EPT
My name is Phantom, or at least, that's one of the multiple nicknames i've used through the years. Seeing a friend of mine, who started in the same place where i started (Kantuva-Uvantak) winning the maximum honor as a map maker on TL, made me reflect on the past and on my journey in esports, and i wanted to share it with you, whoever you are.
It all started when my brother introduced me to StarCraft 2 around the game launch. I didn't even know starcraft even existed, I thought Blizzard only made Warcraft and Diablo, so it was quite a surprise. When i finally bought the game, I immediately fell in love with it. The story, the cinematics, the game play, it was awesome! A few months later, my best friend, who also happened to like the game, went to my house to play some matches, and showed me lots of pretty cool stuff, like the Battle.net Forums (lol), and of course, Banelings, by Nerd Alert.
Then, he mentioned that a friend of his, an unknown guy at the time who goes by the name of JimRising, was starting to play 8 hours a day because he wanted to be a pro-gamer. "A programer?" -i said. "What does programing code has to do with playing 8 hours a day?". He said "No no, a profesional, StarCraft player". He explained what that was, showed me videos of Husky and Day[9], and of course, introduced me to Teamliquid.net. From that day forward, and i shit you not, my life changed forever.
I had seen some Day[9] videos, even watching part of the famous Daily #100, but for some reason I had never really thought about the professional scene. I quickly became more and more interested, I started practicing, watching vods, I joined a clan and stayed up at night to watch the GSL. I watched with pride, joy and emotion the professional matches, the incredible skill of the pro players. Everything about this thing called esports was new and exciting, the passion was overwhelming. I remember getting out of my classes just so i could watch the Blizzcon tournament, i remember waiting impatiently for the MLG Columbus, the first time the koreans would compete against the foreigners in an MLG thanks to the MLG-GSL interchange program, and the subsequent MLG Anaheim in 2011, where StarCraft 2 got into the Main Stage. I remember getting a lot of my friends to buy game just so I could share my excitement with them.
The most inspirational video I’ve ever seen. Don’t be afraid to do what you love; be proud of it.
I felt pretty much just like Day[9] felt at the start of his journey, going around with tasteless sharing their enjoyment of the game. I liked the game more than any other game i had ever played, I had so much passion for it, and I wanted to share it with everyone else. I wanted everybody to feel what I was feeling. This all felt like a big movement, watching incredible matches, going to local tournaments, StarCraft raising at the top of the world breaking records left and right, ESPORTS starting to gain more and more notoriety. It was history in the making.
Say what you want about Brodwer, but that guy breaths passion.
After all of this, it was just a matter of time before i started to get more and more involved and for me to share what i loved. I wasn't skilled enough to be a pro gamer, and so, thanks to the latin american battle.net forums, and to my old clan YGD, i joined the clan SXG. With them, and under the leadership of Hayato, we created sxg-team.net with one purpouse: To become the equivalent of teamliquid, but within the latinamerican community. To help people get easy access to the news, guides and info, and push the development of the local scene further.
There were other fansites already, like sc2la (es4la) and sc2mx already, but they were either "abandoned" when we started, or covered different things. At first, I was very stubborn, selfish and impulsive, but over time i managed to become a better writer and community member, going up the in the ranks until I finally became one the the administrators of the site. I met a lot of great people along the way (with one nickname or another
), like Kantuva (uvantak), DARKING, Shinusagi, Topin and Ekchuah, and learned a lot because of them. Sometimes I didn't agree with with what they said, or they didn't agree with what I said, but i like to think that we all were doing what we could to help the latin american scene become something just a little better, we all loved the game after all.The amount of things I learned during that time cannot be understated, it was a little more than 3 years of constant efforts, mistakes, a drive to get better, and as always, share the love of the game. I am proud to say we became one of the biggest sites, with exclusive in depth content not found anywhere else, and we managed to establish the biggest daily latin american tournament there was at the time. I hold those memories dearly in my heart.
Now, I'm sad to say that sxg-team doesn't exist anymore, due to a variety of reasons. The latin american scene is hard, most of the playerbase is very casual, and i'm afraid the community managers and the communication with Blizzard isn't half as good as the communication with the english sites (and people think they are bad!). The scene shrinked, the support too, the rest of the latinamerican official fansites disappeared too and the passion, sadly started to fade. We looked to cover other games like HearthStone or Diablo, but ultimately, the passion wasn't there, we loved StarCraft, and if we couldn't cover it, then we wouldn't cover anything. When the time came to renew the hosting, we decided to put the site on an indefinite break.
Until a little ago, i couldn't help but feel like we somewhat failed the community, because we didn't achieve some of our goals, however, recent events have given me a different perspective. First of all, seeing Kantuva grow from a guy famous in the battle.net forums for posting bronie stuff and always asking questions/helping others on the map section of those forums, to what he is today. It is incredible to think that in 2013, we used some of his maps on our weekly tournament, the SXG-Tour, and now, two years later, he's winning the TLMC 2015. I can't help but feel proud of him
My friend Topin, who frequents this forums, is one of the most passionate guys about sc2 that I've ever met, and he’s still going on with his own sc2 coverage blog, lazzzygamers. Others like EkChuah and RebelAction, keep playing the game and going on in their own way. And our leader, Hayato, one of the nicest persons on earth, keeps being a relevant person in the latin american esports community, even though he has changed his focus a little to league of legends, hes still part of the sc2 community, and genuinely loves those games.
For my part, I was recruited by TeamLiquid to cover Heroes of the Storm, which managed to capture and restore my passion about videogames once more, becoming my "main" game. I'm very proud of being able to write for TeamLiquid, a long time dream of mine, and i couldn't be happier here. Right now, I’m happy where I am, but my journey won’t end up here, and whatever may happen in the future, StarCraft 2 will always have a place on my hearth, which takes me to my conclusion:
Sometimes, you can feel your passion fading out, there are a lot things that factor into that, maybe you don't like the balance, maybe you have too much pressure, maybe the game is too hard or maybe koreans dominate everything. The thing is, the game do has its problems, but being negative won't solve anything and just will wear out your enjoyment of the game. So my advice is: when you feel like giving up, when you find yourself not enjoying the game anymore, take a break and take a little time to remember why you play the game in the first place. Recall the things you felt when you played StarCraft for the first time, maybe it was playing the Brood War campaign or maybe it was with StarCraft 2. Remember what you felt discovering the game, remember your first win, your first loss. Remember the time when you rushed out of school to play the game, or when you attended that amazing tournament or barcraft. Remember that time when you made your first proxy and caused the enemy to rage, remember when they cannon rushed you are they caused you to rage. Play the game as if it was the first time, and fill your body with the emotions you used to have. Maybe then, the flame of passion will start burning in your heart, at least, for a little while.
Do what you love, and be proud of it, don’t let time make you forget why you started your journey in the first place, and work hard to achieve your goals. That is my advice.
Who knows where life is going to take me. Maybe there will come a time in the future when I look this post with the regret of not doing what I was passionate about. But who knows, maybe one day I will read this again and shed a tear when I recall where my journey started.
Who knows.
