SmashCraft Heroes

hazelynut

United States2195 Posts

June 22 2009 07:26 GMT

I never would’ve thought that my first year at college would be defined by Starcraft.

I’ve been meaning to write down this story for a while now. I wanted to share something that began as a silly daydream and became something much, much more – something that both fortunately and unfortunately became reality. I guess it’s one of the side effects of throwing yourself into something – anything – wholeheartedly. You end up seeing both wonderful and ugly things about whatever you love.

I’ve always loved Starcraft, but I only got into the pro-gaming scene last summer – it was the summer before college, so I spent days and nights (the 4am kind) lazing around on the couch, watching VOD after VOD and commentary after commentary of Starcraft. I ended up diving into the world of Korean pro-gaming – learning that Bisu was the ultimate pretty boy, fangirling over the dramatic rivalry that would be FBH versus Savior, and finally venturing onto ICCUP for the first time only to realize that everyone was serious business: “D/D+ python u make” replaced the silly banter and sexbots that you usually find on b.net. I pretty much submerged myself into the game. I loved every aspect of it. I even tried to get better at it through whatever means possible, and actually made my way to what (I thought) was a respectable 120apm player.

In time, summer ended, as all summers do. But did my summer fling with Starcraft have to end? I had my doubts. When you’re a freshman and doing the mandatory rounds of, “Hello! What’s your major? What hobbies do you have?” to everyone you meet, you don’t want to answer: “Undecided /Starcraft.” Somewhere beyond that fear, though, a little corner of me wanted to pack Starcraft up into a metaphorical luggage bag and haul it into my new life at Princeton. I daydreamed during that summer. I thought, “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool to make an intercollegiate SC league, just like Proleague?” I started searching trusty old Google to see if any collegiate leagues existed yet. They didn’t, and it surprised me.

In hindsight, it doesn’t surprise me at all. The Collegiate Starleague, CSL, is a simple concept that I am 100% sure has been thought of before in the past 10 years since its conception. People just dismiss the idea. I almost did. Wouldn’t it be weird? It’s STARCRAFT, was what I thought. It’s strange to describe the feeling now. Back then, in the summer, I could only consider a collegiate league as a far-fetched daydream because that’s what I expected other people to think of it as. I’m sure people thought of the idea, thought it was cool, but then decided to play basketball in college. Or maybe they tried and couldn’t get through all the mire of organizational and bureaucratic necessities. Or maybe, like me, the first person they went to with the idea scoffed and said that “competitive gaming is just nerds having seizures on keyboards in the dark.” Whatever the reason, CSL didn’t exist yet.

The moment I came onto campus, I was on the prowl to pry gamers out of their proverbial gamer closets. I always eyed Asian males with my SC radar, introduced myself carefully, and then proceeded to direct our conversations towards hobbies and “DO YOU PLAY SC?!” I mean, it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was bad. I’m pretty sure that while I was trying to assemble the ultimate collegiate SC team, I offended a few Korean males on the way. I happily drew these punny posters and put them all over campus:

At least, I thought it was clever.

I met a few lifelong friends – and I hope they feel the same way – through some of my antics. My friend from high school was on the look-out for SC players on my behalf and introduced me to In-Transit-HQ and raiame. I believe we talked about the OSL, Bisu (of course!), and our APMs. They scoffed at mine. They also proceeded to trounce me in every matchup, although I’d like to think that I’m still a semi-respectable 17-25 against raiame (the truth is, I’ve conveniently stopped counting after my 10 loss streak).

Raiame had what we called “Teamliquid dinners” every Thursday night with some of the other people on campus, including ktvkarrier, azndsh, and ark_the_avenger or whatever his name is – it involves arks and avengers and possibly the’s. I never actually went to one, but raiame told me that something like this transpired:

azndsh: If a girl could beat me at Starcraft, I would propose to her.

I did beat him, but he chickened out and changed the terms to “beat me consistently and when I’m not rusty,” to which I responded “qq more.” I haven’t won a game since, though, so I won’t need to pull out the oxen for the in-laws just yet.

