EPTThis is actually my second nostalgia blog, but there was a lot of things unsaid in the first. I want to go back to the days of BW in this nostalgic moment. I watched Day9's magic Daily #100, a few games from 2004-6 including WCG games.
I'm even thinking of unearthing the time capsule I have with my BW USB in it. It's just one of those moments in time where you're compelled to revisit your past. Relive it even.
Anyways, this is the (spoilered for length) three-year-plus story of my final days of Brood War, the three-year-plus story of my stay at Team Liquid, and the story of why I get nostalgic about the game every time I take a dump.
This came out to over 18,000 characters and eight pages on word. Maybe someday I'll write a blog that goes over the character limit
+ Show Spoiler [Prologue: The Pride Play] +
My story starts three years ago, but closer to five. It was the spring of 2008. School was out for a week and there wasn't much to do. I spent all eight days of my nine-day break doing virtually nothing but Brood War. Wake up 11 am or so, get everything I need to done by 2, and then a 12-to-13-hour ladder marathon with occasional breaks for dinner and shitting. A hundred hours of StarCraft in a week. I wish I could devote that much time to anything these days.
One hundred hours later, I had played dozens if not hundreds of games (between the UMS breaks) and developed a new idea. My macro was terrible, relatively speaking, but I had top-notch micro. It took me a while to muster an army capable of conquering a single well-defended base, but then I could keep 80% of it alive easily. 90% of it alive in clutch conditions. And bad macro didn't seem like a handicap to be overcome, but rather compensated by constant and well-managed micro. Being 12, nobody could convince me of anything I didn't want to be convinced of.
Three attacks on a Protoss base, simultaneously. 6-8 guardians on one side. Hopefully the side with some cliffs or airspace. I didn't want those pesky HT's to make me have to wait for more guardians. 12 mutalisks bypassing everything to reach the main. Not 11 - I didn't know the stacking trick and I probably couldn't have mastered it between switching fronts. Taking out any key structures or pylons if I was in a hurry. Waiting for him to take some sort of action, overreact to the flying crabs over there or the flying shrimps over here. Soon as that army moves, whatever ultras and zerglings I'd made would be sent down his front door, and I'd cross my fingers that I came out victorious. 70% of the time, they overreacted. And when they overreacted, it was GG for them.
I called it the pride play.
One hundred hours later, I had played dozens if not hundreds of games (between the UMS breaks) and developed a new idea. My macro was terrible, relatively speaking, but I had top-notch micro. It took me a while to muster an army capable of conquering a single well-defended base, but then I could keep 80% of it alive easily. 90% of it alive in clutch conditions. And bad macro didn't seem like a handicap to be overcome, but rather compensated by constant and well-managed micro. Being 12, nobody could convince me of anything I didn't want to be convinced of.
Three attacks on a Protoss base, simultaneously. 6-8 guardians on one side. Hopefully the side with some cliffs or airspace. I didn't want those pesky HT's to make me have to wait for more guardians. 12 mutalisks bypassing everything to reach the main. Not 11 - I didn't know the stacking trick and I probably couldn't have mastered it between switching fronts. Taking out any key structures or pylons if I was in a hurry. Waiting for him to take some sort of action, overreact to the flying crabs over there or the flying shrimps over here. Soon as that army moves, whatever ultras and zerglings I'd made would be sent down his front door, and I'd cross my fingers that I came out victorious. 70% of the time, they overreacted. And when they overreacted, it was GG for them.
I called it the pride play.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 1: EX, Liquid, and Guardians] +
Around the summer of 2009 I was reading through the SC wiki when I noticed a bunch of links concerning "professional players", something completely alien to me, pointing to Team Liquid. By July of that year I was actively lurking on the strategy forum. Learning about all sorts of ZvT plays, against all types of styles and with all sorts of timings and units. Well, actually it was six units the posts focused on. And guardians weren't one of them.
Being a fan of guardians, I would take anything from +1 lurkerling to general muta harass, try those strategies out and then transition into a buttload of guardians. 9 pool speed into a buttload of guardians. 3 base lair into a buttload of guardians. Or the pride play. That had enough guardians in it to keep me happy.
