The pillow had an image of “Fate Testarossa” from the “Magical Girl” anime series.

Fate Testarosa

‘He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere. They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal,’ said one friend.

WTF this pillow gets treated better than I do!

People call this dude an otaku, which loosely translates as something in between “obsessed” and “nerd” in Japanese. I love how theres even a special word to describe people like me those folk.

I think i’d be more weirded out if it was a real doll. How is it that a guy can marry a pillow yet gay marriage is still outlawed?!

An oldie but a goodie. Move over spart1e strenx!!

My worse better half has spent countless hours on this game and totally loves it. He tried to introduce me to it too so perhaps we could play together. I’ve never played Defense of the Ancients [DotA] before but I thought it’d be a piece of cake anyway since everyone was saying that this game is MUCH better and easier than DotA.

It feels like studying for an exam

The game is still in closed beta but basically all my e-friends are playing it so it wasn’t hard to get an invite. Before even playing the game, it was already becoming quite a task. I’m not one of those great tacticians in games and I hate to have to do a lot of reading before playing. Usually when I get games I like to tear into them right away without even opening the manual.

No one would have any of that in HoN. I had to spend time watching youtube tutorials and reading forums about the correct way to build characters. This would be totally fine if I was playing something like Diablo and I would be investing days into a character, but we’re talking about a 30 – 90 minute game here. Too much research for just one battle.

A melee character

So I spent time doing the research and 6 days later I got to open the game and pick my starting character. I picked a melee character (the panda bear) because it was a panda they have more hit points. Usually they’re pretty newbie friendly. It started out well and I was “laning” like I was supposed to.

But I wans’t aware that I was staying too far away from the fighting to get XP. So I soon found myself levels behind. Because of this, of course the other team would start to pick on me. Then my team would start whining. Then i’d go to the forest to kill the neutral creeps but that would make them whine even more, since they would want a melee character when they were trying to gank the other team.

Understandable, but what do you want from me?! I made a mistake in the beginning, I was trying to correct it but if you can’t correct it instantly, it’s not good enough.

A spellcaster

After a somewhat close game, we ended up losing the first map and since i’m a sore loser I decided to try again but with a spellcaster (the Pollywog Priest) instead for the benefit of ranged attacks. My reasoning behind this was that I wanted to be able to get more creep kills (for gold) and to be able to deny enemy creep kills better. I knew the dangers of a spellcaster (less HP, people will tend to pick on you etc) but I figured i’d be ok.

The game starts and of course, people are totally picking on me. All of a sudden my team starts flaming like crazy because i’m “feeding” (dying unnecessarily to the other team causing them to gain gold and experience at a much faster rate). Well no shit i’m feeding, it’s the 2nd time i’ve ever played the game and I guess my map awareness is garbage. Whoever I was laning with always just ran when I would get bound (trapped in one place with a spell) and I could never do anything by myself vs 2 heroes. Obviously i’d bitten off more than I could chew with a spellcaster.

The whole concept of “fog of war” and hiding in trees was totally new to me so obviously I wasn’t the best escape artist. I probably should have stuck to melee characters until I learned this better. But the pressure from the other players was on. My boyfriend told me that if I don’t have good stats (even after 2 games) people will kick me from games and refuse to play with me.

We pretty much lost  my second game quickly.

Giving up

I didn’t even bother trying an agility based character, even though everyone seems to think they’re the easiest to play. It just seemed like too much hassle with a bunch of elitist pricks guys who couldn’t accept that some people just wanted to learn. How are you supposed to get better at a game if people aren’t even going to give you the opportunity to learn?

Are you a n00b-hating fan of HoN? Has anyone else shared the same experiences of the game? Let me know below or tweet your story @HelloLiefje

The new ruling imposes a fine and 2-5 years in prison on the import, production, distribution, sale, hiring and use of video games and toys inciting violent behaviour.

This legislation defines as aggressive every audiovisual material promoting and inciting violence, the use of weapons and toys imitating weapons or stimulating violence and hate.

26-year-old Guido Núñez-Mujica, a Venezuelan gamer, has written a heartfelt piece about this new law over on BoingBoing.net. Click here to read it.

Wow that’s crazy! Not only are most of the fun games banned, but I guess it means no more G.I. Joe, no more water pistols, pirate costumes (I guess hooks and plastic daggers would be seen as violent right?) and a lot of the other fun toys.

