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I guess it took me a deployment to Afghanistan and pretty much being forcibly ripped away from having the freedom of playing my favorite game of all time to realize how much it means to me. Seeing Bugha win the championship really put it into perspective along with the whole creation of the World Cup.
When I first started Fortnite, I had just barely started PC gaming. My buddies finally convinced me to get onto PC after I basically admitted that gaming was important in my life and I was tired of being such a dirty casual.
I started off playing PUBG, getting used to aiming with a mouse. It was such an awesome game but it just wasn't optimized well. I hated the latency issues I would get and the FPS differences would cause me to get killed because other players are seeing the game differently than everyone. It was a good game and a nice lead into the BR scene, but after 1k hours on it I was burnt out and tired of the BS. I had a buddy of mine recommend Fortnite when season 2 had already started. I think this was around like December 2017. I got it, played it and didn't really understand why people loved it. Mind you I was playing it like it was PUBG, no building and all aim. I wasn't bad and managed to get a couple wins. I even bought Ginger Gunner.
One day I was at work surfing YouTube a couple months later, and one of Ninja's like season 2 videos popped up onto my feed. I had barely heard about him at this point. I thought whatever, and clicked his video. Honestly I was amazed. This man was playing solo squads, dropping into old Tilted and slaughtering the entire town. I think he ended up winning that game with about 30+ kills. I had never seen someone be so catastrophically good at a game before in comparison to the other players he was destroying.
This was back when double ramping was the push method. When towers were what people did before the "Cranking out 90's" phrase existed. Shoot I even saw Ninja push with 3 ramps at a time once. It's dumb now but at the time I was like WTF?? That same day was the day I quit PUBG and started playing Fortnite full time. I ended up watching nothing but Ninja for weeks. I must have seen every single video he uploaded from March to September or 18. I started watching TSM play as well. I credit a lot of my playstyle to Daequan. I put down probably near 50+ of his videos. I spent hours dropping into moisty mire and wailing woods to farm wood to practice building and editing. This was before creative mode. Then when creative mode dropped, I literally played the hell out of it just trying to catch up to the meta. I think that around season 5-6 I finally had caught up to the Meta and was playing at the level of my favorite streamers. I even streamed myself a bit. I dropped a little montage on my YouTube. In comparison to the meta now it's trash but at the time it wasn't bad!
Arena finally dropped and I definitely saw an opportunity to prove myself in competitive. In the first 3 days I had made it to around 120-150ish points. Not godly I know, but I was pretty excited to climb!
Then I received word that I was leaving for Afghanistan in about a month. I didn't want to do anything but qualify for worlds and play competitively. I would work 12 hour shift at work all night, then play for 6-8 hours grinding and trying to get better. Honestly it sucked really bad knowing it'd be all for nothing. I was within maybe a couple of games before getting into Champions league, then I left for deployment.
I've been here since May. I won't be coming home until like November when I plan on devoting at least 6 hours a day to the grind and climbing again. Seeing the World Championship event online, not being able to play, and watching all of these guys make it to the end... It really hit home for me because I just miss being able to play and honestly I'm just tired of being in a combat zone. I honestly kind of teared up when I heard "Happier" by Marshmellow because it reminded me of the pop up set he played in pleasant park. That was back when my life was more simple than it is right now.. less stressful. I was living every day to climb and do what I love.. Everyone takes for granted being able to play every day. Even if you don't crank 90's, or don't always win. You're blessed that you even get to play at all.
In conclusion I wanted to say thank you to Epic and the Developers at Fortnite. Being out here, watching the game being streamed online has provided me with an outlet that really gave me some escape from my stressors and this crap situation Iām in. It truly is an amazing game and I hope to someday be able to play at a professional level upon my return. Congrats to Bugha on winning the Championship!
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