I meant to write this about a month ago when I finished moving, but a couple of things I wanted to include in the blog were delayed so I held off on writing it, and promptly forgot I was supposed to write anything in the first place! The only topic I'm not really gonna talk about here is poker, because it's always felt a bit private to me (except for with other poker players). All I'll say is that I've had a very nice year so far and hope it continues this way
Changing places
Initially I'd planned to just keep this bit short and put up a couple of pics of my new place, and move on... but I realized I didn't really have any good pictures, and it's too late at night to get good light to take new ones, plus it made me start thinking about the old days so... let's run with that.
When I first came to Korea in 2010 with Nazgul and TLO, we initially lived in Bundang with the oGs team in a 3 bedroom+living room/kitchen apartment, but this quickly became way too crowded as oGs recruited several new players*. I remember being crazily impressed by how the koreans (TheWind in particular) were able to do marathon practice sessions and then roll out a mattress and literally go to sleep in the middle of a fully lit room of gamers tapping madly away at their keyboards.
Inca used to play while smoking***, with his feet at impossible angles (I'm forever jealous of people with flexible hips, they make chairs seem less like chairs and more like beanbags). He was one of the first oGs guys I actually ran into on the ladder... I remember trying to go mech on metalopolis and losing to mass-mass speed void rays (back then Void Rays had a speed upgrade that made them roughly as fast as speed upgraded warp prisms... or so my memory tells me anyway).
There weren't enough computers for us to practice in there when we first arrived (our computers were in the mail), so everyday we'd head over to this little PC Bang with its interior all in pink. Something something Story... can't remember what.
After a month or so, oGs had found a new place in Bucheon**, and we made to move there. Bucheon is a satellite city, squished inbetween Incheon and Seoul, and connected to the same subway line, and it was conveniently located in relation to the GOMTV studios (at the time they were in mokdong, about a 20 minute drive away given reasonable traffic... which is not a given at all in Seoul).
The place was honestly absolutely gorgeous - it was huge, modern and with a great view up ont he 15th+ floor, in a super cozy little neighbourhood. The players and managers quickly dragged our backpacks up there and we ordered chinese food (Korean Chinese food is sort of different from other countries in my experience, and very different from Chinese-Chinese food, Koreans generally dont like Chinese-Chinese food that much, although I personally absolutely love it). So, the reason I specifically said 'players and managers' in the above sentence, is that the two team owners (Victor - Liquid`Nazgul that is - and oGsSpunky were both conspicuously absent. What had happened was this: the resident group of mothers had found out that some uncouth group of gamers, including a bunch of foreigners, were going to move into their building, and this they simply could not stand for. Or rather they could stand for it. In the way of the doors.
From what I've been told, Spunky and Victor were literally blocked from entering the building, and despite us having an already signed contract and everything was paid for, when the police basically said they couldn't do anything about this, the building owner caved in and we ended up having to find somewhere else to go.
Now, this was sort of a problem. Most of our clothes and computers were at this point in a storage facility... the stuff we had carried with us in backpacks or what not, were in most cases personal documents and gaming peripherals, not changes of clothes. Our old apartment was already being moved into by the new tenants, so here we were, about a dozen guys with 1 change of clothes and nowhere to live.
We ended up spending the better part of a week living in a love motel, practicing all day in a local pc bang, and drinking all night (ok that's an exaggeration, but we'd have a couple of beers every night at this bar I remember being called something Ya-Ya bar... all blue lights as I recall, very nice bartender). The receptionist was a little perplexed when me, TLO and Victor arrived to check in alone at first... 3 white dudes checking into a love motel might not be the most pedestrian of sights. When 10 Koreans showed up 5 minutes later to check into another couple of rooms I wonder what she thought.
I can still - regretfully - remember the cigarette smell of my tshirt after 3-4 days in a smoking-allowed PC bang and the equivalent amount of nights at the aforementioned bar.
I think I left out the first GSL qualifiers which happened shortly before the move, but it's not really the purpose of the blog so I wont go into it, except to say that I remember being so nervous I could barely sleep, and almost throwing up when trying to eat bibimbab for breakfast in the car... For literally years after this the memory of that horrible qualifier day made me feel sick anytime I even thought about eating bibimbab... I remember most of the non-koreans who were there, were given complete tomato cans for their opponents (like not even masters league players)... while I managed to draw a legit highly ranked Korean protoss player.
Tournament venues are so empty when you lose, despite all the people.
Anyway, Spunky had actually qualified for the first GSL and as I recall it he had to play his match during this week where we were all essentially homeless. I think he lost a PvP.
Eventually oGsGon (alongside with TheWind, he was the oGs playing coach... I really learned a lot from him Terran wise), the man tasked with finding a new place to live, reported back that he'd found a great place in Incheon. It was pretty damn close to as nice as the place in Bucheon we'd been forced out of, and tho I didn't know it, it was literally only 20 minutes away.
I remember being so exhausted that I slept as well on the floor on a thin blanket (as our new beds hadn't arrived yet) as on the softest of mattresses.
We'd stay here for quite a while, or at least in the same building (FOu/FXO had their team house in the same building as well). Victor left to go back to Holland and proceed with the day to day affairs of running Teamliquid, Haypro joined us around the same time. Back then, oGs had us seated by race (no.... not koreans/non-koreans, in game races). So we had a 'Terran line' in the middle, a protoss line in the back, and a zerg line in the front****. Me and dario ended up at the diagonally opposite ends of the room, and with how much we were playing and practicing at that time, in the first couple of weeks of hayder being there, we honestly barely spoke to eachother.
When we went to MLG Dallas together, and finally got to spend time with him, we realized he's literally the funniest person on this planet. Also, that he shares a name with some random terrorist, which got him all sorts of hassle at US customs (despite the fact that at the time he hadnt been outside sweden for 14 years). Got me and Dario flagged as "travelling with a person of interest" as well, so on our next stop all our carry on was drug sniffed. Haypro had only checkin luggage so he stood to the side and laughed.
