This is my first ever blog and my first ever blog post (duh), and would like to start off with my experience being casted by none other than Day9 and Husky in the Amateur GeForce Tournament! This is a fun, but true, account of what I experienced over the past week.
Catch the video here! Day9 and Husky cast one of my games!
Link to the game I wanted casted! http://bit.ly/qF4zV8
Humble Beginnings -
I am a mid level Diamond Protoss, Southpaw.531. Sometimes I play like I am several leagues below Diamond. As it stands, I am one of those players that loves to play and win, but find myself messing up time and time again. I saw husky and Day9 mention the GeForce Pro/Am tournament and decided that would be something fun to do.
Semi-humble Middlings -
When I entered this tournament I didn't expect to get very far. That was until I started to win some of my tournament games (albeit mostly forfeit wins due to the other player not showing up!). I finished first in my division at 6-0 beating out a player that will show up a little later in this post. I was ecstatic! First place in my division over a couple bronze, gold, and platinum players, and one other diamond leaguer! At that point I noticed a post on the GeForce tournament site that said to post any epic games that you thought Day9 and Husky should cast.
"That would be awesome", I thought to myself. So I sat down and typed out the description of a fun game that I barely won against one of my opponents who played random (props to him!).
Here is what I wrote:
Zerg opened with fast roaches but Protoss was prepared and was able to delay the attack. Zerg continued with aggression but Immortals and force fields saved the day, with the Zerg nearly wiping out the natural expansion. Back and forth play continued with infestors being added into the mix. Protoss was able to stave off another advance while expanding again, leaving the Zerg to the gold expansion and sneak burrowed infestors past the unaware protoss army.
as Protoss did not have enough detection back at home, game suddenly became a base race when the Protoss player took out the gold expansion. Protoss continued to put on pressure while worker line was ebing destroyed by infested marines. Ended as Protoss managed to wipe out all hatcheries while microing 3 immortals and a couple stalkers (avoiding infested marines and broodlings of course) to snipe the last building for the win.
Really fun and exciting game! Please cast!
Sounds exciting doesn't it!? I thought so too. I had a funny feeling in my stomach as I read over the other posters descriptions of the games (might have been food poisoning). I just felt like mine would be picked.
Tip of the Iceberg -
Jump ahead to Monday, July 25th. I log into Starcraft 2 after getting home from work in the early evening. I get a message from one of my opponents I played in the first round that says "Hey, I saw your video!".
What video? Could it be!?!? Is he serious???!!!
I type "OH SWEET" and immediately alt tab and go to Husky's channel. At first I don't see anything. Then, it's there. It's really there! MY GAME IS ON HUSKY'S CHANNEL. Husky is going to cast my game! I sit down, full screen it, and text my bro telling him the awesome news.
LOL PWNED -
The intro finishes and I hear a voice. But it's not Husky. Is that...is that Day9?! oh man, it is! This just got even better! Oh look there I am, mining my minerals, I wonder what they will say about my play style, will I play like a pro?
Wait a sec, I thought I beat him as Zerg on Xel'naga...this is Metalopolis. Nononono, it can't be. Did I win on Metalopolis or Xel'naga? Oh no. I did win On Xel'naga. THIS IS THE GAME I LOST. You've got to be kidding me, they picked the wrong game?
*In hindsight, I think they picked that game because it was a bit shorter than the one I wanted casted.
Well how bad could it be, right? I mean I ended up winning 2-1, so I couldn't have played that bad - Maybe they will mention that at the end.
Oh look, I'm doing a 4gate. Well he stole my gas so that makes sense right? Oh, he just cancelled the extractor... What was I thinking, I honestly don't remember this game. Day9 made a Dr. Suess joke, which alleviated some of the pressure.
There go my initial units heading down to meet up with the warp in pylon - at the 6 minute mark.
This.Cannot.Be.Happening. Day9 and Husky will think I am a cheesy noob, and a really bad one at that.
I'd like to point here to any one who has watched the video that I realize this 4gate is/was bad. It was downright horrible. I am no good at the PvZ MU, and I figured since he was random I could try to get it over with quickly, one way or another.
The game continued on, with me making slightly better decisions, until he decided to attack me when he was maxed. his lings tried to attack my third, but I had a nice wall-off and he couldn't get through. Being stupid, I still sent my whole army over there while he did a roach attack at my front. Moving my army back it attacked at an "atrocious" angle, as Day9 put it.
Attack, however, is an overstatement. I used the move command. Yes, that's right, my units ran around in little circles trying to get behind the Zerg army while he destroyed me.
What happened next was my only saving grace. I type "LOL PWNED". I laughed out loud hard when I saw that I had typed that, I don't even remember doing it. Day9 and Husky had a good laugh about it, but vindicated me in the end.
My Outlook Since -
So what can you learn from being decimated in a sc2 game, being casted by two professional casters, whilst people post comments about the Protoss player being horrible, and performing the "worst 4 gate" ever under the video?
well for one thing, I haven't raged in/out of the game since. It doesn't make sense to me anymore. Sure, its frustrating when you make that tiny mistake which costs you the game, but in the end, it IS just a game (save for the few pros who earn a living).
It sure was a humbling experience. I will try very hard not to look down on "lower-leaguers". No one likes someone who is full of themselves. The youtube comments actually made my day. I enjoyed the ones that said "Southpaw is awesome", but to be honest, I didn't mind the harsh comments either. It was one game. In a week, it will be so low on husky's list hardly anyone will watch it anymore. Maybe people were trying to help me by stating my 4 gate was bad?
Finally, I'd like to thank the community. This is a place that I have lurked, many a night, learning strategies and reading people's views on current news items. I'd like to thank Day9 and Husky for casting my game, and I would like to thank GeForce for giving me the opportunity to have it casted.
I am a becoming a better player because of this experience!