The CPL World Tour—NVIDIA's CPL Blog
A bit of a stumble at the finish line...
Author: Sheryl
Date: Tuesday, February 15th, 2005
On Saturday things were rolling along, and we were on track to completing the tournament on time. Things were looking really good…until we started into the quarter finals for PK and CS.
I see a gathering of hotel management talking to Scott and Cem (the Turkish Strategic Partner) and hear something about “they’re kicking us out” from one of the admins. OMG – what can it POSSIBLY be now???
I then learned from Scott that the ballroom was booked for Sunday and they needed to get in to start setting up a stage for that show, which was starting at 8AM. We technically only had the room until midnight.
In the week that I was there, I saw several conventions come and go. As it turns out, the Radisson is a an extremely busy conference hall, and it was serendipitous that they had space available for Thursday through Saturday when the decision was made to postpone the first stop but still hold a small tourney for the players already here or couldn’t cancel their tickets. However, it wasn’t communicated that they were coming straight into the venue to start setting things up right at midnight (typically there is a bit of a buffer between shows).
I wanted to stick my nose in the conversation and bring up the fact that the tourney would have ended on time if the hotel electricians correctly set up the power distribution in the first place, instead of trying to get one wall socket to run all 40 systems.
Either way, the foyer upstairs was available, so the decision was made to host the semis and finals upstairs. As soon as the last PK match finished, Torbull, some of the referees and the players immediately tore down the machines and took them upstairs.
Meanwhile, the finals for the CS match were under way between the M19 and Catch. We were already at about 1AM, and I see the hotel manager pacing back and forth, pointing to his watch. In the end, Catch won the tournament, and we had the fastest tear down in tournament history.
I rushed upstairs to watch the PK finals. They had pulled together several couches and chairs all around Vo0 and Fatal1ty’s set up. Quite intimate, I thought. Normally the two players would be in this roped off area, spectators in another area watching it on the big screen, a bit removed. The spectators were gathered around up close, watching in a comfortable living room atmosphere, beer and snacks in hand. It was a bit like watching Kobe Bryant and LeBron James playing in your backyard.
I took my seat next to Liuokin of TSN and listened to him shoutcast in a hushed, golf tournament style. On this trip he got to cover some of the most exciting matches and it was fun listening to him get really animated as things heated up. I was wondering how he was going to contain himself since he was now about 20 feet away from the players. He did an amazing job though…and as Vo0 proved to be victorious, I was asked to announce that there would be a ceremony in the morning at 10AM. As I said it, I thought to myself, "10AM, which probably means 1PM in Turkey Time…" Sure enough, we didn’t get under way until about 11AM but that allowed the gamers to sleep in a bit and grab breakfast.
NVIDIA sponsored a rock concert tour few years ago. I attended the first few stops of the tour and would witness things that went terribly wrong. Each time it happened, I would be told by the road manager, “welcome to the music business.” Apparently it was the expectation that the first few stops would be the ones where you learn and adjust for the rest of the tour. I told Scott this – and that if multi-billion dollar concerts can go through these adjustments, he’s certainly allowed and isn’t expected to be perfect for the first try – and certainly not for something that was thrown together in a few days. This was the CPL World Tour Beta Launch – Stop #0.5.
Given this, I believe the first official stop will be multiple times better. After seeing the actual venue (The Mydonos Showplace tent at the CNR Expo Center), I’m totally excited about the event and believe that everyone will be blown away.
Now if I can just make sure I can get my banners out of customs, which are still there as I write this, by the way. *sigh
24 Hours of Absolute Hell
Author: Sheryl
Date: Friday, February 11th, 2005
Man…where do I begin…
If there is one piece of advice I can give to worldwide sponsors, it’s to get to know each country’s customs. And by customs I don’t just mean traditions and mannerisms. I mean those crazy government employees who sit at the airport and ultimately have the authority to let your stuff through, hold it for a hefty ransom, er, "duty," or deny it all together.
The bane of my existence here as well as the one thing that has started a hell of a domino effect has been the 18% tax the Turkish authority has put on all electronic items being brought into the country – irregardless of whether you’re selling it or just showing it off for a few days. This caused a last minute change in PCs - the CPL went from getting new ones built to having to use ones that were already in Turkey. Which then caused a total spec change from PCI Express-based cards to AGP-based cards. Which then meant that we had to take what we could get in this country because the cards had to get released out of the customs holding area (that alone was a long, complicated and expensive process). All this caused a set up delay. And with that, we couldn’t test these PCs to see if they are actually working (some of them didn’t).
