|
Hi TL,
Though some bizarre twist of fate, me and my current 7 wins are ranked 86 in Gold. I'm pretty deeply ladder phobic zerg player, and the story of the development of my mechanics has been hampered by the fact that I'm playing on my aging 13.5"-screen MacBook, which means I don't have access to handy things like the F1-F12 keys without holding down the stupid fn key. I'm the kind of player who played though the single player campaign on my touchpad. Yeah. I'm that guy. Thanks to brood war experience from a decade ago, I was able to place into mid-high gold when I picked up the game last august. But since then, it's been a run of an occassional loss followed by months of inactivity. As of the reset, I had a bonus pool of like 3200 built up.
I've been inspired to give this whole SC2 thing another go by the following factors: Day[9] expressing the importance of having starcraft 2 friends to play with, making friends with a player named Babytoss after she started a blog just like this one, and, misguidedly, by the beginning of season 2.
See, I thought that one good placement match and BOOM - I'd be down at the ass-end of silver where I belong. Of course, that isn't how it worked out. I dug out my old mouse, got myself all ready for a punking, start up my placement match, and find myself playing some guy named, like, ICCUPCHAMPION. Who quits immediately upon the start of the match. And as a result, I got placed about 60 ranks higher than I had ever been before.
That's now gotten sorted, apparently, and I'm back where I was at the bottom of gold. But this blog will chronicle my fall and/or rise to wherever it is I'm going. Hopefully, that's not to endless protoss four-gating, but you never know, right? Better than 6pooling...
What has prompted me to start this blog TODAY is the colossal debacle at MLG Dallas 2011. Are any of y'all trying to watch it, too? I've been trying my darndest to watch it since Friday. I'm currently typing this while waiting for the SC2 stream to reload. Really, if there's one thing that's kept my interest in SC2 (since I haven't actually been playing it, really) it's been the Day[9] Dailies and following competitive Starcraft. Even the GF loves Day[9], and she's always curious about what new mess Idra has gotten himself into.
You know there was that poll on the front page a few days ago about what the "Story" would be at MLG - and I, like most people, said the story would be SC2 on the Mainstage. Of course, we were all wrong - the real story is that MLG had to refund everyone's HQ stream fees cause the tournament isn't being broadcast. You can even start to see the panic in eyes DJ Wheat and Day[9], who are probably just having a hell of a time figuring out when they're actually on-air. Listening to them try to kill time rapping about sega-saturn games...man. They're impressive time-killers, but you really had to feel for those guys.
Perhaps the most poignant moment of the tournament was last night, during day[9] and djwheat's desperate attempt to cast the end of the pool placement play. After they cast REPLAYS of HuK vs Gretorp, Day[9] announces that they aren't going to cast the third replay, because they're about to go live to Huk vs Kiwikaki. In order to catch us up, Day[9] then goes ahead and spoils all of the intervening matches, and then FAILS TO MANAGE TO CAST Huk v. Kiwikaki. Instead, after a brief pause, a very sheepish Day[9] has to come one and tell us that he and DJ Wheat are going to go back in time to cast Huk v. Idra, and to please forget that he just spoiled the outcome for us. Oh that poor man.
So I get up this morning at 7:30 pacific to see qxc v Sheth...and of course, two minutes after the pre-game show starts the stream goes dead. It just came back on, and now I get to hear how, "for those of you who just turned in" Sheth v qxc was one of the most amazing ZvT's Day[9]'s ever seen.
The thing that amazes me about the current state of esports is how bad these Starcraft organizations are at reaching their viewers. I mean, its a frikkin VIRTUAL SPORT. You'd think that would be pretty easy to stream it to my computer. You'd think these people would be pretty internet savvy. But whether it's IEM's hopelessly hard to navigate website and lack of VoDs, GOMTV's insistance on only playing VoD's through their proprietary viewing software (Spyware, I Reject Thee...also, Microsoft, I Reject Thee), or MLG's failure to CONNECT TO THE INTERNET, well, I guess all I can say is that Starcraft 2 ain't tennis, 'cause MLG Dallas sure ain't Wimbleton.
Anyway, the stream's back up now, so I guess I'll check out Huk v Sheth. Sorry for the rant, such as it is. I'm looking for silver-gold practice partners, so go ahead and friend me if you're interested (Flytrapz is my username), or comment and I'll friend you. I promise to spare you the polemics.
