On Stage With White-Ra

I attended the event with my friend Erik Paulin who took the pictures used in this article. We drove 3 hours to Toronto from Hanover and met with over 100 other people from across Ontario all eager to meet White-Ra. 

The show began with White-Ra's wife or Wife-Ra. She talked about what it was like being married to a pro gamer and that the biggest impact is all the travelling White-Ra does as a pro gamer. After White-Ra answers questions about himself his experience as a pro gamer and his plans for the future. Listening to White-Ra age is definitely something he considers. He admits his reaction time is slowing but has no plans on giving up. He plans to continue being a pro gamer focusing on being entertaining and helpful to aspiring gamers. Below is a video uploaded by Erik of some of the interview:

The question part continues as three people from Team Liquid forums were are called from the audience and on stage with White-Ra asked their question. The one lucky person HyperionDreamer who was said to have the best question:

"Aleksey - As an aspiring player, I admire how manner you are. Any advice for players who have issues with their attitude when going through rough patches in SC?" (Source - Team Liquid Forums)

was chosen to play White-Ra in a show match. The show match with HyperionDreamer was very one sided but as he said after the match "At least I didn't 6 pool". 

After the questions White-Ra moved onto special tactics. This was where the audience got to participate in the show as people shouted out the builds they wanted White-Ra to go. It's really awesome for a pro gamer to go online and play ladder games based on what the audience wants to see. This interaction with the audience really helped make the show. Also as if going builds shouted by the audience isn't enough White-Ra while still playing answered questions from the audience.

Next was the raffle where everyone who bought merchandise was given a ticket. These tickets were put into a hat and pulled out by White-Ra were the two winners. I was one of those winners, invited on stage given a giant sticker poster that White-Ra signed in front me. Even better than the poster was talking to White-Ra on stage. Talking to a pro gamer as famous as White-Ra was great and I was able to tell him how much I enjoy his special tactics. So excited that I met White-Ra I made the below image my facebook profile picture (Facebook):

For the show match they found a gamer Henry, username NMxHendralsk going to University of Toronto who was ranked 20 Grand Master on the American Server. NMxHendralsk managed to take one game off White-Ra making for a 3-1 show match that was fun to watch.

Overall a great event, everyone was able to shout out builds and questions interacting with White-Ra. When show ended White-Ra stayed around to chat and signed anything fans brought up to him. White-Ra was so nice he even signed Erik's poster made out to his two children telling them more GG more skill. He is going to show it to his kids when they grow up (twin boys currently 2 years old) and tell them about White-Ra and eSports. Thanks White-Ra for sharing your story your an inspiration to gamers everywhere.

All the merchandise  they had and the sticker poster I won:

The stickers and poster were $2 each made by iHearteSports. The sticker poster on the left is one of a kind and signed by White-Ra making it priceless.