EPTLast Years post: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?topic_id=272707
Last year I found myself in the same boat because, I went through a bit of a personal change in regards to my hobbies and interests aka I was introduced to the world of Esports. Whether it were roommates, family, friends, viewers, news articles, and etc. I would always have to deal with an enormous amount of doubt, misconception, and just plain ignorant bullshit. Because we live in a world of assumptions, it's very easy for people to blast something so young and innovative as Esports. Throughout that time frame that ignorant shit just kept stacking to a point where I just needed to say something and eventually went on a bit of rant defending the honor of Esports and what it is attempting to become. A little bit of an FU to the community of non-believers if you want to call it.
This year it's sort of a similar topic because it stays in the realm of Esports. This time around I'm not exactly defending Esports, but more towards the players and the amateurs at the higher levels.
Recently I just turned 22
+ Show Spoiler +
-When I was in high school I played sports usually year around if not, at least hitting the gym on a constant basis to attempt to stay in shape for sports. In between this time I played competitive CS and WC3(Dota mainly) but never truly considered to get to the skill level as I have reached playing SC2.
-My Freshman year of college I practically quit PC gaming and went back to consoles for a year with Madden and COD. So if you were blown out by 60 in Madden or had a Helicopter pellet you down in late 09, early 10' it was probably me :D
Compared to the time frame in high school, I rarely had that urgency to play for long periods and attempt to polish/improve my game as much. So pretty much I looked like the normal college student with classes, working out, small part time job, and of course partying.
-July 2010 came around, I transferred to a different university, got a good full time job, and got my hands on a copy of Starcraft2. Mainly kept the game in my rotation of Madden and several other titles I would play here and there. Long story short
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had a break in the writing as I had to go to work related things aka government bs. Marking today as a 'bad day' lol
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Ok. Long story short first 8 months I held the elite title of bronze league with high point of gold 4v4. Come late Feb 11', I was taught an awesome all in and that became the catalyst of me getting interested in the game. Hit Masters a couple weeks after. Was introduced to Day9, GSL, and the whole world of starcraft and Esports. In time I found myself throwing more hours at the game, staying up late for GSL, and soon I built the confidence of streaming.
All the sudden the schedule started changing drastically for me come Fall of 11'. Gym time got replaced by more ladder time, a party skipped here and there to watch the late night matches, the more viewers I had the harder it was to pull away from the PC. Even though I spent over half my SC2 career in Bronze League, and my Masters games consisted of 98% of cheese, I aimed for casting as well. By no means was analytical, but with charisma was able to pull off the play by play well.
As we kept getting into Fall, I started the Collegiate Starleague Team(CSL) for my university at UCCS. Not the first time leading a team, but def has a different spin when it comes to video games. Now even more time is spent helping the team prep and practice for the weekly matchup
-My Freshman year of college I practically quit PC gaming and went back to consoles for a year with Madden and COD. So if you were blown out by 60 in Madden or had a Helicopter pellet you down in late 09, early 10' it was probably me :D
Compared to the time frame in high school, I rarely had that urgency to play for long periods and attempt to polish/improve my game as much. So pretty much I looked like the normal college student with classes, working out, small part time job, and of course partying.
-July 2010 came around, I transferred to a different university, got a good full time job, and got my hands on a copy of Starcraft2. Mainly kept the game in my rotation of Madden and several other titles I would play here and there. Long story short
........................................................
had a break in the writing as I had to go to work related things aka government bs. Marking today as a 'bad day' lol
.......................................................
Ok. Long story short first 8 months I held the elite title of bronze league with high point of gold 4v4. Come late Feb 11', I was taught an awesome all in and that became the catalyst of me getting interested in the game. Hit Masters a couple weeks after. Was introduced to Day9, GSL, and the whole world of starcraft and Esports. In time I found myself throwing more hours at the game, staying up late for GSL, and soon I built the confidence of streaming.
All the sudden the schedule started changing drastically for me come Fall of 11'. Gym time got replaced by more ladder time, a party skipped here and there to watch the late night matches, the more viewers I had the harder it was to pull away from the PC. Even though I spent over half my SC2 career in Bronze League, and my Masters games consisted of 98% of cheese, I aimed for casting as well. By no means was analytical, but with charisma was able to pull off the play by play well.
