I grew up with Starcraft as well, but mostly played on my own. I remember a month where me and my friend played together, using dial-up internet connections, but that got shut down once his mom got the phone bill!

Part of me wants to commit to playing the game more often just to get a sense of how much I could improve at all, but I always end up getting pulled away by a console game, it's not even that I don't like losing on the ladder, I just try not to grind anything anymore.

Brood War is still possibly the hardest game ever due to fighting the game itself, it's still huge in Korea but watching the way they play that game still to this day and the level they play at is unbelievable.
The Starcraft 2 scene is pretty fun to keep up with, GSL in Korea and WCS for the rest of the world, the finals of their Spring weekend tournament just ended today, Serral is a legend.