The Way There
The flight from Netherlands to San Jose was so tiring, we have two transits. Our flight was at 7.20am in the morning, so we had to reach the airport by 5.30am. Luckily Manuel's sweet mom sent us there because there were no public transport running yet. The only way would have to be taking a cab and cabs in Netherlands are way too expensive.

We flew from Netherlands to London, waited for 3 hours for the flight to Los Angeles, then wait another 3 hours in LA for the flight to San Jose. For the long flight, we mostly slept, eat a little, and watched "Kungfu Panda". It was such a great movie.. and super cute and hilarious, we both laughed very loud in the plane.. and heads were turning.. hahaha.

We reach San Jose on Saturday evening, extremely starved because the food on the plane is so bad. After checking in to the hotel, showered, we went out to town to look for some food. We were reading a brochure guide on where to eat, saw this restaurant "House of Siam" where it was said to be the best Thai restaurant in San Jose. When we reached there, we met some of the other ESWC guys there.. such Carmac, Basz, Cooller, Cypher, Torbull etc. What a coincidence! Looks like this restaurant was well advertised! ;)

On Sunday it was check-in day at the tournament venue at the Convention Center. After checking in and meeting a few people at the event, we went to Borders bookstore to shop for some books.

Day 1 Tournament - Monday 25th August 2008
Monday is such a long day for the Warcraft III players. Games start at 10am and lasted till 10pm at night. Players had to arrive at 8.30am or 9am to set up and do their warm-up, then play group stage 1. Group stage 2 started around 5pm and lasted till 10pm. Food was not great and quite expensive at the event. The players couldn't find hot food, they would only have the choice of sandwiches or wraps at the event. Grubby got a $8,25 wrap and the other Dutchies spoke of the $8 hamburger they bought which you have to microwave yourself. Unless they go out of the Convention Center and walk a few blocks to search for other restaurants.

The Surprises
SK.Soju, last year's ESWC champion, didn't advance to top 8.
MYM]Moon, the hot favourite to win ESWC this year, also didn't get into top 8.
MYM]Grubby, who only lost to 1 player once the entire day, couldn't get into top 8. As usual, he can win many players, but often has problems with Sky again. What a curse for him T.T Two WCG's and two ESWC's now (if you count Masters)...

Grubby suffered the same fate as Moon, as both of them are really unlucky, losing only 1 match to only 1 player, but lost in map score. There are also players who lost more than once and advanced to top 8.

Well, better luck next year! Let's see who's gonna get the ESWC title this year? I think probably an Undead or a Human.

This year there are 5 Koreans representing Warcraft III at the ESWC Grand finals, which is the highest record ever, 3 Koreans advanced to the top 8, which is still a good number.

The Pictures

MYM]Grubby and SK.Lyn sits next to each other as they are not in the same group.

Bonecracker did very well in group stage 1, coming out 1st in his group.

The nGize US duo: nGize.Yane and nGize.Shiek.

The Koreans: SK.Lyn, SK.Reign and mTw.AMD.WhO ( SK.Soju hiding behind).

SK.Soju builds Hunter's Hall, planning to go dryads and bears.

SK.Lyn controlling his blademaster, planning to assault SK.Soju.

MYM]Neo doing warm up on stage, preparing for the match against mTw.

Dota legend MYM]Maelk takes picture with 3 Warcraft III legends - MYM]Moon, MYM]Grubby and WE.Pepsi.Sky.

Tonight is already the finals for Warcraft III and CS-Males, while tomorrow night (Wednesday) is the finals for CS-female and Dota.

Check MYM's ESWC coverage for the latest news, as well as interviews and pictures!