EPTYes it's true. I love you all (mostly). The following is half autobiographical and half... well, I can't think of a word but rest assured it has the same meaning as "appreciative beyond belief". I apologize for the fragmented thoughts, but unfortunately that's just how my brain works. I think it's ADD but it could just be stupidity. This might end up being pretty long so if you want to make some food or light up a cigarette feel free. You may also click the back button or post and pretend you read it and get it and sympathize. Please note however that in nine point five out of ten cases, I at least *read* the thread. So continue on or leave now. The ball is in your court, ladies and gentlemen. I will try to be as honest as I can so keep in mind that what I'm saying is honestly how I truly have felt/feel. I have had the urge to post something like this for quite some time. I have quite a bit I've wanted to say but pure laziness has taken over. Same goes for the TL RPG that I wanted to start.
I have been surfing the web since 1997 when my family bought our first dialup modem. I remember my mom having to log into visinet for me because back then you still had to do that to get on the internet. I remember tricking her once; leaving the cursor on the username so she would unsuspectingly type it and press enter. I could cancel the connection and I would know the password for all time. I was addicted. The vast amount of knowledge, opportunities, and porn that the web presented was simply too much to stay away from. I owe my first ejaculation to some site I believe was called AssMeat. I played a lot of BroodWar single player in late '99 until '01 or so. I had lost my internet and my BW CD and so I was fucked. I took a gamble and tried to experience real life as all of the people do.
Needless to say I have been a part of quite a few communities. Most all of them have been forums (used to call them BBS before that meant barracksbarrackssupply) dedicated to some sort of game or genre. I spent literally a *year* of my life typing away at a MUD (look it up!) with no more than 15 people online at any time racking up EXP that amounted to nothing but different words being presented on the screen.
I've seen countless trolls be vanquished. I was there when Tub Girl, Goatse, and Lemon Party captured our generation eith it's vulgar imagery. I was there when Chuck Norris was just an older white guy who could fight well. I was there before the nigger stole your bike. On 9/11/01 I was supposed to be at school, but instead I was on GameFAQs discussing Create-A-Wrestlers for WWF No Mercy for the N64 and accruing a massive amount of metal albums. Continuing, bare with me a moment.
I guess it's worth mentioning that I do indeed have a social life despite the astronomical amount of time I have spent in front of a lonely screen clicking and typing and clicking and typing. Sometimes I'm not sure how I actually manage it. It's like I go to work, come home and the first thing I do is toke a bowl and visit TL to see if anybody has responded to my posts (sad, I know). I have quite a few very good friends in this here "real world" and a pretty sizeable amount of acquaintences. I keep a tight circle and that's the way I like it. I go out for drinks occaisonally and sometimes even hit it off with actual women who don't look half bad. Brag brag you get it. Okay some of them were ugly.
Anyway, I joined TeamLiquid in mid 2007 under the nickname Ogre757 (don't search that) after asking a random battlenetter who was pretty decent at 1v1 for some good sites dedicated to serious BroodWar 1v1. He named two sites: TeamLiquid.net and GosuGamers.net. So my adventure here in this community began. SC2 had been announced and even though I still don't want to admit it that was the mark of the end of BW as we know it. It's still yet going to be some time before it's completely "dead", but I know it's coming. I didn't want to miss my chance at experincing BW before the community vanished. Anyway, more rambling..
The first of the two I visited was here. I found it pretty overwhelming. (That's a good thing. I'll get back to that later.) So then I ventured over to GG.net where I felt like it was more noobie friendly and I would be able to make an ass out of myself constantly without too much attention being drawn. The previous statement is almost complete fact by the way. As my passion for BroodWar grew so did my desire to support the community in any way I could. I spent countless hours memorizing teams and players, watching replays, and following all of the foreigner leagues. Soon thereafter I saw Stork play vs PJ at WCG 2007.
I cannot to this date conjure up enough cliched phrases to express how entranced I was. It was just a game but to me it was also an art form. It was then I knew that I must see the very very best of what StarCraft has to offer. I put in an application to GG.net for an editor position and a few weeks later I was hired. I was not highly knowledgable about BroodWar but I felt that I could still provide *something* to the community. I also think there was a slight desire to get some recognition and some e-fame out of the deal but as you can see that didn't happen. I wrote about 100 news articles (a lot supporting TL events), and even ran a simple $100 Tournament that Mondragon won. A few months later, I lost my fiancee and unborn child in a car crash. This was the turning point for me. I was grieving but I had also became more mature. I often times say that I feel like I'm 53 instead of 23. At this point I was basically living off a diet of cigarettes, weed, water, and VODs.
I didn't visit TL very much unless GG.net was brought up somewhere in a thread (a few years ago there was somewhat of a tension between the sites but edrama is good). To be honest I felt this site was elitist and that nothing you said or did would matter very much because the 1000000k post guys would just get all the attention regardless of what they said. In actuality I was totally wrong. First impressions are important but I'm so thankful I came to my senses.
Going back to what I said about being overwhelmed: Everyone here appeared to know each other and at first it seemed almost like every post was some sort of inside joke or refrerence to something obscure that only veterans would get. I knew very very little about *professional* BW when I joined besides the units, what counters what, Protoss is horrible (though Stork was the obvious exception to the rule), Boxer was amazing, and Manifesto7 is the lord almighty so you don't fuck around with him. That was about the extent of my BW/TL knowledge. I used it pretty well, as you can see. I dreamed of some day becoming a moderator for TeamLiquid. I'm trying to prove that I don't bullshit around.
