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Let's start with a little bit about myself; I'm 13, play Protoss, and have never ever played in a tournament. As I said, I'm 13, so thats all I'm going to tell you.
So last night I was surfing around TL and I saw the TL Open #7 post and I said, "What the heck." I signed up. Later that night I was talking to a friend and managed to convince him to also sign up. We both started off on the waiting list.
Starting 10 minutes before the time you could start checking in, I continually spammed the reload button. That's how excited I was. But there was a problem. I had told my friend that the tournament was Sunday so I was anxiously hoping he would just randomly get on.
I made it in and was officially playing and he still wasn't on. Finally with 5 minutes left he logged on and checked in. It was settled, we were both playing. The next 15 minutes I spent with my heart racing as I waited for the brackets to come up.
When the brackets finally came up I was ready. Music blaring, headphones on, I was in the zone(If us silver players can actually get into the zone, I was in it). I added my opponent and messaged him, "redy?" 10 minutes later I was still waiting for a reply. Let me tell you, I was super nervous by then.
To make it worse, before I had even started playing, my friend messages me and goes, "Well, I got pwned." My opponent finally gets on and we start the game. Lucky me, he was bronze. And in typical bronze fashion, he started the game with both of us on the same team.
What do you know, my first opponent was Protoss. PvP is my worst matchup. The night before, I had scoured replays of MouzMana to learn how to play PvT and Liquid'Huk to learn PvZ. With my limited time left to learn PvP, I didn't think I could play a macro PvP. LIterally all I knew about the matchup was, "Okay I think you need a lot of collusus." So I went to my go to build which I learned from my Protoss hero Liquid'Tyler, blink stalkers.
Although since he was bronze I knew I had a chance to win, in a way it made me more nervous. The game started, and with my after pylon scout I saw a forge first, and that we were cross positions. Normally I am pretty good with my scouting probe and am able to micro it while I'm macroing at my base and teching up. However, when I saw that forge I went, "Oh f***!" Then his probe pops into my base. This entire time I can feel my heart going bumbumbumbum at approximately 90 mph. I tried to remember what Day9 says, "If you can stop a cheese, almost always you are ahead." I sent four probes all around my base looking for the pylon. I'm knew I was making a lot of mistakes. I could actually see myself miss my 16 pylon and later on my 2nd and 3rd gate timing. I now fully understand how hard it is to make decisions during a tournament. I have a knew respect for pros.
While that was going on I finally remembered I should be scouting. I sent my probe in, and lo and behold he was walled off with two gateways, and a cannon! Immediately I knew he was going 1 base Void Rays. Why else would he have a wall in and static d that early. Bronze players aren't stupid.
At that point I started laughing my head off. My parents actually had to come in and check just to make sure everything was all right. I continued going down the blink tech path and just massed stalkers, waiting for the inevitable Void Rays. However, blink finished before his void rays came, and I made a horrible decision and decided to move out instead of defending against the void rays.
He had no units at his base and was desperately warping in cannons. I blinked in and took them all out. I saw the 2 stargates and the fleet beacon and for a second I was convinced he had gone mothership rush. Then I realized, wait a minute, why would he have 2 stargates if he went mothersip? My eyes glanced down, and I saw this flock of blue coming into my base. I was shaking too hard to count the voidrays and see if I should go back. I made a guess that there were 7, which would have been close against my 11 stalkers. Part of the problem might have been that I was scared of engaging. After watching the replay, I saw there were only 5 vrs, which I could have easily cleaned up.
With my heart beating in my ears and my stomach in knots, I went for the base trade. Waiting until I had 400 minerals I evacuated my probes to my stalkers, desperately hoping he didn't know about my proxy pylon and wouldn't come back to engage. Instead, he went for the base trade like I had hoped. As I destroyed his nexus I just stopped microing and watched the screen, waiting for the "SoandSo has not rebuilt their base and is being revealed." I waited, and waited. I was sending probes in all directions. Searching for a hidden base or building. Then it came. I destroyed the rest of his buildings, and with only my partially building nexus left, I won.
I jumped up and screamed. Screamed as loud as I could. I was so happy just to have made it to the 2nd round. That had been my entire goal. I felt like I could fly as I told my friend I had won.
Then came the second game. Once again, it was PROTOSS. Then came the worse news: he was 2600 diamond. When he said that, all the hope went out of me. I might have tried to keep my dignity and play a macro game against another race. Not against Protoss. I knew cheesing was like a 15% chance to win, and I had absolutely no idea how to execute a 3 gate, which made it about 10%. That is, however, better than the 1%ish chance i would have against a top diamond player.
