EPTSharing is caring... or whatever. I will share, not because I care, but because I want. Starcraft, studies, girls... whatever.. ok, ok, this will NOT be a girl blog. Not because I don't have anything to write, but because it's not the right time, you see... the wizard is never early nor late, he always appears at the right time! And it's all about timing.. come on, we're all starcraft players ain't we, yo?
Anyway, starcraft... wow. That game. I've had so much fun with it. I started playing in beta after a long period of CS1.6 and a lot of different MMORPG (No.. not WoW. but pretty much any free to play). I thought, hey, here we have a new game. I always liked to chillax playing strategy games (usually against my [twin] brother), let's try to get good at a game for once! So I started playing around beginning of May 2009.
I still remember how I proxy gated all my games in the beginning, because my friend told me that's what you do. And that tournament! King of the Beta (or whatever it was called, the one streamed by Husky and the other guy.. It had a thor in the opening scene). THAT WAS AWESOME! SH*T I loved that tournament!!!
I started in bronze, slowly improving. Ofcourse reading on TL about BO's and other shit. It was fun! Beta ended in beginning of June. By then, I had participated in like 2 offline tournaments in my beloved Gothenburg, Sweden. Got pounded, a lot. There were some good players, a guy who was top200 as soon as it came out. Apparently he had been playing warcraft at a high level. I had high ambitions though. Trying to play and watch sc2 as much as I could. By the end of beta I had reached Diamond. that was great, DIAMONDS!!! Those are some valueable stonezzz. What to do when beta was down? I started to nerd bw! Got into some random european clan where we practiced almost every night. That shit was fun. by the end of the summer I was around D+. I played some really good players, like ROXkiss Pompi or whatever the guy is called, I can't remember.. too long time ago.
The year I started playing started I was in my first year of uni, chemical engineering with engineering physics program. I had aced all my exams (kinda) until I started playing sc2, all courses grade 5. Last quarter when I started with sc2, I acquired a 3 (scale: Fail, 3,4,5). I was kinda shocked.. but whatever, I'm playing starcraft yo!
Next year I bought sc2, and placed in Masters when it came out. I played as hard as I could, which meant my grades in uni went down. This year I got almost exclusively 3's instead of my former 5's. Starcraft wise I was doing better, I played in those weekly Zotac tournaments. Once i won 3 rounds getting into like RO64, I was even asked by some germans if they could stream my games. Ofcourse they could. They streamed the first game. It was PvP I think on blistering sands. I think I went colossii and finally won. They wanted to stream again... apparently I was playing some korean dude, SeleCt (or how he used to write), I had no idea who it was. It was on that map with 4 spawns. Metropolis. We didn't spawn close nor diagonal, but the 3rd option. He chatted in the game, he said he didn't sleep good (it was late where he lived, or early). I wished him luck, not knowing he wouldn't need it, since he ended up winning that tournament). I was sad but felt good to lose against the winner... and apparently he was ranked #1 in the world on ranksc2 website. That was cool.
I got better and better. During the winter, the 4gate challenge popped up (100 4gates to perfect the BO). I took the challenge, I think I ended up plying over 50 games consecutive only 4gating. It did get a bit boring but my rank was increasing. The following year I got even better! I joined a clan (that eventually ended up short lived), REGret, I played in the same team as a lot of GM dudes, sOrtOf (maybe you heard of him?) and others. It was good practice. By now, I had won a couple of offline and online tournaments (and small cash prices).
I tried to play in as many tournaments as I could... And sometimes I did really well. I still had trouble with playing under pressure. My decision making was so bad when playng tournaments! I never knew when to attack. I played to safe, our coach even criticised me for it :/. I knew it, I hated it. But I couldn't just change it, not that easily. I played really well against GM players, I coud win, If i just wasn't that scared of attacking! I played GM players regularly on the ladder, I played against Naama and others. Shit. I always lost, sure, but I was still good, at least that's what I thought.
Even though I spent so much time playing starcraft, I decided around March 2011 to quit playing. I did quit. I barely played any longer. The summer came. A tournament in my home town!?I should participate! I practiced for 2 weeks, playing at least 20 games a day. Tournament came and I won!!! It was so fun. I was high master, playing really well. During the tournament day I played over 50games, If I recall I had around 70% winrate that day meeting high master/GM players (nick: REGretVeeZ). I decided to quit to focus on studies once again. It didn't feel good playing 5h a day and feeling the pressure to improve.
School was going well though (relatively). In my third year I decided to take some extracurricular courses, special relativity, mathematical modelling, and stuff. I finished my BSc, my thesis being in experimental subatomic physics.
I picked Applied Physics for my MSc, tried to pick as many courses within computational physics and computing in general. During this summer (this is my 2nd year in MSc) I went to germany for two months for a summer program in nuclear physics. It was nice, I had a lot of fun. Recommend anyone to go abroad during their studies, it's so rewarding! We travelled almost every weekend and hung out every evening, watching movies, cooking together, whatever, it was great!
I came back to write my Master's thesis within the same field. It's been half a year. I will finish in the beginning of next year. I applied for PhD positions in various fields (having a broad background allows you to do this!).
I found one in at my university, computational materials physics. I deem myself pretty much an ideal candidate (kinda). I took all courses within this field... just my thesis that isn't in line. But working on the thesis within this department (same as my BSc thesis) allowed me to gain more experience in research, I was in germany, I went to England for 1week where I attended a physics meeting and held a presentation, which was a great experience!
So... on wednesday I'm having a meeting with the supervisor of the PhD position. I wonder how it will go. I'm not sure if I want to get it. When it comes to research, it's great. I'd have to take courses, deepening my knowledge in the field, get teaching experience and doing a great project under a great supervisor! Can't get better, but I might want to go abroad for my PhD. I might have that as an option as well within this PhD... So we'll see! Wish me luck!
What I wanted to say was: I'm going to try to start playing sc2 again!!!! I'll have a stream up at twitch.tv/vedadb
So check me out when you're up for some random streamwatching :D..
Vedad out!
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