In the meantime, I had been corresponding with CholeraSC, one of my personal commentator idols (ha ha), and asking him to promote the idea of a Collegiate Starleague to all his YouTube fans. He did, but for some reason, he thought that it would be a good idea to make me dual commentate with him. It was pretty terrifying and he was ruthless – my friends and family would laugh at me for quivering right before I began, and they would also commentate on how he sounded like a radio show host whereas I sounded like a 10 year old boy – he also didn’t let me back down and would just say, “Alright! We’re starting!” and break out into his intro. It was a “throw-your-child-into-the-swimming-pool” approach, and it was pretty hilarious in retrospect. I was terrified in the moment. I could do without public speaking for a lifetime.

I started doing solo commentaries to try them out and found them slightly less scary, with a secondary objective of promoting CSL. I definitely know I wasn’t the most eloquent or technical commentator. I said, “this could be dangerous!” about 55 times in one commentary, miscalled things all the time, and stuttered over words. I did not, however, expect to be found on TL:

On December 27 2008 15:19 Straylight wrote:

Show nested quote +

Holy shit that was fast. When it comes to e-stalking you guys don't fuck around.

Straylight took the words right out of my mouth.

My commentator days also consisted of hilarious pick-up lines from a few internet trolls. After an “I’d like to put my marines in your bunker, if you know what I mean,” I responded in the only way I knew how. I issued a challenge to throw the best pickup lines possible in my direction, because they were endless sources of amusement.

Unnamed netizens:
-Girl, did you just upgrade cloak? Because beauty like yours just can be found :3
-Hey baby Id like to make an archon with you if you know what i mean...

-Hey baby, my reaver wants to explode some scarabs at you.
-I want to cast Dweb all over your base and have my way with you.
-After meeting you I had to return as a dragoon because you slayed my bio body with your beauty.
-I'd like to stasis field you, so people can admire you for all time.
-Battlecruiser Operational, Baby
-Hey baby, my name is Bisu.

My personal favorite:

-And a PSA, "Guys, remember to matrix your tank before you siege that skank"

And one NSFW+ Show Spoiler +

girl id destroy ur temples and ravish ur backdoor with an all in rush so fast ud have no words to commentate on the devastating force of my adrenal gland deep in ur rear expansion

Things didn’t really work out as I had planned. I wanted to make a Princeton StarCraft team and jump into SC practices, OSL viewings, and live matches, but there simply wasn’t enough interest on campus. We needed 20 signatures and we had about 6 really devoted players. Instead, while sitting down at a round table in Whitman College for lunch, a Guitar Hero player, Smasher, and Starcraft player all gathered together and decided that:

From henceforth, we shall be called SMASHCRAFT HEROES.

We became a legit club and could ask for all sorts of things, like room reservations and money. HINT to all CSL participants: do this. It’ll make life a lot easier.

On November 21st, we held our very first intracollegiate Starcraft match. Unfortunately, we weren’t exactly established yet and were waiting on bureaucracy to grant us student group status, so we couldn’t get money for prizes and food. Fortunately, we had azndsh work his magic + Show Spoiler +

aka embezzle the necessary funds from math club.

I learned a lot that night. I was still and probably always will be a newb Zerg player, but that I learned more about SC on the go than I have over the course of the year. In my match against who would become the best player on the Princeton SC team, DaisyP, I lost an atrociously played ZvP the first set and asked what was wrong.

“Build more drones?”

…and strangely enough, that was enough to change my perspective about how to play the game. I suddenly realized, OH, at every point in the game you’re doing something – getting an army, getting an army of child labor drones – and that if I wasn’t building hydralisks, I should be pumping drones. It’s an obvious and logical step, but it took that moment of having my opponent beat me to get it through my thick head. After the first set, I played two fierce and hard-won sets. Since then, DaisyP has far surpassed me.

Or maybe this is why I can’t play ZvP.

It was a learning experience in terms of organizing events like this, too. We discovered that even if you have the most entertaining of commentators, you really can’t commentate a D- game: “1 CARRIER VERSUS 2 HYDRAS AND A ZERGLING: WHO WILL WIN?”

The commentators putting on their thinking hats.

I also learned why we’re actually called SmashCraft.

And here I thought it was just because it sounded cool.

And most importantly of all, I learned that there are others of us out there.

I was so happy ;_;

Good games. The turnout was tremendous, with people coming from Princeton High School, Princeton Graduate School, and of course the actual undergrad program. Girls even came! I learned a lot under all the pressure, and DaisyP was good enough to teach me how to beat him, so I gave him the Logitech mouse.

Around that time, I tried out for Commentator Idol – not necessarily because I wanted to win, but because I thought it’d be a nice learning experience and that it’d be good for the community and my demographic to have a female representative in the commentator crowd.

