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Got back from a first experience of just going out to meet random people who I have a shared interest with. At first it was just a meeting of five TL'ers at Seoul PC World, but grew as others joined in for Starcraft 2 festivities. I became very aware of a few things during the day that I'd like to share with anyone willing to take a moment to read. I'm going to generalize and possibly exaggerate because its 3 a.m., and then close with some thoughts on my first experience with Starcraft 2.
Teamliquidians are some of the nicest, most well mannered people you can meet. Before I felt distant from teamliquid as a more 'appreciative-from-a-distance' player of Starcraft and enthusiastic follower of the proscene, but now I actually feel a deep connection with it (regardless of whether I actually have one or not). As a player that has decent game knowledge and theory but lacks mechanics and borderlines D+, I never had too much motivation to play truly competitively but being in a setting where it became so much fun, beyond winning or losing, created a new desire to play a lot more 1v1 competitively. I admit I only got back into Starcraft from my early days of bad bgh games after May 2007 when the glorious CG trailer of SC2 was first shown in South Korea, so motivation to master sc1 when SC2 is just on the horizon seemed unnecessary. Anyhow, my point is if you have an opportunity to go to a teamliquid meet and are on the fence about it like I was, definitely take it, its a fun experience. I have never really openly talked about Starcraft with anyone other than Evochamber (who I know and grew up with IRL).
SC2...what can I say? It's a brand new game. While yes, it is Starcraft, it does alienate you at first. The game runs at a silky smooth 60 fps and everything seems so floaty, including the cursor. In no way whatsoever do live streams, even HD 1080p ones, do the game in person at ultra settings justice, and can prepare you for the way things look and move as opposed to BW. It wasn't until near the end of the night that my eyes adjusted to the look of it. Being a Terran player in SC1, from what I could gather, Terran is the race that took the wildest departure in terms of play. These are not the slow and steady defensive terrans we know from the first game (thanks reapers and marauders with stim!). Combine that with the faster pace of the game and new unfamiliar hotkeys and shortcuts, I felt uneasy after my first outing (a TvT I lost within about 6 minutes).
Played Protoss second, did a stamdard 2 gate zealot pump against Crackling's greedy 3 hatch economy build and won the same way P would win against Z in BW with the same build. Felt very BWish, though unsatisfying.
I must say I really enjoy the little Zerg I got to play. Which is funny, because I feel as though Zerg is the race that changed roles the least, if at all. The core units of the race are still intact for the most part. I felt the most comfortable when I sat down for a game, even though I also lost it promptly to marine/marauder. 
As chaotic as SC2 seems to me now I only got to play around 4-5 games, and it has ton of potential to live up to what BW has been to us for many years. I'm looking forward to release and hope I get to play more beta.
Big thanks to everyone at the LAN for welcoming me into a group that I think mostly was already familiar, and can't wait until the next one. Next time, I'll be sure to be able to take more than 1 game. 
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United States324 Posts
yeahhh man that was much fun. I love tl gatherings at seoul, sucks that more people didn't show up though.
In any case, SC2 seems fucking amazing and the little bit I got to play leaves me desperately wanting more. Everything feels exactly like starcraft but with a new twist, 100000x better graphics, and easier macro lol. The art direction feels a little off at first but I have a feeling I'll get used to it. After watching replays for like 2 days straight finally getting to play beta was like, an orgasmic feeling almost lol. Can't wait to get selected for opt-in or private servers, gahhhh... Even playing against a computer would make me so happy right now. At least I'd be able to practice and get good mechanics wise. Owell, I'm super busy nowadays with school and work and gf, so... I guess not having beta is good for now, but dammit I really want it haha.
Anyways, hope to see you around at more lans, I'm sure something will crop up soon, and if not I'll just host a small lan at my place in maryland sometime.
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Korea (South)11599 Posts
was kickass meeting you man! you should def. come to the next LANs that are sure to occur!
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man no props? 
Glad you had tons of fun though
granted the graphics ran super smooth because my graphics card is pretty sweet
idk how it will do on the computer you will play sc2 on though.
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It's cool reading things like this. I know SC2 is going to bring together more events in the Bay Area. I can't wait to see this community grow.
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u know honestly it was really good in disguise that there was lower turnout this time cuz EVERYONE went to Storrs to play sc2 beta after the LAN center. wouldn't have been possible if we had the usual 12+
oh and u are my new hero for being like the second ever person to actually blog about these epic lans. hope to see u at future ones.
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Storr what are you talking about no props you were like the the whole focus of the main paragraph! my bad for missing the name drop...it was 3 am and i was dropping fast as I was writing..
I just wanted to include everyone and generalize and not make it seem like I was just singling you out, but you were definitely the main man last night. Again thanks so much for having us all over and humbly giving us all ample time with the game on your awesome setup (and free cokes ) Like I said your hospitality is top notch. can we nominate you for best host ever?
Lucky - I could go into more detail if we actually did more than just play some round robin casuals...I don't even think we played, but its for the best I don't need to be roflstomped in TvT haha
Oh yea and good job with CSL last night! GMU fighting~
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haha yeah not much to go into detail this time around with the fail tournament round robin.
If you go back and check my blogs I wrote up some huge battle report blogs from past lan's and there's vids ppl took and all kinds of good stuff.
the first recent DC LAN was back in July and we've been trying to do one a month for pretty much every month... this was like the 5th or 6th one. (we had a month off and a couple snow outs haha) We've had like 4 legit tournaments so far with prizes and stuff but I need at least 16 players turnout for that stuff.
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