That's for my off-race account (alternate as Protoss and Terran).  Gets in a little VGP plugging there, too.

I'll be playing in the Tt eSports Challenge open tournament on Saturday.  It starts at 18:00 UTC, and tournament games will be streamed here: http://www.twitch.tv/ttesports (though probably not mine).

And my own stream: http://www.twitch.tv/terribleterribledamage

There are pros in there that would stomp me, so no delusions of taking top honours, but looking for a decent outing against the more leveled competition.

Have had a rough run of tournaments since my first one.  Dropped 1-2 from the last one, but against a top 500 player in NA, so okay.

Playing this weekend in the BSL Season 5 Tournament.  It's an online tournament only for residents on Ontario, and is also double elimination, so losing to one player isn't the end of the line.

A combination of things make for a very potent mix of competitive vigour.  To start, the matchmaking system is actually very good.  You aren't just randomly matched, but rather aims to try and keep you against evenly-matched competitors, aiming to get you to maintain a 50% win rate.

Aside from the actual numbers behind the scenes that matter for matchmaking, there's the front-end fluff of leagues and divisions that give you a sense of progress, even if it is relatively meaningless in actual present skill, providing constant goals and rewards for progression.  Less-so, there are also achievements.

With that, there's a very unique scene that has developed as StarCraft II exists not only within the space of the game itself, but as its own spectator sport, including world-reknown professionals, high-level analysis and the like.  There are standard openers and correct play.  It's very chess-like in that regard, though less precise.

Add on top of it then the fact that simply by playing online, you can, and if you don't stop improving, eventually will start playing the best players in the world, right there.  You don't have to join a professional team and travel the world, or make any investment other than time.  If you just keep getting better, you'll play the best (though to compete at that level, eventually you do have to make quite the dedication).

I played plenty of Halo online on the PC.  Good fun, and I did improve.  But was there any sign of progress other than my own paying attention of K/D ratios?  Anyone really talking about how to move around the map correctly?  No, you go on, you play, and that's it.

One game of Halo has the same meaning as ten.  In StarCraft, one game really doesn't matter at all.  You go on and play one game, you could lose by not defending some all-in strat before 10 minutes.  It happens a lot.  If you win, that's one bullet point.  I don't see a lot of value in playing a couple games a week, because you're not going to improve.