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SC2, MMA, Life - Page 6

Blogs > Liquid`Jinro
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[F_]aths
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Germany3947 Posts
August 20 2014 13:16 GMT
#101
I visited this blog to learn about MMA and Life, the players.

0/5

+ Show Spoiler +
Thank you, Jinro, for sharing your experiences in Korea. A very interesting read.


You don't choose to play zerg. The zerg choose you.
Liquid`Jinro
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Sweden33719 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-08-20 18:19:08
August 20 2014 17:47 GMT
#102
On August 20 2014 20:55 Hider wrote:
Hey Jinro

Awesome blog with some cool stories.

Anyway, I remember reading or hearing from someone back in early 2011 when your results started to get worse that you didn't practice enough/went out to clubbing.

Would you enlighten a bit more on how your overall motivation was after your semifinals and how your training routine looked like?

Outside of MLG afterparty type deals, I think I've been to..... maybe 0 clubs in my life? Maybe 1? I dont even know what qualifies, but no, I'm not a night life type of guy... like at all. I went out drinking every now and then obviously, but we are still talking no more than a few times a year, and I think the last time I got actually drunk might have been in 2012 (after retiring).
EDIT: Oh I forgot about booking clubs. I've been to like 3 or so? Rekrul and Spunky took us a bunch of times... it was a cool experience but, especially at the time, I'm way too anti-social for that type of setting lol

So yeah, it wasn't because of partying, that stuff bores me to death ---- even when I hated playing the most I'd have picked playing SC2 over going to a club ;/

Here's what happened, and it's one of my biggest regrets of my SC2 career:

When we first got setup in our new place in Incheon, our schedule was like this:
11:00 wake up time (I think it might have been 10:00 wakeup time and 11:00 game start time but not sure)
12:00 practice begins. Ranking games vs all members (3-4 maps)
17:00 Dinner
19:00 Practice resumes. If I remember correctly during these hours you were allowed to play ladder games freely, and just practice in general. Practice was until 23:00.

Bedtime was.... 2:00 or 3:00.

At this time, after finishing ranking games I'd feel fucking excited: I'D GET TO PLAY LADDER GAMES OMG!! It was like getting off work (practice) and deciding that what you really want to do for fun is play more (practice more).

The guys who did good in ranking games would get more slack and the losers would do stuff like, do the dishes on sundays (when the maid wasn't working) and that kind of stuff. Nothing really harsh but the "A rankers" had a bit more freedom of schedule than the "B rankers". I only made it into the A ranks once when this system was active (during my code S run).

As we were sitting grouped by race, me and dario could talk constantly about terran stuff, and I harassed Ensnare EVERY DAY for tips* and build orders and asking him to watch my games etc. Same with the Terran coach, oGsGon who was always keeping up with the meta and recommending builds I should be learning.

Once the first 3 open seasons finished, it was decided that anyone in Code S was exempt from ranking games. This wasn't really a problem yet.

When I was about to play Choya in the quarter finals, I was doing literally 17 hour TvP only days... I remember one day in particular, after having played every single protoss in oGs 5+ games and it was like 2-3 AM and the sane people were going to sleep... So I asked Gon to find me more protoss players. To start with I played half a million games with... I think it was IMYonghwa? Then a sucession of other protosses who were friendly with Gon... I think I stopped practicing at maybe 7 am?

So I was playing seriously excessive amounts of games and had no motivational issues.

OK, so sometime during the GSL in January I started getting slightly burned out... I was still practicing really hard for every series, even the MKP TvT (I like TvT a lot, but I didn't like practicing it as much as I did TvZ and TvP for some reason).**

So, my motivation was not as good as it had been, and I no longer had to play ranking games (oGs stopped doing ranking games completely for a while, brought them back some months later). Add to this that from my insane practice sessions until like 5 am every day while I was actually motivated, my sleep schedule was completely FUBAR. Combine this all together and you get this:

- Less motivation
- Less communication (in part because of no ranking games but also in part because I lost my humble learning mind and thought I'd 'arrived' at some 'Terran Gosu' level where all I had to do was maintain or something. I don't know what I thought exactly).
- Less qualitative practice
- NO structure.

