I don't follow SC2 anymore, but I regularly visit TL, at least for the purpose of following Dota 2. However each time I visit TL, I glance at the SC2 section and I really miss those good times I've had on this site and around. It feels like there's no way those times will be back. I wanted to write a blog to collect my thoughts, and also share it for the likeminded people.
I had no idea of Starcraft proscene before 2010, and to be honest any progaming at all despite being a gamer. I loved playing Starcraft and Brood War as a kid, however it wasn't serious, campaign missions and some skirmish here and there against computer. However I really loved the game but eventually forgot about it as the years went on.
It was 2010, five years ago. One day, while browsing Youtube, I came upon a video. It was one of the HDH Invitational games in the Beta I think. Took me a while to get used to the (at the time) amazing graphics but after seeing a Zealot for the first time, I realized that the game I was watching was Starcraft 2! I was really excited. The game looked really nice with all the shiny stuff (I loved Battlecruisers and Void Rays!) and it was my first time watching a video game casted. I consumed all the content on Youtube from that day on, and upon learning the game was going to be released on July, an anxious wait for the release date followed.
I was a lowly intern at a law firm, and it was my last week there. Finally, the long awaited day was here and Starcraft 2 was released. I bought the game, and installed immediately when I got home.Started playing as Protoss, played 2-3 games and really felt good because it was fun.
I had had discovered TL by this point from the Youtube broadcasts. It was fun to be a part of it, but what I remember the most was MLG Raleigh 2010, which was the first SC2 tournament I watched live. I was amazed at the fact that such tournaments existed. I was rooting for Idra at the time. I really loved that tourney and tried to follow as much of content as time allowed. When there was an MLG coming up, I was super hyped. I loved the atmosphere of those, and kind of felt nostalgic watching the MLG Dota last week. It reminded me how much I loved following this tournament, even though I could not obviously follow every game. Even following live threads on the TL were fun! I still remember the moment MMA killed his own CC and Idra left the game after a combat. I also remember how I screamed "HE WON" after a game between NexGenius (he won) against (if I remember right) a Terran player which I can't remember the name of, on Xel Naga Caverns. It was such a back and forth, fun game. I remember waking up in the dead of the night, 4 am to watch MLG due to the time difference. If there were more MLGs going on I still might have been following SC2 maybe.
Tournaments were not the only things I discovered on this site. While trying to improve my play, I discovered Day9's dailies. I followed them religiously every day. Watching the daily quickly became the first thing I did when I came home from the uni. Later on, I discovered shows and personalities, people like Incontrol, DjWheat and JP. Shows like State of the Game, and Inside the Game. I also loved watching MrBitter's 12 Weeks with the Pros, especially since I was also playing Zerg. I spent many hours playing Civ V with ItG or SotG playing in the background. That was fun. As for players and scenes, I did not care too much about the Koreans, but NA scene and its players were always fun. Europe was also really fun. I still remember the finals in Dreamhack (or IEM, cant remember) between Mana and Naama, those games were fun. Socke, together with Naniwa is my favourite player of all time from the EU. I also loved the EG Team House and EG v. Liquid rivalry. I loved Stephano's rise to the top and still remember his game versus Kiwikaki in IPL.
There have been many great stuff I enjoyed which TL made it possible, and TSL3 (was it 3? I think it was) was also a great thing. I loved the epic intro with the player photo drawings and the cool music, and the games were really cool as well. I remember Boxer v. Sen on Metalopolis and Thorzain v. MC in the finals. And who could forget GSL? The crazy Foxer v (was it Losira? I think) game where he splitted those marines like hell, and also the crazy finals between MVP and OGS.TOP with turrets all over the map and air invasions into multiple nukes in the base (I hope I'm right about the TOP part :D) Those were some cool games and fun times!
I loved many things about the SC2 scene. Sadly, everything started to change from mid-late 2012. First, the games got boring. Broodlord Infestor dominated most games. Everyone had always been going crazy about Koreans and then there started to be a huge flood of them across tournaments. All the people I've rooted for pretty much started to drop like flies in tournaments. Plus, many things have changed. Tournaments cancelled, organizations brought down and players retired. The fucking Idra stopped SC2 after getting fired from EG. That was not a fun day as an Idra fan. JP and Wheat stopped producing those two beloved shows I really loved after a while. There were no more MLGs, but this WCS thing I had no idea what it's about, which was filled with many Koreans (yet again) No IPL, no NASL, no MLG. Day9 also stopped releasing dailies like he used to. By this point I really lost interest as I felt everything changed so much, so quickly. Playing the game stressed me always and then I just stopped playing too, and from that point I have not really followed Starcraft 2. Dota 2 thankfully filled the gap from that point on, but it is not the same.
