Ask questions about my experiences as a pro gamer. Semi pro anyway.
If this thread sucks mods you can delete it.
A little about me from the gaming aspect.
Since Madden football came out I played it. I never could afford game systems until much later when they came out. I grew up on Nes,Sega Genesis...but b4 that I had a commodore 64 (floppy disc cpu) and atari 2600.
I loved goin go to the arcade to play games.
On my 8th birthday my mom took me, my brother and my sister to an arcade called Play America. They had a deal that if you bought a membership for $9 each week you could pay $5 and get 40 tokens. That was basically $10 for $5 for each week. Each game cost 1 token or 2 tokens to play with 1 to continue.
This my friends is where I learned how to play Street Fighter 2. I immediately like the character Ken. My brother showed me how do the Z motion aka shoryukens aka uppercuts and fireballs. Eventually I was learning spacing, timing and mind games and then graduated to SF2 Championship Edition. A few new moves and being able to play the bosses. This was where I experienced my first competition play. We had lines on both sides with people waiting to play and I remember being one of the first people to successfully stop Bison's psycho crusher by learning to time my uppercut with Ken. My brother was always much better than me because he seemed to grasp the engine better (maybe cuz i didn't know and I just played) but one night I tagged along to play america and he was not happy with it. (I was about 10 this time) He had gone on a winning streak of about 15 in Mortal Kombat 2. He then hitting up and start to pick random select against people. I only had $1 but decided I was tired of watching and figured I would challenge my brother just to play the game. I was pretty good with characters like Scorpion,Reptile,Kung Lao,Jax and Liu Kang. I knew all the combos (that were exposed at that time) I knew how to perform all the fatalities, friendships and babalities for each character. Well I decided I would play Kung Lao. I had my brother so confused with my teleports and my throw set ups that I had managed to land a perfect. The fatality was the finishing touch that led to my brother leaving me at the arcade. It was the first time I walked home from the arcade by myself, but it was also the first time I realized that I could compete with anybody in any game I decided to play.
During the separation of my parents I found myself hanging out at the arcade just to do it. Staff was really cool and didn't mind me being there...even if it was to loiter. (Maybe because I was known for winning a lot or maybe it was because they didn't want me to get into trouble.) The manager Ruth she used to buy me lunch and tell me she wasn't gonna let me play games and that I would need to finish homework or read a book. Anytime she caught me doing those things she would give me a bag of tokens and tell me to go relax. I'll never forget her. She had beautiful red hair and a really big *** (i thought it was weird then but i like that now...go figure) and she was really a sweet girl. I think she was kind to me because she never had a kid but wanted to...just not with her husband cuz he was abusive, plus she knew about my mom leaving us. Until the arcade closed down I would go about 4/5 days out of the week.
After the arcade closed down I started getting more involved in sports...I played football,ran track, wrestled. Eventually I lost track of the fighting game "scene."
During my sophomore year in High School my friend Kevin wanted me to go to the Arcade at the mall with him. We went and I started playin some Street Fighter games and managed to get some decent streaks and learn on the go for some new tactics,combos etc. Sure enough I was there or at my friend Kevin's house playing games when I wasn't playin sports. During my remaning years at High School we would travel to local tournaments to get more competition and learn new tactics or combos. This was also during the movement of videos being released online and being able to download anything you wanted. So naturally we would go online to discuss tactics with ppl across the country. We would share them with our buddies through AIM, or MSN messanger and eventually found a local Colorado site for gamers. This was when we got really heavy into the gaming scene. I would go to tourneys (tournaments) and play for the competition. After a while the losses started becoming grude matches and rivalries and new tactics needed to be made. We would read about tournaments in different states and go and visit and travel to learn even more and prove to ourselves and others what state we repped and our communities as well as ourselves. My first out of state trip was awful. I was playing multiple games...one game Guilty Gear was the newest and I wasn't really comfortable playing it. My main game Capcom vs Snk 2 I was really nervous and lost to the same **** over and over. I was so frustrated but I learned alot about playing in the clutch and overcoming nerves. On my return from out of state tourney play I became more consistent in placing top 3 in tourneys in more than just one game. I eventually one of the biggest tourneys we throw yearly in CO and had posted several combo videos and tutorials that got some attention in the National Scene.
I would've liked to continue on the path because I know my potential in "gaming" is a rare combination of lots of hard work,sweat and tears and also natural talent to be able to guess what the opposition is going to do before it happens and also not be monotnous. (If your laughing at this point or are very confused as to how fighting games are deep....think of a very easy concept: paper, rock scissors. Is your opponent going to go high,low, block, throw, do a super move etc. Do I go offense,defense, do I run away etc.)
I eventually "retired" from the "scene" because my son was born and I could no longer put the practice time in to be the best. My desire to play did not die, my responsibilites came in order. Anybody want some examples of what competitive play looks like...youtube a video with the name Daigo vs Justin Wong EVO. You'll get goosebumps...even if you don't play street fighter.
Anyway that was one long post and my wrist is dying (torn tendon last week.)
Any ?'s about gaming insight for what it takes to become a pro to get sponsored or things like that I have a little exp in. I would do better with ?'s like "what did you sacrifice to play games?" or "what did you gain from playing games?" etc.
