Aug 8, 2020
Stepping away from competitive TFT
I was gonna do this yesterday on twitlonger like most people do when they “retire” (whatever that means) but because the formatting was so awful I decided to do it here instead. Sorry for the delay but once I started writing it up it became kinda long and it was fun to go over everything and I lost track of time a little.
Just like the title says, I have decided to step away from competitive TFT as of today. It was no easy decision to make since I really do love the game, the community and the competition. But eventually even good things run its course and it’s time to call it quits. Don’t get me wrong I would love nothing more than to be able to do this for longer, and I won’t close the door on TFT forever, but I know that right now it’s just not worth it for me personally to keep this up. I got a job offer last week and decided to take it and I’m starting next week. I wish I had it in me to do both at the same time, but I just don’t. So while I don’t see any competitive TFT in my forseeable future you never know what happens down the line.
It’s crazy to think that I only started playing TFT and getting involved in the scene 8 months ago, feels like it’s been way longer than that. But it was not too long ago since I was known as the Berserker one-trick on NA called “me no zerks”. That’s where it all started, me climbing the NA ladder playing pretty much only Berserkers.
I got to know Influrrier and GrandVice8 who both helped me get into streaming, I made my first guide and eventually I got my first taste of competitive TFT by playing in GiantSlayerTV Fight Night Rising after Rissakah reached out to me. I won my first time playing in Fight Night and I was hooked right away.
Not to long after that I got invited to Lobby 2 (shoutout to DXN for inviting me even though I was not in the Top 10 at the time) and got to know a lot of great people, many that I consider great friends of mine today like Fluffy, Sunny Lu, Rayditz, Doublezz and Adreh (to name a few). It allowed me to also to not only play with the best players from both NA and EUW, but now also talk with them about the game which really is a big reason I think I improved as fast as I did even though I was so much newer to the scene than most since they had already been playing the game since Set 1 Beta.
Set 2 was about to wrap up and we had the Set 2 Lobby 2 Invitational, which at the time was the biggest tournament I had played. It had basically all of the best players at the time playing in it and I ended up advancing to the finals and ended 3rd overall which was pretty exciting at the time considering I was so new to the scene and while I was dissapointed at the time that I did not win, in hindsight I think I did alright.
After that eyes were set on Set 3 and playing on the PBE to get ready. I have to say that the Lobby 2 inhouse PBE games are always gonna be some of my favorite memories from TFT, those were always so fun. Anyone remember 6 Sorc Miss Fortune with True Damage upgrade?
Set 3 was basically where I started streaming more consistently and I had a lot of fun with it because sadly during Set 3 there was not a ton of tournaments, especially at the start of the set. Eventually though, we did get the first season of the GiantSlayer Series. I ended up getting to the finals again but this time around had a bit of a disappointing performance ending in 5th overall (while being held hostage for 4 weeks by DeliciousMilkGG forcing Mech every game..) but it was still a fun tournament.
After that there was not a ton to do, I was streaming and playing the weekly Fight Nights (I believe this is where I started my streak of 12 Top 3 finishes) and waiting for Set 3.5 which I believe had been announced around this time.
At the end of Set 3 GiantSlayer Series 2 was starting, this time with EU and NA qualifiers. I qualified for GSS2 and Week 1 of the competition I think I had the most embarrassing performance in a tournament I’ve ever had. I felt so defeated. But it also lit a fire under me, making me go on a pretty great streak right after because at the time I was literally dedicating all of my time into TFT to ensure that I would be the best player I could be going into next week. I ended up winning that weeks Fight Night, the Swedish PBE tournament and Week 2 of the GSS2 and eventually qualify for the the finals even though I threw so hard the first week. It felt great, because it showed that I had what it took to compete with the best as long as I’m willing and driven to put in the work.
The finals of the GSS2 was played on Set 3.5 and this means that the first week of the EUW snapshots had started for the EU Regional qualifiers. I was doing awful, the first 2 weeks of the midset expansion I was having a really rough time in my personal life and even though I had taken time off to put all of my focus on climbing the ladder, I was not able to. Even when I had time to play I could not focus and in the end I ended the first week not even in top 100. The same day was when I was gonna play the GSS2 finals. Horrible fuckin timing, I went into it with 0 confidence and honestly kind of just wanted to go 8th and get it over with. Thankfully I had Victoria there to cheer me up before the games started and she told me I was gonna win and I’ve learnt now that shes always right so even though I did not know it at the time, it was honestly a free first after she told me that. So thanks for that babe.
Even though I had a rough start the first two weeks of the snapshots for the EU Regionals, I managed to bring it back and stay Top 25 the last three weeks and even breaking Top 10 a couple of times. Which for me was pretty rare, I had never been a good ladder player, I’ve always disliked grinding ladder. It just never gave me the same feeling as tournament play. But this time I had to focus on it if I wanted to try and qualify for EU Regionals so there was no excuses anymore. Sadly in the end it was not enough to qualify for the EU Regionals and I ended up Rank 41 overall and needed Rank 40 to qualify. Talk about stumbling on the finish line. Last day of Week 5 I had a pretty intense race with Balotelli777 for the last spot in the EU Regionals which was a lot of fun, probably the most fun I’ve had on ladder ever, even though I ended up losing in the end. I ended with a peak rank of rank 8 in Week 4 and a total peak LP of 1350 in Week 5. I’m a bit sad though that I never managed to hit Rank 1 but oh well.
Even though the ending is a bit bittersweet since it was a bit short lived, I’m really happy that I found TFT and super thankful for all the great people I’ve met through this game. I’m also super grateful to anyone who is a viewer or fan of me and has followed me when I’ve been playing TFT, it’s been a lot of fun and I appreciate the support a ton.
Also I’m gonna point out that even if I’m quitting competitive TFT I’ll still be around. I’ll be complaining to Mortdog in Lobby 2 about the game at least weekly otherwise he’ll get bored, I’ll still play gamenight (I gotta redeem myself in Poker, Mafia is still a go next though) and watch as my friends qualify for Worlds. We’ll see if I have the opportunity and drive to try for Worlds again next time around in Set 4.5, time will tell. So I won’t say that this is goodbye but instead I’ll just say:
Cya guys around.
