I remember my first foray into the world of TeamLiquid. My brother, sister and I were eating lunch debating over a movie we’d just watched, and somehow the conversation wound up on a discussion of Starcraft. My older sister rolled her eyes and said something along the lines of "rofl you two are so nerdy." In response, my brother started talking about how the Starcraft community was amazing... he went on to mention TeamLiquid and spoke of a badass motherfucker mod on the site who could singlehandedly crush an individual into a pulp, of a kid who got stranded in Europe with no money and ended up making it home through the good heartedness of the community, of another guy who was an awkward, unhappy loser throughout his high school life and eventually became a reputable poker player--all members of a Starcraft forum. Everything my brother said about TeamLiquid amazed me, but what he said about Rekrul in particular caught my interest, for two reasons:
#1. I love cards, blackjack, poker, gambling…
#2. In my junior and senior years of high school, my friends would cut me off the moment I said "You know, the game Starcraft—". At the time I had this huge, newfound passion for playing Starcraft online, and nobody to have a conversation with about it. My friends initially made fun of me and then got pissed because I’d rather stay home and play Starcraft instead of going clubbing. At the time, I didn’t have anything against clubbing, but in Singapore, from birth you are instilled with a healthy dose of fear and respect for the law. After having almost gotten in trouble for my fake from a terrifying bouncer, and worried that I would get owned for identity fraud, I would make excuses to my friends so that I could stay home and play SC on my laptop in the comfort of my room.
But back to the point—to go on TL and read an autobiography of a guy who felt disconnected in his teens, grasped opportunities made available to him (through SC no less) and ultimately became a huge baller at life and is still an active member of an SC forum with over 10,000 posts..I found it refreshing. And that's just one out of tons of other examples. I’m not one of those people who believe that gamers can’t be anything other than fat and socially incompetent, but at that point, when relatively young, and surrounded by girls who looked down their nose at gaming and stereotyped it, to find on TeamLiquid testimony of the amazingness of nerds everywhere caused me to spend a large number of hours browsing the site. I initially didn’t make an account, because I didn’t think I had anything to say that was worth reading… I didn’t know much about the progaming scene, I wasn’t very good at SC, and I definitely wasn’t very witty lolz. My brother left his password automatically saved on my laptop, so if I ever had a burning desire to say something while browsing, I’d use his account :X sorry. But now I’ve finally decided to start posting on my own! It’s kind of stupid to admire a community and check TL almost every day, but stay on the sidelines and be a mute.
But yeah, sorry this was such a ramble... and a pretty pointless one at that. Tl;dr version: Hi TL! I’m glad to join your community.