If this thread sucks mods you can delete it.
A little about me from the gaming aspect.
Since Madden football came out I played it. I never could afford game systems until much later when they came out. I grew up on Nes,Sega Genesis...but b4 that I had a commodore 64 (floppy disc cpu) and atari 2600.
I loved goin go to the arcade to play games.
On my 8th birthday my mom took me, my brother and my sister to an arcade called Play America. They had a deal that if you bought a membership for $9 each week you could pay $5 and get 40 tokens. That was basically $10 for $5 for each week. Each game cost 1 token or 2 tokens to play with 1 to continue.
This my friends is where I learned how to play Street Fighter 2. I immediately like the character Ken. My brother showed me how do the Z motion aka shoryukens aka uppercuts and fireballs. Eventually I was learning spacing, timing and mind games and then graduated to SF2 Championship Edition. A few new moves and being able to play the bosses. This was where I experienced my first competition play. We had lines on both sides with people waiting to play and I remember being one of the first people to successfully stop Bison's psycho crusher by learning to time my uppercut with Ken. My brother was always much better than me because he seemed to grasp the engine better (maybe cuz i didn't know and I just played) but one night I tagged along to play america and he was not happy with it. (I was about 10 this time) He had gone on a winning streak of about 15 in Mortal Kombat 2. He then hitting up and start to pick random select against people. I only had $1 but decided I was tired of watching and figured I would challenge my brother just to play the game. I was pretty good with characters like Scorpion,Reptile,Kung Lao,Jax and Liu Kang. I knew all the combos (that were exposed at that time) I knew how to perform all the fatalities, friendships and babalities for each character. Well I decided I would play Kung Lao. I had my brother so confused with my teleports and my throw set ups that I had managed to land a perfect. The fatality was the finishing touch that led to my brother leaving me at the arcade. It was the first time I walked home from the arcade by myself, but it was also the first time I realized that I could compete with anybody in any game I decided to play.
During the separation of my parents I found myself hanging out at the arcade just to do it. Staff was really cool and didn't mind me being there...even if it was to loiter. (Maybe because I was known for winning a lot or maybe it was because they didn't want me to get into trouble.) The manager Ruth she used to buy me lunch and tell me she wasn't gonna let me play games and that I would need to finish homework or read a book. Anytime she caught me doing those things she would give me a bag of tokens and tell me to go relax. I'll never forget her. She had beautiful red hair and a really big *** (i thought it was weird then but i like that now...go figure) and she was really a sweet girl. I think she was kind to me because she never had a kid but wanted to...just not with her husband cuz he was abusive, plus she knew about my mom leaving us. Until the arcade closed down I would go about 4/5 days out of the week.
After the arcade closed down I started getting more involved in sports...I played football,ran track, wrestled. Eventually I lost track of the fighting game "scene."
During my sophomore year in High School my friend Kevin wanted me to go to the Arcade at the mall with him. We went and I started playin some Street Fighter games and managed to get some decent streaks and learn on the go for some new tactics,combos etc. Sure enough I was there or at my friend Kevin's house playing games when I wasn't playin sports. During my remaning years at High School we would travel to local tournaments to get more competition and learn new tactics or combos. This was also during the movement of videos being released online and being able to download anything you wanted. So naturally we would go online to discuss tactics with ppl across the country. We would share them with our buddies through AIM, or MSN messanger and eventually found a local Colorado site for gamers. This was when we got really heavy into the gaming scene. I would go to tourneys (tournaments) and play for the competition. After a while the losses started becoming grude matches and rivalries and new tactics needed to be made. We would read about tournaments in different states and go and visit and travel to learn even more and prove to ourselves and others what state we repped and our communities as well as ourselves. My first out of state trip was awful. I was playing multiple games...one game Guilty Gear was the newest and I wasn't really comfortable playing it. My main game Capcom vs Snk 2 I was really nervous and lost to the same **** over and over. I was so frustrated but I learned alot about playing in the clutch and overcoming nerves. On my return from out of state tourney play I became more consistent in placing top 3 in tourneys in more than just one game. I eventually one of the biggest tourneys we throw yearly in CO and had posted several combo videos and tutorials that got some attention in the National Scene.
I would've liked to continue on the path because I know my potential in "gaming" is a rare combination of lots of hard work,sweat and tears and also natural talent to be able to guess what the opposition is going to do before it happens and also not be monotnous. (If your laughing at this point or are very confused as to how fighting games are deep....think of a very easy concept: paper, rock scissors. Is your opponent going to go high,low, block, throw, do a super move etc. Do I go offense,defense, do I run away etc.)
I eventually "retired" from the "scene" because my son was born and I could no longer put the practice time in to be the best. My desire to play did not die, my responsibilites came in order. Anybody want some examples of what competitive play looks like...youtube a video with the name Daigo vs Justin Wong EVO. You'll get goosebumps...even if you don't play street fighter.
Anyway that was one long post and my wrist is dying (torn tendon last week.)
Any ?'s about gaming insight for what it takes to become a pro to get sponsored or things like that I have a little exp in. I would do better with ?'s like "what did you sacrifice to play games?" or "what did you gain from playing games?" etc.
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