Veni's Farewell
Posted: 09 Sep 2015, 20:18
Hi guys,
Why this post you might wonder?
Well, a lot of people have been asking me why I am not as active anymore and what??s going on. I have played AOE for a long time and had lots of fun. Anyone who has played AOE for a long time, especially on a mid or high level, knows that it has a special place and is therefore hard to quit forever. I am busier with other things in my life and as they would say in the great Lethal Weapon movies: ??I am getting too old for this shit?.
For whoever is interested (it turned out to be a bit of a read
): in this post I wanted to write up a recap from my perspective and thank some people.
When I first started AOE at GR (GameRanger) in 2009, I had good fun and [strike]got owned[/strike] learned a lot from juank_ and @mvp, but soon realized the skill level was limited. I [strike]found out about[/strike] finally clicked on ESO and things really got going! The same fun, but a much higher skill level. I had some experience already so getting Captain wasn??t that hard. To further improve my skills, I read strategy posts on forums, watched recorded games and critically evaluated my own gameplay. I became Lt. Colonel ?? 33! Now things got more serious, as I was then able to join more of the higher ranked teamgames. I somehow still remember this, able to play with people like @challe, @silento and @samwise12 who were all ranked Brigadier or higher. I have learnt a great deal from these people, and they were not the average players. Anyone can take an example of the kindness and modesty of these three. Furthermore, Challe??s British inspired me to take it on as my main for a long time. Silento??s Germany was always interesting, and Sam??s French was, well, Sam??s French. So, three all-round civs to work on.
As I enjoyed the team dynamics more (player talks, coordination &' strategy and bigger battles), that has been my focus for a long time. [strike]When I perhaps should have attended more classes[/strike] I was also getting into the ??jap games?, during EU mornings i.e. the other big community usually [strike]password protected[/strike] a bit closed to other new players. They were very polite and proved to be highly skilled as well with other new tactics. I enjoyed playing with players such as 4s4m, @shmras, Takuman, StSt, Kumruke and @boneng. Even though communication in English sometimes proved to be an issue, and my Japanese is well, eh, non-existent, it??s funny how universal certain things are in multiplayer games. And just remember, you can always signal and people know where to act.
Now, I enjoy traveling and encourage anyone to do so, as it will be a great and never-to-forget experience! So there I went and took a long AOE break. When I got back I had my first live-encounter with the ESO decaying system. Damn this guy who read in some psychology research that you should install certain triggers to stimulate people to play regularly. But well, turns out he was right, and so I started playing to get to my old rank again. And while you have to get up to speed with your mechanics and a bit of the current game-meta, a lot of your skill is still there [strike]except when you play too much LoL[/strike], similar to cycling.
Around this time a tournament was in full swing' always fun to watch. The problem though, there was no live-stream. So we had @zutazuta??s videos from the recs, which were a great inspiration to me (as well as 36drew??s [strike]N3O representin??[/strike] videos). I enjoyed watching the game with their commentary, also to learn from it. However, after the tournament was over, the videos also stopped coming. This triggered me to think about the whole concept. There were more people interested in watching AOE and with commentary as well. Since no one was really filling the gap and I just happen to have an OP MSI laptop (: ? Yes, you guessed it: my Twitch channel was born in mid-2013! I streamed my gameplay for an enjoyable evening watch and later on started to do commentary and some instructional videos as well, for others to improve. I even started to get some regular players tuning in and had a decent amount of views. This all grew as I also casted several tournaments and played regularly myself, spending a lot of time on streaming as well. As of now I see that I have over 700.000 views and 3000 followers for YouTube and Twitch combined, thanks everyone! Especially to my most loyal viewers through the years: @blackbob68, @mcjim, @neuron, @tvtotal, @cometk, @niedhalf, @blackstarop and @koenigerik1. You guys have often motivated me and kept me awake to stream AOE till 3,4,5am or even sunrise, [strike]damn [/strike]good job! It was nice to see that a lot of players followed and started their own streams, and currently we have usually one streamer every night!
Flash forward to around 2014, where I played a lot of teamgames with my old mate @fard (who unfortunately decided to go for LoL [strike]and decayed in overall skill[/strike]) from who I learned a lot, some older players who returned such as Silento and Japanese players. Throughout the years I also helped quite a lot of people with general tips and commentary so they could better understand and improve their gameplay. It was also then that I started to get some GR people to ESO. The 2 best known are my boys @ramex12 [strike]who still owns me at chess[/strike] and @blackstarop [strike]with his Spain annihilation streak vs me[/strike]. I am proud to have coached them both to improve in a short period of time. Their motivation, skills and potential allowed them to improve further to the high level players they are now. With ofc @blackstarop earning himself a spot in the top players of AOE of all time in both 1/1 and team. Both of you have been close and nice mates in AOE, in fun ways as well as challenging, which will be a nice lasting memory!
