Computer Games pt. 1- CS... no it does not stand for computer science

Well, I wouldn't be as far as to say that it is a hobby but dictionary.com would prove me wrong. Made in 1999 (almost as old as starcraft), I didn't confront Counter-Strike til a harmless gathering of people at EVO sometime during middle school, the only LAN cafe (only a chinese restaurant now) in champaign. When I heard we were going to play CS, I thought Counter-strike was the command and conquer game. Boy was I wrong. My immature, naive gaming of usual starcraft and N64 would be warped into a form of obsession, an obsession to become -Good-, or as some may say... l33t. (haha the things you can find from google searches)


Losing time for social and productive activities (I never studied... but still graduated =P), CS occupied a big part of my life. I sacrificed my sleep and many other important things in order to become better and better. Although my personality seemed to change once I was behind a computer, playing with friends and e-friends was my way of spending "quality" time.

During the years, I've had a few chances to really make it big (relative term... so moving towards being a more known player). Of course this would happen simultaneously with the formation of a new team consisting of friends... Sammeh, Jinwoo, and M.Andy... how could I say "no" to them??? Impossible. So I spent the bulk of my years trying to play competitively but it was quite difficult. My team didn't seem to have the same kind of aspiration as I did but I still wanted to play with them.

In the recent years, everyone seemed either bored or unsatisfied. Each friend went on to do their thang... whether it be WoW or bball... they just phased out. But where was I? I still wanted to play. Not being able to afford or unwilling to pay for a new game, I kept at it. Now there was nothing to stop me from joining a good team and hopefully finding sponsorships. However, reality gave me a good K.O.
Although this may sound humorous, upper-levels of CS is highly political. You needed connections to get anywhere. Me not having played too competitively, I did not form the much needed connections throughout the CS community. All I could do is laugh at the position I was in. I was going nowhere.

I made it to the upper-third (thats only 33%... but theres a lottt of teams) of the unknown competitive CS community with a team named providers (trust me... i dont even know what that's supposed to mean... no one does). But this was as far as I will ever go.

And this is where I am today. Of course I play not nearly as much as I did in my earlier years, I do still play. There's something about the game, which mixes a great deal of physical (haha) muscle reactions and a great deal of mental strategy, that keeps luring me in.

Although I would say the game gives me more of a heart attack than pleasure nowadays (hence my reluctance to call it a hobby), there were some good things that came out of it over the years.

1. Quality time spent with friends - I know I put it in quotes earlier... but I really do believe it was quite a bit better than some of the usual activities such as the movies (one of the only things to do in Champaign outside of someone's home). Movies involve near to none person-to-person interaction except the occasional... whoa ... AHHHHH.... "How did he do that?? Can you explain it?" "It's a movie Sam."2. Made a few e-friends, one of whom i've met to play tennis... I would say on many occasions I've felt a lot closer than just online friends: spent many hours together trying to reach the same goal and I've talked to them about life problems and vice versa. It's funny how much you can achieve without ever seeing them in person. (This is not a leeway for online dating... I still think online dating is ridiculous and should be considered malpractice and punishable by law... haha i'm exaggerating... or am i?)3. An Alternative - I never really had the chance to get good at something. My parents weren't willing to put me on a sports team, something I really wanted to do, due to either financial or ride issues. I came to accept our situation, but I wanted to do something I was interested in. Although not a good alternative, it was there.

Haha... all those years of playing and being able to come up with only 3 points... what can I say? I'm not that smart.

Moral of the Story???




Stick with starcraft and the N64 =P


*Update* I fixed a few grammatical errors due to Mike's suggestion of proofreading... UHHH NAOOO? If Microsoft Word doesn't give me a red or green line (occasionally blue), then it's correct. That's my method of proofreading.
I added some pictures.... for those who need a distraction while reading a long story such as myself... so i guess it was for me