EPTBeing from North America and always being a video game nerd, I have played StarCraft off and on since it was first released. Mainly playing customs and some melee games with friends. Needless to say, I was rather bad at the game. (That still hasn't changed). I heard about StarCraft 2 coming out and got all excited, however at the time I was more focused on school so I didn't bother picking up the game at the time of release. Finally, while the game was on sale, I picked up the game. It just so happened that the first weekend I had it, MLG was on. I watched my first weekend of competitive matches and instantly fell in love. Time and time again I would log onto twitch and just watch everything and anything.
I had placed into Bronze in my first season which was to be expected. However I kept playing and worked on learning more and more about the game. Season after season I would get promoted. With the launch of HotS that was no exception. I placed into gold first and quickly got promoted to Platinum and after Diamond. Here is where I am still at and still working on it. Rather quickly I ended up realizing that I would never be able to become a progamer.
So with progaming being out and with the fact I don't have a large chunk of cash sitting in my bank account I did what I thought would help the most. I started to run smaller tournaments with a small cash prize that would be sent over paypal. I was tired of hearing complaints about how bad the North American scene is. Without doing something about it, nothing would change. This is where I stepped in and ever since have been trying to do my part. Up to this point I have run one 1v1 tournament and two 2v2s, with all my tournaments attracting a decent amount of people as well as higher ranked and well known competitors. Players of note that have participated so far are:
1. KiLLeR of Clarity Gaming
2. Shew of Clarity Gaming
3. Heart of Axiom
4. Jjakji of NSHoseo
5. MaSa of ROOT Gaming
6. Shuttle of Clarity Gaming
As well as many more.
After a decent amount of success with a rough total viewership of 4000 over three events I have joined up with CyberActiv in hopes of having more success in the future with the promotions as well as potential sponsorships. This team of individuals along with myself share the same long term goals: To make eSports a viable option in North America, to help foster a true growth for the competitive nature and to close the gap between regions.
I certainly hope you all will help us do our best to achieve these goals. We will be holding another tournament coming up on the 18th of May.
Please check us out on twitter @GreatNorthernSC @CyberActivPro and if you so choose my own personal twitter @HolybeardmanSC2