October, maybe November of 2009, I was in eighth grade. The awesome part of being in eighth grade was that I took higher math courses in the high school in the morning, then when middle school started I'd just take a bus there and do all my other courses. And since I didn't have to take math there, I'd just get an hour to do whatever the hell I wanted. Made use of that hour every day.
I'd read Liquipedia and contribute to ZvT and ZvP discussions in any way I could. Namely pointing out some things I considered optimal, and then trying to relate them to making a buttload of guardians. Came across the confessions thread and the fapping thread and noticed people with this sense of humor that I could find nowhere else. Kept these two threads alive and started posting my first (crappy and short) blogs. My elegant prose of elegance wouldn't show up for a long time.
Of course, Team Liquid wasn't the only group with the name "team" in it that piqued my interest. I joined Team EX earlier that year and I think between them and this forum, that's what's been keeping me going to play one more game ever since. There were a lot of great practice partners on that team who would all help each other and me with virtually anything. Retarded strats to test out (4 gas and +1 scout plays), general advice on muta harass or reaver dropping or zealot bombs, there was probably someone on at any point in time to help you with that.
I even found someone who could help me micro my guardians.
Being a fan of guardians, I would take anything from +1 lurkerling to general muta harass, try those strategies out and then transition into a buttload of guardians. 9 pool speed into a buttload of guardians. 3 base lair into a buttload of guardians. Or the pride play. That had enough guardians in it to keep me happy.
October, maybe November of 2009, I was in eighth grade. The awesome part of being in eighth grade was that I took higher math courses in the high school in the morning, then when middle school started I'd just take a bus there and do all my other courses. And since I didn't have to take math there, I'd just get an hour to do whatever the hell I wanted. Made use of that hour every day.
I'd read Liquipedia and contribute to ZvT and ZvP discussions in any way I could. Namely pointing out some things I considered optimal, and then trying to relate them to making a buttload of guardians. Came across the confessions thread and the fapping thread and noticed people with this sense of humor that I could find nowhere else. Kept these two threads alive and started posting my first (crappy and short) blogs. My elegant prose of elegance wouldn't show up for a long time.
Of course, Team Liquid wasn't the only group with the name "team" in it that piqued my interest. I joined Team EX earlier that year and I think between them and this forum, that's what's been keeping me going to play one more game ever since. There were a lot of great practice partners on that team who would all help each other and me with virtually anything. Retarded strats to test out (4 gas and +1 scout plays), general advice on muta harass or reaver dropping or zealot bombs, there was probably someone on at any point in time to help you with that.
I even found someone who could help me micro my guardians.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 2: Zenith (of Guardians)] +
The fall-winter break of 2009-10, about three weeks' total vacation with short amounts of school in between must have been the best break I've had to this day. I went back to the 100-hours-a-week chugging, only this time I wasn't doing it all alone. In the early afternoon I'd brush up on my knowledge of things and read the usual funny stories floating around, then off to laddering. When I was tired, it was time for some 2v2's, then some obs games with friends, and by 2 in the morning, race wars on BGH with 7 people from Exodus.
This is when my pride play first began to falter after almost two years of faithful service to my ZvP. Storms on my guardians. Calmly sending just the right amount of units to surround and deal with those mutas. I couldn't find diversions enough to bring my armies in. My nearly 70% winrate on ladder dropped to 60. Then 55. Then 50. I'd accumulated just as many losses as I had wins on my account for that season.
I made it to low C+, just over 5100 points. Holding constant for a few days, and then I slowly began to drop. I went back into C for the first time in a month. After that day I began to fall. I would never reach 5100 again.
I remember when the new season started in mid-December, I scrambled to reclaim my rank. I got to about 4750 before I petered out. By the New Year I was struggling to make 4500. Something was really wrong here. The pride play was no longer working. Whether it was people going up against it or everyone was wising up to these kinds of things... whatever it was, I just lost my heart and soul of Zerg. Whether I'd do something different or stick with the pride play, I was losing more and more games against people of less and less skill.
The guardians, my best friends in that scary race, were failing me. And I could not understand why.
