March 11th, 2011 - Blog #1 - Striving to reach the top

March 19th, 2011 - Blog #2 - So it begins

If you have been reading my blogs, you know that they are about myself, Justin "sLeEpy" Peterson and Austin "RaNgeD" King, and our adventure to pursue our dreams of becoming professional Starcraft 2 gamers. Currently we are getting a monthly salary, all paid apartment expenses and the opportunity to live in the country of Romania for 3+ months to practice our hearts out. To catch up with this blog, check out the previous blogs above.

We officially have been in here in Bucharest, Romania for 9 days and are finally adjusting to the jet lag, the culture and most importantly our setup here at the office, so we can begin to play more fluently. Austin still does not fully have his setups where he would like it to be, because he forgot to bring his mouse pad and we cannot find a soft / silk like mouse pad (not sure the exact name of the type of pad) anywhere in any computer / electronics store, they are all hard top pads. We had ordered him up a Razer mouse pad a few days ago, so hopefully he will get it within the next couple of days. Practice has still been consistent with ladder grinding, replay analyzing and strategy discussions. We've participated in a few craft cup tournaments, however didnt pull the best results, but I assure it's because we're still getting used to everything and have been overly exhausted this last week. It's crazy how long it actually takes to get used to the time difference, especially it being a 9 hour difference and all. We have been trying to stay up late, however couldn't keep our eyes open passed 8 pm and would wake up at 3 or 4 am and head back to the office to practice more, where we would be putting in 12-14 hour days of practice. It's insane how that much starcraft can actually drain you. Thinking non stop for that long is draining on your brain believe it or not ^,- Both of us are steadily progressing and are excited for everything else to come with the hard work we are dedication we are putting into the sport. Analyzing the game and replays with RaNgeD has really put a different perspective on my play style and how to adjust / adapt to certain situations in the game. I'm also starting to notice different play styles on EU and US as well. I notice a bit more cheese over here on EU ladder and less of a macro based style of play. However, I'm still climbing ladder and my MMR is only about 3500.

Along with fighting jet lag, we've been fighting quite a few other things such as fleas in one of our beds for some weird reason, sleeping on the floor due to this, having to hand wash / dry our clothes because our washer is broken, a neighbor who loves to pound things into their walls and a few other small things haha. All in all we're incredibly grateful and actually are really starting to love the environment and their culture here. The Romanian's are incredibly friendly and inviting. We've been invited to go eat lunch with our coworkers daily, invited to clubs, raves and parties. Last night it was one of our coworkers birthdays so we all cracked open beers in the office after hours and sat around conversing with everyone. They seemed to be very interested in our opinions about their country and how things operate here. After chatting for a bit, they started to tell us about the poverty level and how their government operates with everything. Being a U.S. citizen I realized how good we have it over there in the US and how much we actually take for granted, it's actually pretty sad. They have little options as far as career opportunities here. We work with a bunch of programmers and game producers here who would typically make an easy 70k salary in the US but they are making less than that of a minimum wage job. Hearing some of the stories definitely is going to change the way I look at things back at home.

We're definitely having a hell of a time and are starting to enjoy it even more every day that we are here. We're coming across new things daily that make our stay even more enjoyable such as specific types of food, amazing beer and different people. There's a type of beer here called Silva that is a darker beer and has a malty / caramel taste to it that's friggin' amazing. We'll continue to practice and participate in tournaments until we are the best. We're more dedicated and passionate about the game than any of our opponents which gives us the edge over them. We hope to give some good games in some of the tournaments we will be playing in, so keep a look out for us as we push on. God bless.

Blog #4 - March 31st

Some more photos for you guys:

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RaNgeD enjoying a wrap at lunch

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Myself kickin' it at the mall with RaNgeD

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Bomb.com

Local mall

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RaNgeD as "ThuG NasTay" lol

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Enjoying a Silva

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One MILLION dollars mwuahahahaha

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4 am drink at the office

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Creepeeeeeeeeeer

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lol @ carwash

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Dogs blocking a car at an intersection lol

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Our office

FODDER~

United States109 Posts

March 25 2011 07:52 GMT

Great to hear from ya' man! The dogs gave me a chuckle. Other than a small setbacks for your friends glad to see you guys are enjoying your stay over there. Best of wishes to you on the battlefield! And congrats yet again on making it as far as you have already. Remember, you've already done more than most people ever have so if any early adveristies come your way early on, don't let it ruin these opportunities for you!

Godstorm

Romania845 Posts

March 25 2011 09:12 GMT

Funny how we all like to ask non-romanians what they think about our country then tell them how bad our government is lol. Anyways i wish you the best of luck and hope to see you at the top soon ^^!

