EPTHey guys,
I don't write blogs very often but this weekend kinda calls it for it. WCS was amazing and I could
write a lot about it, but this blog is more about my weekend than the tournament.
I was really stoked to be part of WCS Season 2 finals for multiple reasons, I knew it was going to be a big succes with the player line-up we had and the event being at Gamescom + ESL production. I wanted to be part of it pretty badly and was happy when I was able too. Above all Gamescom is relatively close to my real home, Rotterdam where my family and doggy lives so being able to combine an amazing sc2 event with seeing my loved ones is a homerun! The last
time i was home was not to long ago, during HSC 7 but back then I noticed my doggy had a weird infection on the back of her body and my mom told me already it had grown almost to the size of a tennisball and was quite worried. As many of you know,I really love my Akita, her name is Caya but we call her Caytje and she's the best dog I ever had and seen, she's just
extremely loveable, fluffy and also fat :D but we love her for it. Cay is 8 by now and for an Akita thats already quite old and if they get health problems around this time you often have to fear for the worst, and despite not being able to spend as much time with her as I used too, I wanted to make sure I could see her again.
Either way the trip home was all good and my mom picked me up at the airport with my doggy, I could see immediately that it didn't look so good but it doesn't affect her behavior at all, shes still the happy fat akita who loves us a lot ^^. I'd be home for a day and then hop on the train to Cologne for GC.
Caytje at the airport
After taking the Train and arriving thursday evening I felt that the little bump I had below my skin on my upper thigh was kinda of irritated, 2 months ago I went to my dutch doctor and asked him about it, but he told me i had nothing to worry about as it was just a little fat ball and it's quite normal, they can cut em away but its nothing to worry about.
Since my flight back then was within 2 days I just let it go, however arriving at GC I felt it grew in size and my skin was kinda red.
It didn't stop me from being pumped for WCS even though when I woke up on Friday It was still big and the area around it was kind of hard and sensetive as well, but once I arrived at WCS i quickly forgot about it. It was great to meet some of my favorite players in the world for the first time ( RAAAAAAAAIN! ) and of course people like Innovation as well, i even noticed I was a little starstruck when Rain innovation and Maru were walking right up to us to shake our hands
and say hello :D, nice to know I'm still a little fanboy after all these years.
I had a blast on Friday with a couple of amazing games, it was also sweet to cast for the very first time with Artosis and to cast with Apollo again, funny story that many perhaps forgot, Apollo and me casted a tournament in England at the start of our sc2 careers, it was a lan tournament in Newbury, I didn't get payed for it but it seemed like a fun trip, in the end I ended up sleeping at some sort of a farm with no heating, bedsheets or anything, while it was winter in England
and I was freezing my ass of :D that was fixed the next day but that 1 night was a dark night and I remember asking myself, after walking through the cold rain for 1 KM to arrive at this place with no heating or sheets or anything, and not getting payed, why on earth am I doing this to myself :D, well, 3~ years later I guess it was all worth it in the long run
, either way I love working with Shaun as he's of course a pro and we go way back, even way before Sc2 ever was popular, so it's always a good time.
We had some sick games and I felt the cast were really good as well, good flow in the games, Chobra and Paul killed it when it came to hosting, the graphics were sweet and after a few hours I was already convinced this was going to be a sick weekend. The German fans were really cool as well, basically everything was good and I was pumped, but my little innocent fat ball started to hurt more and more as well.
When i arrived in the hotel on friday evening I went to sleep immediately as it was late already and I also had quite some pain, when I took of my clothes i was kind of in shock, my skin was super hard in an area of almost 7 centimeter and also flaming red, i thought with a good rest hopefully its better tomorrow. When I woke up my skin wasnt as irritated but the hardness below my skin was still there and the once innocent bump of 0.5 cm now felt like a solid block of 3/4 Centimeter and made me walk rather weird, either way it was time to man up and cast some amazing Sc2. I took a painkiller but felt it throughout the entire day, the moment i was done casting I immediately unbotted my pants for the rest of the day as it came to the part where a little bit of pressure was realy hurting me and I overall just felt bad, running nose, little fever etc. I was still enjoying the event but there was no way I was gonna make it to the normally very fun players party as I was in quite a bit of pain, Rotti skipping players party? Then we know something's off ;P. I went home asap after still enjoying the day though, as we had lots of amazing games on Saturday, 4bo3 and 4bo5 will do that I guess, but it was
a pleasure being part of it and being able to see it IRL, but throughout the entire day I felt more and more pain on my upper thigh and it was kind of casting a shadow over it all for me, I met some people I didn't see for many years but couldn;t be very enthousiastic as I only wanted to lay down and not move my leg. I think I was starting to limp a little as well, when I came home at night I couldn't believe what I saw, a massive hard red ball of 3 centimeter or something was between my
leg and upper body and an area of 10~ cm felt like it was on fire and it was super red. I took a careful shower and just went to sleep, hoping i'd feel better on Sunday morning.
