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Thoughts and Progress 30/6/2013

It’s been a while since I wrote a blog here and a lot has changed! I’m not going to really go into what I’ve been doing the last 6 months since it would be way to long. So here goes! First and foremost I’m now managing the Exile 5 Starcraft divison, while this is pretty old news its proving a constantly new experience for me. I really enjoy managing and I’m starting to think about it the same way as SC2. There are always areas I could improve or do better, the only issue is that being better doesn’t translate to win or loss. It all comes down to perspective!

So far the team is shaping up nicely, I still have a little work to do in that regard. But I’ve decided to take my time and make sure everything is set up properly first. I am very happy with how the recruiting turned out. I interviewed quite a number of people and found it really interesting the variation (or sometimes lack of!) in responses. Both Callum (Megafonzie) and Ryan (NXZ) had really well written applications and I would highly recommend anyone writing one to put a little effort in. You would be surprised how far it takes you.

It’s been fantastic working with Jared and Dot for the last couple of months, watching Jared at Dreamhack was amazing. I’ve never got up at 6am to watch SC2 before and the Starnan and Life games were so fun. On the flipside the games vs ToD made me want to tear my hair out! Dot is also amazing; she helps out with basically everything the team needs and makes sure things run smoothly. This has been probably the biggest factor in helping me feel comfortable in my new role.

On the flipside I find myself struggling to play SC2 now, its not that I don’t enjoy the game. I just no longer feel competitive about it. I don’t feel the need to beat my opponent, as I’m quite happy mucking around doing some strange build. The simple fact is I don’t feel it’s worth dropping 500+ hours into SC2 to have competitive mechanics. I am definitely lacking in the #dedication! I still really enjoy watching though, probably more so than before. I previously gave casting a shot but really struggled since lets face it, I was not very professional in my approach. This may be something I go into in the future but at the moment I’ve still got some projects I want to get started at Exile 5.

One of these is the Exile 5 Academy. Which I have slowly setting up in the last 2-3 months. This is an area that I have wanted to support since I was offered the managing spot, which is helping up and coming players. While obviously just joining a team does not make you a better player, having a good support group and opportunities can. I’m still very much in the beta stage however, but I am hoping to have it up and going in the next 2-3 months. I’ll hopefully have more information regarding this soon.

It’s also really cool to see Doombie streaming again! He finally managed to get his stream listed on the site so I would recommend that anyone who hasn’t already to check his stream out. His show is called “breaking bronze” and is aimed at teaching lower league players along with providing entertainment. Which I guarantee you will have, watching him rage at just about everything :P
I am really excited to see what the next month or two holds for Exile5 and our players, with a lot of big events coming up. I’m looking forward to ACL Melbourne in particular, since I haven’t been to an ACL yet! I’ve also started using twitter, so if you are interested in my day to day ramblings (generally to do with leg day at the gym) come and check me out @x5_Bard!