When we came back to Korea he ended up stuck in Korean customs***** for >1 hour while me and dario waited with no idea what was going on (this was during the G7 or whatever meetings so the airport security was ramped up).
Next, Ret and Huk arrived, and we moved to a bigger place in the same building, where we stayed for quite some time... I want to say 1.5 years, until oGs started having financial troubles and eventually dissolved. Huk, me, Supernova, Hero and TLO (who was at this point in germany but wanted to come back to Korea), decided to get a place on our own (side note: the apartment after all the ogs guys left, looked like someone had set off a bomb in there. I'll include pictures of before and after cleaning --- a cleaning process which I did all on my own and took many hours ;d). Unfortunately, Dario was still in Germany, Huk, Hero and Supernova were all intermittently travelling to tournaments (although Supernova helped me out when he was there), so I ended up having to look for apartments all on my own... Looked in Itaewon with the help of Waxangel (glad I didn't end up there --- I like the area in terms of food and architecture, but I can't spend more than half a day there without desperately wanting to get back to Incheon), in Dangsan (seoul) with the help of Minchul, and finally around our area in Incheon. We finally found a really awesome apartment very close to where we were, and with the help of Supernova's and Hero's parents we moved in and lived there for just over a year (we moved in just before I quit sc2).
I'd hoped to stay there longer, but with TLO deciding to return to Germany, HerO spending almost all his time at the EG-TL house practicing for Proleague, and Huk returning to the US due to some EG plans, the place was just a tiny bit too huge for the two or three of us remaining (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a gigantic living room... 1300$ in rent, 3~600$ in utilities per month)
At this time I didn't have a lot of money, and a good chunk of it was tied up in the deposit for our current apartment (I'd been paying stuff like rent and utilites etc for people when they were travelling to tournaments with the agreement that we'd just settle once we got our deposit back, so I had something like 10-15k tied up in this which was a lot for me at the time), and I was running out of time. I ended up getting a pretty simple 1.5 room apartment like 10 minutes away (just across the 'border' in Bucheon). It wasn't horrible or anything, as far as 1 rooms go it was pretty big, but my girlfriend described it best: "Your building feels like a prison". Very true.
So, when my contract was finally up, I was extremely excited to finally be able to move into a place that is genuinely my own, and feels like home. After a lot (A LOOOOOOOOOT) of searching, I managed to find a place not 10 minutes walk from our old team house (either one - the oGs/TL one or the one me/TLO/huk/supernova/hero lived in) at a very reasonable price (20k deposit, 700$ a month).
Oh and my girlfriend moved in with me so we've been living together for just over a month now, which is pretty cool --- this is by far the most like home I've felt in a long time.
I'm located under 10 minutes from both the subway station as well as my gym, which brings me to my next topic
* Among these recruits was the BossToss himself - MC! He had just switched from SC1 and on his first day in the house, me and him played something along the lines of 15-20 straight games... aside from a brief period around January when we played our famous mech games, this was probably the best record I ever achieved against him, at 40/60~ or there abouts. Back then, MC spoke absolutely no english, it's pretty crazy how good his english is now to be honest. Random fact: MC was the only Korean to call me hyung (respectful term used to address an older brother) back then <3!
** Last year, my girlfriend showed me this really nice restaurant in Bucheon ran by a pair of Japanese twin brothers... and wouldn't you believe it if it wasn't located in the exact same neighbourhood as our highly temporary new team house. This actually reminds me they sent me a discount coupon, time to go back there I think --- really delicious food honestly.
*** I've never smoked a cigarette in my life (or anything for that matter, except waterpipe a few times), and I used to absolutely detest the smell... But ever since living in that apartment and being constantly surrounded by minty cigarette smell, I've sort of grown fond of it. I still don't smoke, but when someone smokes a similar brand I always feel a pang of nostalgia.
**** In the days before Hayder was set to arrive, I walked past Zenio's computer and saw him looking up some english words with a dictionary... As I walked closer I could read what he'd written in his notepad: "Zerg is has no hope for the future" Slightly perplexed I asked him why he'd chosen this to translate? "It's for Hayder"
***** Me and Huk almost got kicked out of Korea at one point, for playing games on TV for money without a working Visa. Infact, we were both fined a % of our earnings, an amount that was (in my case) high enough that it would have mandated a 1 year ban from Korea if GOMTV had not gotten a recommendation from the minister of culture (I believe that was it) to show lenience and lower our fine. This brought the fine down to where I didn't have to leave. I remember going to the immigration office and being interrogated, then having to withdraw 1500$ in cash and handing it over... stung. GOMTV paid us back all our fines however, and helped us deal with the entire situation.
Making the Team
So I've been training at the same MMA gym since about February last year now (5x a week since July last year), and last month the headcoach asked me if I wanted to start training with the pro team.... Why yes, yes I very much would like to do that!
To start off with, me and two others are joining the team for their saturday practice, which is about 5-6 hours of techniques and sparring, as well as occasionally throughout the week. So far it's been a great experience, the headcoach is a tiny guy compared to basically all of the guys he's teaching, but everytime he shows a refinement to a technique or a hold, keeping him from executing it feels like moving a mountain.
Sat in on a video review last wednesday of two of the fighters' latest matches (one of them won, one lost), and then joined the resulting practicing (focused on what had been discussed during the video review). Was really interesting to see just how carefully they analyse and plan everything, a bit eye-opening.
I've also started lifting regularly, to try to gain some weight (I think I was getting too thin around the time of my last fight with how hard I was training), and am feeling better than I ever have (I think in part because I've allowed myself some additional rest). Have gained maybe 1 or 2 kg, sadly not 100% muscle as I have allowed my diet to loosen a bit (man it's tough to add weight when eating completely healthy, plus summer without ice cream is not really summer at all is it?)
