IdrA's been doing bad recently, and we all know that. But, after his 0-4 loss vs Morrow in the NASL, IdrA seemed extra-depressed. Then after about 5 pages of sadness, a poster birthed a great idea:
On May 07 2012 18:02 tragedy wrote: IdrA fans, I think this is time to do something to cheer IdrA up. I mean the way Jaedong god his card projects and such.
Our favorite player had a very horrible start of a year. I also feel like he is losing motivation, hard to play a game when you don't like the game. (as stated by him in interviews).
Can we arrange and do something to at least give him motivation to keep going. Maybe times will change to better. But I really fear we might lose our gracken :<
Quickly, people in the fanclub started to love the idea. Of course, I was at work at the time everyone was talking about this. So I come back, and I just noticed that the fanclub has grown more than normal. As usual, I read through every post in the fanclub, and all I see is people calling for me (as if I were a demigod) to organize this plan.
Well I had to go to sleep, and too many ideas were being thrown around to be able to quickly make a plan. I wake up, and I start the IdrA Fanclub Skype Chat Room (later named the IdrA Fanchat). From that, we start planning. After a day of seeing exactly what we want to do, we officially created the Mutalisk for IdrA Project. In the spoiler tag is the comprehensive project post that I created within the fanclub:
Fellow Grackheads. We all come to this sacred thread every day to bask in the glory that is Gregory "IdrA" Fields, be it fangirling cheering or cursing we are all united in our fandom. And never has our fandom been more important. Greg's recent loss to + Show Spoiler +
MorroW
hurt us all, but it was obvious that Greg was the one hurting the most, staring wordlessly in to the score screen.
Our overseer needs us, and lets not dissapoint him.
Inspired from A Zergling for Jaedong, the IdrA fanclub is now taking on its own project. The concept is simple. We want every IdrA fan to create a little something for IdrA. It could be anything. It could be fanart (skill is not a factor), a supportive letter, a gift, ect. What you make is not an issue, all that matters is that you made it.
Method: Well first you need to make something. Be sure to put your heart and soul into this. But, how are you going to get it to me?
Mail: If you live in the US (and I suppose Canada/Mexico too), send me your gift to this address:
!Important! Please take a picture or scan your gift to IdrA before sending it to me. It would be so unfortunate if the package would get lost/arrive too late/ect.
Email: If you live overseas, don't be discouraged! While IdrA might not get your gift in it's physical form, he can still get a copy. If you can scan your document (fanart/letter), do so and email it! If you can take a picture of whatever you're making, do so and email it!
Donations: But sometimes a scanned document isn't enough. We'll be doing a mini-donation drive (via PayPal) to assist in this project. With the money collected, we as a fanclub will decide what to buy for IdrA. If you want me to specifically order something with your money instead of going into the collective route, just PM me or message me on skype (wholegrn).
!Important! If you're donating, please at least make a short letter or something for IdrA. We don't want to just throw money at him, we also want to throw love!
Also, we have a skype chat group going on for this project, so if you want to join in, add me on skype (wholegrn), and I'll add you to the group. Nothing important is being discussed there, but it is useful for quick questions. And why not? We might use it more as we discuss what to do with the donations too.
Deadlines: Deadlines won't be super strict, but make it easier for me and get your stuff in on time. If you miss the deadline, there is not guarantee that your stuff will get to IdrA.
Mail & Email: May 24th CDT
Donations: May 21th CDT
UPDATE: We got some potentially good news that is pushing back this deadline...except we aren't sure when the "new deadline" is. It could be in 3 days, or it could be much longer. So since we're pass the deadlines, there is no guarantee that your letter will be sent, but just know to write it ASAP.
Closing Words: All I have to say is that I'm really impressed at all of the support that you guys are giving this project. If this succeeds, it will prove that we're not just a fanclub, we're something much bigger. Tell your friends who have any shed of respect for IdrA to help contribute. Even simple letters of encouragement will help. But most importantly, remember that this is for IdrA. He has been preforming bad recently. He needs this. He needs to know that we still support him 100%. We may discuss his flaws and be critical of him, but at the end of the day, we look up to him.
If you have any questions, email, PM, or message me on skype (wholegrn).
UPDATE: We got some potentially good news that is pushing back this deadline...except we aren't sure when the "new deadline" is. It could be in 3 days, or it could be much longer. So since we're pass the deadlines, there is no guarantee that your letter will be sent, but just know to write it ASAP.
What to Buy?