It was nerve-wracking every week to commentate and then listen to the judges. Actually, during the week that Chill guest-judged, I was absolutely terrified. I’d only heard of his notoriety, but a friend from TL calmly informed me:

Bringer of bad news: There’s an ongoing joke that Chill and Rage should have their names switched.

I don’t want to say that I regret Commentator Idol, because it was a valuable experience and I love the people I got to work with. Unfortunately, I think it did kill off all my self-esteem. I became very aware of my lack of technical skill and made a secret vow to myself to only start commentating in earnest when I learned something about the game. I haven’t gotten around to that yet, so I’m sad to say no commentaries have come out as of yet. I turned my efforts to CSL instead.

Starcraft practices became regular now that the season had started. Dsh would even offer his room, pizza and insults for all of us who wanted to practice. We soon began reserving a room in Frist Campus Center every week. It’s a huge grey room full of electrical outlets and Ethernet cables. We all sit around the rectangular table, plugging in our battery chargers and headsets, ready to face off and test our abilities against our teammates. We have players from all kinds of skill levels. We watch each others’ games, laugh at each others’ mistakes — honestly, who builds two overlords at 9? – and buy each other drinks and candy from the C-store. There’s a kind of camaraderie within our team that I wouldn’t give up for the world.

Everyone hard at work.

Azndsh was our coach, and he would give us weekly assignments (how adorable!). First week was macro practice, second week was master-a-map, third week was something I wasn’t paying attention to because I was doing homewor—eheh. Sometimes, when I had trouble with PHY104, I would bring my homework to practice (I’m pretty sure this drove dsh crazy), and about half the team would jump up and know the answer and start scribbling on the chalkboard. I guess some stereotypes about gamers hold true – and for that, I am very thankful.

Sometimes, those stereotypes would come back and discourage us. It’s far too common – disgustingly common – for a group of students to walk across Frist 309 and immediately start laughing.

“It’s like a zoo full of Asians!”

“What are they all doing? Playing video games?”

“This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in my life!”

These students then proceeded to take pictures of us on their cell phones. These students, who I assume to be perfectly intelligent Princetonians on weekdays, managed to shut off their brains and political correctness for a few minutes, viewing us a subhuman culture. These students came from the Frist Performance Theatre just a few minutes ago after a dance show had finished. I assume, also, that they did not enter the theatre when the show started and yell, “It’s like a zoo full of African-American dancers!” It’s a sentence that I never want to have to say, but the parallel is necessary. Why is it funny that these students called us a zoo full of Asians? I don’t know.

But I’m jumping out of chronology. After our SC tournament in Princeton, we scheduled a match against MIT. It was pretty informal, actually. This elementary school friend of mine, Sedraxis, recently got into contact with me again, and it just so happened he played SC and went to MIT. We set a date: February 7th. The first ever intercollegiate Starcraft match. I had crazy ideas for this event – I wanted to make promo videos and beyond that, I wanted to make a studio production of it by having signs in the audience and cameras on the players. I wanted to make it just like PL.

Let’s pretend that wasn’t an image for SCII.

We went to Projects Board, the committee that grants student group requests for money. It was our first trip, and I was incredibly nervous. It’s really too easy for people to misunderstand Starcraft and think of it as an utter waste of time with no benefits to campus life, and it was very possible that everything would fall through because of the social stigma against playing video games seriously.

To my utter surprise, they were really excited about it. We asked for money to cover the cost of food, cameras, an LCD projector, and posters. They were a bit confused about the posters, and I was about to say something ridiculous like, “Of course it’s so we can hide females behind them!” but I refrained. But before we left, the Dean of ODUS looked at us a bit doubtfully and asked, “Well, what are you planning to do, in the long run?”

And you know what? For some reason, I answered with complete confidence, “It’s so that one day we can make pro-gaming a reality here in the United States, in the form of an intercollegiate Starcraft league where we can have our family and friends cheering us on for what we do. Posters and all.” (except that’s not exactly what I said, because I remember what I said being a bit cooler)

I also convinced half of my team to undergo the slow torture that is known as a photoshoot.

He was supposed to be our Bisu, but he’s camera shy.

Team imba for International Mountain Bicycling Association.

This is about 5 out of 10 guys. The rest ran away.

Our posing isn’t quite pro-gamer level yet. Neither is our ICCUP rank.

