EPTLast Friday night, my brother Mike and I played some games on the 2v2 ladder. Our team is high Diamond, largely because Mike (Masters) carries me (Gold). Most of the time, I just give him control of my units and try to macro as best I can. Normally, I play Terran and Mike plays Random, but I was in a goofy mood and decided to roll Random as well. That's usually a recipe for losing (uh, let's see here... how do you make a Drone again?), but we somehow won our first three games of the evening quite handily.
The loading screen for our fourth game popped up, and we saw our opponents: LiquidJinro and oGs. My first comment to Mike was "what kind of asshole names himself LiquidJinro when he's not actually LiquidJinro?" Obviously, we assumed he was a fake; we are in Diamond, after all. I imagine all the "omg, are you real?" comments get quite tiring when you're a pro, but to be fair, I have played against a reasonable number of Idra, Huk, and NesTea accounts down in the Gold league (I never ask them if they are real, for the record; they are obvious fakes). For whatever reason, some people actually name themselves after progamers.
Mike and I are still joking around about playing "Jinro", so I start the game with some friendly banter. "We are so going to stream snipe you." "Jinro" jokes back that his DT rush won't work now. Lolz all around. Mike and I are both Terran, which is good for me but bad for Mike (he ladders as both P and Z). We're discussing our opening strategy (double 3 rax?) when Mike gets the idea to check TeamLiquid.net. Jinro is streaming... and playing us.
We didn't officially lose the game until around the 8 minute mark, but essentially we lost as soon as we realized we were up against the real LiquidJinro. My brain started racing a mile a minute. "How the hell can we beat Jinro," I kept thinking. I couldn't concentrate, and my hands started doing things on their own (like randomly scanning the back of my own base; I think I meant to drop a Mule). As it turns out, that wasted scan actually cost us the game, as DT's showed up in our base shortly thereafter. We actually had a slight food lead at the time, but with no Turrets or scans the DT's made short work of our army.
We continued bantering for the last minute or so and then gg'd out. In processing the event, I came to the following conclusions:
The Pros Really are THAT Much Better
Obviously, people on Team Liquid are heads and shoulders above my brother and me. I know that in theory. Unlike non-Esports, however, Starcraft doesn't necessarily look difficult. When I watch the Olympics, I see people performing physical feats I would never even think to attempt. When I watch Starcraft, I mostly see two guys sitting at their computers. I sit at my computer all the time, so it's easy to trick myself into thinking I'm not that far away from them in terms of skill.
+ Show Spoiler +
I am.
I thought it was hilarious that 1) Jinro told us that DT's were coming; 2) we had the stream open, so we could see; and 3) they still beat the crap out of us. To be fair, we could have saved scans or made a couple Turrets and been just fine (at least for another few minutes). I'm not sure why we didn't (I'll save you the trouble of commenting - b/c we are bad!).
Nerves are Real
Often, I watch TL Attack and laugh at the community participants. "That guy is Masters? He was terrible!! Lolz." Now that I have competed against a member of Team Liquid myself, I have a new found respect for TL Attack competitors. Playing against a famous pro (AND having that match broadcast to thousands on the internet) can really shake you. I suspect that had we not seen the names of our competitors, we would have put up a much better fight (though I also suspect we still would have lost).
Jinro is a Nice Guy
I don't know if Jinro is a nice guy all the time, but he was very polite and friendly during the 9 minutes he spent mopping the floor with us. I've seen some pros get upset when people check their streams, but it didn't seem to bother Jinro at all. It's an occupational hazard, I suppose. He also seemed like he was actually having fun playing Starcraft.
So Jinro, thanks for the game. It was fun. Now I have to get to practicing for the next time I run into a Liquid member on the ladder!