This is when my pride play first began to falter after almost two years of faithful service to my ZvP. Storms on my guardians. Calmly sending just the right amount of units to surround and deal with those mutas. I couldn't find diversions enough to bring my armies in. My nearly 70% winrate on ladder dropped to 60. Then 55. Then 50. I'd accumulated just as many losses as I had wins on my account for that season.
I made it to low C+, just over 5100 points. Holding constant for a few days, and then I slowly began to drop. I went back into C for the first time in a month. After that day I began to fall. I would never reach 5100 again.
I remember when the new season started in mid-December, I scrambled to reclaim my rank. I got to about 4750 before I petered out. By the New Year I was struggling to make 4500. Something was really wrong here. The pride play was no longer working. Whether it was people going up against it or everyone was wising up to these kinds of things... whatever it was, I just lost my heart and soul of Zerg. Whether I'd do something different or stick with the pride play, I was losing more and more games against people of less and less skill.
The guardians, my best friends in that scary race, were failing me. And I could not understand why.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 3: Bye Bye Guardians] +
I decided that my ZvT was so insanely horrible and my ZvZ so mundane that I switched to Protoss. After all, ZvP experience and reactionary builds meant I had intimate knowledge of the Protoss race, and I could get a headstart in PvZ right away. PvT and the Protoss mirror seemed a lot fun to play than the zerg counterparts. I said goodbye to the flying crabs and dove into the world of harassment, spellcasting, and general shenaniganry.
I loved Protoss. This was a race that wasn't too inhibited by bad macro skills like Zerg was. The micro opportunities were still plentiful. I learned how to drop reavers and disruption web placements. I started making up Protoss strats in lieu of my old Zerg tactics.
I realized at this point that my incurable overdependence on Guardians was the death of my Zerg play. As much as I loved them, there were things that Guardians just sucked at doing. Like moving and attacking air units.
I switched to protoss and picked up some dragoon/sair strategies. Corsairs were weird to me. They did as much damage as a probe, the thing read. Actually it was 3 damages to a mutalisk. I didn't understand why the unit worked. The attack speed was decently fast but I didn't fully appreciate corsairs until I saw their awesome splash damage against things that like stacking. Mutas. Overlords. Even a buttload of guardians could fall in seconds to three corsairs.
This is when SC2 started getting more attention. Beta was on the horizon. Finally, progress! SC2 would finally be released... someday. In the meantime, I was playing BW every chance I got. It was no pride play, but 2 base arbiter was pretty fun to do as well. I still love recalls ;P
I loved Protoss. This was a race that wasn't too inhibited by bad macro skills like Zerg was. The micro opportunities were still plentiful. I learned how to drop reavers and disruption web placements. I started making up Protoss strats in lieu of my old Zerg tactics.
I realized at this point that my incurable overdependence on Guardians was the death of my Zerg play. As much as I loved them, there were things that Guardians just sucked at doing. Like moving and attacking air units.
I switched to protoss and picked up some dragoon/sair strategies. Corsairs were weird to me. They did as much damage as a probe, the thing read. Actually it was 3 damages to a mutalisk. I didn't understand why the unit worked. The attack speed was decently fast but I didn't fully appreciate corsairs until I saw their awesome splash damage against things that like stacking. Mutas. Overlords. Even a buttload of guardians could fall in seconds to three corsairs.
This is when SC2 started getting more attention. Beta was on the horizon. Finally, progress! SC2 would finally be released... someday. In the meantime, I was playing BW every chance I got. It was no pride play, but 2 base arbiter was pretty fun to do as well. I still love recalls ;P
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 4: Revenge of the Guardians] +
The one problem with playing Protoss was that I still had the tendency to suck. I had more trouble adapting to the metagame, and PvP and PvT still rained hell on my rating whenever I tried them out. Even in obs games, D-levels would sweep me off of my feet in a mirror match.
What did I peak at... I think it was 3400 or so. Medium C-. I held that through most of 2010. And with me, my favorites were falling. I was used to seeing Jaedong at the #1 spot and Bisu at #3 on the power rank for the duration of my first year on TL with few exceptions. It was a huge shock to me when Bisu started falling, and Flash began to contest Jaedong for the #1 spot.
