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Active: 25512 users

How I won the Gem League

Blogs > SirJolt
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SirJolt
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
the Dagon Knight4002 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-27 12:47:11
June 27 2013 12:40 GMT
#1
Now this is a story all ‘bout how I became the prince of a comp called Gem League...




[image loading]
Trozz ignored my pleas that we name the tournament "Gem League II: 2Pacalypse Strikes Backalypse."


For those of you who haven’t caught any of the Gem League yet, it’s a Brood War tournament run by everyone’s favourite haiku poster, Trozz. In a time when precious few Brood War tournaments still existed, Trozz took it upon himself to run a tournament for invitees at every skill level. Naturally, there would be players whose higher levels of skill and familiarity with Brood War would lend them what could be considered an unfair advantage.

With that in mind, Trozz chose a map pool that would do as much as possible to nullify the skill advantage. It was to be a map pool that ensured that an understanding of standard, safe play would do little to help players. It also had the side effect

This was to be a tournament that rewarded players not for their safe play, neither for their aggression nor their defense. It became a tournament in which the volatile, the unexpected, and the mercurial would have the supreme advantage. Chief among the Gem League’s uniquely adapted players is Kau, a man who it seems very genuinely cannot build an expansion hatchery within spitting distance of his main.

After the first Gem League, Kau’s high-risk strategies would be repeated in the first ThSL. For a fine example, you can check out this game he played against Cambium:





However, it wasn’t the five-hatch-before-gas stylings of the Cancer Zerg that won the Gem League. Indeed, it wasn’t even, as the official tournament record might indicate, 2Pacalypse’s strong play.

It turns out there’s one hail Mary strategy that beats them all. If you paid attention, you might have caught it in the game above.

You see, in order to win, you have to play the long game. I’m not just talking about the 25-minute epic you can see unfold in the video above; there was one player who managed to get a toe into every round of the tournament, a player so insidious that the majority of competitors didn’t even notice he was playing.

When the end of the first Gem League rolled around, 2Pacalypse might have won, but some of us benefited from the fact that 2Pacalypse, for all his skill at Brood War, isn’t so much a man for prizes. In the end, it was to the stealth competitor that the spoils fell.

I hadn’t expect the same trick to work for season two, but, lo’ and behold, when I opened by postbox this morning I found that I had a silent benefactor. So far, Rekrul hasn’t explained just why he deferred the prize from the Gem League Season 2 to me, but I have a feeling I wouldn’t be far wrong in guessing it’s part of a long-running campaign to claim me as one of his network of dark acolytes.1

[image loading]
To the nebulous "victor" go the tea-based spoils.


So I find myself now, at the end of season two of the Gem League, once again in possession of the array of strange and exotic teas that Trozz ships around the world to winners of his tournaments.

Sometimes, the best move is not to play at all.

Best of luck in season three, gents. I’ll be here.

Waiting...

Commentating.





1. Seriously, he keeps telling me to "rise." I don't know what that means, but I am afraid.

****
Moderator@SirJolt
2Pacalypse-
Profile Joined October 2006
Croatia9491 Posts
June 27 2013 12:57 GMT
#2
The reason I forwarded my Gem League prize to SirJolt is because I'm an awful tea drinker. And to have such a rare tea drunk in one big sip, butchered by my illiterate lips, would be a crime to all the avid tea drinkers.
Moderator"We're a community of geniuses because we've found how to extract 95% of the feeling of doing something amazing without actually doing anything." - Chill
itsjustatank
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Hong Kong9152 Posts
June 27 2013 13:00 GMT
#3
it's time to rise sirjolt
Photographer"nosotros estamos backamos" - setsuko
snively
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
United States1159 Posts
June 27 2013 13:51 GMT
#4
ahaha that magic card.
thats so funny
My religion is Starcraft
Grobyc
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada18410 Posts
June 27 2013 13:52 GMT
#5
Better watch out for this guy in ThSL II too, no competition .
If you watch Godzilla backwards it's about a benevolent lizard who helps rebuild a city and then moonwalks into the ocean.
bypLy
Profile Joined June 2013
757 Posts
June 27 2013 13:59 GMT
#6
great writeup
Trozz
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Canada3454 Posts
June 27 2013 16:48 GMT
#7
May you win it thrice.
Don't mind my poor penmanship.
Kau proxied my heart.