Buuuuuut I didn't. I woke up a few times that night and movin my leg was hurting like a bitch already, I was sweating and overall it was just awfull, when I woke up I felt terrible and thought about just staying home or going to the Doctor, I knocked on Yoans door and told him what's up and that I will probably not be able
to cast today as I just felt awfull and he responded like I knew he would. It was like "Hmm yeah That sucks, but i never knew you WERE SUCH A LITTLE BITCH". I was laughing a bit but even that was hurting me. I did dress up and took some painkillers from our french Adebisi, Funkadelic who had something that was helping a bit but not that much, when I arrived at GC I told Paul and Carmac immediately that I felt awfull overal and was in a lot of pain, wasnt really walking straight
and that I think it would be better to not cast as this would be the WCS Season 2 Semi final, as this would be one of the biggest series in a long time and we had plenty of casters who could my job for me, and I wouldn't wanna do a half ass job. Paul said np and I had to do whatever I wish and above all feel good about, but I got some more painkillers and after 4 of them I was starting to feel everything a little less and decided to man up and just cast, it would only be 1 bo5 in the end and once I would sit and not move to much,
i Guess i'd be oke. As you guys know I did cast and felt kinda meh about it, I tried my best but didn't feel it was as good as the previous days
I thought i would still be able to bring my best performance but in the end I think it was acceptable at best. Normally I feel really energetic and high on adrenaline after casting something like a WCS Semi final , almost like I was part of the game haha, this time the only feeling I had was "I'm glad I made it through and it's over". That's not a feeling I normally have~Anyhow Sunday nights at events are normally the most fun, everyone is relaxed, we don't have to work anymore, celebrate a good event, talk about sc2 and have some drinks and laugh about everything, around 7 PM I joined a lovely bunch of people, some blizzard staff, casters, players etc but after even just sitting there for a bit and trying to have fun I couldnt, I was close to getting tears in my eyes everytime I moved my leg a bit in either direction and bailed out really early,
unnusual as I am often the last man standing on days we don't have to work the day after :D, but I left around 9 i guess after arriving at 7~, I really wanted to have fun and enjoy myself but I couldn't, some people were kind of confused why I left so early and it seemed like every day ( since saturday I skipped players party as well as I wasnt feeling good ), oh Kevin isnt feeling good, he must be hangover , which got kind of annoying at a certain point as I felt like I was dieing ^^ but the only thought of most people
seemed to be I was a brainless clown who was tired because he went out drinking. Guess it's hard to get rid of a lable but I can't even remember the day I had alcohol before a work day with the only exception of course being HSC but that's because Dennis encourages me. ;p Either way, I was with my good mate Chris who I knew
from back in my days in Cologne and he offered to bring me to a hospital because I was limping like someone who just got shot in his leg or something but I said it was fine as I didn't really wanna deal with German doctors and thought just laying in bed, sleeping a bit will make the swelling go down and I can make it to Holland tomorrow and go to a doctor there. I went to bed around 10 something and just hoped it would all be over tomorrow, sleep well, walk to the train station and be home.
Buuuuut i was wrong again. I had a horrible night of sleep and remember just waking up all the time whenever I barely moved my leg cause it hurt so bad ;e I had a weird dream about Innovation playing League of legends as well, perhaps that shocked me the most. Those poor league players, they would never see him coming. But either way I was wide awake at 5 am on a monday morning and thought about getting up and trying to get home but I immediately realized it wasn't gonna work out, I couldn't bend forward or even walk, my once upon a time innocent bump of half a centimeter now had the size of a Golfball, I am really not exaggerating, I have pictures but I think it's to disgusting to show, it took me 15 minutes of walking around my room like i was 94 and pack my stuff, before knockin on Yoans door who was next to
me and ask for my charger before heading to the hospital. Yoan gave me the charger and something else and wished me the best *later more, I ordered a taxi as I was not able to walk anymore and on the verge of crying as the pain was unbearable. I managed to stumble into the hospital near HBF and they told me 10 minutes,
i was losing my shit as 10 minutes was apparently 70 minutes... Germans being late, that was different once upon a time guys!! :D Either way, a very well rounded nurse finally walked in and instead of taking me somewhere I had to fill in papers, the amount of curse words going through my head right now were very very high. Johan would have been extremely proud of me, either way after more than a hour I finally got called into a room where a Grumpy German doctor who
of course didn't speak English walks in, why on earth would you be able to speak "francoise?!"and deutsch but no English, either way my German was good enough to get me through this, I thought. So instead of saying hello he's like "WAS KAN ICH FOR SIE TUN" , German can sound so agressive
and i told him in my brokengerman "Uh ah ich habe sehr viel weh, es tut weh ja ganz viel weh" basically me trying to say I'm in pain, and he looks at me and is like "WAS TUT WEH" aaa stop shouting at me
my pants were already unbuttoned laying at that table and that's not how I make myself comfortable normally in a room I don't belong.So I lift up my boxer a bit and show him the freaking egg on my upper thigh and he puts on a glove and guys at this point evne my underwear touching this shit on my leg already hurts like a bitch, so when he put on a glove to touch me I was already like "aaaaaaaaAAAAA it's gonna hurt" but as soon he pressed it twice and he knew immediately
what had to get done and I didn't hurt to much, yet. He then said some medical stuff in German which I of course didn't understand but I did understand he ordered me to go to the other room.
