Fnatic - A profesional gaming team

A Swedish guy's reflections and experiences from one month in the far east country. Wimbledon 29th June Cheering on Söderling against Federer, current score 0-2. Busy in Beijing 28th June Beijing is a melting pot during summer, not only because...

A Swedish guy's reflections and experiences from one month in the far east country.

Wimbledon 29th June

Busy in Beijing 28th June
Beijing is a melting pot during summer, not only because temperature is likely to go above 35 degrees, but also because all contrasts you will see. Rich and poor, old and young, natives and foreigners are all sharing the busy streets of the capital of China. And either you like it or not the city will give you an everlasting impression. It´s my first summer here but Im already baffled how much this city offers you in terms of sightseeing, nightlife and food. The two weekends I spent with my family here in Beijing was a blast, not a second was boring if you are forgetting the hours I spent in traffic jams.













A day at SteelSeries 26th June
I´ve been hitting Beijing the two last consecutive weekends to spend time with my mum and dad who is enjoying their first visit here in China. I got a phone call from our Chinese manager Will, who informed me that SteelSeries just moved in to a new office. Since I was in town it was an excellent chance to check it out. The visit was a nice experience, to see the office and catching up with Benson and his staff. The new office has a Fan-zone where Chinese players can try out the equipment before they buy it, or to improve their aim at the duel arena.







China is not ready for me! 24th June
Connecting to 61.181.255.137:27016...
You have been banned from this server
Chinese public is really fun until they accuse you for cheating. Not really easy for me to make them understand that me is really me and im not cheating!



Gym Stereotypes 24th June
I went to the local gym the other day to shock my poor muscles from being away from exerice so long.
The gym was as any western one in the sense of equipment and weights, but I noticed that the Chinese fitness guys, generally, takes themselves very serious during their training.
Dressed up with minimal tanktops, tight pants and leather gloves , they made muscle poses infront of the mirrors after every set of exerise.
After finishing being facinated by themselves they surprised me even more, when some of the guys just out of nowhere started kicking and punching in the air, like they were Bruce Lee or something.
Maybe I should care abit more about my own training than others, but atleast my well-being was boosted after my observing-session since I left with a smile on my face.



Vertigo – Mei Wenti! 22th June
I have been enjoying 3 superb days in Beijing with my beloved mum and dad, so haven´t been able to write anything in a few days.
After getting back to Shenyang we had to rush to my second Chinese wedding and that was as usual a spectacle of never seen dimensions, over 600 people attended it´s dinner and an armada of waiters had to serve it´s thirsty people.
Anyway, more about these events later.
Today my girlfriend decided she wanted to get satellite TV, after a quick call to the local handyman, three guys knocked on our door with the equipment to hook us up with the global networks with my favourite channels such as Discovery and National Geographic. All the installation was made within an hour, including a beer break due to an intensive thunderstorm which made the installation of the receiver far more complicated than working in swift sunrise.
This was actually a rather painful experience since I´m the worried kind of guy, watching the cable guy ignoring the fact that he was facing a fall from the 25th floor.
I don´t know if it was the beer who made him confident, but after 1 hours of prayers and a dozens of requests to be careful, the men left us with 200 new channels with smiles on their faces saying “Mei Wenti” - No problem.




Fine dining with Heroes 17th June
There are few dinners which attracts me more than an “International buffet”, a smorgasbord with food from every corner of the world, including sushi, pasta, Korean-style bbq, Chinese and American steaks.
For 30$ you can eat and drink as much as you want, from holding a rather low calorie diet my body got a minor shock after too many rounds at the sushi table and camping infront of the Budweiser tap.
I was just about to turn into a “food-coma” but was brought up to surface realizing two famous faces just a few tables away.





The recipe of Olympic successes 16th June
I´m just back from some shopping in the mall downstairs. The visit made me realise that the Chinese successes at the Beijing 2008 event is not only due to hardcore motivation and a skyrocketing population at 1.3 billion, but the costs of sports gear.
The local production of the items makes the prizes stay low and I´m not longer baffled why sports like badminton and table-tennis are massive over here.


I got another glimpse yesterday night how talents are raised when I went down to a nearby square for session of badminton and Jianzi. I soon realized that Siberian winds made the games impossible and I asked some locals to join their game of street soccer. To be fair, I´ve seen better days as a soccer player but somehow I managed to score just 30 seconds into the game.





Silk markets 13th June
Speaking about sightseeing in China inevitable lead to The Great Wall or the Tiananmen Square, places most of the tourists go to. But let me introduce a third one, the Chinese Silk markets.
I have been to a couple of these markets during my previous visits and the best way I can describe it to a person whom never been to one is to imagine narrow catacombs crowded with small stands with clerks who shouts out to attract customers and under-bid his competitors. Some of my best bargains has been at a silk-market.
You are most likely to not only get lost in translation, but lost geographically, but let that just happen and enjoy the noisy atmosphere where people share the tiny passages in business, lunches or taking a nap.
I attached a camera to myself at today´s visit, just to get you a glimpse of a Chinese Silk-market.




Finally they gave me a statue 12th June
The Australian director Baz Luhrmann once said that in 20 years you'll look back at pictures of yourself and recall how fabulous you really looked, I leave that to you guys, but what I will do is to look back on my old pictures and be amazed how many sights and monuments I had the opportunity to see in my youth.
I realised a few years back, with the influence from Matt Harding and his Dancing, that I needed to find my own pose when being photographed. I thought I was kinda rare doing this stupid pose but today I was proven wrong.




God bless China 12th June
Many would agree with me that eating at McDonalds is a sacrilege when you are in China, there are just so many delicious local dishes to choose from, but even how weird it sounds after a few days abroad I'm starting to miss western fast-food.
The concept of the global fast-food chains is wherever in the world you are, a “Big mac” will be as juicy as if you would eat it in your home-town. I guess this concepts applies even in China, but for the very first time in my 14 years old career of fast-food abuse I was nicely welcomed in the entrance of the restaurant by the floor manager who showed me to a free table and awaited my order. After having my classic meal, a Big mac meal with an extra cheeseburger she went into the kitchen and served me my meal just a minute later, I felt a little awkward after finishing the meal when it became clear to me that the floor-manager only served foreigners and VIP customers.
Can you believe it? VIP customers at McDonalds! Weight watchers should look into the possibilities setting up their business over here.