SC2SEA.com - Starcraft 2 SEA eSports Community Site

jayaiwhy · Wed, 19th-Sep-2012, 12:25 PM

A story about a typical Starcraft player.

I'm not 100% sure about my first encounter with Starcraft.

It could have been the time when I was 6 years old (1999 I think), living in Hiroshima, Japan with my mom. She went on a trip to Tokyo with her university colleagues to do Taiko (Japanese drums) performances, so I was staying over at my family friend's place (also a friend from the same school) for couple of days. They were also Koreans living in Japan. I vaguely remember that one of the mornings during my stay, my friend turned on his computer and loaded up Starcraft. The room was still dark with the lights off and I remember I felt uncomfortable about Kerrigan's face on the loading screen. I remember the campaign selection screen, especially the image of the Protoss selection screen (Zeratul?). Then my memory cuts off there.

Then the next thing I remember about Starcraft is that I was given a pirated version of Starcraft (I don't think it was Broodwar) by my dad. I remember it was on a white disk with the word "Starcraft" in Korean. I believe I still have it in the piles of discs in a container somewhere...

I was never hooked into the game. I would play campaign and vs AI occasionally. I remember that I just could not beat the AI in 1v1, it was the hardest thing for a 6 years old =.=

Fast forward few years to when I was, I believe, 8 years old. Back then, I was more into console gaming. Especially into Nintendo games. I was a gosu at Super Smash Bros and could never finish Banjo Kazooie. Only computer games I played were Pokemon roms, Pinball and Starcraft.

these badass games

It was around the time then when I met my current step-dad. He introduced me to my very first LAN experience (when it still existed, mlm Blizzard) He would hook up his laptop to my mom's desktop and we would play Starcraft together. I don't even know how he could possibly put up with a 8 years old...

I guess it was from then that I was introduced to more nerdy sides of life. He also introduced me to Magic the Gathering, chess and other electronic games and also board games. As I write this, I'm starting to think that it all started with him, haha.

Shall we skip some more time?
Jumping to when I was 12 years old. By this time, I have moved to Australia (when I was 10) and made friends in my suburb. We had a student living with us at home, and I recall me and my friends using our family desktop as well as stealing the student's desktop (I think he was 16 or 17 around then) to play Starcraft on LAN and occasional Maple Story. I think I was the best among my friends even though I'm pretty sure I didn't know what hotkeys and control groups were...

Skip a year to when I was 13.
I think around this time was when I completely stopped playing Starcraft. I guess Dota was my game back then. Oh, and also Tree Tag if anyone remembers that game

Throughout highschool, pretty much all my gaming time was spent playing Dota on Bored Aussie (MrZain fkyeah) with my friends. Highschool for me was Dota, Basketball and going down to the city with friends. Oh, and this is in Perth.

Year 12. 17 years old. Final year of highschool.
I never stopped playing Dota whenever I had free time. Although my parents were bit strict about gaming because it was my final year, I would always find some time to play it.

17 was when I was re-introduced to Starcraft. It was 2010.

I'm not sure how it all started, but few weeks after release of Starcraft II, I was given a copy by my friend, Kevin on my birthday. Prior to that, I downloaded pirated version of Starcraft II which allowed me to play offline vs AI (during Beta) and I would play around with it occasionally.

Kevin (the guy in the middle with glasses), the guy who introduced me to Starcraft II

Even though Kevin got me the game, I still wasn't really into the game. I was thinking of sharing the game with Kevin since he didn't own a copy back then. So I decided to name the account kayveejay (no it has to reference to vagina, K came from Kevin and J came from my name). He played the placement matches and the account was in Gold league. I think Kevin played more than I did for the first few months.

