Sports Drama

Not much to update, so I'd skip this entry if you're not into Sports, follow football, or play starcraft 2.

Football

Anyway, an awesome last day for football in the Premier League! I watched the QPR vs Man City, and the scenes at the end were unbelievable. What an incredible rollercoaster ride for Man City fans, and fantastic drama for neutrals like me watching. Hollywood could not have come up with a better script. Within a space of 5 minutes at the end of the game, Man city was on the verge of losing the championship, but then to scored 2 goals in quick succession to win was amazing. Let's hope the next season will be just as exhilarating!

I support Tottenham Hotspurs, and we came forth in the league, which means for now we are qualified to the Champions League! Woohoo! But it could be taken away if Chelsea wins the finals... Boooooo!. Therefore it's no surprise that I'll be supporting Bayern Munich in the final. :p

In fact lots to watch this weekend coming. Championship play off finals, Champions League finals, MLG Spring Arena Starcraft 2 tournament, GSL Finals. I don't know what's up with the 19th of May, but it seems to be the best day for tournaments to be scheduled!

Gaming

Speaking of starcraft 2, i've actually been playing alot more recently, with my friends in team games and 1v1 ladder. In the team games we're actually doing ok against the players that we have been up against. There have been times we have hit a wall and do not know what to do. My friends love to play very early aggression, which means that our mid/final game can suffer. Still loads of fun.

For the 1v1s I just played enough to get my 10 wins so I can get the new portrait on my profile. So I'm pleased with that. I seem to play very well against other Zerg players, but suffer against other Protoss players. I keep losing to 4 gates, which is actually very obvious that it's coming, just that my build collapses when I play.

I'm wondering why it is so stressful playing 1v1s, I don't know why I don't just play and not care about losing. There is actually a known condition amongst the SC2 community and have labelled it ladder anxiety. People are actually scared to hit the find match button! It's weird, cause I find it can be difficult too. It's normally a 'Fuck it, let's just do it' sort of attitude that ends up getting me going. And once the countdown starts there's no going back. It's partly because it's hard. It's very challenging, and watching VODs and streams is so much more relaxing than playing it. :p

Source: http://fuckyeahstarcraft.tumblr.com

As amongst my friends we've only recently gotten heavily into SC2, and one friend in particular mentioned that he has lost all his 1v1 games so far. But when he looks back on the replay he notices that he could have stayed in the game and win. It's a crazy feeling that is quite underappreciated compared to watching vs actually playing. When you're watching you get to see everything and know exactly what each player is doing. Compared to playing you're in the dark mostly unless you scout heavily. When you have large engagements and trading armies and lost most of your units, you feel as though you've lost, when in fact you're doing ok and just trading. I had quite an epic game before against a protoss, but in the end I left because I couldn't muster the strength to continue, when I could have tried.

I criticise professional players that leave games early, but there I am doing it too. You develop certain game sense that you feel that once it gets to the situation you know it's difficult to come back into the game, you collapse and give in. I'll try not to quit so early in the next games I played. Sometimes you just know though that it's over.

Incidentaly in regards to gaming Diablo 3 has just been released. And currently many people are trying to log in but can't because the servers are full. Craziness! Gaming has gotten extremely popular in the past decade it's incredible. I will probably buy the game at a later date, considering I have exams soon and that there are errors, bugs and over populution. I'd rather wait for all of that to be sorted out first, so my gaming experience will be more enjoyable.

Wow... I wrote more that I anticipated. I guess I'm quite passionate about Starcraft 2 at the moment. Loads of fun!