When I played Zerg I was trying to emulate Jaedong's superior control of his units, and when I switched to Protoss I began to pick up some of Bisu's famous probe micro. Never let that probe die and used his speed and regen to screw with Terran as long as I could. Seeing both of these guys go down like that made me really sad.
My Protoss was slipping. I was getting better at PvT but my PvZ, the carry matchup, was definitely dropping. I was edging C- in the fall of 2010 and when I stopped practicing due to school things, that went down to D+.
TL was definitely enlightening me during this period of time. There was a shift in the strategy threads posted in the (only) strategy forum. The guides were... different. I don't know exactly what changed but it was suddenly more clear, more laid-out. Everything was there. No secrets. Just reading and enjoying.
Then I found out about LR threads. I've only posted in one... I just can't keep up. Later I found out I could just whore my postcount in mafia. But that was much later.
What did I peak at... I think it was 3400 or so. Medium C-. I held that through most of 2010. And with me, my favorites were falling. I was used to seeing Jaedong at the #1 spot and Bisu at #3 on the power rank for the duration of my first year on TL with few exceptions. It was a huge shock to me when Bisu started falling, and Flash began to contest Jaedong for the #1 spot.
When I played Zerg I was trying to emulate Jaedong's superior control of his units, and when I switched to Protoss I began to pick up some of Bisu's famous probe micro. Never let that probe die and used his speed and regen to screw with Terran as long as I could. Seeing both of these guys go down like that made me really sad.
My Protoss was slipping. I was getting better at PvT but my PvZ, the carry matchup, was definitely dropping. I was edging C- in the fall of 2010 and when I stopped practicing due to school things, that went down to D+.
TL was definitely enlightening me during this period of time. There was a shift in the strategy threads posted in the (only) strategy forum. The guides were... different. I don't know exactly what changed but it was suddenly more clear, more laid-out. Everything was there. No secrets. Just reading and enjoying.
Then I found out about LR threads. I've only posted in one... I just can't keep up. Later I found out I could just whore my postcount in mafia. But that was much later.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 5: The Game With No Guardians] +
On July 26, 2010, five of my friends - two from Exodus, three from a different clan (PN I think?) and I got together for one last night of fun. 3v3's, splitting into groups for laddering, impossible scenarios and tower defenses. And lots of HFH. Let me tell you something - if you haven't played Heaven's Final Hour or Heaven's Last Stand or one of those, you missed out on a good chunk of UMS experience. Helm's Deep doesn't count. Helm's Deep sucked compared to HFH.
About 3:30 in the morning, we wished each other well and promised to reunite one day in SC2. I never saw any of the five ever again.
The next day as you all know was a day of great celebration in the world of StarCraft. Wings of Liberty was finally released on the 27th of July. Freaking incredible game, story was pretty good (although I admit not as complex or intriguing as BW's) and it was good to have something new to play with. That said, I didn't play it yet. My computer was still crappy and I didn't have money for new parts or the game itself.
I began laddering again in BW, although I was still D+ rank and no prospects for my old glory. The lower skilled players had effused into SC2, and the ones who remained tended to be the ones who were pretty good at Brood War. The numbers slowly dwindled. Exodus fell apart. All of PN was playing WoL now. I was alone again for the first time in two years. Not a good feeling.
Team Liquid got much bigger with the beta and then the release, for better and for worse. Lots more people were interested in SC2 or just here for the community and political chats and blogs. Kinda ruptured the tight-knitness of the group, and took me a while to get used to the new subforum-layout though. But it brought more bad than good. More threads, more fun. Funny stuff disappeared, but awesome blogs started coming out. SC2 strategy shows devotion the old strategy forum never could.
Also with SC2 came the first feature of the single player campaign in Team Liquid, something I'm very happy for, myself being raised on campaign and all.
About 3:30 in the morning, we wished each other well and promised to reunite one day in SC2. I never saw any of the five ever again.
