Bright lights and big HD signage! The room TV was tuned to some special channel which showed a picture of the view from the window, which seemed redundant but pretty cool anyway.
I had already discovered that Google Maps doesn't work in South Korea, at least the "Directions" part of it, because South Korea has laws which require all mapping data to be stored on servers in Korea, and Google does what it wants, I guess. So I had downloaded the "Naver Maps" app before arriving and was prepared to use it. But in fact, I never did -- the app's support for English searches and info was quite limited, so I used Google Maps most of the time, and just navigated by watching my location dot (with poor accuracy) and paying attention.
The other app that I didn't realize I needed until we got here was a translation app; I installed Papago (another Naver app) and found it super useful. Just take a picture of the Korean text you want translated and it does the rest. Some of the idiomatic translations were pretty bad, but it was a huge help in figuring things out (especially restaurant menus!)
Carol did some research as well, checking out the local customs to understand the local etiquette. She learned that you're not supposed to point with one finger, you should use your entire hand. When you give somebody something, present it with two hands. Similarly receive something given to you with two hands, "like you're receiving an award". It's impolite to sing or whistle in public, especially after dark. I found myself pointing and whistling way too much, LOL.
Cry Cheeseburger, waiting for our food
Carol was tired, but we were both hungry and I talked her into going out for a burger; I had my eye on Cry Cheeseburger, a block away from the hotel, and we enjoyed very delicious cheeseburgers with fries, soda, and a vanilla shake. Carol tried to order a chocolate malt, and ran into a communication issue, "no, just milk". She later said how much she enjoyed her vanilla shake. We returned to the hotel and popped into bed pretty quickly as it had been a very long day -- we'd been up for about 24 hours.
Stan at the Coex mall library
We got up early (Carol didn't sleep all that well, I think) and set out to find a Starbucks. This is actually no problem in Seoul, as there are dozens of them within walking distance of the hotel. We went to the huge Coex mall across the street and found the Starbucks by the mall library. (There is at least one other Starbucks in the mall, but we never got through the whole facility and there are probably more.)
Carol at the Coex mall library
We got our tea and coffee "to stay" and sat in the shop people watching. The Koreans that we see here (in the mall) are mostly professional types, dressed very nicely, conservatively (no leggings, no cleavage, lots of suits for the men) and almost exclusively in shades of black and white, very little color. As the mall complex also has lots of office space, I'm assuming that most of the folks we were seeing were on their way to work. Most of the people coming through the Starbucks had ordered ahead using their app, so they just picked up their drinks and went on their way -- only a handful of them stayed in the store.
The Gangnam Style Statue
Carol purchased some Korea-themed Starbucks mugs, our first trinkets of the trip. We walked around for a while in the mall, exited and found the "Gangnam-Style Statue", and then did a two mile circuit back to the hotel, where we rested up for lunch.
Korean Fire Trucks!!
The plan for lunch was to try Korean pizza, after having heard some dudes in the immigration line talking about how great it was. But the plan was foiled when we arrived at the mapped restaurant to find: no restaurant. We wandered around a little bit and used Google maps to identify a nearby noodle place, which we navigated to with few problems. The entrance was a bit confusing, and it turns out that you order at the kiosk by the front door, you get a number, you write your number and the size of the party on a whiteboard by the entrance, and you wait your turn to enter and be served. In spite of the utter language barrier, we figured this all out and eventually got seated, where I was served the spicy noodle soup with pork, and Carol got a plate of pot stickers. Very spicy and delicious indeed.
More walking, back to the mall to look for gifts (did not find the kids clothing store Carol wanted), and then back to the hotel, where we were both utterly exhausted and quite smelly. We had a few hours to nap before the GSL (Global Starcraft League) event at 6:30 PM.
We made the video at the 7:58 mark. I look confused because I'm still trying to figure out the audio.
The GSL event is run by AfreecaTv in the Medytox building, on the second floor. it's a small TV studio with huge monitors behind the stage and about 70 seats for the audience. The casters are upstairs behind the audience, both the three Korean casters and the two American casters, Tasteless and State. They gave us a QR-code when we checked in that was supposed to enable us to use our phones to tune in to the English-language cast, but it didn't work, so we watched the first two matches with only the Korean cast over the PA system. Carol must have been super confused about what was going on, even though I had given her some lessons before we left. (The lessons made her uneasy, I think she kept expecting to be given a test!) Eventually, when there was a break, I went back to the check-in desk and they gave me a little device which could tune into the cast so we were now able to hear the English language play-by-play.
Classic's Stalkers are imprisoned in the Stasis Ward
The first match was a PvP (Protoss vs Protoss), Creator vs Classic. Game one was hilarious, with both players going for Oracles and Blink Stalkers. At one point, Classic blinked up into Creator's base and the majority of his Stalker force was trapped in a cleverly concealed Stasis Ward.
