The dollars and cents, the pounds and pence, the mark and the yen.
First and foremost, Kelby Williams is in it for the money.
He’s left Austin, Texas. He’s declined to follow in his family’s footsteps, choosing instead to follow the dream as old as gaming itself – professional gaming. The partying and the girls he once chased are, for the time being, not on his radar. The alcohol remains but, hey, you can’t begrudge a man a celebration the night of being hired.
“I work at a call center,” says the 21 year-old Protoss player a few hours after his job interview. “I need the money for now, need cash in hand. When StarCraft 2 comes out, I’ll do that full time.”
In between the drinks, Inka tells me how it has come to this. He seems optimistic about his chances of success and profoundly sorry that he is stuck with the game of StarCraft 2.
Inka found StarCraft 10 years ago from his older brother. From being a kid brother with a competitive streak chasing the elder, he has progressed to your standard issue mass gaming monster, sponsored and living in a house full of gamers all with their eyes looking squarely toward a future obscured by a blizzard.
In Phoenix, Arizona, he and his Evil Genius teammates “Machine” Bryce Bates and “Nyoken” Dan Edson and friend “PsyonicReaver” Brent Schultz live together and push each other toward the goal of professional gaming.
In Inka’s opinion, it’s that push he’ll need most of all.
“This new game is nothing like StarCraft 1,” says Williams, “and it takes a lot for us to play the game as we did SC1. It’s much easier and not as enjoyable to play a lot from a SC1 competitor’s view.”
What makes it so?
“I think it’s quite obvious,” says Inka. “The gameplay is completely different. No real macro is needed, auto-micro is enabled, the competition isn’t as interesting. It’s just not as hard as SC1. Playing a game that you can always improve at is so satisfying but I don’t see myself improving a whole lot in SC2.
“Obviously I’m going to improve but how much? Not too much because only different counters or strategies can be discovered. Getting better at mechanics will never be an issue. Being able to do so many things at once while keeping a solid, consistent thought about how your game should go will never be a problem for StarCraft 2.”
While StarCraft 2 does not seem to be splitting players in the same way that Counter-Strike: Source fractured the CS 1.6 community, StarCraft 2 is splitting the SC community’s opinions. Inka is not alone in his disappointment. He’s also not alone in moving on to the new game despite that irking feeling.
“I was hoping that it would be a better, harder game to play,” Inka says, “but at the same time I knew that it would be extremely newb friendly. I’m glad that it is finally out but I always knew that Blizzard would make it easy for sales purposes.”
And yet, he describes his decision to strive to play professionally as “doing what he loves.” There is a distinct ambivalence in Inka, a Platinum league player on multiple accounts. He still loves and is passionate about Brood War but has clearly chosen the newer, shinier and more lucrative path. In between his airing of grievances, one can hear a few compliments for the new game: an “exciting” here, a “fun” there. His problem, at the end of the day, is that he thinks StarCraft 2 puts a ceiling on skill that is much lower than its predecessor.
Liquid`Drone, a random user whom Inka specifically cites as a player with huge potential (he predicts “Drone will be amazing”), plainly disagrees.
“Today I bought myself a new computer and started playing,” wrote Drone, days ago. “Oh man, regardless of Multiple Building Selection and auto-mine and whatnot, StarCraft 2 is going to have a much higher speed requirement than Brood War. There’s so much to do to play flawlessly here, definitely more than in Brood War. I love it.”
Inka, on the other hand, thinks that it is many of these exact features which cripple the sequel’s competitive potential.
“Multiple building selection, auto-mine, auto-micro? What the fuck? It’s all a joke,” says Inka. “Good job, Blizzard, for making such a shit newb-friendly game.”
I ask him, right after he said that, if it is fair to say that he is in it for the money almost completely.
“Yeah,” he agrees. “I’m a pro gamer. I have to be the best or I don’t make money. I have an undying passion for StarCraft 1 but I can’t play it because I can’t waste my time. I need money and I enjoy playing games. I even enjoy playing StarCraft 2 to an extent. Yes, my main motivation is money – that and being the best. I’m one of the most competitive people you will ever meet.”
Yet again, he seems optimistic about his chances of success. In fact, he seems optimistic about everyone’s chances of success.