If it's good enough for Fedor...
The headcoach asked me my weight, and when I told him I was at 77 at the time (78-79 now), he said I should probably fight at featherweight (66kg, so you dehydrate and cut down to that for the weighins the day before, then rehydrate and you're back in the cage at mid 70 kg). Man, 66 kg? I havent been 66 kg since I was like 12.
Choi Young Gwang, one of the coaches/fighters at the gym is a featherweight, a bit shorter than me and in sick shape (the man deadlifts 480+ pounds which is pretty impressive for a featherweight), walks at around the same weight as I am, so I'm trying to add a bit of mass and I'll aim for lightweight instead. I also feel that since my primary strength is grappling, being tall and lanky isn't that great.
My next fight (amateur) should be September 27th, and I might have something cool happening later in the year as well (not sure yet).
The coach told me I should aim at haivng my first pro fight in a year... We'll see, as much as I've been enjoying this new training, watching the hard sparring they do before a match, things feel more real than they did before. Still, one step at a time, starting with another fight next month.
Regardless of what happens after this point, I am - at least right now - a student on a professional fight team... crazy.
Starcraft 2... again
When I quit something, I REALLY quit. I can't stand doing anything half-assed, I just get too annoyed when I'm not doing well, so when I quit SC2 I didn't touch the game for like a year.
Still, pretty much like clockwork, every 6 months or so I get this urge to play SC2, and go on a VOD and stream watching binge and maybe even play a few games... This time tho, I took it a bit more seriously:
Inspired by some of the Excel (well, open office) work I've done with poker, I decided to see how fast I can improve if I actually try to seriously learn while playing in the limited time I have
First, I picked 3 builds per matchup (and I meant to pick a cheese build as well, but aside from the obvious TvZ 2 rax proxy I haven't settled on any yet). Then I watched a bunch of games until I could make a list of the most common openings I might face... and then I started keeping stats of how each build did vs each. (Note: Only picked 1 TvZ build so far, I couldn't find a 2nd one I liked)
Then how each build performed per map:
And finally I made a performance diary to measure my play.
Click to see averages etc
Some observations after 8 days: - I'm getting matched with KR GMs (I think I'm 1-2 vs GM players so far) every now and then, which is cool. I'm also losing games to diamonds on occasion (although at least one of these diamonds was GM in a previous season, in fact it was someone I used to play a lot on ladder before I retired). - I'm having similar problems to what I used to have back in the day, but unlike back then I can actually see why I'm having those problems because I have a good view of what the builds I'm using are trying to accomplish and what they look like when properly played. I think I'm finally understanding some of why I've always had problems TvP (it feels like a very timing sensitive matchup where if you rest on your laurels too much you let opportunities slip you by, which just leads to a compounding errors --- basically I'm naturally too passive, and my builds aren't tight enough). - I like most of the maps, but Overgrowth (and maybe deadwing, not decided yet) feels a bit boring. I apparently suck at Nimbus but I think it's one of the most fun maps to play. - Gas first TvT is damn popular. - Terran OP. I got 8 consecutive TvTs in my first 2 days of play... which at 1/3 probability for each matchup assuming an event distribution of races, should only happen 0.014% of the time. - Scouting all-ins is so much easier in hots haha. Plus, so much easier when you actually researched your build a bit and know timings... (when I was in code S in WoL I actually did this quite a lot, and I got a lot of help too from Victor and the oGs coaches, but later on I got too complacent and too entrenched in builds I liked etc) - I have the same ID as some korean who may or may not maphack, and may or may not stream. I've had a handful of people talk to me, one guy last time I played (6 months ago) told me he watched me stream (then tried to scv bunker rush me TvT and died), one guy opened the game with "you hack" (in korean obv) into then telling me I should stream my next game or something, and at the end telling me "cant deny it now huh?" (despite the fact that he 1. Won the game 2. I had 2 sensor towers which he was flying into 3. He flew his dropships over my hellions when they left his base lol. So yeah, changed ID haha
I'm not sure this will really go anywhere, but maybe I'll show up at some random open bracket or code A prelim in the future for fun It's nice to be playing again, even if it's just a couple of games a day.
This was really long, and it's like 3:30 AM now and my girlfriend is wondering why the hell I'm still awake.... so time to wrap this up!
Hadn't planned to write this much, especially not about all the nostalgia... but if you are interested I've got plenty more (first DH stockholm, first MLG I went to, code S stuff, the showmatch with IdrA, code A stuff etc etc etc).
Was wondering about you and how MMA was going for you when I visited the TLHQ last week. Nice to see an update, and congrats on joining the pro team as a student; that must be really exciting.
When I quit something, I REALLY quit. I can't stand doing anything half-assed, I just get too annoyed when I'm not doing well, so when I quit SC2 I didn't touch the game for like a year.
Still, pretty much like clockwork, every 6 months or so I get this urge to play SC2, and go on a VOD and stream watching binge and maybe even play a few games... This time tho, I took it a bit more seriously:
I also quit sc2 for a year and a half. When I came back I got to masters very easily but my computer is too slow to play the game anymore >.>
I'm doing something identical to what you are doing with the excel sheets (well, google spreadsheets) but for counterstrike instead. I'm collecting tonnes of data points and maybe I'll make a blog post like yours detailing my progress.
Cool blog, don't think I'll ever get back into playing SC2 but once you've gotten good its not hard to get back there . I'd like to check out 1 of your MMA fights sometime, would be sick cool to see it live.
Great to know you're doing great I can really relate to getting the urge to play again once in a while, but unfortunately PvZ just immediately makes it disappear for me
Scouting all-ins is so much easier in hots haha. Plus, so much easier when you actually researched your build a bit and know timings...
I swear i never thought i'd hear a terran saying this xD
Aaaaanyway for the TvZ cheese plz pick 2fact blueflame. It's a hilarious build.