The next day as you all know was a day of great celebration in the world of StarCraft. Wings of Liberty was finally released on the 27th of July. Freaking incredible game, story was pretty good (although I admit not as complex or intriguing as BW's) and it was good to have something new to play with. That said, I didn't play it yet. My computer was still crappy and I didn't have money for new parts or the game itself.
I began laddering again in BW, although I was still D+ rank and no prospects for my old glory. The lower skilled players had effused into SC2, and the ones who remained tended to be the ones who were pretty good at Brood War. The numbers slowly dwindled. Exodus fell apart. All of PN was playing WoL now. I was alone again for the first time in two years. Not a good feeling.
Team Liquid got much bigger with the beta and then the release, for better and for worse. Lots more people were interested in SC2 or just here for the community and political chats and blogs. Kinda ruptured the tight-knitness of the group, and took me a while to get used to the new subforum-layout though. But it brought more bad than good. More threads, more fun. Funny stuff disappeared, but awesome blogs started coming out. SC2 strategy shows devotion the old strategy forum never could.
Also with SC2 came the first feature of the single player campaign in Team Liquid, something I'm very happy for, myself being raised on campaign and all.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 6: Getting My Guardians Involved] +
Sophomore year in highschool, I found a LOT of time to play SC. I usually got homework done in one class or other, leaving me plenty of free time to do other things. In July of 2011 I finally got Wings of Liberty as well, steadily progressing through the ranks.
This is the first time I also watched Day9's 100th daily, talking about his history in the world of StarCraft, all his tournaments, and just plain communicating to people about his love for the game. And ever since watching that video, it's been an encouragement for me to play the game or do whatever else I'm doing that I love. I've been trying to get my mom and dad at least somewhat knowledgeable. I remember how much I talked to my dad about getting 9th (lol Ro16) in the weekly ZOTAC tourney, and enough to my mom that she began telling my grandma about how I might start playing soon for money.
This is already moving into this year. Spring I played in more ZOTAC games (never getting farther than Ro16), going from gold to platinums, and scrounging up money until I finally had $400 after two seasons of hard work. Money went into a synth-keytar that I got used from Amazon, but that's another story for another day.
All of sophomore year I had two classes with computers, neither involving too much work. I'd play WoL at home but the computers at school were too crap to run it, so instead I copied over all of my SC files onto a USB and started taking that along with me. Then in economics I'd just play through campaign (in the space of about 30 minutes of free time per week, I managed to get through the BW toss and terran campaigns and was halfway through the fifth Zerg mission), and in compsci I'd play TL mafia.
The compsci midterm and finals that year were especially fun. There was a 127-minute time limit but the exam took just about an hour. I spent the other hour laddering with half the class (most of the part of the class that finished) looking over my shoulders to see how I was doing.
This is the first time I also watched Day9's 100th daily, talking about his history in the world of StarCraft, all his tournaments, and just plain communicating to people about his love for the game. And ever since watching that video, it's been an encouragement for me to play the game or do whatever else I'm doing that I love. I've been trying to get my mom and dad at least somewhat knowledgeable. I remember how much I talked to my dad about getting 9th (lol Ro16) in the weekly ZOTAC tourney, and enough to my mom that she began telling my grandma about how I might start playing soon for money.
This is already moving into this year. Spring I played in more ZOTAC games (never getting farther than Ro16), going from gold to platinums, and scrounging up money until I finally had $400 after two seasons of hard work. Money went into a synth-keytar that I got used from Amazon, but that's another story for another day.
All of sophomore year I had two classes with computers, neither involving too much work. I'd play WoL at home but the computers at school were too crap to run it, so instead I copied over all of my SC files onto a USB and started taking that along with me. Then in economics I'd just play through campaign (in the space of about 30 minutes of free time per week, I managed to get through the BW toss and terran campaigns and was halfway through the fifth Zerg mission), and in compsci I'd play TL mafia.
The compsci midterm and finals that year were especially fun. There was a 127-minute time limit but the exam took just about an hour. I spent the other hour laddering with half the class (most of the part of the class that finished) looking over my shoulders to see how I was doing.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 7: End of Pride] +
Sophomore year came to a close and that summer I started making the aforementioned $400, as well as a temporary promotion to diamond. That was due to a lack of PvT and PvP. Even as the game changes, I still feel most at home in the eternal, intense and symphonic conflict between a race driven nearly to extinction and a race that grows only stronger every passing day.
