EPTI first started discovering the world of RTS games when I bought my first copy of Age of Empires 2, at this point I was the only one in my circle of friends really playing RTS games. We didn't have good internet at my house back in the day, and so I was limited to playing vs. the computer over, and over again. I loved it! (yes I did use cheat codes, but hey who hasn't at one point or another? =P) This was all I would ever do. Come home from school, and play a game or two depending on how many I could fit into my 30min gaming limit. Eventually I found a group of friends who also played AoE2. This was right around the time Age of Empires 3 came out.
The six of us played AoE3 all the time (I played the French), we would set the game to 30min treaty and macro up huge economies and then throw armies at each other for hours. I think our average game lasted 2-3 hours with our longest being 4. Yeah they were kind of intense, but it's AoE there's not a ton of micro involved.
This leads me directly to SC2, my best friend Patrick, who played AoE3 with me had a younger brother named James, who had played Broodwar a bit. He bought SC2 the moment it came out and about a month or two later I was over at their house when he asked if I wanted to play. I said, "yeah of course!" He stuck me in a custom game, and I got matched up against a rank 30 Diamond (this was before there was masters league).
Needless to say, I was dead, but I didn't know that at the time. He asked me which race I wanted to be, and I said, "Terran!" When he asked why, I said, "because they have nukes!" I entered the game, and he said, "okay don't rush straight for nukes because you'll die to an early push." h I replied with a well thought-out strategy, "Lets rush him!" Keep in mind my APM at this point in time was around 10, so I gear up to do a marine rush! It was a solid push of 7 marines around the 10min mark. I died. Quickly. However I became intrigued, this game was complex, I had to actually build units before the 30min mark, and I had to think about expanding. (In AoE 3 you have mills (endless food), Plantations (endless gold) and Factories (endless wood)) This whole concept of managing limited resources was totally new to me.
I bought the game that week, decided I had performed well in the game against the diamond, so I skipped Practice league and got placed into bronze! I had decided I would play Protoss for the entirety of my SC2 career, and started working on my first build (I switched to Zerg shortly after). You know the Day[9] Funday Monday about the carrier rush? Well that was me. Except like I did in AoE3, where I would always build up an early economy, I would expand before I got any units. Now this wasn't remotely close to the 1gate expand. It was my patented no gate, triple expo, into 120 probe, carrier rush... Sadly I actually won a few games with this. >.<
Anyway after playing 3's with Patrick and his brother they got me to watch Husky's videos (I believe they wanted me to improve much more rapidly than I was). I watched a few and they were great! I watched as Pylo was named and murdered (I think I watched that cast a few times). After a while I began to idolize WhiteRa, however I was looking for someone to fulfill a role that Husky wasn't, at least for me. I was looking for a teacher.
Enter Day[9], the first daily I ever watched, I watched live, and it was the Probes and Pylons daily. After watching this, and having his voice in my head every game saying, "BUILD PROBES, NOW BUILD PYLONS!" I finally got out of Bronze and actually ground all the way up to gold! This was a revolutionary concept to me. I need to build probes, but I also need pylons? It was around this time I really started to get into this game.
Starcraft 2 is a game that you cannot master, and every game is unique. It's a challenging intellectual activity. When InControl talks about his competitive nature, I swear he is describing me. I took part of a debate team, was terrible at the beginning, and then my final year I took 16th at nationals, in Team Policy. Yes that was a brag =) I am competitive, I have a drive to succeed, and I won't settle for failure.
That's my history in RTS gaming, if you're still with me we are now to the meat of my post. The Starcraft 2 Community. For those of you lucky enough to have gone to PaxEast, you will recall Day[9] saying, "look next to you. That is a friend right there, you both play Starcraft." He pretty much describes the community as a whole. We have something special here guys, and gals, an insanely diverse community made up of people all over the country, and the world. People that are willing to help you out, to practice with you. People who will give you advise, whether you ask for it or not =P. We have a community that gets excited when a member succeeds, a community built on mutual respect over a game.
That is why we always hear about how nice the SC2 community is. It's because we respect one another as a fellow competitor, and we know that on the other side of the screen is another nerd putting their heart into a 15 min game. We can expect them to do whatever is within their power to win, and we know if we do win, it is because we played to the best of our abilities.
This game is more than a game. That statement is proven by everyone who was moved by Day[9] Daily 100, or the footage of Artosis at WCG 2005. We all have stories, stories as unique and powerful as the ones listed above. Stories that brought us to where we are today. Stories of crushing defeat, and of sweet victory. For those of you who watched the Starcraft Bible's intro, the line, "witness a keystroke of genius" has stuck with me ever since I watched that video. It identifies something about this game, it's more than a game. When preformed masterfully it can be as deep and fulfilling as any art form.
