EPTAs the name says, I am officially retiring from starcraft broodwar, and possibly starcraft 2. Before I give you my reasons, I want to share with you the history of how I came to be and the people that helped me all along.
When I was the ripe old age of 12, I was at my local yacht club, and a guy told me, "well if you like warcraft 2, you will love starcraft!" So of course I got the game and from there it started. I played bgh and hunters every single time. 2v2 and 3v3 were my favorite things, and I started thinking about the game more strategically from the beginning than I did mechanically(hence my shitty mechanics!) I loved it and got my friend into it. I remember my best friend and I would wake up at 7am, and I'd call him with the humungous wireless phones, and we'd be on the phone the entire time playing with our heads tilted so the phone would stay near to our ear. It was the most exhilerating feeling to wake up on a saturday, knowing you would be with your best friend and playing some kids and beating everyone to a pulp! as I started getting older, more and more school friends were in it, and I was so competitive that I had to be the best. Nobody stood a chance and it was the best experience of my life. I decided to start a clan, called //GET READY// RagingDemons hahahaha I was young :-P and the channel name was clan ragingdemons. Awesome right? :-) It was some great times. It was on east at the time when clan pros was huge and I'd always go in there and play with the big timers like YourKiller, Cocoakrispies, and Cherioos. I felt like I was ontop of the world... till wgt... As clans fizzled and I moved onto wgt, I made another clan called Lords Of Chaos, clan LoC) then to op LoC) I started this with a buddy of mine and we still had so much fun even though we were a god awful team! I remember my high was B6 and i hit b5 once because I BBSed every game at B6, and thought I was the coolest kid(Jokes wanted to brag to friends). I ended up back on east however, in NeX where I met my good friend who I still talk to, Mike aka Playa. He's the first one that introduced me to the game with great mechanics and a mindset that was much different than normal people. I got a chance to watch him take out top foreigners, and he'd show me how tod things that were amazing. Sadly, this was junior year of highschool, and I had to quit starcraft for SAT preparations and admitting to college. I took a break from starcraft for about 2 years, till college started. I started back up freshman year winter time, when I figured(I have nothing to do!) I came back as Gretorp-Lzuruha, part of Lzuruha of course. I made some great friends in LzH, and I do want to mention a few in particular, Yoonho, Dragon, Jackass and Memo, who are amazing players and people, and I had some of the best times building our team and getting better. A special shout to Yoonho and Dragon as you two were just such a huge part of me, and I love you guys so much. I stayed with Lzuruha for about 3 and a half years! Still under the radar since I primarily played on east, I slowly built up my game until it came for USA B tryouts. I tried out 3 times for USA B and was so determined to get on the national team. In the last tournament, I won it taking out Kawaii(who BBS'ed me in the 2nd game after i beat him on BlueStorm!!!!! BASTARD) and Spades in the finals. I remember the feeling I had of being so proud that I became a national member, and wanted to be the best I could be because of it. I practiced hard, and really analyzed everything possible. I started mass single player mode, and I picked apart every replay I lost until I understood what the proper counter was, where I lost, and how I could prevent the loss with scouting. I went a whopping 14-1 in USA B, beating players such as handy, moonshine, kenzy, and many others that I cannot remember. As I developed my play, Duran aka Xeris[Light], took notice of me and asked if I wanted to join Light. I had to leave my good friends, and went to Light where I was welcomed with warm arms and loving people. I fit right in, except I hated Kawaii for a stupid game where I raged(AND HES ANNOYING AS FUCK). although, through everything, I grew as a player and got to know the other players very well. I eventually brought on Stryker to the team, and pushed really hard for him to get on. We ended up becoming very good training buddies, and great friends, and I will always remember him and what a great, intelligent player he is. I also got to meet up with a lot of the EG people and everyone was just amazing. It makes me smile thinking of all the people and the relationships I had with them give me a feeling of bliss as i think of it right now.
During the time in LighT, I met Darryl aka Warrior350 during the KoC event, and he introduced me to Marko aka Marcoon. These two guys are some of the best admins I've met, and I thank them whole heartedly for all they've done for the community.
My skill slowly developed, and I was really gungho about training. I wanted to get better and better, and saw all the terrible plays 'top players' were doing, and knew I was much better. Unfortuantely because of school, and extra activities, I was unable to train as much as I wanted, and my execution suffered tremendously. That's when i decided I would go complete theory based, and try to win at mid to end game timings to accomodate for my style of play. Hence I always set up to play robust until that mid game going to end game and win at that point since my execution lacked. I set up timings for all of my builds(THE INFAMOUS 21 MINUTE TIMING PUSH) and I played accordingly.
Before I conclude on LighT, I want to say a huge thank you to Duran. We always joke how we call each other boo, but I really do love you man, and I hope we stay friends forever. You're an amazing person, player, and manager, and a great friend.
(I'm so for no linear thought, i'm closing my eyes and just writing this as it's very sad for me!)
My streaming days were the times that actually got me a bit of notoriety in the scene. I started streaming in 2009, and adding commentary when playing. I would be playing so much, but as my equipment in my computer started to crap out, I started to stop streaming. A little later on in 2009, i was asked to go to IEF, and went with the support of many people which I think you so much. It was of the best experiences of my life, and I treasured every second of it. There, I met up with the coach of estro, Hwanni, and asked him about e-sports jobs. My mind was set on getting in e-sports, and I was planning on moving to korea.
and now sc2 has come out.
Motivation has deteriorated dramatically.
My friends and family of sc are slowly leaving, and I'm growing up and things have become different.
2 years ago, the love of my life broke up with me, and I've been trying to get her back. I am so close to it, and I just want to do anything I can for her, because she is just such an amazing person. There hasn't been a single day in the past 2 years where I haven't thought about her, and there hasn't been a day where I went to sleep wishing she was next to me. I have that opportunity and I'm not going to let it slip through my fingers.
Korea has been put on hold because of this. I choose the happiness through love, over happiness through work, and I hope it will pay off.
When I see opportunity for me to help the community, I definitely will. As for my times in starcraft 2, I am still deliberating if I will doing that. My mind is leaning towards no sadly, but i may lurk from time to time.
So this is me, Andre aka Gretorp signing off from the community. I love you all very much, and I am almost ready to shed a tear on how sad I feel, yet happy I am thinking of all the people that touched me. I know I haven't talked about everyone, but there are too many good people that I regularly talk to that I can't mention everyone.
Thank you and I hope to see you soon.
/Edit
As I go through the day, I think of more people that I need to address:
Ogenki - I wish you stayed with it because you had so much potential. You're a great guy and thanks for listening to me through my rough times. You helped me a lot.
Princeton Team - I'm proud of all of you and I hope we all see each other soon.