TvP you should try messing with Dayshi's mass hellion, it's truly a hilarious one to pull off. Killing a P deathball with only hellions is so outrageous.
You should play in the next Olimoleague or something. Any chance to see a casted Jinro game again... the nostalgia. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, it's really really good to hear such positive things from someone we miss so much in the community.
I was feeling really pathetic about myself this past week, so reading your blog and all your adventures and stories really alleviated my self-obsession. Awesome to see that not only are things going well for you, but you are being dedicated to your ambitions and goals.
My favorite terran player of all time. Every couple of months I remeber that terran player that made it RO4 in GSL and wonder if well ever see him play SC2 ever again I hope you stream your games at some point GL with your games!
Ah Jinro. Always good to hear from you. I've been watching since 2010!
I've similarly been playing/watching starcraft again at about the same pace. Much easier to read what used to hold me back, which is mighty refreshing.
If you streamed again, even for fun, I'd certainly tune in again
On August 18 2014 04:55 sotaporo wrote: i have to ask, do you actually have to deposit 20,000$ or more to get apartment in korea? i am just baffled how can average person get apartment?
Yeah, this is crazy. Don't people pay this much as a down payment on a house?
Enjoyed it! I'd love to hear about your first MLG Dallas, at the Hilton Anatole. I was there watching you live- I regret not introducing myself and having a chat. I always felt like you guys preferred not to be bothered.
Anywho! I wish you the best of luck with the MMA stuff. You've got to post some videos of your fights!!
The exp channel on youtube afaik didn't actually upload all the previous seasons of gsl like they said they would, they are missing for example the 2011 january which is maybe where jinro beat mc in groups with mech ? also when he had the sick ro4 series vs mkp
Is it possible to get tickets for your fight in September? I assume it'll be in Seoul?
By the way, can I ask what visa you're on? F2? Or something else? I plan to move to Seoul after my contract ends in December and try for a non-teaching job. I'd also like to start training MMA. I really should have started a lot sooner but haven't done so yet.
I'll check out a local place next month and see how I go.
On August 18 2014 04:55 sotaporo wrote: i have to ask, do you actually have to deposit 20,000$ or more to get apartment in korea? i am just baffled how can average person get apartment?
Yeah, this is crazy. Don't people pay this much as a down payment on a house?
Yes, it is ridiculous. It's why most Koreans live at home with mom and dad until they get married. I have several Korean friends in their 30s who still live at home.
Key money (as the deposit is called) can be anywhere between $500 to $200,000 (or more). The more money you put in, the less you pay in rent. If you put enough in it's free. For example, a place that might have a standard $10,000 key money deposit (like my place) would take like $100,000 to make it rent free. Most real estate offices (분동산) have charts that show how much you'll pay in rent depending on how much key money you put down.
Very nice to hear from you, Jinro. I'm glad it's all going well!
On August 18 2014 04:55 sotaporo wrote: i have to ask, do you actually have to deposit 20,000$ or more to get apartment in korea? i am just baffled how can average person get apartment?
Depends, the 1room was 5k deposit/450 a month. The house before that was 30k deposit as I said. You can find some older 2 bedroom/kitchen places for 10k deposit as well... but yeah, their system is pretty expensive.
In the past, the "Jeonse" system was even more popular, where you pay a HUGE deposit and no rent (so for this place I'd be paying like 150-200k and then not pay rent, then get the money back when I choose to end the contract)... as I understand it, it was more common your family would have money saved up.
On August 18 2014 10:52 ToT)OjKa( wrote: Hi Jinro,
Is it possible to get tickets for your fight in September? I assume it'll be in Seoul?
By the way, can I ask what visa you're on? F2? Or something else? I plan to move to Seoul after my contract ends in December and try for a non-teaching job. I'd also like to start training MMA. I really should have started a lot sooner but haven't done so yet.
I'll check out a local place next month and see how I go.
Oh and also, have you taken the TOPIK test?
No visa since poker doesn't qualify as work, I'm perpetual tourist
I could get a working holiday visa but have to go back to sweden to get it so its a bit of a hassle.
Not taken any tests, I dont study Korean in any official capacity.
Yes, Im not sure if entrance is free or not (I know its like 40$ for the people fighting). It's at Korean Top Team in Seoul (you can check the Top FC facebook page and they always post their info in Korean and English).
On August 18 2014 10:34 TBone- wrote: So I've been looking for your mech games on scrap station and lost temple against mc for many months now, anyone know where I could find them?
I don't know if this is available outside Korea, but if you use the Korean GOMTV player, you can find all old GSL games for free in their Game section: + Show Spoiler [screenshot] +
On August 18 2014 03:54 Teoita wrote: Great to know you're doing great I can really relate to getting the urge to play again once in a while, but unfortunately PvZ just immediately makes it disappear for me
Scouting all-ins is so much easier in hots haha. Plus, so much easier when you actually researched your build a bit and know timings...
I swear i never thought i'd hear a terran saying this xD
Aaaaanyway for the TvZ cheese plz pick 2fact blueflame. It's a hilarious build.
I think it's all about perspective... that, and I haven't played enough TvPs yet since all I get is TvT. But so far it seems to me that the mine change has really deterred protoss players from some of the greedier builds, and the reaper let's you see enough of what's going on that you can at least tell if he's expanded or not
This scouting strength of the reaper, along with protoss having relatively poor scouting, makes me feel opening reaper every game is the best TvP - hides your build AND gives you scouting. TvT early game scouting is pretty simple so hiding your build doesn't matter as much as varying it I think, same with TvZ.
damn your still a badass. always was a fan of yours/still am and i can still remember you were one of the if not the first stream i ever watched, missed those days. anyways nice to hear from you glad things are going well and hope life gets even better now go fuck some ppl up in MMA
On August 18 2014 04:39 Kommatiazo wrote: TvP you should try messing with Dayshi's mass hellion, it's truly a hilarious one to pull off. Killing a P deathball with only hellions is so outrageous.
