EPTWhen SC2 beta started I was instantly thrown back to my childhood and how much I loved StarCraft and how perfect of a game it was and remains to be. I think this it the appropriate method to do an intro post so I'll take a minute and give you who I am and what my passions are.
The beginning for my passion of gaming was definitely StarCraft. It came out when I was in 8th grade, and by that time I already had built my own PC and was playing games like Masters of Magic, Masters of Orion, and of course X-wing, Wolf3d, Doom, Mechwarrior, etc etc. I also played lots of console games and have continued to up till now but my true passion is competitive PC games. When SC came out I had a good friend who I played with and formed strategies with constantly. We also played Chess together so clearly there was some interest in strategy
He was a little more serious than I was as I remember his massive binder full of build orders, and I distinctly remember not playing on the ladder - I was immensely in love with the game and how it was so different from C&C, I really felt SC was perfect balance and just an amazing thing - but for some reason I didn't want to become pro at it myself.In high school the spark of interest in competitive gaming SC gave me a ton of interest into shooters - specifically CS and Q3. I played a ton of those two at local LAN tourneys, and it truly was an awesome time in my life traveling around and just having a great time meeting people, watching pros, practicing a ton, and seeing it pay off in results. I wasn't pro by any measure but I would say I dedicated a large portion of my high school life to competitive gaming. I think the peak of my involvement with CS was when I organized a statewide ladder that mimicked OGL but was only for teams in Oklahoma where I'm from and live. It was small potatoes looking back but I'm still pretty proud of the time and effort I put into it as a high schooler. For Q3, I never got too extremely good, just good enough to get into the semis or so in tourneys, but still had a huge passion for LAN'ing, at one point we were traveling all over the state to play Q3 on LAN 4 or 5 times a month. A lot of the guys I knew went to Quakecon but for some reason I never made that jump. I actually attended my first Quakecon last year and saw SO many old faces I knew that I'm just baffled I never went earlier; and definitely planning to go again this year.
After high school I went into college seeking a Computer Science degree and I thought my LAN days were over: The big regular groups had fizzled a lot in my area, and the one LAN center that sprouted couldn't survive unfortunately. But there were still a few "good ole days" LANs that I would attend. The height of my gaming in college was definitely a LAN series I organized. Partly out of frustration at the lack of LAN action I was getting because of how little there was in Oklahoma, I worked with several university departments for over 6 months organizing what I think might have been the biggest PC LAN in Oklahoma up to that point. I won't say for sure since I know I haven't been to all of them, but we had over 200 people in the PC area, and our event (including console games) covered the entire ground floor of our student union (almost 10,000 square feet). It was a MASSIVE success that took tons of effort but I was so proud of that achievement. We were able to continue that event for I think 4 semesters using the equipment allocated and through that had many sponsors, even completely outside student groups offering up their help to channel the popularity of our event as a fundraiser for their group. We had tournaments & prizes but the focus wasn't as much on who could win but more on spreading awareness & excitement about competitive LAN gaming in a world that was increasingly becoming "online only."
At the same time this was happening a new passion in my life was growing very rapidly: the study of foreign, specifically east Asian, languages. For my CS degree I was required to take 1 semester of foreign language, which I could have probably tested out of Spanish for but I decided to "try out" Japanese since I'd always had a curious interest in it and hadn't had a good opportunity to learn it. After the 1 semester I thought 'huh, that was really interesting.. I think I'll take another semester' Long story short, I ended up taking 2 and a half years of Japanese (all my Uni offered at the time) and was already delayed to where I wouldn't finish CS in 4 years. So I decided to take a chance that I wouldn't get a single CS credit and embarked on a full year study abroad in Tokyo. It turned out to be an incredibly rewarding experience that changed my life forever, introducing me to different cultures from all around the world, being exposed to a completely foreign environment - which by the way, is by far and away the best way to learn about the environment you live in: go far far away from it.
The tie-in to my time in Tokyo to competitive gaming is that I spent a lot of time watching people play Fighting and Music games. I was just amazed how every single person who touches a machine at a game center is amazing at it. The best I could find out is that they spend tons of time at home practicing or are spending all of their free hours there so it's just a probability that when you see someone they've been practicing for hours.
Anyway when I got back I finished up my CS degree and have been working as a developer for 2 years now and trying to re-ignite the fire I have in my heart for competitive LAN gaming. I'm happy to say this weekend I'm attending a monthly LAN in Oklahoma that has survived all this time and going to reconnect with a lot of guys I haven't seen in 7+ years! And I really think StarCraft 2 is the catalyst.
So yeah, that's me. Sorry for the rambling long-windedness. I'm not sure how much more I'll write as far as blogs - but I invite any questions.. I'll try to be as candid as I can. I understand fluent Japanese (being married to one helps!) and can speak it again after I'm back there for a week or so.
On another note, hearing Day[9]'s dream of spreading eSports popularity in NA, I'm planning to work hard to spread the word to everyone I know. I already gave an intro to my step dad when he came over this weekend I had Day9's ZOTAC coverage playing live on the living room flatscreen!!
Oh one final thing - more a question than a comment... I have a close friend who I believe is a member here but I don't know his username... I knew he was a follower of SC pro scene and he's even been one of those "Oh look a foreigner in the audience" camera cuts in the Korean matches (he has been to Korea on multiple occasions and lived there too, briefly). I haven't been able to get in touch with him since I've learned about TL because he's now in China as a student. His name in SSBM is scud, anyone know a scud here?
