How TL and MLG Columbus Rekindled My Passion

Warning: Life story incoming!

On July 27, 2010 I walked into my local GameStop to pick up a game I had awaited for over 10 years - Starcraft 2. Even though I wasn't able to play in the beta, I couldn't wait to pop the CD into my new laptop and start playing. Once I did, my life would change forever.

Like many people who picked up SC2, I had no idea about the rich history of Starcraft at the time. Basically I was in awe of the incredible graphics and gameplay, and I was brought back to my childhood where I would play Custom Games in Brood War on Battle.net for hours on my 56K connection (my least favorite was "Kerrigan Nude!!"; what a tease). However, as I started to play more and traverse into the scary world of the Battle.net 2.0 ladder, I wanted to improve and learn everything I could about the game. Even when I was at work, I would search for any information possible concerning SC2. Of course, eventually that led me here to the glory and wonder of TeamLiquid.net.

All of a sudden, I had more SC2 information than I knew what to do with. People were discussing build orders, streaming games, and having tournaments for cash prizes! Honestly it blew my mind that there was so much going on for a video game. Then I figured out that people actually got paid to play on teams! How in the world did that happen? Now I was hooked.

Before I go any further, I just want to let you in on my background as a gamer. Although I had no experience with competitive Starcraft or any RTS, I have been a "professional" Pokemon TCG player for over 10 years - and, yes, Pokemon does have a tournament scene. Out of the eight US National Championships that have been held, I have placed 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th; nobody has come close to matching those results. To give you an idea, the most recent one had over 900 players in the 15+ age division, so these are large tournaments. Anyway, the reason I was so blown away by the amount of coverage for SC2 is because of how little there is for Pokemon. Even though the passionate fanbase is there, there are no streams of games or tournaments. To put it bluntly, the competitive Pokemon scene is in a rut; the same tournaments happen every year, and nothing new or exciting comes up. As such, my interest began to wane in the game even though I had done so well at it for so long. While the player base has risen constantly over the past 8 years, the prize support for tournaments has fallen just as constantly.

Yes, that is a giant Pikachu.

So, I started playing SC2 more than Pokemon. Even though I started as a lowly Bronze leaguer who just wanted to make Battlecruisers and Nuke people, I started to move up the ranks as I figured the game out more. Within a few months, I managed to get promoted to Diamond (back when that was the highest league), and I was playing as much as possible. Since I had gone up to the highest league possible, it was time to start entering some tournaments.

At first, the results were as you would expect; I would maybe win a game against someone in Bronze/Silver, but then I would get crushed by a good player. After a few tournaments, I got into one where I won a few rounds, and I had my first experience with my games being streamed. Unfortunately, I got cheesed two games in a row in a TvT by a player named OmasterPKM, and I was thoroughly embarrassed in front of all 25 stream viewers. Still, it just inspired me to work harder and get better. Plus, it was cool to have my friends watch me play.

A few weeks later, I got pretty deep into a tournament and actually ended up advancing to the Winners Bracket Finals (but I did get a bye in a late round). Now I just had to win a single Best 2/3 series to win the entire tournament! Unfortunately, my opponent was a player rated much higher than me, and I knew I was in for a tough series. As expected, I lost any game that was not on an extremely Terran favored map. Quickly I lost the first series 2-1 (with a win on Jungle Basin), and the games were not pretty; he was destroying me. Simply put, he was the better player, and I was being embarrassed once again on stream. After he won Game 1 of the second series, I confidently took my free win - Steppes of War. As expected, he went for an all in, and I defended it easily. Now we were down to one game to decide it all! After looking back on the series so far, it was clear to me that I had not put on enough pressure, so he was allowed to Drone up freely and crush me. With the way the map choosing worked, we had exhausted all options except for one - Blistering Sands. If there's anything I can appreciate now, it's how much the maps have improved...

Remember when this was a regular tournament map?

Long story short, I went for an early push and killed him with no real resistance. After the game, he said his keyboard actually died when I went for the push (and his APM did drop to like 10 in the replay), but he conceded the win anyway. Just like that, I had won my first tournament with my friends and family watching! After all of my hard work, I got the enormous first place prize - $25. Even though I had played on big stages with a lot on the line before for Pokemon, it was nerve wracking playing a game I was not as familiar with, so it was a rush to get a victory. Now I was dedicated more than ever to playing and getting better. Maybe I could be a professional SC2 player! (I am Terran, after all.)

