DreamHack Valencia 2013 - Still fighting!

About

BabyToss:

28 years old Mid/High Masters Protoss from the Czech Republic, with no prior RTS experience. BabyToss has been around StarCraft since early 2011, however, real life issues prevented BabyToss from constant practice. Went from Bronze to Masters in timeframe of one year. BabyToss suffers from general anxiety issues. StarCraft II was always more than a game for BabyToss, it's been pushing her and her wish to grow stronger, not only as a player, but also as a person, facing personal struggles. Currently is teamless, as her team fell apart shortly before Dreamhack Valencia.

DreamHack Valencia 2013 - Still fighting!

19-21 July 2013
Feria Valencia, Valencia
Spain

Not so long after my last write-up, is it? Originally, I wasn't 100% sure if I could make it to Dreamhack in Valencia or not. Things have roughed up, I've had my StarCraft "mid-age crisis", where I've been trying to alter some things, which included me experimenting with different setups & control groups (more on that perhaps some other time, though), let me just say, that screwing with your control groups, after you've been playing for quuuite some time with certain setup is just bad and it showed on my loss streak too... haha. Muscle memory is too strong & doing this only confirmed how deeply rooted some settings get within your game - alas, at least I managed to get rid of some really bad habits!

My team fell apart out of blue shortly before Dreamhack in Valencia and I wasn't too happy about it either. Like I said, things have been weird with me and it kind of affected my mindset as a whole, and it took me a great deal of effort to motivate myself.

The trip & pre-DreamHack

Spain is a good place for holidays. It came to my mind to just take my husband and son & have an awesome relax time, while going to enjoy some StarCraft time for myself. Now, the curiosity is, that Valencia is around 2,600 kilometers away from the Czech Republic & we travelled by car. Nothing unusual for us, we've travelled so much, to destinations like Greece on several occassions. My husband is an avid driver, what can I say!

The trip wasn't anything unusual, so I won't really bore you guys with it. Funny was, that once we reached our hotel in Spain, we went to have some fun on the beach, as we arrived three days prior the event - guess what, because I am proper nerd & not really getting any sun time when at home, I got sunburnt the very first day. Don't even ask, yes, I did use sun-block - got sunburnt anyways! My face looked literally like a tomato & the worst of all were my ears, which were all red & really badly.

I spent some time practicing too, while at the hotel. The connection sucked though, so I think I invented couple of new czech swear words, while practicing. I wanted to ingrain some openers I had prepared for exactly this event, given I knew my group. Things turned out completelly different and kind of wacko... more about that soon.

The tournament - let's get wacky

Finally, three days after I arrived to Valencia, the big day D was here. The beginning was scheduled at noon of local time, so I arrived two hours before. Unlike at Dreamhack Summer, all groups were played at the same time. It kinda makes sense, because they needed to do all three groupstages in one day. It was good seeing some of the Swedish admins too. Hellspawn, Steisjo & Lundiz - they seemed to always have a good control over things, so seeing them was really welcomed.

Dreamhack Valencia enterance

I began the usual setup & as it is with me, I felt really nervous. Both because my initial group was rather difficult, as well as all these people there - when you are suffering from anxiety, this is what happens; you tremble and it generally sucks - but if I never face it and avoid it, it will not get better, so I just have to keep fighting. I decided to walk around to ease up on the nerves & the anxiety - I heard it helps. Besides, I knew that what I didn't practice up until now, I couldn't really do at the event. So, walking around the venue was really the best option. Met PengWin again and since he had Birthday not that loong ago, I promised to bring him some Czech beers; which I did. He better drank them cold tho, if not... he'll be a n00b in my eyes forever!

My original group

Things got a bit too funny (actually, not really funny) when the groupstage was supposed to start. Apparently, my first opponent wasn't there, so I was told to wait. Alright, waiting it is. I'd rather play the next match than to wait. But, couldn't do it, given there was set schedule. Went for a walk again - not too far, in case my opponent would turn up, but enough to stop thinking about unnecessary things.

Oh, during that waiting time, while I was browsing Liquipedia & official DH bracket - I also realized that my group got changed - Initally, I wasn't supposed to get a Zerg in my group (to my delightful happiness - I hope you Zerg readers will forgive me), but then I did get a Zerg player in the group. I'll be honest - I just don't get that matchup. My W/L in PvZ is weak 30% - 40% on the ladder, give or take, across my accounts I play on. My face turned out really weird when I found out about that change. Don't get me wrong, I don't yell "imba" & I just need to focus on it more, Don't get me wrong - I don't hate Zerg players - just... yeah, having difficulties with the matchup. <.<

I sidetracked a bit. So, after like twenty minutes of waiting, the admin told me that it was a walkover & that my second opponent wasn't here either, so it'd be 99% walkover as well, but he told me to wait another twenty or so minutes. I won't lie here - at this point, I just facepalmed. You may think it's lame to be upset about getting a free win, but to me, StarCraft is about passion & enjoying the game, so getting this just felt out of place and totally weak. I know the admins can't really do anything about it, I am not blaming them, but it doesn't change the feeling, that it was really lame. I prefer to deserve what I get. Eventually, the second walkover was confirmed & I was supposed to play that last game versus Zerg player. Again, had to wait for specific time. Waiting AND a Zerg. Alright. Was muttering, because all the waiting was becoming such a drag. I think all the waiting at the events is making it even harder for me. The game also totally didn't matter, because both of us would advance into next groupstage either way.

