EPT
About 10 years ago, I remember heading to the local electronics store and picking up a copy of the game Starcraft Brood War as a little kid. Back then, I was playing on an old Windows 95 with 56k dial up with friends from back in school. I remember playing on maps such as Lost Temple and other legendary classics such as Bloodbath. But my favorite map back then were the money maps. Big Game Hunters, Fastest, Zero Clutter. Such great maps to play on.
As I grew older, I slowly moved along to non money maps, after watching some progamer matches on Youtube around 2004/05 or so. Watching clips such as Boxer's marine medic micro highlights and clips of the Storm zerg rushing in with lurker/ling just made me feel ecstatic. Later on, a friend of mine introduced me to Teamliquid.net as a site for Starcraft strategy and stuff.
Instantly, I became hooked, as TL had a vast collection of almost everything Starcraft related. From great replays to a strategy section to its progamer coverage. Everything it had just put a smile on my face. Needless to say, I became immersed into Brood War, loving the game more and more by the day. I found out about all the progamers of the era, such as JulyZerg (whose play I tried to mimic), and legends such as Nada, Oov, etc.
After a while though, I found myself more interested in watching games of progamers than actually playing the game. The things they did, the FPVODs, the micro displayed in game were just things I wished I could do, and I watched them in awe. From my first live finals (GGPlay vs Iris), I was instantly captivated as I sat there watching GGPlay defend against relentless pressure by Iris all over the place (Sick swarms at 12).
Nowadays, with the introduction of SC2 Beta, I feel like I'm losing touch with Brood War. The games as of late just haven't been as great as they used to be. I don't get the "WOW" feeling that I used to get quite a bit when I watched games. A part of me tells me that Brood War is dying, but the other part of me doesn't want to accept it as of yet.
But now as I sit here and look at Teamliquid, it seems as if the transition is in the works now. It feels like it's time to move along and accept that times are changing. Maybe it's time for me to actually learn how to play SC2. Yes, it's time to accept the fact that Brood War shall be gone soon. No point of dwelling on how good the old times used to be or how good the old games used to be. It's time to put it all in the past and look into SC2's bright future.
SC2 here I come!
