Hello to everyone!

 

It's been a few days since I came back to Belgrade with my teammates. The trip to Sweden was really amazing, and even though we haven't had enough time to walk around and enjoy Stockholm and Jönköping, somehow I feel like everyone was a bit sad when we were at the Stockholm airport and on our way home." This would be a great place for a holiday! " said Mitch, as we were in our plane above the city and enjoyed the beautiful lights of Stockholm.

 

About a month ago, my team attended the ESWC championship in Paris. The tournament went well for us and we finished 3rd in the end. Even though the tournament went great, the best thing for me was the event itself and the amount of people attending, both number of players and visitors. I remember Baja and Gordan telling me : " Trust me this is nothing compared to DreamHack ". I guess they were right. DreamHack really IS special. I simply can't compare it to any other LAN tournament I attended. I'm not sure, but I think there were over 9000 ( WoW guys know what I'm talking about - it's over 9000! ) people who brought their own computers, xbox-s, playstations, chairs, couches, and played their games in one of the few big halls. From what I've heard, they broke a record in the number of people playing in LAN as well as the fastest internet connection! I felt really special to be part of it, when I saw so many people playing their own favourite games and enjoying spending time with their friends. It also reminded me that games are not only about winning and being the best, but spending time with your friends and a lot of people from all over the world, and most importantly - having fun. I used to play Warcraft3 and StarCraft2, but in that moment I understood how happy I was to play DotA and to be part of my team, and not just any team. Sharing your impressions with your teammates, about new country, new people, new stuff that you see and experience, simply raises things on a different level.

 

Even though we became a part of FNATIC few weeks ago, I haven't felt like that until this tournament. And trust me, this new feeling is great! Apart from the finals of the tournament ( -_- ), every single thing that reminds me of DreamHack puts a smile on my face. But the best thing is I know that future tournaments can only be better then the first one. The only sad thing was, we all had our own schedules, so until the tournaments were over, it was really hard to find some time to spend it with the other players. As for gaming, apart from DotA, I personally enjoy watching StarCraft games the most, so every minute I could, I spent watching either ToD or NightEnD playing. NightEnD played in the semi-finals, and on a tournament like this one, it is a huge success and something that everyone from FNATIC should be proud of. I've also enjoyed watching the HoN guys as much as I could, but their games were mostly played while we played our own. But I simply couldn't miss the finals under the lights of the DreamArena, and even though they lost the first match badly, they rose up and won the title with 2 consecutive wins! Sadly I've missed the CS finals, but from what my teammates told me, i heard that it was an outstanding performance by our CS team! Huge congratulations to everyone!

 

As for our own competition, I can't say that we are happy with our results. We threw the finals away in our 2nd match, and the 3rd match we simply couldn't focus enough and let the 2nd game go. We concidered WHB to be our toughest opponent, and they proved to be. They put up a great fight and won the title, but I'm confident that we learned from our mistakes, and I think this will be a valuable experience for all of us. All in all, it feels great to have a lot of supportive and great people behind your back. Having HoN guys sitting in a front row while you are playing the Finals and cheering for you, is something I won't forgett. Thank you for that, and thanks to everyone else who supported  us! Somehow, I feel like we became a part of a family, and I like it. Even though we lost the finals, I think we won a lot more then we lost!

 

Huge shoutout to everyone I've met and haven't mentioned in this blog, and thank you for making my trip to Sweden an awesome experience!