As we kept getting into Fall, I started the Collegiate Starleague Team(CSL) for my university at UCCS. Not the first time leading a team, but def has a different spin when it comes to video games. Now even more time is spent helping the team prep and practice for the weekly matchup
Basically I went from being your typical college kid, then one day stumbling and falling into this rabbit hole where I found not some weird world, but one of the best comminutes in world, playing the best game out there. Even though I spent less time doing things like going to the gym, partying and instead playing, training, and casting, I was actually enjoying myself a lot more. It was more 'me'.
Now here is where the actual bitching portion comes to light. I will say right now my life is great regardless of what's going on. I have a job, I'm going to school, I spend time doing Esports stuff so I'm living great. I also understand the consequences of it. Spending more time on Esports results in less time with friends for me. I have to make the shitty choices of scheduling practices, casts, and time to just play vs hanging with friends and doing other activities. If I pick Esports I get to do something I really enjoy, improve on my game, give people entertainment if I stream, hang out with the team usually. With that said, my teammates are my friends as well, but it's at a 50% balance of no Esports and Esports people I would say. The Esports guys would rather be online anyways so I don't have to worry about them. It's just the other 50% who don't have a clue what it takes to be great at this game and the dedication/time involved with it all. So when I say I'm doing a stream or I'm playing, they imagine the stereotypical gamer with a controller in his hands and Cheetos and all that blah blah blah shit. As a result they think I blow them off for nothing, and I gain a level in my 'anti-social' attribute. Yes, I am comfortable of telling them the truth that I'm doing Esports relate endeavors, because I love Esports and it's fucking awesome. It's their choice to judge that, not mine.
To give you an example of how the days have been going for the past few months.
I'm sitting on full time summer shifts at work.
-Work 7am-5pm Mon-Fri, (doesn't include waking up and the drive to/from work)
-Get back around 5:30ish and start attempting to do Esports stuff whether its laddering, practices, matches, or casts.
-If I want to do something with friends it's usually aimed at around 10pm ish.
-I have less than a 5 hour window to do stuff then.
***Here's where the problem arises***
Most people will laugh and say omg you can't just game it out in 4 hours. The answer is a straight forward NO if you plan to get good practice and become a better player. Also because I am trying to give that time to games, now I don't have the time to sit and study other games(could a year or so back at work but now it's all blocked
poor twitch.tv) -Oh and if I do go out I usually end up being out until the bar closes at 2am or when the party ends. Remember work the next day is at 7am.
-If I don't give myself a few more hours to game
The reason I bring up the schedule and the timing windows is because of all those ignorant people that make shitty misconstrued statements.
Main 2 are:
1. Since you're top 2% why aren't you on a big team and making lots of money?
+ Show Spoiler +
This is probably my favorite statement, because that person usually knows fucking nothing.....i mean fucking nothing about Esports let alone Startcraft2. That 2% is a huge world and 0.1 or even less of that 2% are the big time actual pro gamers who are making a solid living salary. There is a couple other avenues such as being a caster which also takes time and/or being a good streamer in which you earn a majority of your income from commercial revenue.
1.5: You play a lot, so you should be good enough right?
+ Show Spoiler +
NO! or at least I haven't figured how to be the next Stepahno miracle child that practiced with my time constraints and was able to make it. The Pro-Gamers practice 10-12 hours a day if not a lot more. They double and triple the practice time that I have and plus have a whole teams supports. Some of the players live in TEAM HOUSES with their teammates to watch and help. Teams have coaches, managers, nutritionist, some even have cooks.
You know wtf the amateurs have? We have our pack of amateur gamers. We work, we go to school, we either make or get food for ourselves, we have lots of other life responsibilities. So our full-fledged attention cannot go to improving our gameplay. Even as I'm writing this, right now some Pro Gamer is practicing away. So hopefully you can see why that stack of shit just piles when a question like this pops up. Most of the time with friends, they just kind of poke at you and try to get a rise from annoying you with that question, but family and adults in particular seriously have no fucking clue what they are actually asking and mean it with all their heart when they do. At that point you have to decide whether you want to waste your breath explaining it to them as if they fucking care or will even remember, just walking away, or blowing up on them for being so immature.
You know wtf the amateurs have? We have our pack of amateur gamers. We work, we go to school, we either make or get food for ourselves, we have lots of other life responsibilities. So our full-fledged attention cannot go to improving our gameplay. Even as I'm writing this, right now some Pro Gamer is practicing away. So hopefully you can see why that stack of shit just piles when a question like this pops up. Most of the time with friends, they just kind of poke at you and try to get a rise from annoying you with that question, but family and adults in particular seriously have no fucking clue what they are actually asking and mean it with all their heart when they do. At that point you have to decide whether you want to waste your breath explaining it to them as if they fucking care or will even remember, just walking away, or blowing up on them for being so immature.
