EPTFirstly a word of warning. This blog will be long.
I've been planning to do this blog for some time, but never got around to it. However I've finally found the time. I want to reflect on Starcraft II, and tell you the story of how I first began to play Starcraft, and to love it. However, to read this blog, you must know me. For those who don't, I'll introduce myself.
My name is Joel, I use the alias FaDeUndoNe, but was also previously called FaDeRicocheT. Thus if anyone wonders why people call me 'Rico,' it's because it's who I was before. Yeah, big mistake to change the name but it was at a whim. I'm currently 21 years old living in W.A. studying Construction Management.
A bit about my gaming background. I come from a mixed RTS/FPS background in which I grew up with Age of Empires 2 (although I wasn't very good at it, why need more than one barracks, seriously?) and Counter Strike. So when Starcraft 2 came out, I didn't pay much attention. A lot of my friends bought the game, but I passed. I wasn't interested in Brood War, nor did I have any talent whatsoever in RTS. I was happy with my RPG's and MMOs, and playing DotA and Night of the Dead: Aftermath on Bored Aussies with my fellow clannies in NotD.
Fun Fact: Every single Age of Empires 2 game I played online with my friend, we lost because I sucked balls xD.
Fun Fact 2: I played BW twice at friends LANs. I won one game because I went mass battle cruiser and my friend went mass ultralisk. Second game I made only marines and lost.
Late 2011, I bit on the worm that was hanging around. I was really bored, really really bored one day. Decided to youtube Starcraft II, where I found a guy called HDStarcraft. So I watched. It was from a time back, where I saw Incontrol massed colossus. I thought those were awesome units. Really I thought they were. Tempted me to buy the game, and eventually I did after promises with some friends to play team games. And so I bought it. Solely for team games. Ha, to think I would be sitting right now, at Grandmaster league and arguably the best Terran in FaDe (Kreamy thinks it's him, I think it's me, but I am out of practice so it actually might be him, but I won't let him get the satisfaction of me telling that he just might be xD).
Humble Beginnings - Bronze, Silver and Gold
So after buying the game, I gladly installed. Entered into the world of Starcraft II, I pwned my way through the campaign (extremely slowly) and then I finished it. Then I played 2v2's, 3v3's and 4v4's. I avoided 1v1 like the plague. I had no interest. And then, I found out about a website called teamliquid.net. From there I found out about other SC2 sites, sc2sea.com, gomtv.net. They made me want to play more. During this period of late 2011 there was one hugely popular foreigner. IdrA.
Yes, I used to be an IdrA fanboy. I first hated IdrA, wanting him to lose since he was so BM. I first started to hate him because of his personality or whatever, wanting him to lose. But then later on I didn't care about his attitude or that he was BM or whatever. What I loved was his play style. A macro-oriented playstyle in which he would take so many bases and just dominate anything any player threw at him. Where he would just drone, and yet have so much stuff which destroyed Terrans alike. Being a bronze level noob, I loved it. Where he would have seemingly that much stuff. So I watched every youtube video I could find of him. And so I decided to play like IdrA. 5 placement matches as zerg. And I lost all 5 of them. Bronze. Disappointing.
But I never gave up. Slowly I began to practice, and then it happened to coincide with a SEA event that I saw. BSGCLS2 when I reached Silver. Where battles are forged and noobs fight one another in a pit of sweat, blood, glory and nerd tears. I still remember applying for BSGCLS2. Only 1 clan was interested in me. Clan FaDe.
On the 22nd of September, I was given a visitors message by FaDeEXCL, known as Excloud back then. And he wrote the following:
"Hi Ricochet,
Nice application Clan FaDe are looking for BSG players to join our ranks at the moment. As we don't usually recuit below Platinum we are using the BSGCL season 2 to trail potential BSGs. If you are interested in participating and being part of Clan FaDe please sign up on our website and post in the BSGCL s2 forum! Also join our chat channel in game "Clan Fade" there are plenty of great guys also willing to have a game there!