+ Show Spoiler [gem league abridged :D] +
A build is not a guess, an estimation or a hunch, a feeling, or a foolish intuition. A build is a dependable, unwavering, unarguably accurate, portrayer of your ambition.
Aerisky
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States12129 Posts
Last Edited: 2013-06-27 18:02:19
June 27 2013 17:58 GMT
#8
You must make the climb. As the child did. Without the rope. Then fear will find you again.

Hoping for the three-peat so you can win the prestigious *whispers confidentially* gilded mouse.
Jim while Johnny had had had had had had had; had had had had the better effect on the teacher.
Epoxide
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Magic Woods9326 Posts
June 27 2013 23:31 GMT
#9
On June 27 2013 22:52 Grobyc wrote:
Better watch out for this guy in ThSL II too, no competition .

You only get cardboard though.
LiquipediaSouma: EU MM is just Russian Roulette. Literally.
Poo
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Canada536 Posts
June 28 2013 00:11 GMT
#10
Omg.. what is that tea on the left that's cut off? Is it silver needle? <3 Tea. What an awesome thing to receive :D

Try hard or don't try at all.
MaxField
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States2386 Posts
June 28 2013 00:21 GMT
#11
I award you from the bottom of my heart a large congratulations for winning the Gem league.
"Zerg, so bad it loses to hydras" IdrA.
tarpman
Profile Joined February 2009
Canada718 Posts
June 28 2013 02:07 GMT
#12
Those teas from Comox are the best! We have friends up there who bring us some every time they come down. So cool that they're travelling all around the world
Saving the world, one kilobyte at a time.
HawaiianPig
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
Canada5155 Posts
June 28 2013 04:08 GMT
#13
It turns out Rekrul dodges prizes just as good as he dodges TLS qualifiers
AdministratorNot actually Hawaiian.
ZigguratOfUr
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Iraq16955 Posts
June 28 2013 04:28 GMT
#14
On June 27 2013 22:51 snively wrote:
ahaha that magic card.
thats so funny


Pff... SirJolt is strictly worse than Boros Recruit.
LeapofFaith
Profile Joined November 2011
United States446 Posts
June 28 2013 05:02 GMT
#15
I want that tea ):
Rekrul
Profile Blog Joined November 2002
Korea (South)17174 Posts
June 28 2013 07:48 GMT
#16
he thinks he won, lol
why so 진지해?
intotheheart
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Canada33091 Posts
June 28 2013 19:13 GMT
#17
On June 28 2013 16:48 Rekrul wrote:
he thinks he won, lol

Didn't he bro? It's pretty clear on the paint. :D

Also Trozz, do you know if there'll be another Gem League? It's possibly my favourite StarCraft to watch.
kiss kiss fall in love
FuDDx *
Profile Blog Joined October 2002
United States5008 Posts
June 28 2013 19:52 GMT
#18
I agree I love watching when I can! I wish it was more.

Also SirJolt is sexy and tea just somehow goes together with sexy.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Balloon-Man-FuDD/237447769616965?ref=hl
mizU
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United States12125 Posts
June 28 2013 22:10 GMT
#19
Sirjolt only drinks tea while he reads fancy literature.
Also while wearing a hat with a feather in it.
if happy ever afters did exist <3 @watamizu_
Kittan
Profile Joined April 2012
Poland3999 Posts
June 29 2013 11:56 GMT
#20
I command you to rise... Rise...... ARISE SIR JOLT!

Awaken from your dark slumber in the depths of R'lyeh!
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=81288 <--- How I fell in love with a man, a team, a game and a website in a single day... | "There are no false gods, there is only the Emperor, and Choi Yun Sung is his prophet." -> Zona 40k
docvoc
Profile Blog Joined July 2011
United States5491 Posts
June 30 2013 14:02 GMT
#21
On June 29 2013 07:10 mizU wrote:
Sirjolt only drinks tea while he reads fancy literature.
Also while wearing a hat with a feather in it.

Confirmed Sir Jolt is John Donne .
User was warned for too many mimes.
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