Leaving StarCraft (IdrA) - Page 40

On February 04 2014 03:14 IdrA wrote:
I tweeted a few days ago that I would no longer be streaming starcraft, I was going to leave it at that as I've barely done anything with the game the last month anyway, but there's been enough questions about it I figured I outa write something. Over the last 6 months or so streaming revenue has been nearly nonexistent, in part because of awful ad rates and in part because of continually declining viewership. Casting sc2 tournaments pays very poorly, when considered a significant part of a full time job. A couple thousand dollars for a weekend of talking about a game seems nice, but when it happens maybe once a month it is not a good way to live. There have also been continual job offers from various parts of the industry that always fail to materialize. If I wanted to continue to scrape out a living I probably could, by lowering standards, accepting donations, and whatever else. But I've never liked the game and I don't see that changing anytime soon so I see no reason to scrape by with no future just for the sake of staying with it.

I'll be going back to school. I have no plans to stream dota, or any other game right now, as I get very few viewers for it and I feel dumb inviting people to watch me be bad at something. It is possible I'll stream other games in the future, or be involved with esports in general if something interesting and practical pops up, but for the time being that's it for me. Thank you all.

On February 05 2014 20:49 hillman wrote:
Never liked the game? LOL, no you only dedicated your life to it for years - but i'm sure you hated it....

No you didn't hate the game, you just hated not winning as much as you thought you deserved. Then you complained about it non-stop. You should have gone back to school years ago, and I think you will need work on your perspective before you can achieve any success going forward.

That said - he was my fav. player and America's hope - which is why I'm so butthurt about him not working out - go be a god damn engineer or something and crush it Greg...

On February 06 2014 03:22 DeadPan1897 wrote:



Most pro's who've been around since BW don't like SC2 nearly as much as BW, the fact you're so arrogant to say he didn't hate the game but just hated not winning as much as he thought he deserved is mindblowing. Everyone knows he didn't like SC2, or at least not the way the game is played (the deathball game and the fact it's not always the best player winning). The fact you even think he needs to change his perspective to have any success, again, is mindblowing to say the least.

If he didn't have the paycheck he had when he was under EG's wing, it's safe to say he would've ditched the game long time ago.

Glad he's going back to school, in the end he'll come out better this way than trying to make ends meet by spending his time in a game he doesn't/can't/won't appreciate. (can't blame him)

On February 05 2014 23:47 quebecman77 wrote:
Hey man good move!! You would know me in sc2 but I'm loving to keep touch witch the community with a random name so people don't know I'm who,but we were in the same team in brood war,that was long ago before you have go to Korea then you have start to do really well in Broodwar day,then sc2 came out and you played really amazing but I know you hated sc2,just like me but you have keep playing and today you finally stoped,seriously you are doing the best move you could do right now to stop sc2 if you dont enjoy it!!

I have played sc2 about 5000-6000 games, was keeping playing this game i don't enjoy for the money probably for the same reason that you, the 2-3 tournament here and there, 200buck and other money make me keep playing until Oct, but then one day after a big tournament where ended up third place for win almost NOTHING... I say FUCK IT I don't enjoy this game, I have gone back to school and got a nice job about 2 months ago who pay me 3-4x more that some random tournament in a game full of random balance patch....

And my life really good too, got a nice girlfriend now and we are talking about buying a house, got many old friends back who I was not even talking anymore because I was in a team house playing 24/24h sc2 each day.

you do the right thing, sc2 not a good life anyway!!

On February 06 2014 07:11 fishjie wrote:
Never liked the guy, he had a horrible attitude and blamed all his losses on everyone but himself. He constantly criticized others for being awful, yet was never any good at the game either, memorable only for his rage quits when he was either even or ahead. He then got fired from eg because he kept telling people he wanted them to die of cancer. All his fanboys were enablers and when he made the comment about being paid to treat them badly (the comment that cost him his job) it was funny cause it was true. It is funny that someone who hated the game so much stuck around so long.

It's all a moot point now since sc2 is on it's last dying breath, but if esports as a whole is to make it, toxic players such as this need to retire earlier.

On February 06 2014 08:42 DeadPan1897 wrote:



How can you be so ignorant lOl.. He was easily one of the top foreigners at a certain point in WoL.

On February 06 2014 09:38 fishjie wrote:


Everything is relative. Given how much trash he talked about legitimate players, he was not good. Even casual players such as cruncher that idra called a walkover would go on to curb stomp him in the tsl. its sad/funny seeing someone talk trash and yet have absolutely nothing to back it up. he never really had any results to back up all the vile hatred that he spewed toward better players. As far as foreginers go, stephano, scarlett and naniwa all surpassed him. he was good early on, but so were many foreigners. even during that era, jinro was vastly superior to him. that period of WoL where foreigners could do well was more because the game hadn't been figured out yet.

On February 06 2014 04:58 Symbioth wrote:
That is very sad news.

I remember the times of SC:BW, when Idra went to Korea. Obviously, this was extremely impressive in itself but what was far more impressive is that Idra actually managed to stay there for a long period of time. If you take into account the practice regimen and typical schedule of Korean progaming teams, it was virtually impossible to withstand for someone who grew up in the western culture and yet, Idra somehow did it.

Also, I think there were far more haters back then than now. It was expected that Idra would beat every foreigner with
ease due to his training in Korea but things didn't always go that way and many people looked for every opportunity to
hate on Idra. I think it's truly amazing how Idra was able to ignore that, not worry about the all the vicious comments
and, instead, focus on his goals and keep pursuing them, as if the haters didn't bother him at all.

To me, however, the greatest feature about Idra was his personality. As far as I'm concerned, Idra
was probably the most interesting personality of e-sports. We all know what Idra's typical behavior was - but I think the
various expressions of bad manner, or unpredictible conduct like leaving the games early, really suited Idra and added that unique flavor to his attitude which shaped his persona into an irresistibly interesting character.

Idra was simply one of those guys who continously generate stories around themselves and in my mind, stories are
a critical part of what fuels e-sports. I think his attitude was a huge contribution to the community and individual's
experience of starcraft.

I genuinely hope that the conditions around e-sports will enable Idra to return to e-sports one
day.

I hope you will be happy with the decision you have made, Idra. Best of luck, you will be missed !