Any opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of compLexity Gaming or its parent company.
Edmonton search on TL
The “Devil Plays Protoss” article for last week was on a local LAN event that I refuse to attend. My friend, Mitchell “Gofarman” MacPherson, had a big problem with the article because he is both passionate about and sees the importance in supporting local eSports. He knows as well as I do that I love our local SC2 community, and I’m writing this week’s article to show some love as well as encourage others to get involved in their local community.
How the Edmonton SC2 community was started is beyond me, but when I became a involved, there was already a tight knit group of core members. I found the community in a basic way: by simply searching ‘edmonton’ on TeamLiquid. If I were to guess, I would say that our local community started slowly with people in the area connecting through TL and then at events over the years. There are old forum posts for OSL parties or people mentioning local SC on-goings in Edmonton dating back years.
The GSL January Code S Finals were the weekend before my phone interview for the Art Director position of the Handsome Nerd. The three-month long interview process is its own epic tale, but it did encourage me to reach out to my local community for whatever reason. The first event I attended was a party for the GSL finals hosted by Zack “kCaZ” Banks. If you ever meet me in person, one of the first things you’ll notice is that I’m awkward and can be incredibly shy. I was so nervous about going to the event and dragged my friend, Brett “Brettatron” Wells, along with me as a security blanket. I don’t know if I would have ever had the courage to attend that event without him.
With the help of the local SC2 community, my game has improved greatly as well. The community here genuinely cares about helping each other getting better.
Since that GSL party in January, my involvement with both the local and the North American SC2 community has been ever increasing. kCaZ hosts a party for every Code S finals, and I attend each one to consume unrealistic amounts of sugar, watch SC2 with the boys and drive home at a miserable hour of the morning. Although I’ve never competed in any of them, I’ve done my best to attend the monthly SC2 tournaments hosted by Edmonton Gamers. As mentioned in my “Devil Plays Protoss” article on SC2 coaching, Thomas “tQArchaic” MacPherson started hosting bi-weekly coaching sessions in Edmonton to allow players to network, learn a few new tricks and hang out which were a great tool for bringing the community together. I even hosted my own open house for MLG Columbus which was a surprisingly fun time.
With the help of the local SC2 community, my game has improved greatly as well. The community here genuinely cares about helping each other getting better. As much as SC2 friends from Twitter are great to play with and can help with improvement, there’s something to be said about having someone with you in person to help you overcome barriers in your play. It is also great having friends who want to help you improve. Tomasz “SolidWolf” Lang has put in more hours into helping me get better at this game than I’d like to admit. Travis “Clonze” Miller has the patience of a saint for putting up with my playing sometimes and especially for constantly encouraging me to play more. As much as everyone would like to see me laddering with more regularity, I know they’re proud of the progress in my game and will be there to help me out whenever I need it.
Connect on Twitter
As much as I am loving getting involved in the NA SC2 community, the experiences I’ve had with the local community are priceless. I cannot encourage you enough to reach out and get involved. Search for your city on TL. Connect with local gamers on Twitter. Start your own LAN tournament, coaching event or tournament watching party. Even if the first event is attended by you, five friends and two people who saw your TL post, with the right encouragement and dedication, your community can grow. Who knows who will be at local events, what kind of friends you’ll make and what kind of experiences you’ll have? A community doesn’t grow overnight, but if you give it the right care, it will grow and great things can happen.
On a final note, the local SC2 community and its members have become a phenomenal source of support. Whether they know it or not, I am incredibly grateful for their constant encouragement of my SC2 endeavors. Sometimes, the community members drive me a bit crazy, but since I started my journey into SC2 community, they have been with me through everything, pushing and encouraging me along the way.
Boys, thank you for your support, and I can’t wait for what the future has in store for Starcraft2 in Edmonton.
GL HF
-Jacq
After years of playing World of Warcraft, a friend introduced Jacqueline to Starcraft early last year. Jacqueline’s relationship with Starcraft started out slowly: a handful of casual dates, a little bit of flirting but nothing serious. She took her relationship with the game to the next level after BlizzCon 2010 where she experienced eSports magic first-hand and realized that Starcraft was the one. Despite being a mediocre player, she has been clambering the ladder at a glacial pace and has spent more time watching Starcraft online than she’d like to admit. In March, Jacqueline made the leap from eSports fan to eSports professional when she was hired by the Handsome Nerd as their Art Director, combining her design skills with her love of Starcraft. Since its start in April, Jacqueline has been a contributing writer for the North American Star League, writing coverage for Division 1. Offline, Jacqueline is a bookworm, a runner, a freeride snowboarder and has a Human Ecology degree with a Clothing and Textiles major.
View Jacqueline’s profile here.
Visit @jacquelinesg on Twitter