Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008

[andyf]

Ok so Blizzcon is really really cool but it means having to go to USA, which makes it a bit pricey and really long flights and stuff which turns a lot of people off.

However! There is a Worldwide Invitation in PARIS over the 28th / 29th of June (sat/sun), which looks like it has pretty much everything that Blizzcon had last year, so HOW ABOUT IT MPUK?

http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/index.xml

£55 for a ticket, go on sale next week. I think Blizzcon was about $100 so its pretty similar pricing. Paris is a helluva lot easier to get to than Anaheim so lets do this! You could drive, get a train or fly over (Flying ftw), won't take more than a few hours!

Wrath of the Lich King playable beta, Starcraft 2 playable beta, Developer discussion panels (usually funny and good), AND MORE STUFF.

Sign your interest below! DO IT!

PEOPLE COMING SO FAR:

Andyf
Bootz
Katz
Pumpkin
Leni
Kil88
maximumweasel

[ez64]

Im going purely for that starcraft 2 beta and blizzcon's always seem to be a laugh judging from the video's.

[Bonkers]

We will see

[tucool]

Interested.

[Bootz]

So in.

[Bootz]

currently I'm favouring flying from Heathrow (it being just around the corner from me).

Cheapest BA prices are currently £53 out, £53 return. I'm lookinbg at flying out Friday, returning Sunday evening.

Plenty of £53 flights out throughout the afternoon, however the £53 return flight is at 9.55pm (or 9.45am...), all earlier flights on the sunday are more expensive ranging from £60-£100)

[Cyphus]

Could be tempted

[Jingles]

Same weekend as Glastonbury and Hard Rock Calling.

[ez64]

currently I'm favouring flying from Heathrow (it being just around the corner from me).

Cheapest BA prices are currently £53 out, £53 return. I'm lookinbg at flying out Friday, returning Sunday evening.

Plenty of £53 flights out throughout the afternoon, however the £53 return flight is at 9.55pm (or 9.45am...), all earlier flights on the sunday are more expensive ranging from £60-£100)

linkage?

[Katz]

\:D/

[Cyphus]

Same weekend as Glastonbury and Hard Rock Calling.

You'd think I'd know this really....

[Bootz]

linkage?

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/home/public/en_gb

[Killy]

This is tempting... have to look into this further...

[D0c]

Could be interesting :)

[her0n]

So what sort of stuff goes on here?

[Disco_Stu]

Definitely interested :)

[andyf]

So what sort of stuff goes on here?

Well it looks hellishly like Blizzcon so:

First off, you get a load of workstations running WotLK / SC3 betas, which you can play. Obviously there's gonna be a queue as this is probably the highlight but at blizzcon it wasn't a huge wait if you wanted to play either. From memory they had a pretty decent number of PC's available so the queue turnaround is bearable.

Second, the Blizz devs get to tell us all their wonderful plans for the expansion, mumble about warlocks and get jeered, and get ripped to pieces in Q&A sessions, which is pretty good. The class discussion panels should have some new information about what they want to achieve with the classes into the expansion, rather than the next minor content patch.

Tournaments, well, something to watch here :)

The contests are good, not least because actual RL girls dress up like night / blood elfs and bounce around with not much on. Oh and you might get the crazy OCD koreans sporting almost perfect tiered gear costumes which is actually quite a sight up close.

And it's a holiday.

[Predobear]

Main question to ask here.

Will there be cake?

[Mastacheif]

Main question to ask here.

Will there be cake?

Pie

[andyf]

Elfs

[ez64]

Pie

Pie Cake?

Dear god of win we have a new food.

[SystemId]

Lets form a raid.

[andyf]

Tickets for the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational convention and tournament gaming event will be available from Thursday, 20th of March on the Worldwide Invitational website at http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/.

[Elbonio]

very very tempting.........


crap i can't, already booked elsewhere - unless I fly back at 2pm on Sunday ....

[andyf]

Tickets are ON SALE NOW

[tucool]

bah i have no cashmonies, and by the time i do i bet they're sold out

will have a word with the rents ;)

[Bootz]

andyf, me, katz, pumpkin and leni have tickets so far

(andy fancy updating main post with definates/slackers list :D)

[maximumweasel]

T'would appear I'm going too with two XW nubs.
But I'm going for the Starcraft 2 goodness.
And maybe to slap some of the WoW developers for having all the imagination of a WoW developer.

[Cyphus]

T'would appear I'm going too with two XW nubs.
But I'm going for the Starcraft 2 goodness.
And maybe to slap some of the WoW developers for having all the imagination of a WoW developer.

Damn you all! :fist:

I just hope they run another one of these soon...

[Killy]

I *may* have purchased a ticket :p:

/me whistles

[her0n]

Where do you guys think you'll be staying?

