The Five Things I'm Most Excited About in 2014.

Alright so it's the end of the year about and that means its time to makes lists. There really isn't a whole lot to be said on that subject, its just a thing that happens every year and we all seems to enjoy it so without further stalling, let's talk about the five things I'm most excited about in the year 2014. These aren't listed in any particular order by the way.

Number 1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I absolutely loved this first Captain America movie, I loved The Avengers, and the trailer looks friggen cool. So yeah, put me down for one ticket to this hype train! The Winter Soldier looks to me like it's going to be a great film, the trailer led me to think that the movie will have a bit more of an "espionage" feel to it and frankly that makes me excited. With the Bourne movies having lost their shine with the absence of Matt Damon and you know Jason Bourne, were left with only Bond for solid spy movies. While I don't think Captain America will spawn into a spy movie franchise, I do think it will serve as great filler until another good one comes out. You know what I mean?

I thought since I talked about the trailer a bunch I should have it available. 

Number 2. The return of viOLet to the major StarCraft II tournament circuit. I'm generally pretty excited about anything StarCraft related, but this one I'm hyped about. viOLet went nearly the entire year without making any appearances due to being consistently denied a visa to the United States, now though he has been granted a P-1A visa, the same kind issued to professional athletes, he's good to go for the next five years. 2012 was a great year for viOLet, he performed well in tournaments, and established himself as a good personality in the scene which got him a lot of support from North American and European fans. It would have been spectacular to have seen him continue on this path in 2013, but I'll settle for 2014. He's got everything he needs to become an extremely popular and skilled player in the StarCraft scene and I eagerly look forward to seeing where he goes. Hopefully a smart team decides to pick him up as well.

Number 3. The return of many of my high school friends from their missions. There isn't a whole lot of detail to go into here. There's Brad, Tyler, Dillon, Corbin, Zach, Jason and Lysa. Seven people I enjoy the company of that I will be able to enjoy their company again. That is something to look forward to if nothing else.

Number 4. The return of the League of Legends Championship series. (LCS)  I love the LCS. It's very well produced, the casting crew are knowledgeable and entertaining, and above all else, its high level league of legends games delivered to me at a time that doesn't absolutely destroy my sleep schedule. (I'm looking at you OGN.) Over the course of this first split in 2014 I'll be writing my own personal previews for some of the games in the LCS. The focus will be around Dignitas and CLG games because those are the two teams I have a personal bias towards. I don't think that Dig and CLG are going to be best teams though. Not at all. It seems obvious to me that Cloud 9 and Team Solo Mid are looking very very strong. Cloud 9's games against Fnatic at the Battle of the Atlantic event over this last month were particularly telling of their strength. That only speaks for the beginning of the split, nearly every other team has the "untapped power" to become a contender for best team in NA. It's going to be a great season and you should tune in at twitch.tv/riotgames (Riot plz give me moneyz.)

Number 5. Idk, list just look better when they are multiples of 5 so I thought there should be five items. Sorry to dissapoint if you wanted another one, but I got nothing right now. At least nothing that I could do a write up about.

Your face when there are only 4 things on the list. 

Why I Stopped Playing Competitive Games.

Let's talk burnout. I don't really know if this is a term used like it is with gamers, but burnout is pretty straight forward, you play one game a lot over an extended period of time and then you don't enjoy it like you did when you started playing and that causes you to stop. Occasionally you burnout on a game so badly that you never play it again. Most of the time it's just temporary lasting from a month or two to as long as several years before you return to a game. I'm really burnt out when it comes to League of Legends, I honestly can't even boot the program up and stay in a good mood. Nothing about playing the game is fun for me right now. I still absolutely love watching League be played at a professional level though, but I can't play it. To extend that even further I really haven't enjoyed playing StarCraft II as much lately either, even though I feel like I'm at a peak of sorts with my level of enjoyment as a viewer. I think right now it'll be good for me to simply take a step back from playing and focus on being a more informed viewer. That means goals, which I've been really bloody awful at finishing on this blog, but you gotta keep trying ya know?

So the new goal will be to reach the point as a viewer that I can write informed and decent quality preview and review pieces on the 2014 Season of StarCraft World Championship Series (WCS) and League of Legends Championship Series. (LCS) In order to accomplish this I'm going to have to become a little more focused on what I watch in terms of streams. I think for League I should be focusing on watching a decent amount of at least one professional in each of the five positions and for StarCraft a pro for each of the races.

So basically in summary, I'm not going to really be playing games right now, but rather focus on getting better at writing pieces for Esports which I'll post up here. I'll write another post "soon" TM where I'll go into detail about the streamers I'll be focusing on. Until then, good luck and have fun peeps!

The busiest week of StarCraft II! Part 3!

So I didn't realize that Dreamhack started very early this morning. So all of the group stage games have been played out, so I guess we'll just talk about the results and how the bracket stages will be played out from there.

Group A: NaNiwa managed to take 2nd place in the group over Hyun, which I did not expect, otherwise pretty much exactly how I thought it would go down. RIP on Lucifron Hype.

Group B: The two notable things that happened here was Polt's very lackluster performance and JYP performing very very well. JYP hasn't had a noticeable result in a long time and has been very quiet. I didn't think he could stand up to the powerhouses of this group, but he came to play. Polt didn't. For whatever reason Polt only seems capable of playing his best in WCS America and MLG. Events in Europe or Korea seem to give him a lot of trouble. That is a weird mental block to have for a native Korean.

Group C: This group went pretty much as I expected it to. Taeja is an absolute beast. I thought sOs would give him more trouble, like that he would beat him, but I can't be surprised at this result either. INoVation's stellar TvT is probably the biggest surprise of the group.
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Group D: This group literally played out exactly like I thought it would. Jaedong is an unstoppable monster outside of finals and Hero acquires magical powers at DreamHack Winter so their stellar performances are 100% expected. Would've been nice to see Welmu there, he could've maybe shaken things up a bit, or at least actually made Goswser actually work to advance.

Moving right along to the bracket stage games, I'll only highlight the ones I'm interested in. Starting with the Team Liquid team kill of Taeja and Hero. Why do these tournaments insist on pitting these two against each other constantly? just a shame. I expect Taeja to win here and then have Hero make a huge run in the Loser's bracket. Next Jaedong and INoVation. It should be a total clash of the titans sort of thing, but I really think Jaedong has this won, INoVation's TvZ just isn't as dominant as it once was.

