EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9HkQQ.png)
Hello everyone~. This is my first blog that I've ever written, or in this case, typed. I'm not entirely sure where to start with this, but I'll try my best not to bore you or make this blog sound redundant. I'll start with the subject title of my blog, "Following my dreams and ambitions". This is most probably something you've heard about for a very long time, people saying to follow always follow your dreams, and always work hard to whatever you want to do in life, whether it's school or work. Everyone has different ambitions in life, whether it be your dream job, losing weight, finishing school, or getting that car that you've always wanted.
I'll start with a little bit about myself. I was born in 1994, born and raised in Flushing NY. My parents are both immigrants from Chile, coming to the United States for the American dream. My childhood consisted of going to elementary school, and coming home to play video games. I grew up as a gamer, both on the consoles and the PC. My whole life I've been surrounded with gaming and technology as a whole.
I'll start off as to how I got into Starcraft. In high school, I was required to pick a "Shop class", a class that took up three school periods, which was around 2 hours a day. I had Electronics, and I made good friends with my classmates. Three of my classmates decided to mess around at the end of the year and put Starcraft: Brood War in the class computers, since it was June, there wasn't much going on, and we'd always play games on the computer using LAN. The whole class would play Halo 1 and Counter Strike. The four of us decided to boot up Brood War, and this was the first time I've ever played it. My friends were already familiar with the game, but I was a complete noob! I picked Protoss out of random, and I had no idea how to play. Barely knew how to make units, power structures, or anything like that, I only knew how to make probes and pylons! I talked to my friend, and he told me to pick Zerg because "it was easier". So I did, and learned more about the game, how it worked, etc etc. As you can see, I was extremely late to Starcraft. I purchased Starcraft 2 a few months after the game was released because the rest of my friends bought it, and I enjoyed Brood War, so I assumed I would enjoy Starcraft 2 even more.
I started off bumpy in Starcraft 2. I barely knew how to play Brood War, let alone Starcraft 2. I remember winning my first placement match, thinking I was extremely good. Of course, this wasn't the case. I lost the rest of my placement matches and was placed all the way down to Bronze. My first impression of the game was, "Wow, this game is really fun". I enjoyed the game very much, I thought it was a blast to play, and it was addicting! I picked Zerg as my main race, since I played Zerg in Brood War, didn't really think too much of it, but sometimes I wish I had put more thought into it before I immediately jumped to Zerg.
Fast forwarding to the present time, I'm currently eighteen years old, a DeVry University student, a Master Zerg on the North American ladder, and a part time Sales Associate for Uniqlo, a Japanese owned clothing company located around the world. I love gaming, e sports, music, and computers. This might sound played out, reckless or crazy, but my dream at this very moment is to be a professional gamer for Starcraft 2. Anyone can go out and say they want to be a pro gamer, and I completely understand that. However, I am extremely passionate for this game. I've been playing Starcraft for the last two years, and I watch Twitch.tv streams every single day. People might think I have my head in the clouds, but I think I'm truly passionate for Starcraft 2 and e sports as a whole. When I sleep at night, I've dreamt of playing on the main stage of a MLG tournament. I have dreams in my sleep of Apollo casting my game right in the main stage. I always thought that the pro gamer life was so special to me. Players like Grubby travel around the world to attend these tournaments, compete, meet fans, and just love his job. I believe that's such an amazing life, and I'm jealous of that type of life, I think it's absolutely wonderful.
I'm aware that being a pro gamer can be very difficult and stressful to many players, and it's not all about joy and glory. I've seen LiquidTLO get emotional when he lost in HomeStoryCup, LiquidJinro punch a wall because of losing a game (I forgot to who), and even IdrA rage. I know it's difficult for some players to show results, and it is not an easy life for a pro gamer.
It's really difficult for me to put down my feelings on a blog entry. I wish I can just express how much I love and appreciate this community, but it's really difficult. Though I don't have many posts on TeamLiquid, I honestly do lurk the forums a lot, check r/starcraft every day, talk in Twitch chats, and I'm always on battle net just chatting with my friends. To summarize everything to what I've been trying to say, the saying "always follow your dreams" is something I will always follow whether it's Starcraft 2, or anything in life. I may just be a measly Master Zerg, but I promise to anyone reading this, I am training as hard as I can to improve my play, my mindset, and to just work hard. I will be attending every MLG this year to compete, and every local LAN in my area. I PROMISE you that I will do whatever it takes to live my dream, and if I fail, I'll know that I tried my best and I loved working hard towards it, regardless of results or not. I'm trying not to sound redundant, mushy, or sound silly, but I'll forever be grateful of the friends I've made in the past two years because of this game. Dignitas xVixen, iPuddles, Lasciel, DarkDolphins, Slur, Skiiman, Jason, Believe, MaximusBlack, Pokebunny, ROOTLeiYa, EGRevival, desRow, AzubuViOlet, and so much more. I'd go on and on on how much I love the friends I've made in e sports, but it would be too much to even start. I promise you guys that I will work hard to accomplishing my dream, succeed or fail, I will put all of my effort.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Oc0rc.png)
Special thanks to Slur for the artwork he randomly decided to make for me when I told him I'd be posting this blog.