Around this time I started to watch GSL for the first time. Needless to say, I was blown away yet again. You're telling me they have a television studio JUST for Starcraft? How cool is that? If I remember correctly, one of the first matches I got to watch was the Round of 8 showdown between BoxeR and NaDa. Although I had no idea about the history of these two players, the hype around it had me worked up anyway, and it didn't let me down. From there, I was trying to watch as much SC2 as possible, including the wonderful streams listed here on TL. When I couldn't stay up to watch GSL, I would check the live report threads at work to see what happened. Once I found Day[9], I was more interested in watching than I was in playing, but I continued to play regularly.

Over the next few months, I began to realize just how bad I was at the game compared to professional players. If I wanted to be better, I would need to play a lot more. When they introduced the Masters League, I was promoted quickly, so I figured I was on track. Unfortunately, that whole real life thing got in the way, and school and work took up a lot of my SC2 time. At some point, I'm sure I neglected going to class so I could play more Starcraft, but things were fine for the most part. After scrubbing out of several tournaments and having my mouse break, I started to get discouraged and played less. In fact, I remember playing in a Map of the Month tournament where I blew an absurd lead because my mouse stopped working in the middle of the match. Then I lost the next match because I didn't form a complete wall with my buildings. Looking back, a lot of my streamed games have been pretty embarrassing... oh well.

In November or December of 2010 I got a call from my mother with some shocking news - she had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. At first, I was in shock. Where did that come from? With my motivation in school already waning, this put me into a deep funk. For whatever reason, I stopped going to class and work, and I ended up withdrawing from Marquette University in my final semester before I was supposed to graduate; I had lost the motivation to do anything. During that time, SC2 became my escape from reality.

Thankfully, we got news that my mother's tumor was benign, and she would be fine. Clearly I was relieved, but that didn't motivate me for some reason. Over my college career, I had been a solid student enrolled in the Honors Program for seven semesters, but now I had no desire to finish school. So, I continued to play SC2, but I noticed I was no longer improving. When you play Starcraft without a clear head, you tend to make dumb decisions, which lead to even dumber decisions, and then the game becomes unenjoyable. With everything going on, I was becoming frustrated in general - life tilt.

Then, one day I stumbled onto a post from ROOTqxc about putting together a research team - something that was never done before. After looking over the application topics, I decided to write an (extremely long) article on how NaDa could have avoided blowing his games against MarineKing during their base races in GSL. To my surprise, I was accepted, and I became a part of the first Starcraft 2 Research and Development team. Above all, I got to talk with qxc; I used to watch this guy stream all the time! In the coming weeks, I posted a bunch of theories and strategies I had in mind and did lots of testing. In fact, I can say with confidence that I was somewhat responsible for qxc's horrific mass air build against White-Ra at the IEM Global Championships. Every week we had meetings on Skype to discuss different topics, and we had created our own little community. While I haven't had the time to contribute to the group for quite some time, I would encourage you to check out their work if you haven't already - Star2RnD.

Sorry, qxc.

By the time Spring rolled around, I had gotten a few of my Pokemon friends into watching SC2, and we all discussed how cool it was that the game had so much coverage. "Why doesn't our game have anything like this?" we started to wonder. Would it be so hard to start streaming games of Pokemon? Could we start providing tournament footage? At the time, we had all agreed that we should try something, but it was an idea and nothing more. After all, we were just a few competitive Pokemon TCG players who had no idea what we were doing.

By this time, I had started working again and returned to a normal life - but fitting in SC2 whenever I could. Pretty soon some big news came out that Korean players would be coming to MLG Columbus. Wow, talk about exciting! Now I get to watch players like MC face off against my favorite foreigners? Just like everyone else, I was pumped. A few days later, my friend Matt asked if I wanted to go with him to the event, and I was interested to say the least. Fortunately I was able to get the days off work, and before I knew it we were off on a 7-8 hour trip to Columbus, Ohio. In the past, the National Championships for Pokemon were held in the same place, so it was a nostalgic feeling coming back.