2. Cmon bro you when are you gonna hit the gym? You need to work out more! You only have to go to the gym for an hour and you'll be fine.
+ Show Spoiler +
I will be the first one to address this completely openly and say I am not comfortable where I am at with my weight at the moment. I was never a small kid in general but around the time I was an athlete in high school I stayed around the 190-200 range. Now I'm sitting at good solid 230 on a good day.......... and to the person that sitting on their pedestal saying people shouldn't worry about image.....FUCK YOU. We live in an awesome shallow world where looks are almost everything regardless of what you think. What? You're going to tell me you want some unattractive out of shape/unhealthy person in your life at our age? I'll tell you you're a fucking liar and probably more shallow than you think. Generally I have high standards for a girl, so I understand and wouldn't expect someone to be interested in a person that isn't taking care of their bodies or themselves.
with that said.......
I'm not exactly going to ever be a Brad Pitt sexy ass dude, but I know ever since I have started getting involved with Esports, my gym sessions have gotten lower and lower until they pretty much became nonexistent because of all the time I want to give to my practices, matches, and casts. Even an hour at the gym takes away time from everything. I have a small window for what I want to, not even including the exhaustion that goes from the rest of life. I'm already tired from the lack of sleep and full day work, I'm looking to spend the last of my concentration and energy on gaming vs exhausting myself some more at the gym.
Trust me I want to work out, it just comes at a consequence I don't want to take at the moment. When you skip days of playing and you're not at the top level, you're going to get rusty, you're not going to be crisp, you will lose. It's not an ultimatum but it's generally what happens. A week off from gaming! Be ready to be ashamed of yourself for several hours if not a couple days.
with that said.......
I'm not exactly going to ever be a Brad Pitt sexy ass dude, but I know ever since I have started getting involved with Esports, my gym sessions have gotten lower and lower until they pretty much became nonexistent because of all the time I want to give to my practices, matches, and casts. Even an hour at the gym takes away time from everything. I have a small window for what I want to, not even including the exhaustion that goes from the rest of life. I'm already tired from the lack of sleep and full day work, I'm looking to spend the last of my concentration and energy on gaming vs exhausting myself some more at the gym.
Trust me I want to work out, it just comes at a consequence I don't want to take at the moment. When you skip days of playing and you're not at the top level, you're going to get rusty, you're not going to be crisp, you will lose. It's not an ultimatum but it's generally what happens. A week off from gaming! Be ready to be ashamed of yourself for several hours if not a couple days.
As of late though the balance has been getting a tiny bit better, but still there is just not enough hours in the day to do what is needed in my case without some hard consequences.
All of us gamers want to live that fantasy where we are playing at the top level, making salaries doing something we love, winning prize money, being able to just focus on the game instead of everything else. If they don't then they're probably full of shit as well.
TO BE THE BEST AT STARCRAFT2 whether it is as a PLAYER or a CASTER, YOU HAVE TO DEVOTE LOTS AND LOTS OF TIME. IF YOU'RE NOT PRACTICING, SOMEONE ELSE IS. It's just like the rule with any other sports.
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In the end this isn't some shot at my friends or family. It's just as always I hope to give some light on everything and help those that don't know Esports....understand. It's just after a while all that stuff piles up and weighs on someone, and as much as I can just keep to myself, I've learned it's better to just vent or let it somehow. For me it's some yearly rant I do.
If I have offended anyone.....deal with it. I am just sharing my opinions and observations of what I know and see. I rarely put something out like this from the heart.
I want to thank as well all the support I have gotten and every team, organization, and people that have given me an opportunity to grow and have opportunities in this hectic growing field.
At the moment I am a pretty busy bee.
-Captain of the UCCS CSL team
-Player/Caster for xO-Gaming
-Official Rus/Eng Caster for Team Empire(yes the team empire)(I'm bilingual russian/english)
-Manager of the xO-Dota2 team
-Official Caster for the CSL(recent)
+Coaching, Casting cw's and tournaments on the side
Oh and did I mention actually playing and ladder when I can haha
Stream Link: http://www.twitch.tv/cheeseheadlogic
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cheeseheadlogic
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/DanCheeseheadlogic