Taking a trip down to the Loser's bracket we have Polt and Hyun. One of these two is going straight out of the tournament. Wow. That is just how stacked this tourney is. Clash of the WCS America  titans, if Polt can somehow convince himself that he's actually playing in the NASL Santa Monica studio and not Stockholm I think he'll win convincingly. Lastly we have TLO and JYP. I want both of these guys to make deep runs in this tournament, but one must end their journey now. Based on how the group stage games went... Well both of them sucked lost a all their PvZ games, but JYP was against Life so I'll give him the edge. Sorry TLO, maybe NaNiwa will lose fast as well so you won't feel bad.

If you aren't watching DreamHack this weekend, something is wrong with you, or your an IdrA fanboy. So something is wrong with you. hehehehehe. Seriously though, watch DreamHack, cause it's the best tournament of the year. GOGO Jaekongdong.

Let's face it, these are your eventual finalists, no one else here matters. 

The busiest weekend in StarCraft! Part two!

As I mentioned yesterday, this weekend features three separate major StarCraft II tournaments. Yesterday I talked a bit about the old relic of a tourney in WCG, and today we'll go a bit more in depth with IEM Singapore which will in fact be in Singapore! The highlight reel will be the best chance for someone NOT from Korea to win a major tournament out of the three, and then there will be ToD and IdrA casting. I guess there's also the story line of whether or not Grubby can repeat the deep run he had here last year. 

So let's talk Scarlett. Her performance at the Red Bull Battle Grounds in New York last week probably cemented her as the one of if not the strongest foreigner in the scene. Her Zerg versus Terran is without a doubt world class level, and her ZvP and ZvZ aren't that far behind. What makes her so strong right now though? The focus of the Mutalisk in each of these match up, at least that's what I think. Mutalisks play a key role in each Zerg match-up and Scarlett is one of the best users of this unit. With the slightly less potent line up of terrifying Korean stars, 15 of them in total and only 5 I think can actually beat her, (Bomber, EffOrt, DRG, Hydra, and San) This is the best oppurtunity for Scarlett to claim her first tournament victory of the year, and the best chance for a foreigner to actually take a tournament this year. 

In all seriousness though, as far as the games go, the only thing that has me excited at all is that Bomber and Scarlett are in the same group, so they will more than likely play each other. The last two times these two have met each other we've gotten absolutely fantastic series with each one of them going to the final game.
Scarlett bested Bomber in a Bo3 at the Red Bull Battle Grounds last weekend, and a few months ago Bomber took a narrow 3-2 victory at the quarterfinals of the WCS Season 2 global finals where he would go on to take the tournament. Beyond that, there really isn't a whole lot that I'm intrested in seeing from the players. IdrA and ToD hopefully will cast at least one series together and if they do it'll be hilarious. Protoss player who thinks Zerg is broken, and a Zerg who thinks Protoss is also broken, what could go wrong?

I suppose it wouldn't be fair to talk about this tournament without at least mentioning Grubby, who last year nearly claimed his first StarCraft II major in Singapore. However, the Grubby that was here in 2012 was the Grubby that was constantly improving, coming closer and closer to being the best, and seeming destined to eventually become the best foreigner in scene. Then 2013 happened and Grubby seemed to falter. He didn't all of the sudden become bad, but the constant improvement in both skills and results seemed to fade. What was left was a strong, but certainly not overwhelming European Protoss. Don't get me wrong, I want Grubby to do well here, he's one of the nicest, hard-working and more professional people in the scene. It just doesn't seem realistic to say that he will make a deep run. I still think he will eventually become very good, I'm unsure if he'll reach the same heights that he did during his run in WarCraft III though. Whatever he does it will be entertaining though. 

He'll also still have that sick jacket. 

If you are thinking of watching a StarCraft II tournament this weekend I would definately recomend you check out IEM Singapore at twitch.tv/esltv_sc2.   ESL always puts on a good show, and I'm sure there will be some great games played. Tune in! I promise it'll be worth it. 

Source of picture BenQ gaming. 

The biggest weekend of Starcraft in 2013! (Part 1 of 3)

I've legitimately thought a lot today about writing a post where I do something beyond just talking about E-sports and in particular talk about things happening in my own life. I know it'd be a crazy stretch to do that, especially on my own personal blog, but hear me out! The thought crossed my mind. Thats all it really did though, no talk about me today, on to video games!

Some of you know this weekend as American thanksgiving. While that is certainly true, this year its actually the busiest weekend for StarCraft II. We have 3 separate major tournaments running with the World Cyber Games trying to remain relevant, the Intel Extreme Master's stop in Singapore where Acer.Scarlett will attempt to win her first premier title, and finally we have one of my personal favorites, the Annual awarding Liduid Hero with a check festival Dreamhack Winter. I'll be giving my own brief thoughts on who I think each of these tournaments are going to play out. We'll start with WCG and then talk about real tournaments tomorrow and Thursday. #ShotsFired

First up the World Cyber Games in Kunshan, China. This is going to be a weird tournament, because we have 4 groups of 7-8 players that are all going to play each person in their group in a Bo3 with only the top two of each group advancing. That means over two days, nearly 100 Bo3 series are going to be played. Thats at least 200 games! That is an ungodly number of games, I feel so sorry for both the casters and the players here, it's going to be grueling to say the least. Especially if you lose the first few and are essentially eliminated half way through the day. There are going to be pointless games being played and that just shows that the tournament format is bad. Never the less, out of each group I feel there are 2 favourites to come out of each of them. Group A will have PartinG and Sen completely out classing the rest of their group. Group B might be the closest, but I feel that France's Dayshi and China's Jim will be advancing, (That doesn't mean I won't be cheering for my fellow Canadian Desrow!) Group C will be dominated by Sora with MacSed following behind, with maybe the American Xenocider making an upset. Group D will be Korea's Soulkey wrecking everyone and the German protoss HasuObs picking up the pieces of the wreckage to advance in 2nd.

