EPTI'm a family man now, but that competitive spirit is still alive in me. I have a 3 month old son, a 13 year old daughter, and am a full time student finishing up my Doctor of Chiropractic degree and getting ready to go back into the work force later this year...so needless to say, I don't have a lot of spare time. I did, however, get a chance a few weeks ago to be out of town for 18 days taking part in a review for my final Board Exam that was only offered out of state. So as I was holed up in a hotel with about 8 hours a day where I had none of the usual life responsibilities, I found myself gravitating to my laptop and SC2.
I began with my weakest matchup - PvT. I found a few build orders that inspired me and fiddled with them on YABOT until I found the one I felt worked best for me. I then ran it over and over until my timings were smooth and closely matched the pros. Then came the test of implementing it in a live ladder game. I hit the ladders and prayed for PvT matchups each time I searched for a new game. After two days, I found my PvT winrate to skyrocket. It was now my strongest matchup. In no time at all I had been promoted to silver league and was now being matched up regularly with gold and some platinum opponents. I even played my first tournament (Shinobi's bronze-gold KOTH) and made it to the semi-finals where I stupidly strayed from my standard PvP builds as I had been attempting to adjust to the patch before it went live, and was eliminated. I should have continued to 4gate, but that's another story.
As time came closer to my Board Exam, I played less and crammed more, but everything I had acquired in the previous weeks was sticking with me. But upon getting back home and facing the responsibilities of being a full time student and father/husband again, my play time greatly diminished. About 2 weeks later I had an evening where my son just would not sleep, but was more than content to sit in his swing, so I plopped the swing down next to my PC and decided I would get in some SC2 while I let my wife catch up on much needed sleep.
I was shocked at how poorly I was executing all of my builds. My timings were off, my speed was falling, and my decision making was worse. At first, I attributed it to the patch changes, but realistically, I can look back now and see that it was just lack of practice. Just as in any sport, or playing a musical instrument - if you are not practicing, you are not only "not improving", you are getting worse. The rate at which you lose these skills vary, but in such a speed intensive game as SC2, I have come to see that these skills fade fast when not used.
When Day[9] announced he was going full time with SC2, there was a lot of buzz over what that meant. Was he going pro again or just dedicating more time to his Daily and other casting ventures? A lot of people mentioned how it would be a while until Day[9] could get back into competitive shape, and I initially laughed at this, because I assumed that once you reached that pro level, those skills are easily reaquired, and how much more so for a guy like Day[9] - the guy analyzes SC2 replays on a daily basis, so he should easily have basic openings memorized, as well as the transitions, timings, etc...
But after having my own lapse in playtime and seeing how great the dropoff was, I now have a greater respect for the number of hours that the pros are required to put in on a daily basis in order to maintain their elite level of play. I would love to be able to do the same, but the joy my family and other commitments bring me is greater than anything I can achieve in SC2, so I will settle for my incremental improvements and continue my journey to making it to Masters League one day.
