LookNoHands Fundraiser Announcement

I was born with all of my limbs intact but I was missing a spleen. Because I don't have a spleen I am unable to fight certain types of infections. At 18 months, I ended up with an infection that my body couldn't handle, a pneumococcal sepsis. My mother found her baby boy blue in his crib. I was immediately rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance and a few days later, the doctors had to amputate all four of my limbs in order to save my life. I now take daily medication to prevent something like this from ever happening again and I use a power wheelchair for mobility.

It is important to me to stay positive in my outlook on life and to strive for independence. The three things that keep me going when things get tough are my friends, my family, and my faith. The way I see it, when bad things happen to you, you have two choices: you can either harden your heart or you can persevere and become a stronger person.

There are plenty of opportunities for people with disabilities to compete against other disabled people. However, because they are more about how fast your mind works than how fast your fingers move, games like Starcraft 2 provide a unique opportunity for people with physical disabilities to compete against able bodied players by creating a level field of play. My trip has been an extraordinary journey of self-exploration because Starcraft is the first time I have ever been able to compete equally with able bodied individuals without the need for major physical adaptations.

During the last 7 months of my fellowship, I've spent time in Sweden, Korea, Germany, France, Spain, UK, and I am currently in Japan. I have been training Starcraft 2, attending E-sports events, and trying to seek out people with disabilities who game in other cultures. I've had so many absolutely incredible experiences along the way. I've been to Gamescom, Dreamhack, and WCG and I've attended a number of Proleague matches live and numerous GSL and GSTL games. I've had the privilege of getting to know Mr. Bitter, RotterdaM, Moletrap, Tasteless, and Artosis as close personal friends. I've lived with an Israeli pro named Adam “Plato” Zippor in Korea for an extended period of time. I've gotten to meet numerous disabled gamers and referees and investigate first hand what the wheelchair accessibility of at least 20 different cities is like. I've done interviews with everyone from TeamLiquid.net to MBC, I got to meet and spend a bit of time with my idol BoxeR, and I've even been to the IM house to practice with MVP and Nestea.

I have learned that there are other disabled gamers out there. The community at large just hasn't managed to tap into them yet. By networking with some of these people I am laying the groundwork for future efforts to bring these two incredible communities (the disabled gaming community an d the mainstream Starcraft community) closer together. I am meeting these people face to face in order to learn more about what its like for someone with a disability to be a gamer in all of the different cultures I've visited, how gaming and technology has changed their lives, and the unique challenges that people with disabilities all over the world face. I have searched three different continents, countless LAN centers and E-sports events, and even schools to find these people and hear their stories. I have even started my own Starcraft 2 team called TiltGaming which is dedicated to advancing the cause of people with disabilities in the E-sports industry.

The key to making Starcraft 2 successful in the long term is engaging personal story-lines and I believe that disabled gamers provide a largely untapped source of unique knowledge and valuable stories of perseverance. These stories are what I seek with my project and there is no substitute for on the ground, in the trenches, work to find them. No one would argue that the community doesn't need more members who are passionate about Starcraft and, disabled gamers, because of their relationship with game, are in a unique position to provide that support. I hope that sometime in the future the E-sports community might even be particularly known for including an especially large contingent of people with disabilities.
This adventure has been more stressful and more work but also way more fun than I could ever have imagined. I only hope that I can set an example for future disabled gamers. Even if I never become a pro-gamer, if even one person with a disability decides to compete in the world of e-sports as a result of what I am doing here, I will consider my project a roaring success.

Because of the magnitude of the commitment I have had four different personal care attendants over the course of my trip who have traded places roughly every 2 and a 1/2 months so that I have one PCA with me at all times. These personal care attendants have sacrificed a lot in order to help support me in my e-sports community building adventure. Some of them have taken time off of school or even delayed their education plans entirely and all of them have had to take a leave of absence from their job.

Under normal circumstances, the state of Minnesota pays for my personal care attendants and each aid makes about $12.00 US an hour and I normally have a PCA with me between 12 and 16 hours a day. However, when I left the United States for my fellowship, the Minnesota state government cut my personal care attendant funding because they do not cover PCA's for people who have left the country. Caring for someone with a disability round the clock is a very demanding job but because they believe in what I'm doing here they have agreed to take a substantial reduction pay and are currently only making about $500 dollars per week. (Assuming a 12 hour work day, that comes out to about $6.00 US an hour!)

For example, I have to pay for new wheelchair batteries and tires to be replaced. Korea is already an expensive place to live but I need a room that is large enough for my wheelchair to maneuver in, an accessible bathroom, and the building has to have an elevator so that I reach the room. I've also incurred many smaller expenses because public transportation is often, not wheelchair friendly and so I must find other more creative solutions.

Here's what some of these expenses typically look like:



That's a lot of money and that's all without flights/trains between countries for my PCAs, rent, food, or wheelchair access.

Players: 16 total players, 12 invited and 4 spots earnable through a the open bracket.
Prize Pool: $500
Prize Pool Breakdown: $250 and 1st place trophy / $125 and second place trophy / $75 and third place trophy / $50 (subject to increase pending additional sponsors)
Tournament Bracket: Single Elimination, RO16 and RO8 are Best of 3, RO4 and 3rd/4th Place Match is Best of 5, and Finals Are Best of 7