He played Protoss, so I just decided to play Protoss as well. I never had trouble with the whole ladder anxiety issue that people seems to be having, so I would hop on 1v1 and ladder from time to time. I was terrible at the game and eventually got demoted all the way down to Bronze. It's probably because I didn't know gateways could transform into warpgates -____-

Then I started watching HD and Husky's videos on YouTube. The most memorable one was between TLO vs Nazgul [ youtube ]FGP1-R9rugo= [ /youtube ]
It was probably the coolest shit I've seen back then. BCs, Nukes, Void Rays. All the Bronze's dreams come true. From then, I would download videos off YouTube and put it on my ipod touch and watch them in class. I was into "watching" and not so much of playing.

We had quite a few Asians

Highschool eventually came to an end, and in 2011, I moved to Melbourne to study there.

I guess this was the year when the passion for Starcraft really kicked in.

I lived in a residential college called International House, shortened IH. It's about 5 minutes walk from University of Melbourne along Royal Parade. To sum it up, it was the best year in my life so far, and I don't know if anything in the future can top that year.

I was probably shy for the first few weeks. Everyone was at least a year older than me (Perth graduate at 17) and I was never into drinking back then so I wasn't too sure how to make friends with older people.

Eventually I found out that IH had quite a large number of Dota players so I quickly became friends with them. The ages varied from young to old, but hey, whatever. Almost every night we would LAN the night away with Dota

It was probably from there that I met Heha (Phoneheha) and Panit. They were Starcraft fans. Panit being more of a viewer and Heha the player. Heha was in Masters and I believe I was in Gold. Long story short, he would call me a scrub (to current date, even though he is the "scrub" now :P), and I wanted to get better.

my rival(?), friend, Phoneheha

Every custom games we played, he would easy me. Except for one game when I 1 base nydus speedling all-inned his Terran

(he plays random)

I would do cheesy builds every single matchup. Up to around mid-Diamond, EVERY SINGLE GAME, I would 14/14 baneling all in in every matchup. I would know every timings and such of this build. I often got called a one trick pony :P

During the year, almost every morning, I would wake up to watch Destiny's stream. For me, it was a real fun way of starting a day. Skip breakfast at 8, wake up at 11, put some food in the microwave and tune into Destiny's stream. I used to think Destiny was the shit. The most memorable game was between him and Leenock in a ladder game, where he massed infestors and won the game against Leenock (I had no clue who Leenock was back then) Some people hate Destiny, but to this date, I still can't hate him. He provided me so much joy in 2011

2nd half of 2011 was when I was first introduced to competitive side of Starcraft II.

I watched a replay cast by Husky of IdrA vs MMA (the game where MMA kills his own CC) I talked about the game to my friend Panit, and he said that the game was old and that it was played at MLG.

I had no clue what MLG was, then I eventually found out that it's a tournament in US.

So the next MLG, bunch of us gathered in the common area and we watched MLG together on the couch on my monitor that I had brought down from my room. I fell asleep on the couch since it was airing around 4am or so, but I guess that was my first introduction to the competitive Starcraft II scene.

End of the year came.

I was Diamond league, just learning how to macro.

December 2011, my family made a trip to Korea to visit my mom's family and also for holiday.
What is there to do in Korea when you don't know anyone?

Starcraft.

I stayed in my uncles place and I would Starcraft all day. I would leave the TV on to show Broodwar (even though to this date I don't know what all the units do) on my left side, and ladder on my laptop.

This was when I learnt an important lesson. The reason why I was losing late game against Terran and Protoss.

I learnt to make Broodlords, and that late game Zerg OP.

From that day on, I started winning macro games

Ah forgot to mention, this was the time around when I was first introduced to sc2sea. I don't remember how I got here, but the first thing I did was to get my hands on TGM SC2 Guide. I was stuck in Diamond, and thought I would give TGM a try. Every penny worth it, I really recommend it!

So one of the nights in Korea, I was doing my usual thing. Playing Starcraft.
Then somehow I found out that WCG 2011 Grand Finals was happening in Busan, Korea. It was the very next day.

Looked at the player list. Some names I had heard before in Huskies channel, blah, blah, IdrA, blah blah.

Wait what, IdrA?

Well ****, I'm going.

Next day, I put my Teamliquid shirt on, Razer headset around the neck (only headphone I had back then), with my Nikon D700, I attended WCG2011.

