My E-Stars Seoul Korea Tournament Experience

Back a couple of years, I had the opportunity to travel to Seoul, Korea to join the E-Stars Seoul Tournament. Going there as a gamer, it was truly an experience of a lifetime. We all know most Koreans are hardcore gamers, and there I was brushing shoulders with the professional gamers from all over the world. There were the Counter Strike pro-gamers, and the Starcraft pro-gamers, along with Sudden Attack and Audition. 

Gamers in action (Sudden Attack Game)

It started off by me winning the Auditionsea Malaysia finals back in 2009 held at 1 Utama. Audition is this online dancing game by the way, google it up. The top 3 Malaysian players then got the chance to travel with the top 3 Singaporean players to Seoul Korea for a week of intense international tournament. We had the top Audition players flown from China and Thailand to compete against us as well as the Korean players. 

There I was in a land far far away

A group shot of the Malaysia and Singapore Audition players in front of the e-games stadium

Back then, I was in awe of the huge stadium all set up to house a couple of hundred gamers worldwide. It reminded me of my days back in university where we had these LAN (Local area network) games, except this was way bigger. Reaching the stadium which was to be my battlefield for one week, I was glad to see some exhibitions going on around for the public. At least that would take my nervousness away, I thought to myself then. 

Welcome to the e-Stars Seoul 2009 Tournament Arena

Caught some photos with these Cosplay ladies

It was a daily affair of going to the Tournament arena from our hotel, but we had our own time off at night where a bunch of activities were planned out for us. In a strange land so far away from home, I took in all the sights and sounds of Seoul which was pretty cool. This post however will be focusing more on this tournament. 

Some of the gamers from other countries, namely Korea, Japan, Thailand and some "ang moh" country

That whole week, I was a "Player"

The main competition was held up in the main hall on the stage, while for us "smaller" games, we had our qualifying at designated section of the huge hall. The tournament I was slotted to play in was actually named the Audition Asia Championship. Do check out below on some of the photos I manage to capture of the environment during the tournament.

#1 E-Stars Seoul Asia Championship

#2 The middle section where the Counter Strike Tournament was on the way

#3 The Asia Championship corner where I was at

#4 Here's me looking rather serious while trying to hold back my nervousness

#5 The Main Stage where the final game was played out

Overall it was truly an awesome experience. Even though my team, the Malaysia team did not get to win the top 3 prizes, which was won by the Koreans as expected, we did give a good fight. I was just glad to be able to get to know some really nice people from China, Korea, and Thailand. Oh did I mention I got to bring home RM900 cash as consolation which was a bonus since the whole trip was free anyway.

One for the album, Audition Players

And this would be the finale where the Starcraft champion took home 20,000,000 Korean won (RM54,000)

I do miss this bunch

Unfortunately the following year, 2010, E-Stars Seoul no longer had Audition slotted into their schedule, hence our trip to Korea was the one and only chance for Auditionsea gamers to be sent to compete in Seoul. Great times, unforgettable memories, one which stuck around for a really long time. Check out a short video clip of us in action below.