EPT![[image loading]](http://cdn.jockpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/drunk-terrelle-pryor.jpg)
The face of a champion
Long story short, he was banned from the game for selling trophies he won by playing for the team, and he was actually just not a good person.
What does this have to do with eSports?
![[image loading]](http://www.teecrush.com/static//images/shirts/7/5b002473e2ae2e987f66836cea3af2a0/shirt.jpg)
Well I just want to highlight this because Pro-Gamers are different—at least in StarCraft. It was only very recently that non-Korean StarCraft players got any attention at all—let alone masses of fans. If you told Day9 when he started his daily podcast about Brood War that, within the span of two years, he would have 5-10,000 viewers watching his stream live, and thousands more keeping up with his VODs every day, he would have ruptured his appendix laughing so hard. This was back when “eSports” wasn’t a word—when “professional” and “gamer” were mutually exclusive terms in western culture.
But now that’s changed; now IdrA regularly gets 8-10,000 viewers on his channel when he streams. The GSL has trended globally on Twitter (I don’t actually know what that means, but I’m assuming it’s good for Elly).
![[image loading]](http://www.bestlogodesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/twitter-logo-bird.png){kind=logo}
I just… I just don’t get it
Most professional gamers are still adjusting to their newfound level of fame. They have the same sort of fan-following as professional athletes or movie stars. What they don’t have is the profound level of ass-hattery that a lot of athletes and movie stars have. StarCraft professionals still act as if they’re just normal, non-GoSu x 2 people. This is one of the things I love most about the professional scene—pro-gamers aren’t arrogant enough to think they’re better than their fans—they still recognize that, without the support of average gamers, they wouldn’t have the following they have, and pro-gamers are grateful that they can do what they love for a living. They don’t have this irritating sense of self-worth because they still sense an inherent contradiction between “fame” and “gaming,” even though it isn’t there.
On December 9th, my good friend—a champion and a scholar, a gentleman whose wits he holds true and well as his wine, who shall remain, here, nameless, but shall belong to the ages, a man whom scholars will hold as a hero, and who women will weep to see—told me that Liquid’Ret was living in my hometown—Columbus—for a period of time. I thought he was trolling, but was excited enough to send Ret via TeamLiquid.net:
Original Message From mbr2321:
Hey there,
I'm a huge fan of yours, and I heard from my friend that you're living in Columbus now. A couple of my friends and I are fans, and rather than be all creeper-like and stalk you, I wanted to offer to buy you a meal while you stay in our fair city
Let me know if you have any interest or time.
Hey there,
I'm a huge fan of yours, and I heard from my friend that you're living in Columbus now. A couple of my friends and I are fans, and rather than be all creeper-like and stalk you, I wanted to offer to buy you a meal while you stay in our fair city
Let me know if you have any interest or time.
Well, I didn’t want to scare him away with my geeky fanboyism—I was trying to be like this:
![[image loading]](http://mobile.freewallpaper4.me/320x480/983-barack-obama.jpg)
Say what you want, but the man’s got style
Of course instead I felt like this:
![[image loading]](http://shechive.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/so-much-awkward-19.jpg?w=499)
I found this on the internet—I don’t even know if it’s supposed to be a boy or a girl
But to my eternal and incredible surprise, Liquid’Ret—BW extraordinaire, StarCraft II legend, Dr. Drone himself, TLAFLiquid’Ret—said this:
“Hey man, that sounds good actually. Monday would be great and ill bring my gf too if you don't mind
Thanks for the offer!!”
Thanks for the offer!!”
At this point I’m freaking out. Of course… I’ve got to play it cool. I can’t go around scaring off professional players left and right like the fucking Jigsaw—no! I will not blow this! I will not scare the living bejesus out of Ret like Amnesia did to Day9 (who, I’m pretty sure, is still in the fetal position under his bed, consuming hot-pockets and whispering “Manfred… help me Manfred… the chairs… the chairs…” and periodically screaming “UNIDEN” while Destiny pounds on his door, telling him to stop sniping him on the ladder). No… I had to be… the cool nerd.
