No! Stop! I’m not looking for a higher CTR or increased engagement on your goddamn social networks! I’m not a cog in your sales machine! I’m a real person with real feelings, not a profile picture to analyze for your own amusement. My status updates say, “Check out our newest eBook!” but read between the lines; what I really mean is, “Check out me, please. I need validation!”
It may be ultimately pointless and/or sadistic, but something about seeing professionals masquerade amongst the hoi polloi and utterly owning the unsuspecting public in their craft is absolutely enthralling to me.
As part of their Starcraft 2 release coverage last week, TeamLiquid (a professional-level Starcraft community) posted a video of a diamond-level Starcraft 2 player playing through his five mandatory placement matches. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the terminology – all you have to know that this guy is really good and the reason he’s matched up against these poor victims is because everyone has to go through this process in order to be placed into the correct skill-level league. Kind of like taking a placement test to see if you’re in the gifted kid class or the short bus class.
You’ll see entertaining things such as writing out “LOL” in Auto-Turret placement in the enemy base or spelling out his online handle in the middle of the map using carefully placed units. You will also see ridiculous strategies utilized such as using double offensive Planetary Fortresses.
Basically, it’s a much nerdier equivalent of Jewel doing undercover karaoke. Well, maybe with more embarrassment for the common man.
(You can start the video at 3:10 if you want to skip past the internet gamer humor introduction.)
