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My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Introduction

Hello SC2SEA,

Most of you wouldn't know me, so introductions come first. My name is Joseff, but people call me Seffy, and I'm currently a Gold league Protoss player for mGG in Starcraft 2 on both SEA and NA servers. In game, and on SC2SEA people would know me as mGGxJieun (or Jieun for short). And yes, my in game name came from my K-Pop idol's name:


Song Jieun is just amazing.

Recently I made a thread regarding ladder anxiety:

http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?t=6498

Don't necro that or tgun will hit you with his gavel. He is the law, and he will do it. :P

I made the above thread because earlier in the year, I've had the worst ladder anxiety. Usually I'm the type of person that would be simply playing for fun, no worries or anything. And this blog is about my experience this year of how it occurred, and what I have done since the thread.

Starcraft 2 before 2012, and early days of SC2 in 2012.

First off, I couldn't ever play the game at it's fullest when I got it in 2010, because of Year 12, the painful exams, and then uni and it's near-equally painful exams. Then, I got put off playing the game early 2012; around February to May/June I used to play on Cybergamer with my friends on CODMW3.. it was a horrid community experience if I'm honest. I only know one or two other teams asides from the team I was in that were well-mannered.

So I decided to go back to playing SC2.


HerpDerp-ing on NA!

It was also around this time where I met the mGG people. They were really the opposite of most people that I encountered during COD Cybergamer days; people in mGG are very nice people, very helpful and are always the fun bunch. I've played practice games with them, and they helped me get past being a bronze and into silver!

Not long after I started playing again, my Battle.net account got hacked. Because my Diablo 3 and SC2 were on the same email, and my sister decided to play pub in D3 during all the "hacksssssssssss" stuff was happening and mine got affected. So I had to buy a new one, which took me weeks because it was really hard to save up (damn food, why must you be so irresistible?!). My new (current) account got placed in Diamond right after I played my 5 placement matches. This was literally my first five games of Starcraft 2 ladder after not being able to play for weeks, and I was amazed at how I managed to win all my placement matches.

Diamond Days


"WTF ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!?!?!?!"

I didn't verse anyone above gold level in the placement matches. And also, my level of play was really on that BSG level as well. To my epic surprise and shock, the first ladder I played as a Diamond player, I won. WOOOOOOOO awesome right? Nope. I looked at the replay, and I won out of pure luck, and that highlighted how bad my skill level was.

I won one or two other games during the whole season, and I lost a lot... and I mean, a lot. I went on massive losing streaks before getting one or two of those other wins I had during the Diamond days. This losing streak really made me feel crap about myself; I kept wanting to improve, but knowing how I just keep losing so much regardless really ruined my motivation to play.

During this time I joined one wT weekly for the fun of it, and encountered IrisAnother in the first round. I knew I had no chance. And yes, I did lose, but after a 20-25 minute match. It wasn't the most entertaining match, but I was glad I held my ground well and was able to put pressure on a GM level player. I asked him what I could've done better and he really did help me out with the things he said and gave me motivation; thank you kind sir for helping a fellow player out.

But sadly, despite that, the losing on ladder just really kept bringing me down, harder and harder each time.. and I subsequently stopped playing altogether. I focused on doing Uni work instead and nothing else. It was extremely stressing.

Get back in there Seffy!

"..That's what she said."

Anyway, the stress in uni really started to get me really badly. I just cracked it and started to have huge rage fits. I tried to play SC2, but lost placement match, got Gold.. then just didn't play ladder, ever. I chilled around the mGG channel, played practice games with the members and that was about it.

I really had no motivation for the game; I had the mindset of being so bad that I shouldn't even be playing a game like this. Then I disappeared again. More Uni and my stress levels blew through the roof.

The current season came in, started to play again, and I once again got into Gold league. I was cheering about my placement this time around because I never want to be on losing streaks ever again, and I was certain I can do well here. But I still had no motivation or desire to be better, and my ladder anxiety was still on full overdrive. I keep telling myself I'll play, improve, do well; but it never came to be.

So that's when I decided to make that thread about my ladder anxiety, and my God did SC2SEA deliver. I've got so many responses, from people from all levels responded and I took their advices in.
To those people in the thread, thank you very much!

