EPT
People have played this game for a very long time. But very few have played it for as long as I. In fact, I wager nobody around these days has. I beta tested SC over 10 years ago. A friend worked for Blizzard and knew that I was a gamer, so the connection was made and the game entered my life. Entered and dominated that is, I would play on average 3 hours a day for 10 years. I took maybe 2 or 3 breaks that would span a couple months but other than that this game has always been a part of me. Starting out playing the Bnet ladder back when it meant something going 1 hatch mutalisks to guards and covering ramps with sunken colonies whilst sitting out the other non expanding player for hours on end.
The game was slow to adapt. With no replays and few sites that organized bw information everything was word of mouth or observation based. SKELTON, LOVE_BOAT, YellOw, {PH}PePe!, Kain-the-Feared, X'Ds~Insane
(Grrr), SoSo and others were the players of the era innovating and dominating. Nobody was so above somebody else that they would deny games. X17 was the premier clan where players went to get good. Hacking was non existant and disconnecting in ladder games was the big problem of the time. It was here that I spent most of my time laddering and gaming with my clans DA-, [X] and eventually IN clan.An Agent changed it all
Agent911 was playing some ladder games and was around my rank, so we played. My friend watched over my shoulder and I did my best to keep up with him. He expanded all over the place, covering the map in zerg creep before I could even make a move. At the time expanding was a last ditch thing done after attacks werent working. I was impressed by the viability of expanding and still being able to match my forces. I asked him for more friendly games and we ended up doing as much. Through these games and his good nature he taught me alot about the higher levels of the game. Agent911 changed the game forever for me, after much training with him and a decent friendship I became a good player in that day.
EnlargedTestie
It was around this time I got to know some chick named "EnlargedTestie." She was considered the best girl gamer in SC and very nice / flirty (as all girls are on bnet). Well it turns out this player was none other than Testie (Nick) himself posing as a girl. Yes Nick first got popular pretending to be a girl. It is in these days Nick would like his decisions to be forgotten, and generally that is ok
We gamed a lot and chatted it up. He was always in opposing clans but always willing to game with me. It has been that way for a very long time. I have been pretty close (as close as bnet allows) to nick for nearly 8 years now. Kinda odd throwing those big of numbers around when I am only 21. Playing consistantly with one of the best gamers at that time also exposed me to the higher levels of the game and helped to conintually elevate my game / experience.
IN the IN crowd
I am of course skipping a lot because not everything is important / interesting. But by about year 2 joined a clan named IN clan. INcinerate, INqqqq, INQwerty, INAgent911 were a few of the members to name. At the time I used id's like Overmind99 and DA-DarkSwarM etc. Needing a name for the clan I went with INcontrol hence the name now. Again more developing as being a part of such a high profile clan helped me to mold myself into a more sound player. The game was also changing around this time significantly. Websites started to emmerge and replays were introduced. The game grew in popularity and more and more players were coming to the great game.IN went to a private server named "Kali" and had their own channel called "Mavens." I frequented it sometimes but was more tied to bnet so the split was natural. I kept the name but not the tag out of respect, becomming iNcontroL.
{88}
I decided to start my own clan. Me and a player named Stranix brainstormed a tag and came up {88} because it was simply a cool number (my favorite) and a nice tag (no the racist / nazi shit was not known to us). We had some friends who were pretty good and willing to go in with us, Loki, Cedim, O_O, Poison, Sindread and a fellow by the name of Lurker (later changed to Rekrul). The clan quickly rose to dominance with exceptional players and an odd loyalty unlike other clans. Most of these guys stayed in the clan for over a year with no money/website or anything aside from tons of inner clan gaming and some leagues.
I believe it was here that my obsession/love for SC/BW would fully materialize. I had already been a near addict playing it all the time over lan/online but with my baby being received so well I was hook-line and sinker(ed) with this game.
History at this point for me goes into a middle stage, the clan 88 in its later years was very different from its manifestation. More organized and recognized as possibly the greatest NA clan for its time. I will elaborate in my next blog entry.
tho you still ignore me i still have respect for you !:-D nice write up;-) <3 when is next blog coming? i want to read the end!~ T.T 