Into the playoff stage it will become like every other tournament in that the Koreans will likely dominate. I think PartinG looks to be the most likely to take the whole tournament, Soulkey could also take it, don't be shocked if its those two in the finals.

If I can throw some real talk down about now, WCG is a relic and not really that rel event of a tournament anymore. The only part that seems to matter is the Korean Qualifiers, since none of the foreigners (Non-Koreans) that would have had a even play this anymore. It's just like a charity to for the 3 Koreans that make it to the global finals. If your thinking of watching your first StarCraft Tournament this weekend, don't have it be WCG, not while there are two other very high quality tournaments going on at the same time.

RIP on WCG. Plz. 

Source of picture World Cyper Games. Plz don't sue me.

Some Review of WCS 2013, and my Thoughts on WCS 2014 Plans

In case you did not know, Blizzard released their plans for their World Championship Series (WCS) for two thousand and fourteen. Fans, players and hecklers alike were in anticipation of this news, particularly if any nationality or residency requirements would be introduced to help prevent the mess that was the WCS America region where they top eight throughout three separate seasons had only one person native to North America, (a Canadian) tying it with Australia and Norway for the year. 

Blizzards first step to fixing this problem is allocate the number of spots available for challenger league qualifiers (The tournament that funnels into premier, the highest league.) shall be limited to certain numbers based on nationality. fifty percent of qualifier spots are guaranteed to those who call North America their home, (whether by birth or legal residency) while only two will be available to their main competition, South Koreans, and even those sports are actually wildcards open to anyone. If you are wondering, while 1 Canadian made the top eight over three seasons, eighteen Koreans made their way to the top eight, possessing 75% of the top spots, and always claiming the title and runner up spots. This will probably prevent many Koreans from making their way up to premier league spots, while giving many more North Americans opportunity to attempt to make the jump. 

However, these changes do not affect the seven Korean players already seeded into Premier via their previous seasons performance, nor does it affect the Twelve Koreans who will be looking to make the jump to premier in the challenger league best of five matches that will take place early next year. It is highly likely unless several Koreans are matched against their countrymen that we will still be seeing as many as 16 Koreans in premier league, and with the new format, it will be difficult to remove them. WCS America looks to remain GSL* lite for the time being. 

You will notice I have not mentioned how this change will affect Europe`s own WCS competition. This is because Europe does not have the problem of being totally overrun by Korea. While it is true that the top 4 spots are still very Korean, there has been at least one European in the top 4 each season. There was even a French player who made the finals in season one! (RIP in peace Stephano) 

What has kept Europe safe from the invasion though? Are Europeans just better players and therefore more capable of repelling the coming invaders? while I do think Europe is ahead of North America overall, that's not really what kept them safe. The almighty wall that is Europe to Korea lag has kept them much safer than their own level of play. Harsh lag has made it very difficult for Korean players to surge forth in the 2013 year, and its simply not cost effective for the Korean teams to send their players over to Europe just to attempt to qualify for a tournament now is it? Most of the Koreans that made deep runs in WCS Europe were part of European teams where it made sense to bring them to Europe to play. Only IM.MVP (who won a season) and MVP.duckdeok (also won a season) were members of Korean based teams and also made deep runs into WCS Europe. 

To close my thoughts somewhat randomly. I think Europe looks to be in a good spot for WCS. North America might need some more time before they are able to showcase North American talent. At least there's some hope so the NA players will continue to try. Also did not mention the changes to the Korean region. Going to be good to have GSL back, looking forward to staying up way to late many nights to watch it again. Peace out!

Hopefully this guy and win a tourney soon. Couple of 1st places would solidify him as the best in the world. 

So Picks and Bans did Win the Game. Mostly.

               For those of you that did not partake in the spectacle of the League of Legends world finals than you missed out on well… A bit of a stomp to be frank.  SK Telecom T1 ran right through China’s Royal Club in a convincing 3-0 fashion. While I had previously predicted a 3-1 victory by SKT I was quite surprised with the total sweep. One of the funny things about SKT is that they almost always lose the first 1-2 games in a best of X series. For whatever reason something happened on Friday night though, that allowed them to overcome that and crush on through. I will contribute a huge part of SKT victory to their Picks/Bans phase of the game, or maybe to Royal’s mistakes in the same phase.  There was a \ key error and a smart decision in champ select that I want to talk about myself.

               The first of these was ignoring Jax completely by Royal Club. I wouldn't criticize if they let it through in game one and then banned it out because of what a problem it caused.  If they had let it through twice and tried to counter it in game 2 I wouldn’t be upset. However, they let it through in all three games and Impact made himself known on the Grand master of Arms. (Jax) Malphite in game one would've had to get way in front of the Jax in order to stop the split pushing threat it created, although I applaud them for trying at least. The rumble pick in game two was only marginally better. Royal Club known with a Rumble in lane that Jax wouldn't immediately become a monster,  but like the rest of the picks in game 2 it resigned itself  to losing lane overall. Game 3 fell somewhat into the same boat as the first, a curious choice to lane a Kennan against the Jax, but smart rotations from SKT saw that game end by 20 minutes, which is about as fast as you can win a game of League.

               The smart decision from SKT was the consistent bans on Renekton and Annie. Not only are both these champions comfort picks for Royal Club, but both of them also fit into Royal Club’s fighting and dive oriented style of play. Removing the nigh invincible tank Renekton forced royal away from having a consistent tank that could really initiate a dive under the tower, while keeping Annie away from shot caller Tabe forced him to pick Sona in every single game, which allowed SKT to anticipate the pick and counter it in lane, thus making it very difficult for Sona to be effective.

               So yes, the finals were a stomp, guess what? It happens sometimes. Some teams just show up much more prepared and hungrier for a championship than others. It happens. Stop complaining to Riot about it, it’s not like they wanted a stomp either. Close series bring in more viewers, fact. Congrats to SK Telecom Team One regardless. 

Look at them in their nerdy glory!

Why Picks and Bans Could Decide Season 3.

Tonight, possibly the largest event in E-sports history will talk place. Scratch that, this will be the largest event in E-sports. At Nine P.M. Mountain time, at the Staples centers in Los Angeles SK Telecom Team One of Korea will face off with Royal Club of China for the League of Legends Season Three championship and the Summoner’s cup. The clash will be for the ages, as vastly different styles of play clash against one another and I am absolutely hyped up about this.