Glad to say that right now, they're working! I've laddered more often (or tried to) this season; Uni exams and stuff got in the way, then I've become rather really busy despite being jobless during the holiday break.

The ladder matches I've played both had wins and losses, and my attitude towards the game is ever going better. I'm more motivated to play, improve and always keeping in mind that I can do well and not let anyone down. Also, I played at some of the little SC2 Tournaments Flamga hosted at the Pad in Adelaide, and man they were really fun! Thanks for hosting them kind sir.

By this point, I started to get really hungry in getting better. I've been chilling around with the mGG people for a while, and so I decided to see if I can join. They welcomed me and I'm glad to have joined them. I started to represent mGG in tournaments and clan wars.

The clan wars were a great experience. It was fun playing against other clans and was a great way to show each other's skills. It was a great way to meet new players and play against them as well. This showed me that SC2 has a much friendlier community as well between the teams.

I played a few TNWeekly tournaments, at which I won on one of them, and did decently (in my standard) at one of Pandarine's BSGP tournies. I, along with some mGG members, swarmed the Silicon eSports Challenge for BSGP players recently, and I got to the RO16, where I got beaten by my team mate tioN, who eventually won the tournament, congratulations (also congrats to DrGoose for getting 2nd, and Nemesis making it to the semifinals)! These guys really made me feel at home in the game, and I'm glad to have met them. We also had a recent in-clan Race Wars at which Protoss came out on top! Wooooooo.

All of the tournaments and the Race Wars made me realize that I can definitely get better, and go higher. I definitely count Race Wars as one of my highlights in my SC2 experience for this year. Not only did I have PLENTY of fun watching us play against each other and have fun as a group, it also really showed that my skill plateau is disappearing. During the PvT games in Race Wars I had to play against one of mGG's skilled Masters players. All I had in my mind was that I can play well and to do my best, and to also not let his level affect me with how I think I can go with the game. He kept me on my toes during the game as anyone on this level would, and played very well, but I somehow managed to defend, get lucky, and subsequently outplay him for the win. The game really did put a ton of pressure on me, and I should not let that motivation I got from winning it slip away.

Conclusions

Though I'm hungry with getting better, I'm not laddering enough. That's the next step; to practice more, and to get much better. My ladder anxiety isn't bad anymore, but I still have some of it and along with my laziness it makes me not ladder often. I'm still going to carry those advices that people like ProAnnn, Stally, the Gentleman and mGG members gave to me to get over it, and hopefully I'll be laddering like a madman going for that GM spot in 2013. I can't thank you people enough. It's going to be go hard, or go home from here on in.


Where I currently stand, hopefully when I do a blog for 2013, that would be a shining Grandmaster Symbol.

Thanks for reading, it's my first go at doing a blog in a long time and hopefully I did ok. Finally, thank you to everyone in SC2SEA that has made me feel welcome over the past few weeks which I have become more active! Happy New Year and may everyone have a great 2013!

- Seffy.

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

A wonderful read.

Put in some hard work and you will achieve your goals

Good luck.

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Thank you. I shall!

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Really good read indeed.

All of us at mGG are really happy to have you with us Jiuen, and been great seeing how involved your getting

Keep up with the good work and lets get that laddering going for 2013 so you can come join the mGG ranks of master and Grandmaster.

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

go jieun go!!

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Hehehe thank you guys! Yeah it's really nice to be involved, lots of fun!

Yeah Alpha, I shall! SEA and NA GM here I come! ...KR comes later, much, much later.

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Very very nice read.
That chick looks better without green hair ^^.
I didn't know SC2 could cause a person this much stress at a low level.
If you ever need to practice new PvT builds bro im here instead of worrying bout whether it'll work on the ladder or not .
GLHF

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Ta. and yeah she does actually, she suits this colour, and red!

Lol it shouldn't actually, the only reason why my stress levels get so high is because of uni, and going badly in SC2 just added icing to the cake. Otherwise right now it's not really stressing for me to play, I'm just having tons of fun instead.

Haha you know it!

Re: My SC2 Experience for 2012.
 

Tiny update:

So it's past 4 am, and after a long time trying to see if I can get a stream going, I unfortunately cannot. Which is a shame.

Anyways, I've officially started my 2013 of SC2 with my road from Gold to hopefully Grandmaster! But, seems I've been given a head start, I got placed into Platinum league!