So the story behind this one: this is an emotional, dramatic, wonderful picture. However, DaisyP was holding a hamburger. We photoshopped it out.

We also made a hype video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x83jc8_princeton-vs-mit-promo-video2_videogames ,

MIT responded with even more cinematography!

An outtakes video, which is better than both hype videos combined

Since the sound system was set up early, we started off the pre-match show with karaoke time. One of our team members, ktvkarrier, knew all the words to the Wondergirls and could even dance some, too. We were, needless to say, very entertained.

When it came to the actual match, we were less prepared. Nothing turned out like my original vision of Proleague. We had live streaming of players/commentators/audience, but for some reason the camera decided to break down every 5 minutes. Everyone was, however, very enamored of one of our SmashCraft Heroes:

“Show him again! Zoom in on him!”

We also didn’t check Tau Cross UMS, so we had about an hour of delay before we finally realized what was wrong. And d.arkive, our ace, decided to be a no show – he was our best player at the time, and he abandoned us for a night of drunken debauchery and whipped cream. We lost 2-3, and to this date, we still blame him and make him do all our artwork.

Still, it turned out to be a pretty fun event. The turnout was amazing, and some of these people have never touched a video game in their life. But more importantly, colleges wanted in on all the fun. And fun it was:

Do you know how long this took? Do you? Why does no one know what a “V” is? And why is azndsh so contrary?

All our antics paid off, and The Daily Princetonian featured us in an article about the video game life on campus. We were also featured in the and The Crimson as the CSL.

We had a wonderful writer, Sara Wallace, who honestly wanted to understand what SmashCraft was and did. She honestly had no idea about anything in video games, so I was absolutely astonished and delighted with the accuracy of her message. She also gave us our new motto, “Game On,” which would appear later in the Cotter Cup.

Fun note: I almost said something terrible in my interview. Instead of: “Girls, in almost any culture, are brought up playing with dolls instead of Gamecube controllers,” I almost said, “Girls, in almost any culture, are brought up playing with dolls instead of joysticks.” I’m glad I didn’t.

I also got in trouble for (fondly) calling the atmosphere of the club: “a lot of political incorrectness, male humor and crass jokes in general.” The club members denied all accusations, but the day before, they had been scheming for ideas to get freshman to join the club, some of which involved cosplaying and zero-suit Samuses.

While the CSL season continued without us (;_; ), we were introduced to Tsinghua University by a graduate student at Princeton. Let me tell you, from experience, that whoever thinks CSL should be international is a little touched in the head. Sure, Tsinghua could speak pretty decent English. We had a few problems with 12 hour time-delay emails, but we started planning pretty early.

Two things about international matches will probably never have solutions: lag and in-channel communication problems. I was far more concerned about the latter. Since individual players don’t necessarily speak the language but translators do, it gets to the point where you sit in channel spamming, “Could we get Set 1 started? 我们可以开始第一..uh…set?” Except we can’t type in Chinese. And they can. But we can’t read it. But they can, and they will, and they’ll have conversations in indecipherable symbols while you tear out your hair. We actually had one player fluent in English who sat around talking about the girl he banged the night before instead of starting his game. We’re not sure how that happened.

Besides organizational problems, we lost pretty badly, 3-8. It was pretty terrible because there was such a lively audience that day:

I won one, and the commentator had this to say about me:

“Princeton’s team may be a little off today, but in GvG, our girl always comes out on top.”

I also commentated, for the first time in ages. There’s just something wonderful about commentating in-house games. Not everyone understands SC, so I try to make it understandable and dumb it down so much that it’s funny.

“So, today we have a ZvT on Destination! And for those of you who don’t know what that means, it’s a race playing another race. On a map.”

“Now you don’t want to have flying things in your base when you don’t have things that can hit the air.”

Why, what’s this? Cameras on cameras?

So maybe my Proleague scheme never worked, but at least we made a documentary. It required brute forcing my way into azndsh’s dorm and 6 hours spent by balladechina in a dark processing room. Thanks to the both of them.

Princeton v Tsinghua was also covered by the The New York Times, where this atrocity happened:

Blizzard’s Blizzard, amirite?

By then, I was dead exhausted from all the organizing. In the midst of all those activities, we were still running CSL playoffs and finals, having midterms, and running around preparing for the pre-frosh that would grace our doorways in April. We were happy with what we’d done that year, but we were glad it was finally ending. We all needed a little time to ourselves (and our exams). Unfortunately – or fortunately? That’s how everything seems to go in life – Dean Dunne informed us that an alumnus was interested in sponsoring the team.