Oddly enough, the part of tonight that I am most excited about will probably be the Picks and Bans phase of the game. Since this is my favourite part of the game I’m going to go pretty in depth about how this phase of the game goes. Ready for a pretty in depth look at what is only a 5 minutes portion of the game?! Yeah you are! Let’s go! I’ll be using some terminology you might now be familiar with so I’ll explain them at the end.

First off we look at what sides each team are on. There is the Blue side and the red side. Blue side bans and picks first. So Blue selects a champion (character) to ban away from play. Then red side team bans a champion and this goes on two more times and we have three cham

pions banned on each side. Then the blue side again takes the 1st of five picks. After that the red side takes their 1st and 2nd pick, blue then takes 2nd and 3rd picks, red 3rd and 4th pick, blue 4th and 5th pick and finally red takes the last and 5th pick for their team. After this the picks/bans portion of the game ends and the actual game begins.

So why on earth does this interest me so much? Because games are won and lost at this phase. Im serious, sometimes teams outpick their opponents and the game pretty much ends right there. Not really, but anyone with a brain thats seen league played before can see what's coming. This could be especially true in tonight's matches because both teams are so good that if they do outpick their opponents they will not screw it up. This is why I believe that this phase of the game will be so crucial tonight. So without further ado lets go into what I think will be important bans and picks tonight!

I’ll go through this position by position. (There are 5, top, jungle, mid, ad carry and support.) First top lane picks and bans. From SKT T1 I expect to see Renekton banned away, Royal Club’s top laner GoDlike has shown excellent proficiency with the champion and it fits Renek fits in so well with a dive/fighting focused team. He can jump headfirst into big fights or towers and often come out the other end alive because of how tanky he is. With picks I think SKT T1 will be looking for either Shen to give a solid tank/split pusher with a global or Jax to become a split pushing monster. Royal Club will probably be required to ban out Jax in nearly every single game unless they want to make a move with GoDlike playing it himself.

The jungle is going to probably be the most boring part of picks/bans tonight. Both Lucky and Bengi of Royal Club and SKT T1 respectively have shown a huge preference to play differant junglers and neither one of them has been game breaking enough to require a ban. So Expect to see Bengi play Lee Sin and Lucky on Elise unless something weird happens.

Mid lane is one of the most interesting because of what a huge emphasis has been put on this slot throughout the tournament. In the beginning of the world championships everyone was talking about Assassin Champions in the mid lane. That being Champions that were very adept at picking out a single target of a team and eliminating them quite quickly. Many games occurred when every single popular assassin was banned out entirely because of how dangerous it was to allow it onto the opposing team. Fizz, Ahri and Zed, and even Kassadin if you were playing the European Fnatic squad were heavily banned out. I expect this trend to continue. Three of the six bans will probably be spent on teams making sure those champs are not played. Both teams have created strategies that fix this problem though. Faker of SKT T1 has found two solutions actually. The first being a rapid expansion of his champion pool to include unconventional assassins like Lissandra and Riven, and the second being to focus on more utility like mid champions such as Gragas and Orianna. Wh1t3zZ of Royal Club more on utility champions solution more with all three of their wins against Fnatic coming from him playing the Utility champs like Orianna and Kayle. I expect Orianna to be a very high priority pick from both teams tonight and would even go to say that it will be likely to see the red side team banning the champ away every time. That will mean that most likely 4/6 bans will be devoted to mid laners. Huge impact on the game.

The bottom lane with AD carries and Support I’ll talk about together since they go to the same lane. This will be a very interesting lane to see played out, but I don't think many interesting things will happen with picks/bans here. There simply aren't enough bans to go around with so many going to the mid lane. I think a contested pick will be Caitlyn just due to how safe she is, with all that range and solid scaling into late game I won't be surprised if either Piglet or Uzzi pick her. However, I also wouldn't be surprised to see Uzzi and Tabe of Royal Club to go with the Twitch and Annie lane if neither of them is banned out. Piglet will play Ezreal, Cait or Vayne. I don’t think Corki is going to that important of a pick, but I could be wrong. Uzzi will be looking for Twitch, Vayne or Cait. Tabe will play Annie if available or Sona if not, Poohmando likewise will play Zyra if available and probably thresh if not.

So there you have it, my thoughts and what champions are going to be played, banned and be critical in whoever is going to win tonight. Good luck and have fun to both teams! PS I’m on the Korean hype train and think SKT T1 will win in a 3-1 score line.

Dive - When a player pushes forward into a enemies tower to initiate a fight, its dangerous because enemy towers do a lot of damage to your character and quickly.

Split pushing - When one member of a team goes into a lane and attempts to force the other team to react to it. Usually done by either a champion with a global or one that is a very strong duelist forcing the enemy team to send more than 1 person to stop it and that puts that team in a bad posistion.

Assassin - A champion that specializes in picking a specific target out and eliminating them very quickly. Didn’t really need an explanation did it?

Champion Pool - Every player has a list of Champions that they feel comfortable playing in a competitive setting. That is their pool.

AD carry - a character designed to inflict very large amounts of physical damage but is very weak on the defensive. Think glass cannon.

Yes, I'm aware that SKT T1's bot lane is named Pooh and Piglet. I am aware. Its adorable.

Fun week!

               This was a good week, I’m going to be pretty straight up about that. I accomplished two major things that I wanted to do with my summer. One was out of necessity and the other less vital but of similar value to me, if that makes sense. I like didn’t need it, but I really wanted it.

               First off, I found a place to live this fall! WHOOOOOOO! That’s a huge relief for me, because as I began my search things just weren’t really going my way with it, so when I started the week I was starting to legit think I might be bumming off couches for the first month of my life in Edmonton. Jeez that would have been an experience. Probably would have sucked, but I would have learned a lot from it. That doesn’t really matter now because I did find a place to live. Nothing super special about it, 5 bedroom place in Southeast Edmonton, it has close proximity to shopping and LRT so I don’t need a car up there. (Huge plus for me!) It has a surprisingly nice looking kitchen in my opinion. But yeah, the LRT location is important for me because….          

Pretty Good for a Rental eh?

