EPTSo last night I was surfing around TL and I saw the TL Open #7 post and I said, "What the heck." I signed up. Later that night I was talking to a friend and managed to convince him to also sign up. We both started off on the waiting list.
Starting 10 minutes before the time you could start checking in, I continually spammed the reload button. That's how excited I was. But there was a problem. I had told my friend that the tournament was Sunday so I was anxiously hoping he would just randomly get on.
I made it in and was officially playing and he still wasn't on. Finally with 5 minutes left he logged on and checked in. It was settled, we were both playing. The next 15 minutes I spent with my heart racing as I waited for the brackets to come up.
When the brackets finally came up I was ready. Music blaring, headphones on, I was in the zone(If us silver players can actually get into the zone, I was in it). I added my opponent and messaged him, "redy?" 10 minutes later I was still waiting for a reply. Let me tell you, I was super nervous by then.
To make it worse, before I had even started playing, my friend messages me and goes, "Well, I got pwned." My opponent finally gets on and we start the game. Lucky me, he was bronze. And in typical bronze fashion, he started the game with both of us on the same team.
What do you know, my first opponent was Protoss. PvP is my worst matchup. The night before, I had scoured replays of MouzMana to learn how to play PvT and Liquid'Huk to learn PvZ. With my limited time left to learn PvP, I didn't think I could play a macro PvP. LIterally all I knew about the matchup was, "Okay I think you need a lot of collusus." So I went to my go to build which I learned from my Protoss hero Liquid'Tyler, blink stalkers.
Although since he was bronze I knew I had a chance to win, in a way it made me more nervous. The game started, and with my after pylon scout I saw a forge first, and that we were cross positions. Normally I am pretty good with my scouting probe and am able to micro it while I'm macroing at my base and teching up. However, when I saw that forge I went, "Oh f***!" Then his probe pops into my base. This entire time I can feel my heart going bumbumbumbum at approximately 90 mph. I tried to remember what Day9 says, "If you can stop a cheese, almost always you are ahead." I sent four probes all around my base looking for the pylon. I'm knew I was making a lot of mistakes. I could actually see myself miss my 16 pylon and later on my 2nd and 3rd gate timing. I now fully understand how hard it is to make decisions during a tournament. I have a knew respect for pros.
While that was going on I finally remembered I should be scouting. I sent my probe in, and lo and behold he was walled off with two gateways, and a cannon! Immediately I knew he was going 1 base Void Rays. Why else would he have a wall in and static d that early. Bronze players aren't stupid.
At that point I started laughing my head off. My parents actually had to come in and check just to make sure everything was all right. I continued going down the blink tech path and just massed stalkers, waiting for the inevitable Void Rays. However, blink finished before his void rays came, and I made a horrible decision and decided to move out instead of defending against the void rays.
He had no units at his base and was desperately warping in cannons. I blinked in and took them all out. I saw the 2 stargates and the fleet beacon and for a second I was convinced he had gone mothership rush. Then I realized, wait a minute, why would he have 2 stargates if he went mothersip? My eyes glanced down, and I saw this flock of blue coming into my base. I was shaking too hard to count the voidrays and see if I should go back. I made a guess that there were 7, which would have been close against my 11 stalkers. Part of the problem might have been that I was scared of engaging. After watching the replay, I saw there were only 5 vrs, which I could have easily cleaned up.
With my heart beating in my ears and my stomach in knots, I went for the base trade. Waiting until I had 400 minerals I evacuated my probes to my stalkers, desperately hoping he didn't know about my proxy pylon and wouldn't come back to engage. Instead, he went for the base trade like I had hoped. As I destroyed his nexus I just stopped microing and watched the screen, waiting for the "SoandSo has not rebuilt their base and is being revealed." I waited, and waited. I was sending probes in all directions. Searching for a hidden base or building. Then it came. I destroyed the rest of his buildings, and with only my partially building nexus left, I won.
I jumped up and screamed. Screamed as loud as I could. I was so happy just to have made it to the 2nd round. That had been my entire goal. I felt like I could fly as I told my friend I had won.
Then came the second game. Once again, it was PROTOSS. Then came the worse news: he was 2600 diamond. When he said that, all the hope went out of me. I might have tried to keep my dignity and play a macro game against another race. Not against Protoss. I knew cheesing was like a 15% chance to win, and I had absolutely no idea how to execute a 3 gate, which made it about 10%. That is, however, better than the 1%ish chance i would have against a top diamond player.
So I 3 gated. I sent my 9th and 10th probes in 2 different directions, hoping to scout him, and proxy gate. We were cross positions. I placed a pylon and 3 gateways down. With 4 zealots I went into his base. But, I had made a crucial mistake. My zealots were on move command to the bottom of his ramp, but I failed to notice that he had zealots intercepting mine. With my spirit crushed and half my zealots dead, I made one more push. He overwhelmed my zealot force and I gged.
I knew from the beginning I had no chance. That didn't make it feel any better. I actually teared up a little. It was a good experience though. I had tons of fun, and winning that first round is up there with some of my favorite memories. Next TL Open, I am going to be ready with PvP knowledge and I WILL make it to the 3rd round.
the earnesty made me smile
