At some point in September Steelseries, the makers of World of Warcraft peripherals, hosted a sweepstakes. The grand prize? A trip for 2 to BlizzCon. Plane tickets, hotel rooms, two passes to the convention, and $300 spending money. For anyone who missed out on the ticket sales (or just didn’t get through), this was a last chance to maybe get to go.
I, of course, entered. Why not? I had nothing to lose and something awesome to gain. Not that I ever expected to win. Some of the lesser prizes were going to be the Steelseries mice, which I have wanted to try since I first saw them. But I am not shelling out that much money on a mouse I have no idea if I will like. I got my friends to enter as well, and joked that if they won, they had to take me.
The contest was a partnership between Steelseries, Jinx, Brady Games, and Cryptozoic. I have many of the strategy guides, despite them being outdated from the off. I collect the ccg despite rarely playing (I still want a spectral tiger), and I have bought so much WoW stuff from Jinx that I am a Champion on their little exp thing. If anyone deserved to win, I did.
I then promptly forgot all about it. After all, with 12 million players, my chances were pretty close to 1 in a few million. We are talking about the person who took 40+ runs to get a phoenix pet. There wasn’t any chance I was gonna win, so I didn’t even think about it.
Fast forward to October 8th. I am standing in line for Jury Duty. I am texting a friend discussing what I will do if I am not selected. She suggested something wickedly awesome and I replied with “That would be great! Well, thanks for jinxing me.” Laughing over this, my phone rang. It was this same number that had been calling me all week. I didn’t recognize it, and they never left messages, so as always, I ignored it and went back to texting. Then my phone buzzes again.
I have an email. From Steelseries. Asking me to please call them back, (that same number) as I had won a prize. I was shocked. Dude, I actually won something? The jury line moved forward. I was definitely gonna get picked now. It’s just the way my luck works. So I called the number back.
The guy on the other end was quite excited to finally talk to me and told me the good news. Our conversation went something like this:
Him – “You won a trip to BlizzCon.”
Me – “Seriously? Are you kidding me?”
Him – “Yes, I need to confirm your address, and we will get everything rolling.”
Me – “Seriously? Are you kidding me?”
Him – “Yes.”
Me – “Wait… I won the GRAND PRIZE?!?”
Him – “Yes. Do you still live at this address —-.”
Me – “I won the trip TO BLIZZCON?”
Lather rinse and repeat for the next 10 minutes while the line moved forward. I could feel that really wild adrenaline rush you get when you find out you got that awesome job, approved for a new car, or whatever seems exceptionally awesome. My hands started to shake. I couldn’t catch my breath and felt light headed. I got off the phone (almost to the counter now.) Turned in my paper work and sat down.
I was definitely gonna get picked for a jury now. And one of those long ones too. How was I ever gonna explain to a judge that I just won my dream trip and I needed to not be on a jury this month?
I texted my husband “I think I just won a trip to BlizzCon.” The same was posted on Facebook moments later. My heart beat even faster. Part of my brain was shouting, It’s a trick! It’s not possible! You roll ones on mounts and BiS gear! You have run Stratholm 155 times, with no mount drop! I tried not to get too excited.
A man walked up to the front of the jury room. “You are all excused. You shouldn’t receive another summons for 2 years. Have a good weekend.” Clearly, I had entered a portal somewhere and was in bizarro world.
I checked my mail on my phone, sure enough, there was a message from Steelseries explaining the plane tickets and hotel room. Now I had a dilemma, who was I gonna take? My husband, while obvious, doesn’t play WoW. He barely puts up with me talking about WoW around the house. My mind immediately flashed over people in my guild and landed rather quickly on one person. Pinecone. Pinecone has worked with me twice in the past, once even as my boss. Pinecone helped me power level my now main warlock. Pinecone heals Tuesday night raids. Pinecone and I commuted to work together for 8 months and talked about WoW nearly every single day.
I asked him on im if he thought his wife would let him go to BlizzCon. His response “I guess. WAIT. Are you inviting me?!?” Needless to say, he convinced his wife to let him come with me.
Now here we are. A week before BlizzCon. Plane tickets purchased. Hotel room paid for. Just waiting for October 21st. Waiting for BlizzCon. Every so often I remember I won and that moment of shock comes rushing back. I seriously can’t believe it, even now. I don’t win things. Ever. I didn’t get Muradin’s spyglass until everyone else who could use it had theirs. And yet, here I had won a Grand Prize, paid trip to BlizzCon of all places.
And if that weren’t just the icing on the cake, I was goofing off in Stratholm the same weekend and wouldn’t you know, the reins dropped. When it rains it pours I guess. Also, I really feel like I should pick up the mouse now. 🙂