EPTI’m no stranger to ladder competitions, nor am I a stranger to the type of stress that they tend to generate. One of my rage gifs was a direct result of playing far too much and becoming far too desperate trying to qualify for a ladder competition. The first few days were pretty rough as I lost to a lot of players that I never had trouble against in the past. With each day I got a little bit better. I thought about my games after I finished and spent a lot of time just relaxing to prepare for the next session. This was a sort of proving ground for me. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of my skill remained. Because I had to learn so much day to day as I got up to date with playstyles and the current meta, I had to put in a lot of games in a short period of time. I made substantial progress in the week that I played Terran, but it definitely left a mark on my condition that I’ll need some days to recover from before I feel back to normal. As the final day loomed I was definitely feeling the stress of playing so much.
I hoped I could stop laddering early on the final day but a few losses kept me in the danger zone up until the last minute. My goal was to stay around rank 10 to avoid hitting the koreans sitting at the top of the ladder. As the final day went on, I realized that was probably not going to be possible. Around 30 minutes before the competition ended I was sitting at about rank 15 with barely any points over the next player. A loss against Drunkenboi left me on the cusp of being knocked out. I immediately queued up again and hit ‘Kel’, a masters zerg. After carelessly losing several reapers to a ling flood, I scouted a ling ravager allin incoming. Although I had a tank out and two bunkers, I had poor control and position on my units. Maybe the early reaper loss was too much, maybe the event was affecting my concentration. Either way, as my scvs all evaporated, I braced myself for the incoming point loss. I could tell this was going to be a big loss. Whenever you play a no-name on the ladder, there’s a good chance that winning will be a few points and losing will mean a lot of lost points. I quickly checked the defeat screen and saw a whopping -20 points putting me at rank 17 with about 20 minutes to go.
So I queued up again. If I got lucky, I could play two quick games and make back the 20 points to scoot back into the top 16. That wasn’t how this story ends though. I didn’t get the easy opponent I hoped for. I tabbed back into the loading screen to see my opponent was none other than Polt himself. Up to this point in the ladder competition, had done nothing but thrash me in every single game. We hadn’t had a single close game yet.
With time against me, I went for a 1 base aggressive reaper hellion banshee style. I caught his reaper early on and was able to convert it into some scv kills. My banshee picked up a few more scvs, but I had lost too many units harassing him. His tanks, marines, raven, vikings and a banshee marched across the map to my base. In response, I sent another banshee around the outside of the map. When his units had just crossed the watch tower on Ruins of Seras, I sent the banshee into his base and picked up free scv after scv. With cross spawns, his army had a long way to go home to defend that banshee so he pressed on. As his army moved into my natural, I pulled scvs and brought everything into a concave. At first, I thought he would break through and I’d lose the ensuing base trade. One thing about playing Polt is even when you’re ahead and things look brightest, slipping up for an instant can mean immediate loss. With more reinforcements coming in from my main, I barely shoved off his attack. With the banshee rampaging uncontested in his main and his push shattered, the game was over.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jY9E7lC.png)
I fist pumped. I shouted. I hoped I didn’t wake my gf up. I was so excited that I had been strong under the final pressure. I knew I’d get a lot of points for that game. That one game was the only chance I had to make it in. If I lost it was over. Even by winning, I wasn’t sure I’d make it in. +23 pushed me back into 16th place and with only 5 minutes left, I felt safe.
I don’t think I did anything for those 5 minutes as I refreshed the gm ladder, watching and waiting. I knew people right outside the top 16 were still playing and there was a chance one of them would finish and knock me out. As midnight strolled on in, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw I had made it. A few minutes later, the official screenshot was posted:
For the tournament that I qualified for, I’ll be playing against Hydra first round which is less than ideal, but this all started as a test against myself. With so little practice, I didn’t really know what to expect. Just making it is a huge win. I wanted to know how well I could play. I needed to know if I could play under pressure and make use of the lessons I’ve learned about stress and mental management since retiring. I found out. I’m not as good as I hoped, but I made it in all the same.
I’m still retired. I’m not coming back to play full time right now. This was a fun jaunt back into a world that’s been my home for so many years. I’ll play my best against Hydra and the rest of the wcs tournament qualifier, but when it’s done for me, I’ll be slinking back into the shadows to finish my board game, Aeon’s End.
Overall, this was a really fun experience. Fighting against old friends and enemies for something was an incredibly positive experience. The tension and stakes were so high and it felt like a substantial part of the community rallied around the event as well. I can only hope this is the first of many great new initiatives for Starcraft’s future.
Attached is the replay vs Kel here: and vs Polt here:
. Having Polt as the final boss, the man you never beat this week, as your only hope of qualifying, and managing to beat him in spite of the stress, is quite a feat, very clutch!
