Friday Nov 22, 20132013年11月22日 星期五

　　Friday started off slowly as only half of DK had gotten up by the time I got down to the venue around 11am. The ones that had gotten down there, however, apparently had woken up at 6am — even after that late night and all the travel. I found LaNm, iceiceice, and BurNIng I think it was at the off-stage area. We were soon joined by Mushi and MMY, and the five of them had some fun playing a few pubs together. At lunchtime, we ventured over to the nearby North Market, where everyone got pho except iceiceice, who got Indian food. LaNm however became distracted by a Thai place and promised that he’d come get that next time… though there wasn’t another opportunity for him to do so over the weekend. As noon passed, they wanted to head back up to their rooms to rest a bit more, as most of them had woken up early due to jet lag and needed some more sleep. Unfortunately this meant that they missed their 4pm autograph session, but hopefully DK were generally available enough over the next few days for any fans to meet and greet with them. Around 5pm they came back down, bleary-eyed but with a bit more bounce in their step, and went back-stage to warm up prior to their on-stage matches against Alliance and Liquid. First they played a pub or two together, then did some analysis and discussion to their upcoming games.

　　周五开始得略迟缓，我11点（北京时间周六凌晨1点）下去赛场的时候DK只有一半的人起来了。但那几个已经在那儿的，都是6点（北京时间周五晚8点）就起来了的——尽管经历了长途旅行而且睡的很晚。我在副舞台区域找到了LaNm，iceiceice和BurNIng。很快Mushi和MMY也来了，他们五个打了几局路人。午饭时间，我们’勇敢地’冲到了附近的North Market，大家在那里吃了越南河粉，除了iceiceice，他吃了印度菜。而LaNm则被一家泰国餐馆分散了注意力，说是下次一定要去那里吃。结果整个周末再也没有机会去吃了。午饭过后，他们想回房间再休息一下，因为大部分人都由于时差而起得很早。很不走运的是，这意味着他们错过了下午4点（北京时间周六早上6点）的签名活动，但好在在此之后DK基本上都能满足粉丝们的见面要求。大约5点（北京时间周六上午7点）他们下楼来，睡眼惺忪，但总归脚步更踏实了一点。到后台热身了一下，先是打了一两盘路人，然后分析讨论了一下即将开始的在主舞台对Alliance和Liquid的比赛。

Team DK backstage at MLG Columbus.大DK在MLG Columbus后台

　　And then they were up on stage to play — Alliance, followed by Liquid. Honestly I hardly even remember these games themselves, but DK came out of the games 2-0 victors, showing impressive form. After the games, some passionate local Chinese fans (students from surrounding universities, mostly) came and offered to take us all out to eat. The offer seemed to be well-received by the Chinese contingent of DK, while iceiceice and Mushi apparently had been planning on going to get a burger nearby. Either way, everyone ended up piling onto a couple cars and off we went, about ten minutes away, to a Chinese restaurant.

　　然后就是主舞台的比赛——打Alliance，接着是Liquid。老实说我基本上记不得这两场比赛本身了，但是DK带回了2-0的胜利，展现出良好的状态。赛后，一些热情的当地中国粉丝（大部分是周边大学的留学生）过来说要请我们所有人吃饭。DK中国小分队很高兴地接受了邀请，而iceiceice和Mushi明显已经计划好在附近吃汉堡了。总之，大家伙儿被塞到了几辆车里，开了十分钟左右到了一家中餐馆。

　　In the words of iceiceice, “I don’t like Chinese food, I don’t know why they come out here and still want to eat Chinese food.” It wasn’t too bad though, and when Mushi and iceiceice indicated that they wanted a bit of Peking roast duck, our gracious local hosts ordered an entire duck… By the time dinner was over, it was 11pm and at least BurNIng looked tired and ready to head back. Apparently the restaurant’s boss lady is a Dota fan as well, or at least feigned to look like she knew who DK were (maybe she just saw team uniforms and thought they must be important), so everyone gathered up to take a group picture at the end. The only one of these photos I have is the one where no one was looking at the camera…

　　用iceiceice的话说，“我不喜欢中餐，我不懂为什么他们都到这里来了还想着吃中餐”。但其实这顿饭还不错，而且当Mushi和iceiceice提到他们想吃一点北京烤鸭的时候，我们和蔼可亲的当地主人点了一整只烤鸭。当晚饭结束，已经11点了（北京时间周六下午1点），至少BurNIng看起来很累，想回去休息了。显然，餐馆老板娘也是一个Dota粉丝，或者至少假装看起来知道DK是些什么人（也许她只是看到他们穿着队服，觉得他们应该是重要人物），所以大家被召集拍了一张合影。我这只有其中一张，没有一个人看着镜头。

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　　It had gotten quite cold by nighttime, and BurNIng was shivering at the doorway of the restaurant as we left. I gave him a mini-hug to warm him up a little bit and he was like, “Aren’t you cold? Or you’ve gotten used to it…” Yeah, I guess the difference in weather from Shanghai to the American Midwest in winter is pretty drastic; in a lot of buildings in Shanghai they don’t even have heating, such are the mild winters. It had been snowing a little bit on and off that evening and night, and iceiceice was especially excited about it — he had never seen snow before in his life, this was his first time. So, in between shivering breaths, he’d be exclaiming how exciting it was, and asking whether his breath would frost up in the chilled air, and how he enjoys cold weather more than hot weather, because you can always put more clothes on, but can’t necessarily take more clothes off, and oh my goodness it’s so cold right now, and how he imagined snow might be fluffier…

　　夜里很冷，BurNIng在酒店门口都有些打颤。我给他一个小拥抱暖暖身子，他的表情看上去好像在说“你都不冷么？还是说你已经习惯了。。。”是的，我猜上海和美国中西部的天气差别超级大；在上海的很多建筑里甚至没有暖气，可见冬天并不是特别残酷。当晚一直断断续续下着雪，iceiceice显得尤其激动——他人生当中还没有看到过雪，这是他的第一滴雪。所以在打颤的间隙，他一直在喊着他有多激动，问着他呼出来的气会不会在严寒里结成霜，表达着他有多喜欢冷天超过热天因为再冷你都可以加衣服但太热了也许没有衣服可脱，喊着’我的天哪真尼玛冷啊’，诉说着他以为雪会更加的蓬松。。。