Full Time in StarCraft 2 - Another Year Down

All hail Wepaly, he who brings motivation and inspiration. Esports really creates some magical moments – and this was definitely one of them for me. Sat at an absolutely incredible restaurant with a bunch of friends I have met through video games, all of us in tears of laughter because of Wepaly, the mascot for the 2017 Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games, held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan? Turkmenistan? What? Yeah, I had the same response when I first got invited to attend the event – it was a country I had never even heard of and reading about it didn’t make it seem like a place to visit. With under 5000 tourists a year, Turkmenistan is rated the second worst (and hardest) place in the world to visit, behind only North Korea.

Some of the event talent with the one and only Wepaly

But up for an adventure I’d accepted the job. Honestly, I’m still in the position where I need to take every opportunity I can get my hands on in StarCraft 2 – the only way to get noticed and to prove yourself beyond streaming for yourself is to get a chance to show yourself off at events. It’s not been a simple ride, trying to make it in the world of StarCraft 2 full time, but it’s really starting to go in the right direction. Being invited to cast offline events around the world is obviously a major milestone in the life of an esports caster, so it was really a privilege to get to cast a premier event in Shanghai (IEM) this year, as well as major events in Ashgabat (AIMAG) & Barcelona (WESG) and finally qualifiers for IEM in Warsaw this year.

It was just over a year ago that I got to cast my first major offline event in Sao Paulo, Brazil – the WESG Americas Regional Finals for that year and I really couldn’t be happier that the number of events I’ve been invited to this year has only risen since then.

So there we are, sat at the highest rated steak house in Turkmenistan, balling our eyes out at memes about Wepaly the dog, the bringer of motivation and inspiration. He who guides Ahmet to becoming a professional athlete. Myself, Rapid, Tenshi and casters from CSGO, Dota 2 and Hearthstone, all of us caught in a moment I don’t think I will personally ever forget. It was one of those moments that trying to explain to anybody else results in looks of awkwardness and them turning away thinking you’re a bit crazy, but it was a moment that I had the opportunity to be part of because of my amazing journey in Esports.

Turkmenistan was truly beautiful, a unique place to have the chance to visit.

I could probably type for hours about Turkmenistan – in terms of overall experience it is probably going to be one of the most unique trips I ever go on in my life, and I’m glad I was able to experience it with some amazing people. It turns out that a lot of esports is made up of awesome people – whether they are the casters who I have looked up to when I started watching StarCraft 2, or just fans of the game who travel out to events to support their favourite players and to be around others who share the same passion for the game that they love.

It was the final night of BlizzCon, which has been a highlight of every year since I started to attend in 2015, and as the night got later the gathering of the StarCraft family in the lobby of the hotel was thinning out. People had drank enough, laughed enough and said their good byes, retiring to bed and readying themselves for the mornings travel home. I like to make the most of things though, and a few nights earlier I’d had a great time having IHOP breakfast at 2am after we had gotten back from a Blizzard party, so me and some others joined forces to have one last hurrah at IHOP at 4am.

Well, this was the funniest breakfast of my entire life. Maybe I was just tired, perhaps it truly was that amazing, it was probably the people I was with. We laughed with each other, told jokes and stories and completed the maze on the children’s entertainment sheet which we had to get to keep Toast occupied. I think it’s moments like this which really allow me to appreciate how crazy it is, that so many of us from all over the world can come together in one place, to enjoy the same thing and to become such good friends because of it.

At Disneyland between Community Summit & BlizzCon with some of the SC2 fam!

I feel like every time I sit and write a blog like this I go on and on about all the amazing people I meet and get to hang out with, and when I sat down this time I was determined I wouldn’t. But I wrote and deleted and wrote again and scrapped it once more. I even left it a couple of days and started to write again, but I still didn’t like it. So I said fuck it, I’m going to start with a funny story and I’m going to tell people how awesome it is that I get to share these experiences with people. If you haven’t had a chance to make it out to an event and to meet others in the community, you really should. Everybody is friendly and awesome, from the casters to the organizers to the fans (and the players!). You won’t regret it.

I think the favourite story I have from this year, that I can share, about a player to show you their fun side, is about ByuN at IEM Shanghai. Rogue had just won the tournament and we were waiting to all leave together, we had to get a group photo etc first. When Rogue had first come back into the player area, ByuN had already tried to steal his trophy and started to kiss it, pretending he was the champion. But the part I really loved was when Rogue had to go to sign autographs and take photos with fans as the champion. There was a queue of about 100 people, and ByuN himself decided to go and join the line so he could get a photo with Rogue. Obviously as he did, another line basically formed with people wanting a photo with ByuN. Rogues face when he saw ByuN in the line was truly priceless.

