SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

-- nGen and the NRG LAN, 2011

It was very early days back in 2011 in regards to an Australian StarCraft scene, no one really knew where it was all heading. Online tournaments were the only way I could find any sort of 'scene'. This was around the time I was also accepted into nGen, which, looking back, is one of the most bad-ass group of motherfuckers SEA ever saw. Light, Mafia, JazBas and MaSter. All exceptional players back then, each having their time in the limelight, all 4 finding success at various times.

The first time I ever met ANYONE from the StarCraft scene in person was the NRG Hardcore Gamer LAN, a 25k prize pool in 2011? Jesus ****! Anybody who was anybody was gonna try and attend, and it just so happened I was around Sydney during that time. My girlfriends mother drove me from the eastern suburbs to the centre of the city on our way home so I could pop by for '30 minutes' (read: 1 hour) to say hello to whoever I wasn't shy as **** to say it to.

After driving aimlessly around the CBD trying to work out just where the **** this obscure internet cafe was only adding to my excitement. Sounds kinda dumb, but in reality I was just a kid with a passion who wanted to meet his clanmates. We finally managed to find it, so I ran inside and went straight to the front desk. Me being a clueless country kid in the big smoke, and with PC Cafes usually being a predominately Asian thing, I had no idea what I was doing.

"Uh, hi. Is this where the StarCraft tournament is?"
"Sure is, are you here to play?"
"Uh.. no. I'm here to watch. Do I need to pay or something?"

The girl just laughed at me and I felt like a dickhead already haha. Anyone after all that I finally started walking around, there were so many people there. I started browsing screen names by looking over everyone's shoulders, I saw StarHunter, YoonYJ, Mafia, Light, Filthy, I think maybe Rossi was there too. Deth was next to Light, I remember that much!




The first guy I walked up to was nGenStarHunter. Very nice guy, showed me around the place and pointed out our fellow clanmates, those being only Light and Mafia on this occasion. He ran back to his chair to start his game which he quickly jumped up from to show me around. I peered around, being the average awkward teenage nerd, I can remember introducing myself to Mafia though.

"Hey, you're Mafia right?"
"Yeah, who're you?"
"I'm nGenHuT."
"Cool, my games starting now though."

LOL, so friendly Tim. After that I spoke to TAHocus who was having computer troubles at that point so he obviously wasn't going anywhere. He pointed out a bunch of other guys like Rossi, Filthy and Yoon (who, by the way, had all his uni work in front of him 95% of the time, studying before and after games).

So far I'd almost met my goal of meeting all the Aussie members of nGen. Only Light remained!



Light was pretty popular back then, and he was seated around a few other top players I knew like deth, who was actually giving Ray some general Protoss tips like camera hotkeying proxy pylons (thnx for making him impossible to beat TvP), but I was actually intimidated by deth for some reason so I never said hello to Light LOL. No idea why, deth is a super cool guy, but I was just a shy teenage kid. Light always told me I shouldn't have been a pussy and he woulda introduced me around.

I left not long after, thoroughly satisfied with who I'd met and inspired by what I saw with my own two eyes right in front of me - a bunch of guys doing what they loved.

It was..

..

big.

-- The First BarCraft and Sydney, end of 2011

Following my return to Glen Innes from Sydney, there was a lull in activity for obvious reasons. I was still playing alot, with the biggest result for me becoming the Community Open Champion #39, defeating Ninja 2-0 in the finals. Looking back, this ended up being my only singles championship LOL, what a noob. Nothing else particularly interesting happened during the middle of 2011.

The end of 2011, was a very, very different story. I had seen around on teamliquid and sc2sea of 'barcraft', a social gathering of what seemed amazing proportions. I had to be there. I made a trip out of it, staying with my girlfriend for 4 nights while we went to BarCraft together on the Saturday (or Friday, w/e).

Whatever expectations I had of BarCraft were shattered not long after entering. This was amazing. The atmosphere was sick, the crowd was ******* HYPE man, I really can't explain it, you have to have had experienced it. Luckily, before going inside, I bumped into old mate TARiiChard outside, so my girlfriend and myself ended up sharing a table with him and some of the other guys - Mafia, Light and a few other TA boys who I can't remember unfortunately.



Following BarCraft, Light and Mafia offered to take me clubbing and pop my clubbing cherry. Went to some club in Martin's Place full of Asian chicks where I can remember Light doing the dance move I can only really describe as 'The Heartbeat'. You know what I'm talking about, Ray.

Making my way home somehow, and 48 hours later I was on a train back to the countryside yet again. But, this time, I was going to be back alot sooner than any other time previously. In the middle of November, 2011, I did it.

I moved to Sydney.