 
|
You need to hang out in the channel Buddiship. We were all inspired to get together and create our own microcommunity after seeing it. There's usually at least 1 person in there at any given time, sometimes up to 20 at once, and we're all interested in advancement and developing our understanding of this game.
Also your OP is kind of TL;DR, but I read through it anyways.
Yes I agree, its really bad that all these organizations are doing so poorly to mobilize their IT and get people watching. People want to see these games and are willing to pay but it seems like no one wants to take our massive sums of potential monetary value. Oh well, that's their problem. Can't wait to see a working SC2 stream with 100,000+ viewers.
|
I love DL;DR. It means only readers end up commenting. Also, MLG's stream was just down for THAT LONG. Well, actually, that long enough to futz around on Battle.net, take a shower, eat breakfast, then write the TL:DR OP.
One of the big problems yesterday, though, wasn't MLG's fault; apparently there was huge lag for the player on battle.net. They ended up just pausing all of the games for some hours. My secret hope is that debacles like this will lead blizzard to revise its position on LAN functionality at sometime in the future.
|
[And as a result, I got placed about 60 ranks higher than I had ever been before.
The placement match doesn't count more than any other match. Your post-placement league rank is meaningless since everyone is so close in points.
|
I've never played with F1-F12 keys ever since Blizz made F1-F4 hero hotkeys.
Also, ranks are based solely on point value, aka they mean nothing.
|
Back in the BW days, F1-F4, setting screen locations, was really handy. I've been trying to remap them to other keys, but all of the hotkeys seem to be taken already. I eventually just ditched the hero hotkeys...but they're still only available when I bother to plug in an extra keyboard.
You're all right that ranking doesn't matter...I guess what I really mean to say to that is DUH. What I guess I mean is that it sounds pretty demoralizing to play fifty losing matches in a row to end up where I ought to be. I guess that's how it's going to be, though. I'll get over it.
Eventually.
|
In your System Prefs you can change the need to hold down the fn key to use your F1-F12 hotkeys as normal; the only drawback is that you'll be forced to hold the fn key to use them the way you used to. Just a friendly tip from a fellow 13in MacBook Pro user 
|
I'm jealous of your MacBook Pro....mmm...firewire...have you got a firewire port? I'm still sportin' the old macbook. I'll be sure to check the system prefs. Good advice.
|
for the record, I find endless protoss 4 warpgating every single match much more annoying than the occasional 6 pool.
|
As mentioned above, there's a point in the System Preferences > Keyboard where you can choose whether to have the F1-12 keys as the default or all those fancy controller quickkeys. And I must say that I'm shocked that you can play SC2 on a Mac. I've got a 15" that I tried for ages to play on, but after just 2ish hours the thing would overheat and shut down. Of course, now I've moved on to the 5-year-old tower PC with the unresponsive keyboard, but that's a separate issue. ^^
Even the GF loves Day[9], and she's always curious about what new mess Idra has gotten himself into.
This made me lol. I, too, only got dragged back into SC2 laddering through Day[9] and the pro scene, although it was the TSL that really got me hooked on it. Poor IdrA, though. Every pro game I see of his makes one wonder if his strategy's been cracked by everyone on the Internet.
|
Yeah, I've got some heat issues, and some stablility issues, and mostly some poor-graphics card issues...but they seem to be getting better as the patches keep coming. I think the memory leaks are really getting better.
I've loved zerg since BW, but I just can't figure out what to do with them. Roach rush, I guess...basically, I just try to copy what Idra does....not so well, though.
|
Yeah...even lowest graphics can't keep Apple's flagship laptops stable. It's a shame. They're so shiny, yet all mine is good for is schoolwork. :'(
|
The thing about apples, though, is that they don't come loaded with Windows. I hate windows. Not on principle, mind you...I used windows boxes forever. But going back to them after OS X...they're just so clunky and clumsy.
But, apples can't run games worth a crap. No doubt about it. And they're really expensive for the hardware.
|
They're clunky and clumsy because they're in-depth. The elegance of Macs lies in the fact that everything is automated--it does everything for you. It's why they're so famous for being 'user-friendly.' With Windows, you actually have to know and understand computers in order to use it efficiently--it's borderline impossible to keep a Windows computer running efficiently after two years without a comprehensive knowledge of disk management, folder hierarchies, and system troubleshooting.
