Back to being a degen


Today, my contract with DEFY Gaming has ended. Although the team and the org expressed their interest in re-signing me and having me on-board in a more long-term status, I've decided to decline their kind offer.

As such I am now coming back to being a degen at Lost Ark full-time. LMFAO

(so you can skip the cheesy stuff if you hate shit like that)
tl;dr: I won't be actively looking for teams during this offseason and will be using it to take a break as I initially planned at the start of the year. I'll be considering offers but right now, my main focus is finishing up on personal matters (aka Lost Ark) and then committing to a team later on in the year to prepare for franchising in VCT 2023. If I do end up committing to a team after this, then I'll definitely make sure it's for LAN in Copenhagen (Masters 2) and Istanbul (Champions). This means that I won't be looking into long-term non-VCT signed projects for now. Lastly, I'll also be opening my DMs to players or teams that want to be coached for FREE while I spend my offseason bing chilling. More deets about this at the end of the twtlonger. All teams or players interested may send me an email at maarkdoeswork@gmail.com or message me on Discord Maark#8868 or Twitter (least preferred since I sometimes miss Message Requests notif).

The original agreement was that I would be brought on-board for their VCT Qualifiers but I ended up staying for a bit longer to wrap things up a bit better with the team. Overall, I'm proud of what I achieved with them. From being ranked 167 in APAC (via vlr) as Amethaverse to being ranked 71 in APAC as DEFY Gaming. From being sub-Tier 2 as a team to finishing Top 10 in PH after this recent VCT. It was a fun ride!

That open qualifiers series versus Team Secret will always haunt me as a lapse in my own judgement as your Coach. I really wish I requested for a short 1 hour or 30 minutes break so that all of us could have gotten something to eat that day as we went on to play Bo3s since 10:00AM without any meals; maybe our shortcomings as a team wouldn't have happened -- 1 round away from OT in a 2-10 half in Ascent and only scoring 2 rounds in Attacking in Haven from a 6-6 half. One Bo3 away from fulfilling my promise to Ian when I agreed to this entire thing; I truly am sorry and I'll make sure that in the future I'll do better to notice.

It always hurts to lose when you know you could have made it, but like I told you all before, you'll have to get used to losing. If you plan to continue playing, you will lose a lot more of these kind of games more than you will probably win them. It's not negative, it's just the nature of competition -- there will only be a select few at the top. Continuing to give it your all despite these losses is what develops a great athlete.

To Gado, I'm proud to have seen your growth. After we parted in OASIS, I told you that you're still a top-class player but only if you can develop certain aspects of your personal self. It makes me proud to see that you've now outgrown yourself in the past and that you're still continuing to grow. Keep going Do.

To Uge (eugeneS), I've told you this already but you are one of the most coachable players I've ever met. Make sure that you retain this attitude and mentality. Don't let the fact that you continue to grow and get better be a reason for you to be complacent and egotistical. I hope you'll continue to remember what I talked to you about after we threw that 12-2 game in Fracture (XD) and develop yourself.

To Mi (Nasmi) and Ner (d1srupt), this was the first time I've met the both of you guys but you were both household names in the local scene so I was also curious as to how you both were -- personally and inside the game. You fuckers gave me the best time with this team. Ner being the all-in-one flex god allowed me to bring out my coaching ideas to life when it came to agent compositions and set ups. Mi was the biggest fucker both inside and outside the game while simultaneously also being the most reliable, kept me really entertained. Thank you for allowing me to enjoy myself. I learned a lot in terms of being an asshole from the both of you AHAHAHA!

To Ian, what a ride. I was just a rookie Analyst back then and we weren't able to spend more than 2 weeks together. You told me your biggest regret was not being able to learn more under me. I also told you back then that I could help you grow as an IGL but our paths just weren't meant to align yet. So now, how was it? Are you satisfied? I assume no since we fucking lost VCT (XDDDD) but I hope that after this short stint, you can finally find closure and look onward. You have grown tremendously in the last year since I met you, as an IGL, as a player, and as a person. When you came to me with this offer, I had low expectations. Mostly due to the fact that we only had 2 weeks till the Open Qualifiers started, but also because I wasn't confident in you and myself being able to make it all work. BUT, I was not disappointed, not one bit. You guys were a solid team from the get-go and it was my pleasure to be able to coach you guys. You have a good set of players around you Ian, I hope you never take it for granted. Now you know what you're capable of, so don't stop here. Like I told you before, I won't say I'm proud of you yet -- not until you hold up a VCT trophy of your own.

To GT (YWGT), thank you for accommodating my terms during my time with the team. A lot of new owners come and go as the expenses start to pile up so I hope that a year from now, DEFY will be able to maintain their status in the scene as an org. It's honestly very rare for owners to say they're passionate towards the scene and put their money with their mouth is, yet, it seems with my short time in esports, I'm 2 for 2 with both owners I've had the opportunity to work with being as such. To Sir David, THUNDERCOCK lang talaga.

To the people who continue to support me, both in my streams and in my tweets, thank you! You're definitely spoiling this shut-in/hikikomori/NEET who doesn't work at all by continuing to believe in him and show him your support HAHAHAHAHA. I hope that you all also continue to support DEFY Gaming in their future games. Right now they're playing in the Predator League Qualifiers but they were also able to qualify to Intel Rivals Playoffs which should be next week alongside other future games. The boys have a bright future and their seats are open to more fans so I hope you guys shower them with as much love as you do with me! Streams will come back soon (it's a lie) so I'll be seeing you guys there!

As for my plans in the offseason, as stated in the tl;dr: I won't be *actively* looking for teams but interested teams may still send me offers for short-term projects. I won't be looking much into long-term non-VCT related projects as I plan to finish grinding up in Lost Ark first so I can finally close this chapter behind me. I haven't even started on Valtan Normal yet PEPEHANDS. I want to make sure that I'll be at least ready for the next 9 months of content before I fully commit myself to a team in preparation for VCT 2023.

As also mentioned, because I now have a lot of free time, teams, players, or even people that want to learn to be a coach/analyst, that are interested may message me on Discord (Maark#8868), GMail (maarkdoeswork@gmail.com), or Twitter (least preferred since I sometimes miss message requests). I'll be doing these things FOR FREE and on my FREE TIME so please don't come into my DMs EXPECTING/DEMANDING you get coached. More details with regards to how it all works and scheduling will be available once you message me. I want to do my part in growing the grassroots portion of the scene as I think that this is a more sustainable path towards growing homegrown talent instead of being forced into an "import-to-compete" mentality in the future, especially with franchising coming up next year. I want VALORANT to be a place where players can grind from rookies to amateur to pros without feeling like they lacked the opportunities to do so. Lastly, I hope that you all also understand that if an offer that comes up which forces me to commit to it long-term comes up, then this project WILL BE POSTPONED till further notice. As I said, I'm doing all of these for free and when I'm available (a personal passion project), so when a paid project comes up that might conflict with this, I'll put all my focus and attention first on said project (of course, hopefully I can do both).

Wow this shit was long.

Once again, thank you to DEFY Gaming -- the players and the owners -- for the opportunity. I had tons of fun! Thank you to the people that continue to support me. I'm looking forward to watching VCT at home while grinding Lost Ark in this offseason. I hope that 2 of the APAC representatives will both come from PH so I wish all our teams the best of luck and will continue to support all of them. They already know this but, WORK HARD FOR IT GUYS, IT'S LAN WITH **CROWD** (potentially) WHICH WE HAVEN'T HAD IN 2 YEARS POG I'M SO EXCITED FOR IT!

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