Well, day one of the Battle 4 Atlantis is in the books, and it’s been an exciting one. The Tar Heels lost, of course, but they weren’t the only upset victim of the day: in fact three of today’s four games ended with the underdog on top, so the “losers” bracket for the rest of the week is going to look a lot like the “winners” bracket was supposed to look. Of course that’s partly because the “underdogs” at this tournament are no slouches either: Oklahoma, Georgetown and Butler are all pretty good.

But with all the excitement and all these high-profile teams running around, it’s easy to miss the fact that all of this is taking place in a pretty small facility. The Atlantis resort in general is huge – you could walk around for an hour (like I did) and still not even begin to see everything – but the tournament itself is something else entirely. It’s taking place in something called the “Imperial Arena” – but this is the only week it goes by that name. Its real name is the Imperial Ballroom.

Yep – the entire Battle 4 Atlantis is taking place in a ballroom. A giant 50,000-square-foot ballroom, but a ballroom nonetheless.

0 - Battle4Atlantis Ballroom

The imposing entrance to the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Which makes for a very intimate atmosphere. (Imagine Cameron Indoor without the upper deck – then imagine it’s carpeted everywhere but the court itself – and you’ll have a rough idea.) The seats at the Battle 4 Atlantis are makeshift bleachers positioned right on top of the court; you’re as close to the action here as you are in any high school gym. (There are signs everywhere inviting you to tweet the @AtlantisResort with the hashtag #betterseat to get a seat upgrade, but I’m not sure how that would even work. Perhaps they place a chair at the free throw line.)

But a court is a court and a game is a game – so if you’re watching this tournament on TV or listening to it on WCHL, you may not get a sense of just how small and intimate this place is. So, here are a few pictures from behind the scenes.

(Apologies in advance for the quality: I’m an amateur photographer with a low-rent cell phone.)

1 - Battle4Atlantis Before

This is the scene just outside the “arena” an hour before tipoff, just before they let the fans in. (The fans are waiting in line at a double door down a long hallway.)

2 - Battle4Atlantis Before

This is the hallway. Every single fan in attendance will walk down this hallway and through those velvet ropes.

3 - Battle4Atlantis Before

Just outside the doors to the arena, about an hour before game time.

4 - Battle4Atlantis Entering Imperial Arena

The view upon entry. That’s UNC warming up on the court. (When you walk in, you’re actually confronted first with the back of the bleachers. Then you turn left and cut around a corner to get here.)

5 - Battle4Atlantis Chapelboro spot

Courtside seats!

6 - Battle4Atlantis Courtside View UNC Warmup

The view from my seat at the press table. Check out that low ceiling.

7 - Battle4Atlantis Fans Enter

Just after the doors are opened, these are the first fans in line, about to enter the arena. (UNC is pretty well represented down here. At the game itself there was also a pretty strong contingent of Butler folks, but based on the team apparel I see walking around, UNC and Wisconsin are easily the two biggest fan bases on Paradise Island right now. Wisconsin’s got us beat, though, I think.)

8 - Battle4Atlantis Fans Enter

Now the excitement’s building as more and more fans make their way in…

9 - Battle4Atlantis WCHL tripgoers

…including our contest winners and the folks from Hickory Tavern. (There are ten of us, total, in the WCHL/Chapelboro group.)

10 - Battle4Atlantis Jones Angell and Eric Montross

And there’s Jones and Eric, getting ready.

12 - Battle4Atlantis Philip ESPN sign

Did this guy make it on TV? I hope so. He said his name was Philip – and his sign turned out to be prescient. UNC didn’t win, but Paige turned it on late in the second half (like always!) to help Carolina cut a 14-point deficit down to three before Butler pulled away.

So there you go – just to give you a better sense of the scope of this arena. It’s not a traditional basketball venue, but it makes for a pretty good atmosphere once the game gets going. And the intimacy extends to the hotel as a whole. Atlantis is a big big place, but with everyone all staying together in the same resort, you’re still constantly running into all the other fans – I don’t know how many times I’ve already run across the UAB fan I sat next to on the plane ride over here – plus players, coaches, and occasionally whole teams walking en masse. I caught the Carolina players all heading to some restaurant or other a few hours after the game was over. It all makes for a nice sense of togetherness – regardless of the outcome of the games.

(Of course a better outcome would be nice too. Tomorrow is another day.)