Kevin Cotter ’96 came to us and offered a collaborative project – the Cotter Cup, an international intercollegiate tournament for 8 schools from around the world, to be organized in 3 weeks. Princeton versus Tsinghua had just taken us two, and in three, finals were also around the corner.

This is great! But…why =(

I don’t really know how we did it. Around that time, I got hit by three different diseases, one of which included TMJ – this really dumb disease that has a vague cause of “stress” and whose only symptoms were pain and more pain. At the time Cotter suggested the idea, we actually were in contact with one Chinese school and one Canadian school. Luckily, with the help of Peanut and luck, we got into contact with a few more schools – what are the chances of having a Swedish university stumble upon you, 1 week before the tournament? I was a little crazy at that point, I think. One morning, I got an email from the Chinese school in complete Chinese, with a little note saying, “I really hope you can read this, and for God’s sake, write in Chinese.” My Chinese is abysmal.

During the cup, I realized why I hate people. Actually, that isn’t fair. I love people. But sometimes I just wanted to, you know, break out into crazy laughter and never stop. For example:

Player: “I can’t play right now because I’m going to go get bedding for my gerbil.”

I guess you really can’t refuse something like that.

Player: “I’m actually in a taxi right now.”

Me: “Can we get the game started with HOT NAKED. Does anyone know where HOT NAKED IS.”
Player (15 minutes later, under the name of COOL MAN): “What? Oh, I am hot naked.”

We really never would have guessed.

The Cotter Cup also got me into a little bit of trouble with some dear friends from other universities. Why didn’t I pick them? No one really asked straight-out, but I knew a few coordinators from CSL were feeling unjustly excluded. I wish I could have invited everyone, and I felt pretty terrible about being so selective. It was a difficult situation after announcing the Cup, and I can’t really say much about it that I haven’t already said.

“The team pict is great – very intimidating, well everybody except the guy third from the left, he looks a little gassy. Like he had 3 too many Wa dogs and 1 too few multivitamins” –Brian Cotter

I was secretly very glad it was over.

Although…it wasn’t really, not quite –

I received this in my email from a Cotter Cup player, and I’ve roughly translated it.

ENGLISH
Guy: Hi, I hear you're a "MM" (pretty girl). Hey hey I want to be friends with you~

Give me one of your pictures so I can see, okay?~

Hazely “Oh how naïve I was” Nut: Sorry, what's a MM?

Guy: MM means beautiful girl.

en en, give me a few of your pictures so I can see~~~~~ en en, I want to see~ I want to know you~ ha ha

Hazely “gets friend to write Communist-toned response” nut: I think your reprehensible behavior is an insult to the dignity of all women, everywhere. Even if we're on the internet, this type of roguish behavior is crude.

The guy ends up apologizing profusely, but ends like this: SORRY SORRY. Of course, I still want your picture to see what you look like

MANDARIN

+ Show Spoiler +

Guy: hi，听说你是mm啊？嘿嘿我们交朋友吧~ ：）给我张你的照片看看吧~ ：）

Hazely “Oh how naïve I was” Nut:对不起，ｍｍ　是什么？

Guy: mm就是美眉是美女的意思。：）嗯嗯给我发几张你的照片看看吧~~~~~ 嗯嗯想看~ 想认识你~ 哈哈

Hazely “gets friend to write Communist-toned response” nut: 我觉得你这种行为及其恶劣.
对于我们广大女生是一种尊严上的污辱.虽然在网上,这种无赖行为也是很低级的.

The guy ends up apologizing, but ends like this: 当然，我当时还想要你的照片，看你的样子

I was sick of things, a little bit like what lilsusie said in her blog – the more I worked with something the more I got disillusioned with things. Right now, I haven’t touched or watched SC in about 2 months. I can’t bring myself to play quite yet, and because of that I can’t bring myself to commentate, either. I thought that maybe I was tired, and needed a break. Hopefully when I go to the Washington DC LAN, I’ll remember why I play SC.

---

There are a few loose ends that I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate.

One: Commentary Bear. I love him, he’s so adorable, and he basically made promo videos for me for CSL on my YouTube account.

My brother ordered a Nada bear for me from WeMade, and I think the day I get him, I’ll celebrate by making Commentary Bear commentate a game by Nada Bear. My first commentary in half a year, maybe.