Cheers
FaDeEXCL"
You can still find this on my profile to this day. And so I first entered to represent a Clan. I wasn't a member, but I was happy to get an opportunity to play for them. While doing this, I supplemented my knowledge with pro games of players, watching IdrA mostly and emulating his play style. I would end up being one of the Aces of BSGCLS2 for FaDe Team A, finishing with a extremely good score in BSGCL. I went something like 14-4 or something. I have to say, although I was one of the Aces for FaDe, the true ace of FaDe A was ZeroAbsolute. I don't know what happened to you mate, but you were a huge factor in getting us to the Finals. My greatest moment was all-killing ToR, the only all-kill I managed to achieve.
But it wasn't to be. FaDe Team A faced off against Clanless led by Chadmann. Yes, the Chad who is now manager of Fray. We still reminisce from time to time when it came down to the wire. FaDe was down 4-3, I had to beat The Chad, and then face a zerg player after that to win glory for FaDe, and that prize of a free Clan Logo. I failed. An epic 40 minute game casted by Maynarde and Frogmite, in which it went back and forth and down to the wire, climaxing in a mothership vortex that got off half a second before my corruptors destroyed it. Archon toilet. I tapped out 5 minutes later. FaDe had lost. But I'll always remember BSGCLS2. It taught me how hard I had to practice, and I made some great friends. Teammates included guys such as Mrbadass, Halstrom and Rezyn8 (yes, THE Rezyn of SiliconSports who does an awesome job organising barcrafts and looking like a handsome nerd).
A few days after the Finals of BSGCLS2, I was formally invited into FaDe. I accepted. And so I became part of FaDe, and I never looked back. I decided, I wanted to be a GrandMaster.
Fun Fact: I only had 2 goals in Starcraft II.
1. Was achieving GrandMaster
2. Gaining Membership into aLt. They were one of the best clans, highly respected, greatly skilled, and frankly they have the best friggin tag!
Upwards Fly, My Soul Arise - Platinum to Diamond
Clan FaDe was awesome. Most people was friendly, it was a great atmosphere. Guys such as Joshboy (now Daedalus), Rawfish, Lemon became regular friends where we would hang out and chat. I participated in a few clan wars, enjoyed being in a social setting and played with other friends such as mGGNemesis, mGGbenelings, supersaiyan games such as photon cycles, monobattles and phantom. But I always had that dream. Of Grandmaster. I couldn't help but admire those guys with the GrandMaster symbol. We only had one at the time, FaDeEvetS (Now sRWinter), and although I never spoke to him, I would spent a lot of time staring at that symbol. I wanted to get that symbol badly.
And so I continued to practice, finally reaching Diamond. But I had no passion for Zerg anymore. The playstyle was getting boring, droning, macroing, getting a ling/bling/muta army of some sort, a-moving and winning. It was boring stomping face. Yet I worked so hard, and finally managed to break the barrier of getting into Diamond. Later, I would become discouraged and lose passion in Starcraft II. And that's when I watched my first foreign tournament.
Changes in the Wind - From Zerg to Terran
At this point, I was still a IdrA fanboy. And then I watched MLG Orlando. I didn't know anything about the scene outside of IdrA. So it came a map, Metalopolis. IdrA vs Bomber. I was rooting for IdrA as always, waiting for him to dominate this petty Terran. But Bomber wasn't interested. He decided to go mass marine/medivac, and threw army after army at IdrA. IdrA would hold off with infestors and banes, and would go on to win the game. But Bomber impressed me. I had never seen a Terran hold up so well against IdrA. Normally the games I watched would be some mid-game timing, where the Terran would get crushed, and then later die. Bomber would not die. His macro was supreme, wave after wave, army after army. He was relentless. But then he ran out of steam. He couldn't secure a 4th, and so he lost. But somehow, during that game, I had stopped cheering for IdrA and cheered for Bomber.
Bomber would become my new hero. And he still is to this day, even when MKP and Taeja dominated and Bomber was struggling, I still always cheered for Bomber. And so I poured myself into Terran players. Guys such as MMA, Boxer, NaDa, SelecT, MKP showcase supreme skill in playing Terran, making me excited about the game. So I decided to switch. I became a Terran, and focused on the one matchup that I thought was the hardest for Terran. TvZ.
