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I take a lot of pride in being a good representation of a casual SC2 player. I don't have the time to train for competition, nor do I have the money needed to do so (my wife would kill me). But something came up recently, something that discouraged me very much and has caused a change in attitude. You see, I like doing UMS maps in my spare time, as well as XvX matches. Often times I will sit out during the New England SC2 League "Fight Nights" just to observe/stream whats going on and only join in at the end where we usually end up doing 4v4 where I go mass phoenix. Everyone knows it, but they still can't stop it. <insert evil laugh>
Well, last night I showed up late to Fight Night and was invited to a 1v1 game against a 1900 bronze player. This particular player ladders a lot and has been doing very well at getting better. It was a PvT on Metal (me being Protoss), and the short of it is... I lost. I figured you know what, first game of the night makes you rusty. So we had a rematch, same races, same map, same outcome. Now like I said, I'm a casual player, but at that moment, my competitive side got angry at myself.
A lot of my time after my daughter goes to sleep is spent doing league stuff. After PAX East, I shot out a lot of emails to businesses I chatted with about sponsorship, I'm still working on getting a local college to host a Boston Qualifier so I can get our friends there involved, and since MLG Providence was announced, I'm planning for going there and getting passes for 3 people (myself, m155g33k, possibly Force) as either media or VIP (I kinda like taking the long shot). So when I have time, I like to do relaxing games, you know the UMS ones where your ladder score takes no damage from it. But now, that has to change.
When I first started playing SC2 in beta, I ranked in platinum and was able to compete with diamond level players. Even as time went on, the game was released, I placed gold, i was still able to beat platinum players and still compete well with diamonds. I started doing the commentary thing, and after blowing a streamed match between Stalife and another player, i switched races to Terran to try and understand the builds. 1 month and a tournament later, I went back to my Protoss roots and ended up getting dropped to mid silver. No problem there, I could still compete a bit. The NESC2 League really took off and less and less time was being spent on the ladder. Hell, less and less time was being spent doing commentary as well (I'm still 124 subscribers strong!). But my excuse was, "Hey, I'm just playing casually," which is still true.
But is what I'm doing too casual? In a word, YES. I'm competitive by nature and enjoy matches, even if I lose them as long as they were close. I used to be able to bump noses with diamond league players, and now I can't even 4 gate properly. Are you kidding me? That's like the quintessential Protoss build that I bet even miniWheat can pull off. So, as a result of all of this, I'm hitting the ladder nice and hard for a bit. I've already stopped casting during the week, now it's time to stop doing UMS (except maybe to finish the night off). My casual is too casual and I WILL change that.
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I'm feeling the same at the moment. I had almost no RTS experience at the beginning of SC2 but I made Diamond within a week. Since then I've watched my skill level decrease to Platinum, which is very weird for me - as my macro is so, so much better than your average Platinum player all my games are either embarrassing early game losses or total late game roflstomps.
I'm promising myself I'm just going to put my time into the game, even if it's relaxing playing 2v2s. I find as long as my hands are involved and improving my mechanics, I improve at 1v1. There's a difference between being 'casual' and that feeling you get when you try to Korean 4 gate someone, and totally blow the timing, and they're 12 gate/core beats you to warp gate tech. I think that's just called playing like shit.
Good luck on your quest to re-improve.
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I'm a casual player trying to get masters. Tough with just a few 1v1s each fortnight, must be close though.
Argh, damn work ;/
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To me it sounds like what you're doing isn't casual enough. I play maybe 30 or so games a week, join some free tournaments and even that sometimes feels like its a bit too much to be considered casual.
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On March 17 2011 23:24 Zorkmid wrote:
To me it sounds like what you're doing isn't casual enough. I play maybe 30 or so games a week, join some free tournaments and even that sometimes feels like its a bit too much to be considered casual.
Try maybe 10 a week if I'm lucky XD
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Right, but you're going to MLG events, other tournaments and talking about sponsoring events and trying to get universities to host events. Not sure if what world that can be mistaken for casual  475 posts on TL is a dead giveaway too
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Your argument is valid and I concede 
Though I did mean actual gameplay, not involvement
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I have a question for you:
If it's not playing the game that gives you the most SC2 related enjoyment, what is and can you offer any explanation why?
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I really love the community. It's one of the reasons I decided to start up the SC2 league I run. just being around other people that like SC2; competitive, non-competitive, even people that just like watching the game without ever playing. I really enjoy being a part of that environment and helping to nurture it and help it grow. Plus, I don't want that environment to go away because of how great it can be.
Does the New England scene revolve around me? Nope, not at all. Will the scene disappear? Possibly, but then again possibly not. If I decided to really go with my competitive nature, there is a possibility that someone better would take my place, or, someone worse. After all, it's not just me in it right now. Without the help of m155g33k, Force, support from LAN centers, and all the players, there would really be nothing at all until someone else stepped up. Even Adrenaline is helping from half-way across the world in Kuwait.
So most of my competitive side has to stay in check for my love of the game and the people that love it.
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EPT