Two: Love in CSL
Our new slogan should be: “Come join CSL, we have girls!” or “CSL: Matchmaking in More Ways Than One”

Story Number One

[image loading]

When I first started CSL, I immediately commissioned an artist friend of mine from back home and this programmer I knew from high school. Who could’ve guessed? They are now a happy couple.

Her boyfriend and my boyfriend molesting each other.

Story Number Two

To preserve anonymity, let’s say we have a nice gentleman called Jon Dot, looking all his life for a laid-back, pretty, smart, and funny gamer girl.

We also have a lovely girl by the name of Laney Hen who has never fallen for a boy in her life, but has instead fallen for Gunz, Ragnarok Online, StarCraft, FPS, RTS, MMO, you name it.

One day, Laney realized that her university had a CSL team! Jon Dot graciously hosted a wonderful spring break of watching OSL/MSL/GOM on his TV for all the team to see.

Laney Hen and Jon Dot met.

And the rest is a story I’m not really allowed to tell ^^

The Future

So I’m done with my first year of college, where I ended up chasing pizza cars in the rain, trying to snag ourselves 16 TVs for $10 on eBay, trying to teach “So Hot” to a disgruntled Starcraft team, and crashing banquets as SmashCraft Heroes. I wanted to write this partially just to share…well, the possibilities of college. I never would’ve thought this all could’ve happened, just because I started watching a few SC commentaries. I skipped out on a few anecdotes because my wrist hurts and I don’t want to sound more melodramatic than I already do, so those will have to wait. Maybe next year.

So what is in store for next year?

I’m stepping down as President because I apparently whip all the boys. As my VP puts it, he can’t get whipped by two girls simultaneously – he recently got a girlfriend too! But not because of CSL. We’re thinking about a Smash invitational, and we’re going to ask Cotter if he’s up for it. East Coast Smash, anyone?

I hope, if anything, that you at least enjoyed the story. I just wanted to share the experience, I guess, and let people know what one hell of a ride you can find yourself on because someone sent you a Flash v Boxer video. Where would I be if they hadn’t? I can imagine my college life being a lot more normal…a lot more relaxing, too. But it’d be a lot more boring. I’d probably be in martial arts and a book club, instead of trying to organize things cross country and cross seas. This blog wouldn’t have been nearly as long. Laney Hen and Jon Dot maybe would’ve never met each other. I would’ve never met the people I now know and love. I also probably would’ve failed physics.

I’m a SmashCraft Hero, and I couldn’t be happier.

Humbug

United States264 Posts

June 22 2009 07:36 GMT

That was an amazing story, I very much enjoyed reading all the way through. This reminds me a lot of my 10th and 11th grades of highschool, where I spent a huge amount of time completely into two groups (smash and theatre tech respectively). 5 stars, and I'm glad you enjoyed your first year in college b^^

BanZu

United States3329 Posts

June 22 2009 07:47 GMT

Good read.

You look like (P)

free[gm] (somewhat)

I wish I could be there playing SC with you guys :[

omninmo

2349 Posts

June 22 2009 07:53 GMT

too bad you all have to play on laptops... if only i had been into SC during college ( 5 years ago) i might be good now.

nttea

Sweden4353 Posts

June 22 2009 07:58 GMT

Wonderful read, enjoyed it all the way through! I really wish i would have been there.
What was the Swedish school's name?

Grobyc

Canada18410 Posts

June 22 2009 07:58 GMT

Wow great read! I read every word of it.

I'm actually hoping to have some great memories like that in my first year of college starting this September. I haven't heard any of your commentary yet, but I'm looking forward to some of the stuff you might be doing in the future.

Definitely 5/5!

motbob

United States12546 Posts

June 22 2009 07:59 GMT

I hope you know that you've had a lot of influence on the foreign Starcraft scene. IMO collegiate league is one of the big reasons for this mini-revitalization of the scene. We definitely would be having this "State/provinces league" thing if it weren't for you.

hazelynut

United States2195 Posts

June 22 2009 07:59 GMT

On June 22 2009 16:58 nttea wrote:
Wonderful read, enjoyed it all the way through! I really wish i would have been there.
What was the Swedish school's name?

Hehe, thanks. KTH, Royal Institute of Technology. I think it was in Stockholm?

