[Bye, BW] I Loved That Cabin

Hey, I know we've switched foundations.
We've got our slick, visible, prominent, re-designed downtown penthouse, up there on the skyline of the internet.
But I came here when they were just starting to pack up the old cabin in the woods, in anticipation of the new eSports city planned over the horizon.
I stayed, there, that beautiful, under-appreciated place.


There were far fewer visitors then.
I can idealize and fantasize all I want now, but all to not face the pain that I wasn't as involved as I could have been, and feel I missed out.
Shiiit, the foreign scene was happenin’, and the pro landscape felt full of mystery, unexplored.
The spirits of Progamers would float through our thoughts and conversations, their faces gradually becoming more and more familiar to newbies (like me).
Histories and stories, epic dramas were told, and I gradually built up a picture of the legends.
From bits and pieces, snippets of interviews, fragments of translated trash-talk and VODs, I grew to know and love these titans.



I would go there, that cabin TL, and stare through it as a portal, into a completely different cosmos.
A culture nation passion sport, exactly one world apart.
Drawn together by an internet-wrought line through space-time, I learned this thing: “Korea”.

The people through that online oasis were also really slick.
Far and above beyond my then-peers, I’d seek their company as refuge;
From troubles, fears, anxiety deadlines tears, loneliness inadequacy, wallowing in self-pity…
I had TeamLiquid, and it was enough – Pro Brood War helped me through.

I would never have laughed, shared passion and cries, for professional Korean computer gamers
Without TeamLiquid.net ‘s internet servers.
Thank you TL.
Thank you. You allowed me to learn to appreciate BW in all its beauty.

More than the game, the players, teams.
Follow SKT for history, big upps to OZ for rivalry, KT perennial punching bag, who’d still bring out dat Punishment.
Investing that time, hearing veterans’ rhymes, learned me the ways of their saga.
Every game, such Nostalgia, Lost Temple of Luna[r] Requiem. [I can go on and on, trust me, maps are my thing]
Each old battle before my time, I missed like it was mine, revering those who’d come before sweet essence of ‘good time’.


AND NOW THAT’S GONE, DISCONTINUTED.



The woodland spirits are fading fast, Miyazaki on my mind.
I believed them endless ageless, but development brings new trials.
So now the gamer spirits have fled.
Swallowed by the dirt (Drill Sergeants), some to the tops of the Afreeca trees, unreachable to me.
But most, with their teams, to the big city, to be buffeted and lost in concrete.

The forest has lost its glimmer, the lifeblood keeping alive.
Shadows and whispers, preserved in VODs, is all that remains of.
But when the old trees fall (YouTube admins cut their roots) there aren’t new ones to grow in stead, nor visitors to tend to them and make canopies their beds.
Pretty soon, there’ll be nothing left, it will be – dead.


I love that hamlet in the woods ‘internet’, I try to visit and stay, but now the river's dried up, packed up and walked away.
The few who've stayed can only live off occasional water from the skies.
We survive by finding small (prize)pools to drink, sustain our spirit with (fun tour) community bonfires
But to me, the magic allure, of Brood War General … has died.


Please don’t let it be so.
No, in fact, I must go.
I’ve got a life, degree, future kids to work for, my heart’s not just for Brood War.
But those who were there will never forget the summer-times we had.


I know that time wasn’t wasted, iCCup training, VODs.
Hit goal of national #1 (1 week) with 3 years on the job.
But more than that the satisfaction from watching history happen.
MSL OSL Proleague games, trying to catch all of ‘em.


So no matter how little or much I did, to embellish that wooded cabin, regardless of the impact or interact I had with those around.
I WAS THERE, THAT WON’T CHANGE, AND EVERY DAY WAS WORTH IT!


I love you Brood War, I miss you Old TL, but I’ve gotta move on.
At least I’ve given you this small song-
Good night.