Well right from the start, we were offered help from people in EG. That was uplifting. But the first decision we had to make (before doing anything else) was to see if we should make it public (by posting it on Reddit & SC2 General) or keep it within the fanclub. After some discussion, we decide to keep it within the fanclub. It'll be easier to manage and much more meaningful.
I didn't set up the PayPal instantly because I just set up my own bank account very recently, and I still needed my credit card to be mailed along with other bank stuff. But after consulting with everyone in the Skype chat group, we guesstimated that we would raise about $200. Except, we didn't really know what to get IdrA. Hell, I'm IdrA's biggest fan, and even I had trouble trying to think of a gift to get IdrA, no matter the price. Well after I got my PayPal set up, we quickly raised $300, but we still didn't know what to get for IdrA. Someone messaged Anna about our little problem, and Anna gave us the idea of a Kindle (among other ideas). I bought a Kindle about a week before, and I love it. So I immediately jumped on that idea. I convinced everyone that it'd be a great gift, especially since he travels so much.
But, a Kindle Touch 3G (with a decent case) is only about $200. What would we get with the other $100? Well luckily, one of the people in the Skype chat group actually knew IdrA a little. So she recommended for us to buy chocolate. She also said that IdrA is pretty picky, so we should get plain stuff. IdrA likes lemon and ginger flavored chocolates, but it was really hard for us to find that...so what was our idea? 5-Pound Chocolate Bars. We could buy IdrA two 5-pound chocolate bars with the leftover $100. And we were pretty set on the idea too. It was plain, ridiculous, funny, and oddly practical. Also, we contacted NiT GriT to make a song for IdrA, and we explained the whole situation.
Well, about five days (it's May 20th now) passed of nothing really happening because we were waiting for deadlines and whatnot. I start talking about actually getting this plan in fruition. I start getting everything ready to order, and anything else I could do to try to ship the stuff out ASAP. Then all of a sudden, people start messaging me saying they'll donate & send letters. Well, I wasn't exactly ready to ship out yet, so more money couldn't hurt. It'd help cover the shipping and perhaps we could add something else. I get a $20 donation, and conveniently, it is enough to allow our budget to buy THREE 5-Pound Chocolate Bars. I'm also getting a small flood of letters. The more the merrier.
Tomorrow comes, and that is the day I decide to go buy the Kindle (at my local RadioShack). I go take care of that quickly, and come home to about $85 donated. Alright. Now we don't want to go overboard with the chocolate, so we start thinking of different things to get IdrA with our new money. M&M's, Alcohol, more multi-pound chocolate bars, chocolate gift baskets, and a few other things were all considered. Then within the next two days I get about $120 more in donations for the gift. Oh boy. So we have to scratch every idea (but the Kindle) and start from the beginning with about $350ish to spend. After some discussion, we make the final decision of the bottle of scotch and the basket of chocolate.Also, NiT GriT replied...but they charge $4500 for songs.
Shipping
So after I said that I was preparing to ship the letters & Kindle, I get a flood of letters. But, I kind of lied and said it a day early because I semi-expected the flood of letters. And I spent that day printing out all of the letters, and packing the Kindle & the letters. The next day, I go to the post office and ship it.
We were hoping that IdrA would get the gift before MLG Anaheim, but we were hoping for too much. I didn't really take into account that EG is pretty busy, and I was mentally scheduling the package as if they would stop whatever they were doing to tend to my needs. Of course, I mailed the package before even contacting EG.lectR (the guy helping me with all of this), and I thinking he would respond and order the chocolate and whiskey the same day. After a day of not responding, I was getting kind of worried, so I foolishly messaged Incontrol, Machine, and Lzgamer asking for help. Well Incontrol replied saying that they're busy preparing for Anaheim, and the players can't really deal with that kind of stuff anyway. Well, I instantly realized how dumb I was for messaging them and apologized. Sorry!
Then the next day, EG.lectR responds and he gives me all the necessary tools to order the chocolate and whiskey. Well, I start trying to order, and my debit card is declining. I'm a Junior, so sometimes little inconsistencies (comma after Smith? Period after Jr.?) mess up ordering online. And apparently the whiskey website is really strict about that, so they started to decline my debit card just because I messed up. Then I tried ordering the chocolate, and I was getting denied for no reason. I call the chocolate customer support to void the order...and I figured no order went through at all for the whiskey company. So I give up, and just give EG.lectR all of the money in my PayPal account, and he handles the rest. Thank you lectR!