This year I truly travelled the world. It started in March with a trip to Katowice, Poland, for IEM (truly one of the best events you could visit as a StarCraft fan.) In April I went to the Netherlands, not for esports in particular, but to stay with uThermal & his friends as they moved into their new house. In July I went from Valencia to Krefeld to Shanghai back-to-back-to-back for a mixture of attending events to create content and to cast. I took the month off in August to break my wrist at a music festival instead before going to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in September. In October I left for BlizzCon in California (after attending my third epicLAN of the year, but UK trips are boring right?) From BlizzCon I went to HomeStory Cup for the second time, which is when I found out I would also go to Barcelona to cast WESG EU Regional Finals. I thought I was done for the year more or less before I ended up having to cancel my attendance at the DSCL to start a set of trips to Warsaw, Poland for IEM PyengChang and Katowice qualifiers. It’s safe to say 2017 was pretty crazy (3 continents, 7 countries, 9 cities, only a couple of delayed flights!)

A view of Shanghai from the hotel room!

I definitely had my difficulties through the year as well. Actually the first half of the year in general was really quite draining for me and at multiple times I found myself in a position where I was considering quitting StarCraft 2 and to take up a more normal life. I went full time in 2015 and while January this year was awesome February and March were really low points in terms of streaming and producing content.

My sub count was dropping, I was struggling to find events to stream and my mindset just wasn’t right. For some reason I couldn’t get myself into a more positive attitude about anything I was doing, which is one of the reasons why I went to the Netherlands in April just to visit friends – to try and find a way to refresh and reset. I actually spoke to Lowko at the housewarming party we had. I’ve been good friends with Lowko for a while now, but he really gave me some awesome advice and a bit of a more positive outlook on what I was doing.

Thankfully my trip worked out, I was refreshed, and I went into May with a massive upswing in content and attitude, leading to my most successful month every on Twitch, breaking sub records, destroying donation goals and all sorts more. I think it can be very easy to get too attached to the lows when streaming, because it really is a wave of highs and lows. It’s way too easy to appreciate the highs too little and to forget them too quickly when things start to go wrong all over again. Not even just wrong, but sometimes the reality is sub counts will drop a bit, some months will not be as good as others. It’s impossible to constantly beat the month before, especially when there is all sort of external factors.

Me, uThermal & the Vogelrock in De Efteling theme park!

The way my stream is set up is extremely vulnerable to these up and down movements as well. Some months there will be more to cast and some months there will be less, and when there are fewer streamers there will be fewer subs, people won’t renew their Twitch Primes and people will drift away from your stream. I’ve really reinforced my mindset to look at momentary sub counts less and to think about the bigger picture much more frequently – if not all of the time. The way Twitch works doesn’t let you live in the moment unless you are ready to live the lows.

My mindset for this was really reinforced when I got back from my insane 3-week trip in July. I’d also missed the week before I went away because of VISA issues (this was probably the final thing that broke me in 2017, but it really isn’t an interesting story, I just ended up missing my flight to Valencia because of my Chinese VISA being rejected due to Passport damage… it more or less worked out in the end, I just lost out on my flight to Valencia & a lot of stress). In this time my stream had become a lot smaller – my sub count had over halved, but I knew that if I was ready to put in the work that I would pull it back, and I did, to the point now where I ended 2017 with my most subscribers ever, almost breaking 400 (the goal was 300!! What on earth!)

I’m really happy I was able to get over this mindset-focused hurdle, because it really was draining and affecting me way too much when I let it. So that was the real down of my year, even if it was a big chunk, it just means I have even more time in 2018 to work with because it won’t get to me again! Shout outs to all the awesome people who helped me stay somewhat positive in this time frame, you know who you are.

Casting the HomeStory Cup FFA which Stats clutched was amazing.

What I can very happily say right now is that I am not going anywhere, at least for 2018. I’m finally at the point where I’m actually making enough of an income to live and from which I can realistically look ahead to a future where I can continue doing this. It’s been a long ass road to get this far, and I’ve always felt I was just so close, just one more step away, but now we are finally there. So thank you everyone that made it possible.

I’m going to leave you all with a few photos of my year, I don’t want to bore you all with too much more text. I’m super happy with where I am at right now, with where I am headed and with where StarCraft 2 is. The game is doing well, there are plenty of events, the viewership is good. Fuck the haters, all those people that think the game is dying or not up to the standards of what it used to be. I truly believe anyone who thinks this is extremely narrow minded and just wants to be negative for the sake of being negative.

Have a wonderful 2018 with StarCraft 2, everybody, and see you on stream.

+ Show Spoiler [Additional Photos] +

Hotpot in Shanghai!

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Twitch after-party in Katowice, before Hardwell!

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Twitch after-party in Katowice, after Hardwell!

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Hearthstone & CS:GO Friends from the UK (why am I the only one drinking??)

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Casting with Rotti for IEM Qualifiers in Warsaw - casting with someone who I always looked up to and was inspired by still blows my mind.

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The legendary DXMaster, hype Chinese host! He taught me how to shuffle dice in a cup in fancy ways (it looks more awesome than it sounds!!!)

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Casting with Lowko at WESG Barcelona before he got fired for the final day Kappa.

This is what HomeStory Cup looks like once the stream is off and we head to the party ;D

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[i]Me and Neuro posing while Lowko shows us he truly can't bowl to save his life.

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This image sums up my year well, thanks MissMagitek for the snap ^_^^^^

Full Time in StarCraft 2 - Another Year Down

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