EPTThis is my story, from before the SC2 beta to present day, with a focus on Zotac Cup #35. I hope you enjoy!
I never really liked Starcraft 2. I was hoping it would be that next big game to get sucked in to, to create new memories of splendid RTS glory. Deep down I knew how similar it was to its predecessor, and how I wasn't the biggest fan of that game, on a competitive level, from a player's point of view. I played Warcraft 3. It was a part of my life, off and on, ever since 2002, and it still is. I tried to learn SC: BW around a year or two ago, and sure, I reached D+ on ICCup, and I enjoyed the game to an extent, I enjoyed it a lot on the casual level, and still do, but the crippled interface (compared to WC3) was just impossible for me to cope with, and I therefore never had determination enough to get really competitive, even though I for a long time throughly enjoyed watching pro games with English casts on YouTube. I had often said that SC: BW with an improved interface and AI, would be a great game. Well, when I got my beta key I was ready to find out if that was really true.
I had a lot of fun during the beta, playing Zerg and, due to my years of RTS experience, quickly being placed in the highest league with a fairly nice record. But something was missing. I didn't feel the way I felt when I first played WC3 all those years ago. SC2 was fun, but it wasn't the next big game so far. Eventually, as the game evolved, I found myself frustrated with heavy macro-play, and all the possible build-order losses. There was hardly ever such a thing as a 5 minute loss in WC3, due to natural defenses, so all the proxy gateways, 6pools etc. were annoying me, as I was desperately trying to get my macro in shape.
Eventually, a while after the game was released, I basically said "fuck it" and stopped playing. I wasn't enjoying myself. SC2 didn't feel like a game, it felt like a part-time job. All the macro was giving me a headache. I couldn't read what I scouted and, as a result, still kept losing to various all-ins, or, when given a heavy macro game, failing to keep up in economy and getting rolled. I couldn't play ZvT, I couldn't play ZvP, and ZvZ was all about Xpool spine crawler rushes or baneling rushes (don't know if it still is). Disheartened, I went back to WC3, figuring my only hope for that next big game to be WC4.
I participated in one Zotac Cup during the beta, and lost early on to some proxy barracks rush. I also played in a Viking Cup over at ESL and met a former Norwegian semi-pro WC3 player and lost a ZvP on Steppes. That was about it, I didn't play more and I didn't feel like I could compete either way. But during this time, and afterward, I had various friends very much into the pro-scene and they kept talking to me about SC2 and they, along with some Day[9], kept what little interest I had in SC2 going, if only for a little bit. But then one day, my e-life changed forever. One of my friends told me about this player in the GSL, who made it 3 rounds in doing nothing but all-ins, bringing all his SCVs along with his army and pushing. Yes, I was introduced to BitByBit. I promptly set about watching his games, and I was just amazed. He played so well, so enjoyable to watch. It reminded me of the very early days of the beta where I wanted to stick to 1base and win, but eventually was told you have to expo at least five times or you're a cheeser, and gave up on any such ambitions. But now, as BbB filled my soul, my one-base dreams awoke again! By this time I had already switched to Terran, and the idea of playing these low-economy, all-in games tempted me a great deal.
Two weeks later, I had gained something like 1500 points on the ladder (currently around 3000 diamond). I had massed games like crazy, fervently trying various all-ins and arbitrary timings, working out all the kinks, gradually learning to read what I scout, and how to position and micro and multi-task. Thought flamed a lot, though looked down by a good portion of the community, I felt I had found something that made SC2 so incredibly fun, so drastically different from how I had previously experienced it, that I decided to play the game the way I wanted to, the way I found most enjoyable, and not care what any naysayers may have to say.
After signing up for a WC3 Zotac Cup, I somehow remembered their SC2 edition, and decided, mostly as a joke, to see how far I could go with my new-found play-style and dedication. I signed up, not thinking much about it. In fact I remember just barely remembering about it the following day, checking in literally one minute before too late. I was kind of tired and had things to do, and considered not playing after all, but then I figured it wouldn't take that long to cheese in round one and get eliminated. Thus, I participated in Zotac Cup #35
Turned out my first opponent went up and disappeared after saying "sec," and 20 minutes later I received a defwin for round one. "Fine," I thought. "This will give me some time to gather myself." Eventually my round two opponent showed up, a diamond Protoss on cross-spawn Metalopolis. A tough situation to one-base indeed, but I was stubborn! a raven/banshee/bio timing hit perfectly and my opponent ragequits.
