EPTI went to SoCal's Barcraft run by...well...I don't remember the guy who runs it. It's the one that has the TT esports sponsor and has giveaways. I've also heard some unsavory rumors about them pressuring other barcraft organizers in the area to close up so they could focus on one larger one. That's completely irrelevant here, though.
What is relevant, however, is that it was my first time attending these guys' barcraft. It was unfortunately quite a drive for my friends and I. To be honest, going to this event was something we decided on largely because we wanted to meet up and eat somewhere. MLG's Spring Arena Finals just happened to be occurring today, so we decided, "why not?".
I'm one of those relatively old school hipster BW fanatics. I started following around 2006/2007ish, so I'm not an old-old-timer, though. But still, when SC2 was released, everything changed way too quickly for me. TL went from having the same 30 or so people writing in topics to hundreds. SC2's forum got moved above BW's. The same forum stalkers used to be more or less familiar with one another, and lots of inside jokes circulated constantly, with friendly links quickly posted to their origins when someone new came around. Any time any TL'ers at all were in Korea, they were encouraged to contact lilsusie to hang out. Foreign "pros" still posted on the forums.
SC2 was a decent game, but there were things I just couldn't accept. I didn't like how different it was largely because of how in love with BW I am. I didn't like the design flaws people have been pointing out since the game was first released to beta. I still, to this day, don't like unlimited unit selection, MBS, or even automine. I don't like the way the units clump, I don't like the messy death ball vs death ball battles, I don't like force fields, I don't like the high unit DPS, and I don't like how your income scales with worker count so severely.
I'm not good enough at the game to be able to say anything with definite authority. I just don't like those things. I kept following the pro scene mainly 'cause of the old boys' club and a few new faces (Idra, Nony, and Ret in particular, and I like Hero, Destiny, and Thorzain, to name a few), and because I really appreciated and was amazed by the scene's growth. MLG, IPL, Dreamhack, and all the others have done an absolutely fantastic job with SC2, and I like the direction it's heading in.
That's all peripheral, though. In the end, I just got bored of the game. I stopped watching games and streams, and I pretty much stopped posting on TL, only perusing the blogs, sports and games, and the BW forums. Apart from the excitement of esports' growth, I just couldn't get past everything I disliked about SC2, and I stopped finding it enjoyable at all.
So today at the Barcraft I noticed, after we were seated, that Dustin Browder was sitting at the table next to us with his wife and kids. It was the middle of the grand finals between Symbol and Violet, and they were finishing up their lunch as we were ordering our food. We were a bit low in energy, nursing hangovers from the previous night, and just wanted our chicken wings and some water. The crowd itself was pretty thin. The organizers jokingly blamed Diablo 3 as the culprit when they came by and said hello.
Then, Violet went for his Roach/Baneling all-in on Cloud Kingdom. I rolled my eyes, thinking, "Oh boy, another SC2 all-in...". But next to us, Dustin Browder suddenly cheered and clapped, cutting through the hockey fans in the room next to us, and brought some energy back into the room, overpowering the relatively low-key gasps of others. I nearly jumped.
I observed him a bit more closely for the rest of my time there after that. He was having a great time, and was getting genuinely excited for the game. He wasn't trying to get us other nerds in the room riled up, he was just having fun. He excitedly pointed every cool tactic to his wife or to his friend and had his back straight with attention during every tense moment. Even when they moved on to playing VODs of the KeSPA PL's inaugural BW/SC2 match from the night before, he couldn't contain himself when By.Sun FF'd off Jaedong's workers when he went for that last ditch drone pull. He excitedly turned to his friend, exclaiming while laughing, "oh wow, he just didn't need to do that. He knows he's got this...".
For me, it was infectious Sitting next to him for just those few hours and witnessing his excitement over the game (despite being so closely involved with it from before the beginning) completely changed my perspective on the game. This wasn't an interview or a commentating gig. There were no interviews or press - this was him and his family having a good time on a Sunday.
I started seeing the game in the way I imagine he did. The game's flaws stopped mattering to me, and my cynicism was suddenly suppressed. It became fun to watch again. I'm still having trouble explicating just what happened, but something significant definitely did. I started getting excited again. I started discussing the games with my friends with energy. I excitedly recounted the histories of the BW players playing SC2. I was on the edge of my seat for VODs I already knew the results for. Hell, when we got back, we watched some SC2. I'm watching SC2 now on my other monitor as I'm writing this.
I'm genuinely excited about SC2 now, and this is different than any excitement I've ever felt towards it before. Nearly everything about the game is refreshing again, and it's all because we got seated next to Dustin Browder and his contagious and genuine passion and enthusiasm for the game.
I've been playing Blizzard games since I picked up a copy of Vanilla SC. These are great people making games they love as best they can. SC2 isn't the best and it has its problems, but it's definitely not bad, or even good - it's great. We can and should discuss those problems, but those problems are only a part of what is ultimately an exciting game to spectate, and an amazing scene to follow. I had fun today, and I'm going to continue having fun.
Thanks, Dustin Browder.
tl;dr: Just read it.
EDIT
Just made some grammatical and flow corrections.
