EPTMy journey into StarCraft began at the start of last year when I decided it'd be a good idea to buy StarCraft II. I played the old demo and thought it was pretty cool, I never got into StarCraft at all before this (I knew of it). I was proud of myself because I watched GSL one day and saw someone do a proxy 2rax. I tried it and beat the demo AI on hard. I was quite proud of myself.
I was aware of eSports, but not so much of ESPORTS. I followed the competitive HoN scene and didn't really care about much else. I'd heard of some of the big teams of course, FnaticMSI was the biggest name in HoN, along with SK, Online Kingdom and eventually EG. I knew SC2 was pretty big but never really gived much of a damn.
So I buy StarCraft II and play the campaign. It was alright. I always knew I wanted to play Protoss, it's totally my thing, the whole psionic thing. I was placed into Bronze, and wasn't doing very well. I even had a build, it wasn't very good, but it was quite refined. I looked over the internet and saw people laughing about how people in Bronze don’t know what they're doing and just build random units, I seemingly missed the party. (It turns out the party was on NA, which I figured out when I found out I got a free NA account and was placed in NA gold while still stuck in SEA bronze)
So Protoss wasn't going too great for me, I tried Zerg and liked it for some reason. What a fool I was! Yet I stuck with it, made it into Silver, and fell in love with one Greg "IdrA" Fields. I still have no idea why, nowadays I compare it to liking Justin Bieber as a kid and looking back with nothing but the most sincere ohgodwhy.jpg face, but anyway, ol' Greggors was my hero.
I didn't know what all of the units were. I didn't watch streams or live tournaments at all, all I knew of was YouTube. I watched TotalBiscuit and Husky and stuff like that, enlisting the help of good ol' SC2Casts.com to help me find games. I enjoyed it, even though I didn't understand the strategy, I don't really know where I found enjoyment. But it was there.
I was lurking TL from time to time, I never really had the motivation to make an account. After playing WoW for a while I considered TL to just be the SC2 version of the official forums, maybe SC2 had no official forums, or they were just shitty. I saw the login numbers, there were thousands of lurkers like me. I eventually made an account for whatever reason, and my journey had begun.
Things started evolving. I started watching GSL and some foreign tournaments, like NASL. I switched to Protoss, thinking that if I was gonna try and not be awful, I should play the race I always wanted to play. I remember I got an hour of coaching with desRow and that completely changed my game. Not that I had much of a game, but he was coaching me, and he was just like, more probes, more pylons. I was just like...wow...if you make probes and pylons...you can make lots of stuff…
So the year goes by, and I'm falling for SC2 pretty damn hard. I root for underdogs in most situations, I'm following tournaments even if I don't watch them. I didn't even watch most of last year's MLGs, but I found it quite fun just following who beat who in the open bracket. I still find amusement in it, I have no idea why, I think it just makes me a dull guy.
The Korean scene becomes more and more interesting to me. I'm not just liking the games being on at a time that's actually practical for me as an Australian, but I'm loving how it's a scene completely separated from everything else, and I love the culture. Not just the Korean progaming culture, but the Korean culture in general. I don't like kpop, I never listen to it, except for before GSL starts. Kpop feels StarCraft-y.
I don't know anyone in real life who follows SC2 at all, it feels like this sport and this world that I'm a part of that no-one else in reality is, if that makes any sense. The thing that changed that for me was when I found mOOnGLaDe in the streets of Brisbane and fangirl'd over him like you wouldn't believe. It's embarrassing in retrospect, but he was really nice and it was a great experience. I was so excited afterwards that I called a friend of mine who had no idea what SC2 was. I just had to tell someone. Yes, I'm an idiot.
I address you tonight, not as the caster of a league, not as a fan of a team, but as a citizen of ESPORTS.
Something awesome happens. FXO is going to Korea. Everyone doubts them, and rightfully so, but nevertheless, I'm hyped. I was in full fanboy mode. I was watching their stream from the GOM house, I watched every single one of their games. And then there was the fateful night when FXOpen eSports faced off against Incredible Miracle, and my life was changed forever.
