I've been playing Sc2 very seriously since April 2011, before that it was just team games for fun. I played in the beta, at most 10 games. My BW experience peaked at being 2nd in score on Fastest Map Possible. My other RTS experience is non-existent. That being said, I worked my ass off to get from Bronze to Masters, and it was no easy feat. The most skilled I have ever been in a game was being mediocre at Halo 3 and playing Cod with my friends online.
Setting up small goals starting from when I hit diamond in September was crucial. I started playing in Playhem dailies when there were only a few people in it. These goals were different though, it was hard to get my parents to understand why I would spend 5 hours playing this game. If anything, there were obstacles trying to pull me away from it.
I got slightly discouraged and never thought I could reach seeing that Star next to my name in the 1v1 bracket. I trudged my way through replays, and sometimes it was so hard to stay focused, and even harder not to BM some guy who did a 2 rax all-in while BM'ing me in game. I couldn't focus on witty comebacks to say, I had to focus on my game.
I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel when I was holding my own against top tier players. The thrill of playing a Grandmasters player and not getting completely stomped on was awesome. There's nothing more exciting than being on a players stream that people are watching, even if it was only twice, for 30 minutes in total, about 5 weeks ago, I still get excited thinking about it!
So here I am, 2000 1v1 games and 9 later, hours upon hours of replay analysis, tons and tons of Day[9] (without him I would not be here, his enthusiasm about the game gave me an enormous motivation) and even being coached by a few players from wtr1be, I did it.
Much love to TL for all you do, see you guys on the ladder :D