I have to admit that sometimes I might have been [strike]a bit[/strike] annoying (sorry @princeofkabul ')), but honestly it was with the best intentions. I still feel that that through my instructions and coordination in teamgames a lot of players have learned a lot and improved faster.
I have had many good and fun games gaining more experiene with a lot of players throughout the years such as @khorix, @darwingiovanny (yes his Russian is nice and I still remember his OP pause once on the other team ??sorry 1 minute, need to teach them how to micro?), @blackstarop, @ramex12, @spadel, @koenigerik1, @boneng, @princeofkabul, @somppukunkku, @elpistolero, @musketjr, @tibia, @masterchif, @tvtotal, @samwise12, @nagayumi, and @stanleywinston, treaty players Laroda, GGBN, @ajiv, @king_ownage2nd and many others who I might have missed out on here. And I finally claimed the rank of Major General and a top 10 team elo (:
At last, we arrive at early 2015, where @stanleywinston came to me. He and @mitoe came up with the idea of organizing a new AOE tournament, since it has been a while and to get a more active community together. As I obviously was inspired by the idea right away, I joined in as the main caster and overall ??helping-hand??. Spring Championship was on the way and the AOE community more active than before. This was the start of the ESO-Community as you see it now, where a lot of people were and still are, in their free time, working on the great things we can enjoy today. Special thanks to @stanleywinston, @mitoe, @h2o, @calmyourtits, @neuron, @incog, @edeholland, @wickedcossack, @interjection, myself and several more who have spent a lot of time to get ESO-Community to where it is now.
I quickly want to mention that, @musketjr, even though we had some disagreements in the past, you have always been a very good player in my eyes and respected you as such. Same for what I have seen from your casting lately. I really enjoyed how you go in-depth about strategic implications of decisions. I always liked this type of casting as it was what I aimed for as well. Keep an eye on this guy people, everyone can learn a lot from him!
An extra shout-out to @aizamk and @garja. @aizamk for his UI mod and features, which greatly improved both observing and casting. @garja for his work on all the new balanced maps for the community and tournaments' something new to explore yet competitive at the same time.
[a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/venividiviciw"]My YouTube Channel and all its videos[/a] will still be available. When scrolling through the list I came across a lot of nice gameplay, commentary, and tournament videos to re-watch during cold, dark days (:
My AOE journey has come to an end and it has been a hell of a trip. Thanks to everyone who I played with, talked with and laughed with. I wish you all the best in AOE and life!
Through experience I learned to never say ??never?, but for me it is now time to move on and focus on other things.
Take care!
VeniVidiVici
Why this post you might wonder?
Well, a lot of people have been asking me why I am not as active anymore and what??s going on. I have played AOE for a long time and had lots of fun. Anyone who has played AOE for a long time, especially on a mid or high level, knows that it has a special place and is therefore hard to quit forever. I am busier with other things in my life and as they would say in the great Lethal Weapon movies: ??I am getting too old for this shit?.
For whoever is interested (it turned out to be a bit of a read
): in this post I wanted to write up a recap from my perspective and thank some people.When I first started AOE at GR (GameRanger) in 2009, I had good fun and [strike]got owned[/strike] learned a lot from juank_ and @mvp, but soon realized the skill level was limited. I [strike]found out about[/strike] finally clicked on ESO and things really got going! The same fun, but a much higher skill level. I had some experience already so getting Captain wasn??t that hard. To further improve my skills, I read strategy posts on forums, watched recorded games and critically evaluated my own gameplay. I became Lt. Colonel ?? 33! Now things got more serious, as I was then able to join more of the higher ranked teamgames. I somehow still remember this, able to play with people like @challe, @silento and @samwise12 who were all ranked Brigadier or higher. I have learnt a great deal from these people, and they were not the average players. Anyone can take an example of the kindness and modesty of these three. Furthermore, Challe??s British inspired me to take it on as my main for a long time. Silento??s Germany was always interesting, and Sam??s French was, well, Sam??s French. So, three all-round civs to work on.
As I enjoyed the team dynamics more (player talks, coordination &' strategy and bigger battles), that has been my focus for a long time. [strike]When I perhaps should have attended more classes[/strike] I was also getting into the ??jap games?, during EU mornings i.e. the other big community usually [strike]password protected[/strike] a bit closed to other new players. They were very polite and proved to be highly skilled as well with other new tactics. I enjoyed playing with players such as 4s4m, @shmras, Takuman, StSt, Kumruke and @boneng. Even though communication in English sometimes proved to be an issue, and my Japanese is well, eh, non-existent, it??s funny how universal certain things are in multiplayer games. And just remember, you can always signal and people know where to act.
Now, I enjoy traveling and encourage anyone to do so, as it will be a great and never-to-forget experience! So there I went and took a long AOE break. When I got back I had my first live-encounter with the ESO decaying system. Damn this guy who read in some psychology research that you should install certain triggers to stimulate people to play regularly. But well, turns out he was right, and so I started playing to get to my old rank again. And while you have to get up to speed with your mechanics and a bit of the current game-meta, a lot of your skill is still there [strike]except when you play too much LoL[/strike], similar to cycling.
