[FvRsolis]

I was just looking at the 'Gaming History' topic and I started writing up my response. I thought about it for a while, and I actually found myself writing a massive response for my first time playing Starcraft. So, sc2sea, do you remember your first time playing Starcraft 1? Why did you pick it up? How old were you? I'm just curious as to where you all started.

Do you remember what your first memory of Starcraft was?

My StarCraft story. (wall of-text inc, next post.. it's too big for this one)

[FvRsolis]

Um lets see.

The first game console that I remember playing is the Playstation (PSX), and that game was DOOM (followed by Duke Nukem 3D). I do have snippets of playing Sonic and Mortal Kombat on the Sega though with my granddad, but I'm pretty sure that was after I played the Playstation.

Ever since then gaming was a big part of my life, but I was strictly consoles until I was 10 and a family friend was living with us. I walked into his room and he was playing Starcraft. He was playing Zerg, and I still remember watching his Hydras take on Dragoons and Zealots... I inquisitively asked what the Hydras were, as they looked so awesome.. he said 'they're spitters, they spit acid onto things'... My eyes lit up and I watched him play for hours. It was amazing.

He then did the unmentionable and let me have a go playing the Starcraft 1 campaign! I died pretty easily yet it was one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. Anyway, he obviously saw my enthusiasm towards the RTS genre and ended up giving me WarCraft 2 to play. He described it to me, he said it was 'like Star Craft'. Then he told me that I should let him know when I finished the game.

WarCraft2 when I was 10 years old was no easy feat, but I did it. I smashed that game and it was one of the best accomplishments I've ever had in gaming. Unfortunately, around the same time as this my grandfather passed away (with whom I was quite close) and after my feat had been achieved, I was now grieving for the loss of a parental figure.

My parents' flatmate hearing about my tragic loss, gave me his copy of Starcraft. I think it was the most kind thing anyone has ever done for me, and it has been probably the most significant moment in my gaming life. I remember loading it onto my computer and playing it religiously for weeks and weeks (that was just the single player). And I just couldn't wait to show my best friend, and his eyes lit up like mine did, he went and got his copy almost immediately.

When my friend got the game, I discovered Battlenet and created my first battlenet I.D. 'spitters01'. I must have racked up hundreds of games on that account, countless custom maps (BGH, FPM and Racoon City were all favourites of mine). Eventually I was picked up by the clan 'Dogs_Of_War'.. and instead of them being smart and using acronyms as a clan tag, they made my friend and I pretty much reshape our aliases, I then changed my name to 'Dogs_Of_War_Spi'.

I kept playing custom games for this clan but I never played ladder. I played Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War until I was about 13, and then my disc broke, I lost my CD keys and just didn't have an interest in games with dated graphics (favouring girls and that jazz). So, I explored other more casual gaming genres (particularly MMORPGs and FPS) and switched to WC3 and WC3:TFT.

Anyway, I started playing again when I was 15 (3 years ago now) after getting sick of losing to my friends at their specialist genres (elimZKE and FPS to be specific)... So I decided to introduce them to my old mate, Starcraft and to my suprise, they enjoyed it. Of course we only played BGH and FPM, I'd Carrier rush and Cannon people, but still they enjoyed the game and it's now 'retro' graphics.

This again spurred my love for Starcraft, I had people to play with again and from that my interest peaked.I started following Starcraft 2's release information and the Pro-scene. I watched White-RA and IdrA duke it out in the Beta, I watched TLO cement himself as one of the most creative players in the world. I started watching Husky and Day9, and any other casters that I could get my hands on. I became addicted to the Starcraft culture.

Now, I'm (for the first time) looking at becoming a dedicated competitive gamer. I've always loved the game and am looking forward to future competitions with everyone. For me this game represents not only an escape, but it also represents a great change in the way competition can be seen. With Starcraft, it isn't about you being naturally a 6ft 6' giant or some hot pin-up boy to be great at this game... You can be fat/skinny/weird/good looking, it doesn't matter. Being good at starcraft isn't about having good genetics. Your daddy can't buy your way into the industry, it isn't who you know any more, it's what you know. No Pro-gamer is there because of someone they know, it's because they earned their position.

Personally, I think that E-sports is the true evolution of our competitive human nature, and as such I'll continue to cherish it.

This is my Starcraft story, and it is kind of a diary and a reflection to myself.

So, what's your story?

[cruxis]

tl;dr

I remember playing that mission where you have to survive for 30 minutes against Zerg. Shit was so hard when i was like 6.

