Looking in the Mirror

The truth is: I am a huge nerd. I love watching anime, playing video games and eagerly awaited Street Fighter IV only to realize I can't afford it. There is a particular computer game I've been in love with for a while now: Warcraft III. No this isn't the same as World of Warcraft, otherwise known as the game that has consumed 10 million souls including those of beloved TV icons Mr. T and William Shatner (Although at one point I also let my soul be consumed, they returned it to me). Warcraft III is a real time strategy game (RTS) and allows it's players to modify it to create custom "mini games." One of the most popular is a game called DoTA, a game almost as soul-consuming as World of Warcraft. DoTA is a team game in which two teams of five players try to kill the other team's base using only one hero unit which can level up, gain skills and buy weapons. The good players will tell you that it's all about teamwork, skill will only take you so far. This has lead to many players creating small groups to team with. This also leads to players blaming their teammates for any and all problems in a game. On most weekends I can be found sitting in my apartment, like the nerd I am, yelling into the microphone at my friend Ringo, who also plays, about our shitty team. Not this weekend though. This weekend we had friends who had dropped the game in favor of their jobs or girlfriend (Y wuld u need a gf lolz! wut a n00b.) come to play with us. With these guys at my back, the four of us went on to dominate the entire night, picking up a new fifth man every few games to complete the team. We didn't lose a single game. Every single game was a complete victory ending often with opposing players leaving in frustration or the destruction of the other base in under half an hour (a game normally takes about an hour). After we parted, I began to think, was our domination tonight due to the chemistry that we formed while learning to play the game? Was it our individual, nerdy prowess at the game we loved? Maybe it was the incompetence of the opponents we openly ridiculed as "nubs" and fudgepackers. To be honest, I don't know. There were games in the past where just Ringo and myself lost and we attributed it to our lesser teamwork. There were also games where we lost and attributed to simply playing shitty. But more often than not our teammates could be counted on to suck or so I thought, but tonight something was different. Every victory seemed to come with ease. Every movement of our team was coordinated beautifully like synchronized swimmers. Ringo commented that trying some of the things we had done tonight with pubs (people we didn't know) would result in the immediate deaths of our units and certainly a loss. But what if we had just played extremely well tonight? Compound that with friends as teammates, it certainly seems like a recipe for success. The only way I'll ever know how good we truly are is to play against the best. Tonight's events lead me to wonder what other things I do that I lie to myself about. Am I really doing all that well in my studies? Am I really that intelligent and devestatingly good looking? To this, I only have one answer: stop and take a close look in the mirror, proverbial or otherwise. You may be suprised at what you find. And that could make you a better person.