EPTThis is my first time ever creating a blog in my life, so bear with me as I adjust to new territory.
I would first like to preface this Blog with a short introduction. My TL moniker is mau5mat and I am an avid SC2 fan. I began playing SC2 around 3 years ago, and recently attained Master as Terran, fulfilling a goal of mine in the process. I enjoy studying the game, and have countless notes upon notes of different players builds, hotkey layouts, strategies and everything in-between.
SC2 is a game I would say I have had a very love/hate relationship with. As I am somewhat of a perfectionist, I feel incredibly annoyed when I cannot play to a standard I try to set myself, I get extremely frustrated at my own shortcomings in-game. I realize how unrealistic it is to even think top Korean players can play without any faults, but this does little to assuage my self-loathing at mistakes in my play.
That being said, I hypocritically love the game with a passion and have dedicated a fair amount of time to helping out during events for SC2 in my hometown and beyond, helping other people with the game, and casting.
SC2 has almost completely ruined my interest in gaming outside of SC2 itself. I cannot find the same level of mental stimulation I get from playing it. Almost every other game I try to play fails to hold my attention anymore, and I feel like I am, ironically, just wasting my time if I am not learning, developing and improving in some way, shape or form.
That being said, I have felt somewhat of a lull in interest recently. Don't fear, this is not a 'daed-gaem' ramble, or a bitter, post-reddit-euphoric rant at all. I'm just recognizing this as an opportunity to submerse myself in something new for the time being. And to be honest, I feel pretty excited.
''Passion can never be created or destroyed, it can only change form.''
- A Spooky Sage
Finally, over the years, TeamLiquid has been a source of information, entertainment and delicious drama for me, as such I hold a special respect for it. It helped develop me as a player, and the community is absolutely fantastic. I thought I could maybe give a tiny, tiny bit of what I have taken from the SC2 community back by writing a hopefully interesting blog for other people to enjoy.
Onto the actual topic of my blog:
StarCraft: Brood War.
This name holds a special reverence for some, a nostalgic orange glow faintly grips it for others. The history, the bitter rivalries formed, the glory of victory, the pursuit of perfection.
None of this has any emotional or sentimental weight for me.
Unfortunately, I did not watch or play StarCraft in it's prime. I had honestly near 0 idea about the scene at the time, and equally as honestly, I probably wouldn't have cared for it in the slightest either.
This for me, is a great loss. Through playing and loving SC2, I developed somewhat of a phantom reverence for it's ancient predecessor. It was only in the last year or so that I began actively trying to understand the game at a level to at least watch Snipealot streams, or TL BW VODs. I felt I owed it to the original game to try and absorb at least a little of the greatness I'd heard about.
I will admit, the first few VODs were extremely strange, I was spoiled by modern graphics, confused at information that was not spoon-fed to me, and bewildered by screams of 'Playgu' and the pixelated carnage that I saw unfolding in front of me.
My, uhm, BW tolerance was not sudden. In fact, I would describe it more of a 'warming to,' than an immediate like or dislike for the game. It is only recently that I have felt an inexorable pull towards playing the game seriously. And I feel the downtime between HotS and LotV is a perfect time to learn something new.
From how much effort I have put into watching, playing and studying SC2, I will admit that the idea of doing something similar for another game almost makes me dizzy with the sheer amount of information I will need to take in to be at least passable on ICCup. But if I take it slow and enjoy the process, I feel I can make a good stab.
So, for the foreseeable future I will attempt to document my journey in playing and learning the beautiful game that is StarCraft: Brood War.
glhf
