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MELBOURNE
 

I've been living on the Gold Coast for as long as StarCraft II has been alive but I wasn't always going to LANs. I was a Bronze league Terran way back in Season 1 but moved over to Zerg when I found out how good it felt to run zerglings into mineral lines.

Out of curiosity I looked over all my accounts and I've played over 10,000 games of SC2 since. When a friend of mine started convincing me to purchase the game, I knew that competitive gaming would take over me and I wouldn't fight it. I was a competitive gamer throughout high school. I'm not sure if a lot of you are familiar with Return to Castle Wolfenstein or it's free, bastardised sequel Enemy Territory, but they were great games. Not entirely for it's design, but for the community that thrived around it. Back then, the main source for competitive gaming was GameArena, and RtCW & ET had the biggest forum presence. These are the games in which organisations like GameStah! and Team Immunity were conceived and it was so surreal to see that those brands are still very much involved in Australian and SEA e-sports after leaving high school and starting Real Life(tm).

My biggest regret from the years I spent as a RtCW & ET player is that I 'quit' at the wrong time. I was on the first line-up for team 'modus operandi', who after six months of me not playing ET and picking up WC3, accepted an invitation to play at QuakeCon. I had missed an opportunity to experience international competition and I had felt like I made a huge mistake.

I was aware of BW and the SC2 beta but not how big the SEA scene was at that time. Through going to LANSmash events and qualifiers for ACL and WCG I feel like I have become friends with a lot of the players from the region. People like Signs, Shockwave, BIGGUN!!!!!, minimat, CyniX, elimzkE, Chadmann, Dox, SenSei, TargA, Solis.. (I'm definitely missing some) - all such awesome dudes. Talking with Andy when maybe eight or nine years ago I was using only his replays to learn WC3 was such a cool thing to me. When I realised that I wouldn't be attending another LANSmash event for some time it was very saddening. When I make the drive up to Brisbane, it's not just preparing for the games mentally, but getting ready to hang out with a bunch of rad people and have some good times. Supporting your friends and other players who are there, who are putting just as much effort as you are and want to win just as bad as you do, is just as much a part of competitive gaming as anything else. I just want to let everyone who I've met and played against at those events how much I'm going to miss the Brisbane LANs.

I'll be a Melbourne resident in 13 days which is a long-time coming and super exciting. I had been on iM for around two weeks when I made the trip down for ACL and I had two goals - to make the pro groups again and take a game from any player who I respected highly. These aren't glamorous goals but they are a start. I don't remember where it's from, but IMMvp advised just focusing on beating the player who is one rung above you. If you do that, eventually there will be no more rungs to climb. When I got out of the open bracket and had a very, very close series with iaguz I felt like I had justified the trip to Melbourne. I had grabbed an opportunity and made the most of it - something that ten years ago I had failed to do. None of it would have been possible if it wasn't for Team Immunity, not just the management but all the people who are on the team. If I didn't have players like Mafia, Light or yang to aspire to or to just be around, I don't think things would have went how they did. System and Zepph were super supportive as well and massive ballers in their own right.

So I'll be around at the next Melbourne event, whatever it may be, and travelling to Sydney for events will be much easier from now on. I'm keen to see all the players from those areas who I met at ACL and ruckus that followed, and grind a little on Yoon who is an AMAZING human being. Without that dude, my weekend in Melbourne would have been nowhere as memorable as it was, so huge shoutout to him.

ESPORTS!

Re: MELBOURNE
 

Excellent post, and as a Melbourne resident, I would like to say welcome!

Re: MELBOURNE
 

You'll be missed at the brissy LANs for sure. Good luck in Melbourne both sc2 and life wise and will surely see you at the next ACL

Re: MELBOURNE
 

Hey man! Shame you can't come to WCS but I'm sure we'll meet again! GL and I hope everything goes awesome for you with your new home and in sc2

Re: MELBOURNE
 

As a non australian resident I loved your post ^^ GLHF!

Re: MELBOURNE
 

haha hope u have a good time in Melbourne

Re: MELBOURNE
 

Great post man! You have always been a nice mannered guy to me and I have always been afraid to hit you in Bris tournies as I know you are a very underrated darkhorse so I'm glad iM picked you up. Enjoy Melbourne and keep up the good work man

Re: MELBOURNE
 

Welcome to the best city in Australia. : )

Re: MELBOURNE
 

Even though you smashed me at WCS Brisbane, You were one of the most mannered guys ive played against at a Lan i wish you all the best with you future in IM