When 2013 started I had no team, and I had totally given up the hope of finding a good team for me. I was a bit unlucky (and naive) with eSahara merging with Absolute Legends and then Quantic disbanded (the first time). I still wanted to play StarCraft of course but I was planning on doing that without a team. At this point I was also going through things in my personal life. My dad died and it had a big effect on me even tho we barely spoke anymore. In the end it made me grow as a person.
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| Casting at DreamHack winter. Photo: Jeroen Weimar. |
I got in contact with team Millenium early in 2013 and soon I understood that it was the perfect team for me. I joined the team and I am happy to tell you all that I renewed my contract! Millenium has throughout the year given me so many things. I got a lot of opportunities, like living in the gaming house for example. I will go back to the gaming house for some hard core practice later this year! I also made many friends and I got super good practice, with Dayshi especially. My teammates helped me a lot when I had questions or needed practice for something special. I gained motivation. Motivation that helped me win the female World Championship later in 2013. I never expected that a team could help that much with motivation, but it’s all about finding the right one :) When it comes to skill I did aim higher but unfortunately I didn’t make it much further. I will set up new goals for 2014.
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| From the gaming house :) |
During the year I realized that it will be really hard for me to compete with the top as long as I’m doing my PhD. Before IeSF I took a few days off work and everything(!) just to focus on playing and nothing else. In those few days I learned a ton. I’d say I learned as much in a day that I normally do in a month. It is however really hard for me to get that focus when I all the time have math problems flying around in my head trying to get solved ;) I will try to make some kind of schedule and hopefully that can help a bit, because I really want to improve! And this was a good lesson.
Looking back at 2013 I would say it wasn’t the best year for StarCraft 2. Many things could have been done differently and tbh I was pretty disappointed at WCS and always felt that the 2012 version was a lot better. I think the system was more motivating for players and more enjoyable for the audience. I loved how national heroes were crowned and the European finals of 2012 was very memorable. I think WCS 2014 will be better than 2013, but we have to w8 and see how much will actually be changed.
For esports however I think it was a really good year. Media is getting more and more interested in esports. I wouldn’t say being a progamer is accepted as a job even in Sweden as of yet. But we are getting closer that’s for sure. More and more newspapers are writing about esports, more TV channels and radio stations are getting interested, politicians are even discussing esports and I think that it’s just a matter of time before it is as big as any other sport. But getting the older generation interested will be hard so we might have to w8 until we get old ;)
I’m struggling a lot with time. It’s the one thing I wish I had more of. I love esports and I want to do what I can to help the scene and to become as good of a player as I can. But at the same time I am not willing to give up my PhD. As I stated before I will be giving up teaching for 2014 and I will work less at the University and try to get the best of two worlds. Because in the end life (to me) is all about being happy and doing what you love to do.
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| Oh, and the obv nutella pic :D |
I want to thank all the people following and encouraging me. I want to thank Millenium for a great year and I hope for another good one. And big thanks to my personal sponsor XMG, because of them I don’t have any computer problems anymore :) I’m looking forward to 2014! Much love and ~keep smiling~
