If someome would have told me 4-5 years ago that I would be playing StarCraft 2 for a professional team, or at all, I would have loled in their faces. Or wait, of course I had no idea what lol was. Imagine the confusion when I realized it was not only short for “laughing out loud” but also for the game League of Legends. Gaming was not a part of my life and I didn’t even know that esports existed.  

During the first 23 years of my life I didn’t spend a lot of time in front of computers. I had a computer but used it mostly for school or to chat with friends. During high school I wasn’t very understanding towards gamers. I thought gaming seemed really boring. Guess why. Because I never gave it a chance and it’s easy to judge things you don’t understand.

When StarCraft 2 came out, my boyfriend at the time played a lot and often late at night. I didn’t like it at all. I thought it was a waste of time and brain capacity. Everything due to ignorance. After some time I was convinced (read forced) to try the game. Reluctantly I sat down in front of his computer, I of course didn’t have a computer that could handle the game. He was about to coach me. Since I couldn’t use my two-finger typing I decided not to use the keyboard at all. The mouse was more than enough for me to handle.

There I was, in front of the computer and someone telling me to build a spawning pool. I did it, yeey! The first 10 games was pretty painful as I didn’t understand much and couldn’t remember the names of the units or buildings and I continued to ask what a hell a spawning pool was for quite some time. But as I understood the idea of the game I started to like it. It was challenging and I love challenges. I started watching progamers for inspiration and I played team games with my friends. Before I knew it, gaming was a big part of my life.

Gaming turned out to be everything but what I had expected. It was social, fun, entertaining, challenging and like acrobatics for my brain. Now I am not judging gamers anymore and when I talk to someone who is, I don’t judge them either. I understand them, tell them my story and they understand me back.