               With the confirmation that I will not need a car, I felt comfortable enough with my money to order the parts to my PC that I’m building! Yay! Isn’t it cool how those things actually link together like that? The build I decided to go with is the same one I talked about in my last post, so I don’t feel like I need to link it again. About 1100$ cost including shipping and handling, and Im confident that it will be able to do what a 1800$ pre-made rig would, so yeah. Lesson to the peoples, building yourself is way more cost efficient than buying a pre-made.

               You know what else I just thought of that makes this week even better? I’ve found what I believe to be a solution to my frustrations with League of Legends. Stop playing ADC. (Attack Damage Carry, I shot things a lot and win fights for my team.) Why? Because when I play ADC I feel an obligation to carry my team through the ENTIRE game. That’s not good, because when I think like that I get really hypercritical of my own mistake which leads to most of my frustrations. So I’m going to be looking to play more assassin like roles. Cause then I just make plays and be a cool dude. Yay!

               So yeah! Good week overall. Like a solid 8.5/10 More blogging next week! Or maybe tomorrow. Provably next week though. 

Lots of Small Rants and Birthdays

               Well it’s been a bit of time since I really sat down to write something, mostly because I haven’t; felt like I really had anything worth saying on the blog, but a good friend of mine in Chrissy Williams asked about it today and since it is her bloody birthday after all I guess I can muster enough motivation to put at least one post together.

               So what to talk about? This is kind of the problem eh? I usually want to write about just one thing but I suppose writing on several things isn’t that bad right?

               So let’s start here. This is the going to be the computer I build later this summer. It`s almost entirely based on this build. I excited to build it. There were a couple of parts I thought about changing up, but ultimately this would be the best bang for my buck. I like my laptop and all, but let’s get serious; you need a desktop to get the performance I want without paying like $2500 or so. This build is about $1000 and should be able to play any game I want and record/stream it with at least passable quality.  So yeah, building a computer like this is like way way way worth it because I’ll save hundreds of dollars that would have had to be spent on a pre-made computer. The only real downside to this is that when it’s done, everyone that I’m related to will think I’m some sort of expert that can fix any of their computer problems for them. Which might be true, but only because I know how to use this site.

               Quick note on my thoughts about Yeezus and Magna Carta Holy Grail. Yeezus not that good. Magna Carta quite an enjoyable listen. It seems to me that Kayne feels like he still needs to prove himself, which he totally doesn’t. Jay-Z though just makes stuff he likes and it sounds like that. Thus fun to listen to. Magna Carta is not a very deep album in all honesty, buts I like listening to it. Don’t take these criticisms to seriously though, cause you know. I’m not really qualified in any way. (Pseudo-intellectualism at its finest!)

               As a final note let’s just briefly mention that the United States government recently recognized players of the League of Legends Championship Series as professional athletes with the same visa privileges as players of the NFL, NBA, NHL and other organizations. This is huge. It means that E-sports is really here to stay. Huge numbers at the Evolution championships this weekend are also another great sign for the community. All in all, I’m super excited for this fall so I can watch The International Three (Dota 2) Season 3 Worlds (League of Legends) and WCS finals at Blizzcon (SC2) Gonna be a huge time for E-sports this fall. One can only hope to see my boys Dignitas make it to Worlds for League. If your intrested in reading more about the whole League players getting recognized as pro athletes you can read the article here. 

So Good!

               

Shoutouts and Feeling Good!

               It has been quite the week let me tell you. Filled with all sorts of experiences and feelings. Some good and some bad, but in an effort to stick to what I was talking about in my last post I am going to be focusing solely on the positive things from my last week. I’ll talk about two three things in particular.

               The smaller one was that I once again returned to the work force back under the employ of the Town of Magrath. Even though I haven’t been paid yet for my work it feels really great to one know that there is income that will be coming in and secondly that I actually have something to do during the day now! Man, you would be surprised what full time work can do for a guy that’s bored, suddenly I hardly feel like I have spare time at all and its awesome!

               The big one that I really want to talk about was the opportunity I had to see one of my absolute best friends and a critical figure of my life get married to the man she loves. Big congratulations to Samara and Scott Dewey! It was so easy to see from the way they look at each other that they have a bond that is simply unbreakable. I’m thrilled that she found someone so good for her. I've probably talked about this before, but I've always felt like I had this “Duty” to ensure that the two Lybbert girls that I knew well ended up happy and with good people for them. I think this because I feel like I owe it to them. In reality any positive attribute I've developed over the past few years could in one way or another be attributed to something they did to help me grow.  I know for a fact that neither one of them realizes what they've done for me over the years. So yeah, it was important for me to see her so happy with Scott and I would be a liar if I told you that I didn't shed a tear during that day. Augh, how embarrassing.

               This isn't quite as long as I wanted so I’ll throw another positive thing that came out of a negative thing. Suffice to say there was drama this week and I got to discover that a friend of mine is a truly outstanding individual. I haven’t had the chance to properly thank Makinna Kristensen for how helpful she was this past week. I most definitely owe her one. 

               Well this was nice, I like all these positive feelings and such. Maybe I should like try to keep this positive vibe going. confirmed, Being positive is good. Jonny Tollestrup 2013. You can quote me on that. 

Unrelated picture of Fiji cause I can. 

Change of Plans Folks!

               Right, so I’m going to go ahead and change up the summer goal deal. I’m only changing the goals in regards to gaming so really no one ought to care much for it. Originally I set out to complete a run through of Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and reach Diamond rank in Starcraft II. While it’s defiantly not that far out of reach to complete this, (Ocarnia of Time already done, Wind Waker can probably be complete in a single day with some dedication and a red bull and I finished Top 8 in platinum for the previous ladder season of Starcraft, which is basically as close to diamond you can get without actually making it.) I've decided it’s not really what I want from my gaming experience right now.  

               What do I mean when I say that’s not what I want from a gaming experience right now? Simple really, I play games for one of two reasons. First being I like becoming immersed in a new world and all of the cool details that go along with it. That normally lies within a Single player game when the narrative or game play is the driving feature. The Second reason is that I’m competitive and I can win at them. This is where Starcraft and League of Legends come in, and at the moment it’s really all I've been playing, and I’m getting increasingly more frustrated every time I play them. I play games because I enjoy them, and in reality I’m just not enjoying games like Starcraft or League right now. So I’m taking an indefinite break from them until I feel like I've “ Calmed the freak down.”

