EPTI'm leaving TL because I'm leaving the internet because I'm leaving my computer because I'm leaving my civillian life and joining the US Army. On Monday I ship out to Ft. Benning, Georgia to begin Infantry School. I'm going to have a whole new set of experiences and learn a whole new set of skills. After Infantry school I have Airborne school followed by Ranger school. After that I'll find out what comes next.
Who am I? If I were to deliberately make myself hate myself and create a proleague fantasy team I would find myself automatically placed in the "TL Veterans" group. I've been here long enough now that I suppose I can accept that title, though it initially struck me as being odd when it was first attached by the Fantasy league thing. Anyone can be a veteran by means of sticking around though, that's not much of an accomplishment.
I suppose I've been a good poster at TL. My average post count is barely higher than 1 post per day. Many times I've written out a post only to erase it and move on. At first the majority of my posts were related to Broodwar map making, a relatively niche field. I never participated much in the overall TL community. I didn't make any threads which required massive and constant uptake. I didn't make any useful thread skeletons for others to use. I however was also never banned. I was warned once that if I continued to make useless posts promoting the Broodwar map I'd made (Faoi) that I would be formally warned-- I didn't go far enough to warrant a real warning. I don't think there's been red text on any of my posts for any reason.
I created some content on TL though. My most notable achievements on the site are two large guides I wrote and posted here. The first was the Guide to Map Making (for Broodwar), which won me a first generation Starcraft II beta key. It remains the longest work I've ever written. I spent something like 15 days of daily work and research to complete it, blowing away the effort I ever spent on a paper for University (and I received top grades on all of my essays and papers). If I remember correctly the guide amounted to approximately 19,600 words. I attempted to write down absolutely everything I knew and thought about with regards to BW map making. In this guide I pushed forward the concept that I had discovered/realized from having analyzed and written about maps for years: the notion of "space management" which I heavily promoted in BW map threads and at Broodwarmaps.net. It didn't catch on-- no one else believed that it was the single most important aspect of map making (in BW) as I did.
It was an interesting experience to write about BW map making so thoroughly right before the game was effectively replaced with SC2, whose map maker I never figured out. I was only barely involved in the SC2 mapping scene here: I judged a few map making competitions, from the TL Map of the Month (or w/e it was called) competitions as well as at least one of the formal TL competitions. I never actually made a full map in SC2 though, I was merely utilizing my former map making understanding and contemporary SC2 skill to do so. I almost universally preferred maps that the other judges detested and despised the maps they preferred.
My other major post here was my Guide to Level 1 Roshan and Drafting Concerns (Dota 2). Nothing came of it, though it was fun to research and test for, as well as write. One of these days Firebolt may actually add it to the Dota 2 Guide Index. I never got around to updating it for parity with 6.79 patch, as well as the newly released heroes. I'm a little sad that proteams still don't utilize the level 1 Roshan strategy. It isn't a universally useful strategy, but the point of my guide was to show that you didn't need to destroy your overall game plan to draft in a way that also enabled the possibility of killing Roshan at level 1, nor were you forced to pick heroes which would make that strategy obvious. So I'm just sad when I play Dota 2 and encourage my team to Smoke to Roshan instantly because the other team drafted a team which can kill Roshan only to find they weren't that smart. I'm sad when I watch Dota 2 (especially at MLG Columbus) and the proteams draft hillariously good level 1 Roshan teams and don't make any attempt to try it.
My other posts that I was particularly proud about were those I made in the SC2 WoL Mech Resource thread. I made a lot of posts trying to explain my understanding of mech (as I had learned it from LastShadow) and help the weaker players in the thread, in addition to posting a great number of replays.
I came to TL because of Broodwar. It still weirds me out that I don't play that game anymore, and only rarely watch old games. I was "halfway decent", or well within the "chobo" level at BW. I tried to ladder as often as I could during Korean time because that's what all the cool kids did. I maintained B- rank during those hours with my Zerg and matchups vs Zerg (pvz/tvz). My other Protoss matchups were weaker, C to C+, and my other Terran matchups were even weaker, C- to C. I was proud of being able to play all races and matchups at a semi-competent level.
My only real BW achievements were in the Collegiate Starcraft League. I was Ohio State's ace player and was one of the best players in the league at the time. I barely lost to Day9 on Medusa in a ZvZ in a game which boiled down to him having a Mutalisk with whatever hp it has after only one Scourge hits it and I did not, with both of us otherwise lacking the ability to make more units. I however later defeated the ace player of Day9's team in a game that he casted (he didn't play for them anymore by that point) in the first set of the match with my offrace (PvP) on my favourite map (Destination). We proceeded to lose every other game and I wasn't given the chance to play the actual ace match. This was in the playoffs of the last BW CSL season-- my team was very out of practice from having played SC2 Beta, and I was sad.
I was mostly known as Nightmarjoo in BW, but I had joined a fucking lot of teams on USEast and USWest and made new/different IDs for most of them. I also used the id Lyra then, but it hadn't become my main id yet.
