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Hi Everyone,
This is my first Blog entry so bear with me. My name is Chris Overton and I am looking to become the first African American Pro Starcraft II player. I live in Raleigh, NC and I have been playing SC2 for a little over a year now (a couple of days after the actual release of the game) but previous to this... I have NO RTS or even PC gaming experience for that matter. The last PC game I played was Diablo II and that only required a mouse and VERY rarely, the occasional tap of 1-4 to heal up. I'm going to be completely honest as well, the only reason I bought the game was because of HD and Husky. They should both be compensated for me buying this game because their casting got me into the game. Watched them on youtube, and I believe the first game I seen was TLO vs Nazgul on Metalopolis (you know... the one with all the nukes). So basically I thought the game was cool as shit after seeing that so I decided to buy it.
When I first started, I was your average campaign player who thought terran was awesome because they beat everything in the campaign mode with ease (well.... at least on casual). I played the campaign all the way through an finished it on casual and then jumped directly into multiplayer. I started by playing all 30(? not sure how many there were but I know I played all of them..lol) practice league matches and I actually thought I was a boss. I won a little less than half of my games that I played and I still remember my very first game. I played against a protoss player on Novice Metalopolis AND STOMPED HIM. lol. The guy went mass 1 base blink stalker and I went mass 1 base marine and smashed the guy because he ran up to the side of my base thinking he could blink up but had no vision so he sat his stalkers there and I just killed them.. then he left. After the practice league though, I did what your typical noobie would do. I played the placement matches, went 0-5, and got dumped into bronze. Had been there all the way up until season 2. I would say about 2-3 weeks before season 2 started, I switched to protoss. Protoss (this is just my opinion of the race from a lower league standpoint) was very easy. I did the same build against everyone I played and won almost every game. The build I did was one that I copied from an insane A.I bot and never realized that it was just a simple 3 gate robo.
But anyways... When Season 2 started, I got into silver league. Had been there until mid-July at which point I just got sick of being there because I never won a game. Silver league was worse then bronze to me because it seemed like EVERYONE I played cheesed every game. So around July 16th, I got demoted to bronze league again. This is where my skill jump happened. I started playing more frequently and I had various people tell me that I was playing at a platinum level (which I never believed them and still dont believe them) because I started beating my friends who were platinum and having very close games with diamond league friends. Then about a week before season 3 started, I began to check the leagues of my opponents after each game. Sure enough, I was playing high gold and platinum players on ladder (even played a couple of diamonds) and I was actually beating them. I also started streaming my gameplay around this time as well. The day season 3 started, I go on and played my placement match and lost, but was promoted from bronze to gold league.
This is where my story starts. From here on out, I am going to be blogging my results daily and share what I've managed to learn. Starting Sunday (September 4th, 2011) I am going to be playing between 20-40 games on ladder daily so i can get as much experience as possible. Depending on he time of day, i will stream a majority of the ladder games I play. I have decided I am going to become Pro one day, but just realized earlier that nobody started out being a Pro. My goal is to be in the top 32 of the next MLG Raleigh event in 2012. So i decided to start this blog (Training Day) so I can show my progression in gameplay. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back Sunday and everyday after to see whats new.
 
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It is extremely difficult to read this massive wall of text. try to break it into smaller paragraphs 
Good luck making it from gold into plat - dia - masters though ^^ its a tough journey from what I've heard lol
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On September 03 2011 10:19 OmniEulogy wrote:It is extremely difficult to read this massive wall of text. try to break it into smaller paragraphs Good luck making it from gold into plat - dia - masters though ^^ its a tough journey from what I've heard lol
have you even read a book? maybe you should try and get some practice reading. I can read it fine
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On September 03 2011 10:24 lotrscwow wrote:Show nested quote +On September 03 2011 10:19 OmniEulogy wrote:It is extremely difficult to read this massive wall of text. try to break it into smaller paragraphs Good luck making it from gold into plat - dia - masters though ^^ its a tough journey from what I've heard lol have you even read a book? maybe you should try and get some practice reading. I can read it fine
Have you ever read a book? Books always has smaller paragraphs instead of massive wall of text. It's much better that way anyway and it's not a bad thing to mention about it.
Still, good luck to you. It won't be easy i'd say but with dedication, i'm sure anyone can do it! 
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Reading a book =/= reading on the PC.
I wonder what Chill has to say to your plans.
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I feel like right now you are 0.001% of the way to your goal. Good luck. You will learn tons in the time to come, reaching gold should've been done two days into your journey though.
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Instead of wasting time on TL go practice and get better!
Dead serious, mechanics first and mechanics comes from playing lots!
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On September 03 2011 10:35 FiWiFaKi wrote:
I feel like right now you are 0.001% of the way to your goal. Good luck. You will learn tons in the time to come, reaching gold should've been done two days into your journey though.
It wasnt possible at the time because I was in school, working, and playing basketball. I also didnt take the game serious enough to think that I would want to attempt to play for the pro scene
Thanks to everyone Wishing me luck though. 
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Honestly if after playing for a year you are still in gold then you probably aren't cut out to be a pro, but good luck to you anyway!
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It wasnt possible at the time because I was in school, working, and playing basketball. I also didnt take the game serious enough to think that I would want to attempt to play for the pro scene
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I think setting such a steep might turn out to be a little daunting. Try breaking it up into smaller, short term goals to keep you motivated. At 20-40 games a day, it doesn't sound unreasonable to say "at the end of September, I want to be a high diamond player" and "at the end of October, I want to be a high master player".
