SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

Hey guys i'm sure that the majority of you have never heard of me, I go by the name Liquid in game. Not that i'm there much and I'm one of the rare few who reside in Perth, Western Australia.

I was quite active in Starcraft last year, laddering a lot, playing in cws and lots of customs with fellow mGG members and others. I got frustrated at the game or more reasonably my own skill cap. At the time I was playing Terran and plateaued around a high diamond skill level. I couldn't seem to get past that level, sure I would have little improvements but I would never really make any progress (This was still a huge improvement from the bronze Liquid I knew back at the start of last year who 3 rax all-inned every single game until I hit gold).

But I still hungered for more, for those of you who know I'm currently 17 but at the time I was 16, In school I found everything a breeze, no homework, no study, hell i barely payed attention in class spending most of my time talking about games or parties. It wasn't until I hit year 11 that all changed, my straight As turned into Cs and I still didn't care, I was proud of what I could achieve with little or no effort, I didn't even raise a finger. By this time I was playing starcraft 2, I joined mGG in January or February I believe in 2012, around about the time I started playing, mGG brought me many good times, new people to play and meet with, not only that but a way to improve too.

I still didn't know the meaning of hard work or dedication, still performing badly in classes and still a no skill scrub in Starcraft, hell I didn't even know the definition of macro. As the year progressed not much changed, same skill level and same grades. I didn't care I just wanted to have fun. Looking back now I wish I wasn't so reckless. School finished on a bad note, I barely passed the year.

At this stage it was December 2012, somehow with my poor results and work ethic I had managed to obtain something rare to us nerds. A girlfriend. Everything was good I wasn't doing much work, playing starcraft like the chobo I was (About plat or diamond at this stage and when HotS came out I race switched to zerg.) and then me and my girlfriend broke up and it made me look at myself. What had I achieved so far? Nothing. I'd scraped through school with almost no effort that year with results I deserved. It made me realize something. I needed to change.

I signed up at a local gym and started working out, I had done a bit previously but nothing serious. I wanted to improve myself and what better way to start than to get in shape right? It was hard for me, the little shit of a kid I was, I knew nothing about hard work. The first few days were the hardest, but there was something inside of me, it pushed me to keep going and not to quit. School resumed, I didn't drop the gym but my study effort was still poor, my desire for self improvement had been doused, but the gym never was. Every day I would push a little bit harder, but at school I just didn't care.

My grades on average from the previous year Cs had dropped even further to Ds and or borderline Ds (except for maths somehow I was on a B). But at the gym, I had improved drastically I went from a 67kg 6'1 lanky kid into a 73kg 6'1 slightly less lanky kid (skipping ahead to where I am now).

One day I looked over my grades and realized I had to stop playing Starcraft all day and get on with schoolwork, that idea sat in my head for a week or two, but I never made an action. It wasn't until I realized that the gym had taught me the most important lesson anyone could ever have which I would just not accept from my peers. That with hard work came results, you get what you put in and that hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work. Proceeding in the gym was literally impossible without hard work if a decent pace was to be achieved.

I stopped playing Starcraft and I started studying, I was behind but i wasn't ready to give up yet, it was a week before my first exams for the year and I was so far behind, but it was ok, I was finally ready to study. I got sick. I could barely sit up for a week let alone study. I recovered before my exams started on the Saturday my first exam being Monday. I worked like I'd never worked before, I studied 14 hours every day that week including exams. I had somehow managed to summarize 18 weeks of work in all my courses over a period of 7 days including time taken out of exams.

I somehow achieved a grade of a C or above in all my exams, I realized my efforts for those exams were in vain for the small picture, I had too much information to take in, in such a short period. It did help for the overall picture though. I was still on a D grade overall for both physics and chemistry. I knew that I had to keep that same work ethic I had for that week for the rest of my life. With that I could get anything I wanted with time and especially for the end of year 12 I could get a half decent grade.

So I'm here today 5 weeks after that exam period, after a few more assignments and tests i'm now passing all my courses, but i'm not going to stop there until I'm on an A grade for everything. It will be hard but I can do it. Maybe someday I will be on top of all of my work (ahead of everyone else) then I could play Starcraft again and apply the same principals . Unfortunately I've been on and off with the gym so I haven't gained too much there at the moment but i'm committing again hard and I started today.

I most likely won't be appearing much in Starcraft for the rest of the year until i finish school as I plan for a gap year before university (if i can get those grades after all) that's when it will all begin again, Starcraft, something I miss a lot. I want to apologize for anyone especially in mGG who cheered for me in any event cw or tournament that I've played in previously, it was a poor effort and most of the time I had poor results. When I return I will be practicing my heart out to become the best possible player I can be, I barely practiced before I wonder how far I could get with practice and a sick work ethic. Hell I'm probably far from having a sick work ethic but compared to what I had before, this is godly.

I can't promise to win, but I can promise to do my absolute best. I finish school and exams on 11/11/13 , that is the date when I have my final exam for the year and high school that is when my gap year will begin and I will officially return, hopefully to become one of SEA's most renowned players or even a world renowned player. We will see, until then. Peace.

tl;dr Work hard you won't regret it and never lose hope. #patchzerg #probe2013
(excuse the spelling and grammar it's late and I don't feel like reading that over).