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I started playing Starcraft when I was in 11 years old. My parents were divorced and I spent half of the time with my dad, and the other half with my mother. My dad remarried when I was 10, and the woman that he married had 2 sons who I got a long really well with. Her oldest son who was only a year younger than me introduced me to Starcraft Brood War on the N64. We would play for hours and hours and eventually my step-brother would get tired of it, but I wouldn't, I always wanted to play another game on orbital death and see if I could add another computer and still win.
My dad is really old fashioned, so that may be in my personality a little - even though I am a gamer. But anyways, he didn't have a PC in the house, and he actually doesn't even know how to use one very well to this day. But anyways, im trying not to get into my life story (lol). I ended up buying the PC version of Starcraft when I was 11 or 12 and installed it to my moms computer. When I first started playing on battle.net I met this guy named ReconX, we would always play 4v4 on big maps like the killing fields. I was a terran player and would always die in the first 10 minutes, but that was ok, I didn't plan on living in the first place. I would float to one of the many islands to continue my BC production. I wonder what ever happened to ReconX.. He helped me learn the game a lot in the beginning, but eventually he lost interest in SC just like a lot of my friends.
Eventually I met a guy who used the name "FeLT" on USWEST. He introduced me to Lost Temple and the competitive BW scene (I think this was in 2000 or 2001).
He was a protoss player and taught me a lot even though I was terran; I remember him showing me a replay of Nada on LT, I remember a lot about the replay. Nada was at 12'clock and the game went for about 20 minutes, at the end of which Nada just had a maxed army of tanks and just pushed out tornado terran mode and rolled the protoss. That was one of the most inspiring games I had ever seen.
The next person that inspired me was Be)Real, Get)Real, and in the later days "Nova-The-Feared." He played zerg and he will help me practice. At this point I was still a terran player and would never take a game off of him, but regardless he would still play with me.
Eventually I started playing a lot and trying to improve. I started visiting gosugamers and teamliquid and would download pro reps. I always had trouble controlling bio in TvZ, and someone told me that my 130 apm wasn't enough for terran, so eventually I gave up and switched to protoss.
Eventually I started to improve. I was one of the very first NrG members when Neverexpo started NrG on the USWest server. I had my ups and down with that team, lots of good memories there though. My ID was NrG.Aggressive, because I liked to play an aggressive style.
As I started to get older, I think I got better faster because I began to have a better understanding of the game, and by that point I had played so much that its like I was living and breathing the game, not sure how else to explain it. Im not sure when I decided that I wanted to be a progamer, but I think it was around the time when I changed my name to RaNgeD. I remember playing in my first WCG USA qualifier in 2007 or 2008. I actually made it all the way to the final 4, I don't remember who the 4th person was, because he/she didn't show up; but the 3 players were Yosh, Incontrol and I.
At this point I hadn't really played any of the higher calibre american players, I had just been practicing on PGT and I think ICCup had just started up (hopefully my timeline is right).
I remember the first game I had against incontrol was on gaia, I actually won the game and I was super excited - but then I lost the next 2. But because the finals were double elim I had to play yosh next, and unlike my games against incontrol, my games against yosh weren't even close. I got absolutely rolled and when I watched the replays I was fascinated. In the end yosh won the qualifier over incontrol 2-0. I then messaged yosh and asked if he would help me get better, and from that point on I think is the turning point, because he totally changed my mindset towards the game and taught me how it should be played.
Yosh started coaching me and playing games with me; He had me practice like 100 games with him on troy, because that was a WCG map that year. I really had and still have a deep respect for him, not only because he is/was such an amazing player, but because he didn't care that I was bad, he still played with me and coached me for free.
I started improving at a huge rate at this point, watching all of my replays with yosh and filling in the holes in my gameplay. Eventually I reached A- on iccup, which was a huge goal for me from the very beginning. Im not going to go any deeper on my history now (I actually think I went too far and may have made this confusing.) But I think that some people probably have seen my name around recently as I placed 3rd at WCG USA in 2010.
After WCG I had plans to quit gaming altogether. My dreams of becoming a progamer for BW were squashed because of the fact that SC2 was coming out, and I felt like SC2 just wasn't the same as BW and I would have to start all over again. And its true to an extent that they aren't the same, but I ended up buying the game to play some 2v2's with Yosh. And ya, I guess the passion that I had for BW transfer to SC2 and soon I got into it and decided hey, I can really do this, I can become a progamer.