[FvRelimzkE]

Well naturally, being #foreverbronze I'm obliged to post a message in this topic :3

To give a brief history of my gaming career:
I started playing DooM when I was 3, got my first computer when I was 4, played Quake 2 when I was 5. Switched to Gameboy and PS2 at the normal age of 9 and didn't return to PC gaming until I was 11.
I played competitive Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and ZDaemon DooM for a good 2 years, and started playing competitive Counter-Strike: Source and QuakeWorld when I was 13. I then started playing Quake Live when I was 15 and got really serious about it. I've played in many competitions and won prizes/money throughout my career. I made it to multiple grand finals in the ZDWG DooM World Championships and played for ReL in QuakeWorld and placed in the quarter finals twice in the NationBREAK Invitationals. I've played in CEVO-I and CEVO-P in CSS, and I've played in the WGT Finals at Sydney for Quake 4. I played at QuakeCon 2009 for Quake Live.


Whilst I was 15, Solis introduced me and a couple of my mates to Starcraft: Brood War. As a hardcore FPS reactionary gamer, at first it was INCREDIBLY difficult to grasp the concept of. I just built buildings and produced units until I had all of my hotkeys filled, and then sent them into enemy bases on FMP.
I then introduced my cousin (who was not a gamer at all) to StarCraft, and he loved the strategy and depth behind it. However, he was shit and so neither of us really improved much.. But we had so much fun playing it that it didn't matter.

Then I wondered if StarCraft had the same sort of competitive scene as the games I played did. I was absolutely overwhelmed to see South Korea's massive playerbase, competitions and professional eSports teams. I started watching MSL, OSL and the other ProLeagues that Korea had to offer. I was utterly blown away by their strategies, build orders and perfect micro. From that day on, I started following SC2's beta videos with Solis and gained an intense interest on the game.

We attended the midnight launch in Brisbane for SC2. I played it for a little bit as Terran, but couldn't quite get into it as Quake Live still had priority and year 12 schoolwork was beginning to need my attention.
However, once university started, I found myself at the mercy of GSL and MLG streams. This peaked my interest in SC2 and I immediately started playing again. After getting crushed numerous times as Terran, I eventually switched to Zerg. I am now enjoying myself greatly, as Zerg requires constant macro (filling in the need for speed that Quake is guilty for giving me) and I'm desperately trying to learn the mechanics and reactionary consequences.

Maths is one of my strong points, and I have already begun to work out build timings, structure defense and timing pushes.

That being said, at this rate I'm still destined to be #foreverbronze

[kellyMILKIES]

#foreverbronze

[FvRScrewby]

When I was young my cousin forgot his Starcraft disc at my house. Since I was obsessed in beating my mom's high score in Star Wars: Racer (still haven't #forever bronze) I never really bothered to play. One day I couldn't find the game disc (Mom probably hid it so I wouldn't beat her high score, she is evil like that) and decided to play SC, I sucked but the coolness of the Protoss race kept me going. I then discovered cheats and began winning against the AI and thought I was a pro.

[Eryx]

elimzke were any of your QCon matches on the stream? I might have watched you play :O

I never played SC1:/ #foreverbronze my story is a simple one SF4 came out I played that was randomley on shoryuken.dom and an event called devastation was on streamed by live on 3 and I started listenign to their podcasts and their streams Started following competive gaming because of them quake and then SC2 beta came out and I never got a key then I bought the game day 1 played the campaign for 3 levels and went into the practice league then sort of stopped playing and just invested my time into being a viewer

[Canx]

My first ever memory was my brother playing. I was 5 that time. Believe it or not, the next time I came into contact with Starcraft was because of the music, 10 years later. It was awesome for me to do work with, and I could listen to it on hours on end. I still get shivers down my spine when I hear the Terran theme music of SC1

From there, I started watching proleague, msl, osl and a bunch of vods. I think I played a total of 20 games against AI before SCII came out xD Waited for the exams to be over, and here I am Never regretted devoting time and effort to Starcraft.

*edit* YAY 20th post!! I never seem to be able to survive long on forums...

[ToRSpartaz]

Screwby;16056. Since I was obsessed in beating my mom's high score in Star Wars: Racer (still haven't #forever bronze) I never really bothered to play. One day I couldn't find the game disc (Mom probably hid it so I wouldn't beat her high score, she is evil like that) .

Wow Really Screwby? Its so easy man you just have to get some boosts off and burn up those engines xD So straight forward lol

[ToRDjvillian]

One day I saw my uncles friend playing the game. Shortly after I got Starcraft for the nintendo 64 on my 10th birthday. Eventually I got the game for pc and so I have been playing since 2000

[SGak]

Lol I got Starcraft 2 when I heard about the release but before I used to be a heavy console player and then I switched to pc with Warcraft 3 and played as the Night Elfs. Nothing mush else to say except that I sucked at rts games and I still do.....
#foreverbronze

[FvRScrewby]

Originally Posted by Spartaz

Wow Really Screwby? Its so easy man you just have to get some boosts off and burn up those engines xD So straight forward lol

Haha except mum has crazy times in all the races, she is grandmaster while Im practice league.

