EPTPCWorld eSports Update: GSL 3 Ro64, DreamHack, Interview with IdrA
As always, tweets, Facebook Likes, comments, etc. go a long way in letting me continue to blog about this on PCWorld. Thanks for the support, everyone.
Now for the TL blog stuff.
Before I was ever in to Starcraft, I played a lot of Street Fighter and associated 2D fighting games. Entered Evolution a few years in CVS2 and Guilty Gear XX, and I still play SFIV/Super 4, 3s, and MVC2 every now and then. Unfortunately, my gaming time is all too limited, and when SC2 came out I put fighting games on hold. I haven't lost all the magic yet, but I just played with a few of my good buddies from the SF years and, well, it wasn't pretty.
There are all kinds of reasons why I'm playing SC2 and not SF4 right now, but I think it's mostly due to lag. I don't have the time or resources to hunt out console gatherings, which is pretty much a must if I want to get better at SSF4. Lag on Xbox Live makes the game completely different from live tournaments because you can get away with all kinds of shenanigans that don't work without that 60ms additional lag. In fact, the only (questionable) up-side to BNet 2.0 is that lag is now a part of competing no matter what, so your casual games or ladder matches won't be completely different than your tournament matches in that respect.
Also, if you're just starting out in Starcraft, there's all kinds of things you have to do to improve--learn unit compositions, timing, develop your macro and game sense, etc.--that aren't really affected by lag, execution, or APM at all. There's much more room to grow before you hit the execution wall that separates the greats from the goods.
That said, I think SF4 has the edge on SC2 in terms of commentators. I love me some DJW/Day 9, but I'll take Yipes any day.