So here I am, a lot of you may not know much about me, I wish I could say more but it would just take so much time. Today I decided to take an offer to go to Romania and live in a pro house (I know it seems odd considering its not Korea) Not everything is 100%, but I would say it is about 95% that I will be going a long with SleEpy, another american zerg player. Its a big step for us, going to another country to play a game for a living, but hell, I love this game, so its worth the risk to me. We will be practicing 8 hours a day and attending EU tournaments. All the details haven't been finalized but as of now it looks like we will be leaving in about 2 months. Anyways, this is something that is really exciting, its actually surreal, who knows what it will be like?
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Grats man! I've really enjoyed live casting some of your matches over the last few weeks in various events. You're a kick-ass toss and I'm sure you'll do great!
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oh shit, gl buddy best of luck! What team is this for?
You better still come on NA so we can play some games 
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exciting!
Good luck to you man. Remember, if you you work hard at something it will pay off, don't even doubt it.
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RaNgeD!
Congrats!
I've seen you here and there on Response's stream, and I've loved watching you play those amazing PvP's with him.
gl hf on your future career! I'll always be rooting for you ^^
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ho cool see you in EU tourneys then glgl
ha, were you the one on purpose's stream talking about it? funny :D
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Why Romania? I guess it just didn't seem like a hotbed for SC2 when yo ucould go to Germany or Sweden and attend larger lans in a closer proximity
PS:Ty for WCG Final four, now I can brag to Luckyfool and CaucasianAsian forever thanks to you <3 lol
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pro house in Romania wtf ? can you elaborate ?
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Romania is cheap at least 
Where in Romania? Some places there are really scruffy.
On January 20 2011 10:21 ZlaSHeR wrote:
Why Romania? I guess it just didn't seem like a hotbed for SC2 when yo ucould go to Germany or Sweden and attend larger lans in a closer proximity
PS:Ty for WCG Final four, now I can brag to Luckyfool and CaucasianAsian forever thanks to you <3 lol
Living expences in Romania is a lot cheaper than western european countries like Sweden and Germany. Eating at a restaurant in Romania is three times cheaper than the same restaurant in Sweden.
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man that's so awesome ahaha
gl Ranged 
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GL Austin, I'm also wondering which team this is..
And who is Sleepy? Never heard of him either O_o
If you see ultraling can you punch him in the face for me? Thanks.
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I hope you don't lose your ability to detect sarcasm. Good luck in Romania!
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rofl sick, eastern euro gaming ;D
GL broski go rape ultraling ^^
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:/ <3 Ranged, best of luck my brotha
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I have some serious respect for you ranged. Me and my friend talked a lot about how better players always have shitty stats on iccup. And you played a lot back then. Solid macro players are the scariest. Knowing how hard you play I have no doubts you have a solid shot at this.
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You are the first guy i actually like writing about becoming a progamer. Wish you good luck and have fun in Romania, although it is a bit wierd. Big events are going to be in western Europe and you will always have to take long trip to get there. But i guess the living expenses will nullify the traveling.
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I have to say I love hearing the backstory of all foreigner pros back from the bw days. I remember watching some of your games towards the end of the bw days and you were a beast of a player. Anyway, I have much respect for you for taking a chance on your passions. Best of luck.
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Romania? Word of advice, do refrain from using sarcasm.
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On January 20 2011 10:58 hifriend wrote:
Romania? Word of advice, do refrain from using sarcasm.
haha i'm feeling you met some bad people. swedish humor is quite different from romanian humor usually, but in the 25-35 age range you'll find the humor of educated people to be eerily similar
as for expenses, prices here for most goods or luxuries are the same as most western countries, which means less than sweden/norway/finland, but similar to most others. only things that are cheaper are cigarettes and alcohol
but i guess you should be in the know already about most these aspects if you plan on moving here. or at least i hope so. either way, double check
good luck !
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On January 20 2011 10:58 hifriend wrote:
Romania? Word of advice, do refrain from using sarcasm. i don't get it.