DJ Granny!! I wanna see her at sensation o/

Images via mamyrock

Something which did strike me as a little bit strange however was the presentation of the sportsmanship award to the fan-favourite Anton “Cooller” Singov. The reasoning behind the award was for his behavior at the IEM European final in his match against Maciej “av3k” Krzykowski. For those of you who don’t know, in that match Cooller got a great start on the first map (T7) and av3k had ragequit after 3 or 4 minutes. Cooller offered to give av3k a restart of the map which resulted in av3k winning. It could also be argued that Cooller was mentally thrown off at this point which caused him to lose the rest of the maps against the av3k, losing himself a spot in the final.

At the IEM World Final, cooller met av3k once again in the semi-final. But before the match was played, IEM Product manager Michael “Carmac” Blicharz presented cooller with the sportsmanship award. Firstly I’m wondering why this award was presented before the semi-final and not during the prize ceremony after the entire tournament. Wouldn’t it take away from the purpose of the award if Cooller were to do something un-sportsmanlike between that moment and the final prize ceremony?

The act of offering a restart to av3k in the European finals was very gentlemanly. However his behaviour afterwards was not, as he pretty much whined about regretting his decision afterward. In fact the whine was too much for av3k since he mentioned in a recent interview (in Polish) that:

“Cooller complains about everything that’s possible. Cypher is lucky, this one is lucky, that one is lucky. I am the best, but you’re lucky, lala lala, so for now I enjoy the lack of conversation with him, because I got tired of it. Yes, he’s the best, Russia owns, let him live in his dreamworld, but at least behave normally then. I didn’t want any rematch. He persuaded me, and then cried that he could [should?] have not given the rematch. Then a wave of complaints onto everyone that beat him, those with who he managed to win are the future champions, because they played so genius, that he beat them because he was smarter, and me and Cypher play so stupid, that he is too smart for our style of play and can’t predict what we want to do”

frenemies

Any human would have reacted the same way Cooller did though after losing that match and you can see his frustration in the post-game interview. While his initial gesture was that of incredible sportsmanship, his following behaviour was not.

During the semi-final match (20 minutes after he got his award) he participated in some small trash talk against his opponent, presumably a response to his recent interview. Would you call this kind of behaviour particularly sportsmanlike?

I pretty much just think that while it was nice to have that award, if it really was for that moment, it should have been given at the IEM European prize ceremony, not before the semi-finals at the World Finals.  If there was to be such an award at the World Final, they should have given it at the end of the tournament. I still can’t understand how you can give out an award before the end.

What do you think? Should cooller have gotten the award? If not who would be more deserving? Reply below or tweet your thoughts @Helloliefje

Images via ESL.eu

Back in the 80’s they released this breakfast gem:

Introducing a winning combination for breakfast.

Nintendo is for breakfast now. Nintendo is two cereals in one. Wow! Super Mario Bros. and Zelda, too. Mix ‘em, match ‘em, crunch ‘em, you just can’t lose!

Fruit-flavored Marios, Mushrooms and Goombas. Berry-flavored Links, Hearts and Shields. Nintendo is breakfast news!

Nintendo Cereal System. If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em!

And if yor’re lucky, you can win an original Nintendo Entertainment System!

What does this Nintendo ace do when he's not at home playing?

Someone still had a box of these left over from 1988 and has auctioned it off on eBay for just over $200!

His only disclaimer? “IT WOULD NOT BE WISE TO EAT THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOX EVEN THOUGH I NO YOU WILL WANT TO. I THOUGHT ABOUT IT MENY TIMES MY SELF.”

Source: ESReality

The Federal Aviation Administration is pissed! Even if the pilots seem to be taking it lightly, the FAA issued this statement:

“Pending the outcome of our investigation, the employees involved in this incident are not controlling air traffic. This behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate the kind of professionalism expected from all FAA employees.”

Yikes! I bet this kid really loved the “join your dad at work day”. Hope he doesn’t get in too much trouble because obviously he’s being supervised! I just think it’s cute.

