EPTThrough the TL community,my stream and blog posts, I met a couple players that not only were great at helping me with my game play, but also have proven to be good friends as well.
It's no secret that I am not the best player around, or that I have many holes in my game. I am privileged to have found a group of players that point these things out to me, and are willing to help me practice these things as well. It takes a certain amount of selflessness that these players are showing to help someone as far behind in the game as me, and to be as patient as they are with the amount of stupid questions and things that I do Hahaha.
Which brings me to a specific player that I would like to commend and mention in this blog post.
His screenname is Akuji, and he is not only a great SC2 player and a great teacher, but from all that I can tell, a great person as well.
At first Akuji and I simply chatted sharing life experiences as both of us have had extreme health issues that have kept us back in real life. I could tell then that Akuji was an inspirational player and had his mind in the right place in both his real life, and in his SC2 training. Dealing with the health problems that he has dealt with, and to have the attitude and accomplishments that he has had thus far, is nothing to scoff at. I am not exaggerating when I say he is inspirational.
Last night he practiced TvZ with me for over 5 hours, and let me bounce ideas and strategies off of him, basically showing me the ropes of what to expect from Masters zerg play. Needless to say the amount of information and quality of time we spent playing will pay off for me, so I must thank him for all the time he spent (he is a very good teacher).
I know that Akuji's motto is "train hard, train often" no doubt engrained in his Martial Art experience. I feel that this is something that everyone from any discipline (from SC2 to martial arts to education to your occupation) should follow. In every situation, you should find something to improve upon.
I think a good example of this could be seen from his perspective, as playing against someone as easy as me should not be "practice", he found things within his macro game (creep spread, injections, timings etc) that he could work on for those 5 hours.
Train hard, train often, ALWAYS.