I ended up practicing endless hours with FaDeDaedalus and FaDeRawfish mainly, mentored by FaDeGoFire (Older brother of our very own FaDeVenosaur, unfortunately GoFire is serving out NS atm) until I became a supreme beast of TvZ. TvT and TvP were non-existant, we're on SEA here =P. And so I continued my progress, struggling to handle Terran yet enjoying it every single way. To this day, I find TvZ still my favourite Matchup.
Fun Fact: All of the builds I use are either stolen from Bomber, MKP or Taeja
Forcefield, Evolution Chambers and Supply Depots - Hiatus
After getting back to Diamond level as Terran, I had a roadblock. I had no time whatsoever to play SCII. And so for 3 months, I barely played at all. My skill declined, and SCII changed...
Dream Accomplished - Masters and GrandMaster
When I came back, I found just how friggin bad I was. All my mechanics I relied on to win were gone. The metagame had shifted, and I found myself struggling in all match-ups. I poured over endless VODs, practiced build orders constantly, tested my macro, played customs. And then after approximately a month of struggling, I managed to reach back to my former glory. And I made the final push. My goal, my dream was so close. 2 leagues. I played 'When I'm GrandMaster' every single day before each laddering session to pump me up and motivate me.
I pushed to Masters, achieving it after playing 30 games that day. Grandmaster would follow 8 days later, playing twenty games a day, and thirty four games on the final night to get Grandmaster. The goal I had craved, had dreamt of for months came to fruition. I made it. Nothing made me smile more than getting that large image. On the 28th of July, 2012. 9 Months after I bought Starcraft II, I made it to GM.
Link to my blog on getting GM: http://www.sc2sea.com/blogs/showentr...tryuserid=4757
Fun Fact: I never played as many games as I did ever again after reaching GrandMaster
All Good Things Come To An End - Conclusion
I had no talent in RTS. But in less than a year, I made it to GrandMaster. It took me four months to get from Bronze->Diamond, then another 2 months to get from Diamond -> GM. It took me about 7 months total. So to those who think they can't ever reach GrandMaster, you can.
Some of you have read this wall of text and wonder why I'm posting it. It is my story, it is my experience that I wish to share with all of you. It was a journey, long and tough but I don't regret it for one second. I never thought that paying 70 dollars for a game would help me make so many new friends, to instil confidence in me, and to make me so passionate about a game. I wouldn't have dreamed of waking up at 4 am to watch Startale_Bomber play. Or staying up late playing drunk team games with clanmates (they were drunk, I don't drink =P).
But not all stories have a happy ending. At the start of February, I will be quitting SCII. I simply have no more time with my studies becoming harder and harder each year, and I won't have the time to maintain my skill and to remain competitive. Rather I will play extremely rarely, since I just won't have the time. I was never the best player, but I can happily say I achieved everything I set out to accomplish in Starcraft II. I won't leave a legacy when I'm gone, I never achieved anything major. But I can lift my head high knowing I did my best. And that ultimately, is the sweetest feeling of all.
Funny Stories and Other Fun Facts to make this blog more enjoyable instead of melancholy right at the end:
- I was so intimidated by Mafia when I had to play him in the Masters Cup, I fumbled around with a poorly designed 3CC build. He later roach/bane busted my rax wall and absolutely destroyed me. I had asked him earlier in the game to not make me look bad. I looked bad, but at least my death was painless.
- Had to play Ender when I had first switched to Terran. I tried to mass marine him with a 12/14 cheese, didn't work one bit. He threw 50 banes at my tiny supply depot wall after he deflected my pathetic attempt.
- I am 0-5 overall against aLtStallion. I have just about beaten him approximately 2 times, but then the final engagement would let me down and he would stomp me. Before I retire I will definately defeat you.
- Nicknamed Rico, Ricochet, and the Bossochet.
- Funny story, about 2 am I was playing drunk team games with Chaynes0re and Daedalus. Ended up carrying their asses since they were so friggin drunk. Ended up placing in Masters no.1. We were the only guys in our league.
- Favourite Strategy is Marine/Tank, followed by MMM
- King among my friends at Photon Cycles
- Highest placing in a tournament was Semi Finals of GPD. Ended up having to forfeit because I was heading out.
And the best fact of all:
- Became friends with a whole bunch of people
maybe I should try playing on SEA sometimes, reaching gm seems rather easy on there. I think the most important/meaningful thing is in your last paragraph.
