Hey everyone. My name is Kyle “Beef” Bautista, and I am a part of the compLexity Gaming management team. Now, I very rarely write blogs, but being present at the LCS studios when complexity fought their way back into the LCS was a pretty awesome experience, and one that I’d really like to share.
As an eSports personality and part of compLexity Gaming, I’ve had the privilege to travel to so many locations and watch our teams compete in countless tournaments, but it is a bit ironic that this, one of my most memorable experiences, happened right here at home, in LA. I’ve never been a huge League guy – I’ve played DotA and HoN for the better part of a decade – but after watching quite a bit of LCS last year with our old coL.LoL team I was very excited to make it out for this match. After making the necessary arrangements with Riot I was locked in and ready to watch my first live experience in the LCS Studios.
I headed out early on Sunday morning, making sure to miss freeway off ramps at least twice – a common occurrence for me in LA. When I finally arrived in Manhattan Beach at 11AM I ran into another problem: somehow my name wasn’t on the list at the gate. Disaster… Just kidding, it took her 10 minutes to find it, but I was there. I made the short walk from the parking garage to the back entrance, where I was not really greeted by anyone. I just kinda, walked in. I guess the black and red compLexity pullover helped, or the camera gear I had with me, or maybe I just really looked like I knew where I was going.
I walked by the press lounge, seeing familiar faces like Travis watching the EG vs C9T match on a bigscreen. I had to make note in case I needed to come back here to fulfill my duties as a media person, but for now I had bigger issues. I presented myself to the first person I could find that looked official, and said, “I’d like to see compLexity Black please!” Security must not be that tight because they just took me right to their preparation room (team lounge, dressing room?). The door opened as Brokenshard called out “BEEF!”, and I knew I was home.
The whole squad was there practicing and watching the live match. Robert’s girlfriend was there, in addition to Bubba’s wife in full Caitlyn cosplay. Come to think about it, both times I’ve met her she’s been in Caitlyn cosplay – maybe it’s not cosplay at all… Westrice was watching the match along with our analyst, while Broken and pr0lly played one game, and BUBBAxLEE in another. The room wasn’t especially spacious for a total of nine people, but with computers, a bigscreen, personal bathroom, and even a mini-fridge it certainly wasn’t bad.
Eventually word came that food was being served down in the players’ lounge, so we went down in pairs to grab some food. Beef roast, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, salad, we grabbed some for the guys that were still in games as well. It was also a bit ironic that a few of our players ran into the Coast guys in the search for food; it was an encounter described as “cold”. I’ve gotta take a second here and say how nice the prep area is at the LCS Studios. Each team gets their own permanent team room, the couches in the player lounge are god-tier, and there are screens to watch the matches literally everywhere. Plus food and drinks available whenever? Not too bad.