Sigrun

United States1654 Posts

June 22 2009 08:04 GMT

Is DaisyP Peter Liu? I think I recognize him from high school. o_O

Nice story too, I wish I was smart enough to get into Princeton just to experience all that.

Deleted User 31060

3788 Posts

June 22 2009 08:13 GMT

#10

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeesome

if only my school had a real team. Stupid hippies.

hazelynut

United States2195 Posts

June 22 2009 08:18 GMT

#11

On June 22 2009 17:04 Sigrun wrote:
Is DaisyP Peter Liu? I think I recognize him from high school. o_O

Nice story too, I wish I was smart enough to get into Princeton just to experience all that.

DaisyP is in fact our very own Peter. What a small world o.o

d3_crescentia

United States4054 Posts

June 22 2009 08:19 GMT

#12

On June 22 2009 17:13 Sunyveil wrote:
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeesome

if only my school had a real team. Stupid hippies.

qq moar

EDIT: you should also talk about the trash talk that was found on the tsinghua boards kekekeke

FearDarkness

United States519 Posts

June 22 2009 08:21 GMT

#13

Too many Asians!

lilsusie

3861 Posts

June 22 2009 08:24 GMT

#14

Wow!! That's pretty awesome, I would have joined a SC club or team if my HS had one... (wait, the game wasn't out then... -_____-)

jonnyp

United States415 Posts

June 22 2009 08:27 GMT

#15

that was freakin awesome!

that's the power of Boxer lol

DoX.)

Singapore6164 Posts

June 22 2009 08:44 GMT

#16

Yep..that was great!

29 fps

United States5724 Posts

June 22 2009 09:16 GMT

#17

this was a great story. 5/5!

alffla

Hong Kong20321 Posts

June 22 2009 09:19 GMT

#18

great read!! :D:D::D sorry i would have liked to quote some of the things you wrote in your post but i'm just way too lazy to do that but would love to read more about this stuff if you write more in the future

imSoniyak

Canada12 Posts

June 22 2009 09:37 GMT

#19

that was awesome!
I wish UBC had something like that, though I must admit, I'm pretty noob in competitive SC

JieXian

Malaysia4677 Posts

June 22 2009 10:39 GMT

#20

Great job and dedication !!

MIT's video looks really good :X

Spenguin

Australia3316 Posts

June 22 2009 10:41 GMT

#21

Wow what an awesome story 5/5

Zalfor

United States1035 Posts

June 22 2009 11:47 GMT

#22

promise i will read it in the afternoon.

cool =)

exalted

United States3612 Posts

June 22 2009 12:02 GMT

#23

pretty awesome

this should be a thread, not just a blog post

ambit!ous1

United States3662 Posts

June 22 2009 12:09 GMT

#24

On June 22 2009 18:16 29 fps wrote:
this was a great story. 5/5!

Ja.

United States37 Posts

June 22 2009 12:47 GMT

#25

except.

you play dota 10 times more than SC now.

azndsh

United States4447 Posts

June 22 2009 13:06 GMT

#26

I quit too. See I realized the trap. I can't get a gf unless I stop playing first... not get a gf and then stop playing because it doesn't work in that order.

khy

United States475 Posts

June 22 2009 13:09 GMT

#27

Jesus, you're amazing. Small wonder you go to Princeton.

Go wherever your heart takes you, even if it's away from SC

EchOne

United States2906 Posts

June 22 2009 13:46 GMT

#28

This is what blogs should be: thorough, engaging, and inspiring. It's great that your club was able to merge 3 totally different scenes, though going forward it may be troublesome to organize different events for each. Glhf for future endeavors!

imDerek

United States1944 Posts

June 22 2009 14:06 GMT

#29

wow!!!! that's so awesome

RaGe

Belgium9947 Posts

June 22 2009 14:35 GMT

#30

nice story

and haha at azndsh making excuses for losing again

mahnini

United States6862 Posts

June 22 2009 14:57 GMT

#31

zergling poster is so awesome

Tbird

Canada42 Posts

June 22 2009 20:13 GMT

#32

Awesome story, thanks for sharing! You guys must have an insane amount of dedication to make all that happen o_o

SlayerS_`HackeR`

United States190 Posts

June 22 2009 21:07 GMT

#33

A++ would read it again!

cgrinker

United States3824 Posts

June 22 2009 21:14 GMT

#34

Really great read. Thanks for all of your hard work! CSL is one of the only legit things to come out of the foreign community lately, way to hold it down for all of us!

Nosmo

Canada210 Posts

June 22 2009 21:28 GMT

#35

Great article!
One more pick-up line, "I'd like to put my drones in your extractor."

Chill

Calgary25980 Posts

June 22 2009 21:51 GMT

#36

Very awesome read. I'm serious when I say CSL was really well-run, and is something future events should look to emulate. It's even more impressive now looking through all the behind-the-scenes work.

Sorry for smashing your commentating dreams. It's my personality to be pessimistic and point out flaws than praise people. That's something I've tried to change, which is why I specifically brought up how I liked the CSL during the podcast.

Strayline

United States330 Posts

June 22 2009 21:58 GMT

#37

Wow quantity and quality both! Great article. Thanks.

Sigh

Canada2433 Posts

June 22 2009 23:02 GMT

#38

Awesome read. I want to go to Princeton now... must work hard!

JIJIyO

Canada1957 Posts

June 22 2009 23:03 GMT

#39

Starcraft+Melee=badass. Cool read.

Pods

United States81 Posts

June 23 2009 00:02 GMT

#40

Geez, what kind of loser knows all the words to Wonder Girls when he's not even korean??? lol go sch

lac29

United States1485 Posts

June 23 2009 00:50 GMT

#41

Nice read =).

balladechina212

3 Posts

June 23 2009 00:52 GMT

#42

Haha you didn't give me enough credit...or tell of all the arguments and problems we had between the two of us throughout the year.

Pods

United States81 Posts

June 23 2009 03:46 GMT

#43

YO. my poses are legit! >_<

Vharox

United States1037 Posts

June 23 2009 06:29 GMT

#44

This made me smile

evanthebouncy!

United States12796 Posts

June 23 2009 06:59 GMT

#45

HahHA Azndsh!!

seppolevne

Canada1681 Posts

June 23 2009 07:51 GMT

#46

That sounds awesome!
Hope you get back into it and good luck with school!

nosliw

United States2716 Posts

June 24 2009 01:46 GMT

#47

CSL was awesome! Great Story.

pinenamu

United States770 Posts

June 24 2009 04:34 GMT

#48

makes me want to go to princeton! D: that was awesome, i liked the interview too haha. does ucsd have something like this? D: i know about the uc proleague thing, but not like a club thing! must have taken a lot of dedication to keep this up and running. gj!

infinity21

Canada6683 Posts

June 24 2009 06:14 GMT

#49

noice story :o
I remember playing Sedraxis on iccup lol

petzergling

538 Posts

June 24 2009 19:09 GMT

#50

On June 22 2009 16:26 hazelynut wrote:
I never would’ve thought that my first year at college would be defined by Starcraft.

I’ve been meaning to write down this story for a while now. I wanted to share something that began as a silly daydream and became something much, much more – something that both fortunately and unfortunately became reality. I guess it’s one of the side effects of being a girl who plays video games. You end up seeing both wonderful and ugly things about whatever you love.

TW WiNNinG 54

United States250 Posts

June 24 2009 20:49 GMT

#51

This was awesome Mona but, I didnt get mentioned

. Oh well hope the best for SmashCraft Heroes! Ill be watching.

maga33

United States247 Posts

June 25 2009 01:49 GMT

#52

Great Read! 5/5

Fir3fly

Australia251 Posts

June 26 2009 08:54 GMT

#53

lol yea awesome read.
i kinda tried to do something like this at my school, but no one actually played SC......

kawoq

Guatemala357 Posts

June 26 2009 17:04 GMT

#54

Wow.... just WOW... you are my hero now ... Some day I will manage to accomplish something like this on my country ^_^, but for now I am stuck on LANs and Tournaments.

Insane Lane

United States397 Posts

June 26 2009 19:22 GMT

#55

GoGo David Thomas!!

.Ready

United States2 Posts

June 27 2009 04:46 GMT

#56

wow that's awsome

3 Lions

United States3705 Posts

June 28 2009 01:28 GMT

#57

damn i wish i was in college

Superiorwolf

United States5509 Posts

July 15 2009 02:02 GMT

#58

"tell me, tell me, t-t-t-tell me!" (I'm going to learn the rest of the dance if I can!!!! >:D)

Can't believe I missed this blog earlier! Just took a good 30 minutes or something reading it

Great read, and it was awesome meeting you at the LAN! A bunch of us should hang out on ventrilo sometime :D!!!

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