You should play in the next Olimoleague or something. Any chance to see a casted Jinro game again... the nostalgia. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, it's really really good to hear such positive things from someone we miss so much in the community.
glhf Jinro!
If you have a vod or replay link I'll check it out, sounds fun!
Yeah, I'll probably play in the Olimo stuff eventually. They are on Sundays right? That's my only completely free day.
On August 18 2014 03:39 Grettin wrote: Cool read! Are you fluent in Korean already? Wish we'd be able to read about your poker adventures, but if it's too private, i completely understand.
Keep on kicking ass! Thanks for the blog.
I'm not fluent at all, but I'm getting better. The MMA training is my primary learning place since only the headcoach speaks english... I've actually improved my Korean a ton from this haha
The poker stuff would be boring unless I posted a bunch of graphs, and then I'm basically posting my exact income etc and it feels too personal hehe
On August 18 2014 04:39 Kommatiazo wrote: TvP you should try messing with Dayshi's mass hellion, it's truly a hilarious one to pull off. Killing a P deathball with only hellions is so outrageous.
You should play in the next Olimoleague or something. Any chance to see a casted Jinro game again... the nostalgia. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, it's really really good to hear such positive things from someone we miss so much in the community.
glhf Jinro!
If you have a vod or replay link I'll check it out, sounds fun!
Yeah, I'll probably play in the Olimo stuff eventually. They are on Sundays right? That's my only completely free day.
On August 18 2014 03:39 Grettin wrote: Cool read! Are you fluent in Korean already? Wish we'd be able to read about your poker adventures, but if it's too private, i completely understand.
Keep on kicking ass! Thanks for the blog.
I'm not fluent at all, but I'm getting better. The MMA training is my primary learning place since only the headcoach speaks english... I've actually improved my Korean a ton from this haha
The poker stuff would be boring unless I posted a bunch of graphs, and then I'm basically posting my exact income etc and it feels too personal hehe
Would you recommend going pro with poker to a close friend/loved one? If so, what are the top 2-3 pieces of advice you'd give?
If you do decide to play again Jinro, no matter what time it is, I will stay up and watch you unless I have work. I really hope to see you play SC2 again and I am also looking forward to your MMA matches.
On August 18 2014 04:39 Kommatiazo wrote: TvP you should try messing with Dayshi's mass hellion, it's truly a hilarious one to pull off. Killing a P deathball with only hellions is so outrageous.
You should play in the next Olimoleague or something. Any chance to see a casted Jinro game again... the nostalgia. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, it's really really good to hear such positive things from someone we miss so much in the community.
glhf Jinro!
If you have a vod or replay link I'll check it out, sounds fun!
Yeah, I'll probably play in the Olimo stuff eventually. They are on Sundays right? That's my only completely free day.
On August 18 2014 03:39 Grettin wrote: Cool read! Are you fluent in Korean already? Wish we'd be able to read about your poker adventures, but if it's too private, i completely understand.
Keep on kicking ass! Thanks for the blog.
I'm not fluent at all, but I'm getting better. The MMA training is my primary learning place since only the headcoach speaks english... I've actually improved my Korean a ton from this haha
The poker stuff would be boring unless I posted a bunch of graphs, and then I'm basically posting my exact income etc and it feels too personal hehe
Would you recommend going pro with poker to a close friend/loved one? If so, what are the top 2-3 pieces of advice you'd give?
Probably not, the games are tough nowadays and he'd have to put in a lot of work to get started. There's some people I'd recommend it to, but it'd have to be a pretty specific personality...
On August 18 2014 13:12 klipik12 wrote: So wait, you've been living in Korea for 4 years? :o
Not that I dislike the spreadsheets (I used to do the same thing for UT2k4), but have you considered uploading your replays to ggtracker (or providing us with a link if you already do)? The statistics it shows can be really fun to interpret and can help better understand the macro aspect of the game.
So your coach wanted you to cut a little bit over 10 kg (about 25 pounds) before every fight even though you're still gaining weight? That sounds like absolute hell to be honest. I agree with you that it's better to aim for lightweight right now. GL in your upcoming bout man, I really enjoyed following your SC2 career.
any reason why you've hungered to play SC2 instead of BW? you should play some games on fish server (korean ladder) for kicks. or we can just play RvR any hour any day of the week.
Dayshi hellion build, here vs Grubby (go 20:30 for the weird engagement!) :
I have a poker related question! Obv feel free not to answer if you don't want to, but it's not related to money etc so I figured it would be ok.
As someone who has played a lot of Starcraft, don't you find poker a bit slow? I've played poker on and off for ~5 years on Svenska Spel, not making insane amount of money but a nice extra cash.
I've been having troubles focusing for longer periods of time. I don't think it's because I don't have the endurance (I can easily ladder for 4 hours+, time just flies away!), but rather that it's not action packed enough.
Have you experienced the same issues, and do you have any tips to solve it? It's annoying, since either I quit playing after a short session or I start doing stuff meanwhile (watch SC2/movies, check TL/reddit, hell even play Hearthstone) which obv hurts my game.
Loved the blog, a very nice read! Cheers!
edit: Oh an additional question! Do you have a set schedule for poker? How many hours/day do you play on average?
Sorry for the poker questions, but I think it's cool to hear thoughts from someone who's been addicted to Starcraft as well
Very interesting stuff about being on a professional team. Was this your original intent, or it just happened over time? Do you see yourself doing pro fights regularly?
On August 18 2014 19:07 gullberg wrote: So your coach wanted you to cut a little bit over 10 kg (about 25 pounds) before every fight even though you're still gaining weight? That sounds like absolute hell to be honest. I agree with you that it's better to aim for lightweight right now. GL in your upcoming bout man, I really enjoyed following your SC2 career.