I made life-long friends in BW, though I'm not still in contact with all of my best BW friends. Shoutout to my best BW Friends, in no particular order: Val, YueY, Brandon, Mark (the infamous iCafe.Moto), "2k"Dave, Robert, Bob, and Ryan. I can't remember anyone else, but I had many other friends.
My favourite BW player was July. I watched the replays of his games at the Blizzard Mystery Map Invite tournament as my first progamer replays, and his play swayed me to play Zerg as a main race (from Random). I also loved Stork-- I thought he had a cool personality and play-style. I liked how he just did what he wanted, and mostly made it work. I loved his Observer use and control in PvP. I liked the foreigner Draco a lot, though I'm sad he left Korea. I loved MistrZZZ's attitude-- "Yeah I played Boxer; he was pretty ez". Many people called him a hacker and he openly mocked their accusations. The Flag method of catching hackers never found any proof of hacks in any of his games. I'm sad he didn't move on to SC2.
I don't hate Savior.
I moved on to SC2 and declared my intent to become a progamer at the game. I failed. I only made a little over $300 from small online tournament winnings, local small tournament winnings, coaching, and guide making for starcraft2strategy.com. It was with the onset of SC2 that I changed my id to Lyra. Kenniget I think refused my request for a name change on TL, and eventually someone else took the id Lyra here. They actually made a QQ blog about SC2 on TL that some of my friends mistakenly believed I wrote (I did not-- I'm a far better writer than he as evidence).
My first achievement at SC2 was getting to rank #11 in the Beta Division Medivac Alamo. My second achievment was getting 2nd place in the Minerva Invictus tournament, beating Stalife and losing to Silver, whose play I greatly admired. My third achievement was getting the 59th highest points on NA after beating QXC on Delta Quadrant. I tanked my mmr by switching to Random after that to earn my Viking portrait, and never made top 200 (in blizzard's list) again. I never made Grandmaster despite having a better than 50% winrate against them in ladder and tournament matches. I beat ZenexHack in ladder with mirror builds in TvT on that 4 player scrap station style tileset space map with lowground expos in the middle (not metalopolis), giving him his 7th loss at the time. He was 71-7 or something after.
I made the ro8 3-4 times in the Playhem daily tournament. I had something like 5 tournament streak where I was defeated only by a Korean progamer. Playing Noblesse was really fun. I almost beat Sage with mech on Cloud Kingdom. Hyun raped me really hard on Whirlwind.
Through SC2 CSL I met some really cool people, and they remain my best SC2 and college friends. Shoutout to Joe and Isaac. I didn't make as many new lasting friends in SC2 as I had in BW, and not all of my best BW friends moved on to SC2, but it was still fun.
I liked playing the way I wanted to in SC2, rather than the way everyone else did. My play was always pretty different from what I saw in replays. I was proud of by the end of my SC2 experience playing exclusively mech at high masters level. I could still win with my version of Bio vs Zerg. My TvZ was always my best matchup in SC2-- I always felt that it was an easy matchup because Zerg units were killable. They also couldn't Blink. I was always bad at TvP. I liked my comfort with and usage of Ghosts, Nukes, Ravens, Battlecruisers, and Banshees in every matchup.
I didn't have that many teams in SC2, and they didn't stick around as long as BW clans did either. I had that fucking Rev (revoki) tag on my name for so long. When Blizz gave out a name change finally I changed it to my new team of SCS, which promptly died. Exion was my last SC2 team. Under Exion I had my funnest Clan War ever: I forget our opponents but I teamwiped them in hour long mech games. It took forever. The TvP on Ohana I had basically lost within 10 minutes, but I refused to leave and eventually won with efficient mech play. The TvT on Metropolis was great, because my opponent also Meched, but had no idea how to actually end a stalemate mech TvT-- he appeared to just be waiting for me to suicide into him. I EMP'd his Ravens, Seeker/Yamato'd his airforce, wiped out most of his stuff and finished him with a remax/reinforcement wave of Thors.
A friend told me I was the only player who considered SC2 to have 3 end conditions-- considering a draw to be a seperate condition than a loss. I expertly manipulated losses into draws with faggoty mech play.
I attended and played at MLG Columbus 2011, MLG Raleigh 2012, and MLG Columbus 2012. The first one was really bad for me result-wise (but awesome that I was able to meet a few of my best BW friends in real life for the first time) because I didn't realize that I accidentally had been playing with mouse acceleration for the entirety of SC2, and couldn't adapt to the difference. I corrected that and performed my best result-wise at Raleigh, where I made top64 in the open bracket (which I had noted was the same position QXC made). I was knocked out by the Terran whose id started with T I think who also knocked out Idra, which I believe was what prompted Idra to throw his keyboard at the monitor.
