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One year with Brood War

Blogs > AroundTweed
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AroundTweed
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
New Zealand27 Posts
May 16 2011 12:00 GMT
#1
DISCLAIMER : I know this comes a lot at the top of blog posts, but this is my first post on TL.net ever so please, be nice. :D

One year ago (or around about, who can remember dates?) I bought Starcraft : Brood War. At the time I was a typical enthusiastic, teenage gamer, into the new, flashy, awesome graphics games. I had decided that I wanted to get a strategy game, to expand my horizons, because obviously playing strategy games automatically makes you "smarter" than everybody else. I googled a lot for some good strategy games and settled on Warcraft 3. It looked OK, seemed fun, got good reviews, but most of all it could run on my computer :D. So, like any shopper with a target in mined, I went down to the local game store when I walked in to find, that particular chain of stores was having a half-price sale, so OK, maybe I could pick up something else too. Starcraft? It's made by the same people? I put both games onto the counter, bought them and went home.

That day I didn't even install Starcraft, just played Warcraft and mucked about the campaign a little, and cast Starcraft aside onto my PC table. Only 'till a few days later did I finally get round to installing and playing it. Started a campaign mission, and instantly reeled at the sight of the graphics. Shut down the game, and kicked myself for wasting 20 perfectly good dollars (NZD) on this old thing.

I didn't play Starcraft for about or week or so after that incident. I did get curious and google it though, and learnt about the amazing competitive scene that the game had around it, and wondered what all the fuss was about. Curiousity did get the better of me, and I played the game again, this time skipping the campaign altogether, and jumping straight onto US West. I remember one of my earlier games, it was a fastest (ugh -_- ) 2v2v2v2 and I can recall my ally yelling at me while we were getting destroyed, and I told him I was reading the manual :D. I soon grew tired of the custom maps and wanted to play for real like all the Koreans do. So, then I started what I like to think as of the "US West" era of my journey, the training grounds for iCCup. I would play casual games online as random and this is when I was really drawn into Brood War.

The game was so infactuating, so interesting, all the things you could do. All the different strategies that were all on the Liquipedia site, all the different ways to victory. I got addicted to the game, I even spent a whole saturday, 10am till 5pm (OK, that was considered a lot by me) playing games on US West. I wanted to win so badly but I would always lose. During this time I learnt of a site called TeamLiquid (yes, I have been here almost a year and never created a post), which I learnt lots of strategies from. I would constantly google "starcraft strategies" or "how to win at starcraft", picking up a variety of bad habits that I am still trying to get rid of today. I fondly remember the time when I stopped calling my games "1v1 LT NOOB" and started to call them "1v1 LT good players". Starcraft was uber-fun, Starcraft, Starcraft, Starcraft, Starcraft.

Throughout my US West adventures, I eventually got bored of cannon rushes and mass battlecruiser ALL the time, and I yearned for a greater challenge, something that would really make me learn how to play better. I had heard of iCCup as this magical land where all the top players in the world would compete, where there is a decent challenge. I made an iCCup account and left US West with a record of 45-112, and have never been back there since.

I think everyone remembers their first season of iCCup. I came out of it 0-20, E. I felt like giving up at that point, getting thrashed by even the lowest level was a real downer . In fact I did take a month long break from Starcraft, but came back to it, because I was quite into the proscene at this point, and trying to be as good as those progamers always motivates me (QQ unreacheble dream). I thought at that point that the only way to get better was to play game after game after game after game. I did that, and it did improve my mechanics quite a bit, but I was still losing most of my games. Remedy? Play game after game after game after game. I didn't think about why I lost, the biggest thing I came up with was "he built units faster than me". I was memorising some very basic builds for my chosen race, Protoss (quite a nice little anecdote about how I chose Protoss, won't tell you here), and continued with my "practice".

The next big thing to happen was when I joined the sGs clan, started here on TL. Playing with those guys has taught me, that thinking about what you do and why you do it is REALLY important. That there is always a reason for everything, that you or the opponent does in the game. I am still with them right now, having a blast, becoming a lot more enlightened than I ever previously was. I still lose 90% of my games, but each loss feels like I've learnt something, so even though I don't welcome it, I still appreciate a loss. My goal is to break out of D into D+ or maybe even C- by the end of this year, and I certainly think that it is possible.

Let's look at where I am now. I am playing BW almost exclusively now, I hardly ever play any other game. I haven't touched Warcraft 3 for quite a few months (a bit ironic isn't it), and I think about something related to Starcraft ALL the time, I have Starcraft fever. My friends know me as "the guy who plays heaps of Starcraft", although I don't I play that much... All this came from an impulse decision I made one day at the game store, something that I did right out of the blue.

That's been my first year with Starcraft : Brood War. Thanks for reading. ^^

P.S. Starcraft 2 actually came out only a few months after I bought BW, I was thinking of picking it up, but... I was too busy on US West...

