My name is Charlie “CentsOfFate” Dalldorf. I am currently an undergraduate at the University of South Dakota. My short term future includes going straight for my Masters Degree and devoting my life to media effects research.

 

The Short Version: Ever since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with video games. The idea of taking control of a character(s) and deciding the fate of the universe you are placed in is something I have always been fascinated with. After spending my entire life playing video games both casually and competitively, I want to share my passion to the world and start up my gaming journalism career.

 

But what's the actual story?

 

 

The Early Years
​The Mouse and Game Boy Advance
 

 

At the age of 4, I was exposed to a game known as Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat (also known as The Clans). Mechwarrior 2 is a mech-simulation game based off of the Battletech universe. The time period is during the Refusal War between Clan Wolf and Jade Falcon. The player takes control of a massive mech outfitted with lasers, missiles and autocannons to complete objectives that you are tasked with.

 

This is the game that started everything for me. Even though the game is incredibly primitive in visuals, design and mechanics, it is still one of my favorite games of all time. Nothing is better than jumping inside a mech and blowing stuff up. Once every year I usually load up one of the three Mechwarrior 2 games just to play it through one more time.

 

A childhood in the 90s/early 00s is not complete without Pokemon. I got my start with Pokemon: Gold. For most kids, this is their first RPG and I am no exception. Catching, battling and improving was the name of the game for me. Then, when the franchise moved into the 3^rd generation, I picked up pretty much all of the games from there. My personal favorite is Fire Red. I still have my completed Lv100 team sitting in my party, waiting for their first fight. This started at around age 8.

Playing Pokemon wasn't just a casual thing for me, oh no. This was the first game I came across where my competitive instincts kicked in. I wasn't satisfied with beating the Elite 4 and catching all the legendaries in the game. That wasn't enough. I wanted to be better. I want my team to be stronger. I want to send my Pokemon out to war to slay anybody with ease.

And then I discovered Smogon.

 

It was a game changer. I learned about Effort Values, Individual Values, natures, breeding and movesets. I saw what the competitive nature of the game feels like. The importance of your lead Pokemon. Developing a strategy that your team revolves around. Predicting your opponents moves. Using entry hazards and status afflictions to get an edge. I wanted to learn it all. I even downloaded the Pokemon simulator known as NetBattle at the time. I did everything I could to get better and learn the inner workings of the game. But the real kicker has yet to come.

 

 

 

Joining the Online Gaming Scene

Armed and Dangerous

 

 

 

At around the same time that my Pokemon world spiked, I picked up Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries. That was the last licensed true Mechwarrior game to come out for a very long time. Before that, I played through all the previous iterations of the franchise. 3, Vengeance and Black Knight. Black Knight was the first time I started playing online. I remember the modes I loved playing the most. There was Strongholds and Siege HQ I think. It involved attacking or defending HQ and Comm arrays in an online scenario with real people. It was like playing campaign missions but much harder.

 

At the age of 11, I started getting involved with the online community in Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries. Some of the servers I remember from back in the day were NBT-Loki and NBT-Flea. These were Mission Play servers that were built around the Siege concept back in Black Knight. And I loved it. I spent entire weekends playing on these servers, getting to know the community and honing my skills.

 

Then the NBT network started to converge. The entire hub started to move into the legendary PureTech server known as NBT-Sunder. Everybody we knew became family: The Sunder Junkies.

 

There are so many famous names that littered the server: Nano, mini-me, Vettie, Pothead, Jewel, Zee, TransFan, Sir Gummy, Bragg, GunBladeMan, Vampire, Vanja, Trygger, Pirana, Genghis_Prawn and yours truly, Wolf ff and mc.

Yes, Wolf ff and mc, my first true alias online. It stood for Wolfhound, Fafnir and Mad Cat. They were my favorite mechs at the time and I thought it was pretty slick and creative. I was known for two mechs in particular: The Solitaire and the Vulture C. My Solitaire was the deadliest light mech ever to have ever ravaged that server. People had to stopped using 100 ton assault mechs when they attacked because of my Solitaire. I tore up so many Daishis and Behemoths that people had to ton down or pilot Gladiators against me.

 

But my Solitaire was a drop in the puddle compared to my Vulture C. Close ranged or sniper, my Vulture C was by far my favorite mech to pilot. I got crazy kills in my Solitaire, I got insane Kill-Death ratios in my Vulture C. I had near perfect games in that mech, getting scores like 8-1 and my highest ever was 14-0 on Defiance. I knew how to manipulate terrain, engage in haphazard ways that were impossible to predict and made people cry tears.

 

At the age of 14, I discovered Inner Sphere Wars. Now I was able to take my skills I learned from Sunder and put it to the test. I joined up with House Davion initially and was moved to House Kurita after some negotiations. Some of the pilots I dropped with included: Hannibal, Mack, Sinthrow, SilverWolf, Phantom411, Boxpacker, and FlaSh.

