EPTIn order to truly understand the impact StarCraft 2 has had on me, I have to take you on a trip through my life at the time. I'm a 23 year old Canadian, and I imagine like many people on this site I am struggling to find a path for my life. I have attempted several times to finish my university education, only to have my efforts cut short by Teacher's Union Strikes, job opportunities I had to take, and some pretty crippling drug addictions. At the time this tale begins I had recently ended a four year, grueling relationship with a girl that can best be described as the Succubus to rule all Succubi. I'd describe myself as a pretty stereotypical gamer: I played competitive counter strike, had as many friends on the internet as I did in real life, and generally found myself most comfortable in the world of the online web. As that relationship slowly beat me down, I lost my freedom to do as I wanted; my computer got dusty, and my life as a gamer went on hiatus.
When I regained my freedom, I was thrilled to hear of the StarCraft 2 beta being released. It was as if the cosmic video game Gods were finally throwing me a bone, and gave me the best of the best to take over the void in my life that relationship had left. It had been years since I had time to myself, and what better way to sit back and enjoy some "me time" then by playing the sequel to the game that had kept me enthralled for a decade.
To say that I have an addictive personality would be an understatement, and once I got my hands on the beta I did NOT stop playing. Ever. As I watched the HDH and stayed up to watch the Day9 release party my mind was blown at the level in which StarCraft 2 could be played, and more specifically, by non-Koreans! I was never a big follower of the pro-BW scene, but I certainly knew who SlayerSBoxeR and Nada were, and I had been known to have Flash-esque facial ticks during my competitive CS days. I knew the racial hierarchy of BW went Koreans>Sen>Foreigners, and staying up until the wee hours listening to the marvelous Sean "Day9" Plott casting IdrA winning the King of the Beta tournament over the favoured Korean Tester caught me up in a whirlwind of excitement- I had found my new crux. I finally stopped lurking on TL and registered for my own account, replaced my Logitech G5 with a more suitable RTS mouse, and began my concerted effort to get out of the lower leagues of the NA ladder.
As I immersed myself in all things StarCraft 2, my physical health began to decline. A poor choice of where to eat while on vacation lead to me contracting Hepatitis A, while simultaneously a poor job by a contractor lead to large quantities of poisonous black mold growing underneath my floorboards, right at the head of my bed. The combination of Hep-A and mold poisoning hit me like a ton of bricks. I lost my appetite entirely and went down to at best one meal every two days. I lost 30 lbs in two months, and on good nights was getting no more than two hours of sleep. To say I was miserable would be putting it lightly.
Then, one early morning in September I made the decision that I think saved my life. I snuck my mom's credit card from her wallet and bought myself the first season of GSL. I figured if I was going to be awake at 4am anyways, I might as well get to watch some high level StarCraft.
As the days turned into months, my body began to deteriorate moreso. The advil/gravol diet I had put myself on to get through each day's discomfort had beaten my liver and intestines up pretty badly, and I spent most of January through April in and out of the hospital. Each day was an adventure, as I took it minute to minute on how I felt physically, hoping that I'd develop an appetite before midnight and would get a meal in me for the day. I spent my birthday in the emergency room, and new years bedridden vomiting my guts out. To say the only thing I had was StarCraft would not be much of a stretch.
I became used to no sleep, and eventually developed my 4:30 in the morning routine: Wake up and lay in bed moping about how much I hate my life for 15 minutes. Once I had the energy to move, I'd get up and make some tea. Then go out on my balcony for a cigarette, and come back in and turn on the GSL- waiting through the K-Pop for the games to start.
You should know that from the bottom of my heart I hate K-Pop. In fact, I hate pretty much all popular music in general, and can't be bothered to listen to any of it. I'm a big fan of talented musicians, and I think anyone who actually plays an instrument can attest to the fact that few-to-no popular musical acts these days can actually play an instrument. You'll have to tie me to my chair to get me listening to that overly produced garbage, as I digress for a moment: remember back when full bands of virtuosos like Zeppelin or Floyd ruled the top of the charts with wonderfully composed musical art? Now we have people making music with computers and synthesizing talentless people's voices and this is the new age of music? Wtf happened to the good old days of music?
ANYWAYS back on topic. In this instance, however, I didn't care about the K-Pop at all. I likened the 5am K-Pop of the GSL to an obnoxious alarm clock; it was my unpleasant wake up for the appearance of the two people who got me through my darkest days: Dan 'Artosis' Stemkoski and Nick 'Tasteless' Plott.
I have never met Tastless or Artosis, but being up every morning listening to their voices made me feel like I'd known them for years. The way they interacted with each other was exactly how I get along with my closest friends, and their witty banter and hilarious one liners provided the only silver lining to my otherwise miserable existence. When I got to sit back and listen to them cast the game I loved, for those first few hours of my day my misery ceased to exist. I didn't dwell on how shitty my day was going to be, I was at ease. For a span of six months I would routinely watch the sun rise as I watched the GSL. Some days I would crawl back in to bed, turn my monitor to face my mattress, and sometimes be lucky enough to fall asleep listening to the angelic voices of "Tastosis."
Slowly as I began to get over my various illnesses, my appetite returned and I was able to sleep through the night again. My 4:30am routine was retired, and breakfast was no longer a foreign concept. However as I finally get my handle back on my life, I feel like I have lived through something that has shaped me forever. These days when something comes up that puts my mood into a funk, I'll spend hours watching endless TvTs just to listen to the Tastosis banter I came to love; the one thing that put a smile on my face and my body at ease.
I am finally healthy again, and StarCraft 2 has become a staple in my life. When I'm not working I am gaming trying to grind into Masters League, or watching any high level vod I can get my hands on. I have met tons of people through gaming that I now consider friends, and I talk/game with them daily. In the upcoming months I am hoping to head to South Korea for a position teaching English. When there I will find the GOM Studio, and go meet Artosis and Tasteless. I'll take them out for a drink or two or ten, shoot the shit with them, and then be on my way.To them this will appear as nothing more than the usual fan boy interaction, and it shouldn't. To them I am the stereotypical fan boy. But to me this will be much more than meeting an idol- it's not often you get to get hammered with your guardian angels.
To Nick and Dan from the bottom of my heart I thank you both. Without the work you have put into this game there may never have been an english casted GSL, and I hate to even consider what my life would have become had I not had the GSL as an escape from my misery and get me through those rough times. Your casting has gotten me through my darkest days.
Some people consider video games to be a waste of time. They supposedly occupy you from doing the things you could (and some may argue should) be doing. For me it couldn't be the opposite. As I look back on the miserable year I have had, I can't think of any way I'd have gotten through it without having StarCraft in my life.
Very rarely can you point to a single thing or event that shaped you and molded you into who you are, but I'll always look back on that first night I took my mom's credit card and bought Open Season 1 of the GSL as the night I "met" Tastosis- the night that saved my life.