[FvRelimzkE]

Originally Posted by Eryx

elimzke were any of your QCon matches on the stream? I might have watched you play :O

Yeah I was streamed when I was playing Flysher in the QC-AM quarter finals.
He beat me 2 - 1, but he ended up winning so it's okay :P

[Satu]

I used to go to an after school hours care. Like the place parents send their children when they dont trust them at home, alone. Or the place where they think their children have heaps of fun. Well anyway, it was a holidays period, and they did holiday care there too. That was slightly more fun, because they let us bring in video games. We did some pretty cool LANs (it was at a school), but before we were even doing that, we were playing on nintendo 64s.

All the games were pretty much the same stuff, run and shoot stuff. Then one guy is playing this weird view from above game where you commanded units. Starcraft 64. This is when my love for a race started to come into play as well.

I was actually really obsessed with playing this race in any game option we played. Of course, this race was... Protoss. No, im not kidding.

Then I got warcraft 3 after learning about blizzard, which was my first played online game. I played customs like non-stop, and didnt bother much about the ACTUAL game.

Then, I got broodwar and yet again, played customs. But eventually, I learnt about the actual game, started to practice, joined a clan, and got owned constantly.

When SC2 came out, I figured my computer wasn't good enough for it. But regardless, I took a risk, bought the game and set a goal to get to masters. I had been playing zerg in broodwar because I thought the race was the coolest of the lot, so I went zerg in sc2 as well.

Now I have a new computer, am getting a new keyboard/mouse/mousepad soon and Im also in diamond. Pretty close to my goal, but regardless of whether I get to it or not, Im only going to keep looking at how to improve. I really like the idea of just adding to your skill level constantly, and the real fear of people playing against you not being your race and builds, but just how effectively you can play.

[CagnacciKid]

Thought I had posted in this thread before, but that might've been "Your Gaming Introduction" actually...

I've never played StarCraft 1/Brood War, my first Blizz game exposure was a demo of WC3 on a PC magazine cover disc. I was absolutely enthralled by this demo but, being only 7-8 years old at the time I couldn't afford the full game. One day my dad found WC2 in a bargain bin so he bought me that and I played quite intensely for a while but eventually lost interest.

Fast forward a year or two and I'm in a newsagents, and I see a magazine with a cover story about the then-soon-to-be-released "upstart" "black-sheep" World of Warcraft (hah!). I was amazed once again, Warcraft was everywhere! Unfortunately my parents disagreed with online gaming at my age so I couldn't get it until a few months before the first expansion came out, when I found some free demo discs as a giveaway and a PC store.

Fast forward another year or two, after getting addicted to WoW I found the WC3 Battle Chest on sale for a really good deal so I bought it, and played the first few missions, once again losing interest (at this time I had also burnt out on WoW but had just acquired an Xbox 360).

Then a friend who had come over and tried WoW at my house wanted to borrow WC3, so I let him, expecting it returned in the next few weeks. He held on to it for almost a year before I could convince him to return it to me. During this time I had another urge to play RTS, and with no modern-ish RTS games available to me I looked to StarCraft.

I had heard about StarCraft before, in Blizzard news, TV reports about the pro scene in Korea, etc, but I never considered getting it myself until SC2 came out. Then it was just the release date coinciding with my urge to play RTS with no WarCraft available to me that ended up with me buying StarCraft 2.

So here I am, stuck in Bronze league with, you could say, years of RTS experience. I occasionally still burn out on the game, re-lapse into WoW or have weeks of PS3 gaming with my girlfriend (I'm selling my Xbox, haha).

Cheers.

[Epic]

I was playing Maple since i was 8 , which probaly the most regretful time of my life . I then quitted mapel at the age of 11 then started playing dota , i was an aweful noob there . After 2 years i heard that Starcraft 2 is coming out and they had like cool units and nice graphics , so i wanted to buy it . Took me quite a long time to save up for SC2 . After buying the game , i was stuck in Bronzeleague for about a month until i got picked up by my friend which eventually trained me into a diamond ^^ .

[FvRsolis]

Originally Posted by CagnacciKid

Thought I had posted in this thread before, but that might've been "Your Gaming Introduction" actually....

Yeah, I made a seperate topic with the intention of just hearing Starcraft stories. (Influenced by day9 daily number 100).