EPTI had the luck to get beta access in the first wave. Just hours after Artosis posted on Twitter "good bye real life" I played my first games in SC2, too.
Finally! I watched all four Battle Reports over and over; I purchased a Blizzcon virtual ticket to follow the panels for the tiniest bits of SC2 news. But now I had the SC2 beta client downloaded and installed.
The client accepted the login and I had to chose how experienced I consider myself. I picked the option in the middle. Then I picked zerg and seached for a game. Even though I had to go to work next day and it was already past 1am, I needed to play!
Of course I lost all three games I played before I went to bed.
That was weird. I felt confused and happy at the same time. I played Starcraft 2 for fuck's sake.
How they hyped it
One have to consider all the time that passed once Blizzard announced the title. They showed the cinematic intro of the Marine (Tychus.) That intro was a nailbiter: What is it? Saw I just MUTALISKS? Is it Starcraft: Ghost? Is it World of Starcraft? Hell, it's about time ... S t a r c r a f t ... omg omg OMG ... I I !!!
Are they kidding me? All those years, not a single word. What cruel joke are they trying to pull off?
Then Mike Morheim let Dustin Browder explain the gameplay demonstration. Before he started talking, he just let us see how the protoss phoenixes fly over the protoss base.
And ... it is true! They actually dare to work at Starcraft 2. It's now in 3D but it is Starcraft. I saw PYLONS and some other familiar protoss structures. Giev teh game now! As the demonstration ended with banelings forming a "GG", I considered to lead an assault to the Blizzard HQ to force them to release the game now. (With a Jack Bauer "now".)
That was in 2007. Some very cocky guys with delusions hoped for a release Chrismas 2008. Then the beta was expected for 2009. But month after month passed. In summer 2009, I really thought it could only take some few weeks until they bring out the demo. But at Blizzcon it turned out that it will take longer.
The first days
Then, 17th of February 2010, a nice guy with a key gave me his account data so I could play until I get my own key (as WWI 2008 visitor who not wasted his code for the WoW Expansion beta, I was entitled to get my own SC2 beta key anyways.) It took many hours to download the client so I started the first game on February the 18th.
I got ling rushed so hard. Next day I went to work but I requested (and got granted) leave for the rest of the week.
One or two days after the beta has begun, I was no longer ling rushed but roach rushed. I also lost to Colossi on Desert Oasis who just walked over the cliff and grilled my drones.
The first SC2 game I ever won was on Kulas Ravine. My ultralisks got killed but then I switched to brood lords and forced the terran to GG. The first beta phase was special because of the small numbers of participants. Everyone was kind and nice. Then I got my own key; the beta servers got fuller and fuller.
The game gets more content
Blizzard relentlessly patched the game to include more maps and other stuff. They added 3v3 and 4v4. They overhauled the Battlenet interface several times. They even improved the loading bar graphics.
They also include a lot of stuff during the beta phase. Banelings got their own cocoon morph animations. The morphing of the spire to the greater spire got a unique animation, too. Critters were added to maps.
There were many upset patches. Remember the marauders got their concussive shells transferred to an upgrade? Remember SCV hp got nerved from 60 to 45? Crawler root time was 6 seconds once. Broodlords had 275 HP and 2 Armor. The Mothership could teleport once.
Anything was in motion; high templars had an obscure "phase shift" skill and for the zerg, Blizzard still experimented with infestors – and even moved the infested terran spell to the overseer once, giving the infestor a frenzy spell. The roach also underwent many changes.
Let
Just few days after the Beta started, a Zotac cup was played, then ESL started tournaments, too. The game was not stable yet and nobody had figured anything really out, but everyone wanted to play or watch the games. Even I, who played it for myself more than it is good for the health was not satisfied so I watched as many VODS as I could, including the entire ESL TV beta content. HasuObs still wanted to change to zerg, but now we know that he kept playing Protoss. TaKe, the caster, seemed to be reborn with the SC2 Beta release. He was even more enthusiastic than ever before. Socke, a BW player I did not know before, showed really strong performances. Darkforce, a former WC3 player with no great success in WC3, quickly got a zerg force to reckon with. Other players like Naruto, Andead, or DalaiLamer got no international recognition so far, but TheLittleOne did.
At first I was even somewhat annoyed by all the TLO shenanigans. I failed to see his deep understanding of the game. He did not just microed some units around, he was able to both think and act very quick but he also followed a greater plan to ensure victory. The best thing about TLO's games is, that they are great when he even loses.
Fragster.de (for which I write some articles) provided show matches casted by non other than Day[9]. For the first show match, he still had his old computer which required him to play with lowest graphical details. There happened something which is embarrassing for me. With no clue who Day[9] is, I joined the teamliquid IRC channel and asked why the noob who casts the games uses lowest detail settings. The reply was a channel kick of course.
Some greater tournaments were held, the biggest probably the HDH Invitational. I was one of the 24500 live visitors on the stream who witnessed White-Ra's triumph.
Is SC2 true to its heritage?
A lot of misconceptions were spread through some forums and Amazon customer reviews: Blizzard would force a Real ID just to play the game, even the yet-to-come-singleplayer could be played online only, and so on. Really a shame that especially the misinformed guys are so sure of themselves. There were (and still are!) two other factions: The noobs and the oldschoolers. The noobs criticized the different walking speed of different units and that a blink of a stalker group on high ground can still leave some stalkers on low ground if not executed carefully. At the same time, the noobs claimed that SC2 is essentially BW with updated graphics and Blizzard did not manage to further develop the RTS genre. The oldschoolers claimed that SC2 would be too easy and they criticizes virtually any change from Broodwar. SC2 would be a disgrace, tailored for casual gamers only.
Well, haters gonna hate! In the meantime, everyone had great fun. Every patch change, no matter how small, was discussed in greath length and if it would be the last patch ever with no further balancing.
During the beta, Blizzard reset the user stats several times to simulate a launch. Then the servers were shut down, only to return online for the second (and last) beta phase prior to release. We played – and some guys even held tournaments – until the last hour. Because we already were addicted to terrible, terrible damage.
This blog entry is part of my Starcraft experience series.
First entry: A long road to Starcraft