I know many people will come here and tell me that there are still good tournaments, good players, and fun games to be watched (and I'm sure shows/podcasts aswell) However, I'm not getting the general feeling I felt back in the day anymore with regards to the Sc2 scene. It was such a strong, thriving and developing scene. Being part of it, watching every second of it was exciting because of this. It doesn't feel the same anymore from what I can see. I tried too watch some WCS but it really bored me. I did not know any of the players and felt nothing. I think what we've had was precious and invaluable. There's no way to bring it back maybe, but all those memories will stay with me regardless, defining and portraying a cherished and passionate period in the life of mine.
Yeah, things are different now. A lot of the genuine excitement about SC is frankly gone and moved onto newer/bigger games. The magical new-game experience had to evaporate at some point and you have to hope that the game is good enough to sustain itself past that. I don't think HotS was quite there to be able to do that, hopefully Blizzard is able to keep LotV feeling fresh and exciting for years to come. But even then the community won't quite be the same, which isn't necessarily a bad thing... just a different kind of experience.
It's fucking sad how many times I've read this exact same article reworded slightly differently. I was in the same place as you but I came back and fell back in love. If having different players and tournaments names is enough to make you no longer like it then you have to ask yourself, did you ever like the game or just the people involved?
NASL and MLG were shit, btw. DH and IEM are a thousand times better.
I agree with the original post and with what Plexa said. 2011-early 2012 sc2 was thrilling and I remember following the scene intensely. Now as I'm getting older I find myself not caring so much, mostly I'm disappointed with the development of LotV but I can't really form an opinion yet as I haven't played a second of it. I hope things will turn out alright in the end but the cynicist in me says I'm up for another letdown.
As a sidenote, it's tough to live in the States and watch Korean games live as they start at like 4 fucking am. Maybe I'll tune in more when I go back to Europe.
I think the magic of early WoL was that things were not yet figured out. Players did silly stuff and creative strategies because the most optimal strategies were not yet known. Nowadays everybody is doing the same game over and over because it has proven to be the optimal build. Of course this is a little bit exaggerated but I think it is the reason why the game has become less interesting over time.
On October 25 2015 16:41 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: NASL and MLG were shit], btw. DH and IEM are a thousand times better.
Guitars, you had no pashun in late 2011 first half 2012. In that time MLG was the most gosu thing ever. I think my favorite time period in all of SC2 was the DRG MKP rivalry. The feeling of joy I had...I don't know if it will ever be truly replicated...
On October 25 2015 16:41 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: NASL and MLG were shit], btw. DH and IEM are a thousand times better.
Guitars, you had no pashun in late 2011 first half 2012. In that time MLG was the most gosu thing ever. I think my favorite time period in all of SC2 was the DRG MKP rivalry. The feeling of joy I had...I don't know if it will ever be truly replicated...
On October 25 2015 16:41 SetGuitarsToKill wrote: NASL and MLG were shit], btw. DH and IEM are a thousand times better.
Guitars, you had no pashun in late 2011 first half 2012. In that time MLG was the most gosu thing ever. I think my favorite time period in all of SC2 was the DRG MKP rivalry. The feeling of joy I had...I don't know if it will ever be truly replicated...
I never did like NASL though sooo
NASL had quite a few problems. Too many games in the endless online phase, the venues were apparently rather small with very few people in attendance and it made for a weird, cold atmosphere.
MLG was amazing back then, it really was the best we had. Real games, no filler, generally good casting.
OP, I understand your thoughts completely. Though I was more interested in the KR scene, I still had some foreign players that I liked to watch. I followed SC as closely as I could (can't watch GSL at 5am unfortunately but tried to stay in touch) from about 2010 to the end of 2013. My best memories are of the early days when fruitdealer lost to Foxer in GSL open season 2, the 1-1-1 era where Puma was beating everyone, Korean weeklies which were amazing to watch and were enjoyable, MLG weekends where I would watch SCII for the whole weekend (again, tried to watch whatever I can, Boxer vs Rain was something, so was the Idra vs MMA thing and there was Stephano vs MMA on metropolis or SlayerS beating everyone with blue flame hellions lol), IPL5 which I recall as being one of the best tournaments ever at the time before closure (watched some IPL3 games and maybe others too, don't rememeber) and of course, Jaedong's several tournament runs in 2013 where he finally won ASUS ROG and slumped after that lol.