FXO plays their last match of the season against the legendary IM. Everyone's expecting them to get rolled, the legions of people who decided they'd watch GSTL to see foreigners aren't really showing up like they did for the first few weeks. I'm watching anyway, doubtful, but still cheering anyway. And then, bandana man happened. qxc, a god amongst nerds, pulls of an incredible miracle of his own, makes a TL admin eat his shirt (which he didn't actually do
), and leaves me at home in tears.![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/heyoka/GSTL/qxc3.jpg)
qxc after his third win against IM
That was it. I've followed sport (mainly rugby league) here in Australia and got pretty attached to teams in games, like you do in sport, but nothing like this. It sounds pathetic, but that moment when qxc won, and you saw the look on his face when he left the booth, it was absolutely incredible. That was the moment when I knew that ESPORTS was a true passion of mine, in a dull life that didn't have many.
One man who will never lose his passion is djWHEAT.
As time goes on, I'm watching less and playing more. Towards the end of 2011 I broke up with my girlfriend of 4 years, which was (needless to say) quite a bummer. I didn't know what to do with myself. So I decided I'd play StarCraft full-time. Uni had just ended, I need some sort of goal, a focus to keep me going, so that was it. I was Platinum at the time. Diamond in a week. Masters 2 weeks later.
I joined my old Call of Duty 4 team, Ascension Gaming, I saw that they were playing SC2 and it was an obvious choice. I started following the SEA scene a bit more (sc2sea.com if you didn't know), and so I played in my first tournament, the Platinum and Diamond Clan League. We made the finals, I was hoping to play before that but never got a chance. I came out in the finals against a Zerg, which was by far my worst matchup. Not that it mattered, only GMs on ladder had stopped Lobber's warp prism immortal all-in.
Nerves got to me. It was on one of those stupid Blizzard ladder maps, and I had a full wall-in which I had to kill. I forgot extra gates, too, and my micro was poop. I failed in just about every way possible. Luckily for me, immortals are pretty good units, and I still won. Not that my contribution to the team was that big, but it still felt pretty cool.
It didn't take long before I realised that I am nowhere near close to having the work ethic and motivation that it takes to play StarCraft all day. I gained admiration for those who do, and in my mind somewhere I still kinda dream about being a pro, but in reality it's definitely not my thing.
Then I started to care less and less about SC2 and somewhat diversify myself, but it was all from TL. I realised that this website, this forum, everyone was similar to me. People have similar interests, similar mindsets, people are smart and quite awesome.
I want you to stop and think about something. Why are you reading this blog that you randomly clicked? Why do you look through pages of comments? Why do you argue back to that guy who said you were wrong? Does it give you enjoyment? Is it entertaining? I asked myself the same question. Was I bored? I dunno, not really. I just did it. I don't know why then, and I still don't know why now.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/Hyde/SPL_gfx/11_12_SPL_GF_RECAP/LR_ss/6flashwontgoquietly.jpg)
Flash's doom drop in my favourite BW game so far, Fantasy vs Flash from SPL
Team Liquid led me to discover Brood War, which I now enjoy watching more than SC2, though I still follow SC2 closely. The General forum has mostly stuff that I care about. Sports & Games has stuff that I'd probably like to play. I just feel like I fit in around here, which has been a rare occurrence in real life.
And so I've spent a year of my life posting over 10 posts a day on a forum about a videogame. Pretty depressing, huh? I thought so for a while, now it's just normal. Now it's just part of who I am. Team Liquid has become like my home away from home.
I see people say things like "oh, why does progamer x even bother replying to randoms on the forums", and it kinda bothers me. Yeah, you have no reason to recognise my name, nor should you. Yeah, I'm not known for anything, and don't really contribute anything valuable. But I love ESPORTS. And it's not just me. I want to say 'every', but I'll have to settle for 'most'; most people who complain about events are doing it because they love ESPORTS, whether it's present in their minds at that moment or not.
iNcontroL preaches the gospel of StarCraft II
StarCraft II is pushing the boundaries. Live event turnouts are great, the crowds need to work on their passion, but aside from that everything's getting better and better. There are so many interesting developments with organisations, KeSPA, teams, leagues, players rising and falling, stories and drama, and so on.
That's about all I had to rant about. It wasn't very cohesive and it doesn't really have a point at all. I just wanted to say why ESPORTS is awesome and that Team Liquid is full of awesome people. Elitist, snarky, sarcastic, passionate awesome people.
<3
