EPTUpon hearing the announcement of Starcraft II, my initial thoughts amounted nothing more to, “they’re rehashing that game?” Forgive me for this injustice, but at the time I knew nothing more to Starcraft than the story that I had played years ago. However, the idea of eSports wasn’t a new concept to me. Being a World of Warcraft player for years, a majority of the time I spent playing it had gradually became exclusively used for arenas. I knew the big teams in WoW: Evil Geniuses, Complexity, and the likes I watched videos of their gameplay, and since I was a rogue I attempted to imitate e-famous rogues such as Reckful and Woundman. MLG was also not new to me, since I got to watch these players compete in what I imagined was the most prestigious video game tournament in the world.
It was a slow realization to how naïve I actually was. I never participated in the beta of Starcraft II (with deep regret), and when I picked up the game on release day, I immediately went to what I imagined was the core feature of the game: single player. I trudged through the missions on Easy, and I wasn’t disappointed with what I saw. In fact, I was so enthralled with the story that I consequently spent enough time with the campaign to complete it in two days. What I hadn’t realized was that this was only the beginning of a long and turbulent relationship with the game.
My friend “Neutrino”, whom I had played WoW with for years previously, challenged me to a match now that I was finished with the game. Feeling confident, I eagerly accepted his challenge and what resulted was a massacre. He had been playing the beta ever since it had become public, and his vast knowledge from it made it easy to make quick work of me. However, one quality that I’m known for is my inability to accept that someone is simply better than I am at something. With that in mind, I began my journey onto the ladder.
Like most new Starcraft II players, I began in the depths of Bronze league. I wasn’t disappointed, as I knew that this was an accurate reflection of my experience with the game. As a new Terran player, I was shocked by the ridiculous cheese strategies the other races possessed. The ability to place cannons in your opponent’s base or making a Spawning Pool on 6/10 supply to rush Zerglings at me was infuriating, and it gave me a steel motivation to stop these from being successful. The YouTube channel “HuskyStarcraft” became a favorite channel for me to frequent, and as I started grasping the very basics of the game I finally received my promotion to Silver league.
Upon reaching Silver league, I realized that I needed more detailed information about the game rather than watching play-by-plays. I loved Husky and the entertainment he and Pylo provided me, but it was time to move onto the next step. My discovery of Day[9] and his daily web show was revolutionary to me. Not only was this person extremely experienced with the game, the way he was able to articulate complex concepts to an audience in a simplified manner that anyone could understand was a turning my improving my gameplay. His 131st daily, “Back to the Basics – The Mental Checklist”, was so dramatically important in my growth that to this day I still share it with newcomers who are serious about getting better at playing Starcraft II.
The promotions to Gold and Platinum seem like a blur to me. Although nothing of grand excitement occurred during this time, my time in these leagues were primarily dedicated to improving basic mechanics such as remembering to constantly build SCVs, expanding at proper times, and making sure I had the appropriate units. One favorite moment that I do remember was the first time Neutrino used High Templars against me. I had never been more frustrated, seeing as my ball of Marines, Marauders, Medivacs, and Vikings had been all I needed before. I tried countless strategies on my own to negate their effectiveness: dodging storms, dropping him to kill off that tech before he could make too many, and other crazy ideas. I finally turned to the internet to realize that the simple answer of a Ghost EMP would shut them down, and my silly search had come to a (very) happy ending.
My time spent in Platinum league was a very hard time for me, both physically and mentally. I figured that since I had been receiving promotions at a steady pace, it would only make sense that my promotion to Diamond would come at a regular interval as well. My friend, Neutrino, no longer enjoyed playing with me since I had passed him in skill quite some time ago, which left me alone to forge a path to what I considered the mythical Diamond league to which I had aspired to for so long. Seasons passed, each time leaving me with disappointment as I was relegated to Platinum league once more. Many months of playing essentially alone passed before I finally decided to look for more friends who would want to play with me, and through some networking I managed to find a small group of students at my school who played the game. After playing together for awhile to get to know each other, we decided to see if we could form a team for the Collegiate Starleague. Our progress, despite being slow at first, ended up being more fruitful than we had expected. Boise State University, a small college in Idaho known for its blue football field, had managed to put together a team now composed of twenty-one players. On top of this, I was now in charge of creating the BSU Starcraft II club, where we could practice, watch, and enjoy the game together.
With work being in the mix, the amount of time I was able to practice was limited, and every chance I got to ladder became valuable to me. I started becoming frustrated, with each laddering session becoming a gigantic losing streak because of a newly developed habit of “rage laddering.” This came with physical issues as well, seeing as my constant APM spamming to relieve stress was in fact causing damage to my wrists. I ignored this problem for months and continued grinding in a similar manner, where small amounts of games would result in overall gains, but longer sessions ultimately resulted in catastrophe. The stress from friends didn’t make the issue any better, as my constant urge to prove myself was hindered by the little eagle symbol on the Platinum league icon. Jokes such as “perma-plat” and “I’ll do X when you reach Diamond league, which is never!” became increasingly popular. It was only after a long talk with a close friend that I realized that the way I had been playing the game was ultimately unhealthy for me, and if I wanted to continue to play and enjoy the game, I needed to approach it from a different perspective.
After this talk, my primary goal was to eliminate any worry of reaching Diamond league. I knew it was there, it wasn’t going anywhere, and when the game decided I was ready I would be there. In order for me to enjoy the game with the same passion that I had when I started, I needed to focus more on myself as a player rather than the system the game was based in. I started monitoring my playing, making sure that I took regular breaks whenever a frustrating loss caught my attention. During my rage laddering, I had also started ignoring replays, figuring that the best idea would be to get into the next game quickly and forget about it. I rectified this, ensuring that each time I lost I would go through the replay and understand what I could have done better the next time. Finally, I got outside help from players that were better than me in order to see problems in my play that were transparent to a player of my level. These things combined caused dramatic win streaks on match history that I was extremely proud of, and I realized that I was back on track.
The first, second, and third season all ended in the same league, with an equal level of frustration. When the ladder lock to start the fourth season happened, I knew that if it didn’t come to not become frustrated, and simply accept that I needed to practice harder in order to get there. I ended my third season with a win streak against a couple of Diamond players, and hoped for the best. The rest of the week was nerve-wracking, because the possibility of finally achieving what I had long hoped for might become a reality. When the ladder became unlocked, I woke up early to play my placement match. We spawned on Xel’Naga Caverns and my Zerg opponent decided to 6-pool me. After handling it quite easily, my opponent left with a “haha gg” and the wait to see my new division had ended:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/bpn3I.jpg)
I hope this story can provide some inspiration for other players, and lets them know that no matter how frustrating it becomes to never give up if you really want something!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KV2Ex.jpg)
GL at getting to masters!
