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413!

I have no idea how I did it. For the last few months, some friends and I have been talking about going to Blizzcon for the first time, with each statement being neatly hedged by bookend “assuming we get tickets.”

This past week gave us the chance to finally put our money where our mouths were. Tickets first went on sale Wednesday night, right in the middle of our attempts on the Lich King, and I was too stubborn to take a break to go for tickets. Someone else in guild managed to buy 7 tickets across two different accounts, which was somewhat annoying. Even more so, though, because he declared he was intending to scalp them. Pretty disheartening to hear for people who actually wanted to go to the stupid event.

After the incident, five of us coalesced and planned to meet in vent Saturday afternoon to coordinate and strategize our buying attempts.

Come Saturday morning, one of them (Anafielle) was at work and another (Gandy) was apparently napping. It came down to Ildara, Cendra, and I to somehow bring home the bacon.

Come around 12:55 eastern (5 minutes before the tickets went on sale), I began furiously F5ing until that checkout button appeared. I had all my ducks in a row, I was in Chrome (granted, it’s my default browser), already logged into the Blizzard Store, had my credit card set as my default payment method, and was completely in the zone. I was a leaf on the wind, watch how I fly.

I had instructed everyone to not bother to select a quantity, just hit the button as soon as you saw it to get in the queue ASAP and then change quantity after. Just get in the damn queue.

So 12:59 rolls around and I’m completely zen. F5. Is it there? No. F5. There? No. F5. Eventually, what seemed an eternity later, my subcortex catches a flicker of orange on the screen. Go time. I quickly click the button and jump in line.

Apparently I had trained for this moment all my life every time I immediately slammed on the gas whenever a traffic light shifted over to green. My reaction time was razor thin. All those pedestrians were not sacrificed in vain.

My initial queue position was 413. Four hundred and thirteen. As I read that number it slowly dawned on me, I was going to Blizzcon. Holy crap.

While Anafielle was despairing on Twitter, I shared my victory with Ildara and Cendra. Dara managed to get 3000ish in line, Cendra was stuck around 8000ish. I snagged the five tickets for us, and Dara grabbed another three for Palehoof and his two friends.

So, everything worked out in the end, generally. Anyone else get Blizzcon tickets? Or were you stuck in Queue Purgatory?

June 7, 2010

9 Comments

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  1. Vidyala
    June 7, 2010 at 9:47 am #

    Congrats on your tickets, Rhidach! I hope you all have a blast. I considered trying to go briefly, but it’s a pretty long way from home for me and so it gets pricey. Perhaps next year!
    .-= Vidyala’s last blog ..Axe To The Face – Wait, no, Sword. =-.

    • Rhidach
      June 7, 2010 at 1:42 pm #

      Thanks! And it’s too bad you’re not going this year. I was hoping to run into a huge list of various paladin blogging luminaries.

  2. Christopher Schmidt
    June 7, 2010 at 9:48 am #

    Great story + Grats :)

  3. Anafielle
    June 7, 2010 at 11:54 am #

    Yes! I was working, but I got a coworker to cover for me at 12:50 so I could sit at my computer and smash f5. I lied and told her I was getting really rare concert tickets. But I ended up 13,000th in queue *at 1:00 pm*. It stuns me that a second or two was the difference between victory and utter defeat. I had just about written Blizzcon off, figuring that It Was Not Meant To Happen if I didn’t get a ticket.

    Thank goodness my MT is the best person in the world.

    Don’t tell him that, though. He might get a big head or something.

    edit: ALSO!!! Everyone should still report all ebay scalpers!

    An easy guide to reporting:
    - Click Report
    - Prohibited Items -> Event Tickets -> Other (or “Inappropriate Ticket Packages”)
    - In the reasons box I paste something like this:
    SCALPED!!! These tickets retail for $150! Don’t support scammers!!!

    I don’t mind so much the ones that put the tickets up for $150 and start the bidding, but if they’re selling a ticket for $400 or two for $1000 (yes, I’ve seen it), they are fucking terrible people without souls. I don’t care if they sell their tickets with a paperclip to keep it within ebay laws. I will report them all and then I will log in under my sister’s account and report them there too.

    • Shathus
      June 7, 2010 at 12:38 pm #

      The problem I’ve seen with a lot of scalper is, they actually list the item they’re selling as something else, and just ‘give’ you the BlizzCon (or whatever else the auction may be for) for ‘free’.

      I saw auction the other day, they were selling their autograph for $400 and it comes with a free ticket. I believe this is their legal way of getting around any scalping laws.

      I had a similar story on Wed though. I asked for a ’5 min afk’ during our Blood Princes attempts @ 9:57pm, mashed my F5 button and got like 330-th in line. So my wife and I are going for the first time, can’t wait.

      <3 the blog btw, GL on your LK attempts.

      • Rhidach
        June 7, 2010 at 1:47 pm #

        Ha, awesome! Congrats on your tickets, and thanks for the kind words. :)

    • Rhidach
      June 7, 2010 at 1:43 pm #

      That reminds me, I need that $800 for this neato paper clip. I guess you can have a ticket to go with it.

  4. Kerriodos
    June 8, 2010 at 12:02 am #

    Gawd, if I wasn’t a poor university student with a far-too-long travel distance (Canadian boy) I would have been ALL OVER BlizzCon… But instead I will be missing out on all the fun. :(

  5. Rilgon Arcsinh
    June 9, 2010 at 1:06 pm #

    I hope you gkicked the fuckstick who was scalping. Not gonna lie.
    .-= Rilgon Arcsinh’s last blog ..Icecrown Citadel: A Ghost of a Chance =-.