[Mouse_On_Mars]

Hmm, £104 return with BA. Depart Heathrow at twat AM on Saturday and return on Sunday night.

[andyf]

Where do you guys think you'll be staying?

Some hotel somewhere, I'm going to pressure the native french speaker to organise this and just throw money at her when required :p

That said I guess there's gotta be a decent english-language option on most of them .. I'll also ask a couple people I know near-ish the area if they know of anywhere in particular that's good

[andyf]

It appears to be here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=vanves,+paris&sll=48.884586,2.239151&sspn=0.381086,1.082153&ie=UTF8&ll=48.832104,2.285221&spn=0.005961,0.016909&z=17

and the website for the expo center (http://www.parisexpo.fr/pexpo/do/Navigate?id=14&lang=en#) has some updated PDF file for navigation - http://www.parisexpo.fr/pexpo/pdf/Travaux_T2_modification_du_sens_de_circulation.pdf

[Bootz]

Hmm, £104 return with BA. Depart Heathrow at twat AM on Saturday and return on Sunday night.

FAIL

go on friday :D a nice afternoon flight (still at £53 outbound), granted an extra hotel night, but no rushing around Saturday on the day of the expo ;)

[her0n]

Looking at £300+ for ticket, hotel and flight.

I'm out :\

[Aardvark]

I have 5 that says this event will see the unveiling of Diablo 3.

[andyf]

That's an easy fiver I'll take from you, I'll see your bet.

[maximumweasel]

Omg totally booked transport and accomodation.

About £250 quid for tickets, transport and hotel. Fairly pricey all things considered but hey.

It's not like I'm buying a house or anything.

Oh wait...

See you others there I expect.

[Jingles]

I shall expect MANY pictures matt, to go with the many whelps.

[Bootz]

Me and Andy booked on the following flights:

Outbound: BA0316 (Dep. 14:45 Fri Jun 27th)
Inbound: BA0327 (Dep. 20:15 Sun Jun 29th)

Also hotel booked, 5 minute walk from the exhibition.

[Bootz]

Just over a month to go!

I believe we have the following coming:

Bootz
Andyf
Kil
Maximumweasel
Pumpkin
Leni
Katz
Azgaz
MrSeb + his guildies (4 or 5)
XW (not sure how many)

====

I've decided to work on a costume to go to the Expo in, depending on if I can get it looking decent in time I shall wear it. Anyone else dressing up?

[MrSeb]

Stealin' my thunder!

Yeah, there's a few of my guild going, and a few others from my realm. A few have threatened to beat me up, but I'm sure they were just joking... hopefully...

We're staying at Formule 1, some cheap and cheerful hotel:
http://www.accorhotels.com/accorhotels/fichehotel/gb/for/5010/fiche_hotel.shtml

43 Euros for a double room or something... couldn't resist.

I'm taking the Eurostar out on Friday morning, and back on Monday afternoon. £100 or so.

Not a cheap weekend, but I figured I'd have quite a lot of time to see Paris, and generally loaf around, bone the cosplay girls at the event, etc.

See ya all there :)

[Killy]

Oh **** I forgot about this, I'll have to sort out flights and hotels ASAP :p:

Was tempted to dress up as a Tauren, as hell not much work needed, but we'll see nearer the time

[Bootz]

For those that missed out on the first round of tickets, check at http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/news.xml#23/05/08

More tickets will be available for the event.

[Bootz]

I have decided i shall be going in costume and have started it here:

http://www.cosplay.com/costume/146819/

[Bonkers]

lulz

[Towneh]

That's a lot of money, especially since wotlk has just been leaked! /me plays :D

[Aardvark]

That's an easy fiver I'll take from you, I'll see your bet.

Btw I consider this agreement to be binding.

[andyf]

Btw I consider this agreement to be binding.

Great!

[Aardvark]

Jolly good.

[her0n]

Lisa your costume looks amazing so far! Hope you do well :D

[Narella]

My word, that costume is amazing!

[Aardvark]

Yeah, it's pretty pimp, good show :awesome:

[Tsung]

OMG that costume is stunning, I guess you are entering the costume competition. I notice the sign up page is only availble from the 16th June to 20th June. :/

http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08-contest/contest-form.html

Good luck Bootz :)

[ez64]

Female Bloodelf, YUM.

[Bootz]

yup I signed up. Getting excited now!

[Aardvark]

http://www.sclegacy.com/showthread.php?p=5195

Would just like to remind everyone how I ****ing called it :D

I do so enjoy taking your money Andy lad :p

[Killy]

Do you want a cookie?

[Aardvark]

I'd love one :D

[andyf]

Sorry, I thought you were linking to something definite rather than tinfoil speculation.

The bet is still very much on.

[andyf]

Hey if you haven't already done it,

PRINT OUT YOUR EMAIL + BARCODE

:D

[Killy]

SHHH! I'm on it ffs :p:

[Bootz]

yo! Let's meet up tomorrow night in Paris ya ya?

