Stanislav Danilov · @MistakesOW
14th Jul 2018 from TwitLonger
OWL S1: Thoughts & Emotions
I'm not sure from where to start. This season was a huge roller coaster for everyone on the Uprising.
Everything below is my personal opinion. My english isn't very good and I hope you will be able to read :D
Coming into OWL was a huge moment in my life. I didn't expect to be here, but likely I had good results with 123(my old team) and then World Cup. I didn't play my best on World Cup 2017, it was hard to play on stage for the first time, but I still got lucky and managed to join the Uprising.
After I signed with Boston Uprising, I had to wait for visa which took me 2 months. I was in Russia and couldn't participate in scrims. Basically the team played 2 months without me and when I came to LA there was no reason to change anything. So I just had to be on the bench, that was unfortunate, but fair.
In Stage 3 I was really nervous and it wasn't easy to pick up new heroes on the fly. I was literally tracer one trick. It was tough time for me, I had so many things to focus on, it was actually insanely hard. If you focus for example on your gameplay, you don't develop to your communication. I couldn't do everything at the same time. I had to spend 2-3 hours to warm up and for aim practice, watch vods and povs after scrims and also play ranked and just grind the game. Coming into Stage 3 I did not scrim. I played like 4 hours of scrims per month for like 6 months. If you would ask any professional player about that, I'm sure everyone will say it's rough to get back into it. In my case I had to play on stage and play new heroes. I think I played good enough considering my scenario. At that time there were a lot of negative comments, doubts and so on. I knew I can do better and I just kept trying my best.
After a break between Stage 3 and Stage 4, I still played widowmaker in scrims and I can say I was really good at it at this point. I felt like I improved a lot and I had a lot of confidence during that time.
After 2 weeks of Stage 4, we decided to put Striker on widowmaker, because he will be able to just grind it hard and I can play bunch of other heroes as I was doing it before. There was no reason to make Striker flex and learn a lot of heroes. I believe most people think it was because I wasn't good enough, but in my opinion I was good enough and had a lot of potential. This decision was good in a long term run. I want to say thanks to our coaching staff for making that decision. I still consider myself really good widowmaker and most likely will play it on World Cup this year.
We were losing match after match in Stage 4 and I kind of lost confidence that I got from Stage 3. Stage 4 was the darkest time for the team and we still came through and did good enough to secure playoffs. In the middle of Stage 4 I started gaining that confidence back and I was playing good enough. Late Stage 4 I was playing even better and it felt nice that I'm doing better and better on the new role. At this point I was thinking: "How far I can go in terms of my skill ceiling?". I felt like there was a lot of stuff that I need to work on, but it felt nice to finally show myself as good player. At that time I knew I will go far if I will continue work hard.
I wasn't 100% confident going into the playoffs, considering Stage 4 and that we will need to play on a new patch, but I was sure that I will try my best and practice hard, looking back at late Stage 4 I had a feeling that I will do even better in playoffs. I was really hyped and excited. I was checking calendar every day to see how many days left until we actually play.
I think if there would be 2 more weeks, we would have won Fusion. We are just not good at adapting, nothing to say more. I'm still very proud of everyone for making that match close and hopefully it was fun to watch for you guys. I don't think I played my best. If you would ask from a scale from 1 to 10 how do I rate my performance today, I would say 5.5/6 at max. I know that I have a lot of potential and I think I proved everyone that I will only get better and better over time. I don't care what people think. If I would listen to anyone, I would never improve to the level where I'm now.
Personally I believe I got better in a lot of aspects during that season. It was truly a great experience. Boston Uprising was my first team where I knew players and staff so well and I got really close with some of them. Because of them I became a better player, a better teammate and a better person. I want to thank everyone on the Boston Uprising, we did so much together this year. We overcame and proved so much, that's still unbelievable to me.
Thanks to all the players, you guys are insanely talented players. You guys are great friends and helped me so much during this season. Not only in game, but outside of the game. I had a lot of problems this entire season, I can't even imagine what could have happened without you guys.
Thanks to our coaching staff! If people would know how much they did during the season... I wish everyone would know that :( Coaching staff would listen to me at any time any day and they will always try to help me with anything. I really appreciate it! Thank you for being patient and easy to work with.
Thanks to John and Janet for making our content and being a good friends. You guys helped me a lot and I will never forget it.
I want to say thanks to our very own Mr. President. Chris had more problems than anyone else and he was making good decisions and tried to help the team as much as he can. Only because of him I was a part of this team and had those great moments which will be in my heart forever.
To the team: love you all guys, clap it up xD
At the end I want to thank all the fans which were supporting me before OWL and during OWL. It was really cool to see all those messages filled with love. I couldn't ask for the better fans, thank you so much! <3
Right now it's time to focus on World Cup.
Thanks for reading <3