First of all, I would like to apologize. The interview was made at 2 – 3 am. I had just got home from a party and I didn’t know what I was saying. Normally I wouldn’t be so rude and I aplogize a lot. Everybody is free to do what they want and I didn’t have to say anything. I don’t understand why people didn’t ask themselves ‘why is Strenx so mad, there must be a problem’. Nobody asked themselves ‘how could he write this, he must not have been thinking straight’. Everybody just said ‘he’s a stupid kid’. I can’t blame you guys for thinking this, that’s normal. But I apologize for everything. To DaHanG, I hope you like it that I think you’re Buzz Lightyear.

Today he’ll be heading off to Germany to compete in the Intel Extreme Masters World finals at CeBit. But before leaving, he had a lot of things he wanted to get off his chest about Quake, the competition and excuses and certain players.

On professional gaming:

I’m laughing about the word “professional gaming”. How can you consider yourself a professional? A professional gamer is a man who lives with gaming. Only Warcraft and Starcraft players are professional gamers because they live for it. CS players: 60%. I just laugh when a player says “I’m a pro player”. I just wanna say “do you live only through Quake?” He will say “no”. Then you are not a professional gamer. I’m not a pro, I’m just a player who has fun with games. I have luck, I can travel. But I don’t consider myself as a professional.

About people taking gaming so seriously:

I will say ‘Why do you take the game so seriously? You want money? Get a job’. Really that’s what I think. I don’t really understand people like that. I am a student and I prefer to party. Just one day before [a tournament] I partied and drank so much. I was so hangover. That’s how players should react. They should just come for fun.

For example if I’m playing Zotac, it’s for €100 because on a Sunday there’s nothing to do. With that €100 I can buy alcohol for a party. I don’t take the game as seriously as some others do (like DaHanG…).

I’m not playing quake to make friends. Others only think about being “professional”. It’s just a game and you don’t make a living from it. They want to prove something; look I’ve the best brain, look I can be number 1. Every normal guy would say “what the fuck, I prefer to party than play Quake”. You can do both, but to reach the top u need to have no life and I prefer to party.

I have proven that it is possible to reach the top level without training (for example, IEM Europe).

On crying after losing DM6:

Ah, well… of course I don’t like to lose. Who likes to lose? But I forget about it the same day. I only care when I’m playing. If I do badly I don’t care – there is always a party afterwards.

DaHanG’s attitude:

DaHanG takes the game seriously. Quake Live is his life. I hate DaHanG since he said this to me; He watched my games vs Stermy all the time. I asked him the server password when he played cooller.

He said no.

I said why?

He replied: STFU, private server

He told me that 2 days ago. I really don’t like this attitude.

Do you know Buzz Lightyear? It’s DaHanG. He looks like him, exactly the same. DaHanG = Buzz Lightyear.

The Europe vs North America rivalry:

Americans are more no-life than Europeans. They are putting in more practice hours than the Europeans. OK, they win tournaments but let’s look statistics: if you train A LOT for a year you are not sure to win prize money. If you work hard for 1 year you can earn more than [the equivalent of] 50 1st places in a tournament.

So what’s the best? Play a geek game to win only $10000 in a tournament? Or work 1 year and earn a lot more WHILE playing at the same time. I just mean it’s stupid to train a lot all the time. I played IEM Europe without training.

If I evaluate the skill between chance and cypher, it’s a world of difference. Cypher plays less than Rapha. Av3k plays less too. Cooller I don’t know.

Europeans are more humble and more realistic than Americans, I guess. The mentality of Americans is strange. I don’t mean everybody, Rapha is a nice person – I have no problem with him.  But they [the rest of them] are in their dream world. They all think they can reach the top; they should be a little more realistic. I’m realistic; I know I have a small chance to go through the group.

Dkt is also in his dream world. He thinks he can reach the top but he should be a more realistic about what he can reach or not. I mean he did top 7 during IEM in USA, so please

Who he wants to beat at IEM:

I want to beat people who spend their lives playing, those who takes it seriously. Then if I do that, I will just prove that its bullshit to train a lot. I will just say “that’s bad, you wasted your time for nothing”. When you do perform badly and you know you trained 24h/24h for months, how do you feel?

About Cooller:

I think [on av3k’s recent interview] av3k is totally right about Cooller. I was so pissed about the 3rd place [IEM Europe] game. He had no respect for me. He only said, “I didn’t play my best because of my game against av3k”. He said I was lucky on dm6. 6:6, he does a kill at the last second and he is left on 6 hp. He should stop thinking that people are all lucky, because he is lucky as well.