So I 3 gated. I sent my 9th and 10th probes in 2 different directions, hoping to scout him, and proxy gate. We were cross positions. I placed a pylon and 3 gateways down. With 4 zealots I went into his base. But, I had made a crucial mistake. My zealots were on move command to the bottom of his ramp, but I failed to notice that he had zealots intercepting mine. With my spirit crushed and half my zealots dead, I made one more push. He overwhelmed my zealot force and I gged.
I knew from the beginning I had no chance. That didn't make it feel any better. I actually teared up a little. It was a good experience though. I had tons of fun, and winning that first round is up there with some of my favorite memories. Next TL Open, I am going to be ready with PvP knowledge and I WILL make it to the 3rd round.
 
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Haha, inspiring. Hopefully you will do better next time. You seem to have the right kind of mindset for this. I read the whole thing with a smile. Thanks for sharing!
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Nice read, good luck next time. I think I'll try my luck in the next TL open.
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Hmmmm...a whole blog about your pvps and possible strategies and 4 gate wasn't mentioned at all...awesome! Always nice to see how lower level players enoy tournaments. I always enter tournaments to never win but make it as far as possible and its so exciting!
How did your friend do?
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Good luck for the next one
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Good luck for the next one and in other tournaments in the future!
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4gate -> profit
food for thought for your next TL Open
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 the earnesty made me smile
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United States12607 Posts
I spotlighted this. Great story.
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hehe good luck fellow starcraft child ^^ try again next time! I liked it.
I had the bad fortune to get the eventual winner somewhat early 
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Practice, practice practice! Congrats on making it that far, winning a round is a great feeling when you are just starting out, it's a weight off your shoulder I bet
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Katowice25012 Posts
Awesome read, best of luck next time
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I'm actually surprised by, not this story in particular but others, how many younger dudes play this game. I have a couple on my friends list that are actually quite high up in Diamond ~2200+ rated players and they're younger than 16.
Just keep dedicated and have fun ^^;;
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that was a great read.
reminds me of my my first TL open went 
gl in the next one!
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Congrats man, winning your first match in a tourny is pretty lucky, most people lose their first match outright so gj. I hope to play you in the future tourny's ;]
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Great story, better luck next time =)
It feels kinda unfair that they would match diamond vs players lower than plat, though ... something for TL to think about!
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inspiring for all players thanks for sharing your experience.
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On December 19 2010 10:27 lIlKyo wrote:
I'm actually surprised by, not this story in particular but others, how many younger dudes play this game. I have a couple on my friends list that are actually quite high up in Diamond ~2200+ rated players and they're younger than 16.
Just keep dedicated and have fun ^^;;
Age doesn't matter nearly as much as playing experience. I'm 15 / top 100 NA / sponsored by justin.tv and VT gaming, but I've been playing SC2/BW for almost three years competitively.
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Awesome read, thanks for that
I might have to force myself to enter one sometime soon.
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Good story.
I'm 15, 2k diamond zerg, and entered several tournaments so far. (including the TL Open today) Haven't made it past the first round yet. ._.
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Tournaments are way different than laddering. It's crazy.. Your nerves and body just go nuts. I've entered two and both times I got a bye through the first round and then had to wait an hour to play my first opponent and man... That is the most nerve racking thing ever. Good job in the tourny. GLHF
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Nice story, lucky you had a bronze first round .
I played my first tourney too today, craftcup US. First round I got a 2200 diamond terran, next round I got another 2200 diamond terran lol. Won the first game with a 7 roach rush on steppes but ended up losing the second game. Still fun though.
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i feel so warm and fuzzy reading this reminds of my own 1st tournament, i was so flustered i kept getting pylon blocked and got raped by a 4gate haha.
2nd tourney went better (Go4SC2fr) where i took out a 7pooling zerg before losing in a pvp
played in the craftcup recently and its amazing the mistakes u make under pressure, i get a solid advantage and throw it away by overcommitting to my (supposed to be) pressure.
anyways, KEEP ON ROCKING! i hope you do great in your next tournament. remember, not only TL has open, check out craftcup and ESL
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Nice story, I had a great experience in my only TL Open some weeks ago on EU server. I've got 13 games on 1v1 ladder and in plat, and my opponent had 400 games and was in diamond so I wasn't too optimistic.
First round was a ZvZ on scrap station and I went the build that had extracted from the second game between oGsZenio and IdrA on Scrap Station in GSL2, the one where Zenio went roach baneling. Luckily for me my opponent went speedling baneling and I managed to get my roaches out just in time for his push, and then counterpushed to win. Seeing my few banelings blow up 20 of his speedlings felt so nice.
