A Player’s Journey Through MLG

A Player’s Journey Through MLG
A Recollection by xSixSuppy

I’m on the airplane right now heading back home from Anaheim, and I am leaving behind a weekend of craziness, fun, excitement, adrenaline, all wrapped in one package. Since I keep a personal journal anyways, I thought this would be a nice time to document and share some of my thoughts before, during, and after the event that was one of the most fun weekends in my life.

Pre-MLG

So before this event I have to be honest, I was not expecting much. My only other MLG event had been Anaheim the previous year, and it was a tournament in which I was knocked down first round by ChoyafOu and then taken out soon after in the loser’s bracket round two by Lastshadow. Throughout the past year I had not been able to perform to my satisfaction at local LAN events in the Bay Area, often placing under top three. This came as a pretty big shock to me as in Broodwar, LAN events were always predictable and I would generally get first or second. Just before MLG Anaheim though, I was able to win the UC Davis Spring Open Tournament over QuanticState 3-2, which definitely helped boost my confidence a bit (something which I had definitely been lacking). As well, Berkeley gets out a month earlier than most other schools, and this was a perfect opportunity to play more Starcraft, as during school time it was sometimes a struggle to even play ten games in a week. I refrained from getting Diablo 3 (although I was distracted by DotA 2 for a bit) and practiced more than normal, but I was still feeling lost in ZvT and ZvZ. Just a few days before MLG Anaheim, I practiced with my teammates and friends such as Perfect, Ver, Binski, Mkengyn, Sasquatch and Sanddbox and totally revamped both of my playstyles in those matchups – and off to MLG.

Fans and Support

One thing that I really would like to tell everyone is how much having fans and support means to a player. Well, at least for me, I feel like having people rooting for me and cheering me on was a huge factor in me playing better in this tournament. Fans are SO important.

My friends watching me play SeleCT on the feature stage

Some friends I knew from highschool came to MLG and presented me with a CheckSix shirt that they designed and had my name written on it. Then I looked and saw that they were ALL wearing it. I can’t even describe how awesome that felt right then. Throughout the tournament they watched almost all my games, even when I was in the middle of the player pit and they could barely even see the match. They were so damn awesome and I am so glad they were there.

Just as stressed or even more so as they watched me play

Having a body of support is simply just so motivating. It added a burden on to me that made me compelled to give it my all in every single game. This MLG I had so many people rooting for me to do well. I recently won the CSL Excellence in eSports Scholarship which made me feel like I had much of CSL backing me up, my friends all wished me luck before the event, my teammates and manager watched every game and gave me tips and advice, etc. I had an obligation to try my absolute hardest. And when it paid off, and when I got a win – wow was it definitely worth it.

Me with my supporters after a 2-1 victory over coLKiller

The importance of fans and supporters, in my eyes, is something that should be more emphasized. When I was playing Killer for example, I saw so many Koreans standing behind him, including MvPTails whom I had knocked out earlier in open bracket. After every match they would talk in Korean and, regardless of what they were actually saying, I was assuming they were giving him top-notch advice, which terrified me in the upcoming games. When he ended up doing a void ray zealot attack that took out my third in game three, I was thinking it must have been their advice for him to do that attack which worked very well against the strategy I was doing. I thought the game had been lost but I came back and managed to win in one of the most tense victories of my run in MLG. Simply the fact that Killer had so many supporters watching him though was enough to terrify me, and probably give him more confidence.

Another clear example of when supporters were a source of tremendous positive energy is when Socke beat Dongraegu in pool play. I happened to be playing a match right next to them at that very moment, and I was shocked when I suddenly heard extremely loudly, “FUCK YEAH!!!” which ended up being Socke’s victory cry as DRG gg’d out of the game. There was a gigantic crowd behind him that immediately erupted into applause and started cheering. I know if I was Socke at that moment, I would have felt like I was on the top of the world. I would have felt that I could take any foe down, no matter how strong. Fans have that kind of a power, hence why I was so grateful for my fans, even if few, at MLG Anaheim. Fans and supporters of all players, know how important you are to players and let your support shine.