No just he said that should be my pro-weight, amateur weighins are the same day so they are different than pro.
That was a really nice reading, I'd sure like to read more of your SC stories!
Could you tell us what your day-to-day schedule looks like? And without entering into personal stuff, could you elaborate on the poker part, like your background, how much time you put on playing and learning. Also, how do you cope with the slow pace of a poker game compared to a game of starcraft?
I have a poker related question! Obv feel free not to answer if you don't want to, but it's not related to money etc so I figured it would be ok.
As someone who has played a lot of Starcraft, don't you find poker a bit slow? I've played poker on and off for ~5 years on Svenska Spel, not making insane amount of money but a nice extra cash.
I've been having troubles focusing for longer periods of time. I don't think it's because I don't have the endurance (I can easily ladder for 4 hours+, time just flies away!), but rather that it's not action packed enough.
Have you experienced the same issues, and do you have any tips to solve it? It's annoying, since either I quit playing after a short session or I start doing stuff meanwhile (watch SC2/movies, check TL/reddit, hell even play Hearthstone) which obv hurts my game.
Loved the blog, a very nice read! Cheers!
edit: Oh an additional question! Do you have a set schedule for poker? How many hours/day do you play on average?
Sorry for the poker questions, but I think it's cool to hear thoughts from someone who's been addicted to Starcraft as well
Huh, interesting. Anyone else been using it since or has it been a one time thing? It looked solid, but mech can in my experience look really solid when the opponent doesn't realize you're meching until very late.
As for poker being slow, not really... I 4 table Zoom on stars, thats' about 700 hands an hour. I've tried 6 tabling zoom and my brain is sort of fried after an hour of that.
Also, I don't play that long sessions usually... I try to do about 2k hands a day, sometimes less sometimes way more. That's why I like zoom, since there's no 'start up time' so to speak, you can just jump in and play.
I play between 30-60k hands a month depending on what else is going on in my life at the time.
On August 18 2014 22:49 Furlisht wrote: Hi Jinro,
That was a really nice reading, I'd sure like to read more of your SC stories!
Could you tell us what your day-to-day schedule looks like? And without entering into personal stuff, could you elaborate on the poker part, like your background, how much time you put on playing and learning. Also, how do you cope with the slow pace of a poker game compared to a game of starcraft?
Thanks!
My day is something like this: Wake up between 9~11, eat breakfast and chill, play some poker, make dinner, then either play some more poker or head straight to gym (this is usually around 6:30 pm). 3x a week I'll lift weights, then do 2 classes of MMA (on the days I don't lift I might do 3x classes or do some kettlebell work instead) and get home around 10-11 pm, at which point I eat, and maybe play some SC2 or watch a movie or w-ever then sleep and repeat.
I haven't been studying a ton lately, but it usually consists of reading (The Intelligent Poker Player is a book I really liked, it really gets you thinking about new concepts, http://www.cardquant.com has really great articles), watching videos (runitonce.com for PLO), and when I'm feeling particularly motivated, math based breakdowns (I have absolutely no math background prior to poker, so I had to learn a lot of stuff from scratch).
I don't feel like posting my entire worksheet for poker, but here's a screenshot of part of it: To the very right you can see the edges of a cold 4bet ev calc I spent like 4-5 hours working on last friday... not finished yet tho.
Played poker between 2007-2009~10, then resumed in 2012 after I quit SC2. I play exclusively PLO. Poker has a big early study requirement, and if you want to really move up I think you need to keep studying, but for now I'm pretty happy at the stakes I'm at.
On August 18 2014 19:07 gullberg wrote: So your coach wanted you to cut a little bit over 10 kg (about 25 pounds) before every fight even though you're still gaining weight? That sounds like absolute hell to be honest. I agree with you that it's better to aim for lightweight right now. GL in your upcoming bout man, I really enjoyed following your SC2 career.
No just he said that should be my pro-weight, amateur weighins are the same day so they are different than pro.
I assumed that he meant pro-weight. Still seems a bit much to me. But hey, atleast it won't be as crazy as the cut Hendricks makes.
On August 18 2014 19:07 gullberg wrote: So your coach wanted you to cut a little bit over 10 kg (about 25 pounds) before every fight even though you're still gaining weight? That sounds like absolute hell to be honest. I agree with you that it's better to aim for lightweight right now. GL in your upcoming bout man, I really enjoyed following your SC2 career.
No just he said that should be my pro-weight, amateur weighins are the same day so they are different than pro.
I assumed that he meant pro-weight. Still seems a bit much to me. But hey, atleast it won't be as crazy as the cut Hendricks makes.
I'm going to try to add some weight and convince him I should be at lightweight... I feel sort of frail and slow when I walk around at 76-77 :/
And yeah, Hendricks was actually an example he used when he told me I should be at FW ;d
Whoa, researching and keeping stats like that is pretty awesome.
Also 2011 GSL Jinro vs MC ... will always remember that.
Would be cool to see you playing again. Even if it's streaming or online or smaller tournies for fun and nothing committing. It's amazing to still be playing KR GMs and so fast already considering you took a break that long.
On August 18 2014 04:55 sotaporo wrote: i have to ask, do you actually have to deposit 20,000$ or more to get apartment in korea? i am just baffled how can average person get apartment?
Depends, the 1room was 5k deposit/450 a month. The house before that was 30k deposit as I said. You can find some older 2 bedroom/kitchen places for 10k deposit as well... but yeah, their system is pretty expensive.
In the past, the "Jeonse" system was even more popular, where you pay a HUGE deposit and no rent (so for this place I'd be paying like 150-200k and then not pay rent, then get the money back when I choose to end the contract)... as I understand it, it was more common your family would have money saved up.