Delta Quadrant. One of my least-favourite maps, as it allows for a safe expansion. Nevertheless I'm on it, and I'm versus another Protoss. I had a plan, though, that I had practiced quite a bit on the ladder. I performed a 12rax 13gas 14rax marine/marauder/scv rush. It was cross-spawn, though (the gods didn't want to cut me a break) and he went for some early aggression himself, complicating matters. Eventually, though, I pushed up his ramp and won a painfully close game.
"Four rounds in, not bad," I thought to myself. "Let's see if we can keep this going." I'm glad to see yet another Protoss, my most confident match-up at the time. My TvZ was shaky and not so diverse, and my TvT was, and still is, pretty bad (It's hard to all-in in TvT). Map was Scrap Station. I once again performed the timing-push I did in round two, breaking the rocks to quickly get to his base. He had opened phoenix, though, and had seen it coming from miles away. But in the end I had incredibly positioning and slaughtered his army in what was arguably the easiest game so far. My e-friend casually asked who I had just beaten, and I said something like, "Oh, just some nobody named Adelscott." My scene-knowledge was embarrassing and I had no idea who I had just beaten. My friend pointed out that's he's a very strong player, one of France's best, on team Millennium. I googled his name and read about him on Liquipedia and couldn't help but feel pretty good about myself.
"5th round, lol. My luck can't last forever," I thought. Indeed, things looked scary; Zerg on Jungle Basin. I was really tempted to pull a BitByBit and 1rax expand into marine/scv all-in, but since I had never actually done it I told myself I'd practice it on the ladder, but for now stick to my standard 3rax all-in. Swift victory would best describe the game. I felt no real resistence and my marines and SCVs trampled the Zerg army. Good game called and I was off to the next round.
"Round of 16, this is incredible," I thought. And all things considered, it was pretty incredible. Going from some low-mid diamond player who didn't enjoy SC2, to Round of 16 Zotac. Pretty nice for just a few week's practice. I felt confident spawning close-position Lost Temple versus yet another Protoss (I owe a lot of my success to avoiding Terrans) and I perfomed the same strategy from round three, 12rax 13gas 14rax marine/marauder/SCV push. Things coulnd't have gone better. I caught two stalkers out in the open and broke his ramp with ease. He had all his gateways by the ramp, too, which I quickly made useless by killing pylons. Now all I had to do was sit back, build a bunker or two and reinforce my army. But I didn't do that. Adrenaline clouded my judgement and I went for the jugular. Alas, my army got surrounded by probes just as an immortal popped out. My army was destroyed, his gateways re-powered and the rest is history. I said "gg" and reflected upon how poorly I had performed. I had thrown away a won game. I had thrown away a shot at a Bo3 in the quarterfinals. A bittersweet ending to this day. I'm glad I made it that far, but still get frustrated when I think back to the last game.
I’ve since performed well in other cups. I got stopped short by Naniwa during Zotac #36, losing to him in round three, but I did make Round 5 in Zotac #37. However, in every Craft Cup I entered I had the bad luck of meeting some 3k Terran right off the bat and losing horribly, at least until today. Today I made it to Round 5 of Craft Cup, beating Seiplo, among others. Only getting 17% of bets, it's no surprise I lost to MoMan, but the game was fairly close and was casted by some guys over at Millennium, allowing some 2000 French people to see my demise, as I attempted to all-in my opponent.
I'm still surprised at how quickly things shifted, how quickly I started enjoying SC2 and got fairly good. My goal is to someday make it far enough in a cup to have a streamed Bo3 versus some pro, and all-inning every game, thus making a name for myself as Europe's BitByBit! On a more serious note, however, I have been expanding my repertoire by practicing some less all-in builds. I figure it's never a bad thing to be versatile in one's play.
Thanks for reading =)
Starshaped