Classic returns the favor, trapping some of Creator's pursuing Stalkers
Some of his force was able to escape by blinking back down, and Creator's Stalkers blinked down to finish him off, but were trapped in a Stasis Ward set by Classic! The crowd reacted boisterously to the unexpected back and forth. It was a great game by Creator, who built an insurmountable lead through a series of small victories.
In game two, Creator played a proxy Stargate (i.e., he built a Stargate just outside of Classic's base), but Classic went for a proxy Robotics Facility, and quickly overpowered Creator with Immortals. In game three, Creator went for a cannon rush (rare at the Pro level), and destroyed Classic's main base, but Classic escaped and set up another base in the corner of the map. He produced Void Rays and Immortals and managed to destroy Creator's Stalker-based army, after quite a bit of back and forth. Creator is known for being an "emotional" player, but seemed to take this loss pretty well.
The second match was a ZvT (Zerg vs Terran), Dark vs Bunny. In game one, Bunny tried to get the jump on Dark with a Proxy 2 Rax, but Dark spotted it early and shut it down right away. The game then went into a macro phase, with both players reaching max supply, but Dark kept the initiative and wore Bunny down with continued attacks. Finally Bunny assembled a huge force of Marine/Tank and moved out to attack, but Dark sent four dropperlords loaded with Zerglings in to Bunny's main base, which forced Bunny to pull back his entire force to defend. Bunny never really recovered and Dark won easily. The second game was a straightforward macro game, with Bunny maxed out on Marine, Marauder, Tank, Medivac at the ten minute mark. But Dark had three full energy Vipers and used their Blinding Cloud ability to great effect, neutralizing Bunny's tanks and enabling him to destroy Bunny's army with a mass force of Zerling/Baneling and Roach/Ravager.
Classic's Tempests punish Dark!
So the winner's match was set up to be a ZvP: Dark vs Classic, and at this point I had my audio sorted out and was able to hear the American casters. They were saying what a mismatch it was -- they didn't see how Classic stood a chance against Dark. I pretty much agreed, but we were then treated to Classic going for a very rare Tempest rush. He hid this tech from Dark and pooled four Tempests before he moved them across the map. He built a total of six Tempests, and was able to one-shot all of Dark's Queens (killing three at once when Dark picked them up with an Overlord, not able to drop them in time), and destroyed two of Dark's four Hatcheries. He then transitioned to mass Blink Stalkers and delivered the killing blow. Wow!
But then Dark showed why he was so favored, because you can't do a build like that twice in a row and Classic didn't have any more magic prepared. In game two, he tried mass Adepts and Immortals -- Dark shut it down easily. (Mass Adepts never seems to work, especially against a player like Dark.) Then in the decider match, Dark turned to aggression, bringing Queens across the map using Overlords with the Ventral Sacks upgrade (aka dropperlords) along with a sizeable Roach/Ravager force in a strong attack that put Classic far behind. Classic made a great effort, and eventually built a powerful Robo army, with Disruptors and Colossus, but Dark kept doing economic damage until literally every Probe was dead, and Classic had to tap out. So Dark won the group and makes it into the semifinals, as pretty much everybody expected.
Carol was fading at this point, so I gave her permission to go back to the hotel. She was a good sport about this weird pilgrimage that I'd forced her to endure, but enough is enough.
Bunny Loses His Battlecruiser
The next match was the "Elimination Match", where the losers of the first two matches face off to see who gets eliminated from the group/tournament, so we had Creator vs Bunny in a PvT. Bunny did an interesting build, with quick Battlecruisers combined with an early push-out with Marines and Tanks. While the infantry set up outside Creator's third base, the Battlecruiser used Tactical Jump to get into the main base probe line. Creator pushed the BC away using Stalkers and then built a very quick Void Ray to destroy the BC. Bunny kept pushing, but Creator counter-attacked with a ragtag force of 1 Void Ray, 2 Phoenix, 1 Immortal, 3 Stalkers and 2 Zealots and killed almost all of Bunny's SCVs. Checkmate. In game two, Creator just outplayed Bunny from beginning to end with mass Blink Stalkers and so moved on to the final match. This eliminated Bunny from the tournament, which surprised me since Bunny has been playing so well this year, and I expected him (along with Dark) to be moving through to the semi-finals. But this season has had a lot of upsets, so this was in line with prior results.
Classic overwhelms Creator with a superior force
The final match in the GSL Group format pits the loser of the winner's match versus the winner of the loser's match, and was therefore a reprise of the first match, another PvP featuring Creator and Classic. The crowd seemed to be rooting for Classic, as was I. The first game went along similar lines to game two from their first match, with Classic building a Proxy Robotics Facility and Creator making Proxy Stargate to produce Oracles. Classic got a Shield Battery down in his mineral line so the Oracle did very little damage, and got lots of damage done on the other side of the map using his Immortal, Warp Prism and a few Gateway units, leading to a quick "GG" from Creator, who was steaming after this loss. Creator started game 2 with three Gateway Stalker pressure, and had a decent army advantage, but Classic defended well with a Void Ray and a Shield Battery to help deflect the Stalkers. Classic took the army lead, with Immortal/Sentry to go along with his Void Rays, and pressured Creator. Creator took the "gold base", the one with the extra rich minerals, and Classic failed to scout this, so Creator had an income advantage for some time here. But his mass Stalkers couldn't trade effectively against Classic's higher tier units, and Classic kept the edge until both players were nearly maxed out.