Then later on you add in some personal life stuff and it just tipped my dissatisfaction over the edge so to speak.

I did manage to find some motivation a couple of more times (when I lost early DH summer 2011 I was incredibly pissed off, I attempted to walk back from venue to hotel, failed, got a ride back, packed my things, took train to stockholm and went to Inferno Online to practice at like 1 am in the pouring rain lol... only managed a few games because I was completely fucking exhausted). Then shortly after that I went to Homestory Cup and actually had a really, really good time, played dozens of games with Grubby and just got to talk and play and watch a lot of games with new people, and it was sort of like a mini-repeat of my initial oGs experience.

The last time I felt I was truly improving was during the late 2011 code A qualifiers where I lost 1-2 in the finals to IMMinseok... I was actually feeling pretty positive after that but I don't know, I just never managed to get enough distance from, I guess you could call it past achievments? Like, I had a hard time being a real student of the game and I just lacked discipline (in part because I was pretty unhappy about everything, but also just a vicious circle of sleeping poorly which has always tended to make me feel pretty glum about things).

I think if I had still had ranking games, my career as a high level player would have lasted a lot longer. Not necessarily saying I'd have ever achieved another top 4, but I'm just talking in terms of absolute skill here.

Overall, I went to Korea a super inexperienced kid with no life experience, and no real idea of what being a professional meant --- I was just someone who liked games a lot, and liked to obsess really hard about whatever I was doing. Given a do-over, I'd have been a lot more disciplined, but I'm still pretty happy with the experience.




* Funny aside: Once, oGsTOP was TvT tilting and asked me how the hell to beat the pure bio guys in TvT, MarineKing and Bomber in particular. I was like 'man pure bio aint no thang, blue flame hellions brah, banshees brah, marine tank brah' etc. So TOP is like... oh really? OK plz show me on my account.

OK. Oops. Log into his smurf. First game on the account is vs.... Bomber :D! 2si Bomber vs 6 si Me on Temple, BFH drop -> banshee -> marine tank -> bopped.

TOP is suitably impressed. Queue again.... MarineKing! 12si me vs 9 si MKP I believe... Again Temple. BFH+cloakshee vs MKP with massive bio drops etc... Tbh this game was a complete knife fight with both sides losing many scvs but I won again.

I was one of the first (I want to say the first because before I started doing it I never played anyone else who used bfh drops tvt) to make BFH builds TvT... as a response to Dario inventing the 1 rax/1fac/1/starport marine/hellion poke/drop (ya, he made that build shortly before the first GSL qualifiers, used it on ladder and half a week later EVERY SINGLE TERRAN IN KOREA WAS USING THE BUILD!!! Spunky was like "Man... dont use good shit like this on ladder, hide it").
One of the first times I used the BFH build, was in a friendly oGs vs WeRRa match, I beat Sound and DuckDeok (I think) to end the series.

Anyway, when I was prepping for MarineKing in GSL2011 s1 semi-finals, the BFH -> Banshee build I used on Scrap Station in game 1, was actually given/recommended to me by TOP, so we come full circle here ^_^


** The night before I was to play my semi vs MKP, I couldn't sleep because MC kept grinding his teeth in his sleep REALLY loudly (our room was me, huk, mc, hayder and jos I think, I think one more but I dont remember who was there at that time, it rotated a bit). Huk stayed up all night poking MC everytime he grinded his teeth until I fell asleep. Then brought me breakfast since we were short on time IIRC. Sick manner.

I felt pretty good playing MKP, but as soon as the games ended, I realized my throat was hurting like crazy, and by the next day I was pretty sick (I think flu or something). Funny how my body didn't recognize this at all until the games were over cuz sooooo focused.

