Those first few months of Starcraft

On July 26 2008 21:47 o3.power91 wrote:
My story starts a while ago. I was never a hardcore gamer. Just playing a couple of games at a time, checking out the new ones that come out, looking for some old ones that still look good.

A friend of mine introduced me to a game that caught my interest. That game was Warcraft 3. I played the campaign for a while and enjoyed the game as it was the first RTS game that I had owned and was interested in (I tried and enjoyed a few before, but didnt enjoy the ones I bought ). I started playing 1v1 games mainly against my little brother. Around the same time, the same friend that had introduced me to Warcraft 3 had also introduced the game to another friend. We had never played the game against each other but we had our favorite races. I was Orc while my 2nd friend prefered using Night Elf. The only opponent I played against, my brother, used Undead.

The first friend I had mentioned, despite being the one to introduce 2 of his friends to Warcraft 3, didn't really play the game much. He had probably only told us about the game since he knew we were interested in medeival themes . Instead, he was playing another RTS game which I was told was from the same creators as Warcraft 3. By now you should have guessed, this game was Starcraft. I decided to try this game out since my friend found it better than Warcraft 3. I didn't start taking it as seriously as I took Warcraft 3 when I started so I stayed with Warcraft for now. A couple weeks later, my friend had convinced my 2nd friend to take up Starcraft and ditch Warcraft. I was still hard-headed and unconvinced.

One day, my friend had visited my house and decided to show me what he had called "the most imba thing in Starcraft." He played on Blizzard Hunters filling all the slots with computer opponents and chose Protoss as his race. I didnt know what he was doing as I wasn't paying much attention. My friend used a bunch of cheats and got out 12 Protoss Carriers. I looked at the screen thinking "wtf are these huge fish-looking structures?" he started building interceptors and soon after started attacking the computer bases. Damn was I surprised at the number of interceptors. That moment got me to start playing the game's campaign at least and put Warcraft behind me. Soon after my friend asked me to pick a main race that I would play. I didnt know which to take up. He asked what race I played back in Warcraft and to explain them to him. I described the Orc race as best I could with my very limited knowledge. From my description he had asked me to take up the Protoss race. Both my friends played Terran. My 2nd friend was the worse Terran player of the 2.

I played a few 1v1 games of Starcraft, getting owned by my friend who introduced me to the game each time. I had been playing the same way each time on LT. Play off of 1 base for a while, expo and create my then favorite "canon wall" then take the nearest island expo at 30 mins into the game, build 3 stargates + fleet beacon, and attack with the first 12 cariers. One day, I played a LAN game with my 2nd friend, the one who had played Warcraft and is playing Terran. That game lasted just as long as my regular games with me playing with the same "build." Only this time, my opponent built a bunch of marines, firebats, and medics in his main base while keeping himself at 1 base with only 9 SCVs. I don't keep my probe count to 9 probes per base but around 12 or so so I wasn't that much better. Needless to say, I won the game. It was the first game I had ever won in Starcraft which made it all the more exciting for me.

The friend I had beaten got demotivated from playing Starcraft after that game. He never felt he could get any better. Soon after, my first friend convinced him to take the Zerg race. He started playing a lot more than he did before. Around that time, I had also switched to Zerg, and played a few games on Bnet. I gave up too easily and decided to try out Terran. I wanted to choose a main race so I had tried out all three for a while. I was most comfortable playing Protoss so I stuck with that. My first friend on the other hand, started playing random and became a race picker depending on his mood. Those were the 45 apm days

The three of us soon stumbled upon Korean progaming. Our knowledge of Starcraft progaming started with a video of Boxer vs Yellow. It was the video of Boxer’s famous SCV rush. That video changed our view of the game. We started paying a closer eye to progaming still not knowing anything about the game. We started copying a few of the noticeable stuff from progamers such as expoing more frequently, building more than 3 gateways/hatches/barracks, and other basic macro stuff. Needless to say, we had improved a lot from where we started.

That summer was a devastating summer for me. I had lost my internet connection. I was unable to play on Bnet. I was still playing a bit on LAN when I get the chance though. Around that time, my friends came across a website called Teamliquid.net. They often told me about the focus to progaming, and how the community is, etc. I got my internet connection back later in the year and created my TL.net account asap. What first attracted me to TL.net was the progaming coverage. During my time at TL.net, more interesting stuff just kept popping up: TSL, TL.net Attack, etc. Nowadays when I open my Opera internet browser, the first thing I do is click the TL.net link in the speed dial screen. Even though I have no reason to check TL.net, I just visit the site anyways.

My view of Starcraft has changed a lot since the beginning. Those were the days of the 45 apm carrier Protoss I used to like. Now I’m a 150 apm Protoss and still a D on iccup. This just shows the reason I love Starcraft so much. Even though I had improved a lot since I started, I still have a very long way to go and many roads to choose from.