My average face while playing League, Witnesses can confirm unfortunately.  

               My plan to calm down is going to come by rediscovering the first reason I play games. I've always greatly enjoyed the experience of becoming part of a completely different world. That’s why I particularly love games like Mass Effect, Skyrim, Dragon Age, and The Legend of Zelda. They are all these fantastical worlds that simply don’t exist in reality but are very interesting to explore and learn about. So for the time being I’m going to focus on playing single player games and trying to remember why I love games in the first place. It’s like a good movie really, because you kinda forget that you’re just a viewer or player and simply become part of the world. It’s partially why I like games so much, just by the very nature of you participating in a game makes them feel more immersive. You know? Maybe not, but it’s true.

               Taking a break from games like League does leave me in a mild dilemma though, how on earth am I supposed to help my friend Seth with his not sure if serious or not idea of making a gaming Youtube channel if I’m not playing the leagues with him? Let’s play’s? Come on, no one really wants to watch someone like me with no presence in any gaming community play through what can easily be a 20 hour game like Mass Effect. So with the power of editing I plan on making simple highlight stuff. Parts of games that I think people need to know why they make those games good. Maybe look at freak out about how dumb I think that game design has changed so dramatically in the past twenty years. (It’s no actually dumb, it’s just be being a baby.) Who knows what’ll happen, I know it’ll be fun though. That’s why I’m doing it. Also the rare chance for dat YouTube money obviously. 

How Real am I?

               Jeez, I am just awful at keeping up with this eh?

               Anyways, let’s get a quick update going here. Since my last post I have become unemployed. I have been unemployed for this entire month. I decided to leave my previous employment for lack of better words, “Scheduling conflicts.” Getting consistent work was a struggle and I just decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle anymore.  It may have been smarter to just stay on until I had another job lined up, but it is what it is.  It’s also been quite the drain on my bank account. I learned how to do my own taxes though, so I guess that’s neat. I also learned how to make Sloppy joes, which sounds really easy and in reality it is pretty easy. Here’s my obligatory picture!

              

You can't really see the actual part I made, but trust me, it was good. 

               The really big thing that this month has given me is an insane amount of time to think. Like its just silly how much thinking I’ve been able to do this last month. There’s still a whole freaking week left in it to! My goodness. One of the really big things I’ve been thinking about though is me. No not in the ego driven oh my look how cool and awesome and good looking I am and everyone who doesn’t see that just doesn’t get me way. Ugh. Goodness that would be just awful. I’ll be frank, I’m not a very positive person to begin with (Shocking!) but the fact of the matter is that the person I’m hardest on has and probably will always be myself. I use the term Self-loathing when I describe it to other people and I often mask it jokes. While I do definitely think that if you don’t know how to laugh at yourself, for better or worse, you are going to have a bad time. For real.  However, just acknowledging your flaws through jokes is not enough. If a person isn’t even trying to fix those flaws with themselves and just continues to just joke about it, I kind of find it disgusting. This sucks, because I’ve been feeling like I have been like that for a while now. I’m making so little effort to really move forward with my life right now. I refuse to adopt an exercise schedule simply because of my laziness. I’ve been falling back on calling out people when they are being stupid, which is something I actually liked about myself. I wasn’t afraid to tell someone that what they were doing isn’t smart at all. I really haven’t been doing that. I’m working on that though, so I guess it’s not a total loss there. I’ve continually allowed my diet to remain absolutely abysmal. I’m not looking for new and interesting music, just listening to the same stuff over and over. The only thing I really have going for me right now is that I am in fact going to be attending school in the fall. As my sister so eloquently put it, “Yay for real life plans!” Lastly I feel like I’ve totally lost touch with what I can do with my sarcasm. I used to be able to pretty accurately pin down what jokes I could or could not make without legitimately upsetting someone. I just feel like I cross the line every bleeding time right now

.

               I guess I just needed to really take the time to call myself out on what a miserable human being I’ve been for the past few months. The goals I made for the summer were supposed to change that. I guess I’m really down right now because it’s really the first time that I’ve looked back and thought, “Man that guy from 6 months ago wasn’t such an idiot.” To clarify, I’ve always felt like I’ve made good progress as a person every few months and I just don’t feel like I have these last few. Only thing to do though is just step my game up, moping about it on the interenet doesn’t change anything. 

Starting Goals and a Bit of Real Talk

               Well I`ve crossed one and a fourth goals off of my list already, I mean one of them was my completion of a Pikmin run in thirteen in-game days. Each day is 15 minutes so my run was about three hour and fifteen minutes in total. That is my fastest run to date yet. Honestly I think I can cut a few days off if I did another run within the next few weeks, but I probably won`t be booting it back up again so quickly. Great game, although I know it well enough to make the game really easy. It`s less about wether or not I can win, but rather how long is will take before I win. Oh well, still a great game and definitely looking forward to playing the third one when it comes out.

               The fourth portion of a goal I completed though was a new dish I learned to cook. Lemon Chicken. Nothing complicated, but something that I wasn`t 100% sure how to make. So I learned how to make it. Cooking is like a lot of fun, did anyone else realize that? Maybe I’m just saying that because I only legitimately cook every once and a while, but I really do enjoy it when I do, definitely going to be cooking more in the future. Food tastes great and its cheaper, what more could I ask for? Anyways, the Lemon Chicken went well enough, didn’t light anything on fire or burn myself/the food so I’d call it a successful activity.

Yum. 

               Beyond that though, I had an intresting weekend as well, kinda. It was a good friend of mine’s homecoming, Keaton Moore. Loved seeing him again. Really cool to talk to him and  such. It’s always kind of awkward with these things being an early return, but that part wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Got to see some other faces I hadn’t seen in a while. Kind of sad to see where some of them are right now. Particularliy the people that I feel are being pushed into bad circumstances rather than being there as a result of their own decisions. One in particular was apparenly going through some rough stuff. I use the word “apparently” because I was kind of shocked about how well they seemed to be doing despite being in a rough patch. I’m happy they seem to be doing well but fear that it may be a act to keep the appearance of strong. That’s just pure speculation though, and only time will tell if any of it is true. I hope its not.