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On January 20 2011 11:25 anatem wrote:Show nested quote +On January 20 2011 10:58 hifriend wrote:
Romania? Word of advice, do refrain from using sarcasm. haha i'm feeling you met some bad people. swedish humor is quite different from romanian humor usually, but in the 25-35 age range you'll find the humor of educated people to be eerily similar as for expenses, prices here for most goods or luxuries are the same as most western countries, which means less than sweden/norway/finland, but similar to most others. only things that are cheaper are cigarettes and alcohol but i guess you should be in the know already about most these aspects if you plan on moving here. or at least i hope so. either way, double check good luck ! =)
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Korea (South)11583 Posts
one less person i have to worry about in WCG USA for BW. awesome. I hope you enjoy Romania!
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On January 20 2011 10:26 Seronei wrote:Romania is cheap at least Where in Romania? Some places there are really scruffy. Show nested quote +On January 20 2011 10:21 ZlaSHeR wrote:
Why Romania? I guess it just didn't seem like a hotbed for SC2 when yo ucould go to Germany or Sweden and attend larger lans in a closer proximity
PS:Ty for WCG Final four, now I can brag to Luckyfool and CaucasianAsian forever thanks to you <3 lol Living expences in Romania is a lot cheaper than western european countries like Sweden and Germany. Eating at a restaurant in Romania is three times cheaper than the same restaurant in Sweden.
I guess I figured as much, just surprising since wont the travel costs to compete in all the events that happen in, lets be honest, mostly germany, cost much more. Plus the inability to realy compete in the LAN series in germany, the EPS i think it was, i can't remember the name x.x
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Once Romanian Starleague and Romanian Kart rider come out, you'll be in the perfect position to dominate the next world capital of esports.
gl ^^ I'm sure you'll do excellent in the tournaments. Even if you don't, you'll always have some crazy story about how you moved to Romania to play professional Starcraft.
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but austin if u move to romania u cant just quit weekly and then make epic comebacks. it just won't be the same..... 
+ Show Spoiler +lol JK good luck, I had no idea sleepy was going too, that's pretty awesome... gl hf!
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Tl will forever pick on you for bieng romanian
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What the hell romania? wow oo; is there even a Romanian scene? I haven't heard of a single tournament from there. Maybe you can look for the dead praetor while you're there (he disappeared on Fnatic last year lol).
GL dood oo;
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Aww someone already made a sarcasm joke
Anyway glgl~!
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Good luck Ranged! I hear you a lot on Response's stream and know that you're passionate about the game.
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GO RANGED AND SLEEPY! <3 <3 GOOD LUCK MANGZZZZ!!!
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I think the first post misses alot of info on what team in Romania ur going to and how things will work there? its kinda odd there is a scene there, I never heard of a SC2 pro gaming team there :/
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Awesome news. Kick some ass over there!! =D
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Very cool, i would like if you would write about the prohouse in Romania a bit more.
Sounds almost like a scam :D
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good luck in Romania RaNgEd! I'm pretty sure you will be successful there. I saw one of your games against QXC and it was damn good ^_^
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Germany1287 Posts
Wow so cool
Who is there in Romania with a pro-house? RAGE?
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On January 20 2011 10:58 hifriend wrote:
Romania? Word of advice, do refrain from using sarcasm.
HAHAHA, oh wow, I almost forgot about this. How come this joke completely disappeared fromt TL (well yea, it wasn't particulary funny, but..)
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ranged, in what town are you moving, if you are going in Bucharest, let me know ! :D
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To update everyone a little, I know that I wasn't super clear on all the details etc.
The man that will be running the team is the CEO of a software company named Neurosoft. He is renting an apartment within walking distance of his office where we will be going each morning to practice for 8 hours.
He is working on getting a couple of skilled Romanian players to complete the team; the rest of the details are getting worked out, and im sure we will know the rest before we leave for there in a couple of months. Thank you everyone for all the support.
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I'm from Romania and I think you should research the subject before you move here.
I've did a quick google search for who Neurosoft is and apparently Neurosoft is a Greek company that works in the Financial-Banking domain. The company was created in june 2008 in Romania and is lead by someone named Cristian Ivanus under the name Neurosoft Romania Software and Services SRL.
The main activities of the company are Liability Management, Core Factoring, Business Intelligence, Information Extraction, Transactional Systems and Business Process Management so I'm having a hard time figuring as to why this company would be interested in creating a proSC2 team but, if you're convinced that they're legit, than welcome to Romania. Enjoy your stay and beware of stray dogs.