Checking the replay he was at average 300 apm with me at avg 150 apm, but our apm when stuff actually started happening was the same (he had a very spammy start). Round two I was up against a protoss that had won Craftcup the week before, he hit me with a 4gate after warping in 5 waves of units, I had nothing and got crushed.
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Interesting read. My kudos tu you for being able to do that. :-)
I might give myself a medicine by shock by this - I'm being tense while merely laddering, entering some sort of tournament might make my body to go nuts and then, laddering will no longer be an issue. Though, I'm inexperienced Bronze, so doing that is e-suicide and becoming a laughing stock as well... ^_^'
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Great read, nice to hear you share the excitement
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Peru357 Posts
great read.
Most of the time people think this game is all about the pros, but its is the average player which makes the vast majority of the player base of this game, and the ones watching them and loving their plays.
Silver league hwating! ^^
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Great read.
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You inspired me to maybe try my hand at one of these things sometime! Maybe next semester
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I have lots of respect for you. I am only 15 but have never had the balls to ever play in a tournament.
Message me up sometime on TL and we can play sometime .
(Maybe practice for the next NA TL Tournament? 
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I really enjoyed reading this. Glad you mentioned you were 14, made it an even better read. GL next time!
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great stuff. good luck next time! im sure you'll improve a lot by the next tournament
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I wish I could enter a tournament...but I have class on weekends at the time they go on T_T
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Reminds me of my first tournament experience in the NA TL Open about two weeks ago. My first round was against a 2700 Diamond Zerg. It was a ZvZ, needless to say, he handily stomped me, but it was fun.
I went back and looked at the brackets later, and didn't feel so bad about my loss anymore. It turned out the guy I played had made it to the Ro8 and only lost to TLO there, which made me feel a lot better haha.
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Caught this on the tweeter. Great story! I signed up for the first TL Open, but couldn't make it as I stayed up all night for the GSL1 finals and passed out afterward. I also changed my race after that to zerg because I was so inspired. (it's working out nicely!)
Anyway this story renewed my interest in online tournaments. Great read!
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Haha, good luck next time! A good read. You'll soon be SC2 gosu tearing it up :D
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I despised void ray builds when i was in gold, eventually i learned that 4gate builds often hit when only 1 or 2 voidrays are out then it was kinda just lol. I liked your story, i had a similar VR game happen where i saw the cannon wall off and instead of trying to break it i expanded. Then that just led to base trade silliness
I think i'm gonna sign up for the next TL open i can do now!
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On December 19 2010 10:31 Pokebunny wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2010 10:27 lIlKyo wrote:
I'm actually surprised by, not this story in particular but others, how many younger dudes play this game. I have a couple on my friends list that are actually quite high up in Diamond ~2200+ rated players and they're younger than 16.
Just keep dedicated and have fun ^^;; Age doesn't matter nearly as much as playing experience. I'm 15 / top 100 NA / sponsored by justin.tv and VT gaming, but I've been playing SC2/BW for almost three years competitively.
Flash was 15 when he won his first OSL and Baby was like 13? when he appeared on the pro scene, so yeah, age doesn't matter^^
On topic, I signed up for the TL Open but sadly I didn't get home til 12:15 and missed the check in Not that I was going to win, but I would have at least advanced a few rounds. My goal every tournament is to at least make it to someone who's name I recognize :D I really enjoy the pressure though. I embrace it and use it to improve my focus and I think I actually play better. My fingers move faster, my reaction time is faster, everything is just faster, I wish I could always play like that.
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Lucky me, he was bronze. And in typical bronze fashion, he started the game with both of us on the same team.
lmfao. ohh man, I lol'd on that one. Great story, glad you shared and I hope more people say 'ahh what the hell' instead of 'ahhh screw it'
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if only more new people to this game were like you
forums wouldn't be so tedious
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Pretty cute. At least you got past round 1 for a guy who didn't know anything about PvP. It's all good ^^
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Nice read man congrats on your win I think you inspired me to try oneof these in the near future
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nice read man, makes me remember what it was like when i was a young :D
keep the good posts coming!
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Brings me back to when I used to play SC1 tournaments on what was starcraftse.se then but is now called gamingeye This was before replays were patched into the game so I couldn't even look at it afterwards to see why I had been owned so incredibly hard. The other players just always seemed to have much more stuff.
And making it past the first and second rounds meant everything
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Nice story i read it on one breath !
my 1st time i was in TL open i made it to ro32 than i get owned so easily i still cant understand how i could loose that match.