EDIT2:
Oh another thing Dario was ahead of the curve on: making your 3rd cc into an orbital not a planetary. At the time, almost all the other terrans believed this to be too greedy and that a planetary was necessary... Spunky used to try to convince him not to do it hehe
Moderatortell the guy that interplanatar interaction is pivotal to terrans variety of optionitudals in the pre-midgame preperatories as well as the protosstinal deterriggation of elite zergling strikes - Stimey n | Formerly FrozenArbiter
speakerbox
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Canada453 Posts
August 20 2014 19:38 GMT
#103
Glad you're doing well at MMA. Always loved watching you're games in early WoL
twin anchors houseboats
OldSoju
Profile Joined August 2014
Sweden1 Post
August 20 2014 21:50 GMT
#104
This latest reply from my beloved son totally deserves an own blogpost - big respect and all of my love.
Hope to see you both later this year..

This may be my first post, but iv'e been a hangaround since 2010
Jeremy Reimer
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
Canada991 Posts
August 20 2014 23:03 GMT
#105
These are some great posts, Jinro. They really give a good sense of what it was like to be in the pro SC2 scene in Korea back in the day.

Do you think that if you'd won that Code A final against IMMinseok, you might have stayed being a SC2 pro?
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." -- Carl Sagan
TelecoM
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States10675 Posts
August 21 2014 02:24 GMT
#106
Awesome Jinro, keep fighting! Want to see you in Code S again one day
AKA: TelecoM[WHITE] Protoss fighting
purakushi
Profile Joined August 2012
United States3300 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-08-21 21:21:46
August 21 2014 21:21 GMT
#107
Good to hear about how you've been doing.

Would be awesome if you were in
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/bw-tournaments/464220-bw-reunion-tournament
T P Z sagi
Zaphachu
Profile Joined November 2011
France3 Posts
August 22 2014 00:40 GMT
#108
Let's go Jinro, i believe in you !
Master
bjornkavist
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada1235 Posts
August 22 2014 03:54 GMT
#109
Great read Jinro, you're an inspiring human being. Love that you still post on TL sometimes, they are quality stuff!
https://soundcloud.com/bbols
Mongoose
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom190 Posts
August 22 2014 21:54 GMT
#110
This thread shows just how dedicated the korean players (and foreigners in korea) were to the game. Crazy amounts of dedication!
Master league EU Terran
ZenithM
Profile Joined February 2011
France15952 Posts
August 22 2014 22:24 GMT
#111
Really cool read
Hider
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Denmark9395 Posts
August 23 2014 14:45 GMT
#112
OK, so sometime during the GSL in January I started getting slightly burned out... I was still practicing really hard for every series, even the MKP TvT (I like TvT a lot, but I didn't like practicing it as much as I did TvZ and TvP for some reason).**

So, my motivation was not as good as it had been, and I no longer had to play ranking games (oGs stopped doing ranking games completely for a while, brought them back some months later). Add to this that from my insane practice sessions until like 5 am every day while I was actually motivated, my sleep schedule was completely FUBAR. Combine this all together and you get this:

- Less motivation
- Less communication (in part because of no ranking games but also in part because I lost my humble learning mind and thought I'd 'arrived' at some 'Terran Gosu' level where all I had to do was maintain or something. I don't know what I thought exactly).
- Less qualitative practice
- NO structure.

Then later on you add in some personal life stuff and it just tipped my dissatisfaction over the edge so to speak.