I'm playing DotA 2, and I get a call from my bank's fraud protection service. WTF. Without going into detail, it was a big clusterfuck of transactions that went through and transactions that didn't...and apparently I was getting charged for like five bottles of whiskey. Luckily, the customer service was pretty helpful, and we just voided everything no problem. Life lesson, don't try to spam orders with debit cards. On lectR's end, he just had to wait a few days for the money to go in his bank, then he could order. That & Anna being at E3 basically had IdrA receive the gift after MLG Anaheim. I'm kind of glad because I don't think our gift could've pushed IdrA through the horrible scheduling issues he had.
Delivery & Aftermath
Well MLG passes, I have severe diarrhea, and then I headed to Europe. So I don't really know why IdrA didn't get the gift for about a week after MLG. I was on vacation, so I just assumed he got it, and I'll be a really happy person when I'd get home. I get home, I fight jetlag, and then when I'm finally back to normal, IdrA gets his gift. So I guess the stars aligned perfectly to me! IdrA posts in his fanclub for the first time, saying:
On June 24 2012 14:36 IdrA wrote: i have the best fans ever you guys kick ass
And if that wasn't enough, IdrA came hang out with us in our Skype chat group for about an hour! It was the coolest thing ever. It was pretty funny too. At first, we all kept our cool, but about 10 minutes in, we started telling IdrA about our homoerotic discussions about him.
One of MANY awesome moments with IdrA.
The video takes a few days, but here we are!
Personally, this project was amazing. Even though I love to see IdrA happy with the gifts, the best part for me, is the Skype chat group, that is still growing with IdrA fans. It started with a core group of about eight, but now more and more people are joining and becoming part of the IdrA Fanclub Family. It's really great. I'm playing Starcraft (and enjoying it) again because of these guys (and the Queen buff LOL). I get on my computer, and spend my morning just chatting with all of these great guys (and gals). And I expect many more great things to happen in the future because of these guys. We're already organizing a giveaway (through the fuckyeahidra tumblr blog), and a EU IdrA Fans vs USA IdrA Fans Showmatch. Well I hope you guys enjoy the video, and I hope the history of the video was at least mildly interesting. Cya!
Edit:
Oh, I almost forgot. Here is the tribute video mentioned in the unpacking video! (Made by Sqorpion)
Last edit: 2012-06-29 23:16:42
Manager of IdrA Fanclub and @GrackenNews (https://twitter.com/#!/GrackenNews)
"Until the very, very top, in almost anything all that matters, is how much work you put in. The only problem is that most people can't work hard even at things they do enjoy, much less things they don't have a real passion for." - Greg "IdrA" Fields
LavendrGooms United States. June 28 2012 08:28. Posts 133
IdrA's #1 fan/GrackenNews "Until the very very top, in almost anything, all that matters is how much work you put in. The only problem is most people can't work hard, even at things they do enjoy, much less things they don't have a real passion for."-IdrA
On June 28 2012 08:19 GenesisX wrote:"a picture that says hydralisks are good... kinda misguided but very sweet"
so true though
Lindt chocolate is really great (the greatest) — looks like there was at least a bit of that there. I think the chocolate basket was a really good choice, and not-so-much the 5-pound chocolate bars.
I could see getting 1 2-pound bar but over 1kilogram of the same chocolate is a terrible idea. Chocolate doesn't keep forever, especially if it's milk chocolate white chocolate instead of dark chocolate (I think; at least that's what I've found).
Some beers would have maybe been a good choice too, but I don't know what kind of alcohols he's into.
"Then he told me to tell you that he wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire" — "Well, you tell him that I said that I wouldn't piss on him if he was on Jeopardy!"
Awesome blog. On a side note, the one upside of eSports still being relatively small is the ability to do things like this and having the players be interactive with the fans. It gives all the warm & fuzzies. I hope it can continue to stay like that for a long time.
Hello friends.
c0ldfusion United States. June 28 2012 08:49. Posts 2320
On June 28 2012 08:56 JerKy wrote: Wow I think thats the happiest I've seen IdrA. Ever.
Lol me too. I mean...he almost smiled!
In all seriousness, though, Idra is way better than the results he posts, and eventually his results will catch up to his skill level. I think it'll be largely a matter of whether or not he can keep playing the game until that time comes.
On June 28 2012 08:29 Aocowns wrote: We're fucking awesome
Now I feel bad that I didn't contribute.
Oh well I guess I will just have to top all of you myself
It's not a witchhunt if you have KR: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=371282#1 "HotBid [11:45 AM]: i dunno i kinda like the big muta shooting smaller mutas out"
mambar United States. June 28 2012 13:17. Posts 841
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mambar United States. June 28 2012 13:17. Posts 841
