Dreamhack Valencia

5 Years for One Moment

Brackets and standings on Liquipedia

by stuchiu

For fans and spectators, the story of competition, the story of SC2 belongs to its Champions and Kongs. The players that time after time after time continuously win the tournament and prove themselves to be the best (or second best). They are the ones that build a legacy, a dynasty. And in many ways that is correct. Competition is a system made to find out who is the strongest, who is the best, who is the Champion.

Yet what about the non-Champions? The players that never reach the podium, never raise the trophy? For them, Curious’ story, Curious’ trials and Curious’ career are much more representative of their lives and stories in SC2. Only an incredibly small percentage of players become champions. Even less become multiple time Champions. Most players generally follow somewhere between bad (Inori or J come to mind) to above average. Despite being in the top 0.50 percentile of SC2 players around the world, there is a clear gap between the average pro player or above average pro player to a Champion caliber player. Once players come to realize this reality, they are faced with a decision. To accept that they will never win or to throw themselves against that barrier over and over and over again until they either win or they break. For those that take the second choice, a Championship becomes all the more valuable as a testament to their skill, hard work and perseverance. But most never win. The barrier between the above average player and a Champion is blooded with the failures of countless challengers.

Eventually, they fall down. Eventually a player can only challenge this glass ceiling so many times before they stop believing in themselves. These players just fade away. For them there is no goodbye, no final victory, no tangible marker to show the world this was where they passed.

And Curious has seen them all come and go (and in some cases come and go multiple times). He has been here nearly since the beginning (his first recorded game was a Zotac Cup played on January 1st, 2011.) In that time we have had hundreds of players. In that time we have had hundreds fall by the wayside. If you count the players that have been playing from 2011 to now, players that have not retired and have not won a Championship, there were 10: Ragnarok, Symbol, Gumiho, Losira, Keen, Bboongbboong, Hack, Dream, Billowy and Curious.

Now there are 9. At the beginning of Code S season 2, Curious finally hit that glass ceiling too many times. He announced his plans to retire and go to the military. No one was surprised. He hadn’t been playing well for a long time and while he had a few strong results throughout his career, he was more well known for being the Code S gatekeeper, a player you beat to prove you deserved to be in the playoffs. For Curious, that role was never enough. So he resigned himself to preparing for what he believed were the last career games of his life.

Perhaps Curious' skill had returned to his peak form. Perhaps the resignation of knowing he would retire after had lifted all of his nerves away. Perhaps he had walked under a lucky star. He started the GSL with his head bowed and his confidence dead. The only thing he had left were the thousands of hours he had ingrained into his body through 5 years of practice. And for once they did not fail him. He breezed through the ro32 and he breezed through the ro16 and he made the largest run of his HotS career as he got to the ro4 of GSL.

Yet in the end, it was still just a ro4 result. It was in the hardest tournament in the world, but there was no trophy, there was no achievement, not for a player that had spent years trying to win a Championship.

Which is what makes today’s victory so special. Today Curious won DH Valencia. Today Curious for the first time ever walked onto the stage and raised the trophy high. Today he smiled wide for the first time ever at the end of a competition, no longer having to hold back his emotions so he can play at his best. Today, Curious stands up a Champion. Today for one day, hard work won. Today for one day, Curious stands up with the Dreamhack Star, a tangible award to the 5 years of work he has put into this game. Today for one day, Curious won a Championship not only for himself, but for all those others who never could.

Writers: stuchiu
Graphics: shiroiusagi.
Photo: Adela Sznajder
Editor: Jer99.