On August 18 2014 10:52 ToT)OjKa( wrote: Hi Jinro,
Is it possible to get tickets for your fight in September? I assume it'll be in Seoul?
By the way, can I ask what visa you're on? F2? Or something else? I plan to move to Seoul after my contract ends in December and try for a non-teaching job. I'd also like to start training MMA. I really should have started a lot sooner but haven't done so yet.
I'll check out a local place next month and see how I go.
Oh and also, have you taken the TOPIK test?
No visa since poker doesn't qualify as work, I'm perpetual tourist
I could get a working holiday visa but have to go back to sweden to get it so its a bit of a hassle.
Not taken any tests, I dont study Korean in any official capacity.
Yes, Im not sure if entrance is free or not (I know its like 40$ for the people fighting). It's at Korean Top Team in Seoul (you can check the Top FC facebook page and they always post their info in Korean and English).
Hey Jinro!
I was in Korea from Dec 1st 2007 to Jan 31st 2012! I'll be flying back to Korea this December to work for several more years! I'll be working/living in the center of Seoul this time instead of out in the boonies.
Does Korean Top Team have mainly grappling days? I have mainly been focused on doing Muay Thai in the past. I love the striking aspect of martial arts. How's KTT when it comes to stand-up practice? I know eventually I'd have to pick up on grappling. I'll most likely come check KTT out when I move back to Seoul. I probably wont be able to attend regularly until I get settled in from the move. Also my wife is due for our 2nd kid around January so I'll probably be fucked until me and the wife get adjusted to the baby life again in Korea.
My Korean sucks, but I I'm still trying to spend more time learning it. My wife is Korean so she does all the talking Any more information about foreigner friendly Korean MMA and/or kickboxing gyms would be NICE!
On August 18 2014 04:55 sotaporo wrote: i have to ask, do you actually have to deposit 20,000$ or more to get apartment in korea? i am just baffled how can average person get apartment?
Depends, the 1room was 5k deposit/450 a month. The house before that was 30k deposit as I said. You can find some older 2 bedroom/kitchen places for 10k deposit as well... but yeah, their system is pretty expensive.
In the past, the "Jeonse" system was even more popular, where you pay a HUGE deposit and no rent (so for this place I'd be paying like 150-200k and then not pay rent, then get the money back when I choose to end the contract)... as I understand it, it was more common your family would have money saved up.
On August 18 2014 10:52 ToT)OjKa( wrote: Hi Jinro,
Is it possible to get tickets for your fight in September? I assume it'll be in Seoul?
By the way, can I ask what visa you're on? F2? Or something else? I plan to move to Seoul after my contract ends in December and try for a non-teaching job. I'd also like to start training MMA. I really should have started a lot sooner but haven't done so yet.
I'll check out a local place next month and see how I go.
Oh and also, have you taken the TOPIK test?
No visa since poker doesn't qualify as work, I'm perpetual tourist
I could get a working holiday visa but have to go back to sweden to get it so its a bit of a hassle.
Not taken any tests, I dont study Korean in any official capacity.
Yes, Im not sure if entrance is free or not (I know its like 40$ for the people fighting). It's at Korean Top Team in Seoul (you can check the Top FC facebook page and they always post their info in Korean and English).
Hey Jinro!
I was in Korea from Dec 1st 2007 to Jan 31st 2012! I'll be flying back to Korea this December to work for several more years! I'll be working/living in the center of Seoul this time instead of out in the boonies.
Does Korean Top Team have mainly grappling days? I have mainly been focused on doing Muay Thai in the past. I love the striking aspect of martial arts. How's KTT when it comes to stand-up practice? I know eventually I'd have to pick up on grappling. I'll most likely come check KTT out when I move back to Seoul. I probably wont be able to attend regularly until I get settled in from the move. Also my wife is due for our 2nd kid around January so I'll probably be fucked until me and the wife get adjusted to the baby life again in Korea.
My Korean sucks, but I I'm still trying to spend more time learning it. My wife is Korean so she does all the talking Any more information about foreigner friendly Korean MMA and/or kickboxing gyms would be NICE!
Never trained there, but I'd imagine they do. KTT is probably the best place to train in Korea (alongside Team MAD I guess) for MMA.
English wise, not sure, but I'd bet there's someone who speaks it since they do a lot of traveling.
There was 1 gym, Body and Soul or something that had a lot of foreigners competing last event I went to --- the guy who cornered them spoke fluent english, and he did the translating for Top FC (like the pro events) when they had foreigners fighting. Not sure if he was part of KTT or body and soul tbh.
I definitely relate to your blog posts. I moved to vegas about 5 years ago and played poker until black friday. I never thought I could do math, but I started to get into game theory with poker which helped me realize that math is a cool way to solve some problems. I'm going back to school and majoring in math now.
Fighting is hard. Cutting weight sucks. I respect people who do mma, but performance enhancing drugs are so rampant that there's no way I would want to fight. It was medical costs that always prevented me from fighting before, but if I knew then what I knew now and I had free medical care for life, then I wouldn't fight for the head trauma and because everyone is on peds.
You can still improve training, but I also get people who want to fight at an organized event.
MMhh to bad you dont want to talk about Poker im really curious about it since it appears to be your main source of income. Would be really fun to see you show up at a Code A qualifier :D
On August 19 2014 13:33 guitarizt wrote: I definitely relate to your blog posts. I moved to vegas about 5 years ago and played poker until black friday. I never thought I could do math, but I started to get into game theory with poker which helped me realize that math is a cool way to solve some problems. I'm going back to school and majoring in math now.
Fighting is hard. Cutting weight sucks. I respect people who do mma, but performance enhancing drugs are so rampant that there's no way I would want to fight. It was medical costs that always prevented me from fighting before, but if I knew then what I knew now and I had free medical care for life, then I wouldn't fight for the head trauma and because everyone is on peds.
You can still improve training, but I also get people who want to fight at an organized event.