Thank you so much for your support <3

Tournament Play

It’s not unknown that open bracket is an exhausting gauntlet that tries the endurance of even the toughest competitors. Sheth even talked about how WCS on top of MLG made things even more tiring here in his own blog. Still, I was not prepared at all for how exhausting it would be.

Why is it so tiring? It’s not like a huge amount of games. People go on long ladder sessions and can play far more games in the course of a day than they do in the span of an entire MLG weekend. But ladder is completely different in my opinion. The matches in MLG are so taxing mentally, because you must bring your A game in every match or else risk facing elimination. Every game must be played with 100% effort with 100% focus. When you finally get that glorious victory – oh wait, the tournament is running slightly behind schedule, you need to quickly move to your next computer and face the next competitor who might be even tougher than the previous one.

I found myself often hoping the organizers would call the day to end. After tense, stressful and close games, players need a refuge to relax for a few moments, compose themselves and then prepare for the next match. Perhaps the continuous playing of matches could be viewed as a benefit, however; players won’t have time in between matches to overthink things and get worried. I know that by the time WCS was finishing up on Friday though, I was exhausted out of my mind. I started my match against QuanticIllusion at about 1:00 AM and after a very close match with QuanticTheognis just before, I was in no mood to play any more matches. I subsequently lost 2-0 to Illusion, pretty badly in the first game (I did a roach bane cheese that I really should not have done) and then a very close loss in the second game. If I had had a night to rest, however, I think the match could have gone differently. Unfortunately for me, that was the end of my WCS run, but making top 16 and qualifying for Raleigh was still satisfactory. Again though, we had matches tomorrow at 11:00 AM, so there was no time for prolonged rest – it was simply “go go go.”

Tiring open bracket play

Particularly exhausting matches for me that I remember were versus coLKiller and versus dignitasSeleCT (in our extended series that went to seven games). I remember versus Killer I came back after losing my third in the final game, yet he continued to stay in the game and pulled off tons of storm drops and killed SO many drones. My broodlords were pushing into his base but I suddenly realized that, wow, I really didn’t have any mining left anymore! My legs were shaking and I was so terrified that he might actually come back and take it if I didn’t have enough broodlords. As soon as I saw the words GG I literally dropped everything I was doing and began pushing against the table to get up and shout victoriously, but after a few seconds he still hadn’t left the game yet so I frantically scrambled to start playing again. He finally left and a wave of relief passed over me. I turned over and saw Stephano and BlinG watching me and realized I would have to play him immediately afterwards – there was no time to rest (again, as I talked about earlier with supporters, just seeing Stephano there with BlinG was enough to make me feel a lot more scared in the upcoming match).

Something interesting that I’d like to say is that, in some cases, starting off down a game in a best of three actually might make you play better. In my case versus BlinG, I quickly lost the first game to his robo sentry immortal all-in. Now most people would think this is a huge disadvantage being down a match, and of course it is, but it also forced me into fight or flight mode. The realization that I could suddenly be eliminated after just having an insane series versus Killer (and that I would miss out on championship brackets) dawned on me quickly, and I literally felt a surge of adrenaline flow through my veins. I got that sinking feeling in my chest and knew that the next games I would need to focus 100%. In the next two games I played my heart out and was able to edge out a win 2-1.

Playing on the featured stage versus Theognis

Finally we reached me versus SeleCT. The previous two games had been exhausting, and this would be no different. On top of that, the series was extended, with me being down 1-2. I felt more confident this time though. My teammates had gone over with me on how to properly defend 2 rax (which I had defended so poorly against SeleCT in the first series) and told me that I could do it – that I could win. This match was in MY favor this time. I don’t remember seeing anyone sitting on SeleCT’s side supporting him, but I clearly remember my teammate Ver sitting there and giving me a much needed sense of support in this series. After every match I would talk to him and he would reassure me in my play (apparently I just figured out that you’re not supposed to be allowed to talk to people in between matches?) and even if there was no strategical advice to give, his presence was greatly helpful to me. I won 4-3.

