EPTThe last month has been incredibly difficult in many different ways. Starcraft is a mind game, you play mind games with your opponents trying to pull ahead not just economically, but strategically as well, until you can crush your opponent. Of course, that's just the gist of it and there's tons more to it. Playing the game for hours upon hours a day, game after game can get not just incredibly exhausting but very frustrating. Sometimes players lose tempers and slam keyboards, bad manner their opponent or even break chairs. These little tantrums show that the game can really beat you down unless you have what I'd like to call a release. A release is something simple that calms you. Releases can be anything from taking a break from the game to go walk your dog, sip on a brewski with your old man or for some of you bodacious gamers, get some lovin' from your hot babe. Whatever your releases are, they are necessities if you really want to pursue progaming. For me, my releases are friends, family, my dog, the spa, a beer with my old man and going on silly adventures with my little sis. From personal experience, being overseas away from your very close friends, family and everything else you know makes it very hard. If you dedicate multiple hours a day into the game from the comfort of your home, where you can easily reach these "releases", they might not be so vivid to you because you possibly take them for granted. However, they are there and are not something we think about on a daily basis.
Upon TLO's return to Europe, from Korea, he said:
Family and friends are an important part of my life, and while Korea was a great learning experience, I think that being in Europe for the time being is the right decision for me," said Dario. "Due to a number of reasons I do not wish to go into at this time, living and playing in Germany is what will benefit both me and my team the most right now, and I'm thankful that my team understands this."
In TLO's short interview, he is blatantly telling us that his family and friends are his releases and they are a must to be happy and content while he is dedicating his life and giving SC2 his all. The last month has been a tremendous battle with myself to keep my head up while still pushing forward since I don't have access to my own "releases" that I did when I lived back at home. Up until February, I was living in Los Angeles with a few roommates and my beautiful pup, Saydee. I was living on my own for a little less than a year, working 40+ hour weeks, fighting LA traffic and then coming home, making dinner and cranking out as many games of SC that I possibly could (which was only about 10-15 a day before I got too sLeEpy and passed out). Doing all this was still easy because of these releases I had. For all the readers, I just want you to realized the things in front of you that are easily overlooked, when you should be grateful they are right there, hidden in plain view (<---one of my favorite bands).Enough of the sappy stuff and onto the things you guys are probably most eager to read. Of course we've been learning the ways of the swarm and how we operate. I've been getting some feed back as well as questions from opponents within ladder games, some PMs on TL, random facebook friend requests and some PMs just in game as well. The biggest question that I get asked is "Is there any advice you can give me as I pursue my passion of progaming?". The biggest piece of advice from me is mass game, watch your replays and please do not be ignorant or close minded. Controlling the swarm is not an easy task, but it's not an excuse to rant about how bad our race is. Zerg has so many options it's incredible. So next time you take a loss, manner up, accept you got outplayed and instantly load up that replay and pick at your small mistakes, all the times you didnt scout, drone when you should have or built that extra queen or 2 to stop those annoying banshees.
Mass gaming is possibly one of the best ways to go about improving and solidifying your game play. There's been a little saying floating around the community that it takes 100 games to learn something small. Cranking out games will make the game as well as your mechanics more fluent, so you spend less time going "Oh crap, I forgot to inject" and more time going "Alright, I'm going to throw some roaches at his wall of gateways at his third to shift his army out of position, so I can drop these 12 hydras between his nexus and robo in his main to quick snipe them both. Also, while this is happening I'm going to take another base or 2." If something is fluent in your play, you don't have to think about it, you just do it. Soon enough, after you mass game, you're going to feel like you have map hacks because your creep spread is so good and you're going to feel like you never have enough money because your macro has become completely fluent.
As a zerg player, I feel our units are weaker, but we can make up for this with how fast we can produce. Good or bad? I'm not one to talk about balance, especially with an opposite race since most people are so closed minded they just want to argue, because they lose to a certain strategy every game and just feel it's easier to call it imba without a reasonable explanation. Zergs typically get the stereotype that we all have the same notion that we are just weak and complain. Truthfully, Protoss is a little UP in my opinion at the moment and are incredibly restricted by sentries. However, once again we're not talking about balance. Throughout the last 5 weeks I've played my heart out and have played more serious than I have since the entire time I've been here. My understanding of the game is so much mature than originally and I truly feel it's due to mass laddering and watching my own replays. Next season, we will be in grand masters in US and EU as well without doubt, if not sooner than next season. Currently I'm only 1300-1400 pts US and about 1300 EU. I'm working on improving my ZvT simply because it's my worst matchup due to scouting issues and timings. I have about a 25-30% win ratio right now ZvT which is holding me back greatly, also due to the lack of practice partners. NrS only has 1 amazing Terran on the team at the moment. ZvZ I need to solidify my builds and tighten up on my baneling micro as well and we'll see me shoot up drastically in ranks, I promise you guys that.
All in all, this trip has helped my gameplay mature and even more importantly, helped me mature as a person and has put life into perspective, which is going to help me GREATLY when I move back home. When I do return, I'll be living back with my family, going to school and playing for NrS, busting my ass off pursuing greatness. I will be playing MLG Anaheim and plan to do a decent amount of damage in the open bracket ♥ I'll be writing one last blog after this when I return home to wrap up this series. sLeEpy will continue to write regular blogs about SC, the learning curve and more after our Romania trip is over. RaNgeD and I will be returning at the end of this month and are completely ready to rock the NA scene. Again, thanks for reading, I know this one was a tad lengthy, but I hope you all enjoyed it! Be sure to tune into my stream as I will be streaming at more reasonable times when I get home. Love you guys and thanks a ton for all the support, everyone has been amazing!
Photos are pictures taken of me or that I have taken, just of my RELEASES back at home that I enjoy, what are yours??
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sipping on some wine at my buddies wedding
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good old American BBQs
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REAL homemade dinners in front of my PC with a little liquid courage
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Taking pictures of amazing buildings in downtown Pasadena
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Beautiful sunsets in my hometown of Victorville, no homo
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Dusk at griffith observatory in Hollywood
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The one girl in my life that hasn't left me empty, Saydee
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Chillin' with some homies at a good friends wedding
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Adventures to Hollywood and other places with my little sis
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My pup again
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Shredding at snow summit, thinking i'm good
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A tasty hoegarden with a lemon
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Family time at Octoberfest
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Puffing on a cigar with my buddy in vegas acting like Gazelles
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enjoying mother nature
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and just more photography for a breather
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Dressing up as Riddler with my batman crew buddies and going downtown to some Pasadena bars for Halloween
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and of course, most of all, gaming in my underwear
Previous blogs in Romania series:
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) and all those good things, and most of them have good money up for grabs. of course you're probably not on the level to win against the top GM EU guys yet, but the smaller tourneys like craftcup lite hold good possibilities for high masters/low GM players too.