All this happened in the span of 24 hours. Normally, this isn’t something that’s terribly daunting when you’re executing in Dallas, Texas, with an experienced staff and readily available hardware. But when you’re in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, the people operate on a different timetable ("Turkey Time") and with different standards (like, oh say, when the hotel electricians decided it’s completely safe to hack their electrical system and splice all 40 PCs off of one line, almost causing a meltdown), you begin to wonder whether you did something horribly offensive in a previous life for which now you’re being punished.
At about 6pm last night, I badly twisted my ankle as I was rushing down an icy freeway overpass in an attempt to make it to a computer store before it closed (desperately seeking graphics cards!!!). As I hobbled from store to store, with the snow dumping down all around me, I was amazed at how absolutely miserable I was. I was the eternal optimist but at that point I seriously considered throwing in the towel (especially when every store I went to had maybe one "high end" graphics card in stock…but "high end" meant FX 5200).
It was then I had a total epiphany. Well, to me it was an epiphany because I was deliriously stupid from lack of sleep. We needed to image the machines with all the specs in place, and I was on the hunt for a specific model of graphics card that was to be released from customs the next day. I realized then I had a 6800 Ultra in my luggage (yeah, we NVIDIA employees have them coming out of our ears and routinely travel with these in our bags just in case we can save the day with them). And with our UDA (Unified Driver Architecture), it didn’t matter if the specs of the actual card were different. All we had to do is image that one set, and the drivers will just automatically recognize the new cards when we finally got them in.
Well, this morning the sun finally came out and I was renewed with optimism. Scott and I went to the other side of the airport (BTW, the view from the road onto the airport was amazing…it was like looking out onto Siberia there was so much snow) to pay a visit to the largest distributor in Turkey (Hizli Sistems or "Fast Systems"). They distribute all the great consumer electronics products for Turkey, including cameras, cell phones, PCs and of course, graphics cards. We took the cards out of their warehouse (they had literally JUST gotten them out of customs) and left for the tournament. As we strolled into the hotel with the box of cards, the players sitting in the lobby started clapping. Yes, we would have a tournament after all.
While we would have a few more snafus before we finally launched the first match, I was exhausted but relieved that it would finally come together. The staff of Game Frontier (the Strategic Partner from the UK) totally pitched in, pulling an all nighter to make miracles happen. A huge thanks also goes to Torbull of 3D and Toby of 4Kings for volunteering. These guys were suppose to be here to just manage their players. In the end, I don't know how Scott made it happen but he did. Operating with bruised ribs, he was on the verge of a nuclear meltdown several times. The important thing is, though, that the tourney is under way, we are actually ahead of schedule with PK and WC3, with CS kicking off tomorrow.
So to close, I will leave you with a lesson on useful Turkish words that would maybe help you do business here some day (ok, maybe not – nothing will ever prepare you for this experience actually until you’ve been here).
WARNING – Attempting this will probably get you more looks of pity and "hey, nice try" than looks of "wow – that’s great Turkish! I understand you completely." But the point it, whenever you make an effort to learn someone’s culture or language, even if you butcher it, the effort is still appreciated.
Hello = Mer-hah-bah
Goodbye (said by the person leaving) = Al-lah-hah uhs-mar-lahd-duhk
Goodbye (said by the person staying) = gue-leh gue-leh
Thank you = teh-she-kue-lehr
NVIDIA = en-veh-dee-ah (thought I throw this in since some still can’t seem to get it right)
S.L.I. = kehk-ahs grah-fehks (tee hee)
Jetlag with a side of Cabin Fever
Author: Sheryl
Date: Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
You know the folks back home are thinking that this is some glorious boondoggle of a trip. Istanbul! The romantic city where East meets West, where the Ancient World meets the New World.
Yeah...well, truth is, I’m sick, jetlagged and working around the clock (during the day on event details, then night on the work stuff that doesn’t stop at home) on a painfully slow wireless connection. And now, with all this snow and ice (woke up to big flakes dumping down this morning), it doesn’t seem like I’ll be getting out to see this city anytime soon.
Maybe that’s all for the better. In the last 24 hours, things seem to be clicking along. The guys here have been able to make the best of what mother nature has dealt them. Players are starting to roll in from all over the world. While you can see all the weather delays took a toll, everyone, nevertheless, seem to be happy to see each other and know that at least something is taking place.
The ballroom layout is all coming together, and getting the hardware and labor no longer seem to be an impossible task (whereas a few days ago asking a truck driver to get across town to pick something up would be equivalent to asking him to give birth to baby hippos).
Tomorrow things will really start kicking into gear. PCs will be delivered in the afternoon (hope they get here on time...apparently it took five hours to cross the bridge from the Asia side today). Networking gets laid out. My only issues are that my banners are currently being held hostage by the customs officials here. Seem rather arbitrary but, well, as the guys here have been saying, we'll get it figured out.
I'll need a visit to the hamam (Turkish Baths) after all this...
