EPTI have been a fan of StarCraft since I was ten years old. I was never very good at playing Brood War, but I loved it just the same. I can't adequately express the joy I felt when playing. It was as if I was a commander of a mighty army, tasked with defeating the Zerg menace once and for all, for the sake of the galaxy.
In a way, I immersed myself in StarCraft for much of my life. I explored its universe, added on to it, and loved every second of it.
Then I heard the news, years later. StarCraft 2 had been announced, and the beta was available to play! I was unimaginably excited. I spent hours on YouTube watching the Battle Reports from Dustin Browder, and the big games casted by HuskyStarcraft and HDStarcraft. I was enthralled by this new game, and vowed that I'd find a way to get into the beta.
After some checking around on the Blizzard website, I learned you needed a beta key to participate. I used Google to try and find a way to get a beta key; some minutes of searching later, I came across a website that was giving them away! I was confident I could make an account, ask for a key, and start playing StarCraft 2.
That website was Teamliquid.net.
At first, my only goal was to acquire a beta key. I didn't give a shit about this little backwater website that I located. It didn't matter to me, and I didn't care. I started looking around for the topic that was giving away beta keys*, only to be dismayed when I learned that all the keys had been given out. I was disappointed, but not finished searching. I starting browsing the site for any other hotspots of beta key activity. The first topic that caught my eye was this one:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=104154
At first, I was just weirded out. Who the hell is this "Day[9]" guy? Are all the people on this site so ludicrous? I realized this guy, whoever he was, was a pretty important guy in this fringe community, so I searched the site for more info about him; was he like Husky or HD? What was his casting like?
Then I crossed the threshold. I clicked the link that pulled me into this site, and made me a member of Teamliquid.net.
That was back in May. Now it's the start of November, and I look back, thinking that my life would be so much more boring if not for Day[9]. Not just him, but all of you guys on TL.
I started spending more and more time on TeamLiquid. I spent countless hours laughing at masturbation stories and underwater basket-weaving. I was rapt with attention while reading Rekrul's quest to find Manifesto7. I saw Kennigit's first thread, I read the Automated Ban List in all its glory, and heard the wonderful lyrics of "CROTCHMASTER". I discovered BoxeR, IdrA, Flash, and more.
I never did obtain a beta key, but thanks to my fruitless search, I discovered something far more valuable.
I do not own a camera besides the shitty one on my iPhone, so I cannot post a whimsical picture of myself showing my gratitude. I do not have video recording equipment, so I cannot post a YouTube video. I am not an artist, so I cannot express myself through the medium of Microsoft Paint.
However, I pride myself on being a human. As a human, I have a capacity for emotion. That sense of emotion is what drove me to write out this blog.
And it is what allows me to make manifest my utmost heartfelt thanks to all of you wonderful people.
Day[9], Tasteless, Artosis, lilsusie, NeverGG, Rekrul, Smix, Chill, iNcontroL, djWheat, JP, Plexa, Manifesto7, Kennigit, R1CH, and everyone else on Teamliquid…
You've all made incredible contributions in your own ways. It doesn't matter how you do it; commentating on high-profile games, photographing major StarCraft events, organizing a StarCraft pro team, maintaining one of the greatest websites out there, writing up Live Report threads, or even something as simple as banning people in the face and joking about it… You've all made a difference.
Teamliquid.net is my home away from home now. And it's all because of the outstanding individuals who are part of the website. No, you ARE the website.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thank you.
* I learned later that the topic I was searching for was the same topic that Hot_Bid used to pad his 2-week ban stats. God, that thread was a minefield!
