RAGE e-Sports signs DesRow and CupCake - Page 10

To all supporters, haters, and everything in between of desRow,

I come here to kind of clear the air about all the drama surrounding him as I've kind of been in a neutral position throughout my entire relationship with him. When he was on VT I defended him as much as was reasonable and have continued to support him and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. I'm just trying to provide a relatively unbiased story from a semi-insider.

desRow joined VT before I joined (which was at the end of November 2010). I don't know how long he'd been there, but it wasn't more than a month or two. He was never one of the better players on VT, but he was certainly good enough to practice with. At first he was more... humble and less outgoing, so he was not quite as irritating as he grew to be. However, over time, he just grew to be more and more annoying by arguing with everyone and pissing people off (most notably Arlock and Whiplash). Whiplash and desRow muted eachother on ventrilo more times than I care to count. Throughout this time I defended desRow - I believed him to have good intentions and I sincerely believed he was just trying to stand up for himself. Fast forward to around jan-feb 2011. desRow begins streaming a lot on the VTGaming channel with promise of revenue earned from it. (He was paid 100$ after he was kicked from the team when we finally got the money from justin.tv). He began to get a bit of a following, but he was still a bit below par skill-wise for a VT member - my sc2gears has me as a 37-5 record vs desRow since November. The problem was that he began to get a bit of an ego, often overhyping his successes and failing to realize that many of us had equal or greater achievements. Oftentimes desRow and Whiplash would publicly insult each other while streaming. This worsened as he began streaming on his own channel more and promoting his "brand". At some point along here he served a one week suspension from Ventrilo and VT Gaming related activities. Around MLG Dallas, Grant, the VP of VTG, offered desRow a bus ticket to Columbus as a reward for his streaming activity. He was a bit unaware of desRow's attitude issues, and the president of VT (Frank/Mirhi) was a bit unhappy with this. Over the course of the next two or three weeks, desRow quickly spiraled downwards in our minds, often insulting teammates and neglecting to practice with us until we had no choice but to kick him. I supported him up til around the time of the bus ticket incident.

After he was kicked, he eventually talked to me and explained the whole bus ticket incident (which I previously had little knowledge of). He said he knew Frank didn't like him and knew he would be kicked eventually and so he was just trying to promote himself as much as possible. I don't remember the reason he gave for not just leaving himself right away, but he did say he planned to do so soon. Pretty much the whole team hated him at this point, but I understood what happened and wished him luck in the future.

So then desRow joins vVv. From my understanding they said they would give him some sort of sponsorship benefits, but they must have been ambiguous or something - it was clear that it ended up being a misunderstanding. He said he left the team due to the fact that they would not even be willing to provide him with hotel accommodations for Columbus. I've heard rumors that vVv management had other issues with him, but it seemed he had good relationships with the players there.

Now we're at the present.

My biggest issue with desRow is that when promoting himself, he seems to basically not give a shit who he puts down as well as often overhyping himself to the point that he is bothering other players. I have no problems with him succeeding and I am not "jealous" of his stream popularity in any way, but it is unacceptable to step on others toes as much as he has on the route to mediocre stardom. The fact remains that he is still mediocre for a full-time professional player and I personally feel a bit insulted that he is basically now receiving more team/sponsor benefits than me. I don't mind too much, though it does drive me to improve and do what I can to make a name for myself in the eSports world.

And so ends the saga of desRow's life in the StarCraft 2 world. I suppose both VT and desRow will not like me posting this too much. I leave myself free to be corrected by anyone who has more knowledge than me, though I will take any biased seeming opinions with a grain of salt. Fans and enemies of desRow, have a good day. Congrats if you made it through the entire post.

- Nick