But once I got a taste of diamond and then got catapulted back into plat by my shoddy PvT (the mirror match became VERY interesting for me in SC2), striving to get back up there. As HotS comes out and the exposition of the Protoss vs. Zerg symphony fades into its development, I'm going to be regaining my former glory. Bit by bit.
Every Brood Lord I butcher is retribution for the failure of my Guardians to keep themselves alive.
Every Mutalisk I massacre is retribution for the failure of my Mutalisks to distract the enemy.
Every Roach I ravage, every Speedling I slaughter, every Infestor I immolate, every Ultralisk whose udders I unstring, is complete and utter retribution for the failure of my main ground army to reach its destination and stop the Protoss in their tracks.
One day there will be a new pride play, with the Protoss, not the Zerg, at its helm. We will combine all the forces. Macro and micro. Ground and air. Diversionary and reactionary. Front door and back door. Three pronged was good. Maybe four one day?
Every game I shall win with my new pride play will be retribution for the failure of the first pride play to do so. And this time I'm not half-assing it to C-level. I'm almost in Diamond right now, and I can only go up. As high up as I ever will go. The only thing left is to find it.
To one day contribute to the symphony of the race driven nearly to extinction and a race that grows only stronger every passing day.
But once I got a taste of diamond and then got catapulted back into plat by my shoddy PvT (the mirror match became VERY interesting for me in SC2), striving to get back up there. As HotS comes out and the exposition of the Protoss vs. Zerg symphony fades into its development, I'm going to be regaining my former glory. Bit by bit.
Every Brood Lord I butcher is retribution for the failure of my Guardians to keep themselves alive.
Every Mutalisk I massacre is retribution for the failure of my Mutalisks to distract the enemy.
Every Roach I ravage, every Speedling I slaughter, every Infestor I immolate, every Ultralisk whose udders I unstring, is complete and utter retribution for the failure of my main ground army to reach its destination and stop the Protoss in their tracks.
One day there will be a new pride play, with the Protoss, not the Zerg, at its helm. We will combine all the forces. Macro and micro. Ground and air. Diversionary and reactionary. Front door and back door. Three pronged was good. Maybe four one day?
Every game I shall win with my new pride play will be retribution for the failure of the first pride play to do so. And this time I'm not half-assing it to C-level. I'm almost in Diamond right now, and I can only go up. As high up as I ever will go. The only thing left is to find it.
To one day contribute to the symphony of the race driven nearly to extinction and a race that grows only stronger every passing day.
+ Show Spoiler [Chapter 8: Love Can Ignite the Stars] +
But amongst the hate and anger there is love. I could have never gotten through this journey intact, or continue my lifelong journey into the world of StarCraft, without all of you. The community, the strategy and blogs community especially, TL Mafia. The General Forum, the LoL Forum, the Singleplayer Forum and the HotS Forum. I love each and every one of you.
A body cannot exist in the ideal state without all of its functioning organs. TL could not exist in its current state without everything and everyone, good and bad. And as much as I desire to write the symphony, so the symphony shall write me. And as one instrument contributes the orchestra, so does the orchestra shape and contour the sounds of that instrument.
All of you are special in each and every way, and I wish nothing but the best for all of you.
A body cannot exist in the ideal state without all of its functioning organs. TL could not exist in its current state without everything and everyone, good and bad. And as much as I desire to write the symphony, so the symphony shall write me. And as one instrument contributes the orchestra, so does the orchestra shape and contour the sounds of that instrument.
All of you are special in each and every way, and I wish nothing but the best for all of you.
+ Show Spoiler [Epilogue] +
The olfactory sense is most closely linked to memory. Smells can really make you feel nostalgic. There's this one type of Febreze that takes me back to my glory days of SC and the nights with all of the people from Exodus. And every time I drop a deuce and that Febreze shoots itself in the air, I can't help but think if the Guardian in me just did its next set of 20 damage 
