EPTSome of you might know me, a lot of you probably don't. I'm Wardí and over the past three years I have been producing Starcraft 2 tournaments and content under my solo-project SC2Improve, which started as a low league community. Since starting over €5000 of prizes have been given out in my tournaments, with my most successful event being the SC2I Team League (http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/SC2Improve_Team_League_S4) which has seen a crazy amount of success this year in particular. A more detailed introduction of me can be found in my blog post from a few months ago : http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/467411-almost-three-years-down
SC2Improve has always been my project, but it has always been on the side of my studies at University for the past four years. For the past year and a half in particular I've always had the crazy idea of trying to make my dream a reality - to dip myself into the eSports life and after a lot of consideration I have decided to take some time over the next few months to see what I am able to achieve if I put everything I have into Starcraft, instead of it just being my hobby. It's kind of scary and daunting - but I full believe that if I don't take this opportunity which I have created for myself and push it to the extremes then I will only regret it later in my life. My parents are very supportive of my interest in investing the next months into being full time and it is their support which is one of the main reasons I am able to live this dream, so a huge amount of appreciation to them for letting me run with this.
Again, this is something I have thought about doing long and hard, but it is something I am very passionate about and even if it doesn't end in fireworks and celebrations I feel there is a lot for me to learn with this experience. Since I started SC2Improve I have poured my heart and soul into it, consistently looking for ways to improve our tournaments, broadcasts, website and more. I will look to continue doing this and I've outlined below some of what you can expect from me in the near future.
SC2Improve Team League Season 5
The success of Season 4 of the SC2ITL was the main turning point in my decision to go full-time. I won't bore you with the statistics and stuff here, but the growth of my Twitch, Twitter, Youtube and pretty much everything has been exponential since I started the fourth season of the team league.
As my most successful tournament you can expect Season 5 to start in the near future. One of my first time-sinks of being full-time is going to be sponsorship hunting to make Season 5 bigger and better than Season 4. But I also want to go one step further. The stories and histories of the team league are amazing. You can watch teams improve through a season, get through a rough patch, upset other teams, get revenge for defeats in previous seasons and a lot more. It's what I love most about the team league and it's something I want to push in Season 5.
My goal for Season 5 of the team league is to create a completely-immersive experience. I want it to be a league where you don't just tune in watch some games and leave after enjoying some Starcraft. I want to create an experience where you become interested in how these teams are doing and get you invested to the stories forming in front of us. I aim to set up the SC2ITL website so that you can find everything you need to keep fully up to date with the league - match scores and details, player statistics, VODs, interviews, previews and recaps and just in general anything to get you invested into the journey which will be SC2ITL Season 5.
Consistent Streaming
Being able to commit full time to Starcraft means that I am finally going to be able to have some kind of a schedule! I haven't fully decided what exactly I'm going to do but for now I will be streaming at least once per day. Not only will I be broadcasting SC2Improve and other events in the evenings, but I will be streaming my ladder sessions alongside some other fun show ideas that I have. Being able to stream every day means that every single SC2I match will be streamed and I will be able to maximize the amount of other content I am able to stream too, which has been very minimal before now.
I'm also going to be putting on a lot more rebroadcasts. With a lot more content being produced their is going to be a lot more to fill time. Again this is something I will look into in more detail as time goes by and especially once SC2ITL S5 begins.
SC2I
I currently have about $1500 (mostly thanks to Feardragon!!) to give away which was originally meant for the SC2Improve Winter Series Finals, but because of all the disruptions in the tournament I will be labeling it as a separate event. The aim for this is to get it up and running at the start of July, after this Season of WCS concludes. More details on this will come closer to the time.
Youtube Content
With more time on my hands I fully intend to delve more into the world of content outside of casting matches. Again currently there are just a couple of ideas floating around my head, but I am hoping to make at least two separate weekly Youtube series, alongside increasing the quality of VODs from the casts and creating video content to help promote the team league.
Travelling
Taking the time to be full-time in Starcraft is also allowing me some time to travel to Starcraft events. This year I have already been to the WCS Season 1 Finals as well as working at both Gfinity events as the observer and it turns out that going to events live is SICK. Currently I have plans to attend the Basetrade TV tournament in Toronto in August and I also have my Blizzcon ticket booked for November. I'm hoping to get myself to Dreamhack as well at least, as well as just seeing what else comes up through the year.
Hopefully I will be able to create some Youtube content from my trips and stuff, but will see how it is going!
UK Tournaments
I'm from the UK and honestly the Starcraft scene over here sucks. I've already ran some tournaments called the UK Revival Series to try and keep the UK Scene alive and kicking and I will be putting in a lot of effort to run these events at a more frequent rate as well.
The addition of the Gfinity Starcraft tournaments have already been a great boost to the UK Scene and hopefully we can continue to build the interest in Starcraft over here!
As you can see, I'm really going to throw everything I have at this opportunity and I hope you guys are able to check out some of my content in the near future! The next few days I will be packing up and leaving University and drinking a bunch, but will be streaming SC2ITL semi-finals and some other things and from next week the hard work really does begin!
If you want to follow me on my journey you should check out my website, stream or twitter. You can also follow SC2Improve on twitter and facebook.
