EPT
Sure, there have been times when it’s been hell. There was one swarm host Group of (Viewer) Death in WCS featuring Happy and 3 zergs that honestly made me want to jack in Starcraft entirely, when I stayed up til 7am to watch, finished my recap at 8, before finally going to bed just when the neighbour downstairs started his weekend DIY. Or there’s the BlizzCon work we’ve been writing—writing 80 game recaps and 14 player profiles in two weeks is pretty fucking hard, especially when you’ve been writing about the same 16 people all year already and you’re trying to keep things fresh.
But hopefully I’m improving; hopefully there are people out there who’ve taken something, however small, from what I write. There’s still stuff that I know I can work on to improve, and I’ve got a few ideas for some articles to write in the off-season, and hopefully next year I’ll be better than ever after a break. Enjoy BlizzCon everyone! And although I didn’t write any of the creative pieces, go and read them all again before it all kicks off on Sunday—they are universally great.
ESPORTS SHOUTOUTS
Firstly, thanks to Zealously for giving me a shot. Even if he did first confuse my application with someone else’s, then sent me a skype invite, before forgetting about me for a couple of weeks.
It’s incredibly hard to moan about anything at all when your boss does more work than everyone else combined, and the masochistic way lichter grinds through everything is both disturbing and motivating. Also, the way he constantly reminds me that I bring shame to my family spurs me on.
CosmicSpiral has been my editor for much of the year, especially for my GSL stuff, so you have him to thank for making my stuff actually intelligible—without him my righting don’t read half so good.
Shoutout to the entire writing team for constantly being hilariously snarky and supportive in chat—from stuchiu’s constant anecdotes about how everybody in the world is worse than Mvp, to Olli’s rants, to Soularion’s constant soliloquies and failed attempts to get me to listen to rap. Templar’s been my triallist buddy right from the start (even if he defected to be a mod), Destructicon’s shared the GSL burden for much of the year, while Jer’s always around to write a strat article to show up my complete lack of strategic aptitude. Thanks too to TripleM and shtanjel for showing up as trialists right at the end to help out when everyone died a passionless death in the end of year cram.
Shoutout to Lorning in particular, for the VOD archive and his streak of LR threads, without which I’d likely never have come to TL to lurk endlessly in 2013.
Shoutout to Squirtle, for being the best champion that Starcraft 2 will never have.
Finally, shoutout to anyone who’s posted in a tournament thread, commented on a preview, or simply tuned in to watch a game. For better or for worse, I’ve watched thousands of games already this year, and I’m still no closer to feeling burnt out on the game. Hopefully I’ll see all of you next year.