With this valuable information I began doing what I still do in the present time: post in the general/non bw threads. I'm not terribly clever or intelligent and I really really really suck at BW. My plan however was to rack up some posts before I tried to really argue or call somebody out on something. Just buy myself some internet credit as well as a little time, you see. I posted a lot of unfunny, one line, cliched responses ("nice writeup!" "bisu gogo!" "lol wtf") in hopes that nobody would notice the bad posting.
So I explored the threads of old and learned about TL's legends. Guys like Saro, Mensrea, Yakii, Manifesto7, Nazgul, Meat, Waxangel, My_Digital_Toss, PoP, and the countless other staff who were instrumental in the evolution and development of this site. I took note of the veterans and whether or not they were smart, assholes, funny, or any combination thereof. Dudes like IntoTheWow, micronesia, thedeadhaji, Artosis, Fanatacist, ToKoreaWithLove, KwarK, Rekrul, Bill307, Sadist, JensofSweden/Foucault, travis, and virtually everyone else with a custom icon. I had to know the key faces and personalities of TL, I just had to.
I learned about Stimey, Zia, The Bear, Incontrol, (<3, sorry we didnt interview D
, Underwater Basket Weaving (probably my favorite thread ever), Creepy Facebook People, Airborne primates, Map riggers and all of the other, lesser-known and unrecallable trolls and incidents. I also learned that BaeZZi apparently has a few insecurities. I discovered that a vast majority of TL have a thing for asian girls. None of this was very useful data but I still kept it in mind as I figured out how I would 'fit' into TeamLiquid and what I can do to make my mark. Don't know if I'll ever figure it out, so in the mean time I'll just keep writing these huge texts with no real substance.The most important moment of all was during one day (sometime early 2008 I think) when I was perusing the site and checking my post history. I'm not sure what exactly what it was but for some reason I stopped and realized just how fucking incredible the place is. Consider this:
You want to know anything at all about any pro game ever and be able to watch it? Well here you go. No problem.
Need a 2800+ word written explanation as to why SK Telecom T1 is the best pro team on the planet? Well shit, I guess they have that too.
Surely TeamLiquid doesn't have a Fantasy StarCraft League where you draft and trade your favorite players? Oh no, they do!
Ok, what about an easy to use betting system where the winner gets a good forum prize? Fuck me, this is ridiculous. When does it end? Might want to check the calendar to find out. Don't worry, it's right on the front page with all the immediate events showing up.
Liquipedia. Nuff said.
Don't forget the HUGE FUCKING TOURNAMENT that's going on. I hear there are some good players in it.
You want to learn how to play Hearts? Or maybe solve a Rubik's cube? What about brush up on your skills at Big Game Hunters? You can find all of it and even more by simply SEARCHING for [G] or [Guide] at TeamLiquid. Does anyone realize how much knowledge has been shared here?
Bored? Need a laugh or maybe just somebody to talk to? TeamLiquid has got you covered with a pretty active IRC. You could also watch one of the many user streams. Links don't work for either of these.
Want to know wtf they're saying on that hot new Korean reality show? Now you do.
I could go on with more but I assume you all either a) already know this AND/OR b) get the point.
Sometimes I'm embarrassed to see the complete lack of respect and appreciation going on in the forums. It seriously blows my mind when I think of the man hours, effort, and dedication it takes to keep such an amazing site alive. The scary part is that it's only getting better. So THANK YOU to everybody who keeps TL alive. Before I end this I have a bunch of shoutouts I'd like to give.
A personal thank you to:
Vilda - You took me under your wing and have been a great friend. We need to talk more.
Raistlin - One of the hardest working people in the community for sure. Helped me on countless occasions with nothing given back.
Chill - One of the realest and most honest posters here. 99.999999% of the things he posts I agree with. Can be a bit abrasive sometimes but that's part of his charm. Thanks for giving me a good model to base my own posting on. Seriously.
Xeris - I know we aren't close or anything and have only met briefly once, but I want to thank you for being one of the if not the hardest working and most passionate people in the community. There is no end to the great things you have provided and I think you deserve more credit than you get.
Salv - Probably the funniest online person I've ever met and is very cool dude. We need to talk more.
Artosis - I think it goes without saying that this guy is the shit and deserves a lot of respect.
R1CH - Has the greatest forum icon ever and is probably the smartest person you or I will ever meet. His work here is unmatched. No idea how he does it all.
Sonuvbob - I didn't want to agree with Mani but you really are one of the funniest guys here.
p4NDemik and the rest of the TLPD crew - Your job is a thankless one. So thank you. You now have a thankful job. What?
Zatic - OMFG THE VODS~
The Translators - THANK YOU!
The Streamers - THANK YOU!
I could go on. Plexa, Romad, the guys at Liquipedia, Day9, LuckyFool and the DC/MD/VA boys, etc. Anybody I forgot should know that it wasn't intentional. Basically thank you to anybody and everybody who has ever spent their time building up this awesome place. Also a special "go fuck yourself" to all the trolls and everybody who posts stupid shit and 4chan stuff. Grow the fuck up or get the fuck out. Let the big boys play.
VIVA LA TL
