EPTJust wanted to kind of talk about my current life situation; Currently on summer break from school and just playing a lot of sc2/dota2/Drift City and chilling with friends from my hometown while I'm back. I've also began studying Korean for my study abroad @ Ewha in the fall.
As everyone knows the WCS US Qualifier is coming up during this MLG @ Anaheim, spots for which have been going like hotcakes in various tourneys like Playhem and BeyondGaming. As soon as Playhem began running tournaments for spots me and my friends from Rutgers tried to qualify constantly. But every time, we'd all get eliminated (getting pretty damn close, ro8 and ro4 performances by my main ladder/playhem br0s iPZeuS and Mike). It was a shame, considering how much we all really wanted to go - who doesn't want a free flight to Cali right?
Near the beginning of May the CSL ran their WCS qualifier tournament for collegiate players, the top 8 of which would receive one of the invites. Me and the rest of my Rutgers buddies all knew that this was easily our best chance to qualify. The problem was that the tourney was scheduled during finals week, almost throughout the entire nation (cmon br0s). This basically ensured that most of us would not be trying to qualify, but me, ZeuS (Dan), and exvoid/DuSk (Scott) played that day. Also my friend from highschool chenagi(Ray) who goes to Rutgers Newark decided to make an appearance.
This was probably one of the luckiest days of my life, as the randomly generated bracket Gods took pity on me and gave me a modestly challenging bracket. All players were at least mid masters, which I usually end up taking too lightly but that day I took no risks and played every game @ 100%. First matchup was a PvZ vs Isaac1729, a decently rated zerg who I took lightly because his ladder record wasn't too impressive. After narrowly winning game 1 from behind I ended the series game 2 with a 1 base allin on Dual Sight (map is broken imo pvz).
My heart sank as I realized that my next opponent was a 1300 point rated protoss the previous season named Bargrak. PvP is definitely not my strong suit, so I felt that if my tournament run were to end, it would end here. However, I felt confident in my control that day and knew that if I won here I would definitely qualify. After 3 tense games that all ended in under 10 minutes for each I came out on top. In the mean time, I checked on my friends statuses - Scott went down to FGSonata (who went on to win a spot) 2-0, Dan won over AGIANTGHOST 2-1 after some lag issues but lost to Fitzyhere 2-0, and Ray lost to tGensulitor 1-2. I was really proud of him for actually coming very close to defeating a former coL Academy player with purely learning the game on his own for the most part.
Round 3 I was up against a mid-low masters rated zerg named Slam. The games were not very interesting and I won the series 2-0.
Round 4, the last round of the tourney I was up vs POlar, one of UCI's captains and one of the players who defeated Rutgers last season in the CSL. It was a grudgematch for me and I did not want to lose here - I had to get revenge for our team. Almost every game was a very strong 1 base by him which I had trouble adapting to at times and in the end I won the slugfest 3-2. After that series I was incredibly happy...I had finally won a real tangible prize from an online tournament, even if it wasn't actually a "1st place".
SO
Since then, I've been practicing sc2/playing ESEA matches with my team Impressive Play. We're unfortunately out of the runnings for playoffs this season but I hope that we continue to the end the season with a relatively strong record. I was also made an A-team member today after some decent results in clanwars (including 2-1 victory over vVvRockEr, which I'm quite proud of). I also received the first signs of an actual itinerary from MLG for the event - having been emailed the information for my arriving/departing flights. Still waiting on hotel info though, I'm sure that will come within the next few days.
I'm really happy for this opportunity to finally play/see an MLG tournament, as this will be my first. Thankfully MLG reserved spots for WCS players and will accommodate for those of us who will be playing in both tourneys. I really want to meet all my favorite pros and casters and I finally will have a chance (especially maybe a hi to those who I might see while I'm in Korea this fall!).
I guess that's all that's on my mind right now. I've been tilting slightly on ladder lately, having a hard time going above a 50/50 win ratio. I am also streaming almost daily from 9 PM til late night, which has been a lot of fun. kk, cya til' the next one.