2nd time i owned in 1st round 2500 daimond when i saw his rank i thought im fucked up but it actually i was in great shape and got it, unfortunately i was all ined in next match : (((((
Better luck next time im your fun and if you can upload your reps i will watch em : )
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Keep playing in tournaments. Play in the US craft cup as well to get more tourney experience. It was my first TL open as well and I got a PvP. But well, he was diamond and I was Bronze and he was the one who went blink stalkers and I don't even remember what I went. But hey, tournament play is fun! Hope to see your name in the brackets next time and nice post! Well written.
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Really awesome story, brings back memories of TL open 1/GSL 3 (both of which I did terrible in).
Doesn't matter what skill level you are (or how good/bad you do), tournaments are always awesome to play in and the amount of experience you gain is always worthwhile. Good luck in the future.
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On December 19 2010 14:54 Najda wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2010 10:31 Pokebunny wrote:On December 19 2010 10:27 lIlKyo wrote:
I'm actually surprised by, not this story in particular but others, how many younger dudes play this game. I have a couple on my friends list that are actually quite high up in Diamond ~2200+ rated players and they're younger than 16.
Just keep dedicated and have fun ^^;; Age doesn't matter nearly as much as playing experience. I'm 15 / top 100 NA / sponsored by justin.tv and VT gaming, but I've been playing SC2/BW for almost three years competitively. Flash was 15 when he won his first OSL and Baby was like 13? when he appeared on the pro scene, so yeah, age doesn't matter^^ Maru is also 13 right? And he nearly made code A in the GSL a couple days ago.
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I am a 2500 diamond zerg and I have yet to make it past the first round, so kudos to you.
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You seem to be awfully self-reflecting for a 14 year old. I guess you learned the motivating power of comparativeness and why us StarCraft players are competitive junkies on all fields.
GG kiddo
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yeah man congrats, i havent experienced my first tournament win either (unless a bye counts =)) but i am still hoping to make it as far as i can with this game. good luck and have fun in future tournaments
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wow, reminds me of myself playing my first lan counter-strike tournaments.
So awesome man, you'll go far with that passion for the game, trust me .
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Good read. For one moment, I thought I was reading incontrol's gsl qualifer experiences. I also have mine like yours. With only 2 differences, I had a def-win instead of having a bronze opponent in 1st round and I play Zerg (I even had a friend who said "I got pwned", shoutout to Elsid. My 2nd opponent was also Protoss).
EDIT 2: I am also Silver.
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Netherlands6142 Posts
Thanks for sharing and welcome to TeamLiquid!
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Well done, might sign up next time.
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Really nice story mate, thanks for sharing your experince. This clearly shows you don't have to be a diamond leveler to have fun in a tournament, to feel that tournament experince.
Your story reminds me of when I was 14 and I started playing FPS games competitively online, those were some of the best experinces of my gaming life, I joined a very skilled, serious competitive team it was amazing, everyone working together as one to defeat the opposing team.
You've inspired me to try my hand at competitive starcraft, to try join tournaments and just see how well I do, thanks a lot!
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Thanks for sharing ur story. Your mindset to tourmanents is perfect to improve Hopefully you get to the third round next time:D GL mate.
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Very well written, makes me want to participate in the next one! :D
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Good article. I might sign up one day if I can gain the courage :D
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This story made me feel warm and fuzzy. 'Twas a good read
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Oh wow! Silver and bronzer players play in this? I thought it was stacked with diamonds only. Being gold myself, I'm definitely gonna try out some tournements myself, as it seems superfun, now knowing I might actually make it to round 2.
I loved the story btw
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When it is mentioned, could anyone point out some regular tournements for me to play in? I'm in europe, gold rank 10 protoss.
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"Bronze players aren't stupid. " lol, I would probably have to beg to differ on that, but nice story nonetheless.
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Great read :D
Thanks for sharing!
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Nice read! I was coincidently listening to the Tron soundtrack, Daft Punk - Disc Wars and it just made it so epic!
I have yet to participate in a tournament, but your post made me think about doing it Gl hf in next tournament!
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On December 20 2010 00:16 Seraph.yongweihua wrote:
"Bronze players aren't stupid. " lol, I would probably have to beg to differ on that, but nice story nonetheless.
I felt like he said that with his tongue in check. Also there actually are some quite intelligent bronze players, they just suck at everything else.
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Dude... that happend somewhat similar to me in TL Open 3 i think, yep TL Open 3, won 1st round the got matched up vs ThisIsJimmy, i literary fell down to my knees and prayed to Chuck Norris, the he just f'd me up and a gged, belive me i know how you feel, but great story
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On December 20 2010 00:06 canilsen wrote:
When it is mentioned, could anyone point out some regular tournements for me to play in? I'm in europe, gold rank 10 protoss.
there's a tournament called the Semi-Pro Gaming League Weekly, that's well weekly and it's every sunday, for more info : http://www.thespgl.com/index.php hopefully this will help you :D
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Great story, makes me a little less terrified to sign up for the next one.
