EPTI hurriedly downloaded and installed the client, and I was taken in by the shiny UI and fancy graphics. Not being too strong at RTS games in general, I went through the practice games (the games at normal speed on novice maps) to get my bearings. I felt decently comfortable and went into the placement matches. Loss. Loss. Win! Loss. Loss. "Congratulations, you are placed in the Copper league." I can't say that I didn't deserve to be in there. I would continue playing, learning the ins and outs of the Protoss race.
As time passed, my friends/roommates started to get their own beta keys, and I would start to drift away from actually playing and started to watch them play. Historically, I have always been a fan of spectating others while they played games. It's always been just as entertaining as if I were playing myself. I loved watching SC2, especially when it's being played at a higher level than what I can achieve. The beta period eventually ended, and I would await the retail release (of the first installment) of the game.
At the time of the retail release, my roommates and myself had parted ways as we completed our college careers and moved on into the world. I picked up my copy and started going through the campaign. Part of me felt that I was not ready to try my luck with the ladder again. Part of me just wanted to see how they decided to unfold the story. When I finished the single player campaign, I was feeling good about my skills and took on the placement matches to find my ladder ranking. Hey, I could only move up compared to my beta ranking. As I moved through my placement matches, I found that I was able to handily defeat most of my opponents, going 4-1 in the placement round. I landed in Platinum, and I was speechless. Playing through the campaign really helped my general mechanics. I was so proud of myself.
Eventually, I would fall out of actually playing and I started watching people streaming themselves playing. I would watch the Day[9] Daily and try to gain a better understanding of the more intricate workings of the game. I would also start to fall out of practice. I played less and less frequently, but I still loved the game and the community.
Skipping ahead to season 2 of the ladder, I had a chance to start fresh. I practiced my mechanics against the AI, getting some timings down and forcing myself to practice good habits (spending, expanding, minimap awareness). The single placement match was completed, and I was still in Platinum. I wasn't too disappointed by it. I did take quite a break from actually playing the game. But again, faster than before, I started to watch more than play. I had always wanted to help out or give back to the community in some way, but I never really knew how. My answer to that was to try my hand at casting games. I had watched enough to know what I thought to be good and bad casting habits/styles, so I took some replays and present them to you now.
These games are between eMgDarkCell (REQDarkCell at the time) and xiSlurgi during MLG Dallas 2011. Why did I choose this series? First and foremost, Slurgi is a RL friend of mine, and we lived in the same apartment for a while. Seeing how good he was/is at this game, I have been enjoying cheering him on as he plays more and more. Second, I recalled that the livefeed next to the stream mentioned that game two of this series was not to be missed. I regularly checked the bracket to see if they uploaded the replays, and it was not until (kind of) recently that they did.
Game 1
+ Show Spoiler +
Game 2
+ Show Spoiler +
Part1
Part 2
Game 3
+ Show Spoiler +
Part 1
Part 2
I know that I still have a lot on which to improve, but any comments/criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