“Of course,” he says when I ask if non-Koreans will succeed. “It’s not going to be a huge mechanical game. You won’t need to spend hours to maintain your skill level and you won’t need too many more to improve. It’ll be all around equal considering nations, in my opinion.”
The drink breaks, the smoke breaks and the piss breaks become a little more frequent and the conversation steers itself elsewhere.
“We went for our interview,” Inka says. “Both Machine and I got the same job so we got ubermounts of alcohol.”
I congratulate him.
“Austin is my home town. I love it and I will always love it. I miss it. The people, the town, the atmosphere, all of it is amazing. I love Austin.”
But here he is, 1,000 miles away in Phoenix.
“If I become successful at this, it will be the best decision I’ve ever made. Even if I’m not successful, I will have had a great experience with no regrets. The people I live with and the people on my team are great, supportive, amazing people that I enjoy living, talking and playing with everyday.”
Young, 1,000 miles from home, strapped for cash, holding a clear vision of what he loves and having a reckless drive to go out and get it.
Ah, suddenly it all makes sense.
Patrick O'Neill (AKA chobopeon) is the founder and editor-in-chief of androidbit.com. 
Here, take this comment!
Inka is a fool, drone is smart ^_^
This sorta reminds me when brawl first came out and the melee community wasn’t sure if it would live up to its hype. Well it turns out they made the game more newbie friendly and pretty easy compared to the techs and speed of melee. The funny thing is that theres still way more people in melee tournaments than brawl tournies(pound 4/350 for melee,150 for brawl. I guess this is the future of competetive gaming when new games come out.
I dont know if you’ll ever get good at SC2 & make money with that attitude and understanding of the game…
Inka is known for being a flamer kiddy
drone is known for being a cool guy
cant undertand interviews with guys who every 2. world in cw’s is bastard or motherfucker O_o
One could predict all this happening. Starcraft has gone terribly wrong in that aspect that it requires an immense skill to just survive the first 20 minutes or so – after what the match is either won or become a chain of skirmishes in which luck matter more than skill (and quite a lot of pros just dont have any real skill except APM and knowledge of BO). SC2 in fact skips the first part and jumps to that where luck and ability to maintain the strategic view of the game matters. And immediately the pros are starting to rant about the game being simplified and all that.
I really hope the Blizzard will ignore them. A videogame with competitive multiplayer should have good players and noob players – and the last ones should become the first if they just invest a little time and effort. Games were the entertainement and should continue to be it – not some domain where basement-dwellers could spend the years of their lives.
Ahhh, gotta love the pro gamer tears. I get a kick of the complaints that basic changes like allowing multiple building selection ruin the game because it makes things easier. It does, and in a good way. Though I guess that if the pro gamers had their way then you could only select one unit at the time, its pathing would be so retarded that you couldn’t move it more than five pixels at a time, and there would be no hotkeys. After all, that would make the games way more difficult and keep all the noobs away.
I know what a serious gamer is. This guy is obviously too serious.
@Justin: Hahaha I totally agree. It’s the best way for them to develop a secure skill that nobody else who didn’t play all day everyday could possibly master.
Actually, Inka does raise a good point… dumb the game down too much, and it ceases to become a challenge. Anyone here still play tic-tac-toe, for example?
Sure, I think that automating the ROTE/trivial stuff was a smart move on Blizzard’s part… auto-mine, for example. There’s nothing much rewarding about telling your 29th SCV to get over to the damn crystals, after having done this dozens of times before.
But auto-micro? That’s total bull****.
If you can’t micro your units successfully in the heat of battle, you should either practice and improve or find another game. The computer shouldn’t be basically playing the game FOR you.
But I guess there’s a certain kind of casual gamer who’s lazy as f*** and just wants everything handed to ‘em on a silver platter.
You know, I don’t think this guy raises any good points. It sounds to me like he’s more afraid of all of the incoming “noobs” being able to compete near his level. It sounds to me like he’s afraid of the competition. He’s in it for the money and the glory, but without believing in what he’s doing and playing, he will assuredly fail at a pro level.
What we are looking at here is a kiddie waiting to turn pro but most likely doomed to failure and too many whiskey drinks at the local bar in Austin or Phoenix.