Here we go guys!
First of all, I am really sorry to make a blog in such a long period. As you know, fnatic website had some issues, so I couldn't write anything.

To all people that don't know me, my name is Kévin Baeza, known as strenx in Quake live. As you can guess, I play for fnatic ! ( \o/ )

The reason why I'm writting this blog is that I really want to share my experience... I mean, my STRANGEST Experience ever.

As you found on fnatic website, I was not fnatic anymore due to Quakecon. Indeed, they could not send me, and I really wanted to go. I was unmistakably sure that I could make a top with focus and motivation. I was pumped up, and I couldn't accept to watch opponents that could steal a place that I could reach.

So I tried to find an organisation. By any chance, someone told me to contact a guy from Skype ( nevo was the organisation ). I felt really baffled because he said that he could send me at Quakecon and stuff like that. But time was running out, and the price of the travel was really expensive. He was about to pay 3 players, Spart1e, I and another guy, to play TDM. He accepted to send me to Kiev for bootcamp. I really wanted to believe him, as though I knew there was a possibility that he lies to me.

Problems started to happen, he told me that he could not pay me the bootcamp because he was in Poland, but he could reinburse me and pay me the travel from the 25th September. I believed him though, because I really wanted to go so I rushed headlong. I paid the travel to Kiev, 350 euros already, and I met Cypher there. (15 September or something), we did not play the first two days, we chilled out, drank beer, and we talked about Quake during times, what was the best tactics, our weaknesses. I think he told me a lot of weakness, but it helped me a lot, and you know when you drink, the more you remember because you are more focused to this.

2 days after, everything is good, Avek (Polish guy from serious gaming) came, we picked him up, we talked all night as well, drink and stuff like that. And we started to train each other the day after.

Everything went well, we trained, played some zotacs, which I did not win a SINGLE, (ME, THE zotac hero :'( ). I trained but I had this feeling... this strange feeling like, I hope I train for something, because if they don't pay me the travel, I'm in a bad situation. Time races and I still wait. There we are, 25th september... NOTHING, he is not connected on skype. But I'm not worried, I'm saying, ok he will be there in a few moments or few days, I will wait 3 days max. I waited those 3 days, and still nothing.

Now I started to be worried, I have no money anymore, I can't go to France, I'm locked in Kiev without nothing, only few beers, that I drank fast to get drunk because I was really angry. But I expected this thing somehow. Then, fnatic heard about my problem, Anne talked to me and tried  everything to help me. She told me that she will pay me the travel to Quakecon, but I had to sort out the hotel problem. I already sorted out with cypher and avek so everything went well. I was really happy and I was motivated again, I trained tirelessly until the prominent day.

Nevertheless, I had 3 flights to take. First of all I had to take my flight from Kiev to Munich, then Munich to Chicago (8 hours of WAITING ARGGGG) then Chicago to Dallas

When I arrived to Munich, I was really bored, and I slept on the waiting chair from my gate.

As you can see, it was not fun to sleep on those chairs, but I hate to wait so I did it. Afterall, I took my other flights and everything went well, that what I THOUGHT! Cypher and Avek was supposed to arrive during night also, but I received a sms ( We missed our flight. We won't be there until tomorrow afternoon ). Niiiiice, I have no hotel, no money, so I slept outside in Dallas, with my 2 bags, waiting for them. It was impossible to sleep because, mosquitos was everywhere, and every 10 mn, someone came to me and told me, "TAXI????". It was a horrible night really.
I waited exactly 16hours, 12 minutes and 51 seconds, I had nothing to do, so I counted.
FINALLY, they arrived, they saw me, completely destroyed, my hair was horrible, I had spots, it scratched me so much. Since then, I was to fight every mosquitos.

But it's not finished yet, we waited to the Hilton for hours because there was some issues with Seriousgaming, the hotel was not checked, so they had to call their manager, but he didn't reply for hours. So we waited again and again. The only thing I wanted was to take a SHOWER!
I wanted to buy a cookie, but when I saw the price (16 dollars), I said, ok I will do something else.

Hours passed and we finally arrived, I slept on the sofa because I had no rooms, it was Cypher's and Avek's, and the sofa measures 160cm to and fro, and I height 184, really nice. Our tournament was the next day, but I was not tired. I was just motivated to do good. I knew that I trained a lot so I was really confident. I started to play my groupstage, and I came second. I was really happy for my 2nd place because I was 100% sure that I would not play cypher or avek because they placed 2nd as well. I look to the playoff and I see, strenx vs cypher. WHAT THE HELL? give me a gun. Quakecon rules was really strange. But I managed to win Cypher 2-0. When I did this, my motivation and my desire of winning this cup was really huge. I played noctis in 1/4, which I won 2-0, then I had to face Cooller in semi finals, again.... I was really happy, because I trained a lot and I couldn't imagine to lose with all the trains that I did with cypher and avek. I lost my first map dm13. Then I won the two others. I'm on final, such a great feeling really.

I had to play my final vs rapha, like 10 hours after, but we played TDM 3rd place final meantime. We did not train a single TDM together but we managed to be 3rd. Cooller did not even know 50 % of the maps and stuff like that. It was really funny :DDD.

Hours passed, I was not hungry, I waited for my final, and there we go I played rapha. I was not stressed all day long, but during the game, I did not play the game I would like to play, I mean, confidence rush, aiming etc. I was afraid to make any mistakes or doing risks. But anyways, he managed to win the final and congratulations to him.

This experience was really great, and I think that I play better when I have bad conditions like I had :). It seems I need to sleep outside to play good :DDD.



Anyways, I hope you liked my experience, because now I'm laughing, it was really funny :D.

You can follow me on facebook, www.facebook.com/strenx : or ask me anything on formspring http://www.formspring.me/strenx
Thank you a lot ;)