Marc Mangiacapra: My trip around the world

I am sure you’ve all been asked what you do for a living at some point in your life, whether it’s by a friend, a friend of a friend, or just a stranger in a bar. I am amongst the lucky few who can proudly say, I play computer games for a living. Reactions tend to vary from, “Wow tell me more.” to “That’s not a real job”. Whatever the reaction it usually leads to more questions like, how did you get into that? Or, what does being a gamer entail?

Sometimes I tell them I am part of a 5 man team who are sponsored by Intel and various other companies to travel the world competing in tournaments for large cash prizes. That is the most basic of explanations, one I usually give to move off the subject. However for you, my comrades, I would be more than happy to go into detail and share with you some of my experiences as a professional gamer.

Firstly I’ll say that playing CS has taken me to 12 different countries, this is equal to 8% of the world and most I visited several times. For example, I have traveled to Dallas a total of 7 times through out my career and although it’s not one of the most exotic places I have visited, there are a handful of stories to go with it.

I have done just about everything there is to be done in Dallas. When we were knocked out of an event or waiting for it to begin, we wouldn’t just sit in our hotel room playing scrabble and drinking Mr. Pibb. I’ll admit the majority of our adventures where fueled by alcohol, as you might expect from a group of young adults in a foreign country.

4Kings had made a name for themselves early on as the pranksters of events, a position we took very seriously. It started with the lift game, that’s the elevator game to our American friends. We always stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Dallas; it was the hallmark of any CPL event. The first time I visited the Hyatt I was amazed at how quickly I settled in, it would eventually become a second home of sorts. I believe the hotel had 28 floors and so as you can imagine, it took a fair bit of time to reach the top.

Most of us used to order out, a favourite amongst the gamers was the Panda Chinese take away. The delivery guy would show up at the door, drop off the food and take off in the elevator, which is where we came in. We would loiter the halls going back and forth between our room looking for victims (someone would knew would be going back down in the elevator), once we found one we would dive in the elevator and smack as many floor buttons as we could. We would stand in front of the elevator panel to make sure the mark couldn’t see the buttons lit up, which would indicate there was tom foolery afoot and rumble our fun.

On the 2nd floor was a bar and restaurant area where we hop off and send the poor delivery guy off on his adventure. The lifts had glass walls so you could see the people inside as they yo-yo’d up and down the Hyatt. If we suspected they were on to our game we would give them a pleasant wave, which was the equivalent of kicking someone in balls after tripping them with your foot, other times we would see them looking confused wondering if the elevator had been possessed, both funny results.

Rick 07-12-07 02:26pm The last story was absoloutly brilliant. Must have been awesome at the events. Should do a blog after CGS, was a really good read.