EPTI'm SchAmToo, a 23 year old NYC resident. I've been playing games my whole life. Started very young with Wolf 3d, DooM, FF1, etc... I had all the consoles up until the latest gen (still don't have an XBox 360). And my brother and I played a lot together, my friends all played games, and just gaming nerdery all around! The big games that I can remember, where I got very serious, Star Wars Galaxies, Counterstrike Source, World of WarCraft, Command & Conquer Generals (and ZH), CNC3, SCBW(iCCUP), and then SC2. CCGZH was when I really started hitting my stride as a gamer. No laddering system, but my objective was simple, take on everyone with a winning ratio. Never say "no" to a game. And watch every replay. This crafted me into a spectacular player for the CNC series, and gave me the right mindset. I grew a little in terms of playing skill, but that series really only went so high. Eventually I realized how evil EA was when CNC3KW was out for about 4 months when they stopped patching it to prepare for RA3. I decided it was time to stop playing those games and just mingled until i came about SCBW from a friend...
SCBW changed the name of the game for me. I figured, "Hey, I was a top 250 CNC3KW player, this can't be so hard." Dead wrong. It took me weeks to last early game pushes and somewhat into mid-game. My micro from the CNC games hardly helped... it was peanuts to the iCCUP ladder. Soon I would start getting everything down pat, and SC2 beta was available. I switched over instantly and played nonstop. Instantly platinum (the highest back then, RIP). I played until release, then after release I heard that CyberCraft was a NYC place holding SC2 tourneys. I decided to check them out... but more on that later.
In terms of voice, and presentation, I always fancied myself as a good singer. In highschool i was part of a 4-man a Capella band called "Acapellocalypse" we sang a lot and I was the bass singer. I learned how to imitate many voices and played with my voice a lot. This taught me a lot of how to modulate and change my voice, useful when stuff is boring and when stuff hits the fan. The studying of music (bass player), and a little voice coaching lesson here and there helped me sculpt my voice to use it how i need to. I also learned very quickly from my brother and sister to be presentable, and mature in all situations, a "know your audience" kinda thing. I also like to think this really helps me understand the macro oriented goal of casting and helps me really portray my points, and not come off in a negative way. Eventually I developed a lot of mannerism and a "how do I seem to others" way to think of things, and I think it helps me out a lot in terms of being respectful, and respectable.
Sooo back to Cybercraft, i believe it's the second tournament ive been to of their's and everyone is watching the semi-finals and finals. I had been knocked out and Pokebunny was doing really well against Nesh, a former NA SCBW player. They had some impromptu mics and people casting and i was sitting in the back. I admit i was a bit cocky when the caster would say something i'd quietly in the back talk to the kids around me and say it was wrong and "this this this" was going to happen. Eventually enough people told me to go up and they asked one of the casters to put me in... I kinda just went from there. I realized I instantly loved it, and people really liked me too. My game knowledge backed by how i present the game i think really helped me out.
So i started doing it from my dorm, i would hold 1v1 nights for TLNY and we'd play a lot of games. I'd cast every cybercraft and things went really well...until.... Well this was back at school, and so when my school changed their networking policies, I got the short end of the stick. I couldn't cast anymore. Stream basically instantly lagged out. I could hardly even play SC2! I couldn't watch GOMTV either! Everything was gone for me. The only games i could really play were at 2am because thats when the load balancer was turned off, but still couldn't cast. For about 5 months my career as both a player and caster was shot...
Until now!
Now i'm casting the weekly ALT StarCraft Pro Arenas! And I applied to PlayhemTV, hoping that turns out well! I got the new mic which I still need to review (I haven't forgotten) but i figured I wanted to get my history down first! Huzzah!