CaptainSlow

Malaysia164 Posts

March 25 2011 11:23 GMT

awesome blog.
nice pics! post more of em next time :DDD
i like the creeper

Boblion

France8043 Posts

March 25 2011 11:29 GMT

I have a lot of respect for you and RangeD. Leaving everything behind and moving to Romania to play Sc2 is quite a feat.

I wish you good luck and i hope you guys will get some results.

sincerelysLeEpy

United States148 Posts

March 25 2011 15:13 GMT

Thanks for the support guys. Glad you are getting enjoyment out of the reads we have been posting. I will be sure to keep you guys up to date weekly if possible and if I enough to share =)

dragoon

United States695 Posts

March 26 2011 02:44 GMT

This is just simply amazing. Congratulations man. You deserve it.
SN: Some pics of you're guys' setup would be pretty cool too! :D

sLeEpy and RaNgeD hwaiting!!

Aezo-

Canada378 Posts

March 28 2011 00:43 GMT

This is pretty sick I`m definitely interested in hearing about someone starting in progaming. Good luck with everything.

Gigel

Romania92 Posts

March 28 2011 02:29 GMT

Good luck in the future guys!
Now i really have to comment on your low beer standards

. Skol (mentioned in an earlier blog) is one of the worst beers you can find, and for a dark beer Silva is not exactly top shelf material.

As for stray dogs, they are one of the biggest problems of the city. Ignore them and they will leave you alone. Just tell me you didn't pet one. That will explain the fleas

P.S- From the pictures i realized i live a few min from you guys

Turgid

United States1623 Posts

March 28 2011 02:51 GMT

#10

Post your ladder rating at the bottom of each post! I know you put it in two so far but it'll be fun reading your progress.

Just over two weeks going from 3200 US MMR to 3500 EU MMR, that's progress, yeah? Especially with all that moving and getting used to a new country. You guys will be soaring in no time.

sincerelysLeEpy

United States148 Posts

March 28 2011 06:36 GMT

#11

Haha definitely Turgid =) well currently I dont have many practice partners on EU besides RaNgeD and a 3500 T I met on ladder so Ive been messing around on my US hehe. I think my US is 3300 and my EU MMR is about 3500, I still only have about 1600 points though and climbing, a whopping 1900 bonus pool still heh

anatem

Romania1369 Posts

March 29 2011 20:11 GMT

#12

wth man, you couldn't find better beers than silva or skol ?

also, take pics of the sweet rides and chicks all over bucharest instead of the stray dogs that flock around certain areas, my national pride is hurting :-))

i like your pimp picture, rolling 60$ right there, you're gonna own up the clubs for a few hours with those lols

anyway, good luck with practice, hope you enjoy your stay, and too bad i'm not living in bucharest anymore, i'd take you guys out for a beer. cheers

ps:

On January 20 2011 21:48 iNcontroL wrote:
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.

oops

R1cE

United States59 Posts

March 29 2011 20:31 GMT

#13

Ugh you're living my dream right now man!! Best of luck to you!! Hope to see you on GSL one of these days! ;P

sincerelysLeEpy

United States148 Posts

March 30 2011 06:34 GMT

#14

@ anatem hahaha dude silva is effin' amazing. What other beers are good? I dont know any here and am so down to try some out. ahahaha. that pimp picture is RaNgeD LOL. It just looks funny haha. That would be way awesome if you could join us for a beer sometime. and LOL at your quote rofl!!!

thank you rice, it definitely is a great opportunity =) we appreciate the support from everyone

crappyleft

99 Posts

April 01 2011 13:25 GMT

#15

I just feel the need to intervene regarding the beer issue. I'm also a fan of Silva Dark, and that's the only one I drink. The other guys are prolly referring to the international beer brands, which they find better or w/e, but you can get those in any other country. If we are strictly talking about Romanian beers, there aren't a lot of them which are better.

Here's link to a top 10 of beers (in romania) as voted by users, notice that there's only 4 Romanian beer types there, and Silva Dark is voted as the best dark beer: http://www.douaberi.ro/statistici.php

GL with the team, and if you need a zerg practice partner (3.5k masters last season) feel free to add me: copyleft.184 , just know that I don't play a lot.

sincerelysLeEpy

United States148 Posts

April 01 2011 13:31 GMT

#16

haha nice list! Ursus is what we have at the house its really good. The dark Ursus as well. Heineken is what we have back in the US and its one of my favorites. Becks is really good as well =) We've had Tuborg here and really like it alot. Stella is very good as well. Corona is pretty far down wow! haha shocking. thanks for the link =P i'll check the others out