It was a cold day, really cold day. It was probably a stupid idea to go there just with a TL shirt on...

The ticket was, if I remember correctly, something like 6000 won (roughly $6).

The venue was pretty big. There were lines of computers set up and as well as booths for various products. Alongside each computers, there were Razer Orca headsets, the same headphone I had it around me. So I was a bit worried that I would be accused of stealing it @__@

the venue, and I just realized after a year of owning this photo that it's HuK!

WCG started with fancy intros, speeches, oathes, etc...

The players came out holding flags of their nation, and I was waiting for one country, and one country only.

I was waiting for mOOnGLaDe

I found out about him from TGM, and was reading his guides just the day before too

The players got off the stage, and started moving towards the computer area, and there he was...

I like to believe he's smiling in the inside

The day was basically spent standing around to watch the players play, and me taking photos of them.

Nearing the end of the day, I met Nirvana. I recognized him by his sc2sea.com shirt.

I read about him in the TGM too, and I finally decided to approach him

I told him that I was a TGM subscriber and if I could have his signature on my headset.
He seemed quite surprised and said he wanted to practice before signing my headset xD So I got my Razer headset signed and we had a little chat. What was really interesting is hearing that Nirvana was married. Surprised not because I was going to hit on him, but to hear that a married guy is at WCG.

Prior to this event, I thought that Starcraft II was some game that young people played. But hearing Nirvana, and also finding out about WhiteRa, Djwheat, etc at later stage, it was really interesting to me.

That's ******* awesome. Married and still come to Korea to compete at WCG. My view on Starcraft II completely at that moment.

Nirvana then introduced me to GLaDe, and I also had a little chat and an autograph

I regret not taking photos with these SEA players

nirvana on the very left, glade on the very right

http://www.sc2sea.com/blogs/showentr...tryuserid=6103 Here's some more photos if anyone is interested.

Oh, and when I got back home from the holiday, the next season started and was promoted to Masters

Now, back a few weeks before university finished for the year.

I was doing bad at school wise due to not having any motivation in the course I was doing (architecture) plus the crazy amount of other things to do in college than studying, namely drinking and gaming.

Staying in Melbourne was no longer and option to me, so I moved back home.

At the time, my parents decided that they were going to move to Houston, US for work. So I was to follow them. The planned departure was in March, but due to some circumstances, it was delayed until June.

The sudden decision came the Friday before University of Western Australia started, and I luckily applied and got accepted on Friday to attend it for a semester.

Starcraft wise, this was the period of time when I got to know Perth's Starcraft community.

I was first approached by Zealo on sc2sea when I was looking for a clan to join. He offered a spot in AsG (which I declined) and linked me to the Facebook group page for Perth's community.

I got to know a whole bunch of players on there. The page was almost like reddit with updated news and the trolls. It was always fun in the chat (before it got removed

) We would have fun reading Unthunder's whine on balance, calling MrToast gay and to trick people in thinking I was iMyang (my last name is Yang)

I was playing for AsG in SEACL Tier 4. This league was the very first time I played in a clan war. In the end, AsG ended up 3rd or 4th and I had a personal score of 24-1, only dropping a map in ZvZ the whole league. I'm still proud of that score

During my time in Perth, I attended 3 offline events. 1v1 and 2v2 tournament organized by the AsG people, as well as RFLan, apparently the biggest LAN festival in Australia.

My very first offline 1v1 tournament. I was fluctuating between Diamond and Masters then and I wasn't good at all. In the end, I didn't get through the group stage and that was the end for me :|

However, 2v2 was a different story. I never had interest in 2v2 (to this date, I'm still not that interested in it) but I decided to enter the tournament with AsGThor. We practiced for couple of hours a day prior to the tournament and we ended up 2nd place

RFLan looks like this

Yeah, it was pretty big.

I had to come to the event a bit late because I had an exam to sit for during that day @___@
It looked like I wasn't able to join the Starcraft tournament, but with some help from yang, I was able to at least start my run from the losers bracket.