               Lastly another one of these 30 topic things. #25. Wouldl you rather date someone plain with an amazing personality or someone beautiful with a plain personality? Peronsonality wins here hands down. I really think that if a person has an amazing personality and you do get the chance to get to know that personality then looks really won’t matter. I would be attracted to that person because of how awesome they are of a person. End of story. That sad truth is that lots of guys (myself included) don’t give the more normal looking girls that do have incredible personalitys the chance to show off that personality. I’ll admit that I did not introduce myself to many of the girls I consider now to be my best friends. I kind of had to be put into situations where I got to know them and I’m lucky that I did, because they are incredible people. They aren’t even plain looking either. I was just pretty stupid then. Still am. Probably will be for some time, but you know what I’m getting at here.  I didn’t give them the chance to let their personalities shine on my own, but rather simply learned about it by chance. I don’t regret it really, excpet I do think about how many really cool girls I didn’t get to know in my life because I simply didn’t give them a chance? Shouldn’t dwell on this, definitely going to get depressed if I do. Let’s stop right now. Thanks for reading if you get this far. 

Let the Heckling Begin!

            So I haven’t written here in like forever, but I’m not even going to go into that, because I’m here now to start getting a schedule together. That’s all this post is going to be about, me putting together a few goals before I head back off to post-secondary education.  

            Firstly I want to become consistent with this blog, to help with that I’m going to give this blog a clear definition. I will talk about things that are interesting to me. That means that there are going to be E-sports posts, there will be ones where I rant about stupid things people do, I will talk about my personal thoughts on a variety of subjects. I will occasionally rant about what a dork I am. I will talk about cute girls; I will talk about a good restaurant I might go to. I will post pictures that are related to all these topics.  There will be many Calvin and Hobbes references. I am definitely going to talk about music in games and movies, as well as games and movies. I will probably say things that people will subsequently call me out on. It’ll be a good time. I will criticize almost everything.

           - I’m going to read 3 full books by the end of the summer. Any suggestions?

          -  I’m going to reach Diamond rank on Starcraft 2, and complete a play through of Pikmin and The Legend of Zelda: Wink Waker and Ocarina of Time.

           - I’m going to learn to cook 4 new dishes.      

         -   I am going to find a steady exercise schedule and be consistent with it.

          -  I will go on at least 2 dates.  

          -  I will discover one new band that no one else knows about (Hipster cred inc!)

            We’ll cut if off there for the sake of being realistic. I think Starcraft, exercise, and dates will be the hard ones on this list. Ok blogging consistently will be the toughest, but that’s a given.  Still, dates will be difficult just because of what a recluse I am and breaking out of that shell. Exercise because well because I’m pretty freaking lazy. Starcraft because it’s a really difficult game to get good at, and I’m prone to getting really really frustrated at myself when I play it. I think if I accomplish the other two difficult tasks though I should just become a happier person which will make it easier to tolerate the rage inducing nightmare that is the battle.net ladder.  

            Why blog this though? Because the biggest lesson I’ve learned in my life knows when you are beyond your own capabilities. Not that I can’t do these things. Just that I know that I won’t on my own. So I humbly ask whoever reads this, to please pester and bother me about accomplishing these things. Pick the ones you want me to do and hassle me. I think that’s manageable. Another excuse to get on my case? Gladly. That’s what I imagine most of you are thinking about this. That’s all for now, happy pestering!

            Don't think I forgot about that 30 topic thing though, nice and quick. Something little that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. The ending to Rudy. Goodness me I love that movie and I hate how it can just play with my emotions like that, but it can. If you haven't seen it, let me know. I have a copy and will gladly loan it to you. Heck I could even watch it with you if you want to see me nearly break into tears. 

So good.....

I Wanna Work in E-sports but I'm Still Just a Lurker

               I think everyone kinda has this job they really want but don’t really know how it’s even possible to get it. Some of them get really motivated and find out and then do it. Some find out and don’t. Some though never really even let it become anything more than a fleeting dream. I haven’t decided which of those three I am yet. Partly because I haven’t really ever settled on what I think would be that dream job. All I really know is that it’s in online media. Online shows, sites, article that sort of thing. I really think working in the E-sports scene would be just an absolute blast.

 Getting into E-sports is a complicated idea in itself though. Mostly because there really isn’t a set way to get into it. One of the more commonly accepted ways is the simple procedure of constantly producing content. Really that’s the best way. If you really try to boost the community the community will accept you and help you out. Artosis is the best example of this in my opinion. This guy hopped on a plane to Korea with no idea what was going to happen, but he constantly produced content and built himself up as a respectable person in the community, eventually his work was rewarded and he is now arguably the most respected and well known casters in the entirety of the Starcraft II community, stable job as the Code S (Premier League of sorts) caster with his best friend Tasteless. Total nerd baller.

Where E-sports is at now, I believe a good solid way to get into the industry would be to do two things. First get off to school and learn a skill that is relevant to E-sports, secondly continue to be active in the community and produce content. It’s critical that you strive to make sure that the content you make is the best you possibly can. This includes taking criticisms and building off of them. Not that I really know much, I mean I’m not all that active in the E-sports community myself. You know what? I’m gonna change that. This is one of my absolute favourite things in the entire universe and I don’t help build it up. That has to change. Time to get active! (In E-sports) WHOOOOOO!!!!!

Ten Bucks to whoever finds the French guy. (HInt, it should be obvious)

Turn ons...Risque?

               If the world was going to end tomorrow what would you do with the time you had left?

               First off I’d make sure my conscious was at peace and say some quick but meaningful goodbyes to the important people in my life. Then I’d do really stupid and risky stuff until I accidently killed myself, cause I decide what the terms of my death are, not you, you silly hypothetical disaster.

               A T.V. show I’ve become addicted to.

Sherlock. Like the BBC one that only has like 6 episodes in total. It’s brilliant. Watched the last three this weekend. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman make a brilliant Holmes and Watson respectively. It’s just how a modern day Sherlock would be like and I love it. Go watch it now or something.

Turn on’s and off’s.