Our community is blessed in many ways. One of the most important being the Pro's and their Accessibility. What other community has Pro players offering personal lessons to the worst players in the game? How many communities have people like Mr. Bitter, or ChanmanV. People that are willing to put money down, and give all of us access to great Vods of coaching sessions? Let me tell you I have never watched a replay the same way after I saw the replay lesson Mr. Bitter had with InControl. Look at State of the Game and Inside the Game, we are getting high level insight and some good laughs for free. All from people that are good at the game we all love.
At PaxEast, the StoG panel brought up a good point. We need to support the Pros. They are creating a product and allowing us access to it for free (save the occasional commercial) via their streams. You don't get that in sports like Football, or basketball. You don't get that kind free entertainment. Sure you can watch a football game on the television for free, but you don't get to watch their practice. Companies are paying for advertising, they are paying for you to see their product, to increase the likelihood you will buy it. In traditional sports you are watching players that are making millions of dollars playing the game they love. Our pro's don't have the luxury of that kind of salary, hell a lot of them are working jobs, and then coming back to play. So the question is, how can we support them? I have a few answers.
1) Watch them. I know this one is simple, and we hear it all the time, but look companies buy advertising on football stadiums because viewers, well, view them. The same concept can be brought over to SC2. More companies will likely sponsor teams if they stand to gain customers. Now you might say the cultural stigma that comes with gaming in general is a disincentive for companies to invest, however I would argue that if we start being loyal to the companies that are supporting Esports, and give impressive viewing numbers we will see an increase in sponsorship. Not just from gaming related industries, but others as well.
However that is the key, we have to be loyal. Who sponsors your favorite player? Personally, I enjoy Team EG and all of the content they have been producing. So, when I need my keyboard replaced I'll be purchasing Steelseries. However, there is no real way for companies to identify that I purchased a keyboard from Steelseries because they sponsor EG. Luckily we have the option to tell them. Find their twitters/Facebook pages/emails or whatever means of communication you can find, and tell them, "I purchased X product, because you support Team Y, or Player Y. If we can prove that it is a net benefit to sponsor teams/players/and tournaments. The money will come.
2) Donate to them. There is no reason we need to wait for companies to get involved. If we as a community come together, and donate say, 10 dollars each to a team or individual, we could theoretically help sponsor them ourselves. You don't need to look any further than Reddit, and their sponsoring of MKP which allowed him to attend MLG. Say just 10,000 of us (I realize that's a lot) gave $10/ea, that's $100,000 that would be infused directly into the game. That's the same as another major tournaments prize pool. What could a relatively unsponsored team do with 100k? Tons.
I really like what Total Biscuit did with his most recent Shoutcraft Invitational. The whole tips system, rewarding players for their hard work even if they don't win the whole tournament. I.E. Darkforce, he played some sick games vs. Thorzain and was rewarded for them. I say we as a community make a habit of "Tipping" individual players.
Those are a few simple ways we can support them.
That is not the only way our community is blessed, and likewise is not our only job. My personal favorite aspect of our community is our ingenuity. What gaming community came up with Barcraft, that brought a ton of publicity, in both newspapers/journals and every day conversation to the E-sports scene? Oh that's right. Ours. What community has brought a ton of money into E-sports, money that has not only helped our scene, but others grow. Oh that's right. Ours. What community is surprising me every single day with creative user submitted content? Oh that's right. Ours.
We are the community that grew from a few benches at MLG to being on the main stage. We are the community that has outstripped growth predictions, surpassing even the most optimistic figures. We are a community that is philanthropic, we have supported numerous charities through streaming marathons.
Do me a favor. Watch this video + Show Spoiler +. You don't have to watch the entire thing, just the first few minutes. What are you doing to support the game you love? Don't think of an idea, and say, "what if it doesn't work?" Give it a try, you have a community behind you. Don't be afraid to ask for help. We can all pitch in. We all have free time, make the most of it. Let us vow to continue to grow our community. To continue to support the players. To continue to go to live tournaments. We can look back on this year, as a year we took part in a movement. A movement to create what was only a dream a year ago. This coming year, let's not settle for growth alone, let's get SC2 mainstream.
Let's start here. Want to reply? Do so with a link to your favorite, community created content. Whether that's a TempoSC song, a Nerdalert song, a highlight video or a video like the one I linked.
If you have an idea on how we can grow the SC2 scene, even if it isn't totally flushed out yet, use this as a place to garner some support by linking to your thread. If you're willing to help, or have a specific skill set you wouldn't mind using to grow this community make a post saying, "I am a graphic designer by trade, I wouldn't mind donating a few hours to help someone with their idea."
Our community is already tightly knit, let's work together to achieve the goals we all have.
The future is only as bright as we make it.