In ISW, House Kurita was by far the best house in terms of stats. I remember Hannibal saying that 7 out of the top 12 were all Kurita, including myself.

 

I ran the alias Sarcasm during my time in ISW. I was nicknamed, “Silent but Deadly” because I didn't have microphone at first but I still tore people apart in drops. I was one of the most consistent pilots for PvP with a 66% KD average and around 70% success rate.

 

 

Discovering E-Sports

Making Sandles

 

 

 

But nothing could prepare me for the wave of change coming. At the same time that I played ISW, I was introduced to Starcraft: Brood War. I remember some of my friends were talking about Starcraft in Physical Science class. I went and got Starcraft due to curiosity. My world was forever changed.

 

Starcraft is a real-time strategy game developed by Blizzard. It also developed many other things that would be standard in my life today. It was my first RTS ever. It was much different than my experience in Mechwarrior. I was controlling my army rather than being it. Managing economy was a completely new concept for me. Creating a massive army and destroying the other enemies' base was so different...but so satisfying. I played through both campaigns and I thought I was okayishly good at the game. And then I discovered E-Sports.

 

Boxer vs Stork on Baekmagoji. This was the first Professional Gaming match I have ever seen. And quite a unique one too, since both players went for proxy cheese and ended very quickly. I then discovered the English commentating community with names such as Moletrap, Klazart, DiggitySC and CholeraSC. They brought the world of E-Sports in a way that I could understand. Then I discovered some FPVODs of the Pro-Players. And for those that don't know, these guys play obscenely fast. 300 APM was pretty normal for some of these guys. Then I thought, I could play just like them.

 

I found an AI mod named Entropy, which enhance the computer's ability to macro and attacked aggressively into me almost all the time. That's how I got good. I would play against the computer non-stop, playing as fast as I could, managing my economy perfectly and making sure I never stopped production. I learned how to do safe builds like 2 Gate Robo against Terran so I could a relatively safe expansion. As the games went on, my macro got so much better. I became incredibly good at managing 3 base economy and relentlessly throw units at my opponents. A lot of my builds and ideas came from BeSt, the macro god on SK Telecom 1. I wanted to become just like him. I wanted to become a mid → late game master just like he was. At the end of my Brood War training, I average around 150 APM and around 200 APM spiked for a Protoss player. Not bad for a newbie.

 

This is the point where I created the alias, CentsOfFate.

 

 

Modern Times

Seeing the world through different eyes

 

 

 

Now we are closer to the present. Starcraft 2 came out in 2010, my Junior year summer. This game caused E-Sports to explode. The amount of growth and hype for Starcraft 2 back in 2010 and 2011 was absolutely massive. And I wanted to be a part of it. Through my Senior year and 1^st semester as a Freshman in college, I spent my time practicing Starcraft 2. I found my way into having contacts with some of the lower-tier grandmasters at the time. I put in a lot of time and effort to hone my skills as a player. I eventually became Masters and was ranked in the top 1.5% in NA. Also, not too bad for a newbie.

 

And then the stress came in. I pretty much lived and breathed Starcraft while studying for all of my classes. I always made the joke that my grades improved whenever I played Starcraft. However, I payed a big price for it. Even though I loved playing Starcraft more than anything, I was also in my most miserable state. There would be days were I would go on full tilt and I would want to destroy my room. My brain would start to function in ridiculous ways and micro-depressions would start to overthrow my psyche. It was around my 2^nd semester of Freshman year that I had to abandon one of my favorite games from my competitive line-up. I just couldn't handle the stress.

 

My friends that were on my floor had the cure for me. League of Legends. We played a lot of DotA back in high school and this is how we got our MOBA fix. It quickly became one of my standard games that I would play day in and day out. I had a period where I took a 6 month break due to stress reasons again, but now I am back and it's currently my game of choice these days. I have my tent pitched in Mid-lane if people ever want to hit me up.

 

That brings us to exactly today. I left a lot of different games out of this list, but I'll run down some of them just to clean everything up. I was huge into Maplestory when I was in Middle School. I was part of the guild known as MSA, Maplestory Apocalypse. I went under the alias Centruion. I had a Gamecube that I played a lot of between my hours of Mechwarrior 4. Some of my favorite games on there include Super Smash Bros: Melee and Metroid Prime. I was involved with the modding community in Battlezone 2 with the Forgotten Enemies Mod Rev. C. There was a point in my Sophomore year of high school were I actually went on hiatus from gaming to build my social life.

 

That pretty much covers my entire life of video games. It's slowly becoming apparent these days that I will be spending more time writing about video games than actually playing them. And I am fine with that honestly. I'm starting to get past my prime and I don't have time to dedicate hours upon hours of practice to get good at competitive games any more. I'll just be the guy on the sidelines cheering my favorite players and teams along.

 

I was just a kid who had a passion to get good at every video game he ever touched. I was just a guy who enjoyed each and every moment in the virtual realities created for me. And now I am the person who is sharing his passion to the world around him.

 

I am the CentsOfFate.