EPT
I started playing Starcraft II in September 2010 casually. I played Broodwar couple of months before that and managed to reach B/B- with Zerg in 4 months of playing on iCCup so I figured I could try Starcraft II and have some fun with it. First month of Starcraft II I played Zerg and all my strategies were focused on using lings + nydus and mutalisk attacks, stuff like nydus in main while mutas are killing workers on natural, while expanding to island bases and having proxy bases and had tons of fun doing so.
Shortly after that players realized whats going on, got better at the game and..well strategies like that didn't work so much anymore. I never raged about 5 rax reaper strategy I kinda accepted it the way it is and learned how to play versus it. It didn't take long for me to realize (at that time) that zerg is incredibly boring race and you just didn't have many options in games, only matchup I liked was ZvZ because it reminded me so much of Broodwar. I played some 4v4 games with Terran and had tons of fun using different unit compositions and I just started playing 1v1 with Terran. I stopped playing zerg when I was top 150 (diamond) at the time.
Once I switched I loved playing Terran, I just had so many different options and reapers were cool too
At this point it was mid october and I had no idea there are tournaments in Starcraft II or even pro players and pro teams, I was just clueless about the whole scene. One day I decided to go on Blizzard forums to find some new strategies and saw a post about tournament that was going on and people discussing it and I got really interested in that. Digging more and more I noticed that players that were winning tournaments are the ones I managed to beat sometimes on ladder and I thought to myself I could do that I could win tournaments, if I can even take one game from them I can do it.Realizing what was going on in Starcraft II I thought "omg my dream to play games and earn money might come true", it was too good of an idea to pass on. I started working hard and laddering 6+ hours a day. After a month of practice I started playing tournaments and it started with me being so nervous that I droped out in round 1..needless to say I was bummed, I mean I was top 100 on ladder at a time how can I lose to someone who lower ranked than me? Am I even good at all? What's the point in practicing so much if I cant get past round 1. I went to bed. Next morning I woke up feeling motivated to improve my play and I watched replay what I did wrong and I told myself every time I lose game to cheese or in stupid fashion I will make sure that doesn't happen again. In 2010/2011 there were online tournaments pretty much every day. I played more and more tournaments, next time I played I reached round 3 (you needed 7 rounds won to reach quarter finals and bo3's) and I lost again, at this point even though I was sad I was happy I got to round 3, thats big improvement. I kept practicing, more and more each day with more and more motivation to be known and to make living off playing games. My dream was coming true slowly and I could see it, I knew I could do it at this point. I thought about Starcraft II when I woke up, when I was eating, when I was out and before bed, I gave my 110%.
Days went on and I managed to reach round 4, round 5, round 6, until one day in october I reached quarter finals. I played Nightend in quarter finals and I managed to beat him 2-1 after being down 0-1. Not only I reached quarter finals for the first time ever, but im in freaking semi finals!!! I was so freaking happy, while waiting for my next oppoenent I was biting my nails who will it be and once I looked my next opponent was either going to be Jimpo or Avenger, both Terran players. For those who didn't follow Starcraft II from start Jimpo was incredibly good player, he won a lot of tournaments and he was one of best players in Europe and because of that I expected to play him. After waiting for 30minutes I found out that my opponent is Avenger and I had no idea who he is. Series started and I was extremely nervous, there was thousands of people watching me play, what if I make some stupid mistake? I want to show im a good player! After an hour long game on Steppes of War after being 1-1 I managed to win and I got to FINALS!!! I was so happy I told my dad and he was suprised about it because he knew how much I practiced for this, I would tell him for days that all the players that are winning tournaments I win them when I ladder. Tournament name was Competo cup, there was about 3000 viewers watching the finals and this was literally first time I was streamed (from semi finals). I played Damnosaurus Hungarian Terran player if I remember correctly, games started and well..after losing 1-3 my dreams got crushed...for that evening. I remember being so bummed, this was my chance if I just did this or did that, how could I lose to that push I played so many time versus it..
Shortly after finals ended about 20 people messaged me on battle net saying that I played great and they hope to see more of me, congratulated me on second place and told me that if I keep practicing I can win tournaments for sure. I think 20 people that messaged me helped me more than they can ever realize, up to this day I don't think people realize how much it means to me at least when people message me nice things like that after I lose or even after I win, I feel I need to play more so I wouldn't dissapoint them. It was really good run, it was 1 am and I had school next day. I went to bed little sad, but at same time proud and hopeful I can win a tournament in future, I told myself if I can reach finals, I can win the whole thing.
