EPTBack to today, where I am ready to dive into Brood War again. You see, I was one of the many that camped out at my local GameStop on July 27th, eager to play SC2. And don't get me wrong, it's a nice game and I really don't want to turn this into a BW vs. SC2 discussion as I enjoy both. However, Brood War has a special place in my heart. I've met too many people over this game, had so many nice wins over good players (and at the same time, losses against players I probably shouldn't have lost to). This game has given me both massive joy and enormous frustration, but I would never trade that time spent for anything.
Recently, I've been playing League of Legends, Left 4 Dead 2 and Starcraft 2, but not too much of them. A few days ago some friends and I decided to log on to iCCup and play some games. Much fun was had, and I couldn't believe how slow I was and how much I had forgotten about the game. Again we played last night, where we entered some D level iCCup tournament.. and everything just started clicking again. Of course I was still really slow and getting used to the game again, but it was just.. fun. Fun that I don't have with so many other games.
And thus, I decided that I can't end Brood War for myself on a note where I was rapidly improving. Like I said, I hit B- on the ladder and SC2 Beta came out almost right after that.. I just want more to show from my Brood War days. I've always felt (and have been told this a lot as well) that I have a lot of talent at the game, but had major motivational problems. My mechanics were where I shined, I beat many, many good players just through pure mechanics. As my friends mass gamed on the ladder, I would played minimally but still beat them in practice games.
However, where I succeeded mechanically, I lacked ground in game sense. My weakness in Brood War was making the right decisions. I lost many games just due to attacking into a Terran's natural because I felt I could break him and win. It's carried into SC2 as well. I had a match recently against a talented player where I had a nice lead and was out macro'ing him, but decided to stupidly attack into his ramp and just lost the game outright. For some reason, I never played the style that favored me and always made awful decisions. If I could fix this problem, which most likely is done just through mass gaming and understanding each and every situation, then I feel my skill could jump enormously again.
I saw yesterday that the new iCCup season starts on December 4th, and I decided it was no coincidence. I have to go back and just give it my all on the ladder for one season.. no giving up, no excuses for every loss. My goal? B+. Is it possible? Who even knows. I understand that B/B+ is truly high-level.. and to think it would be an easy road to get there is simply laughable. I've beat B and B+ Koreans before, so I definitely think I have the potential to do it if I truly set my mind to it.. but who really knows.
The only thing I'm truly afraid of is that it will be hard to get games on the server. I'm not too sure how many people actually play on it anymore, but I'm hoping the start of the season will encourage a lot of people to play.
I will be playing on my first account made for laddering ever: OnlyInDreams
I will also be streaming every game I play at my livestream account, www.livestream.com/goshox
I figure this also gives people who want to watch Brood War something to watch, especially with the lack of Brood War streams nowadays.
By no means will it be easy, especially since I'm going to have to get used to the game again and regain all my mechanics and muscle memory. I know I have many frustrating losses ahead of me where I'm going to wonder if I even want to try this anymore.. but I 100% know I want to go for this goal I set, and I truly believe I can get it. And three months from now, we'll get to see if I was correct.
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