CES was an absolutely incredible lan run by the guys who ran CSL, in Indianapolis. I had a fantastic time there and still wear the shirt they gave us with the MLG and Nos sponsor tags, as well as my school. I also have the awesome laniards they gave us with our SC2 ids on them (again with MLG and Nos energy drink stuff on it). I still drink Nos because of this event. I didn't perform that well here, but I at least wasn't the reason my team lost. I won in our last match, but we didn't make it to the ace match.
The CSL lan at Princeton, including the hillarious esports symposium was a pretty cool event too. I performed poorly and let my team down though, which really sucked because my team hadn't let me down this time. I had generally performed well in SC2 CSL, and my team got really close to winning a lot of matches or critical sets (vs their respective ace players) that we failed to, and still consistently made the playoffs.
If you happened to see at these tournaments the short, brown haired guy, with green framed glasses, with the MBC Heroes hoodie and the Hwaseung Oz jersey: that was me.
My first favourite SC2 player was TheStc. He was so fucking good during Beta, it's such a shame he had to leave early for military service. A game I saw of Supernova-- him vs Genius on Daybreak in some GSL was an incredible match and prompted me to put him in my profile as one of my favourite players (though admittedly I didn't follow him that much after). He used a neat build and just played immaculately, and dissected Genius to pieces over the course of a fairly long game. He opened with a fast expo into early tech which he used to make 2 Banshees to harass Genius with. He then made a Raven as he switched over to bio production/upgrades. This resulted in an awesome 2 Medic timing where he attacked one spot with Banshees and the other with his first drop using the 2 Medics and the Raven's Point Defense Drone to negate the Cannons and/or Stalkers. He expo'd again on 5rax I think. At anyrate it was awesome. I don't actually remember why I put Keen in my profile.
LastShadow is someone I was familiar with in BW due to a scandal, and I thought his personality was funny at the time. I became a big fan of his when he started posted video strategy blogs and replays here. I loved that he was so willing to actively help the community. He didn't merely stream. Furthermore he would say "message me anytime for advice" in his threads and on his stream, and when I actually tried pming him on TL he said "this medium is too difficult, add me on Skype and I'll answer your questions in better detail". I just have a lot of respect for him as a player who not only went to Korea to try his hardest to become a professional gamer, not only gives back to the community, but would actually also take time out of his day to help people out, even without being paid for formal coaching. I stopped following him once he switched to League of Legends or Hearthstone or whatever he does now, but I sincerely hope he succeeds at whatever he endeavors to. I also hope the people who actively hate him will knock it off-- rather than hating him for the flaws he has (which every other human shares as well), like him for his assets and hard work.
I quit SC2 last January, after my CSL team lost the playoffs for that season. I switched fully over to Dota 2, which I'd started playing in October thanks to a TL competition which got me a Beta key for the game. By this time I'd mostly made my mind up about the Army, and no longer held illusions that I would play professionally. This didn't stop me from studying the game hard and playing competetively.
I started queueing into the veryhigh skill bracket right before they removed public viewing of your bracket. I didn't do that well once they finally incorporated the public rankings, being distracted by my imminent leaving for the Army. I only obtained a solo mmr of 3900, and a party mmr of ~3700.
I still made some great friends in Dota, though it took a long time to find most of them. Shoutouts to Tyler, Phantaxx, Moose, Hazey, Terror, Loob, Romulus, and Graham (the leader of exion in sc2 and briefly in dota2).
My best heroes were Luna, Weaver, Furion, Invoker, and Chen. I never settled on a strict role from any point on out-- playing whatever my current team/stack needed or just playing what my pub team needed or which hero I was practicing at the time. I was proud of my support play, but I was probably a better carry than support. Mid was always my weakest role, albeit depending on which hero I was playing, but I improved a lot at Mid towards the end.
Like in SC2, once I became confident in my understanding of certain concepts and strategies I began posting proliferately (my version of it-- I'm no Yango or Konadora) in the strategy threads/discussions. I also posted a shitton of pictures in the Dota pictures thread. They represent the best of what I've collected-- a small fraction of my literally thousands of pictures I've saved for whatever compulsive reason.
MLG Columbus 2013 was the only MLG I attended to spectate, rather than play in. It was a pretty nice event. Through a connection of my friend I was able to hang out in some VIP suite. I met some TL admins, some pro dota players and managers, and played Mafia for the first time. That was awesome. When I revealed my TL id the TL admins recognized me, but for some reason were confused that I wasn't Brazillian. Hotbid failed to explain how he (and the others) had mistakenly come up with that. It was good evidence that I'd been around long enough to have a reputation to some degree, but clearly not enough to be actually known personally to any degree.
There's probably so many other things that were important to me at various points in times, but I can't remember them all, and need to turn in my modem and cancel my internet service ASAP. It was fun TL, and I left my mark, however shallowly.
Sorry to any friends that I forgot to mention: that you aren't here doesn't mean you didn't matter, it only means my memory is imperfect.
Good Bye.
you've been a real legend and behind-the-scenes influential person. I've always respected and taken on board your advice and opinions and things won't quite be the same without you. All the best in the army and I hope you come back one day and give us an update 
for now