Creator lands a huge Disruptor hit!
Creator then added in some Disruptors and got several huge Purification Novas (these do 145 damage in a large area plus 55 shield damage), which gave him what seemed like an insurmountable lead, with more than double Classic's army size. But Classic built a Dark Shrine and warped in Dark Templars which did huge damage in Creator's base, de-powering his production structures and supply-blocking him by destroying lots of Pylons. Creator somehow managed to regain the lead, but once again Classic warped Dark Templars into his base and supply-blocked him. The battle went back and forth, with both players down to 11 Probes by the end, but Classic controlled his forces better, and ended up with a significant army advantage, with no way for Creator to catch up.
Creator is eliminated
Creator was devastated and slumped forward in his chair with his head down after losing such an emotional game.
At the end, the announcers were saying it was the best set of matches they'd seen all season, and I had to agree. It was a blast, and a dream come true for me to see it in person. I had planned to stay around after to maybe meet the casters, but it had been a very long day and so I headed back to the hotel, where Carol was already in bed.
The Caramel Pinwheel at Paris Croissant
We got up early and headed out to the nearby Paris Croissant, which we had seen yesterday with loads of yummy baked goods in the windows. They didn't disappoint where the pastries were concerned -- Carol had a croissant and I had some kind of caramel-coated wheel thingy. I had a cappuccino and Carol was sad that they had no black tea, but she settled for their Orange tea instead.
A Bus Training/Testing facility seen from the bridge on the way to Lotte
We decided to head to the tallest building in Seoul, the Lotte Tower. We didn't really have a particular plan, other than that Carol wanted to get a baby outfit as a present for her Donna's grandchild. It was about a two mile walk, past the Olympic Park. We made a detour to find a children's clothing store that Google represented, but the address led us to a residential area and a pretty clear sign that this store was no longer in business.
We ran into a USF grad!!!
Undaunted, we resumed our trek toward the tower, and discovered on arriving that there was a shopping mall with a Huge department store, an attached theme park, and the works. We made our way to the kids clothing department and Carol got a nice pair of jammies for the baby.
The Tallest Building in Seoul, Lotte Tower
We found ourselves headed back to the Paris Croissant place for lunch and picked up a couple of sandwiches and desserts, which we took back to the hotel and enjoyed very much.
Stan was exhausted from all the walking and crashed about 4PM, much to Carol's disappointment; she had wanted to go out again. But I needed the sleep and slept soundly for about twelve hours.
Twelve hours later, it was 4AM, and I got up to work on the blog. Carol got up soon after and we hung out until 7:00 when the Paris Croissant place opened to get another helping of their yummy goodness. In addition to another round of the Caramel Pinwheel, we also got the Monkeybread and some coffee cake.
Carol sitting on the heated bus bench
We did some more walking, deciding to head north to cross the bridge over the river. It was a beautiful day and a very nice walk. Since it was Saturday, there seemed to be less traffic and certainly much less foot/bicycle traffic to be seen. We ended up sitting on a bench at a bus stop to rest before heading back, and found to our surprise that the bench was heated! But only from 0600-2200. Only one side was heated, but it was pretty hot, too hot for me!
Char Siu Pork Rice Noodles
On our way back, we decided to browse the Coex mall again, and got some goodies for Christmas presents as well as lunch. Stan had the Char Siu Pork with Rice Noodle Soup and Carol had the Pork Cutlet with Rice. Very delicious and filling; I didn't even have room for an ice cream cone afterward. We decided we'd come back and have the cone at dinner time, as well as to eat the Paris Croissant coffee cake that we'd saved from breakfast. The table at the restaurant had a little pull out drawer that housed the silverware (chopsticks and spoons) and napkins.
Hot6 (Sponsors of GSL) Energy Drink
After a rest back at the hotel, we decided to go out one last time before our too early departure tomorrow morning (0500 cab pickup for an 0900 flight). So back to the mall, where we got our soft-serve ice cream cones and some snacks and an obligatory Hot6 energy drink at a GS25. It was too late to drink the Hot6, so I saved it for the next morning, where I drank about half of it. It tasted pretty much like a Red Bull, which I stopped drinking years ago.
Stay tuned for the next chapter where you'll read about our adventures at the ICN airport departing Korea for India, and our exploits in Bangalore!
Bill's Machine Shop Goes to Seoul
Gas Station in Downtown Seoul
Getting Christmas Ready At the Mall!