At this point, I believe it was around 8:30 or 9:30 PM (I forgot what hour), and I had been playing since 4:00 PM and hadn’t gotten a chance to eat dinner yet. The admins were rushing things along though because SeleCT and my's best of seven probably held the tournament up by a lot. So after three massively taxing matches, versus Killer, BlinG, and SeleCT, I finally had to take on Thorzain, and I guess my fuel had run out. He outplayed me completely in the first game, and in the next game I was feeling confident with creep spread over 70% of Tal’darim but his push was strong and my flanks did not trade cost efficiently enough, and he eventually ran me over. This game I also had no support, as Ver and my other teammates had been kicked out of the player pit. I lost and my MLG run was over.

A brief reprieve from the gauntlet of death in MLG Open Bracket

Throughout the course of the event I thought to myself different hypothetical scenarios and what would have happened if the outcome of one event was slightly different. For example, if I had simply closed out the series versus RangeD in WCS that I was leading 1-0 in, would I have perhaps made it further in WCS? I would have had to play less, and my next opponent would have been NonY, who I have to admit that I would have felt pretty confident against as my ZvP was feeling on fire at MLG. If the match hadn’t been at 1:00 AM, could I have maybe beaten Illusion? If I hadn’t lost to SeleCT, could I have maybe beaten Golden’s sometimes inconsistent ZvZ, and made it into pool play? Or if I had time to rest before playing Thorzain, could I have perhaps gone further in the tournament? But thinking these types of questions is not very productive. The fact is, at the time I was outplayed, and so my opponents deserved every win that they got. The only thing I can do about it now is be more prepared next time – that’s all that can be done.

MLG Spring Championships 2012 Breakout Player Award

So what is some feedback that I could give to the event and how it was run? There have been a lot of really good posts recently giving suggestions on how to improve things, and I agree with a lot of them. From a player perspective, I have a few additional things to offer:

1. Music was not able to be listened to, which potentially could have affected many people who normally listen to music as they play StarCraft.

2. Sound from the venue could not be filtered out at all and was highly distracting. No music / no white noise meant that EVERYTHING could be heard. Announcements, player calls, people talking nearby if they were loud enough, etc. I specifically remember in my last game during SeleCT, all the KeSPA introductions were going on, and it was oh so distracting. MLG perhaps could consider using earbuds plus noise cancelling headphones as a solution to this.

3. Please, please, PLEASE show more open bracket matches. I felt like the same thing happened to Scarlett in IPL 4, who really got no game coverage when she was likely one of, if not the, biggest stories at IPL 4. The only games I had streamed the whole tournament were the ones versus SeleCT in our first series. What about all the other players who made some noise at MLG? Axslav for example, who despite not doing so well in WCS, later went on a tear in MLG Open Bracket? Players like Sasquatch, who demonstrated solid play throughout both MLG and WCS but got literally ZERO exposure. All these players have unique personalities, many of them are AWESOME people with AWESOME stories and play AWESOME games – but it’s like they don’t even exist! This is a big problem with these tournaments. It feels like the pool players are actually the only players playing in a tournament. Everyone else is just useless buffer.

My suggestion to MLG is perhaps along the lines of a solution somebody else offered in another thread. He suggested having pre-interviews that would be run during down time when shots of the crowd were starting to get old. Something else that would be really cool I think would be interviews of players doing well in Open Bracket, and then have some person go through the replays and pick out the major engagements and sort of showcase them on stream during downtime. This would be a great way to engage the audience and also give some exposure to players doing well in open bracket, and would not take too much effort to pull off either. As it stood, my only coverage was done through ESFIWorld, CSN, CSL, and some other interviews – I think MLG should play a much larger role in its own tournament in order to give exposure to players.

Regarding other feedback such as the kicking out of players from the player pit, I believe there are already quite a few topics addressing that. One other minor thing that I thought was interesting but not overly distracting was people taking pictures of you during the game.

It leads to photos like this one!

