SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

It's Christmas, so I'm going to celebrate the hobby which has brough so much fun to my year, and practice reminiscing like a rambling old man on a porch trying to kill children through the unindictable weapon of inflicted boredom.

A year ago, after stumbling across Day[9] on youtube and having my Starcraft Nostalgia poked with a whopping huge stick, I bought Starcraft 2 HoTS. Naturally, I was terrible, but I was having fun with the campaign. I practiced for multiplayer in customs but was even bullied at first by the very easy AI. Clearly, I needed to learn what I was doing.

So I watched dailies, learned to build an overlord at 9 and a pool at 15, and suddenly I had graduated to the Easy AI. Progress! Around then I stumbled across SC2SEA and Twitch streams.

I got to watch Zepphnarde casting the WCS SEA Qualifiers, and Fenner as well. I watched the Acer Teamstory Cup. I became hooked on the eSports side of SC2, which meant I could enjoy the game at its best even though I was playing it so terribly.

At the same time I watched Fenner's fundamentals on Zerg mechanics, and soon had graduated to the Medium AI and placed in Bronze League. My ladder woes had begun =D

I burrowed into SC2SEA as a forum lurker and eventually decided to join the most polite and well-mannered clan in all the world: IXL. It was tea and scones all day every day, honest.

But I was still dying like a dog in bronze league, which was when IXL KingSlayer (now x5) suggested I just focus on Fenner's silver league build. Hours of practice later, and I had the timing down perfectly. I Roach/Ling all-inned my way from bronze to low-tier gold league in 9 games. Progress again! Eugene earned the honour of 'Best Coach Ever' for that ladder season.

But then I started to lose. A lot. Because apparently people in high gold/low platinum knew how to hold a rush. I was devastated. I would have to learn how to macro, to expand to three or even more bases. I'd have to learn how to handle a mid, or even late, game economy. The horror... My SC2 career was obviously over.

Sometime during that particularly vicious two-season-long plateau, Stephen-Senpai (x5 Arrival) agreed to give me some coaching. He taught me a ZvZ build which served as good practice for developing my ability to drone bases and build up a massive army at 9 minutes. I learned how to roach and take 3 bases. The first time I roached another macro-ing zerg into the ground at 10m, I felt like a literal god.

But I was dying to Terran all the time. And my ZvP was pretty trash as well. Having 60% ZvZ, 20% ZvT, and 30% ZvP made me realise I needed to learn more builds until I found one that suited my personality. Watching streams helped a lot, and a massive Christmas shout out to PiG and Fenner, who I got a lot of inspiration from these past few months.

This season I largely avoided ladder. I played a lot of games in customs, practicing various builds. I played around with army compositions and micro in the HoTS Unit Tester.

Balimaar also introduced me to the madness which is the Multitasking trainer (Thanks man!) - I swear, my laptop almost died to my probe-induced rage. But it helped my control groups and shift-egging immensely.

Then, in the leadup to Christmas, I found the build I had needed: one which suited my sense of fun perfectly. And suddenly I was beating Terrans and Protoss again. I dragged my ZvT up to 50% in 48 hours. I was fighting with 3 and 4 base economies, massing roach/hydra in numbers I had never before managed except in some ZvZ.

And today, I performed my first ever Roach/Hydra/Viper domination of a Protoss. My first ever Abducts on ladder, and they worked perfectly. Best Christmas present ever.

To conclude, a big thank you to all the guys in IXL, to all the SEA streamers I watch, and to all the SC2SEA folks I banter with in those Twitch streams. My year in SC2 a lot of fun.

2015, I will go Platinum #TheDream


--2014 personal SC2 highlights--

* Joining IXL
* Reaching Silver.
* Reaching Gold.
* Making friends on ladder while doing silly things for Day9 funday mondays
* Coaching with x5 Arrival
* Punning progamer names with Soul so much in one stream chat that poor Phil0 had no choice but to silence us for a couple of minutes. Kappa
* Co-Casting the AxS v DGTV Clan War with Balimaar and HvG Ice/ETL Poison/<insert new change of name here Kappa>
* Completing the multitasking trainer on Very Easy and Easy
* My first ever viper abducts on collossi, and destroying a protoss as a result.