During those three days in Columbus, I had some experiences I won't forget. When we got there on Thursday, Matt and I decided to visit the convention center to take a look around. Right away we saw all of the Korean players being guided around the building - Losira, Moon, MC, and MMA. Then, we were able to sneak into the main hall as they were setting up to get a peek, which was really cool. We tried looking for the relay race that was supposed to happen, but there was nobody outside, so we went back to our hotel for the night. Turns out the race happened about 10 minutes after we left... bummer.

For anyone who was there, Friday at MLG Columbus was unforgettable. In addition to the awesome atmosphere and venue, the day started off with Idra getting a 2-0 victory over the fabled MC. Amazingly enough, the rest of the day did not fail to disappoint, and we stayed the entire day to watch all of the matches. At some point I ran into someone from the Star2RnD, DarthCaesar, so it was cool to meet someone I had talked with online. Eventually I found qxc as well and introduced myself, and it was great to be able to talk with him for a little while. What an awesome day.

When all of the matches were over, Matt and I waited to see if any of the casters would emerge from behind the curtains to sign autographs or anything like that. To our delight, the one and only Day[9] came out to greet his fans. Even though he was visibly tired (and sweaty), he took the time to talk to each and every person who was waiting for him. Every time a new person came up, he simply would shake the person's hand and say, "Hi, I'm Sean! Nice to meet you!" Without a doubt, I was amazed at how friendly everyone in the SC2 community was over the course of the weekend. As I was waiting patiently to get an autograph, the couple in front of me had made a sweater for Manfred as a gift for him; his reaction was priceless. When it was my turn, I gave him a Pikachu plush as an ambassador from one community to another. Then I asked for his autograph, which resulted in an awkward moment of him signing my Pokemon playmat that I had to press against my chest because there were no tables around. In a creepy voice he said, "Look me in the eyes while I do this!" Good times...

Hanging out with Day[9]!

In the following days, the tournament got better and better. Certainly Championship Sunday is a day that will never be forgotten, especially for Idra. When Halo and Call of Duty had finished, Starcraft 2 was put on all three big screens. Quickly I grabbed a seat so I could catch the action. To nobody's surprise, the final three players were Korean - MC, Losira, and MMA. However, the surprise is that there were not enough seats to hold all the people trying to watch the finals. Every single chair was occupied, and there were people standing almost all the way to the door trying to get a glimpse. It was amazing how many people had showed up just to watch SC2.

Right there, it all sank in. Everything about MLG Columbus was similar to a Pokemon event - the people, the excitement, and the passion. People had come from all over the country - maybe even the world - to unite for a game. What was the difference between MLG and Pokemon, then? The answer was simple - production and coverage. Knowing that it is a spectator event, MLG has giant screens for everyone to watch and streams for the people at home. What does Pokemon have? Well, it has none of that. If I want the game I love to get bigger, this needs to happen at our tournaments.

So, at that point I was determined to do what I could to make the Pokemon TCG grow. Thanks to Team Liquid and MLG Columbus, I found my passion again for the game I love. Shortly after the event, I formed a group with three of my friends called The Top Cut that is dedicated to promoting and growing the Pokemon TCG. Using SC2 as a model, we have started streaming, event coverage, and more. Even though we are just four guys on a shoestring budget, we have made great strides in a short amount of time. We were the first group to get permission to record and upload matches from the World Championships, and we're hoping to upgrade the production quality so that we can get a taste of what SC2 has. Maybe we can attract sponsors if we generate enough attention so we can have bigger tournaments; who knows? Even if it doesn't happen, I'm going to do whatever I can to make this work.

Don't get me wrong; I still love Starcraft. Even though I rarely play anymore, I continue to watch it, and I am a firm supporter of eSports. However, my first passion is the Pokemon TCG, and SC2 helped me remember that.

Ultimately, I wanted to share my story with you to show what kind of an impact a community like Team Liquid can have on people. Even though TL does have its trolls, the majority of people are incredible and helpful beyond belief. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for allowing me to be a part of your community.

-Pooka

How TL and MLG Columbus Rekindled My Passion

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming