EPTIt seems that no matter what I do I must play on iCCup everyday watch Pro VODs and come here on TL. What can I say? I am addicted.
I started to think how did this happen to me? So I've decided to share my story.
Ahead you will read a story about a boy who plays a complex RTS game with his brother, gets pwned by koreans, learns from D- player, moves on to learn from a former A+ player, makes many friends. How a young man conjure s a dream and works towards it. So dedicated he literally abandons school thats he is playing 4+ hours a day during schooltime.. in a classroom.
This is my starcraft journey.
Despite my early statement of being involved in Starcraft for 1 and a half years.. it was even early than that when I first played starcraft.
The year was 2004.. I was at my local Target store.. browsing through computer games.. and I saw it.. the original starcraft (no broodwar) for $10. I quickly looked over the back and thought whats $10? I took it home that day. and played around on campaign and got used to the gameplay the units, the races..
Soon enough i was able to get my friend Dennis to request the SC Battle Chest for Christmas.. which he received. He had the brood war expo but to me the new units didnt really make a difference.. to me the expansion was just more missions and i stubbornly stuck to the original.
After a series of unfortunate events in my 25 year old brothers life.. he was forced to return home to live wiothi his parents again. When he saw me play Starcraft he asked if i was any good.. i said that i was. (lol, at the time i was playing protoss, and my rough build order was.. (9 gas, 9 pylon, 14 gate, 18 pylon, 24 pylon, 30 gate... 90 core) basically I was TERRIBLE.
now with my brother being a older gamer. (he had a commodore 64 lol) he was familiar with the game starcraft and its legacy.. but he had in fact never played it.. he preferred a game released about the same time as the original starcraft but an RTS none the less.. Total Annihilation. But he was confident for some reason that he could beat me on his very time picking up the game. We quickly got a match going Protoss[me] Vs Zerg[him] and he pulled something like a 9 pool.. I lost very fast.
After that it was on! My brother who had a natural affinity for RTS and strategy + a genius IQ of 168. Quickly tried out the other two races.. and by the 4th game had decided Terran was the best race.. looking back now its odd that he would choose the race that would prove to be the most dominant in professional starcraft.
My brother had a natural affinity it seemed for starcraft.. figuring things out and making up strategies with terran and protoss that would remind me years later of what Nal_rA and BoxeR had done. But my brother never watched a pro VOD nor looked up any build orders. But was able to do figure things such as forge first and how to play TvP correctly.
We would go on to play many games.. with the overall record something like 40-2.. his favor. Thats right I only managed to beat him twice.. and i remember both wins very vividly. One he was Protoss and somehow he had discovered forge first (damn he's good..) and made cannons to protect his entrance to his natural. It was a random blizzard map i can't recall but neither of new the map and since the map was mirrored i realized there was more than one way into the main. and walked my troops around the back and entered his defenseless hard teching base. From then on my brother would always study the map. The second win was the last game we ever played. Sadly enough a 2v1.. Dennis and I Vs him. we had had many games like this and despite the fact it was 2v1 we always managed to lose. My brother informed us before the game that this would bet he last game he ever played with us.. he was tired of winning. Dennis and I quickly formed a strategy in which we had talked about but never tried.. rushing with our initial 4 workers to his base to kill 4. The strategy worked and my brother was rather amused that we peon rushed him. But none the less it was the last game that we would ever play.
After that it was just me and Dennis again (me still being with the expansion) after a few weeks bored without my brother to beat us.. and sick of losing to computers.. we hung up our mouses.
Enter early 2007.. I reinstall starcraft and start to play again (still with out brood war) and though I'm now ashamed to say it. spent ALOT of time playing UMS games.. and nothing to do with starcraft not even money maps. for i was spending hours in games such as Helms Deep (my favorite UMS to this day) Evolves, dodge the rapist, zombies) under my alias IrishKid.
this continues till mid 2007 when i once again bored with games where u mainly just watch *cough* Zombies *cough* I once again hung up my mouse.
Now fast forward to March 2008.. after years of not seeing Dennis (about 3) we reconnect and I remember the old times when we played starcraft and we decide to start playing again.. however i lost my starcraft cd and am forced to buy another copy.. at Fred Meyers i pay $20 for the Starcraft Battle Chest. At last I have brood war!
We quickly begin to play.. but after awhile Dennis gets bored with video games and wants to go live an athletic life.. good for him. But now I'm addicted once again and cant give it up so easy.
One day I check my friends list because i know my friend is online and i want to play with him. I type in /f l and the words appear your friend ******* is in channel sex!
LOL that horndog.. after a moment consideration i decide to go to channel sex. Which is not what i think it was there is literally no cybering there.. but instead it was were alot of cool people would go to chat and chill everyday (the channel always had about 30+ people) Channel Sex became my new hangout and i spent more time there discussing things with other intellectuals, than i do in games.
I make friend with a pretty chill person later turned faggot.. named NeonViolet.. it was Neonviolet who would first teach me how to play proper starcraft.. Neon taught me basic build orders and we played many games.. unfortunately for me Neon I now realize at best was only D- at best. Neon also had a rather annoying trait. He insisted that the only map to play was the 6 player blizzard map Valley of Re.
I eventually get tired of this and want to play other maps and neon says no.. and I split wanting to take my sc learnings else where. At this point in time i was still unaware of the proscene at all.
During this time Dennis and I meet two other gamers on Battle.net a zerg play Kyono and a Protoss Godsmack1991. When dennis isnt on i could game with either one of them.
I become desperate for people to tech me how to play but no one really wants to eventually i have a great idea of making a new alias.. Grrrl and hope that morons in channel sex would think i was female and give em free starcraft lessons.. it seldom worked.
I meet a gamer in a random USA channel with the clan tag at the end of his name [K9] he told me I could join the clan and I could learn to play better there.
I remeber typing in /j Clan K9
the moment i arrive in the channel i type..
"Can anyone teach me to play starcraft better please?"
I get a response from my future teacher who would teach
me everything I now know.
"Sure Grrrl, I can teach you to play sc better if you want"
ecstatic i quickly join a 1v1 hosted by him.. where he testes my skills to see what i know.. which was jackshit.
None the less he agrees to take me on as his student.. saying that i have "natural P talent"
Kyono also shows interest in becoming good however as Z player my teacher can't really help him. and Kyono refuses to switch. My teacher says he will help him as much as he can.
We being to train the first m/u to learn his personal favorite.. PvT. My mentor teaches me the basic build order.. 8 pylon, 10 gate, 12 gas, 14 core.. shows me how to dance my dragoons to make them live longer. We spend many many many hours playing always watching the replays with him sometimes getting frustrated when I make mistakes or do something again after he told me not to. My pace of improvement is slow.. but its there. My teacher continues to tell me i have natural P talent and i as motivated as I would ever be about starcraft. Teacher recommends that I watch Professional VODs when he is not online and study them.. to me this was mindblowing Professional VODs = Professional Gamers.
So wait they do this for fun right they are just the best?
Wrong-o that have salaries.. some ever huge salaries and teams.. and whats more.. the are worshipped treated like gods in korea. this is major breaking news to me..
my teacher quickly gives me an overview of professional starcraft.. i hear names like iloveOOv, SlayerS_'BoxeR' sAviOr, NC..YellOw, XellOs[yG],Pro.NT_Sonjjang, FlaSh, [Oops]ReaCh, [ReD]NaDa, Nal_rA and words like SKTelecomT1, KTF, OSL and MSL.
I quickly go to youtube after he signs off and watch some VODs andI am amazed! look at the crowds the whole atmosphere seems so intense! and amazing.. breathtaking.
I quickly conjure a dream of being progamer. But first I must train! The next day my teacher asks me if I watched any VODs I told him I did. I quickly follow up with a bold statement.. "Those pros arn't very good.. I could be better than them" which of course he laughed his ass off to and decided to see what my APM was after a game using BWchart... a measly 54. He told me most progamers average over 300 and gave a link to the first person view of NaDa.. fuck he's fast.. doing things so fast I couldnt follow them with my eyes. I have a new goal to raise my APM and become proficient at starcraft.
During this time me and Kyono play 1v1 daily.. one day Kyono tells me he wants to be progamer. And that he will do anything to achieve it. 2 weeks later he says he'll be on to game the next day.. and never reappears.
I train hard and see little improvement. Games get very frustrating after continuing to lose to my teacher.. like I did to my brother years before.
I start to lose hope that i will ever be great.
My teacher tells me not to give up that I am doing my better than he was when he first picked up the game. continuing to tell me I have natural P talent.
In the months that followed I get to know my teacher better. find out his real name, where he lives. How he got into starcraft about his life. How when he got into starcraft in 2000 he would got o bed a t 6pm and get up at 3 just to play with a korean gosu named Terry. how Terry taught him everthing he knew just as he was now teaching me.
I ask my teacher what his highest rank on iCCup was.. he says A+.. I'm blown away and i insist he is lieing.. he tells me to check on iccup.com so i do and at one point in 2004 he did. I'm blown away and develop much respect for him.
I ask him if he had any students before me. He answers several.. I ask if any of them showed as much natural talent as i do. He responds that some did.. but I one of the fastest learners he's ever had. I ask how far some of his students went.. he responds that he a had a female student who went on to join the famous Siz) Clan
I'm amazed and determined to work even harder. I tell myself that one i too will be great in great Clan.. and that i will be progamer.
We train more.. My teacher who's skills have demolished because he joined the army and went to Iraq is now only C level.
My PvT becomes very decent and i am able to beat my teacher occasionally.. in 5 months after picking up the game seriously My PvT has reached C/C+ level
however.. that is the only m/u we worked on at all my PvZ and PvP still D-/D
I think about if I could play my brother again how i would crush him! Maybe even get him back into starcraft because he would no longer win effortlessly. However I still haven't replayed him.
Fall 2008.. My improvement pace slows.. i start go get frustrated very easy with myself. I tell my teacher about my dream which has long harbored in my mind. Teacher tells me that he doubts I'll ever be able to be progamer in this day and age.. he says you have to be korean.
I'm crushed the game which had once been the path to my goal. is now just a game. I lose motivation
I decide that I want to become a commentator and partner up with Cholera, Moletrap, Klazart, Rise, and Diggity. And maybe one day hope to become a professional commentator like Tasteless.
I inform my teacher who is naturally infuriated after he has given up hours of my life that I am giving up. He quickly challenges me to a PvT. In the proscene BeSt has recently risen with his 2 base arbitor play. I decide to emulate him.. and nal_ra by pulling a mass aribitor reloaded style pimpest play in my teachers main. The recall is a huge success.. and my teacher leaves the game.. no gg.
I know realize what an ultimate fuck you that must have been to him.. pulling a stunt like that. He is furious when i reach the channel sends a few curses my way and leaves.
I wouldn't see him again for 2 and a 1/2 months.
In this time I pursue my Commentating dream. I purchase a headset for myself. and begin my commentating in hopes Cholera, Diggity, Moletrap, Klazart, and Rise. will notice me and let me dual with them. I start of on smurf youtube account. Casting a few games and announcing myself to the public to come and watch. The response is very bad and critics are harsh.. i fall into a depression. I decide to make another smurf and try again. One again im shot down as a shit commentator. after staying away for a few days i try one more time on a smurf account.. response is a little better.. but mostly still just haters. I give up on my commentating and after a month break go back to starcraft.
I send an e-mail to my teacher apologizing. And amazingly my teacher after laughing at my attempted commentary agrees to help me once again.
My skills are not what they were.. I'm now D+/C- at best.
Also although I'm playing starcraft again i dont have the dream to motivate me its just a game.. so i don't push myself as hard to get better. My teacher tells me he feels the same way that it is depressing for him to play since he was once A+ but now only C.
Eventally after 2 months or so we just become taking buddies with very few games.. its just like the old days at channel sex. we talk about anything from life to death to sex,, to school to work, the army, drugs.. anything. Mainly Girlfriends of mine haha and how i fuck up.
We become very close friends.. no longer master and student. One day on a whim we decide to play a game.. and i crush him. He becomes very angry with himself and leaves. I dont see him again for awhile.. and never again when i do do we play starcraft.
My starcraft during this time.. limits itself to VODs which i was still watching tons of.. fancinated by Bisu and Jaedong and BeSt and FlaSh.
In my school life i make an important decision as a senior i had all the credits i need to graduate and could take whatever classes i wanted. I decide to leave my High School and transfer to a skill center for computer science AP. full time.. it was basically a job! 5 hours of computer programming all day.
I quickly find im no good at computer programming and i have no future career in it. However I decide to stick the class out because I have made many friends. and although the class was 5 hours a day i was really only doing about 3 hours of work a day.
Then I met a Korean (lol) named Peter. Peter played starcraft and after i mentioned i played we had a 1v1. PvP.. i assumed he was pretty bad. wrong i know because he was korean haha. and did a proxy 2 gate in the middle of the map. he quickly scouted it as it was right on the only AI path. and i lost. we played more after that and i lost again. but then won. We were about equal level PvP.
Peter was from Korea he moved when he was 10 to the USA.. but is very fluent in english and i have no problems ever communicating with him. I asked him all about korea and he gives me details and it sounds like an amazing place and i vow that one day i will visit there.
We play more and peter tells me about Starcraft 2. How he is going to buy it and try to be Progamer at it. That day i go home and call up my teacher and ask him if he thinks its possible to be progamer for SC2. He says defiantly. Suddenly my spirits are remotivated! We decide that alot of SC1 skills will tranfer over to SC2.. so its best to get good at starcraft now. Now I have a a reason to play.
I decide to switch to T.. why not? It is the most dominant race overall. With P being the least. I realize my 170 apm is not enough for T. and Peter is able to easily beat me. But i figure if i stick with T ill force myself to be faster to be able to beat him. Eventally Peter like my brother gets tired of winning so effortlessly. And i go back to P because i dont wanna lose him. and i win more than i used to PvP. apm = 210
Peter is a very devoted christian and invites me to his church one day i decide to go. The church is a korean church but whites can attend to if they wish. I quickly gather alot of attention as the only young white guy in the church.
I make the mistake of after befriending all the really popular guys in the church of being to nice to a retarded korean boy. This sounds terrible I know. But he would follow me around and try to talk to me in broken english which i can never understand and i was too polite. He soon claims we are best friends. and no one else in the church likes him very much and soon all my popular friends are gone leaving me with him. Soon i dont even want to go to church.. i've become a loser by association.
I stop going which breaks the pastors wife's heart.. Miss Sunny. She loved to show me off and tell everyone i was her favorite that i was like her son. Even to my embarrassment. telling her son right in front of his face i was a better son then him.. the kid looked like he wanted to murder me.
Meanwhile.. at the skill center me and peter quickly develop a reputation as the best starcraft players in the school. (it actually matters as the school full of gamers.)
Eventally I dag Peter down with me and get him.. a 2nd year korean from a hard working family .. and him a student with a high GPA. to abandon his studies to game. At our peak.. during the last months of senior year. Me and Peter drove to school played starcraft for 2 hours ate lunch.. worked for 10 minutes played starcraft for 2 hours and then left an hour early.
When the AP exams came up neither of us were prepared. and I got a 1 out of 5 on my test (basically a F-) same for Peter.
Despite this.. we keep up our schedule. And somehow someway even though we both were missing like billion assignments.. the teacher (a gamer himself who played with us sometimes, and knew we were playing 4+ hours a day in his class) gave us both straight B's.. IMAGINE THAT! i got a 3.0 prolly my highest gpa ever.. for playing starcraft.
School comes to an end.. and i decide that Summer 2009 is the summer i will dedicate my whole being to to get great. I lose contact with peter as he flew to Korea for a vacation.. I wanted to go to but couldnt get a job in this shit economy to pay for my ticket.. (peters family would have taken care of everything else for me for 2+ months!)
I announce my decision in a post here on TL looking for dedicated practice partners. I get one contender Gyabo
we play a bit but it turns out that neither of us dedicate as much time to sc as we thought we would. and this whole summer i confess i've played less than 70 hours of starcraft.
But Gyabo who plays Z got me to switch from P to Z.. so Z is now my main race.. to go from P to T to Z haha.
P is still my bet race.. but I consider Z the most fun and that is what matters right?
Recently only 4 days ago i go back to korean church. The retarded boy is no longer there. I dont wanna know what happened to him. Miss Sunny is ecstatic to see's me but is very angry at me for leaving her. Miss Sunny and Peter and my friend from high school Davin. tell me thy can help me learn korean.. what a proposition! i knwo it will tkae awhile but im eager to learn Korea in general not for just starcraft seems so amazing. I'm sure i will visit one day. And it will help in church (many koreans cant speak english, thus cant communicate with me)
Oh yeah bonus.. if your white go a a local korean church and all the korean girls will think your fascinating!
I still talk to my teacher to this day. though rarely about starcraft he has become a very good friend of mine. A few days ago i finally asked a question haunting me since I found out he was A+ on the korean team SeiGe. What happened did he give up? In fact the answer was the opposite. My teacher admitted to me that he had been downplaying his achievements trying to keep them from me because he felt the didnt matter. Thus why didnt even know he was A+ till about the 5th month of training. He tells me he was in the top two players on SeiGe a very respected team. That he was actually invited to World Cyber Games 2004. But couldn't go because months before he had signed up for the army. And he had just gotten his letter he was being shipped to Iraq. How bad does that suck!? He worked for years to achieve that and he finally gets an invite and he has to give it up.
He tells me that I remind him of himself when he was younger.. dedicated and wanting to go pro so bad. Even blowing off school. He earns me that its a hard road.. but if i really want it not to give up.
Now today.. August 15th 2009.. I'm motivated once again to become great at starcraft.. if you have any interest in training with me please PM me.
This has been my Starcraft Journey