Practicing/training with friends in higher leagues will help you immensely as well.
Best of luck to you!
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While I do wish you luck, it always amuses me a little when someone is not high masters/GM and says "I wanna go pro".
It's like a person who just started running and managed to go from a 7:00 mile to a 6:30 mile saying I want to become an elite runner, when to do so requires being at least a sub 3:50 miler. Or like starting high school football and saying "I'm going to the NFL baby!".
Doesn't it make more sense to up your practice to a reasonable level, and then see how you progress from there?
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gl
On September 03 2011 10:17 AeroEffect wrote:
My goal is to be in the top 32 of the next MLG Raleigh event in 2012.
Probably a little too lofty but I guess it never hurts. I mean, you do realize getting top 32 at an MLG event is quite a bit harder than just getting into grandmasters.
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This sounds really interesting, I will try to tune in to your stream when I can, I am excited to see where this leads . I wish you the best of luck and maybe I will even meet ya on the ladder a few times. glhf ♥
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Yea, I know it is a very steep goal and I know that im not even masters league yet (Hell, im not even diamond league yet) but I have set this goal because my mom actually decided to support me on this and she believes I can do it. I have a very bad habit of becoming average or good at something and then just quitting. I did it with basketball, I did it with band, I did it with football, I did it with console gaming (I was Semi-Pro in Gears of War), and I did it with school. If I can complete this goal, it would/will be the first actual long term goal I have completed in my life. I'm sure it will make my mom proud, as well as myself and others. Thanks for the support though guys, I hope to show you good results very quickly.
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Good luck. Starcraft is a lot more difficult than Gears of War.
Oh and every time I read your name I think it's AresEffort. That kills me.
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blog forum progamers have a 0% success rate
good luck bro
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Get a camera to record your games, and start Project A 2.0, and I wish you the best of luck on your pro-gaming journey, but from my observations only 1 guy in a few thousand makes it, and achieves the goals you have set for yourself.
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Yeah, even if I decided to try this, I'd never blog about it. It would already feel too much like work, and adding in the factor of doing reports on it, and reading shit from the people saying it will never happen... just make it harder. (In my case, they'd be absolutely right. I would hate the game before I made it to Platinum, if I tried a dedicated training regimen.)
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On September 03 2011 22:11 pred470r wrote:
Get a camera to record your games, and start Project A 2.0, and I wish you the best of luck on your pro-gaming journey, but from my observations only 1 guy in a few thousand makes it, and achieves the goals you have set for yourself.
Thats a really good idea. I need to see if our camcorder still works. lol
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I have finally made it to Masters. After alot of hard work and dedication I am getting very close to completing my goal. All thats left now is getting to top 8 masters so I can try out for this gaming team and from there get top 32 at MLG Raleigh. Thanks for any and all support that was givin to me. I really appreciate it.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6l03q.jpg)
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This is awesome, big congrats on your progress. I'm sure I don't need to tell you have a long way to go, but stick at it
Reading the first page I was trying to decide if blogging would be a help or a hinderance, and I decided that the extra work load and the mostly negative attention you would get would probably be a hinderance. How was your experience of climbing the ladder? I'm in Gold at the moment and would love to reach Masters. Was it enjoyable? Did your commitment ever falter?
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For some reason I can't get my head around the "I want to be the first African American Starcraft Pro-gamer"
Why does that matter to you? Why not just want to be a pro-gamer? I guess I'm just looking at it from the wrong perspective. I guess it’s a personal thing.
Good work dude and good luck. <3
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On May 25 2012 08:25 ZessiM wrote:This is awesome, big congrats on your progress. I'm sure I don't need to tell you have a long way to go, but stick at it Reading the first page I was trying to decide if blogging would be a help or a hinderance, and I decided that the extra work load and the mostly negative attention you would get would probably be a hinderance. How was your experience of climbing the ladder? I'm in Gold at the moment and would love to reach Masters. Was it enjoyable? Did your commitment ever falter?
Its all about mindset and how you handle wins/losses. Its also about who you practice with if you practice with other people. Always try to practice with people who are better than you and you will improve very quickly, much more quickly than ladder since the skill level is so inconsistent.
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On May 25 2012 11:22 ScruffyJanitor wrote:
For some reason I can't get my head around the "I want to be the first African American Starcraft Pro-gamer"
Why does that matter to you? Why not just want to be a pro-gamer? I guess I'm just looking at it from the wrong perspective. I guess it’s a personal thing.
Good work dude and good luck. <3
Thanks yo <3
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9 months from gold to master is quite à long time. If you have actualky been playing like 4 hours a day, its a really long time. I don't think you understand what level you are right now. The difference between bronze and master is not even as big as the difference between low and high master. Let alone grandmaster, let alone top 32 MLG. How much time do you have before raleigh?
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On May 25 2012 15:29 Recognizable wrote:
9 months from gold to master is quite à long time. If you have actualky been playing like 4 hours a day, its a really long time. I don't think you understand what level you are right now. The difference between bronze and master is not even as big as the difference between low and high master. Let alone grandmaster, let alone top 32 MLG. How much time do you have before raleigh?
I havent been playing non-stop. I actually had just started playing seriously again about 2-3 months ago. I have been playing back and forth between my main account and 2 smurf accounts that I have. I practice alot with actual members of Team LgN and its pretty fun. Hopefully soon I can be part of the team.
I heard MLG Raleigh is supposed to be sometime in August but im not 100% sure. Ill be more than ready by that time though.
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EPT