[Aardvark]

Jealousy :(

[andyf]

Jealousy :(

Get out, EVE forum is that way --->

[Aardvark]

Hey we'll need a Diablo 3 forum soon...

[Tsung]

(The picture changed today something is coming). www.blizzard.com (http://www.blizzard.com)

There is also a picture hidden in the CSS code, which looks like this vvv. It's been building up over the past few days. There is one piece missing (left middle) I've put in the top left piece in there just so you can make it out.


http://us.media.blizzard.com/232309/_images/04.jpghttp://us.media.blizzard.com/232309/_images/23.jpg
http://us.media.blizzard.com/232309/_images/42.jpghttp://us.media.blizzard.com/232309/_images/15.jpg
http://us.media.blizzard.com/232309/_images/08.jpghttp://us.media.blizzard.com/232309/_images/16.jpg

Red herring? draw you own conclusions :)

PICTURE COMPLETE! (http://forums.multiplay.co.uk/showthread.php?p=771626#post771626)

[Aardvark]

I promised myself I wouldn't be too smug...

[sh0ckwave]

edit: nm

[Elbonio]

I have decided i shall be going in costume and have started it here:

http://www.cosplay.com/costume/146819/

This is ace, good job :D

[Qdos]

Any pics yet? And what did you get in the goodie bag?

[shred_dog]

I just checked out the Diablo 3 in-play movie...

awesome. just awesome.

http://www.blizzard.com

I was so afriad it would end up being "world of diablo" or some silliness :awesome:

[andyf]

hahaha I got three pics of Tasteless while he was standing nearby discussing the starcraft 2 match, two of them someone was just in the way, the third time I ALMOST got him but he saw me taking the pic and thought I was aiming for the stage, and moved backwards, giving a nice blurred tasteless pic :(

[Killy]

The opening ceremony was awesome.
P.S. Andy didn't think so so much :D

[Bootz]

my piccies here:

http://photos.poddle.net/main.php?g2_itemId=71728

[Deman]

Just so you know the entire slan was watching the stream on big screen :)

The winner was a damn good outfit and we figured the murloc would get a prize.

Love the family entertainment from the presenter.."It's Big, It's Black, It's Long..oh my".

[Aardvark]

The opening ceremony was awesome.
P.S. Andy didn't think so so much :D

:>:

[andyf]

Love the family entertainment from the presenter.."It's Big, It's Black, It's Long..oh my".

Did they air the first comment they made?

They wanted to get some video playing on the screen, but for whatever reason it didn't show. China then said it was the video peoples fault, not theirs, and that black people always get the blame for things going wrong. Got a pretty amusing reaction from the crowd

[Towneh]

Yeah the projector area was packed with slanners watching the dance and costume contests :)

We managed to get a few glimpses of Bootz in her tier 6 (better than the other priests TBQH!) and that Kerrigan outfit from Blizzard was awesome :)

[Baroness]

Omg I can't believe nobody has posted it yet? Or have they and I'm being reeeeeally unobservant? HUGE picture of Lisa in today's Times Part 2, with mini-interview! Couldn't believe it when I opened the page and thought "That looks really like Lisa's costume.....oh wait......". Picture is fab and properly big!!!

[Aardvark]

Scan please :p

(or I could wait til I get home, but that would be excessively patient of me...)

[Bootz]

heh i just found out when mum phoned just now..

(I usually read The Sun or Daily Mail at work during lunch....) I shall scan it in if I can work the scanner...

[Bootz]

and here it is shamelessly uploaded:

http://photos.poddle.net/main.php?g2_itemId=72081

[Aardvark]

I can see Wizzo's jealousy at you beating him on the press exposure front already... :D:

[Mouse_On_Mars]

:awesome:

[Dentist]

wow!

[Narella]

Well done! I saw the article in The Times today! :hearts:

[Deman]

haha awesome, congrats :)

[Baroness]

Not even hidden away on page 24 or whatever. Good billing!

[Bootz]

yeh its a big pic! I remeber the woman asking for pictures, trying to get me to bend over and lean foward on a desk.

[Qdos]

yeh its a big pic! I remeber the woman asking for pictures, trying to get me to bend over and lean foward on a desk.


Ahh, the slippery slope starts there..... :D

[sh0ckwave]

wow!

har har

nice one lisa !

[Aardvark]

yeh its a big pic! I remeber the woman asking for pictures, trying to get me to bend over and lean foward on a desk.

Just how keen are you on bending over and leaning forward on a desk, then? :p

[Jingles]

Grats Lisa :v

[Killy]

She was asking for a picture for her private collection clearly :D

[andyf]

Just how keen are you on bending over and leaning forward on a desk, then? :p

Judging by some of the pictures involving Orc's on poddle, I'd say VERY keen ...