EPT! !друг друга слушайте! !
Брод Вар жил
Брод Вар жив
Брод Вар будет жить
! ! !
Alright, listen up. If there's one thing that should alarm you is the Great Brain speaking. The Great Brain just announced:
Let's dissect this message.
+++ Conclusion +++
I'm extremely, extremely and utterly pissed my work told me I can't take another vacation for the 11th. I honestly thought I'll spend another 2k$ for the 2nd trip to Russia this year. I not only "thought" about it, today I asked. I can't.
I hate that.
I hate that.
So much.
I found friends over there, and I'm sure you will find, too. It doesn't matter if you can communicate. LANs, tournaments, meetings - you have no idea what you will encounter. One thing is for sure, I never met a single person who "lost" something in the process, other than having stereotypes.
Again, the guys are fucking amazing, they go any lengths to support you without having seen you. Go and meet them.
If you have the opportunity and you miss it: Shame on you.
[Give Largo a Beer and talk in VERY EASY english to plumbum, he doesn't speak any English at all]
1. There's Russia Involved
Since the administrators ban for memes, I forgo the option to simply point to "In Soviet Russia" and other popular pictures.
LOL. I'M NOT. HAVE FUN.
LONG LIVE SOJUS SOWETSKICH SOZIALSTITSCHEKICH RESPBULIK.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/g1rIdmH.png)
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/9m4nLvm.jpg)
And most importantly
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/Jwn2qZ6.jpg)
Seriously, Russia will live up to your expectations and beat it by a mile. All freakish things you could think of, then put a brick stone onto your head with heave force and a hundred more, until they finally constructed the Ostankino TV-Tower to launch the Sputnik into space (and this metaphor makes no sense in any way you try to make sense of, just like Russia).
Usually, you might think that's bad, but the opposite is true. You are bound to encounter Gopnik Culture at some point, such as a 70 year old Taxi Driver swearing at girls, or the Milita openly asking for bribes. This sounds as if it might be dangerous to go, however, it is just another way to say: You'll be going to the adventure of your life. It's as simple as that. You will never be in any danger, unless you point a knife at your face and then start to cut. Seriously, it's a safe country with a ton of ideas behind it, that just want to be looked at.
Some form of comfort zone exists, but only in your head.
If you want to have the tourist version of Russia, you willl get that. You will eat a portion of Pelmeni, starting off with a Borscht, ending with Blini, while listening to a fake version of a Russian trying to serve you food and while you are staring in your Kwas (if you had the guts to order that brilliant soft drink), wishing you'd have tried to see a bit more.
Yet, if you endorse the want to have an actual human experience the Russians will not fail to deliver whenever you try to step up: There'll be waiters swearing at you, public servants in the Metro laughing at your attempts to speak Russian, as well as a dozend ways to translate the phrase "Fuck you" in the most honest form you can imagine without saying a single word - it's amazing that the Russian face can not smile, but frown in three hundred ways.
Let's face it, TL.net is a page for Americans, and Americans are the single populus on earth that are only topped by the Chinese: A kind of people taking things for granted, such as being understood everywhere. Russia is an entire different thing, it's honesty in the purest form imaginable. Yet it's not excluding, but giving you an idea of what the world would look like if life wasn't as easy as you could imagine, giving you problems in your free time you couldn't come up with. This only sounds bad if you miss the fact that this only unites: you got a problem, we got a problem, let's find a way to resolve it. And Russia finds a way (insert Jeff Goldblum Meme). Russia makes you realize Life is a thing that happens during living, having emotions (and hiding it behind a frown), that is passing along and that has a clock that slowly ticks away your time on earth, that helps you bond with strangers and that humans are what they are: irrational, sometimes depressed, but once you find happiness, it's best to share it and seriously embrace what the Romans called <memento mori>. And the few times Russians are happy a party like no tomorrow starts. If no party starts, you'll get faced with even more interesting facts.
Going to Russia unprepared and expect the best will return a message that'll show you a brand new way, it's refreshing, it's different, it's Russia, it's... bears, vodka, чистые россия - clean Russia. It's a thing you will never forget, because you don't ever want to.
I've met one of the most open minded people in my life time, people you could bond up with easily. Upon returning a second time and upon seeing one guy I met five years ago it felt as if greeting and old friend from child hood. If you see them, you will know.
But that's not the point.
The point is: it's Russia. It's simple. It's stripped off any kind of complications. Be a jerk, get fucked like a jerk. Be nice, get treated well.
Hence, if Brain says, there's a tournament, there won't be discussions, there won't be things to complain about, simply due to the fact if you did or dared to think of it, you would not be part. In conclusion, as Russia extrpolates the essence and then builds up on it: It'll be чистые Брод Вар - pure Brood War.
What more could you want?
2. It's Moscow, Pizdec Naxuy Bleat!
Moscow is one of the biggest cities in the world, at least if you consider official statistics. If you consider that there's a shadow population, and the second you laid eyes on the city, you will soon consider that the list of "biggest cities" is just a joke, it's a Megalopolis in every sense of the word.
If everything else will turn to shit, the sheer beauty of the city will remain. After visiting more than thirty parks, more than ten museums: I don't think I seen more than maybe 5% of the city.
You often forget that the Soviet Union was a world power. When I was born the term <Soviet Union> brought fear into your heart, by the time I started to study USSR was an image of Jelzin and the forgotten ideal of Perestroika and Glasnost, the East was rendered a joke, a halfwit that forgot what it once was.