Winter Wonderland...in Istanbul?
Author: Sheryl
Date: Tuesday, February 8th, 2005
So I FINALLY landed (8+ hours late, BTW). I'm painting a romantic picture when I say that my breath was taken away as our plane touched down. There was so much snow that I thought I was landing at some remote ski resort in the Rockies.
Normally I'd take off running into the snow like a retriever to water, but this is a big urban city. And you've got big urban cars skidding down the streets. Riding in a Turkish taxi to the hotel was a fun white-knuckle experience.
For those of you who grew up with snow, maybe you'll come here and think it's no big deal...but given the fact that this city isn't really use to storms like this, it goes without saying a lot of people were caught off guard...and quite frankly didn't really know what to do.
As an example, they don't salt the roads or sidewalks. In fact, as I was attempting to walk to dinner, I noticed a shopkeeper use his broom in a valiant effort to push "sweep" the snow. As a result, there's a whole lot of it piled up in the middle of the walkway. So, unless you're patronizing every store, you're swimming through it. Can't imagine having to carry a PC through it.
And so with all the reported accidents (including this, where
a PLANE slid off the runway), the residents here (can't say I blame them) have basically shut down operations the last few days. Factories and shops were closed - so things, well, just came to a halt.
What does this mean for me? Lots of time at the hotel on conference calls at 4AM. And meetings/plannings for the March and April stops. At least now I get to see the venue ahead of time and talk to the Strategic Partners in person!
Oh, and of course, the $20k PK tourney to be held here. That is some good $$$ for the gamers that have survived the re-routings and delays. I just hope in the midst of all this I get to see some part of this beautiful city.
"Your flight has been delayed...for 7 hours"
Author: Sheryl
Date: Monday, February 7th, 2005
These are words that every traveler dreads (unless of course you're coming back from vacationing on some tropical island).
So here I am at JFK airport, having gotten up at the buttcrack of dawn to fly through JFK and onto Istanbul. My flight into JFK was delayed by an hour, so I rushed like a bat out of hell to the Turkish Airlines terminal when I got in. As I approached, I was a bit puzzled. The sign says "Turkish Airlines" but all the counter personnel were, well, Korean. After getting over the initial "WTF?" I promptly learned that the two airlines shared a check-in desk. But more importantly, I also learned that my flight had been delayed by 7 hours due to some freak snow storm in Istanbul.
Ah...the fog is clearing from my head now. CPL|Scott had called me EARLY yesterday morning to tell me about some snow storm...something about the worst in decades (not to scare you guys off...I'm sure it'll be fine by the time we get in). It's now all coming back to me...
So now what...I could take advantage of this and go into Manhattan to see a few friends...or I could be a good girl and get some work done. It was REALLY tempting, but realizing that in rush hour, going into Manhattan would be a three-hour ordeal, and with security measures on top of that, it just wasn't worth the risk. Plus it'd be a great time to get to know JFK.
The problem is, I need internet access. And I realize now I have taken for granted all those great little internet cafes at airports like SFO, LAX and DFW. The ones I've passed up and said, who the hell would pay that price to surf the web? Well, I can tell you now that JFK has NOTHING that resembles an internet cafe - because I personally circled the airport and went into every terminal (all 10!) out of desperation. I got blank stares when I asked whether there were wireless hotspots (laughable). To be fair, they actually do have these little phone booth stalls that allow you to plug in, but the highspeed connection is almost always broken or the connection is plugged up by some snotty little kid's bubblegum. Ugh. On top of that, I had packed everything BUT a cat5 cable (stupid, stupid, stupid). At work I'm up to my eyeballs in these cables - so much so that I almost cracked my head open tripping over a pile last week. But I neglected to pick one up out the door. My own fault. NOTE TO SELF: Borrow one for the trip home from the admins.
BUT, I have to say that, for a major hub, I'm surprised at the lack of technology-friendliness here at this airport. Considering the average layover time and consistent record of weather delays in this city and the numerous cities around the world that this airport serves, you would think someone would have thought that this is a gem of an investment. As the Swedish CS players say, kom igen nu for fannnnnn!
So the good news is that right now, I am writing from the business lounge of Korean Airlines. After hearing my sob story (and probably a bit intimidated by the wild look of desperation in my eyes), the nice people here at Korean Air left me into their lounge to check my email "for a few minutes." It's worth noting that there is high speed internet in the posh airport lounges, but you either have to drop down some hefty $$ for membership or have somebody take pity on you. I kinda like it here. There's a full bar (people are just helping themselves to the Bacardi), and an assortment of crackers and desserts. I don't quite fit in here with my grubby skater clothes but who cares.
Well, I have about an hour left before the plane gets here...wish me luck!
