Ben hasn’t always been a close friend.

In fact, I actually distinctly remembering trying to take his job at the beginning of my time in the scene.

I remember seeing his reports at the top of Reddit and saying “Oh, I can do that”.

I remember wanting to take a statistical approach to the game, scanning through VODs to record how long players lived, or how long it took to cap points.

I remember stopping by his late night streams, searching for ways to make my process more efficient. I was shocked to see he was doing the same things I was. Each report was made by painstakingly thumbing through Twitch VODs, updating Google Spreadsheets, and then carefully crafting the graphics on his own.

I remember talking to him about what he did in his free time, to which he answered “What Free Time?”

He spent his days grinding away at a full time job, which paid his bills, only to come home to spend his time prepping for a timely release on Thursday, or whenever people expected Falcon_kick to put up another look at the competitive scene.