Thanks for the explanation Jinro. Out of curiousity, can I ask, what you spent your time on in Korea after practising a bit less?
Liquid`Jinro
Profile Blog Joined September 2002
Sweden33719 Posts
Last Edited: 2014-08-23 15:06:24
August 23 2014 15:02 GMT
#113
On August 23 2014 23:45 Hider wrote:
Show nested quote +
OK, so sometime during the GSL in January I started getting slightly burned out... I was still practicing really hard for every series, even the MKP TvT (I like TvT a lot, but I didn't like practicing it as much as I did TvZ and TvP for some reason).**

So, my motivation was not as good as it had been, and I no longer had to play ranking games (oGs stopped doing ranking games completely for a while, brought them back some months later). Add to this that from my insane practice sessions until like 5 am every day while I was actually motivated, my sleep schedule was completely FUBAR. Combine this all together and you get this:

- Less motivation
- Less communication (in part because of no ranking games but also in part because I lost my humble learning mind and thought I'd 'arrived' at some 'Terran Gosu' level where all I had to do was maintain or something. I don't know what I thought exactly).
- Less qualitative practice
- NO structure.

Then later on you add in some personal life stuff and it just tipped my dissatisfaction over the edge so to speak.


Thanks for the explanation Jinro. Out of curiousity, can I ask, what you spent your time on in Korea after practising a bit less?

Hm, in general I still played, just not as productively and I woke up weird hours. In like January 2012 or so I played some disgusting amounts of LoL tho (with a few other sc2 players, that i wont mention hehe). Including one like 30~ hour session (maybe it was in february, I sort of remember it being a Korean holiday ----- KR new years is in february, and they don't really do regular new years all that big)
I played a decent bit of LoL before and after that month too, but not enough that it would have hampered my practice if I had actually been productively practicing and not just 'going through the motions' so to speak.

Started BJJ a bit after that.

But yeah, in general I still mostly just played up until I decided I was going to retire. Just like, more ladder, less study, more breaks between games... Stuff like that.
Moderatortell the guy that interplanatar interaction is pivotal to terrans variety of optionitudals in the pre-midgame preperatories as well as the protosstinal deterriggation of elite zergling strikes - Stimey n | Formerly FrozenArbiter
JacobShock
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Denmark2485 Posts
August 23 2014 21:49 GMT
#114
You live the coolest life Jinro. Please continue these blogs.
"Right on" - Morrow
SWAT-Kat
Profile Joined July 2011
United States311 Posts
August 24 2014 05:53 GMT
#115
Jinro, how do you do it? Poker, SC2, MMA, a girlfriend, looking for and finding apartments, etc... Where do you find all this time? Do you just chug cocktails of Hot6ix and Bacchus??? Seriously though, your persistence and dedication are infuriating and inspiring. Do you simply say, "I'm doing this" and boom, you do it? And anything else is simply cut out and left behind? How is it that you seem so sure of your decisions?

*humble bow*
Titusmaster6
Profile Blog Joined September 2007
United States5937 Posts
August 24 2014 13:20 GMT
#116
Thanks for the blog chinro! I loooove reading about this kind of stuff

+ Show Spoiler +
Zenio the best
Shorts down shorts up, BOOM, just like that.
UndoneJin
Profile Joined February 2011
United States438 Posts
August 25 2014 20:41 GMT
#117
It's always cool to real one of your blogs Jinro, glad to hear things are going well and I hope your SC2 experiment goes well
I've been lost since the day I was born ----- You're gonna carry that weight
jarod
Profile Joined September 2010
Romania766 Posts
August 27 2014 19:27 GMT
#118
so cool to hear from you jinro. we kinda miss a really good foreign terran nowadays. If you feel like... keep writing about your experiences as a pro gamer, i really enjoyed reading it.
Maru | Life | herO
Nightshake
Profile Joined November 2010
France412 Posts
August 27 2014 23:35 GMT
#119
Sick stuff man ! This is really motivating. Taking care of yourself is the best thing you can do in your life. So much nostalgia...
Hider
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Denmark9395 Posts
August 30 2014 13:59 GMT
#120
On August 28 2014 04:27 jarod wrote:
so cool to hear from you jinro. we kinda miss a really good foreign terran nowadays. If you feel like... keep writing about your experiences as a pro gamer, i really enjoyed reading it.


Foreign terrans are doing better today than they ever did in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
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