Catching up with stories

During my weekend alone, I think I made it kind of clear that I wasn’t feeling too great, emotionally.  Catching up on writing about things kind of helped, but along the way, in between posts written, I found myself getting distracted.  I would check Facebook or play a League of Legends match, and then I’d chastise myself for squandering the opportunity of time that I had, and that I shouldn’t be wasting time doing what I could do at other times.

This was Saturday afternoon.  Since then, I haven’t played any League, and I closed Facebook everywhere; my browser, the tabs on both my iPhone and iPad, and on my other laptop.  More than anything, I think not looking at social media has been something cathartic and the forced separation something of a good thing.  What started as an evening became a day, and then it’s become several days, and at the time I’m writing this, I still haven’t checked Facebook.

The funny thing is how many times I’ve had to stop myself from almost doing so, especially over my phone, while I’m at work, in between assignments, or those fleeting moments where I want to not be doing work, catch my breath and see what’s going on elsewhere in the world.  I’ve frantically forced quit the app numerous times since then.  Eventually, I’ll check again, once routine settles back down.

But the time not spent playing League or looking at social media and thinking about either, I’ve actually, not surprisingly, been somewhat productive, in a manner of speaking; by catching up with stories.  And not “stories” as in hicks talking about television shows per say, although I am talking about some television shows; but if it weren’t for the fact that I finished reading one book, then I’d basically have entitled this whole thing “catching up on movies and shows.”

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Probably not a very smart decision

Impetus: three popular League of Legends commentators declare refusal to work the Mid-Season Invitational event, citing poor freelance rates.

These guys realize they get paid to talk about video games, right?

Honestly though, I see both sides of the argument here.  Ultimately, I understand the concept of a labor dispute, and it’s good on the part of Monte, DoA and PapaSmithy, that they’ve done their homework, and learned what other casters are making, and it’s only fair that the penultimate game representatives of the eSports scene, should probably be paying competitive rates.

But at the same time, these are guys that make a living talking about video games.  These are not underpaid doctors, teachers, construction workers, civil servants or any other occupation that actually makes a difference in the world we all live in.  These are guys that watch teenagers play video games at a highly-competitive level, and talk about it.

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I’m critical because I CARE

Meet Cupid Twitch.  Cupid Twitch is a skin concept for League of Legends character Twitch, the Plague Rat.  The impetus behind this design is that Twitch is the last bow-and-arrow wielding character on the roster, and with Valentine’s Day approaching, adding him to the Heartseeker family of skins.  The idea works two-fold, as it provides an opportunity to present a character known for filth and pungent odor in an ironic manner to be suddenly a romance-spreading Cupid, firing his arrows upon champions on Summoner’s Rift, as well as holding true to Heartseeker trends of utilizing bows and arrows.

The basis for the idea was taking a hairless rat, which are already all pink and cherub-like colored, and giving it Twitch’s weapon, modified to at least have a Heartseeker theme.  Add wings, and superfluous hearts, and voila, it’s Cupid Twitch, ready to spread love in surprise double and triple kills.

However, Cupid Twitch does not actually exist.

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Locked perspectives and player satisfaction

I’ve been playing a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic over the last few months, playing on a PvE server, having a grand old time leisurely questing and amusing myself over how I can take a Sith Warrior and be as Dark Side as possible, and currently, taking a Jedi Consular, and, being as Dark Side as possible.

I made a “joking” remark that as a result of playing SWTOR instead of League of Legends as much, I’ve been generally a calmer, more relaxed and less stressed out person over this span of time.

Well, all that’s recently come a crashing end, because I’m like 4-8 in my recent history of matches, and with each tragic loss on account of my own shortcomings and/or someone else’s, I’m left feeling dejected, disappointed and wondering why I even love this game so much in the first place.

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How to build an Academy Darius axe in a week

Something I never did in a timely fashion that I remembered that I wanted to write about, was a post about the construction of the Academy Darius axe I had made for my corresponding costume, that I wore to Worlds.

Two key challenges were in play when constructing this prop: time, despite the fact that I had the idea to make this costume for quite some time, I’m stupid and waited until later in the game to start, everything, including the axe.

Additionally, there were size limitations to the axe; because I was transporting this prop in my luggage to Europe, it had to be able to fit inside of a standard full-size piece of luggage. My solution to the size limitations was to modify the scale of the axe in general, as well as creating the axe in components, fit inside of luggage in pieces, and be somewhat easy to re-construct and break down in Brussels and Berlin.

Ultimately, I would say the size of the axe isn’t 100% scale, but when it comes to League props, 100% scale isn’t always realistically feasible; otherwise, I would’ve had a 56” Riot Graves gun that probably would have weighed 30 lbs, and my pink Taric hammer would’ve been taller than me and more than 60” hammerhead.

But anyway, here’s a fairly quick run down of what I used, how I did it, and the general process of how I made an Academy Darius axe in a week.

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Photos: Europe Trip – Berlin, Germany WORLDS

For quite a long time, whenever anyone would inquire about where in the world I would like to go, if I could go anywhere at the drop of a hat, I always responded that Germany was where I would want to go. I didn’t really have much basis behind it, other than the fact that I suppose I wasn’t aching to go visit the Motherland or be all weeabooey and say I wanted to go to Japan; ultimately, I think I always wanted to go somewhere where I could look and feel like a complete foreign tourist, and in my mind, Germany seemed to fit that bill.

Well, thanks to WORLDS, I had my excuse to visit Deutschland, and fulfill that line of thinking. Ultimately, I think I was certainly right, because I was very much the foreign tourist in Berlin, not speaking a lick of German, and aside from the litany of fellow Korean tourists also visiting for WORLDS, being very much in the minority of mostly white people faces.

But the thing is, now in hindsight, I don’t necessarily think that it was everything I had thought it would be.

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Photos: Europe Trip – Brussels, Belgium WORLDS

The first leg of the Europe trip was Brussels, Belgium, where the semifinals of WORLDS was going to take place. It was pretty much a hit the ground running kind of trip, since as soon as we settled into our hotel in Brussels, we power napped for a while due to the jet lag I’d never experienced in my life before; by the time we woke up, it was pretty much time to go to the venue.

There’s nothing I haven’t already said about the WORLDS experience that wasn’t in my prior post about the event as a whole, but at least now I’m putting up some of the pictures from the event, which include my hot mythical girlfriend, as well as some shots from within the arena itself, attempting to show some of the atmosphere, the championship Summoner’s Cup, as well as some post-victory pictures from SK Telecom’s victory over Origen.

The rest of the pictures are more or less a litany of mushy couple selfies, as well as some of the places we hit up in our free time in actual Brussels, and not the shitty area surrounding the Brussels Expo area.

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