Once in this room a second, very well rounded nurse, on OKC it would be "a few extra pounds" entered the room and told me to take of my clothes, everything. I was Like okok so here I am nervous about what is going to happen and only wearing my sweater, butt naked on this table. Hoping that I would get some sort of
local anaesthesia before they would go to town on me. So I'm laying there and my heart is kind of racing as I know, I'm gonna get some sort of injection either way I just truly hope it wont be in that area, well. I was wrong. The Grumpy ( who turned out in the end kinda oke though and I am gratefull for his help) old Doctor
walked in and grabbed a pretty big needle, or it was closer to something that he was gonna cut me with, either way i didn't like the sight, then he tested it and something sprayed out of the top and turned to me and said something among of the lines of "Es tut ein bisschen weh" Now when the German Doctor is telling you, this is going
to hurt "a little bit". You know you're fucked, and I knew I was fucked. I'm telling myself "please no, not in that area whatever you do" i grab the table i lay on with both hands and flex every single muscle other than my left leg in my body as I see he's reaching for that area I already start "aaaaaaaaaaaaaah"and he looks at me and said "was machts du aaaa Ich hab
ganz nicht gamacht" or something which was like why are you making a noise I didn't even do anything yet. :D Well fair enough, i was being a bitch but I knew this was gonna hurt like a motherfucker, so i turn my head back so I can't watch the process and feel the first injection and I'm like "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaa and then i don't know what he did but the next inject hurt 10 times as much so it went from aaaaa to aaaAAAAFUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK" and the entire hospital was now aware of my presence ^^ as god, I didn't feel such pain in like 10 years, so I'm breathing at the speed of woman who's giving birth and I'm shaking like hell as I'm total shock of what is happening. I looked for a second and saw blood coming out like a cute little fountain of 1 of the holls and, 2 other it was just streaming down my legs left and right and I realized I don't wanna see this. I think he made 4 holls around my egg sized "cyste" before he told one of the nurses to put something over my you know what, as I'm still laying there naked. It was some sort of special fabric which was going to protect my magic stick from apparently the following process, he was gonna spray something over my leg which would prevent me from feeling anything as he was going to cut from holl to holl, they then started making jokes in german about making sure to cover my Penis otherwise it would freeze of or something like that, I just heard "klampe klampe "ahahah hihih, and
meanwhile I'm laying there still shaking of the pain I just went through and these guys are making jokes about my penis and balls freezing of. Fuck my life. :D
ah well, as soon as he sprayed that magic stuff over me it all went numb, a part did reach my you know what and I'm not sure if it was pleasant or not. Either way it felt like a burning and tingling sensation ^^ but then I realized this is not about my magic stick and just let it go haha, I then peaked over and saw he cut a line between the 2 holls next to my infecton and was stirring inside of my body with 2 of his tools like i would stir up my noodles, the sight made me very light headed and i just put my head back and let it all go. I didn't feel a thing anymore after that and it wasnt to long later that I heard the best possible word i could ever hear in german ; "Fertig". Oh yes fertig me baby! They put over a lot of bandage and I was good to go they said. I was extremely shaky and felt light as a feather ^^ but I was able to walk semi properly and without the
freaking egg causing me a world of pain. I went to the train station and got on my train home. It went pretty smooth even though I was still shaky and when changing trains in Venlo a sudden pain just stroke me which ended up in me
almost randomly crying at the middle of the train station haha, now that would have been awkward, fortunately I still had a few painkillers and was able to make it home without to much pain. Apparently a twitter follower saw me limping across
Rotterdam central station haha, I think I walked the entire trip at a speed of 2 km p/h but whatever, I was able to make it home. What a fucking Monday morning.
Overall I still really enjoyed the trip, it was great to work with the ESL people again and see awesome people like Sven, Toby, Carni and joe Miller again ( and of course their entire sc2 staff but I see those a little more often ). I unfortunately wasn't able to spend as much time with the players as I would have liked too but there's always a next time I guess. The German fans were really cool and a lot of them came up to me and said some very nice things, so much love to all ya'll! Anyhow much love to ESL for Having me this GC and a special shoutout to Yoan, who once more showed me that he is not just a gaming friend, but one of the very best friends I have in life. Despite being a huge dbag, you have a heart of gold, much love brother!
