Starcraft 2. The name may sound generic to a non-gamer, but SC2 is far more than just a game. The competitive scene is huge, international and a lifestyle for thousands of players. Tournaments are held across the world constantly, and players and fans alike turn out in their droves to watch events with thousands of dollars in prize money for the winners. If gaming is ever going to affect worldwide culture, this is the game to do it. It's already the biggest draw of the Iseries events in the UK, and it's only going to get bigger.
So what exactly is it?
In gaming terms it's a real-time-strategy (RTS) game. In non-gamer terms, it's like chess on acid. You could even say it's the modern equivalent. Even Gary Kasparov has spoken highly of it - his son is a major Starcraft addict. The basic principle is simple enough: you build up an army and kill your opponent before he kills you. But the strategy involved goes far beyond chess. Do you play passively and build up an economy to produce a bigger army later, making yourself vulnerable to early aggression? Or do you go straight for an attack as soon as possible and hope your opponent can't defend against it?I've played SC2 casually on and off for about a year. I watch the tournament streams and keep up to date on the mechanics. When I first started, I tried playing in the competitive scene for a couple of months. Despite knowing most of the game mechanics and upgrades, my macro skills and multitasking were awful. I'd constantly forget to add buildings, train units, or expand my base. As a result, I never escaped the lowest league (Bronze), but told myself that being in the top 8 bronze league players was where I belonged and resigned myself to never getting promoted.
After several months of playing the occasional fun-run game of Starcraft with friends, including helping them to practice (which basically involves me being a punching bag for them), I was starting to feel slightly bored with it. Sure, it's fun to just mess around with friends, but I was seeing them get better at the game and start to make real progress up the leagues and ladders. I was starting to miss competitive play, but for some reason this button terrified me.
A world of pain awaits. It seems silly to say I was nervous about playing a game, but anyone who's tried gaming competitively will tell you that it's not much different from competing in sports. The butterflies are exactly the same. I had the same feeling when I was playing arena ladder games in World of Warcraft, and even in Team Fortress team games.
I was off work today (after a long weekend visiting friends up north, one of whom incidentally plays Starcraft much better than me) and was slightly bored this afternoon. After thinking for a while and reading the Starcraft posts on Reddit that constantly mock and ridicule bronze league players, I decided that I didn't want to be the butt of their jokes. I'd force myself to get better! I would have to play 5 games for the server to gauge how good I was and place me in the appropriate league. I just prayed that it wouldn't put me back into Bronze. Please God, anywhere but Bronze again! After playing a couple of games offline to practice, I finally conquered my nerves and pressed "Find Match".
I'll save the details of the 5 individual matches, but suffice to say that I was so determined to win them that I made fewer mistakes than I can ever remember making in a game of SC2. My macro was still clumsy, but I wasn't screwing up with game-ending mistakes like not being supply blocked (which stops you building anything) or forgetting to spend all the money you've just saved up (having 2000 in the bank doesn't help anything!). In the end, I won three and lost two. My three wins felt amazing as it had been so long since I played anything competitively, and my two losses were due to not scouting my opponent and losing to an unexpected strategy.
So, for a bronze-level player, winning three games and losing two, you'd expect to remain in the same place you started. But nope. It's put me in Gold league. That's higher than any of my other SC2-playing friends. It's even higher than some professional casters/players such as Totalbiscuit.
...I have no idea how long I'll stay out of the hated bronze league. For now I'm just glad to be free of it. But as soon as I start playing more games I know I'll lose match after match, and slide inexorably back into the jaws of bronze.
And now every time I log onto Starcraft, I get confronted with this. And once again, I'm terrified of that button.
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