EPTOnly a few years ago, I rarely ever cared or heard about Starcraft. I was more of a isolated kid who is always clueless about the world. I have some friends in high school, both of them were really smart. One became the valedictorian of the school and the other became the salutatorian. They were the ones who introduced me to Starcraft about a good 4-5 years ago. I remember my friends were playing a game of Starcraft together smashing buttons like a madmen. I was intrigued. I mean they were clicking furiously and I was thinking "WTF are you guys doing?" They were both very focused and dedicated to playing the game in such way that I was surprised. I mean it was not a normal site to see people so dedicated to playing games like such. My friend Jared, the valedictorian, played the game with such elegance. He talked about strategies such as being on the high grounds with your units is very important and always keep your minerals low. I never understood what he meant at the time, but later I learned that keeping minerals low is equivalent to having good macro. There was one statement that he made that stood out in my mind. He said that he would go to Korea to play Starcraft as a sport and make money that way instead of going to college and such. I was confused with that statement because for the first time in my life, I learned that there is a whole culture dedicated to playing Starcraft as a sport. That was when my curiosity hit the roof.
I did some research afterwards to learn about the game and found that there was a second game in the making: Starcraft 2. Now I really didn't give the game a second thought since I was usually always busy with school work and after school activities, however, Starcraft 2 grew in popularity as the game moved to beta. During this time period, I have already graduated from high school and spend over a year plus in college. Both of my friends had already left to go their separate ways.
I remember way back then, I would be watching videos from the Youtube channels and there would always be some sort of Starcraft 2 videos on the popular game video list. I was introduced to HuskyStarcraft and HDStarcraft that way. Their passion for the game and the way the games were played was awfully inspiring. I used to waste ever so many hours just watching them commentate about certain games. I remember the HDH invitational as one of the beginning tournaments that I watched. This was also when I first learned about people such as Day9 and Tasteless, due to all the hype surrounding the match for some reasons I did not know then. The games were amazing and I was hooked on Starcraft 2. It's very funny now that I looked back to then. There is just so many hours that I spend watching Starcraft 2 tournaments and everything else.
I remember those days when old players were extremely good such as Tester and Fruitdealer. I remember those nights when I was pushing F5 buttons all the time trying to figure out which foreigner and korean players made it through the open brackets for GSL. Those nights I spend watching Starcraft 2 instead of doing anything else were quite spectacular. I would be extremely exhausted and stay up till hours passed my bed time. It just goes to show how much Starcraft has impacted my life. All those frustration I feel when my favorite players lost and all the pride I have when some of my favorite players won made me realize how passionate I am about Starcraft. I guess it was more or less of a self realization of how true sports fan felt about football, and other sports expect this was more. This was E-sport. I am amazed at how much hours I spend on the computer always lurking on Teamliquid finding news about Starcraft and others. The way the community had grown and the site has changed. I can tell that I am among one of many others who had traveled the path to discover how amazing Starcraft truely is.
I learned that in life, no matter what, find something I am passionate about and learn to love and cherish it. I just want to say "Thank you Starcraft, for introducing me to one of my greatest passion in life!!"
Luigi
