EPTI’m going to try to write in a chronological order but I do not promise to be able to respect the good timeline. The first quarter of 2015 was kinda messy, I was tweeting about WCS schedule and handbook. I’m kinda closed minded when it comes to rules, I like to respect them but to respect them we need to know them. After a few weeks of being an ass on Twitter the protest movement was getting bigger and bigger. Finally Blizzard gave us the handbook and a great schedule for WCS Season 2 and 3 so props to them! It really helped player and other broadcasting companies/channels and I really want to thank Blizzard for that.
I want to start one of the most important things of the year for me it’s the partnership between KeSPA, SPOTV GAMES and O’Gaming. We started working on this project in July 2014 and it was announced March 02. I was so amazed that O’Gaming will be allowed to cast ProLeague and Starleague, I could not believe it. It was a long journey to be able to establish a partnership, I was really happy when I posted the thread on TeamLiquid.
Moreover, when I was told that WCS Season RO16/Playoffs will be played at Poitiers I was pretty excited because it would be the second offline event I could attend as a staff and it was a 3 days event so it’s event better because you can do way more things. Three or four days before the event PiG was already in France and we invited him to practice in O’Gaming office and that’s also a great memory, for me it shows that we are gathered by one passion and it does not matter if you are a player, a broadcaster or a staff person you can still help someone who’s looking for help. PiG is really pro, he practices a lot and he had some special build, a nydus build IIRC. He did it against ShoWTimE and even it did not work he practiced really hard for the event and it’s great to see someone like him be focused on a single event.
During the event I met a shit ton of people, TLO, Snute, messioso, a bunch of French players, ESL employees, Smix, fenner, Rotterdam or even Nathanias. Going to French events also allowed me to see and talk with French journalists/photographs and I think these actors of the scene are not as known as they should because they are doing an great job and they are really passionate about it.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LzJcr1B.jpg)
Also an event in France is always something special, the French crowd is one of (the?) best crowd with the Polish one and the crowd was there! I remember clearly the French crowd cheering for FireCake, I was quite surprised to see so many people screaming his name, clapping hands because I thought he was not that popular but I guess cheering for your national champion is something that can gather fans.
Also we met a lot of Blizzard employees and one was really special. I met the Holy David Kim. With the O’Gaming crew and some Blizzard we had dinner one night and it was kinda funny and really unexpected to see David Kim sitting right next to me. One of the moment that was really important for me this year is that he’s an open minded people, with FunKa and Imre we were a bit afraid that we would bother him after asking him so many questions about the balance of the game, what does he think about that game, maps and so many other things. He answered every of our questions and we spent 3 hours talking with him. It’s definitely one of my highlight of the year.
After that we are like in May and it was time for me to go to DreamHack Tours and meet the man, the myth, the legend Waxangel. I think I was with Ragnarork and we decided to say hi to him. I decided to go to the event as an random guy without press pass and it felt weird not to be allowed to work on an esport event and just chill, discuss, eat, watch some games.
Just before going to DreamHack Tours I was told that if I was going to drink with PartinG the Saturday night and it motivated me to take the train. Our Saturday night after DreamHack SC2 tournament has ended was one of the most bizarre night ever. First we decided to have a few drinks with some French people while PartinG was back at his hotel room. We took some shots of “fée rouge”, this is basically absinthe with pepper. After that we decided to grab PartinG, he wanted to go to the club, we tried to bring him but we kinda failed and one hour later we managed to let him enter in the nightclub. At the nightclub we found FunKa, TLO and Based_Bali and we finished our night talking all together, it was really a funny night.
In June I was told that I was going to produce the French stream for WCS and it was a bit stressful but we managed to get like 12k viewers during Lilbow’s final and it was such an accomplishment for me since I was kinda worried that I would not produce a great show.
Other than WCS life was kinda cool, I talked a lot with some esport people such as NarutO, Borsti or other pros.
During summer we had Redbull tournament, HSC and ASUS ROG and I did also produce some streams. I think Drogo’s run at ASUS ROG is more than deserved, he trains really hard, he’s really dedicated to the game and he’s a nice guy to talk too.
