One of My Embarassing Moments

Well this ought to be a pretty easy post to write no? I mean the hardest part will surely be deciding which of the many embarrassing moments from my life to choose from. Just the other day even I managed to walk headfirst into a door on campus, that was awesome, really a superb display of grace and control. Anyone that has seen me play games like Just Dance/Wii Sports and such have also received a lot of first hand experience in me embarrassing myself. There is one thing that really sticks out in my mind though.

What my brain was saying, too bad I didn't listen. 

This is a story that some may have heard recently, but I don't think that they will mind hearing it again so soon. I was on a double date that my friend Brad had set up. The date had been going decently well I think. People seemed to be enjoying themselves and all was well and good until very late into the date. Then I goofed up. You see I am not that good with remembering names, and I had in fact forgotten the name of Brad's date. I had gotten by just fine the rest of the night by using general terms or addressing the entire group at once, but near the end I got cocky.

somewhere in the deep recess of my mind I had apparently remembered her name. I didn't even matter at this point since the date was practically over, and the smart thing to do would be to not take that risk, wait until Brad had dropped her off and then confirm with him, since the worst that could happen there would  be he laughs at what an idiot I am, but he already knows I'm an idiot so it doesn't matter.  I instead made the bold and idiotic choice and just asked her a simple question and addressing her with her name, Jessica. Suffice to say her name was not Jessica. Luckily for me no one got angry, rather everyone there burst out into hysterical laughter. At this point I have no real choice but to own up to my stupidity and own it. Apparently it's now a joke between us all that I just call her Jessica anyways. I'm not really all that fond of the joke to be honest, but as long as other people get a kick I guess I can keep reminding myself of what an idiot I am. It's Karma really. The moral of this story though is to laugh at your embarrassing moments and don't let them haunt you. While I might like it if everyone pretended it never happened, it's better that I do remember so I don't do it again. Hopefully... Also screw sliding doors man, those things are totally out to get us all! You have been warned!!! Peace buds.

Confession Time!

I bet you all thought that since I started falling behind on these posts that the challenge was for all intents and purposes over? Wrong! I'm still going to get through this, and we're even going to get back on schedule, just not immediately. Something about having the majority of my finals in the next two days makes it harder to sit down and spend a considerable amount of time thinking about these blogs. So the plan for the next two weeks is to write a post for today, then write posts Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get back on track. Simple right? So now that that is out of the way let's get into the fun part. Me confessing things, which I thought might be a bit difficult since I try to not have things to confess, not like I don't have bad habits or embarrassing stories, just that I'm pretty willing to tell people about them which leaves not so much to confess to people.  I think I've got three for today which should be good.

#1. I don't actually hate puns that much. I mean when I first started saying that I hated puns I really did hate them, just couldn't stand them, but I suppose I got desensitized to them because once people heard about this particular hatred they seemed compelled to tell me all the puns they could think of. So I've gotten used to them, and I even laugh at some of them from time to time. They are cheap laughs and I will never sway from that opinion, but they are laughs none the less and who am I to get in the way of a laugh?

#2. Birds are really just ok. I think my family will be the only ones that actually get a laugh out of this one, because I know that the easiest way to drive my mother bonkers is to say the simple line, "I like birds" The truth of it is that the line comes from a song by the Eels with the unsurprising title of "I like birds." Birds are still pretty cool cause they FREAKING FLY, but they are not the end all be all of creatures.

So at this point, most of you are probably thinking that this post is just a joke now, so I'll hit you with a real confession now so you don't feel like I was just messing around the whole time, cause it was really only like 84% of the time that I was. Anyways, this last confession is going to sound kinda sad, but I`ll try to explain my thinking of how it`s kind of ok. Ok?

#3. I generally put the blame for anything that doesn't go my way on myself. Even things that seem like really obviously not my fault like walking down a hallway and some runs into me I'll think to myself, "Well I could have been paying more attention to where I was going." Something like that. This is probably why I get really frustrated playing games like League of Legends, because you have to coordinate with a team in order to win in that game, but if I lose I will certainly blame it on my own personal play. This thinking works out ok for me right now because I use it as a drive to constantly improve at anything I do. I also don't particularly like blaming people. I just feel bad about it after, even if it's totally justified. It seems so much simpler if it's just my fault cause it's easy to legitimately criticize myself since I know all myself pretty well. In short, if something I'm involved with goes downhill I'll probably blame myself, but not in a dopey self-destructive kind of way, more along the lines of "That sucks and I suck, but I know how to do better now at least."

Right, so I'm pretty darn far behind right now, I think I need two more plus one on Thursday to catch back up. I probably won't do another one till Thursday though, so Thursday, Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday to catch up? Who knows. The next one will be

My bald head cause why not?

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. 

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)