I loved the game at this point, I could imagine myself winning tournaments and being one of the best players in Europe, I could see myself earning money from playing games and I was so close to it, I just need to keep going through loses and fight on. It was december and there were just so many online tournaments, but definatly my favorite was up to this day was Craftcup. Admins were always so nice, streamers were extremely friendly, every time I played they cheered me on and messaging me on start of tournament that they hope they would see me in finals and just saying nice things in general. Whole site for Craftcup was something I loved, it was unique and so..clear to work with I just loved it. That was one tournament I never skipped no matter what.
It was friday december 3rd. Another tournament, another Craftcup. Prize pool for friday's craftcup was 100$ for first place and I warmed up, had dinner and started playing at 7 PM. Round after round I was beating my opponents left and right, I just felt good that night and was confident in my play in general. I reached quarter finals again, this time I had some experiance in tournaments and this was second time I was in quarter finals.
First opponent was Protoss player Pjonkan which I managed to win quite easily 2-0, games were streamed and I had couple of people message me before my quarter final game wishing me good luck. Semi finals was next, my opponent was coReY Terran player which again I managed to win easily 2-0 and oh my god I was in finals once again. I was so excited and happy..until I looked at bracket. My opponent from other side was Fenix Terran player, I just thought to myself im screwed. He was extremely well known player at that time, he was traveling to lans and winning bunch of online tournaments. He had way more experiance than me. Tournament being in Europe I felt like im playing at my home town which kind of gave me this thought that I "have to defend Europe" by winning tournament. There was over 4000 viewers on stream and I had SO many messages from people wishing me good luck that I couldn't even do map vetoes because messages kept popping up.
Finals started, I thought to myself "he's expected to win and there's no shame in losing to player like him", games went on and after 2 games I realized im up 2-0 in a bo5, I suprised myself. I thought I was good, but I did NOT expect this to happen. Shortly after my tournament inexperiance compared to him showed, where I got overconfident thinking I won bo5 and score evened up 2-2. Fuck. "What will he do in next game? What if he does something I've never seen before?". Thoughts kept rushing through my head and I just tried to calm myself down. Game 5 was game on Jungle Basin that I will remember forever, it was game that changed my life. I spawned in bottom right, he spawned in top left. I couldn't exactly remember builds we both went, but we started off same with "minor" difference" I went for another CC and he went for 1 base allin with marine/tank/viking. Oh god..that moment when I scanned his natural and realized he has no base my adrenaline started pumping, IM ON TWO BASE IF I JUST DEFEND I FUCKING WON!! ok ok calm down. The moment I scanned his tanks were shooting at my base with vision from air units. I pulled back little, I started sieging up tanks and got marines in position, he pushed me back all the way next to my CC in base splitting my main and natural. I was adding factories behind my mineral line, because I had so much money from moving my buildings and being supply blocked. I was scrapping to get units out and defend, I managed to make 3 tank siege line while he had 3 or 4, so he wasn't able to push in. I got medivac out, what now, oh I know ill drop helions just outside my base and run them in his main base and just force him to attack into my siege line. And well..that's exactly what happened my helions ran in and started killing workers and he unsieged and moved with all marines, tanks and air units. I pulled all my scvs to absorb damage and I looked at helions in his base, there was no workers at all. My tanks are shooting and battle just stops, all he has left are 2 marines that just ran into 2 of my tanks. Battle ends and I realize holy shit did I just win? Shortly after he types GG and I go crazy, I fist pump like I won milion dollars and run out of my room to tell my family that I just won my first tournament. That night I was answering back to people for nearly 2 hours that messaged me after game saying grats and good job, making jokes like "you defended Europe!" I was so freaking happy, I did it, I practiced 2 months for this moment for minimum 6 hours a day and not only I won a tournament, but I beat a well known and extremely good player.
What's next from this point? Well..winning more tournaments obviously, my gaming career just started and I won't be stopping any time soon.
Well, that was long
I felt I needed to write this for some reason since thread has been posted that im quitting Starcraft II. Writing all of this is something I wanted to do for a long time and I will keep writing blog's if people are interested to hear rest of my story and see what progamers have to deal with and how you feel at certain moments.I can promise you it will be long blog every time and I will write my opinion on literally everything. Starting off with my BM history, to what I think of some players, Blizzard, casters, tournaments, community or anything you want really.
Thanks for reading, have a nice day
