Amateur Shoutcaster currently on hiatus while entering the "real world" (verification at bottom)

Hey all,

My name is Connor, but my gaming friends call me "Co4ch". Gaming has been a large part of my life, growing up on the original Xbox as well as the Gameboy Color. As I grew older, I found out about competitive gaming, "eSports" and wanted to make a name for myself in the field. I started off playing League of Legends around 2010, then found out about more titles and expanded my horizons.

In 2012, I played for a UK-based organization called Paragon eSports in a Quake-like game called "Shootmania" and spearheaded the American team for the organization.

The game hit a lull and the eSports scene wained. As a result, I transitioned into Dawngate (R.I.P.), EA's attempt to enter the MOBA market.

I was invited into the closed beta during the summer of 2013, and shortly after joined Vexx Gaming's roster. As the carry player, my job was, in theory, not difficult. Simply put, I had one task:

Ultimately, the task was much harder in practice, and while our team did well, we struggled to stand up to the top 2 teams. Some roster changes took place and left me without a team. After a few weeks, my desire to play the game at a casual level wained and I moved onto a title I had dabbled with a bit during my downtime: DotA 2.

From the middle of 2014 to just a few months ago, DotA 2 was a large focus of mine. I played in some in-house leagues and honed my skills as a player, but ultimately, I realized I have started to age past which most gamers can even consider competing at the higher levels (I'm now 24). As such, I turned my attention to other avenues of participating in competitive gaming. I coached a team, but again realized that without playing at the highest levels, few premium organizations would so much as consider my application.

My friends told me I talked too much, so I finally turned to shoutcasting. For those not in the know, "shoutcasting" is commentating over competitive gameplay. If you've watched American Football, for example, John Madden or Joe Buck would fit the term nicely. For me, DotA was my platform and I spent roughly a year working on my craft.

I joined a few leagues, began trying to build my brand, and actually started to gain some traction when I finally landed a job. Really, it was just a stroke of unfortunate timing, as working has caused me to have little timing for gaming, let alone casting. As a result, it has been put on hold for now.

This past election cycle really opened my eyes to where we stand as a…well…planet really. Media is becoming more and more of an issue as they present facts less and less; privacy is becoming less and less obtainable as shown by the Snooper's Charter and Rule 41 both passing; people are looking to bring down free speech as a basic human right. These things all come together and have led me to spending some time as of late really delving down the rabbit hole of cryptocurrency, online anonymity and other means of protecting one's self online. Which brings me to where we currently stand. I look forward to learning from everyone on this platform and would love to have discussions with anyone interested in learning more/just talking about games.

You can find me on Twitter and can find my (now somewhat) old content on Youtube and on Twitch. I am also exploring Minds and hope that platform will take off, just like Steemit.