For sure he isn’t the best at quake like he thinks he is.

I can’t accept it when Cooller said to me for 3rd place that I got lucky many times. It was him who was lucky… [As an afterthought] There isn’t any luck. I don’t know why I’m talking about luck. Luck is for losers.

On being arrogant:

The more you are honest, the more you think that person is arrogant. Look at Cypher for example. He can say what he thinks. He is very good. He can be honest saying, “this player is easy”. But he knows that if he says that, everybody will think he’s arrogant. But he’s right, he’s better than him. I really like this player [cypher], he just plays and that’s all.

If you ask me what I think about quake attitude: average players are nice (all nearly) but about the top players… it’s another world. There are a few guys who are very nice. The others are not. They only think about winning, winning and winning – being the best and having money. If they want to win money, enough money to live, stop playing. Just get a job.

But really I don’t mind, it’s their life, they do what they want. I enjoy my life, I play and I go to parties, I study etc. Some players hate me in Quake. I don’t care, they are not my friends. They can think what they want. I don’t mind at all.

Do people get the wrong impression from you because of the language barrier?

Well when DaHanG tells me “STFU” when I ask the password to the server, I don’t need a language barrier to understand this attitude.

The player he hates the most:

Winz. He’s arrogant, and a geek. I don’t like him at all. Even his face… really, he doesn’t look good. I think he’s the perfect representation of a geek. I’m sure all his friends are only players. Winz is a bitch. He sucks. He’s such a geek he will read this interview.

He said to me one time “If you do what I did [win 2 ESWCs in 2 different games] you can speak. But you never will. So now, STFU”.

I feel sorry for him though. I hope he at least finds some friends. But who would want to be his friend with the kind of attitude he has?

On being accused of cheating online:

I only did 2 good LAN tournaments: DreamHack and IEM. Online my results are OMG (laughs). It’s because I cheat of course. I am yuka. Of course I cheat, on each tournament online I use aimbot + autoshoot + wallhack. It’s very important.

Really, people think whatever they want. You will never meet a guy who leaves bad comments on ESReality at a LAN. That’s a fact.

No Excuses:

There is a thing I hate as well – excuses. I lost because; I slept in bad conditions, I didn’t play good… blah blah. No it’s not that you didn’t play good, it’s that he raped you, that’s all. Look at me against av3k at DreamHack, I found no excuse. I just said he raped me.

Image from ESL.eu

It’s ok to find excuses when there is a real reason. Against madix at Dubai I have an excuse. I was better than him for sure. My fucking headphones were fucked up. He dares to say that I was playing my best. That’s exactly the attitude I hate. He doesn’t even want to admit that I was better, that I improved. Come on. Madix is better than me? No way. It’s arrogant to say that, but generally honest guys are arrogant. Every player finds excuses all the time. They never say “He was better than me”. Never.

I don’t care about egos. If I see for example DaHanG raped by Cypher I will tell DaHanG, “Don’t find an excuse, he raped you, that’s all”. Of course if on t9 he lost because of 3 telefrags at 200-200 – ok its luck. But it happens rarely.

I just hate people who talk shit about luck luck luck. It’s the truth but nobody says it. In each interview after a game if you don’t see/hear the word luck, there is a problem. I can bet my balls, with my eyes closed, that I will find the word luck in each interview I watch.

It’s stupid. There is 10 minutes in a game. If you are better you can out-play him or out-aim him. For example if you play an average player, you can have the worst starting spawn but you will manage to win the game.

There is luck sometimes of course… if he survives 10 times at 1 hp. But players should stop thinking there is luck everywhere because if you want, you can always find an excuse for why you lost:

• I lost because I was sick
• I lost because I played with my feet
• I lost because I didn’t time
• I lost because he was lucky

In 2 seconds I found 4 reasons already. You can be sure tomorrow during the tournament a player who didn’t go through the group will find an excuse.

For me it will be funny. I won’t go through and that’s all. If I go through group I will laugh. We will see, I will just try my best, but I won’t pretend that I will win.

Lost brothers: Nathan from "Misfits" and Strenx

**Please note that these quotes have been edited to make the English easier to read and understand.

Following this interview, strenx has issued a public apology. View it here.