Around this time a tournament was in full swing' always fun to watch. The problem though, there was no live-stream. So we had @zutazuta??s videos from the recs, which were a great inspiration to me (as well as 36drew??s [strike]N3O representin??[/strike] videos). I enjoyed watching the game with their commentary, also to learn from it. However, after the tournament was over, the videos also stopped coming. This triggered me to think about the whole concept. There were more people interested in watching AOE and with commentary as well. Since no one was really filling the gap and I just happen to have an OP MSI laptop (: ? Yes, you guessed it: my Twitch channel was born in mid-2013! I streamed my gameplay for an enjoyable evening watch and later on started to do commentary and some instructional videos as well, for others to improve. I even started to get some regular players tuning in and had a decent amount of views. This all grew as I also casted several tournaments and played regularly myself, spending a lot of time on streaming as well. As of now I see that I have over 700.000 views and 3000 followers for YouTube and Twitch combined, thanks everyone! Especially to my most loyal viewers through the years: @blackbob68, @mcjim, @neuron, @tvtotal, @cometk, @niedhalf, @blackstarop and @koenigerik1. You guys have often motivated me and kept me awake to stream AOE till 3,4,5am or even sunrise, [strike]damn [/strike]good job! It was nice to see that a lot of players followed and started their own streams, and currently we have usually one streamer every night!
Flash forward to around 2014, where I played a lot of teamgames with my old mate @fard (who unfortunately decided to go for LoL [strike]and decayed in overall skill[/strike]) from who I learned a lot, some older players who returned such as Silento and Japanese players. Throughout the years I also helped quite a lot of people with general tips and commentary so they could better understand and improve their gameplay. It was also then that I started to get some GR people to ESO. The 2 best known are my boys @ramex12 [strike]who still owns me at chess[/strike] and @blackstarop [strike]with his Spain annihilation streak vs me[/strike]. I am proud to have coached them both to improve in a short period of time. Their motivation, skills and potential allowed them to improve further to the high level players they are now. With ofc @blackstarop earning himself a spot in the top players of AOE of all time in both 1/1 and team. Both of you have been close and nice mates in AOE, in fun ways as well as challenging, which will be a nice lasting memory!
I have to admit that sometimes I might have been [strike]a bit[/strike] annoying (sorry @princeofkabul ')), but honestly it was with the best intentions. I still feel that that through my instructions and coordination in teamgames a lot of players have learned a lot and improved faster.
I have had many good and fun games gaining more experiene with a lot of players throughout the years such as @khorix, @darwingiovanny (yes his Russian is nice and I still remember his OP pause once on the other team ??sorry 1 minute, need to teach them how to micro?), @blackstarop, @ramex12, @spadel, @koenigerik1, @boneng, @princeofkabul, @somppukunkku, @elpistolero, @musketjr, @tibia, @masterchif, @tvtotal, @samwise12, @nagayumi, and @stanleywinston, treaty players Laroda, GGBN, @ajiv, @king_ownage2nd and many others who I might have missed out on here. And I finally claimed the rank of Major General and a top 10 team elo (:
At last, we arrive at early 2015, where @stanleywinston came to me. He and @mitoe came up with the idea of organizing a new AOE tournament, since it has been a while and to get a more active community together. As I obviously was inspired by the idea right away, I joined in as the main caster and overall ??helping-hand??. Spring Championship was on the way and the AOE community more active than before. This was the start of the ESO-Community as you see it now, where a lot of people were and still are, in their free time, working on the great things we can enjoy today. Special thanks to @stanleywinston, @mitoe, @h2o, @calmyourtits, @neuron, @incog, @edeholland, @wickedcossack, @interjection, myself and several more who have spent a lot of time to get ESO-Community to where it is now.
I quickly want to mention that, @musketjr, even though we had some disagreements in the past, you have always been a very good player in my eyes and respected you as such. Same for what I have seen from your casting lately. I really enjoyed how you go in-depth about strategic implications of decisions. I always liked this type of casting as it was what I aimed for as well. Keep an eye on this guy people, everyone can learn a lot from him!
An extra shout-out to @aizamk and @garja. @aizamk for his UI mod and features, which greatly improved both observing and casting. @garja for his work on all the new balanced maps for the community and tournaments' something new to explore yet competitive at the same time.
[a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/venividiviciw"]My YouTube Channel and all its videos[/a] will still be available. When scrolling through the list I came across a lot of nice gameplay, commentary, and tournament videos to re-watch during cold, dark days (:
My AOE journey has come to an end and it has been a hell of a trip. Thanks to everyone who I played with, talked with and laughed with. I wish you all the best in AOE and life!
Through experience I learned to never say ??never?, but for me it is now time to move on and focus on other things.
Take care!
VeniVidiVici