One of my proudest things of this year is the StarCrafteSport account. I realized that instead of complaining I should just start doing things and after 5 months the account has more than 2000 followers. I know it’s not a lot but it still shows that people are willing to spend time about this project. This project can’t be done by one man and there is a whole team behind the account and they should take credit too. I also want to thank TLO for promoting the account more than several time and the account won’t have as much followers as we have now if he did not do that.
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qElFX5W.png)
I know I’m a sellout for this account but it’s my biggest side project of 2015 and I really hope that we’ll be able to reach 10 000 followers before Blizzcon 2016. It’s gonna take a lot of time and we might fail but at least we are going to try to provide the best coverage possible.
Also a more funny story about this year is related to LoL. O’Gaming casted LoL Worlds at Paris in the venue and when the groupstage ended it was also the day O’Gaming was created 4 years ago. I decided to go to the bar we had a viewing party for the LoL tournament. I do not really care about talking to famous people such as English LoL Worlds Casters or even Sjokz but I’m really glad that I could talk to Lilsusie and we both agreed that Korea was going to win the LoL World Championship which happened like 2 weeks later.
I guess it time for me to talk about the longest project I’ve ever worked on: NationWars III. I joined O’Gaming during NationWars II and this tournament has a special impact on me. We started working on it weeks before the official announcement, working on format, teams, how we seed team, scheduling the events and trying not to be in conflict against other events which would be a stupid idea.
This event has been really hard for me, I’m still studying full-time and I want to work as much as possible for O’Gaming during my spare time which bring me to have the worst sleep schedule of my life but it was all worth it. I was told that I was going to produce the English stream which means I had to work with Apollo, ToD, RotterdaM and FunKa. It was an amazing experience, watching them prepare matches, watching some VoDs, taking notes, writing stats shows that even when you are one of the best in your work you can always improve.
So many things happened during the tournament that it was such so worth it to work on it. I want to do a special thank to the Japanese team and especially to PSiArc. He’s the most mannered, open minded player I’ve ever worked with.
Even if I was kinda sad that the RO4+Final won’t be played offline I knew I had to focus on the past weekend with the playoffs bracket. I won’t lie, yesterday was amazing, MarineLorD all-killing Finland was quite a surprise but him destroying Korea was just mindblowing, people in the studio going crazy, everyone was just happy and I’m pretty sure last time it happened it was when Lilbow won WCS. This time it was even better because it was O’Gaming tournament and it was just incredible.
You might think that the event was incredible but there is so much room to improvement. I failed the replay pack for example and even though it’s not the most important part of the tournament I’m really mad at myself, it should not have happened.
Last thing in this blog is about doing things. This year I learned that complaining is useless. If there is something you are bothered by try to talk about it, try to fix issues with people, try to do some projects. If something you think is worth doing then do it good. Tryhard at things you want to do, stay hungry, do things. Failure is not something bad, it’s a great thing. It allows you to change, everyone fails but if you want to do good things do it again and again. Doing great things is good, doing things in an amazing way is really fucking good but try harder and try to do it perfectly. And when you think you can do things perfectly just try harder. You won’t reach perfection but you’ll be able to progress. Being motivated is a great thing but you won’t do amazing things if do not have discipline.
For every French speaking people please listen this podcast, I know it’s really long but it’s one of the best talk I’ve ever heard about discipline. https://soundcloud.com/radionavo/damien-maric-et-ses-invites-parlent-de-leurs-choix-les-invites-de-mon-invite-sont-mes-invites
I’m going to do a short list of shout out since I know I’m going to forget people and I’m sorry for that. First O’Gaming crew, LR regulars, the TL Skype group, Imre; lichter,Wax, Lorning, Ragnarork, JolyJoyper, Borsti, Morgot, messioso, SC2HL and a shit ton of people.. There is way too much people to thank so thank everyone one I’m talking with, thanks for everything and do things in 2016.
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Fuck you Wax. <3