I love the blog, and good luck with everything!
Are PEDs that common in the amateur level? That sounds wild that people not getting paid to fight would go to extreme levels to win. I know a lot of pros use PEDs, but that's pretty sad if majority of the amateur fighters are doing it too.
On August 19 2014 13:33 guitarizt wrote: I definitely relate to your blog posts. I moved to vegas about 5 years ago and played poker until black friday. I never thought I could do math, but I started to get into game theory with poker which helped me realize that math is a cool way to solve some problems. I'm going back to school and majoring in math now.
Fighting is hard. Cutting weight sucks. I respect people who do mma, but performance enhancing drugs are so rampant that there's no way I would want to fight. It was medical costs that always prevented me from fighting before, but if I knew then what I knew now and I had free medical care for life, then I wouldn't fight for the head trauma and because everyone is on peds.
You can still improve training, but I also get people who want to fight at an organized event.
I love the blog, and good luck with everything!
Are PEDs that common in the amateur level? That sounds wild that people not getting paid to fight would go to extreme levels to win. I know a lot of pros use PEDs, but that's pretty sad if majority of the amateur fighters are doing it too.
I think he meant pro level, but in the US the amateur scene seems different, might be lots of PEDs there too.
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?
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
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
On September 02 2014 23:54 Yakikorosu wrote: Why no WCS points from this? Is it because only the grand finals are offline? Would have been a great opportunity for Snute at least to get some more points.
Edit: Looks like by "grand finals" they actually mean the whole tournament other than the qualifiers so that's not the reason. So I'm confused--why isn't this a Tier 2 WCS event?
why give snute more chances to earn wcs points?
On March 14 2014 21:02 LeviathanDK wrote: Why is state not playing?? I want to see him lose and go 0-20
On August 01 2014 05:17 ZenithM wrote: Probably one of the most talented up-and-coming zerg players out there :/ I hope he finds a team, maybe a Korean one?
u drunk? why would a korean team pick him up when they can pick up any young upcoming korean that is way better than him
Not sure what your problem is exactly... Maybe focus a bit more on yourself instead of trying to tear down others for trying their best?
On August 19 2014 13:33 guitarizt wrote: I definitely relate to your blog posts. I moved to vegas about 5 years ago and played poker until black friday. I never thought I could do math, but I started to get into game theory with poker which helped me realize that math is a cool way to solve some problems. I'm going back to school and majoring in math now.
Fighting is hard. Cutting weight sucks. I respect people who do mma, but performance enhancing drugs are so rampant that there's no way I would want to fight. It was medical costs that always prevented me from fighting before, but if I knew then what I knew now and I had free medical care for life, then I wouldn't fight for the head trauma and because everyone is on peds.
You can still improve training, but I also get people who want to fight at an organized event.
I love the blog, and good luck with everything!
Are PEDs that common in the amateur level? That sounds wild that people not getting paid to fight would go to extreme levels to win. I know a lot of pros use PEDs, but that's pretty sad if majority of the amateur fighters are doing it too.
They're even more common at the amateur level because there's no testing, and there's so much stuff out there that is cheap and that works well. I love mma and have the utmost respect for fighters. It's such a thankless what have you done lately sport.
Ignore the haters, jinro. I loved your post about the training regime in korea.
Hey Jinro! Good to see that you are doing well! Do you mind sharing what kind of post workout vitamins/food you eat after a regular cardio workouts? By that token, what do you consider a regular cardio workout for MMA?
Jinro, what are your thoughts on playing while tired and not on your A game? Is it still important so you could work on your C game? I'm guessing you were mostly feeling pretty sharp for your second practice session because of this:
"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)."
So you never really felt tired during these second practice sessions and had to push through a lot of tough days where you felt tired?
At that time there was no sense of having to push through etc, just excited to be where I was and getting to play.
I dislike playing poker when I'm not sharp, because losing money sucks, but playing SC2... I think as long as you don't tilt you still get something out of practicing even if you arent playing your best (not as much but still some, because of the mechanical aspect).
Thanks, I find this stuff super interesting. I'm always interested in the most optimal use of time to get better at something. Especially from someone like mother@%^@ing jinro.
I just googled how long Olympic athletes train, and I was surprised to find out they only train six or less hours per day. Even Phelps with his hell practices:
"Phelps at one point trained every day for five years. He spent three to six hours in the pool each day and exercised on dry land four to five days a week" [1].
I've been thinking I need to do 6+ hour days to push myself on the weeks I have free to play, but I half-ass it during at least half that time. It'd be better if I played 2-3 hours and really pushed myself.
Great read, feels cool to get reconnected to my favorite SC2 player. :D I haven't followed SC2 much in the last few years, but if Jinro came back, I'd tune in for sure!
On August 19 2014 13:33 guitarizt wrote: I definitely relate to your blog posts. I moved to vegas about 5 years ago and played poker until black friday. I never thought I could do math, but I started to get into game theory with poker which helped me realize that math is a cool way to solve some problems. I'm going back to school and majoring in math now.
Fighting is hard. Cutting weight sucks. I respect people who do mma, but performance enhancing drugs are so rampant that there's no way I would want to fight. It was medical costs that always prevented me from fighting before, but if I knew then what I knew now and I had free medical care for life, then I wouldn't fight for the head trauma and because everyone is on peds.
You can still improve training, but I also get people who want to fight at an organized event.
I love the blog, and good luck with everything!
Are PEDs that common in the amateur level? That sounds wild that people not getting paid to fight would go to extreme levels to win. I know a lot of pros use PEDs, but that's pretty sad if majority of the amateur fighters are doing it too.
They're even more common at the amateur level because there's no testing, and there's so much stuff out there that is cheap and that works well. I love mma and have the utmost respect for fighters. It's such a thankless what have you done lately sport.
Ignore the haters, jinro. I loved your post about the training regime in korea.
EPT
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