EPTThis blog contains no names or tags. I do not wish to "out" anyone who it might affect. I still largely care for these people I am about to describe. So why am I writing this? Tbh it's probably more self therapy than anything else.
What is a home? Where you live? For me, it's where I belong. For years now I've had the pleasure of being a member of a gaming organization, where I've been acquainted with a whole group of people, and have gotten several very close friends. Some closer than others, and some fake, but more on that later. This is the place I have called home since I joined. You might think it weird; its not a place, its the internet! For me that place was real. I used to hang with these guys every day, even while on vacation I'd be online. The reason I first joined, which back then was because of my sc2 skills, no longer mattered. Now we played everything we found fun. A group of friends. I'd call them brothers.
Of course, as in everything, it can't always have a happy ending. One day, quite recently, I had a small arguement with one of the other group members. The theme doesn't really matter. What matters is that the day after, everything was forgotten. I had no qualms with him, and I'm fairly sure he brushed it aside as something stupid. Brothers fight, but they are still blood. The team captain decided that negativity should not be tolerated within the group, and I as such I received a notice the day after: I was no longer welcome.
I think I read and reread it 30 times, and to be honest I still can't believe it. Not even a warning. I was kicked right off because of a small argument bordering on discussion. Not off the sc2 team, I haven't been on the sc2 squad for months. Right out of the whole organization. To be honest the team captain is the best thing that has happened to this group's sc2 team. Yet he is new, and mistakes happen. I hold nothing against him for that.
What matters a lot more is the dynamic of the group. Several whom I've used to consider either friends or at least nice guys, spoke against me. One of my closest friends decided to not speak up at all. In my eyes, this is actually the one that hurt the most. You might not expect your mates to speak up for you, but not even a "I'm sorry this happened" in private. I had been close friends with this person for now closer to a year, and like that, I was no longer important. Sometimes, a dagger to the back is preferable. Others have been confirmed as lifelong friends as they rushed to my defense. Sometimes I wish crisis would happen more often in life. Just so I can place the fake from the real.
This isn't a whine about me being kicked out. This isn't a whine of the members of the group I got kicked out of. They are still one of the most hard working bunch of people who I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I wish them all the luck in the future. And maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to be accepted as part of the team again. No, this is me taking my hat off to those who had my back. My real friends. My true brothers.
If anyone has actually gotten this far in my blog. If you are to only take one thing from this story: Hold on to your friends with all that you have. When the time comes where you need them the most, it's where you learn who they truly are.
