3 Months close to paradise
It’s kinda strange that it’s over but for 3 months I got to do exactly what I wanted during that time and created some of my favorite videos and photos. The PGI.S tournament, which I got to shoot with Team Liquid’s PUBG team was an amazing experience ending with not only a crazy story in the last week of the tournament but also with my best piece of esports content I have created so far.
First of all why should I recap something that ended over a month ago? Why not do it earlier? The answer to that is pretty simple.
I didn’t have the time. I didn’t get to do it, because after PGI.S was over I immediately went home for easter with my family. I then started editing the last episode of survival, which I didn’t finish until I was on the train ride to shoot my next project. Like the render was done around 10 minutes before I got off the train to shoot for a friends brand and with a friend of mine (I’ll share that story later maybe, probably not, but maybe). Well and when I got done with that shoot the next week I started the next gig. Again with Team Liquid and again by getting on a bus and writing the first few lines of a blogpost while on it. I’ll talk more about that trip at the end of this post. But let me first get back to the original subject of this. My recap of the three months in Korea and thanking everyone and shit like that.
For the last few weeks I thought about just not writing anything about it, since it’s been already a couple weeks back at that point (which in esports time is like 3 years after being relevant). But I can't not honor the time I had and cherish it, while also shamelessly plugging the last episode of the docu-series somewhere on my website, without writing at least something.
So I could go on and write again about the things I created and how they are some of my best work and how I am proud of balancing taking pictures, filming, interviewing, producing and editing the documentary series by myself. But I don’t want to do that. I just want to take this time to thank everyone who made this possible and made the trip as amazing as it was.
Starting with the person who made this whole thing happen. Tanner. It is still strange to me that he picked me, but I hope he didn’t regret that decision. When he asked me to join their PUBG team for 3 months for a LAN tournament somewhere on the other side of the world, I had no choice but to say yes. And during the entire time I couldn’t ask for a better person to go with. While I was scared at first that I would just be the outside guy shoving a camera into everyones faces while they were trying to concentrate on a multi million dollar tournament, Tanner made me feel like part of the team right from the start. I don’t know how he did it and when it happened, but at no point did I feel like an outsider coming in. Instead I felt like part of the group, which made shoving cameras in their faces in the most emotional moments so much easier and more fun (hopefully for everyone). In general while being a pleasure to hang out with, Tanner was also always there when I needed to get interviews & helped me tell the stories of each player (it was in fact his idea as well to focus each episode on one member of the team.
Well then to the guys: Mxey, Jim, Clib, Ibi, Pixel and Jaesong (our handler). For an esports player content usually doesn’t rank that high on the list of most-fun-things-to-do. But that didn’t stop these guys from doing it anyway. Often saying yes to ideas from me where I never thought they would even consider it. For example: Interviewing Jim in a jacuzzi, talking to Clib’s parents of Mxey doing any sort of content or interview in general (he really doesn’t like it). I really appreciate that more than I ever told them and what I liked even more was how I was included (especially) when the camera was off.
Next I want to say thanks to the staff of Team Liquid for helping me with whatever I needed help with, while also being very supportive on things like me not being able to stick to a video deadline (happened more than once). I want to especially thank Gulden here for making the trip smoother than probably any travel/work trip I’ve ever had. But what I appreciate most from Team Liquid was the creative freedom I was given by their content team. When I first got offered this gig I was kinda nervous about how much I could actually do. Kind of intimidated by the size of the team and the corporate structure at TL, I thought I would only play a small part in the content for the PUBG team. I thought I was only gonna be a camera man who filmed what I would be told to film. I wasn’t looking forward to that and when I got the “Sure, go for it” to create whatever I wanted and it would then be UPLOADED TO THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL, I couldn’t be more excited. So thanks for the creative freedom and trust you gave me. I hope everything didn’t turn out that bad.
I think thats enough of thanking everyone and saying how amazing it was and how grateful I am. Now its time to shamelessly plug the last episode of survival (which I really think is my best piece of esports content so far!). Watch it! Now! Go! Here’s the link! GO! Thank you.
Lastly I want to share some lessons I learned about myself during those last three months. I was incredibly fortunate for the people around me who took care of all the noise and other stuff and allowed me to focus fully on my work. With that said, I learned that even if you love every second of what you do and don’t consider it work, doing it 14-16 hours every day for weeks at a time is not sustainable. I learned when to stop and when to keep going and when to just say yes to something where you initially thought wouldn’t lead to anything productive. Cause that’s also important.
I also learned a lot about my creative direction. The content I want to make in the next weeks, months any maybe years and the content I don’t want to make. I’ve pushed myself harder than I ever have and I’m just getting started. Before I go too much into motivational Dom, I’ll cut it off and let my future work speak for itself. In the meanwhile here are some of my favorite “private” pictures I took during the trip (This is mainly just for me so I have a gallery somewhere online with all of them to remember the time. But feel free to check out those pictures, which are not all just pics of my shoes, I promise).
I was talking earlier about being on a bus AGAIN. I don’t know if it’s kind of a ritual by now or only a coincidence. But just as I started writing my first blog post about Korea on a bus ride from the quarantine facility somewhere on the east coast to our hotel in Incheon, I started writing this blog post on a bus ride to Utrecht to work for Team Liquid on a new project. This time shooting their Valorant team for their qualifier tournament to play in the masters tournament in Iceland later this month. So as you can probably guess, I didn’t have time to finish this blog post while in Utrecht. So I’m doing it now back in Germany. On a couch thats way more comfortable than sitting in the back of any bus I’ve been on this year.
So what comes next?
I don’t know. I loved working with Team Liquid and might be doing more with them in the future. But I am also open to all kinds of other possibilities from freelance gigs to full-time jobs. I’m more motivated than ever. Not just to work in esports & gaming and creating content for teams, organizations and maybe other clients as well, but also to write more blog posts any maybe doing other stuff as well (Subscribe to my YouTube channel, like and comment, not sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends (yet)). So onto the next one.
P.S. The title is just a joke, cause the place next to our hotel was called Paradise City. It was still nice there though.