![[image loading]](http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/9/d/4/0/global_5800256.jpeg)
Ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhh
Eventually, we agree to meet at The Wine Bistro at 18:00 (because I don’t want to say 6:00 pm—it’s a bad pun and I’m above that). It’s a nice little place, with an enormous selection of wine and amazing food. It’s reasonably priced—something like $8-15 per entrée, and it has a great atmosphere.
![[image loading]](http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/e9/8a/26/welcome-to-our-lane-ave.jpg)
My friends and I spend the day assembling our one moment of fanboyism—we’ve decided, at this point, that we don’t want to sit at a table, gawking slack-jawed at Ret and his girlfriend, periodically stabbing ourselves in the face with a fork because we miss our mouths; instead we want a nice dinner, wherein we can pleasantly make conversation, learn a bit about who Jos de Kroon is, and leave Ret out of the conversation as much as possible. We decide, however, that we will allow ourselves to proverbially shit a brick once that night—by giving he and his girlfriend an awesome Christmas present. Knowing that Ret might miss the Netherlands, we want to get him something that would remind him of home; that being said, we also want to welcome him back to America with something that screams American culture. The result: two enormous gift-baskets, one European (with a heavy emphasis on Dutch) and one American.
![[image loading]](https://p.twimg.com/AggZsHgCQAA_Tm4.jpg)
So, with gift baskets assembled, we head to the restaurant and wait, not for Liquid’Ret, but for Jos de Kroon. At about 18:10, he arrives with his lovely girlfriend, whom we later learn to be Audrey. I invite them back to the table (for we were there about five minutes before 6), and the waitress brings us some water.
The waitress comes back later with our drinks, and we order appetizers. We order a trio of fondue, which comes with French baguette slices and grilled pita, a small cheese board, and a fairly pricey Scallup Lollipop dish that is actually delicious.
![[image loading]](http://laneave.winebistrocolumbus.com/portals/wbua/galleries/ua/IMG_9028.jpg)
Delightful beyond any reasonable price
As we pass around pita, and sample cheeses, we begin to make pleasant conversation. Jos politely asks us about ourselves, and we sort of chat. Upon our inquiry, he tells us that he’s living with Audrey until the New Year, when he will be going back to Europe to compete in the Home Story Cup. He and Audrey seem curious with regards to what we do for fun in Columbus—thus far the Crossroads of Ohio has been, as it has for so many other people, a disappointment insofar as having fun goes. To be clear, Columbus is a nice city—it is as pleasant as its weather is shitty—but it really doesn’t have the night-life that New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, D.C, Miami, Boston, Dallas, or, really, any other major city in America has. So what do my friends and I do for fun? We go to my house and play StarCraft—sometimes we watch a movie… that’s about it.
We ask Jos and Audrey what they do for fun, and they tell us that all they do is play StarCraft and Skyrim—that they watch television, and sometimes they go out to eat. Sometimes Jos will coach her in StarCraft II. We discover that Audrey is very good at StarCraft II—whether this is a result of Ret coaching her, or that she is just a great player (she works at Gamestop (the assumptions are stacking), or a blend of the two—she could, without doubt, beat the crap out of any one of us (we feel our nerd-egos shrinking) without batting an eye.
A quick word on Jos and Audrey as company: they are extremely chill people. If you’ve ever seen an interview with Liquid’Ret, you may see how relaxed and down-to-earth he seems. At dinner, Jos is equally cool as a cucumber. His manner of speaking is sort of like a relaxed southern drawl—except with a hint of a Dutch accent. Audrey, truly, is as delightful company as is Jos. She is one of those non-geeky gamers—like one of the MLG girls, except she’s not a paid actress—she’s incredibly nice, intelligent, and fun to be around— that and she and Jos are adorable together.