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
This blog was written premature. I hate to be a Debby downer but in 2
Months you will not be in Romania on a newly formulated pro team... That is my guess any ways. Good luck and be careful if this guy asks for a lot of info.
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First off, thank you guys for the support on RaNgeD and I. Him and I will go into a little bit further detail when we find out more and get our contracts in a few weeks here. I'll post a bit more about some EXTENSIVE research that we've done to confirm the legitimacy of it all, a tad later today and will go a little further into detail on it all.
my.Pro, yes, we will be going to Bucharest, capital of Romania.
INcontrol, you may want to research what premature means because this blog is definitely not the definition of it. A blog is written to express someones thoughts and this was written to share RaNgeD's background. Also, debby downers are no bueno and are called downers for a reason. In fact, if you truly read RaNgeD's post, he says IT IS NOT 100% CONFIRMED YET. Hence it not being premature. We will know for sure in a few weeks when everything is finalized. Thanks ^,-
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
Oh ok sleepy!
GL with the pro team in Romania. I can't wait to hear about it in 2 months
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Very cool blog, good luck!
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damn romania... gl tell us what its like
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Pro house in my town? I am really surprised. If you ever want to smoke a spliff with me we have some damn good weed here
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On January 20 2011 20:57 Vlah wrote:
I'm from Romania and I think you should research the subject before you move here.
I've did a quick google search for who Neurosoft is and apparently Neurosoft is a Greek company that works in the Financial-Banking domain. The company was created in june 2008 in Romania and is lead by someone named Cristian Ivanus under the name Neurosoft Romania Software and Services SRL.
The main activities of the company are Liability Management, Core Factoring, Business Intelligence, Information Extraction, Transactional Systems and Business Process Management so I'm having a hard time figuring as to why this company would be interested in creating a proSC2 team but, if you're convinced that they're legit, than welcome to Romania. Enjoy your stay and beware of stray dogs.
RaNgeD misspelled the company name. It's Newrosoft. They're a software company that creates iphone applications, web page design and also does video game design. One of their major games is a PC game called Age of Mourning which is an MMO funded specifically by the CEO (who is the man we have been working with) and partly the company itself.
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This is one of the strangest esports related news I've ever read. Romania, really? Anyways, best of luck.
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You got this Austin. Was nice meeting you at MLG, but I want to see you at the next MLG!
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Things are looking mighty good my friend =)
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The "mmo" Mourning that newrosoft developed and never really finished was a scam, if you havent already read about it you should definitely take a look. HUGE thread here
I believe they even tried to change name on the game and try to sell it again but it never worked.
You say you are working with the CEO who funded that game then it must be David Jasinski aka "Dave", he and alot of the people involved are criminals and involved in alot of shady stuff. I would not want to be involved in anything that man does.
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Cool news. Hopefully you keep us updated about the daily routines of a pro practice house.
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Meat. Age of Mourning (not Mourning, which was the name of the game you researched and thread you posted) was actually produced and sold off, while changing the name of it of course. Since you've done extensive research and snooping I'm sure you knew this. We've already done quite a bit of research and have thoroughly researched everything through and through. We're both adults and don't need our hands to be held on decision making. Also, you have the wrong guy. David Jasinski is not the guy we are working with, so no need to worry about a criminal background or any of that lovely stuff you found out. The guy we've been working with is an acquaintance we've known for a bit of time now so. Not trying to be a prick and it's understandable for one to "care" about something or someone. There's a reason we left out alot of detail for the time being.
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Pro-House in Romania. Strange. We just started one in Timisoara. I think it's the first one. Never heard on one in Bucharest.
I saw that KiWiKaki was asking about the Romanian Pro Scene.
Well things are just starting to move a bit. We have some LAN's planned out and I'm also holding weekly tournaments. This saturday I have a 30$ tournament for Romanians. It's not much but for us it's something.
I'm still looking for sponsors but when I found out hopefully it will start working better.
Don't want my message to be a spam but you can check more details over here: www.sc2ro.ro
Anyway, keep us updated.
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PM me when you come! I'm from Bucharest..and i tell you..here is the life! you'll see...it's really something else...freeedom
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EPT
