If you’ve followed my twitter closely for the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed me (re)tweeting a variety of job postings, sometimes commenting on them to highlight them more as well.

It’s gotten me thinking about my own esports career and how people get started in the first place and how they eventually get to a place where they can say theyve succeeded.

Before I get into this, I need to tell you a bit about myself. As eager as I may be to want to be the best, I’m a rather shy and modest person. If you see me gloating, its usually an attempt at being funny, but generally speaking I don’t boast or talk about myself in such a fashion.

Similarly, I tend to be a bit more reserved. Theres this distinct memory from TI6 where I sit with a group of people and they decide to go grab something to eat. Instead of asking if I can join them, I awkwardly turn away and hope they ask me instead--they didnt. Its funny, because someone else did ask if they could join and everyone was ok with it.

Im that kind of person.

As such, I think Ive wasted a lot of opportunities at LAN events. Ive been to a couple, but usually ive been the guy that just hangs out and plays mafia or boardgames--even then people have to ask me, I dont think Ive ever asked myself.

Dont get me wrong, I value socializing a lot and Im sure it has gotten me quite far, but I think I could’ve gotten that much further if I had been more assertive.

When Epicenter hosted their first event, I afterwards kept joking around with some of the guys (now FaceIt and runtime.gg)--”every event needs a skim”.

Instead of ever actually saying “hey this is what I bring to the table and I could actually provide value to you”, i joke around and grab a drink. To this day, two years after taking on my job with Dotabuff, people still ask me what I actually do. That is a huge oversight on my part.

I think a part of that is because I witness those guys, the guys that constantly talk about business opportunities and that sound rather desperate sometimes, pitching their products etc.

For the longest time Ive never wanted to be that guy, that guy that grabs every opportunity by the balls and squeezes.

But you need to be that guy. I think.

In my now 5 years of Dota/Esports, I cant help but wonder about potentially missed opportunities. I see people around me succeed in ways I never imagined I could. But worse is I see people who I think are less capable than me be more successful (which is stupid bc if theyre more successful than me they’ve clearly done something right that I haven’t).

Working with Dotabuff has been a blast and I enjoy my work a lot, but I cant help but reflect over the things I couldve done better, shouldve done better! I think ive grown a lot as an analyst and person iver the past year, but I think this growth comes a couple years too late.

I was there from.the very beginning, I was at gamescom when NaVi lifted the aegis, yet Ive accomplished far less than pretty much anyone thats been around since.

Now, what does this have to do with you?

Learn from my mistakes. Opportunities dont come around often, so dont wait for them to come.