Meeting People

I’ve only been to one MLG before, but I think this MLG must be one of the best. Not only did the KeSPA players come, but also all the WCS Qualified Players, meaning that essentially everyone that I’ve played on ladder or seen online was there. I met so many people and hung out with so many, and it’s really awesome to see how people are in real life. For example, Everize is somewhat bm on ladder (at least that’s what we thought) but he’s a legit mothereffer in real life haha, the dude is hilarious (even though he stole my bed when he already had his own hotel room! Haha)

Like last year, however, I was still so intimidated by the famous and well known players, and was too scared to go up and talk to them. Last year I literally didn’t talk to anyone famous because I was so scared. This year, luckily, I got to talk to some and a lot of them are really cool. LzGamer for example was so freaking nice and gave me lots of encouragement before my match against Tails. I think that was awesome and us Americans and foreigners should always unite against the Korean machine!

Players are real people! This is a pretty obvious statement but I often didn’t or couldn’t realize this when I was there, and so I still have some regrets about not meeting people. For example, Stephano and BlinG watched several of my games, and I said hi to them briefly, but I really wish I had talked to them a little bit more, maybe gotten a photo or something. I’m a huge fan of Stephano and didn’t say anything to him, why?! I’m too intimidated I guess.

Stephano and BlinG watching me in the 7th game vs SeleCT

One real legit mofo though was SeleCT. I am so glad I sorta got out of my comfort zone and interacted with someone famous, and I think my experience really goes to show that these famous people are definitely approachable and friendly (in most cases at least!). Basically, after my first game versus Tails I believe, I saw SeleCT standing behind Tails, and I was just looking at SeleCT and he looked back. Normally I would just avert my gaze immediately, scared of being caught staring at him, but then I just gave a really super creepy smile and then he smiled back, and throughout the rest of the event he was just really friendly to me. What an awesome guy! I really look forward to seeing him at future events.

Jaedong! and others watching me play Sasquatch in WCS

I walked past the KeSPA players so much but didn’t say so much as a single word . . . I wish I had now! I still met a lot more people this MLG though and was really glad I did. Met a lot of TL posters that I’ve known for years, tons of my ladder foes (who are really cool and friendly in person), etc. etc. It was a great experience!

Post-MLG

So how do I feel regarding my post-MLG thoughts? I definitely got a major confidence boost from this tournament and know that it really is possible for me to do well if I try my best. I definitely am looking to work on my ZvT and my ZvZ more. My ZvP can also be improved but it was by far my most solid matchup in this tournament, and if I had continued getting Protosses I am confident I could have done even better. My ZvT was definitely my crutch here at MLG, which is odd since Zerg is so favored in the matchup right now. I definitely will be hoping to improve that matchup.

One thing that I learned here (that I knew already I guess, but the idea was reinforced) is that Starcraft 2 is such a volatile game. Literally anything can happen, and almost anyone can take a game off anyone if they are playing well. The differences in skill are so close, and only a few minor differences account for who comes out on top. This is completely different from Broodwar, where even progamers had significant gaps in skill and the best were essentially untouchable for most players. A few things struck me as perfect examples of how volatile Starcraft 2 is. Axslav’s early defeat in WCS, only to later go on to tear it up in MLG and make championship bracket; Trimaster’s similar defeat in WCS and solid performance in MLG; Pokebunny 2-0ing HelloKitty in MLG and proceeding to get 0-2’d in WCS by him; Mystik losing 1-2 to Daisuki in WCS, winning 2-0 over Daisuki in MLG. Really, anything can happen at any moment! It is frustrating since it is very difficult to be confident in yourself when literally any player you play has the potential to beat you, even if you consider yourself much better than them. Not like Broodwar at all!

Thanks David :D

Still, this MLG was just a fantastic experience and I had a blast, and was so ecstatic that I was able to get good results. I want to again thank all my fans, friends, and supporters. Like I said, it is YOU guys who motivated me and gave me the adrenaline, energy, inspiration to do my best. I’m sure it is the same with many other players out there. It is so important that you continue supporting players with all your heart! Please keep it up!

Thanks for reading! Your favorite wolf signing out.

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