The flip side, I've found, is that when something goes wrong with my Mac, there's very little that I can do. Everything that I'm not locked out of is written in gobbeldygook or buried undernonsensical directories in the library--actually, come to think of it, EVERYTHING'S in the Library. Which is fine for a normal, everyday user, but it makes fixing anything just absolutely infuriating.
|
I think Windows boxes are clunky and clumsy because they have to be infinitely backwards compatible. And they haven't really updated the dashboard since Win 95. The elegance of OS X is that it doesn't have to carry 15 years of baggage code. It's true that I can't fix anything if something goes wrong on my mac...that said, I know it can be done if you're some kind of nutty Unix Guru. OS X is really just built on Unix, after all.
|
On April 04 2011 07:12 Trobot wrote:
They're clunky and clumsy because they're in-depth. The elegance of Macs lies in the fact that everything is automated--it does everything for you. It's why they're so famous for being 'user-friendly.' With Windows, you actually have to know and understand computers in order to use it efficiently--it's borderline impossible to keep a Windows computer running efficiently after two years without a comprehensive knowledge of disk management, folder hierarchies, and system troubleshooting.
The flip side, I've found, is that when something goes wrong with my Mac, there's very little that I can do. Everything that I'm not locked out of is written in gobbeldygook or buried undernonsensical directories in the library--actually, come to think of it, EVERYTHING'S in the Library. Which is fine for a normal, everyday user, but it makes fixing anything just absolutely infuriating.
What there's people out there that are like me?
That see pros and cons to both? You're not one of those ARRRGHH WINDOWS IS THE SHITTIEST THING EVER or APPLE IS SO FUCKING STUPID USELESS people?
Oh my god. This weekend is now complete, and has come to the perfect close. I knew people like this existed somewhere else!
My coworker is an apple fanatic and we are a windows programming house, and he rages SO hard at all the stupidest crap ever. Like...stuff you would have thought he would have figured out the last 50 times I've had to tell him. WHY CANT I FIND THE NETWORK DRIVE "dude click my computer, it's right there." WHERE IS THAT. WINDOWS IS SO STUPID, WHY CANT IT JUST BE RIGHT ON THE DESKTOP. "It can be..." WHY DOESN'T IT START THERE?
Makes me want to flip out.
This beer's on me, to normal people. 
|
You know, I guess I've just had pretty good luck with my apple. Nothing has ever gone seriously wrong with my MacBook (unlike my iphone). Once upon a time I owned Dells - and honestly the hardware in a Dell is just poor. Like, one Dell laptop I owned burned out 2 power supplies and three motherboards, and then the stupid charger jack became loose and the thing wouldn't charge. Which is dumb. Then, of course, much later I learned that Dell was sticking recalled motherboards in their boxes, and replacing them with other recalled motherboards when they died.
But honestly, I think the final straw was just watching my little dell's load time slowly climb from two minutes to five minutes to 8-10 minutes before I could get to work. Windows XP (Actually it might have been Windows ME) just devoured my available processor power. I understand that Windows 7 is actually much better in this regard, but I just don't see myself going back.
What I really want is the next big thing, whatever that is. 'Cause I'm feeling pretty done with apple, too, these days. Stupid closed platform, no software-having, five-minute-window-for-your-tech-support-appointment-having, iphone-hardware-malfunction-killing-access-to-wireless-netorks-after-warranty-expires PoS.
|
after reading almost all of these posts, i think that the general consensus is: what would we do without day9?
|
![[image loading]](http://www.maclife.com/files/u175020/apple_versus_microsoft_4.jpg)
This is pretty much summing it all up, and unfortunately Linux isn't really mainstream enough to warrant using it. I'm sure there are people out there that swear by their lil penguin boxes but the point stands that both OS's pretty much suck in their own special ways. 
Honestly, I've never had major issues with any windows based machines, not yet anyways. I've kind of become a windows troubleshooting machine and haven't had anything come up that I can't tackle just yet (knock on wood). I fully understand how intimidating an error like
MALFORMED SHIT AT 0x045823906 whatever can look like to someone who can't read em. :p
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
