Tempo psalm · @psalmHotS
23rd Jun 2018 from TwitLonger
With a heavy heart I announce my retirement from Heroes to pursue pro Fortnite
I've never written a twitlonger before, so please bear with me for my pleb formatting, structure, etc. Except grammar mistakes. Flame me for all my grammar mistakes. Anyways, how do I even start? I guess I can begin with sharing some of my history in Heroes of the Storm.
I started in late 2014 (4 years already?!), drawn to the game by my burning passion for Warcraft 3, Starcraft 1, and Diablo 2 as a kid. Having spent thousands of hours in these games, several of those hours in DotA 1 as well, I couldn't help but be shooketh by the idea of combining these different universes into one under my favorite gaming genre. I was in college at the time, my sophomore year, when my brother received a beta key to the game. He knew my love for mobas and asked if I wanted to try it out (omg account sharing plz ban haha too late jk). Shortly after that, all of my free time suddenly disappeared. I fell in love with the game, and grinded it nonstop, even though I had no intention of really competing or anything. That didn't work out so well given how competitive I am, and naturally I found myself linking up with other players to play in stupid $20 weekly cups that at the time meant the world to me. These weekly cups turned to qualifiers, which turned to tournaments, which led to bigger qualifiers, and so forth. I bounced around teams and continued to develop as a player, getting deeper in the competitive scene, though I never was on any winning team, placing near last in every tournament. But I loved competing nonetheless. I wanted to win for once, and I knew I had the ability to do so. I remember looking up to the old C9 and T/S guys, especially players like Fan and Zuna, thinking, "Damn. I wish I could be there." I wondered if it would ever happen for me as well.
Fast forward a bit to mid 2016, when NA was going through an insane rosterpocalypse, I was left teamless along with several other players. I still hadn't really accomplished anything, and honestly was on the verge of just quitting to either focus on finishing my UCLA degree or to pursue Overwatch (old duos with sinatraa/calvin). It was around then when Cauthon reached out to me for a tryout for a last ditch effort squad he was forming with Fury and Equinox (other players who were odd men out from the rosterpocalypse) to hopefully qualify for an upcoming LAN in Burbank. I gave it a last try and made it on the team along with Jun. Cattle then replaced Equinox shortly after as he was going through some contractual stuff with an old org. We qualified but we had absolutely no expectations for the LAN, honestly none. We didn't even think we were going to make top 4 in the 8 team tournament. But life happens, and DAMN boy we hella won that tournament somehow out of nowhere, absolutely upsetting everyone's predictions and qualifying for Blizzcon 2016 (I decided to drop out of college to go full-time after qualifying). And until now two years later, I've been more or less at the top of the NA scene, making it to every inter-region tournament except one. My final performance at the MSB was bittersweet to say the least. It was the best I had ever done at a global (top 4), but it still sucked to go out in my last match ever in such a one-sided series. Nevertheless I was incredibly proud of our team, and NA as a whole for continually improving and closing the skill gap between regions.
With all that history, this was an incredibly difficult decision to make, what with how much I love HotS and how well I've been doing the past couple years. It's a crazy gamble I know, giving up a steady life to start all over again, in a game that's significantly more saturated with skilled players (because of the sheer volume of the Fortnite population), where I start out as a nobody. But I have a newfound burning passion in me for this game, and I've decided after 4 years that it's time for a #changeofpace. I firmly believe that I have the talent to make it in Fortnite, as long as I give it my absolute all in the process. #trusttheprocess
I have nothing but heart-wrenching gratitude for all the opportunities, experiences, and friends that Heroes has given me. My four years here have been the absolute best in my life, accomplishing something that I could only dream of as a kid growing up loving games so much. There will never be something quite like the first time I made it pro, so my journey in Heroes will forever be ingrained in my heart. I hope I put on a good show to all the fans over the years, it would not have been possible without all of you guys watching and supporting. Thank you for all the love.
Shoutouts to all my current and old teammates, but in particular:
Cattle & Jun - It's been lit. I believe in you guys.
P.S. For those wondering why I made this decision past the roster deadline: Fortnite had not made an esports announcement until after the deadline was over. I'm still extremely sorry to the community and to my team for the problems this causes, but I'm very confident in my team's future as they'll be picking up a great talent to replace me. I hope my loyal fans can continue to show support in my new journey! I'm gonna be grinding and streaming at https://www.twitch.tv/psalmLA
P.P.S. For those curious about my profile: https://fortnitetracker.com/profile/pc/psalmm
TLDR: Been competing for 4 years in HotS. Absolutely loved it, but it's time for a change. Let's go all in baby.