EPT
One thing I've learned over the last week is that if you want something, you have to reach out and grab it before it's too late. Don't be too chicken shit scared to want and go after the things you want. Last week I didn't, and by the time I realised it was almost too late (hell, it still might be). If you sit by passively and let the world wash you by then nothing will become of you. You'll just be another meaningless face on this planet. So step up and go after your dreams, desires and passions. You'll regret it forever if you don't... trust me.
So there's my last gem of wisdom. Hope it's useful to someone. I joined this glorious website back in October 2005, after a year of lurking. When I first started playing BW again after a Korean friend of mine reminded me of how awesome it was, a guy named eRaS pointed me towards TL and starcraftgamers.net as the best sc sites to go to. I lurked both, but eventually TL was the website that absorbed me. starcraftgamers, later gosugamers, just didn't have the same appeal to me. When Pusan made the OSL semifinals in So1, that was the final tipping point and I registered for the site.
I haven't looked back since. I lived at a boarding school for most of my life, and part of my daily routine was trying to find ways around the firewall so I could watch Korean TV. This meant downloading various Chinese programs to bypass it (ultrasurf worked like a charm for a long time) and looking for proxy sites so I could browse TL. I used to know them all haha although my standard go-to site was dongtaiwang.com. Dno if that still works these days!
I worked my ass off in highschool and I think I did pretty well for myself, and I shared that with TL. That became a common theme in my life over the next few years as I fell in love with the community. After watching SC for 3 years I had built up an encyclopedic knowledge of it and in January 2008 I wrote a blog a day for a month. These blogs were just about the little tidbits and facts that I had picked up over the years and by the end of it Steve/Mani invited me onto staff to write. That was one of the greatest days of my life. Of course then I saw the staff forums and was incredibly disappointed - the rumors are true, it is the most uninteresting forum here.
I wrote a lot for TL in 2008. You can still read my final edits in the Final Edit section. My tow favorites are without doubt "I loved victory" and "A State of Starcraft".
Also during that time a guy named Hot_bid had a crazy dream of running a Korean quality Starcraft tournament outside of Korea. He made the TSL happen and it was amazing to be a part of the journey. I still remember writing about the TSL with Daigomi. The writing staff at that point was so thin haha it literally was just me and him covering every league. Somehow we managed it and we did a pretty good job I think
Eventually my passion for writing subsided and I moved into a more administration role as head writer. I think I held that position longer than anyone else has, about a year and a half iirc. I also started leading projects or at least helping them along. Things like the Ultimate Progaming FAQ and Liquipedia are some of my claims to fame so to speak. I ran Liquibition for a while and that was a blast and worked on TSL2 as well. In 2009 some genius decided it would be a good idea to make me an admin, and i've been one ever since.
I don't want to drag this on longer than it needs to be, but I do have a massive list of people I want to mention. In no particular order....
Manifesto- you already know what an inspiration you've been to me. It was a pleasure to work the OSL with you back in the day. I hope your family is well
Hotbid- Still don't like you. <3
Corinthos- I remember watching your streams back in the day. Back then streaming wasn't an easy thing, and Corinthos dedicated his own server to relaying the matches for us. I thought you were a legend of the community and I never thought I would get to meet you properly - hundreds of games of SC/SC2 later and well, you're a good man. But shit dude, you need to study
infinity21- I don't actually remember how I met you properly, but I know I've worked along side you for a long time. I think I got you to do some translations for me at some stage as well. You're also an awesome guy, keep at it.
eRaS- you've been a good friend through all these years. Thanks for the mentoring. I know you're busy these days but it's good to know you're still a die hard sc addict.
Kennigit- it was a pleasure to work alongside you during the TSLs and when I needed shit for Liquibition. Keep being awesome.
R1CH- you're probably freaking out now that there is an admin account with more or less full access to a lot of the features on the site that has gone inactive. I expect for you to be disabling my permissions in a matter of seconds. Oh well! Thanks for the advice over the years, sorry for annoying you about everything and you do an amazing job here.
Chill- I got to meet you at blizzcon, that was pretty cool. But I'm going to be honest- you scared the shit out of me when I first join up haha. I avoided you like mad because I was sure you were going to pound the shit out of me or something. Oh well. I couldn't have been more wrong
Aesop- I left Liquipedia in the right hands. You've carried the project and the team well and it's inspiring to see what Liquipedia has become today.
zxk3- man, you've made more banners and artwork things for me than anyone else. One day I'll travel to Mexico or you'll travel here and we'll meet up for a beer or something. Stay strong man.
Silversky- my resident gfx slave. Dno what you're up to these days but man, you pulled through for me on so many occasions. Thanks for all your work.
alffla- thanks for working on the MSL all those years and helping me out that time (you know what I'm talking about!). I might be in hongkong one day in the future, I'll be sure to look you up.
The Mafia Guys; MTF, fusionsdf, Ace etc- fuck those games were epic. haha. Those were some crazy times, especially the second mafia game!!! All the best in the future.
Idra- I don't know why you ended up resenting me so much. But whatever. Goodluck in the future.
riptide- you've been more than a colleague to me, you've been a really good friend. You inspire me to be a better person, and I really mean that. I know life is tough, but stick at it - you're an exceptionally talented writer.
Ares[effort]- I only knew you for a short time, but damn you made me practice hard
you're awesome, keep doing what you're doing and you'll go places.Tabyling- I'm glad our friendship has lasted through SC. I hope you and your bf will be happy for a long time to come
stop failing btw, you're wayyyyyyy too talented for that. inSta/esunaga/hellonavi/whatever ID you are going by these days- Why ditch? Look me up next time you are in NZ, haven't seen you in forever.
adskjf;lakjdsf;lkjdsaf this is getting really hard
sonuvbob- I don't know how you know everything that was ever posted on TL. It's been good working with you
Neville- I don't know if you even read TL anymore. But whatever. I think I killed more hours on SC with you than anyone else - fuck yeah!
lilsusie- I'll never forget how you managed to score TL an interview with Pusan. As his (only) fan, it was really special. Thanks for being helpful throughout the years!
ret- I remember this one liquibition where I prerecorded it with Artosis as a trial to see if prerecording things could work. But then the recording fucked up and things were looking like a disaster. But you ditched your ToT clanwar (and pissed off mondragon) and casted it with me. That was pretty fucking awesome haha. gl in Korea man
SuperJongMan- I always looked up to you before I was staff, I don't know why! You don't post as much anymore, the forum could use you these days.
rekrul- one of my few claims to fame is banning you. hahahaha how sad is that
Naruto- I don't think I need to say much. We will talk soon, you're more than just a SC friend!
LosingID8- another Blizzcon veteran. You're an amazing guy and it was a pleasure working with you. I hope things are going well, you don't post enough !!
Zatic- wooo blizzcon. Glad to see that you're atleast semi-active again. SC2 pro-mod is one of the greatest april fools ever.
FrozenArbiter- yeah, I still call you that ^^ it's been awesome getting to cheer you on from the sidelines. If there is anyone who embodies the TL spirit, it is you. Everyone here is so proud of you, you're homegrown TL and succeeding on the world stage. Keep it up man.
The problem with doing these lists is that I'm sure I'm going to forget people
and yeah, I probably have. And if I did, I'm sorry. Feel free to drop me a line if you like, it's always nice to hear from friends. But there is one more person;Nazgul- thanks for believing in me and leading the site and team forward in such a honorable and respectable way. So long as we have you, hotbid and R1CH at the helm there is no stopping TL. Best of luck guys.
Alright. So long everyone!
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Plexa/Fairy_Falls/FF_16.jpg)