Hi from DreamHack Valencia

I should mention that during my game vs Zerg, I realized half of my sounds didn't work & panic ensued. Why? Because I am a n00b who didn't spend enough time with setup & I also forgot that my headset is 5-channel. Yay when you realize stuff dancing in your base way too late, because you rely on your sounds way too much. Honestly, turn off my StarCraft sounds and I'll be eternally f*cked. Heck, I wouldn't be able to even produce workers without it, as I wait for "beep" sound and react automatically on it. And, because of being anxious and shy, I didn't even ask for game pause. It was my fault anyways, so I didn't want to keep up. Something to pay attention for next time. <.<

So, I got into second groupstage. I felt completelly out of place & totally undeserved. My group consisted of (P)

Darkomicron, who happens to be a buddy of mine and whom I know for nearly as long as I've been playing. Funnily enough, we exchanged some friendly banter before going to Dreamhack in Valencia, that should we meet, we would beat each other up - then there was (P)

StarDust - who is kind of a buddy as well, and going against Dreamhack Summer champion was.. yyyeah. And then there was (T)

MorroW; well, you all know him anyways & he turned out to be rather nice fella too.

Funnily enough, you had to change seats for second groupstage - so there was StarCraft on my computer, but completelly in Spanish. It was impossible for me to setup stuff and it took quite some time for somebody to come and help me switch it to English. Now it seems kind of funny, when just writing about it, but trust me, when you have limited amount of time for setting up, it certainly wasn't too funny at the time. Panic mode engaged...it seems this Dreamhack was kind of trouble-magnet for me.

Eventually, all the troubles were fixed up & my first set was against (P)

Darkomicron. Seriously though, all this waiting & technical issues took its toll. I just couldn't stop the trembling at all and I got nice tunnel-vision during the games. Of all of my opponents in my group, I felt I could have some nice games versus my friend, but I just couldn't hold my composure, so it really sucked. I knew I'd not have chance against StarDust or Morrow, but playing so poorly against Darkomicron made me feel really low. I'm not trying to underestimate him or anything - it's just him and me are, ladder wise, not that far away from each other & I hoped to give him some hard sweat for sure. It makes me think, how many of such events one has to do, to be able to overcome some of these physical symptoms of anxiety & nervousness? Morrow said it took him a while too, during his Broodwar career. So maybe there's hope for me yet, to not underperform so horribly at live events. Needs to be said, that all this waiting seemed to get not just under my skin - Morrow was tired as well. I had some nice talk with him, actually. Poor fella confused me with someone though, as he asked me if I was part of mYinsanity and if I lived in their house. (I wish... T__T)

Now, come to think about it - I think I enjoyed my games with (P)

StarDust the most, out of whole group. Despite of all troubles, playing with him was just fun. You don't get to play a Dreamhack champion every day, after all. And I will say it again, he is such a nice person too. Second game, in the lobby, he was like "Don't be nervous. " Such a champ. Really, of all my games, these were the most memorable & for these alone, it was well worth of travelling and trying to compete. It reminds me of why I love StarCraft so much & that winning at all costs just doesn't compare to that.

After finishing my games, I finally managed to bump into White-Ra, who I promised Czech beers - he wanted two, but I felt nice & gave him three. So here's hope he did put them into fridge to make them all nice and cold as well... and that he enjoyed the beers afterwards, haha! :D

Dreamhack Valencia - overall experience

Moving away from the tournament part - it kind of makes me want to compare the Dreamhacks in Sweden to this one in Spain. It's good that the SC2 admins were coming from Sweden & were familiar with stuff. However, the waiting time inbetween games was even longer & at the end of the day, I was simply exhausted. When you are in the game, you don't have time to think about many things around you, but when you wait, your mind wanders, especially if you are like me. I believe that the games should be much smoother, especially if they are not streamed. Again, referencing Morrow, who I spoke to - he said that MLG was even worse at one point, and I just shook my head in disbelief - I guess building up stamina for all the waiting at live events is in order.

The venue itself felt much smaller, compared to DH in Sweden. The plus side of this is, that you couldn't get lost. Bad thing is, if you bumped into someone from Spain, they often couldn't speak English at all. That kind of goes for most places here too.

Tournament area was similar to what we are used to in Sweden. The chairs again not being cut for midget-sized nerds tho. And I forgot my pillow again. I mentioned my issues with my StarCraft being in Spanish, and I honestly think that it should've been solved quicker than it was.

The plus sides of Valencia is, that you have a nice beach within your reach - which I heartily use with my family & if I can, I'll come next year again.

Epilogue

I felt a bit too lonely this time, given I am without team & didn't have many people I'd know - and those who I did know were busy enough with their own team & I just didn't want to be a bother. Originally my family was with me, but my kiddo is just too young to appreciate event like this yet, so they went to sightseeing instead. Noone to cheer me up, or talk to felt really difficult, especially after the games. Some people may say that I could try to talk to some people there, but that's really difficult if you are as shy and as anxious as I am.

I don't regret going at all. Each such experience means I might be closer to breaking some of my issues, while doing something I love. Just have to say and keep repeating it, that this is completelly different experience compared to just laddering at home. At one side, I hate I don't play my best at all, but at the other side, it's valuable and great experience I'd recommend to anyone who truly loves the game.