EPTThe Beginnings
My experience with SC2 in reality started with vanilla Starcraft and a little Brood War. My step dad opened a video game store that I'd spend my summers in. He had an employee that loved Starcraft, and he'd show me how to play. I'd always play as terran because zerg were the bad guys and protoss was too powerful in my head. My cousins, who lived in Vegas, also loved Starcraft, so whenever we'd make trips there our time consisted of LANs and unlimited maps. I had no idea why someone would want to expand, and thought when I had 3k minerals banked up I was doing really well because I could pump out any unit.
Fast forward to 2010. At the time I was playing a lot of WoW, spending a 2 week vacation with my cousins again. SC2 was to come out, but I wasn't really interested. I thought, "It's taken them so long for this to come out, it's probably just some side project." Little did I know of the professional scene. We'd make jokes about Korea and how big it is over there. My brother bought the game and I ridiculed him for it and vowed never to play. However, I did play 3v3s every once in a while, and enjoyed it. My brother was getting wrecked in bronze 1v1s, so quit playing and told me I could 1v1 on his account.
So I did.
One of my cousins was gold league, and I thought he was a god. I never thought it was even close to possible to reach where he was, but I decided I'd try. I hit up the battle.net forums to look up how to play, found a build (the infamous 7 roach rush), won 33 of my next 34 games and was promoted to gold. The rush that accompanied that promotion was incredible. I was absolutely hooked to the game. Never had a game had the ability to draw my in like it did. I was pretty competitive in Halo 3, but I'd play other games along with it. Not anymore. SC2 became my game.
Discovery of the Esport
And this was before I had discovered the pro scene. My brother showed me some of HuskyStarcraft's casts. The first one I remember was on Metalopolis. I was absolutely blown away when I looked at the minimap and supply counts. Every single base was taken! Why?? They had full supply counts! How?? So, I began watching Husky and HD, which moved to streams.
The first stream I became loyal to was CatZ. I thought he was a jerk but he sang and was really funny and creative, so I watched more and more. Before long, I was copying his builds and cheese and climbing the ladder, and after about 8 months of playing hit masters. I became a legend among my friends and felt pretty cool even though I felt I was pretty bad still.
The first tournament I ever watched was TSL 3. Listening to Husky, Day9, Chill, djWHEAT, and especially Artosis, I fell in love. I'd rush home after church to catch the games, and it was such an incredible tournament. My mind was completely blown and opened watching Mondragon use roaches and burrow play to defeat a protoss going for an air-based army. It was starting to become an absolute passion for me.
Anyway, I'm getting more and more into the scene and my brother and cousins and I decide to make the long trip to Anaheim for MLG. What an experience, my face figuratively melted. (Favorite play ever, nerdchills galore)+ Show Spoiler +
We also went to IPL4, which conveniently was in Vegas at the Cosmopolitan. I decided I'd try my hand in the open bracket, and got coLKiller the first round. I 6 pooled him on Tal'Darim Altar and got wrecked. Later I got Bling, and almost took a game off him with a proxy hatch (I sound really cheesy but I learned everything from Catz). But I lost again. It was a really fun tournament, though and a great experience.
Winding Down
I eventually started to get really frustrated with my own skill cap and started to play more and more LoL to relax, but Starcraft remained my passion. I left the scene completely from October 2012 for two years (long story) but I still feel really faithful to the game to this day. I was shocked to come back and see how much the pro scene had dwindled down, and it was a little heartbreaking for me to see. But I'm motivated when I see Naniwa streaming because he never did before I left and though Catz doesn't attract the same crowds as he did anymore, I still love to watch his stream and he remains a good friend to this day. I was also incredibly happy to see Snute doing so well, he was my favorite player aside from Catz and I always thought that he would be big. Low and behold it was prophecy!
I really love this community and didn't honestly plan on coming back because I thought I had moved on in life, but you guys are great. I've made some good friends through TL (actually just one, I mean you Bibbit) but still feel very much a part of everything. I'm excited to see the growth and expansion through other games, and have great hope that something will happen through LotV. You never know. Keep being great guys. <3
Bonus: Favorite game of all time
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