It wasn't a good run. I beat two Protosses in a row (this was the time around when Stephano 3 hatch became famous and Protoss was easy) and lost in a ZvZ 2-1 after a failed 14/14 bane all-in on Tal Darim. Rest of the event was spent playing Dota 2 and 6 pooling people on ladder (I still remember it was Xenomorph anad Skrawl :P)

Another tournament with no result, due to the fact that I still lacked a lot of things.

As you could probably tell from reading my time so far in Perth, again, my study wasn't up to satisfactory. I took it lightly because I thought I was going to move to US anyway and that this won't have any effect later on.

There was a period of time when I would skip lectures and go to a PC cafe instead. I just wanted to get better. I was ladder grinding for about a week. Probably wasted more money than I should have...

Eventually, I reached GM on SEA server at a PC cafe. I was happy but guilty at the same time for investing so much time on it when I have other priorities in my life.

WCS was announced, and qualifiers were planned for seeds to the national. Perth Barcraft Star League happened while I was still around. Wow, that's pretty cool. A trip to Sydney.

At the time, I had no issue with ZvT and ZvZ. Perth, being small, only had a handful of good players and the only player that I thought I would struggle with was iMyang. Maybe, just maybe, if I improved on my ZvP, I might have a chance for the national? It was a big dream, but a possible one with effort.

There were 4 qualifiers to determine the Top 8 for Perth.

I played in the first qualifier. I don't remember for sure what matchups I played. What I remember though, is that temp0 and the organizer of PBSL, Tim, casted all my games. Temp0 still remembers me to this day and I'm looking forward to meeting him in future

The top 2 of each qualifier would move onto top 8 finals and I unfortunately ended up losing to JesseYLToT, a Protoss, in the semi finals.

Even though I really wanted to play in the qualifiers, I really had to get my priorities right. Exams yet again. I didn't have the greatest relationship with my parents then, arguing about studies etc. So I stopped playing a lot and started going out more every night instead. I'm really not into studying.

I started studying at the uni library. It didn't last long when I realized it had fast Wi-Fi speed. I would take my laptop to uni and would play all day. I was hungry to get better. I wanted to be good at something.

I play guitar. I played basketball. I dance. I do photography. I was decent at all of those, but I was never exceptional at anything. I felt that with Starcraft, it might be possible. I was addicted to the game, you could say.

Just after the announcement of iM picking up Mafia, I saw he had made a new account and had a record of something like 3x-0 on ladder and reached GM in a really short period of time. I thought that I could do it as well. So I asked my friend's account who has never played 1v1 and laddered with it. This account was named "elain" because that was my friend's name.

In the end, my record was something like 40-5 and I reached GM in about 24 hours. It isn't much of an achievement but I was still happy.

I went on a 10 day holiday to visit Melbourne before leaving to US for good.

Great times. It was like re-living 2011. I wanted to have this opportunity again. To live with friends on campus. This time in US.

Now to the current time.

I'm studying at a local community college to enter an university over here in US.

I've stopped playing Starcraft.

I was near GM N.A. level but I decided to stop playing.

Although I had a great time playing Starcraft, there were lots of opportunities that were missed out too.

I need to get my shit together, get into an university here first.

Then I'll party hard, study hard and Starcraft hard.

I'll join CSL, be a boss like Suppy, and get them esports money one day.

Till then, I won't be playing Starcraft.

Good news is that I'll be attending MLG Dallas!

I've got in contact with Quantic and I'm going to be their photograher

I might be able to get a press pass from MLG so I'm really excited to see how everything goes.

Also really excited that so many SEA players are coming over to Dallas.
Especially glade and mafia, favorite SEA Zergs

this video excites me and makes me nervous at the same time

I'm also considering filming at MLG as well if I have free time to do so.

I'm planning to study filming so this will be a great opportunity

I'll surely upload the photos of SEA players on sc2sea after the event

Goodbye WoL, and see you soon HoTS!

note:
bit too lazy to fix up grammar/spelling, I hope it's comprehensible

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

so good!