Oh boy will this be fun. Or disastrous. Well it’s going to be fun for someone I suppose. Let’s begin with the turn offs.

1.      Overdone makeup. I don’t even think this one is all that unique to me. It just show that someone is trying to hard. We all know that try-harding is frowned upon. Unless you are playing ranked games. What would the social equivalent of that be? Speed dating? No, maybe something like if you and some of your friends kept track of how many guys asked for your number and compared at the end of each week or something. Weird. Try-harding is bad.

2.      Not trying. I know I just poked fun at girls that put too much effort in but really, yoga pants + hoody with no sign of care is just plain bothersome. Some people can attest to this as I may or may not have even put incentives forward in the form of bets to get certain girls to “try” again. It was for the best, and I regret nothing.

3.      Uninformed opinions being put out and then defended mindlessly. I notice this most when the topic of da gamez comes up. To many girls pass it off as a complete waste of time and then proceed to get upset when I call their terrible TV shows (See MTV/TLC for details) a waste of time as well.  I would actually be ok with them thinking video games were stupid if they would just accept that those shows are stupid as well. At least we’d be on even ground then. (Even though that’s not true, da gamez are 100 times superior to that kind of television. IMO) None the less that apparently just can’t happen. So stupid people remain stupid.

4.      One-trick ponies. You all know those people who only know how to tell one kind of joke, or always steer the conversation towards one thing. I’m definitely guilty of this at times, but you know what I’m trying to say here. The people that are only interested in a single activity. That kinda stuff. Like I love da gamez, but I really like doing other things as well.

That’s enough of that for now, let’s move on to the good things in life or girls, whatever same thing.

1.      Wit. Is it too much to ask that when I go off into a tangent that a girl is capable of keeping up? Maybe so, but if they can. WHOOOOO! Running with that, a girl that can not only handle my sarcasm, but throw it right back at me is instantly attractive.

2.      Being able to rock a casual look, like jeans/t-shirt or something on a similar tier of fashionness. I prefer this to girls who wear like really formal clothing not because I don’t appreciate all the hard work they put into things like that. (Believe me, I appreciate it) but because it’s the look I’m going to see most often, if its one that works well for you then that’s just great right?

3.      Being able to play a unique instrument. Piano/Guitar are boring frankly, cool, but everyone and their grandma in southern Alberta can. Violin? Sexy. Cello? Baller. Trumpet? Pretty neat.

4.      A girl who CAN play games. I am in no way saying I want a gamer girl. I honestly don’t know any girls that can come close to my level of knowledge of games, and while that would be pretty cool, I’d really like to meet a girl that can simply appreciate why these games are really cool would be legit. Maybe even could enjoy cuddling up to watch come MLG’s would be AWESOME! This also extends to sports as well. It’s cool if a girl really can play a mean game of soccer or something, but an all-out sports girls is just too much. It goes back to the try-hard thing. Stereotypical gamer girls are either using it only to appeal to nerdy guys, or have an obsession with them. Finding balance is what I like. That was all over the place.

5.      Green eyes. They’re nice.

6.      Girls who don’t just listen to what’s popular, but can appreciate it.

7.      Reasonable independence. Like when a girl can handle herself, but doesn’t need to tell every R-tard she runs into about how she can handle herself.

8.      Looks wise, a few inches shorter than me (so they can wear heels is they so desire, see how considerate I am?) moderately curvy, but really the looks are focused up on the face. I’m a face guy, it’s really the best part of a girl to look at. Dark hair, medium length. Cute smile, you know, standard stuff right?

`              I am now realizing that I described a green eyed Asian girl. Interesting. Very Interesting.

Well this was another fun one to do. I really enjoy these sort of things. Lots of fun to be had. And that leaves us with only 12 topics left! That’s like another 6 months of content based on how often I post!

If you understand this picture and where it occurs I would like to take you on a date. Also please have two X chromosomes. Applicants can send resume's to JToll21@Gmail.com or comment here.
Source for pic: Reddit

Confession bear. Except you won't hate it. Maybe.

Three Confessions.

               Ok so confessions kinda has this negative connotation so this is going to be a “Things you may not know about me”

               The person I trust the most on this planet is my ex. Yep. Despite all the insanity that surrounds her, the ludicrous immaturity that is sometimes apparent I trust Tannis Wilde above all other people I know with information. At first thought I can’t figure out why exactly. Actually I think that it’s just the way we interact with each other. We both understand very well what our friendship is and that allows us to be absolutely comfortable around each other. Yeah, that’s it. Plus she can go from being a 13 year old boy in maturity to a mature adult in an instant. I can trust that when she needs to be, she’ll be mature. I have faith in her.

               I have the best friend on the entire world. Literally. Like she’s a total baller. Her name is Lysa. She’s super clutch. When I say that I mean that when the chips are down I know that this girl will come through. It’s bittersweet when I think about when I first started hanging out with her, because I knew this girl for years and never really paid her any attention. Stupid me. Luckily the cards were in my favour and I was more formally introduced in high school. When I say that I mean that we developed mutual friends and started hanging out with her. Oh the fates. This isn’t really going anywhere and I’m kinda ranting. The point is that Lysa is awesome. She treats me twice as well as I deserve and don’t treat her half as well as she deserves. I’ll work on that or something. Once again, baller. (boo-do-chick-do-do baller!)

               I’m lonely. Oh man, he’s not about to go all dark and emo’y is he? Yeah a little bit. I haven’t had a girlfriend in years and I’m so so so so sick of it. I’m so done with being alone. I want to date, but I really don’t feel like I know how to do it right now. Also I have these like ridiculous standards set for girls I would potentially date. I think I’m too picky, I should work on that. Yeah I’m really tired of being single though, especially since none of my friends seem to have any problems getting dates/ maintaining relationships and it’s absolutely infuriating. I want to get angry at them, but I know that it isn’t their fault and those sort of factors are totally out of my control, and if you really can’t control it, whats the point of getting upset. I state that there is not a point. So don’t. That’s why I don’t get frustrated about how easy dating seems to come to people around me when I struggle with it an absolute ton.

               Well that happened. Let’s have a nice picture to brighten things up and make me feel good.  

This is a screenshot of the new Sim City game. Man am I gonna play this a lot. It's gonna be friggen awesome.