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Good Luck next time
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you write quite well for a 14 year old
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On December 20 2010 03:10 TemplarCo. wrote:Show nested quote +On December 20 2010 00:06 canilsen wrote:
When it is mentioned, could anyone point out some regular tournements for me to play in? I'm in europe, gold rank 10 protoss. there's a tournament called the Semi-Pro Gaming League Weekly, that's well weekly and it's every sunday, for more info : http://www.thespgl.com/index.php hopefully this will help you :D
That's what I'm looking for, but I live in europe. starting 4pm est is very late on a sunday.
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back when i was 14 and playing brood war, teamliquid didnt even exist!
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Entertaining read, as well as inspiring! Best of luck to you in everything that you try.
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great read man, you have inspired me to play in tourneys now ~2000 plat protoss
i was waiting to get to diamond till i entered tourneys, but now im totally gonna enter!
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preparing to bump this when you win your first major tourney
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Great story. Keep it up, you will make it.
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Cool story man, I am glad you got a win in your 1st tournament!
Something I wanted to point out though:
On December 19 2010 07:42 ntvarify wrote:
I now fully understand how hard it is to make decisions during a tournament. I have a knew respect for pros.
The trick is to think of it as it really is, just another match. Do not even consider why you are playing that game, just focus on playing, on what you are doing. I have competed in various sports and e-sports over the last decade, and I still feel nerves, but it always helps to block out the rest and think only of what you're doing.
After a couple tournaments, you won't even be fazed at all the first few rounds.
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Nice writeup :} I'm glad younger people are still getting into PC games like this that take a decent amount of skill.
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On December 19 2010 10:36 Agama wrote:
Good story.
I'm 15, 2k diamond zerg, and entered several tournaments so far. (including the TL Open today) Haven't made it past the first round yet. ._.
I know the feeling, still is fun to try though
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Nice man. That's how I felt every single ladder game when I was rank 3 in the world on Myth TFL lol. Very intense and the stress is high. The better you get at staying calm the better you'll do. It's weird, our body's naturally try to increase blood flow and muscle response but it turns your brain off in the process. The whole idea behind stress is to allow you to run away from something that's trying to kill you, but it certainly screws up your SC game! lol Congrats on making it to round2!
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Hahaha I know this guy! He told me to check teamliquid.net and sure enough, this was spotlighted! We play all the time. I guess I may have to play in the next TL open.
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PvP aside (lol matchup), I'd just like to say that your writing is respectably phenomenal for your age, and that people like you really give me confidence and a smile about this ridiculous generation
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Great story, very inspiring.
Also the fact that this kid has better grammar skills than most adults I see now these days amazes me.
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On December 19 2010 10:57 PheNOM_ wrote:
Tournaments are way different than laddering. It's crazy.. Your nerves and body just go nuts. I've entered two and both times I got a bye through the first round and then had to wait an hour to play my first opponent and man... That is the most nerve racking thing ever. Good job in the tourny. GLHF
yeah I made it far enough that my game got streamed, then I forgot to put probes in gas because i was nervous.
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I recently started playing in some online tournaments as well. Definitely if people are interested they should join no matter what league you're in. They're great fun and can provide great games. I especially enjoy the tourneys that are bo3's since it's a whole new experience than normal ladder!
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On December 19 2010 19:55 Ftrunkz wrote:wow, reminds me of myself playing my first lan counter-strike tournaments. So awesome man, you'll go far with that passion for the game, trust me .
Funny, I wrecked my first CS lan (everyone was behind my pc thinking I was cheating and cursing me for going 640 by 480) and my first CS tournament lan (had a few clutch rounds, like a 1v4 deagle on a save round for the win [this is for another cs junkie]). At the same time at my first SC low level tourney my hands were shaking) and I lost after being way ahead.
Back to the op, nice post, and to all that left comments, that was even nicer. It's warming to see everyone being so supportive instead of lame comments or mockery about strats/leagues/ etc.
Reminds you that TL is still not dying and has plenty good ppl on the forums, gl in your next tourney man
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Thanks for posting your experience. Motivates me to enter a tournament.
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Hey cool story.
TLOpen 7 was my first tourney too. I got a bye in the first round, then lost stupidly to a 1 base marine/tank push on metal. Cool experience either way though.
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Hey brah just got around to reading this. GZ
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EPT