![[image loading]](http://www.mycuteanimals.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/cutelilpuppy.jpeg)
This would be the Archon that Jos and Audrey would morph into if such things were real
Eventually we’ve finished with our cheeses and scallups, and I ask Jos what it was like living day-to-day in Korea. I tried to word it carefully such that it’s clear that I want to know what it was like living in Korea, not playing Brood War in Korea. He talks about how much the eSTRO house sucks to live in. Firstly, since there are no professional cooks or cleaners for the players hired by the team, the 3-4 worst players on the team would have to cook and clean for all the players. Jos had to wake up an hour earlier than the rest of the players and do these menial tasks. In addition, the training regimen was extremely strict—players had to practice in four-hour blocks, and would be told-off by coaches if they were out of game too much. He describes with an air of mild chagrin the cramped living quarters, and says laughingly that he only lasted a month there.
From there, the conversation moves to Artosis. Jos describes Dan Stemkoski in those days as the sort of rally point for the Hatchery that was foreigners in Korea for Brood War. Artosis would be the one calling everyone up to go out drinking one night; he would plan the social events and run them with the utmost precision and grace. Artosis would make sure everyone was having a good time. We hear that, in those days, Artosis was just beginning his casting career, and that he was basically enslaved by some Korean company to work for them. We can only assume that Artosis was not a happy panda about this.
![[image loading]](http://starcraftmazter.net/images/4chan/tech_games/sc2/nasl/artosis.png)
How can you not feel sorry for this face?
Eventually, we order our food. Part of the reason my friends and I picked the Wine Bistro was for its wonderful food. We have already eaten our appetizers (phenomenal, by the way), and decide to get four flatbreads. For those who don’t know what a flat-bread is, it’s essentially a large and flat loaf of bread, covered in various arrays of cheeses, meats, vegetables, and sauces. The specific kinds of flatbread were a chicken-and-pesto, an Italian-ish (various spiced meats and cheese), a shrimp-and-curry, and a veal-meatball. A quick note on veal—this is a tangent, but I think it’s important that I explain myself here. I hate the concept of veal. I don’t like how it’s made, and I hate that it’s even in existence. But damn it… damn it… it’s just… so… good. It’s so good. There is literally nothing better in meatball form than veal. The veal-meatball flatbread is pretty much a souped-up pizza, in reality. It is covered in an impeccably tangy and sweet marinara sauce, a marvelous spread of cheese, and the meatballs… oh the meatballs. They are so good.
![[image loading]](http://nhigh.winebistrocolumbus.com/portals/wbworth/galleries/worth/IMG_8978.jpg)
It feels so wrong, but tastes so right
The meal is whittled away with more talk of Skyrim (or it would have been if I hadn’t taken an arrow to the knee) and StarCraft, and soon it is time to part ways. My friends and I take the check (Jos was all for splitting it, but what kind of hosts would we be if we let him do such things?), we give Jos and Audrey the gift baskets (or is it gifts basket? o.O), and we part ways.
It turns out we parked right in front of Audrey’s car, so as we drive down the street towards the stoplight, none of us says a word. We turn at the stoplight, and immediately begin freaking the fuck out. We have just had dinner with Jos Liquid’fucking’Ret de Kroon and we didn’t fuck up horrifically. We just talked with him and his awesome girlfriend and bought them dinner. Our excitement bubbles up in us as giddiness, and I, personally, spend the next few hours tittering like a school-girl.
Over the next few hours, the adrenaline-fueled excitement I had about having dinner with Jos dissipated, and was replaced by a profound and deep respect and admiration for the man. It takes a lot of guts to take up an offer from a complete stranger—especially in a relatively unfamiliar city. Not only that, but, whether he realized it or not, by taking a couple hours to have dinner with some fans, he gave them a lasting and sustaining happiness that is unique to fickle fame.
EDIT: Special thanks to TemujinGK (ImperialFist) for skyping me even when I'm not there, PowerSniper (SentinelM) for editing and giving constructive criticism on the piece, and to Liquid'Ret for being such an awesome, mannered guy.
EDIT 2: More special thanks to TL Staff for the spotlight :3
Loved it!
