Starcraft lessons from a "100 percent full-blooded Korean"

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009


Let’s be clear: it was his prerogative to put his race in the advert. I’m just repeating what I heard. But let’s also be honest. Say you wanted soccer (football) lessons. Given two identical ads on Craigslist, would you go with a guy born and raised in Brazil or some local yokel? I realize this is a sticky issue for potential Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, but for us it’s less of a problem. The Brazil guy, am I right? Because he’s more likely to have been immersed in soccer culture from birth and to have played since childhood, developing skills people like me think only exist in Shaolin Soccer.

Thus, Mr. ByunTae’s reasoning in including his genetic makeup and upbringing in an ad for training someone at a video game. Because Korea is the be-all and end-all of Starcraft.

Sure, we’ve got our own, more official courses, but how can you resist one-on-one tutoring on such topics as:

Muta stacking
Lurker stop and stacking
Cloacked zergling
Learn Korean lango, like “chobo” “gosu” “ww” etc
Advanced micro/macro management (able to stand off 12 zerglings with just 3 zealots or fend off 18 zealots with just 4 cannons) <- EXTREME SKILL

Sounds pretty serious, and for $20-$35/hour, you’d better be serious too. I think a lot of these skills will carry over to Starcraft II as well, so you’re getting kind of a bargain here. Bay Area only, unfortunately.

I’m especially intrigued by the promise that “Korean girls will be intrigued that you’re such a good Starcraft player.” That’d be good, because my “blogger” lines are starting to wear thin on that variety.

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