Of course, Innovation's deadly TvZ, SK's reversal kill in the first GSL season of HoTS, the WCS Finals where we saw Innovation dismantle sOs 4-0 but had quite the cool game one etc... It's sad but I've come to realize that SCII will never ever feel that way again. As Plexa mentioned, it's part of the new game experience. The community was really passionate at the time and lots of SCII content was popping up as well. It was really great to partake in it and all those memories will always be treasured. At this point, the game is no longer the SCII I identified with and I don't get any joy from watching it either so I quit about 2 years back. Maybe LOTV will change the game to make it fun again but at this point, I'm doubtful. Regardless, at least the memories will stick around and maybe I'll even write a blog of my own about it lol.
edit: though I've seen some NASL matches in the past, the games were never that captivating. For me, approximately: MLG = GSL = IPL5 = Korean Weeklies > everything else
On October 26 2015 07:19 BigFan wrote: OP, I understand your thoughts completely. Though I was more interested in the KR scene, I still had some foreign players that I liked to watch. I followed SC as closely as I could (can't watch GSL at 5am unfortunately but tried to stay in touch) from about 2010 to the end of 2013. My best memories are of the early days when fruitdealer lost to Foxer in GSL open season 2, the 1-1-1 era where Puma was beating everyone, Korean weeklies which were amazing to watch and were enjoyable, MLG weekends where I would watch SCII for the whole weekend (again, tried to watch whatever I can, Boxer vs Rain was something, so was the Idra vs MMA thing and there was Stephano vs MMA on metropolis or SlayerS beating everyone with blue flame hellions lol), IPL5 which I recall as being one of the best tournaments ever at the time before closure (watched some IPL3 games and maybe others too, don't rememeber) and of course, Jaedong's several tournament runs in 2013 where he finally won ASUS ROG and slumped after that lol.
Of course, Innovation's deadly TvZ, SK's reversal kill in the first GSL season of HoTS, the WCS Finals where we saw Innovation dismantle sOs 4-0 but had quite the cool game one etc... It's sad but I've come to realize that SCII will never ever feel that way again. As Plexa mentioned, it's part of the new game experience. The community was really passionate at the time and lots of SCII content was popping up as well. It was really great to partake in it and all those memories will always be treasured. At this point, the game is no longer the SCII I identified with and I don't get any joy from watching it either so I quit about 2 years back. Maybe LOTV will change the game to make it fun again but at this point, I'm doubtful. Regardless, at least the memories will stick around and maybe I'll even write a blog of my own about it lol.
edit: though I've seen some NASL matches in the past, the games were never that captivating. For me, approximately: MLG = GSL = IPL5 = Korean Weeklies > everything else
Glad to see I'm not alone. No matter what happens we have our memories and feelings, which won't go away!
By the way I found that game I was talking about at TSL 3 between Genius and qxc. Check it out if you haven't already or forgotten about it, it was crazy fun! I can't believe it has been 4,5 years since then.
On October 26 2015 06:52 Djzapz wrote: NASL had quite a few problems. Too many games in the endless online phase, the venues were apparently rather small with very few people in attendance and it made for a weird, cold atmosphere.
your memory on this is as bad as your knowledge of Brian Mulroney's deficit #s.
the generalization that all NASL events has very few people in attendance with a weird cold atmosphere is false.
NASL's Toronto event ( to be exact it was misssissauga) rocked... about 6,000 paid... they prolly could've sold double that # of tickets. it was the 1st big event held in hogtown and after Blizz saw how many people attended 4 or 5 other majors ended up there.
I feel the same as you, The highlight of SC2 for me was TSL3 after that I watched a lot but I was never as hyped as I was for that tournament. Also watching Jinro win MLG at dallas 2011 was great.
ATVI consists of 2 subsidiaries.... Activision Publishing and Blizzard Entertainment. A 3rd ATVI Subsidiary is being formed with Co-Founder of MLG , Mike Sepso as VP. This is an e-sports subsidiary.
i doubt we will see stuff as good as MLG in 2011 and 2012... but i think ATVI hiring Mike Sepso and putting him in a big power position bodes well for the future.
i'll tell you this right now...
Mike Sepso >>> Kim Phan
In general, Blizzard eSports will get better .. i just hope there is enough life left in SC2 eSports that ATVI's new subsidiary takes it seriously.
On October 26 2015 06:52 Djzapz wrote: NASL had quite a few problems. Too many games in the endless online phase, the venues were apparently rather small with very few people in attendance and it made for a weird, cold atmosphere.
your memory on this is as bad as your knowledge of Brian Mulroney's deficit #s.
the generalization that all NASL events has very few people in attendance with a weird cold atmosphere is false.
Ouch . Well yeah I only watched the first one I think and then I dropped it altogether. People don't seem too fond of it though.
EPT
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