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Hello TL Community!
I'm fairly new to this whole blogging thing, so bear with me if I botch things here and there.
A little bit about myself, I've been a gamer since I picked up a controller at the age of 3. Casually playing console games until 2004 when World of Warcraft came out (I know, get the crucifixion out of the way). I played in closed beta, and was a part of many of the US (and coincidentally world) first kills of bosses, and played almost constantly up until a few months ago.
With the release of Cataclysm came a new excuse for more people to start playing, only exacerbating the issue that a lot (if not the vast majority) of players that had started playing since the beginning are low quality. Wrath of the Lich King babied a huge amount of players into a lull, causing the eyes of the players to glaze over and get used to the level of skill required to accomplish anything, which wasn't very high at all.
So what did I do? I quit! After 6 years, countless hours spent bashing my face into raiding content, and racking up enough world/US firsts to make Kungen blush (WoW players will get it), and putting enough time to probably make a career out of the game, I dropped it all, to pursue a new prospect. The allure of another game caught my attention, the community, and the possibility for growth, was unlike anything WoW could offer. That game, was Starcraft II.
I jumped into SC2 full steam, watching as many VOD's, replays, casts, and streams as I could get my hands on, trying to recreate builds along the way. Because of how critical I am of myself, I did not want to jump into laddering or practice games without having a general understanding and overview of how everything worked. Thanks to several outstanding sources like Mr. Sean "Day9" Plott, Dan "Artosis" Stemkoski, and Nick "Tasteless" Plott, my skills grew quickly, and because of my gaming background, I absorbed information as fast as possible, but I still wanted more.
I religiously watched things such as the King of the Beta tournament as the beginning of my venture, migrating towards MLG, and soon after, GSL. I have watched and rewatched nearly every GSL match since the beginning two to three times, meticulously trying to pick up nuances of playstyle and timing in an effort to improve my overall level of skill.
Now the question comes into light, why did I make a blog post about this? Why explain what I, a random WoW player, has been doing in order to improve @ this game we all love so much? Because I, like so many others, want to be successful in playing this game. Whether that means being an online personality like HD or other like characters, a top-end player, a caster, or even just someone like MLG Lee who works behind the scenes and dedicates their time to ensuring their passion is displayed and gets to the masses in the best way possible. I believe in this game, and E-sports, and cannot wait for the general mood towards it to change, and become what it is in Korea.
I'd like to thank you for reading, and giving me a little break in this first post, I'm sure there's some errors around and about, but if you enjoyed, look forward to many more.
Adios for now!
 
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Good choice switching. It's great to absorb as much info as possible, but nothing hammers things in like actually experiencing it. Hopefully you're getting your hands dirty and playing. Keep us updated.
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I am! More so than I was before, but still slightly hesitant. Because of how I take losing, it's not something I'm very good at accepting, especially when it's a dumb mistake that I make. WoW has left me with the mentality of, do it until you do it right, so hopefully that will carry over.
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United States1027 Posts
On January 03 2011 15:15 Mortal wrote:
I am! More so than I was before, but still slightly hesitant. Because of how I take losing, it's not something I'm very good at accepting, especially when it's a dumb mistake that I make. WoW has left me with the mentality of, do it until you do it right, so hopefully that will carry over.
Grinding it out is useful no matter what you're doing. Cheers and good luck.
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Good luck, I switched to sc2 back during beta from WoW. I've played with guilds such as Risen US, and Method EU.
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Pfff, I got your wow joke  What's your ranking if you don't mind me asking? It's definitely a solid endeavor if you choose to dedicate yourself to it because there are so many facets to both the game and the community outside it.
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Holy crap I got the wow joke..
I quit wow a little bit into the burning crusade when I got my job.. can't say I miss it!
Out of curiosity, what guild were you in?
And welcome to SC2!
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Breaking into the SC2 scene at this point is Pretty difficult. There are 100000000 tournaments a day so winning any one of them will pretty much go unnoticed. I know what it's like to be grinding out raid content but SC is FAR more complex than anything wow had to offer. If you spend as much time practicing SC as you did Getting world firsts (I'm aware of the long nights that have been put in to get shit done) you'll get there. That being said, Lan events is where you can make your name or upsetting big names. Welcome to the community I promise you it's not a cesspool of retards and assholes. More of us are Day[9]s than Combat[ex]s
Also I doubt you have more world firsts than Kungen  (US is believable)
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Good read! I'm curious to see how you've progressed so far, how long ago did you switch and what is your current division/points/race ?
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@calgar: I was top 3 average paladin tanks in the world when I quit. I held a bunch of damage records just for fun, and had more playtime on 1 toon than anyone I had encountered
@silentreality: I've been all over the place. In Vanilla I was a part of the first incarnation of EJ, migrated to Aurora, and finished (after dicking around w/ a few friends) in Vigil. Obviously I played something other than a paladin to start, but pally tanking is where I stayed once available for the Horde.
@iSiN: Yeah, I know the scene is definitely tough to get a name in the hat with. I'm just hoping determination and experience in the area of being relentless will help me out there. And you're right, Kungen does have more than me HOWEVER, I have more US firsts than him!
@sWitcH: On my main account, I only have about 70 ladder games played, whereas on one of my two alternate accounts on which I just play a bunch of games (just to eat the silly losses I'm sure to do) I'm very low diamond. Not nearly high enough to be at all impressive or comparable to my skill level elsewhere in gaming, but I'm sure if I give myself as much time as I did w/ WoW, I'll get somewhere at least.
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I like you, welcome to SC2 and welcome to TL! You seem to have plunged in the excellent fashion. Can't go wrong with the resources you've cited. GL HF!
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If you put in as much time as you did into those world & US firsts.. then I'm sure you'll be able to get a little farther than just "somewhere"
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Grats on your freedom from the clutches of WoW -- SC2 is so much better. One of the greatest differences between the two games --
Load into an arena and there is almost never an "even" match up. Hell some are almost impossible with out huge skill gaps. In SC that never happens. Sure one race may be considered stronger at some port or another, but on that loading screen you can always say "I'm taking that guy down."
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GL dude, you've got the dedication to do well and you've certainly started out on the right foot.
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Congratz making it back to the world of the living!
and GL
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Awesome story. I really want to see how a top wow player fares in SC2. GL HF.
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The best thing about playing an RTS is that you can play when you want. I played WOW for 2 years committing thousands of hours to raiding at specific times manty nights a week. I never want to feel as if I need to show up to a raid in a video game to stay on top.
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Thanks for the support everyone! I'll continue to post as things come up. (If this had been in a WoW forums, the reaction would've been much different. Think I made the right choice)
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Hyrule19189 Posts
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