Well, it’s Monday, and not much has happened yet. I got back from picking Mark up at the airport and we grilled some burgers. While Don proved his mettle as a master grillsman, my burgers looked like Baghdad. I’d like to think mine were tastier, but I have no way to judge. Besides, food is all in the presentation anyway. Yeah, not terribly interesting. I was hoping to have a little more to report from the house itself, but most of the people haven’t arrived yet, and I have a deadline.
Before I move on to whatever inane topic I decide to talk about, I wanted to point out two things about yesterday’s cast list was neither comprehensive nor completely confirmed. For instance, I haven’t heard from Timmy yet…
As for characters left out, I’ll introduce them as they come around. For now, I guess I’ll talk a little bit about my decision to live the professional gaming lifestyle.
Let me start off by saying I love Magic. The sad part is, unless you want to be a card dealer, there’s no real money in Magic. Even the top players in the world are not making enough money to live on, or if they are it’s a total of three of them, and they are barely doing it. If you want to be a professional gamer, poker is by far your best bet.
I’ve always been intimately familiar with the gaming lifestyle, but until recently I didn’t have the courage to take the plunge. Well, thanks to some convincing from Crosby, I was able to leave real life behind and pursue a career in the gaming arts.
Finally, being off someone else’s schedule is possibly the most liberating experience of my life. Even during summer breaks when I had no job, I still had school looming over my head. With gaming, I truly feel like the master of my own destiny. This is the source of the most joy, as well as the most stress.
At least with my state job there was security, benefits, and a steady paycheck. Not to mention there was next to no accountability in my job. Sure, that would have changed had I decided to make that job a career, but at the time, I had it made by many measures. The downside was I was in debt (which I still am), and my soul was rotting. By the time I made the decision to quit, sell most of my worldly possessions, and move to Atlanta, there was really no decision to make.
There are a lot of things that our society views as obvious steps: marriage, kids, steady career, house, car. None of these are things you need to feel any pressure about achieving. The one thing you have to remember in life is that it’s your own. Other people will always have their expectations of you, but ultimately you are only accountable to yourself. Make your decisions for you. If your loved ones truly love you, they will support you. If not, you’ve learned a valuable lesson.
The key to happiness for me was realizing the difference between what I “should” do – or what I’m “supposed” to do -and what I want to do. At the end of the day, if you’re doing what other people think is best for you rather than what you think is best for you, you won’t be happy. You can’t be. In the back of your mind, you will always be doing the “wrong” thing.
Right and wrong, good and bad. These words as we use them have no meaning. As long as you aren’t hurting anyone else, and you are doing what you want to do, you are doing good.
For those of you who are worried about the actual blog happening, as of the end of this writing the first wave of guests has arrived, and the next wave is about an hour and a half out. It’s 9:21 on Monday night. Playtesting is about to begin, so that should be educational. The first round of testing will be learning the matchups in the current metagame. After testing is done we’re going to play some live poker, so I’ll be back tomorrow to report on all those happenings as well as the early part of Tuesday.
We took a cursory glance at the decklists from French Nationals. There were 4 copies of some bizarre Blue/White aggro deck. I hesitate to actually post it here, as Wizards took the link down from the website. The deck was so odd, we aren’t sure of the veracity of the report. I will say the decks look more like good draft decks than Constructed powerhouses. That being said, if they are real then putting 4 in the Top 8, even with Limited portion considerations, is a powerful testimony.
Are you excited for tomorrow? I know I am. And I know Chambers is.