Comme la plupart d'entre vous l'ont probablement remarqué, le célèbre Flag frostBeule n'a pas joué (fait rare) ce dimanche le premier match de sa Team Flag acer. Et pour cause, ce dernier a décidé de mettre fin à sa carrière trackmaniaque...ou presque.

 

 

Message de frostBeule

 

Pas plus tard qu'hier, le suédois a expliqué plus longuement sur son Facebook une décision "à chaud" qu'il a prise après la victoire contre les Flag dignitas :

 

Hey all. As many of you already know, the STC-final was my last match as a competitive TrackMania-player. With that in mind I thought I'd make an effort to explain why I took that decision so you know my reasons a bit better.

 

To begin with though I really want to say thanks again to everyone who contacted me and wrote encouraging words during the past week. It really makes me feel good about what I've done and continue to do within this community. Above all, it makes me fully motivated to continue that work and that's what I intend to do. Thank you.

Many of you also expressed concern that I was going to stop playing just because of this one situation, but the reality is that quitting has been in my mind for a very long time, and what happened just triggered the ultimate realization that it was time for me to finally put my game-pad on the shelf.

 

I've been playing this game pretty much non-stop since discovering it in February 2006. Almost 9 years and about 150 tournaments later, I think it's safe to say I got pretty addicted to the game (for better or worse). 

Over the years I've been fortunate enough to be quite successful in the game too, which is definitely a big reason as to why I continued playing for so long. But during this whole time I was still missing one achievement in my list, and that was winning STC. Maybe it's a bit corny, but after we won last Sunday I felt like I had accomplished everything I ever wanted to in the game, and I could notice that feeling of wanting to prove myself as a player disappearing from my mind.

 

Those 9-ish years of playing were – I now realize - also pretty tough on my health. Already way back in 2008 when practicing for the ESWC Grand Final I started feeling pain in my wrist. I bought a wrist-protection which really did help and I felt like I could play as normal again for quite some time. But as some years passed, that wrist-protection started to have less of an effect and I started to have what I now understand were pretty serious problems. Every match - or even practice-session - was a struggle as the discomfort only grew stronger (especially for more important matches). 

So I began searching for new solutions. Once again I managed to find something that helped which was to start using a different game-pad. This certainly put less stress on my wrist, but at the end of the day it wasn't a perfect solution since I would still regularly feel pain despite all my efforts to avoid it. 

As I was practicing for the STC-final last week, I once again got reminded of that fact, which just made me realize even more how much I don't want to deal with it any longer, and in the back of my head I knew the only way to achieve that had always been to simply stop playing.

 

Another reasoning behind this decision was because of what happened before the final. This kind of "drama" just keeps popping up and I'm honestly quite tired of dealing with it by now. I'm not going to say much about it since so much have already been said, but I want to make sure I point out that I absolutely have no hate towards anyone in the community, and I'd truly like to have everyone get along. If people hate me as been pointed out, then I'm really sorry to hear it. Maybe I did things I didn't realize were wrong in the past, but honestly I don't know exactly why some would have such strong feelings about me... So I think it's for the best if I just take a step back and not be as involved anymore. Maybe then things can heal and we can all move forward.

 

To conclude, while I struggle with a lot of other things in my life, playing this game gave me such a boost in confidence and it made me feel so much better about myself. Not just by doing well, but also because of all the people who cheered me on. I believe that's the main reason why I kept hanging on to the game - so thank you very much for the support! It meant the world to me.

 

All is well,

 

Kalle

 

Pour résumer, c'est avant tout le sentiment du travail accompli qui prédomine, avec une pointe d'amertume (dramas à répétition) toutefois. Absent pour la suite de toute compétition Online, il y a cependant fort à parier qu'il restera encore impliqué dans la communauté pour un certain bout de temps !

 

 

Acer affaibli ?

 

Après le 1er match ESL (qui s'est soldé par une lourde défaite 5-1 contre les valeureux Flag eK) de ce dimanche, une drôle de sensation a dû habiter les spectateurs du match : la sensation qu'une page se tourne. Non pas que la team allemande ait un faible niveau (loin de là), mais que la team manque de plus en plus d'effectif.

Après le départ de Flag Tamarillo et désormais de Flag frostBeule, les joueurs d' Flag acer sont contraints d'aligner une line-up bien plus faible qu'à l'habitude.

Vont-il tenir cette saison malgré leur manque d'effectif? ou vont-il attirer nombre de joueurs et "brader" leur tag pour combler les brèches? Réponse dans les semaines à venir!