[phago].de

Since it was phago's 4th birthday on the 21st (\o/), I thought I'd take some time to talk about the my position in the team and what I've experienced in phago.

Joining phago was basically a dream come true. At that time (it's gotten a lot better ) I was pretty obsessed with BZFlag (GU). I mean.. crazy about it. There were times when I couldn't wait 'til I got home so I could match. I'd basically be online 24/7, which is one of the reasons why I have about 100 days of online time since starting GU. I always admired phago, even when I didn't know much about them. Whenever I saw Saturos or benji 13 (only ones who talked ) online I'd immediately start talking to them. About one year ago I talked to Satu on Skype for the first time. Even though we barely knew each other we talked about different things for almost an hour. The proceeding couple of weeks I got closer to benji and we finally we decided to meet. We walked around town for 3 hours while ben mostly told me about phago and the things he had experienced. I was thrilled and expressed my obvious interest in joining. About a month after that, in march, I was invited to phago. Read the full story after the jump!

Follow up:

Just a week after being in phago, ben, bachi and I had my first mini-LAN at ben's. Bachi and ben convinced me to get a Razer Diamondback that weekend (best advice I've ever been given ) and we played about 20 matches in two days. It seemed hat every match I got a little better and made less mistakes. The next couple of months went by with a lot of activity. In June, Saturos started to talk to me about coming to Berlin in the summer. After endless arrangements and lots of discussion (my mom was a little reluctant at first) we agreed to meet in late August. I was in the US for most of August, which made planning even more complicated. Unfortunately, ts and Upsetter left phago during that month too.

I don't think I was ever as excited as I was during those 6 hours on the train to Berlin. Satu picked me up at the train station and I had the best 7 days of my life. It was my first real trip to Berlin and I enjoyed every bit. Satu, Bachi and Samy were great hosts and made sure I got to see a lot of Berlin and what the whole place was really about. We had amazing matches and reached 1900 points and a 3.0 activity during that time. As always, those 7 days went by way too fast and I was really sad when it was time to leave.
As fall came, so did some problems. I was obviously spending too much time on BZFlag. My grades were dropping and I couldn't really find a healty balance between my life and the internet. I started spending less time playing and when I returned to old activity in December I had an urge for something new. I had forgotten how amazing phago really was. I made Sunburn and experienced gu matching at the highest level. Playing with players like krisfeidt and Zelgadis is something completely different. It's all about individual skill. When phago talked to me about re-joining and maybe even visiting Berlin my Xmas holidays, I was in a dilemma. Should I go back to my home or continue the winning streak with Sunburn? As you know, I ended up returning to phago and visiting Berlin, which was definitely the right choice. This time however, I went with benji. We had a great time on the train and in Berlin, although there were some problems too.. there was a lot going on and sometimes things got a little out of hand. But all in all I enjoyed the trip a lot. As usual we never got around to everything we said we would. E.i. doing daily reports here and some other projects. We spent a lot of time sitting around and talking and very little time actually matching. The highlight of our visit was the RikerCup '09. The first and third match, we had 5 of our 10 players in one room. Saturos, Bachi, benji, SAMY and myself. Definitely the best hour and a half on BZFlag. Amazing atmosphere before and after the matches. The excitement and tension was just intense. (I'll post something more specific on the RikerCup soon, screenshots etc). There are of course MANY more great moments I had in phago, but these were just the main ones. It's funny how one little open source game and make so much happen. It's really a phenomenon for itself.