****
LordWeird
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States3411 Posts
May 16 2011 12:04 GMT
#2
Hell yeah man. Nice story. So glad to see people still enjoying BW. It has a magic about it that really captivates you, eh? Hang in there and soon you will be tearing up Koreans right and left.
Chains none
blubbdavid
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Switzerland2412 Posts
May 16 2011 12:12 GMT
#3
Seems like you have the same goal like me: C-fucking-minus! I have known the game for 10 years, but only started to play seriously last year. And in Iccup, come to the opTeamliquid channel, maybe we meet each other there.
What do you desire? Money? Glory? Power? Revenge? Or something that surpasses all other? Whatever you desire - that is here. Tower of God ¦¦Nutella, drink of the Gods
Dante08
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
Singapore4128 Posts
May 16 2011 12:20 GMT
#4
Nice! Iccup is pretty dam brutal, I remember the times where I would lose tons of games on python to things like reaver drops and dt rushes. But you got to persevere, only the determined ones manage to make it out of D-. Took me about 2-3 months if I remember correctly.

Gogo dude dont give up !
Hyde
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
Australia14568 Posts
May 16 2011 12:24 GMT
#5
Fantastic story *two thumbs up*
Aren't you glad you bought it now haha
I still remember my first few games on Iccup, it took me forever to gather enough courage to even log on there. The rush as you see that 5 second count down and the nervousness as if your life depended on you winning, so thrilling.
Because when you left, Brood War was all spotlights and titans. Now, with the death of the big leagues, Brood War has moved to the basements and carparks. Now, Brood War is unlicensed brawls, lost teeth, and bloody fights for fistfulls of money - SirJolt
NeVeR
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
1352 Posts
May 16 2011 12:34 GMT
#6
Mad respect for you bro. BW is still the shit. Wish there were more people like you with the mind to see it.
TelecoM
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States10675 Posts
May 16 2011 12:42 GMT
#7
congrats, keep fighting, never give up and you will go far.
AKA: TelecoM[WHITE] Protoss fighting
ZeKk
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Sweden320 Posts
May 16 2011 12:46 GMT
#8
Nice story! It's great to hear another's view of thier story of sc:bw. I am thinking about writing up my own 10 years-expereince with brood war. Wow would that be an eassay or what?
GunSec
Profile Joined February 2010
1095 Posts
May 16 2011 12:47 GMT
#9
On May 16 2011 21:00 AroundTweed wrote:

The next big thing to happen was when I joined the sGs clan, started here on TL. Playing with those guys has taught me, that thinking about what you do and why you do it is REALLY important. That there is always a reason for everything, that you or the opponent does in the game.



So this is why old school bw pro gamers are succesful in poker .
Vain
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Netherlands1115 Posts
May 16 2011 12:50 GMT
#10
These kind of stories make me smile
Battle.net 2.0 is a waiter and he's a dick
Arnstein
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Norway3381 Posts
May 16 2011 13:14 GMT
#11
Awesome post! Maybe I'll post one about my history of StarCraft as well.
rsol in response to the dragoon voice being heard in SCII: dragoon ai reaches new lows: wanders into wrong game
Popss
Profile Joined April 2011
Sweden176 Posts
May 16 2011 13:15 GMT
#12
On May 16 2011 21:50 Vain wrote:
These kind of stories make me smile


Hah yeah :D
2Pacalypse-
Profile Joined October 2006
Croatia9510 Posts
May 16 2011 13:31 GMT
#13
The best blog I've read in a while. 5 stars!
Moderator"We're a community of geniuses because we've found how to extract 95% of the feeling of doing something amazing without actually doing anything." - Chill
Caladbolg
Profile Joined March 2011
2855 Posts
May 16 2011 13:54 GMT
#14
Viva La Broodwar! Great blog.
"I don't like the word prodigy at all. To me prodigy sounds like a person who was 'gifted' all these things rather than a person who earned all these talents by hard training... I must train harder to reach my goal." - Flash
tanngard
Profile Joined April 2011
Norway1325 Posts
May 16 2011 14:00 GMT
#15
I know what you mean. I lurked around at teamliquid for two years before i made an account. I still have no idea why it took me so long. But when the FPL signups opned i just had to make a team!

Great blog!

iPlaY.NettleS
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
Australia4338 Posts
May 16 2011 14:03 GMT
#16
lol good old broodwar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7PvoI6gvQs
xccam
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
Great Britain1150 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-16 16:14:17
May 16 2011 16:12 GMT
#17
oh awesome, who are you in sGs, i'm in sGs myself :D

Hit me up (sGs.ccam) if you see me online for practice games!

the only NZ player i can find is sGs.anon, that you?

If so i added you as a friend,

Happy gaming!
bioboyAT
Profile Joined July 2004
Austria1763 Posts
July 04 2011 15:19 GMT
#18
nice read and go for another few years!
Milchmann | DeadVessel: Milchmann pwns. I fail.
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