I’ve probably been talking shit for 8-9 months about playing in a tournament. I mean I can ladder all day but I’ll never know how good I am until I play in a tournament right? But as bad as the ladder anxiety is, there is NOTHING like tournament anxiety. I spend all this time watching these incredible nerd ballers play epic matches daily. I don’t even know how Fallen plays Playhems and in the Complexity Academy MLG qualifying tournaments. When I watch ThorZaIN or SeleCT or Fallen play in a big match, sometimes I have to walk away…it’s too much. It boggled my mind that I could play in something and might even win some money.
If we backtrack a couple weeks, you’ll find me learning a new build. It’s my take on the Slayers elevator build. I open 1/1/1, make 2 medivacs, and go 2 pronged hellion/marine drop. It’s followed by an expansion and standard bio play and double upgrades. I like the heavy pressure that this build gives me. I buy into SeleCT’s school of thought where if I’m not trying to apply pressure, I’m probably behind.
I also had this epiphany one day that hey….I can split the drop up and drop 2 places. Of course, since I only have ladder results to figure out how good this build is, I wanted to know how it’d fare in competition.
Fallen convinced me that we should both play in Playhem. He of course had a good reason, to practice up for MLG Columbus. For me, it was time to nut up or shut up. So Monday 2/13/2012, I signed up for a Playhem account and then registered for my first Gold-Platinum Playhem.
I was a fucking mess.
I think all I did was felt sick to my stomach, shake, eat, and ran through my build a few times against Very Easy computer. For 3 hours I was a royal fucking mess. I barely remember any of the time before the match.
Game time.
I play a Terran on Tal’darim Altar. I spawn at the 5 o’clock position and T spawns at 8 o’clock. I open 1/1/1 and I scout T going 1 rax fast expand. So I’m super excited, I think I have a build order win. At 8 minutes in, this is what the worker count is looking like. He’s obviously going to be ahead of me in workers since he has 2 command centers.
So I split my drops and start to do work.
It's a little hard to see but there is a dual-pronged drop. One in the main, and one at the natural.
I lose my hellions and a medivac but save most of my marines and their medivac. So at 9 and a half minutes, this is the result of my drop.
Pretty good drop and I’m ecstatic. T goes for the counter and I think I’m ahead. But look at my awesome play…
As you can see, I don’t have my units in the bunker. And I highlighted the factory tech lab…which shows an unfinished siege which I should’ve researched as a defensive measure. And so unfortunately, the result is:
What I learned this game? Random Viking shouldn’t be made. It needs to have a purpose. Don’t forget siege mode. And if I build a bunker, USE IT.
Sloppy play leads to losses.
I never understood the tournament nerves thing until now. I was completely spent after this whole experience. And it was a $5 Playhem against a Platinum player. Going from unnerved to excited to defeated within an hour time window was insane.
So please take pity on this poor, poor noob. I felt so silly that I made such mistakes but so incredibly excited that the build I had been working on for weeks worked. I’ll be competing in future Playhems and hopefully eventually move on to an MLG.
Here’s a good example of the build I was trying to go for. This build is an all in and against Protoss but it’s pretty much the same principle. Yes, I know I have another medivac and Kas' is way quicker. He's also Kas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odXQjAGWHtI#t=5m16
It's a probe BBQ!
And finally I’d like to thank Fallen for encouraging me to play in this tournament and Gaazu for being a super mannered opponent.
Yeah man ladder play and tournament play is a whole different mindset. I understand how you feel. I have played in a couple Starcraft tournaments, but mainly Street Fighter game tournaments.
I use to get so nervous playing in Street Fighter tournaments because I was scared of being eliminated from the tournament. Casually playing is different because if you win or lose it's ok because you're just practicing/having fun. In tournaments though it's like you're trying to see how far you've come with your training/practice. Nobody wants to lose early in a tournament. Money is on the line, reputation, and etc. I've been at big tournaments where there are people coming all over from the US and some from different countries and they are all watching from behind as I play and they're all screaming and yelling cheers and you just try to play through it without being bothered by it. After a while though I got less nervous. It's just crazy though because everyone is watching your every move.
Here's me in a one of my tournament games playing Guilty Gear.
At first I thought I'd keep him anonymous in case he didn't want to be talked about. But I wanted to thank him in my post. I didn't feel like making new screenshots so that's what happened. Not saying it makes sense, just what happened haha.
@Silentness
Dude I love Guilty Gear. And thanks for the response!
I remember when I first started playing in tournaments about a year or so ago. I would sign for anything that had an opening and was free to play, even if I'd get crushed. The first couple of tournaments I would be seeded near the bottom of everything, so I would get completely demolished first round lol. I had similar reactions to what you had. Super jittery and making silly mistakes, and eventually lose. Stayed manner, but still had fun and got to say that I participated in a tournament that "such and such big name player" played in. But, after signing up for things and taking the time out to participate I started to enjoy them a whole lot more than ladder!
Ladder's nice, it's a good way to track your progress. But tournaments, even online ones, just have such a different feel and energy about them. Everybody is intense, wanting to win, and people are more manner in general. After having tournament jitters I noticed that my ladder anxiety wasn't nearly as bad as it was to begin with.
Anyway, glad you participated in an event, and I hope you walked away with a positive experience even though you lost first round. Hopefully you'll decide to go back at it and give it another shot! c: c: c:
On February 19 2012 16:59 CPTBadAss wrote: @LuckyFool
At first I thought I'd keep him anonymous in case he didn't want to be talked about. But I wanted to thank him in my post. I didn't feel like making new screenshots so that's what happened. Not saying it makes sense, just what happened haha.
EPT
ThorZaIN or ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mj0dz.jpg )
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