EPTI remember watching my first pro gaming Brood War VODs in 2008. I don't remember how I found it, never having played starcraft before then. But I did, and I was mystified. I learned all the units and how they acted by watching Tasteless and SuperDanielMan cast the GOMtv Avertec-Intel Classic. I saw the insane performance from all the competitors, and even with my limited knowledge of the game I was in awe of these players. My favorite player by far was Jaedong with his dominant Zerg play (which also became my favorite race in Brood War). Brood War just wasn't a game I could handle playing though. With such late exposure, entering into the scene as a fresh player was a terrifying thought. I knew this was a game that had been around for over a decade, what chance did I have of ever reaching a performance even comparable to those greats?
I kept following the competetive scene as best I could, finding youtube casters like Husky (yes there was a day when he was casting Brood War matches) to keep my interest going when I couldn't find the GOMtv VODs anymore. Even if I couldn't understand the matchups, I did my best to follow and learn along with the VODs.
Fast forward to the Starcraft 2 beta. I started following all of the battle reports and reading up every piece of news I could find. I wanted so badly to get in and begin playing this great new game. To me it felt like a fresh playing field. One where I could actually learn along with the community, and it became my dream to someday be one of those players that I had been amazed by. With the second wave of beta invites, I got an email. I was in! However, with those 5 placement matches I was put right into copper. Clearly wishing to be great wasn't going to get me anywhere.
I also started trying to follow the new Starcraft 2 pro scene, and that was also when I joined TeamLiquid. I started following the pros I found from those games, like TLO and Dimaga. I switched to Zerg, and I haven't switched away since. With very little time to actually play though, I could only manage to make it into Bronze before the beta closed, and that was also where I started after the official release.
For a while after release, I still felt pretty poorly about my performance. I couldn't figure out what was holding my play back. I thought I understood the game, having listened to so many casts and watched so many pro games. Something kept stopping me though. Eventually it got to the point that I said to myself "I need to just focus and play. I'll have to start improving."
I started powering through games, and by the end of that week I was promoted into Silver. It wasn't long after that I got into Gold. This was also when I entered into my first tournament. I don't remember the organizers (sorry!) but I remember it was a 32 man tournament for lower-league players and I got knocked out in the round of 16. I wasn't ecstatic with that performance, but I remember feeling so relived that I had at least gotten through the first round. It rekindled that desire to be a professional gamer, and I started pushing harder to practice and improve. I set my goal to be getting into Diamond (at the time the highest league) and also to win money from a tournament.
Now at the end of the first ladder season of Starcraft 2, where am I? Well I finished out as a 3000 point Platinum (who hopefully will promote after his placement match :D) and I entered two more tournaments, both run by LAGtv. I didn't win either (2nd place in the first, another 2nd round defeat in the second) but they were fantastic experiences. I've still been following the pro scene of SC2 closely, especially these great TSL games.
As for this season, I want to make it into Masters. I want to get my name out there and start to get known, and enter even more tournaments. Of course my dream is still to play as a professional: Get picked up by a team and start playing in bigger and bigger name tournaments. It's not going to be easy, but what in life worth doing ever is?
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Update:
Well I played and won my single placement match, but it seems for now I'm still in Platinum. But hey, I'm starting off this season in a way better spot than last season at least