Kids, Moscow might seem as an ancient ruin in text book, yet it's the symbol of history, a history that is rich beyond imagination. It offers you deep insights to the true history of space discovery. Only because the Americans landed on the moon doesn't mean every step on the way was done by the Russians. I guarantee you will instantly fall in love with the WDNCh, the Cosmonaut Museum or Yuri Gagarin, things are put in perspective, wihthout having the need of being overly shit patriotic as Hollywood is. I'm still left with a deep admiration of the cities - and more importantly - the peoples achievement when it comes to so many things: Today's view of Hollywood on history states one view, Moscow doesn't need that. It does not need the admiration of the world, it's a monument for itself.
I don't want to fight, not for one second, that half of what you're going to see is pure propaganda in the most shadiest way you can think of. Yet, you can't think to dispute of what a century of "trying" did: I've never seen a more honest way to display what years upon years of suffering could mount up to: Space discovery, the architecture, the parks and just the attempt to generate an utopia. This city has a living spirit that goes missing in the Western World: Labour goes a long way, it has a price, and if you're willing to pay, you will certainly underestimate the price. But the result, you have no idea. It's like Trent Reznors songs come to live - what could have been and what sadly is.
Seriously, if you need advice what to visit (without a Russian player by your side):
1. Park Pobedy (including the show at the dome, it'll give you a sense of the cost of victory [might be 'cause I'm German with a ton of foreign roots [Czeska Czeska... Polski])
2. Tsarantino
3. Ostankino TV Tower & WDNCh & Cosmonaut's Museum
4. Park Kultury & Gorky Park & The Unboring Gardens
5. The Puschkin Museum
3. It's Brain
It's Brain. Simple as that.
For instance: Consider myself. Don't ever trust me. I'm never willing to forget, nor to forgive. I'm a second class organizer at best. Yet I have a track record which few people in current Brood War can exceed, e.g. I had to smirk slightly once the HAY guy said "I been doing this for a year" - my reaction was: "try a decade"; this is how arrogant I am and how arrogant I can be - wihtout having lifted a finger in 2018. (if you are reading this HAY-guy: it's a metaphor, I'm still not looking for a fight, I'm just trying to make some point, I hope your tour goes very well. Seriously, I am. But I'm also not nice, so it's kind of pointless to mention)
So, Brain could easily smile down arrogantly over me. Easily. I can not stress this fact out. But he never would, 'cause it's him, the Brian.
There's literally no person that is more trustworthy, as Brain not only paid what he promised, but also organized and tripple checked the results. Not because he has a problem with Ego, like so many of organizers (including myself probably) have, but because he is the purest form of fan: A former top player now gone into <I gotta throw money>.
I dare you to find a single flaw in a Brain tournament. You won't ever find one. He'll also respond, he speaks English flawlessly, and from the few minutes I spent with him: He's one of the smartest people I ever met. And I met a couple of people who consider themselves as intelligent persons. Deep respects to his Brood War Legacy.
Aside from all that, I also seen his hospitality. If he says he'll help you out he will. You might think that "helping" is a hollow phrase, for Brain it seems to be a religion. He's a man of his word and more, way more than you think. Aside from
Largo, you won't ever find a more generous, understanding and helpful person. Brain is the person you can rely on. After meeting more than one hundred Brood War players, Brain was the first one to make sure that even 2000 KMs and five months of planning will never go to waste, before we only had conversations that could summed up in a 10 Minute record. 4. It's Russian Players
Aside from praising Brain for his orgizantional and human skills: I only know three Russians BW players IRL. Mad Respects to them, two of three visited me, the third plans to come over as well. I do not regert meeting them, I more like regret to not see them more often. I consider all three of them as friends and I hope to see even more. The people they introduced me to are some of the most interesting people I ever met.
Take for instance Mr "Sasha" from Piter: I met him once five years ago, shot him a short message I'll be visiting SPB. Within a minute he resolved some really big issues with our hostel, then suggested to "meet" his friend. The meeting ended up being 2.5 days of the utmost fun I had in three years with total strangers, that welcomed me (and another BWCL admin) as if we were old friends, gave us food, shelter and tons upon tons of stories. I know Sasha for the entirety of ten hours, yet I feel as if we connected.
5. It's Brood War
Take into account what I wrote in the last point. Let's be honest for a minute. I seen so much BM, I dealt more BM, and if you know me, I'm very good at flaming, because I enjoy it too much. I fully endorse the fact I can, and to some extent this culture of mutual flames will never stop, because if done correctly, as stupid as it sounds, you will bond over it at some point (hey yo
Arcneon (go 50 Minute ZvZ? kekekekeke) and Artanis - you know what I mean!)It all boils down: More than half of us are older than 30 years old. We share one thing: Brood War. Back to the intro: I so hate many things, but we unite in the thought that we can hate on the most stupid shit, such as $$$$Possi$$$ Players speaking about "fast expansions", or how Artosis misspelled a word or some minor shit. If you truely are into the game you will know how to differ real hate and hate that... is used to say: you and me, we know the same shit, we don't agree, but we have to disagree to show we love the same thing. It's paradox, right? It's not. It's us. It's Brood War. It's Toss hating on Crack lings, it's Zerg hating Storm, it's Terran loving their o-Button to unsiege. It's Bisu-is-a-gay against Flash-is-overrated, it's... love - hate - tragedy.
Brood War never was about hugging each other, Brood War is, what a co-admin of BWCL phrased as: the eternal struggle to win with more hatred of your own self than the other guy.
In the end, we were, we are and we will ever be the pioneers of RTS-Gaming. We are united by so many things that it's just funny to trash talk today. We endured so, so much to get to more than 150 APM, that we can laugh the second we write shit - at least I hope you see it the way I see it. If not, apologies to some people.
It's only few people on earth that can honestly say: go fuck yourself, I've been playing a game that's literally older than you. But it's not 'cause I like it, it's because the pure thought of defeat of the opponent might annoy him more than it annoys me. It's a life long Stockholm Syndrom that will never cease to exist.
