Damien, the Wolf of the Splinterlands [Revisited]

Its about to be 3am.

Its ALWAYS 3am.

It seems like every hour of the day has blurred past with responsibilities, duties, and other activities but then at 3am... everything slows down and I have time to think. A time to put things to perspective.

Or perhaps, just a time for some coffee.

I reach out to take a sip and let my senses take in the aroma while clicking lazily on my keyboard, sifting through tabs containing links to my social media accounts. My Facebook page now has 6800+ followers. Youtube account already has 1300 subs. Twitch, Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram accounts slowly but steadily growing. Wow. Have I done this much work?

I take another sip.

Has it always been this way? I fight the urge to argue with my own sense of time (or lack thereof), and attempt to get a grip on what my current feelings are. Is this Joy? Sadness? Melancholy? This is a dangerous time, 3am. Memories breeze through my brain and I ponder on how it should affect me. Should I be disheartened at missed opportunities? Is there anything to look forward to?

My endless scrolling stops at a picture on one of my folders.

Something to look forward to? Hell, yeah.

This deserved another sip of coffee while I allowed myself to look back and remember how all this came to be.

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First Howls

Before all this craziness, many many moons ago, I started playing Super Mario when I was around 3 or 4 years old. I am not going to expand on how I grew as a gamer but saying games have been a huge influence in my life is a tremendous understatement. Mario gave way to Top Gun (family com era), to NBA Jam and Street Fighter (super famicom), to Pokemon (gameboy), Pit Fighter and Turtles in Time (Sega Genesis), Metal Gear Solid, FF7 (Playstation Era) and continued to grow and expand to other games. But if you were going to ask me what were the games that REALLY changed my life, it would be DOTA, Counterstrike, and Initial D (Arcade Stage). Dota and Counterstrike (where I met my friend Leinil, penciler of Wolverine and Xmen) would introduce me to team play, tournaments, bets, etc. While Initial D introduced me to actually working on, and achieving, a goal set out to myself which was... be the best player ever.

And I did just that.

For the most part of Initial D Ver 4, I was the number one Filipino Player, and the first Filipino in Initial D gaming history to ever get a World Record (See Link).

Wolf - World Record Run Akina Uphill Wet

Needless to say, I was used to competition and I was into different genres. Initial D got me into actually being a racing instructor in real life. But again, another story for another time. ;)

Tuason Racing School Instructor. Coolest Job Ever.

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Stray paths... Splintered Destinations

I started streaming late 2020 as a test and more around January of 2021, mostly Ragnarok Mobile streams, being the guild leader of STRAY. Nothing fancy as my character isnt the strongest around and people who view my streams visit out of curiousity (since I do a lot of "guestings" on other streamers' streams), and stay for the chill athmosphere and the fact that they say I sound like a DJ. Not a surprise. I've made a living and a career out of it which again is another story for another time. The NFT bug bit the Philippines around May or June. It's been lurking around before that but really boomed after a documentary about another game stretched interest into a phenomenon and people were scrambling here and there trying to be a "scholar" while some tried to find other NFT games to hopefully get a head start on. I was one of the latter and the research led me to Splinterlands.

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Let the Cards fall where they may...

Back in the day, MTG (Magic, the Gathering) introduced me to the wonderful world of willfully destroying brain cells (and wallets) in a game of flinging, collecting, trading small pieces of cardboard. Yep... "cards". I was a rogue deck builder and enjoyed my time on small tournaments and many many casual games with friends. It was on-off for me on MTG and the pandemic ultimately led me on a really long hiatus as I could no longer go to tournaments, trade, and play face to face with friends. So when on that fateful day I saw Splinterlands, I was only lukewarm to the idea of an online TCG game. I relished the thought of duking this out on a real table but after trying things out, the game DID pique my interest. Rules were easy enough to absorb and the "Splinters" were as near to "colors" of my beloved MTG.

When I first streamed the game, I only had like 1 or 2 viewers. Tops. Somehow though, by some sort of Miracle, people were discovering my Splinterlands content and taking notice. They saw me duking it out with my very own Llama and Kron and listened to me advise them about Mylor Crowling. New people were getting in on the game and there was again a mad scramble to look for information (from streamers or youtube) to get advice. The foreign OGs definitely were a big help (clove, drabs, etc), but Filipinos wanted somebody a little more closer to home. I became known as DamienWolf of Splinterlands from that day forward.

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A Steem... A Theme... A TEAM.

I've run out of coffee.

As I slowly pour another batch, snippets of the SPLINTERLANDS journey I had to get to this point have begun to flash in my mind, merging into an amalgamated mesh of inspiration, slowly gaining steam even more than the brew filling my mug...

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But with all experiences I have had... with all the wonderful people I have met, with all these pictures and memories, a humble few will be the perfect end to these weird feelings and give me just the boost I need to continue on this amazing journey...

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I finish my cup of coffee and smile.

Its now 3:01 am.