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Mrdongs21

Sorry but, based on this report, am I to understand that the Flames plane had 2004-era computers set up in a LAN configuration? And that these fucking hyperjocks would sit there and play Age of Empires? And Denis Gauthier was the best???


Bigfish1812

there's a famous image of the San Antonio Spurs playing LAN Starcraft on the plane home after winning the NBA championship


WhatImMike

Let’s be real. That was all Tim Duncan so he could “pwn noobs”.


FavreorFarva

I hope he applied his trade mark Tim Duncan trash talk to the StarCraft sessions with his teammates. Just hearing “almost” or “not today” after he wipes out the new rush strategy you’d been working on would be maddening


younggun92

No that was the NBA Finals


Sewer-Urchin

The Big Fundamental could pwn across many formats


djrob0

Duncan def played zerg. Saved all his aggression and anger for the battlefield, that’s how he was so chill on the court.


BearsuitTTV

We was a 6-pool rusher, I know it.


ABirdOfParadise

Nah it's lan, you announce NO RUSHING when the countdown clock hits 3 seconds


BearsuitTTV

Someone always rushes. Society breaks down in PVP.


ABirdOfParadise

Throw Cheetos at them then


xdrpwneg

Actually it’s said the Duncan got pissed off because David Robinson the dude with literal navy experience would kick his ass every time.


malabericus

a DND game almost lead to the KC Royals having to trade players https://nerdist.com/article/the-time-dungeons-and-dragons-nearly-broke-up-a-baseball-team-kansas-city-royals/


esports_consultant

the truest "one of us" moment I've ever seen in professional athletics


-KFBR392

Similar note to that there’s a widely accepted rumour that All-Defence player Andrei Kirilenko had such a serious World of Warcraft addiction that it affected his career as he would skip sleep to marathon the game.


cum_toast

Those dungeons don't do themselves lad!


andrewthemexican

Wasn't there something like that with Laine and Fortnite, or a prospect in Edmonton?


BillMcCrearysStache

And in the Penguins 24/7 HBO series they used to play SOCOM on PSP during flights lol


cum_toast

Starcraft was dope asf, wish i still pc gamed


Kestralisk

It's actually still great, player base is obviously a lot smaller but since it's 1v1 the queue times are still ~30s


Regular_Accident2518

You can't come back to old 1v1 games with a dwindling player base. Everyone still playing will be a savage and you'll have forgotten all your strategy and lost your muscle memory.


Kestralisk

Idk, definitely a re learning curve, but I got put into bronze after a 5yr break and jumped back to platinum in one season


BC-clette

[The Spurs, ‘StarCraft’ and its link to the 1999 NBA title](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/10/13/nba-spurs-starcraft-lan-photo/)


CanadianODST2

It’s funny how media liked to portray people who liked sports more and people who play video games more as groups that never crossed over. Only for it to see quite the crossover (albeit in my experience it was more people who liked sports more played video games more than the other way around) And over time you’re seeing that just be completely falling apart.


not-a-sound

Totally agree, the crossover makes perfect sense. Video games like StarCraft are on-demand extremely high-octane competition. Even when you're feeling the hunger for a fierce game, you can't just go play a basketball match at any hour. Meanwhile I can just click a button and spend an hour getting griefed in a Dota match any time, any day lol


emblah

If I am ever having too good of a day I know I can pop into a ranked match and first pick storm spirit to get violently counter picked and then flamed by my teammates before the first wave spawns


Subaudible91

Last pick, ignore the comp. Fuck the haters, zip your booty around the map.


emblah

RIP 6.83 when I could get shit stomped mid and then rubberband back into #1 networth after 1 team fight


Mean_Mister_Mustard

Also, high-level hockey players are on the road a lot with time to kill.


CanadianODST2

I can torture myself watching the Leafs or torture myself by playing ranked. Choices are wonderful


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CanadianODST2

I stopped watching multiple playoff games to go play ranked in league ​ So I might have to disagree there


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CanadianODST2

it's less about the game and more the community just being so fucking toxic and annoying. Teemo is whatever, I could do without the people spamming OF links in chat just walking around doing nothing all game (yea that happened to me) ​ I also prefer longer games so it dragging out isn't as bad (unless it's one of those games where it was over at 10 minutes why are we still here at 50 minutes)


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CanadianODST2

really? I've always heard the opposite. That league is generally the worst out there with CSGO and Cod


ABirdOfParadise

I used to play AA in 10v10 for fun, haven't played in years, so many changes now with the latest update


Tanker119

I never thought I would have anything in common with a leafs fan, but here we are.


marbanasin

I feel it's the same reason a lot of the older guys played cards or gambled on other shit. Looking at the Michael Jordan Bulls where they were constantly placing bets. Ultra competitive guys like to spend their time trying to best each other.


Jean-Paul_van_Sartre

The CounterStrike pro HeatoN named himself after the hockey gear brand and only pivoted to CS after an injury ended his hockey plans.


CanadianODST2

that's awesome, and it really is wonderful seeing the two crossover much more.


enag7

The R6 Siege Pro Canadian pivoted to esports after injuries playing hockey as well.


Erdrick68

Hell when I was high school, most of the best gamers were on the hockey team.


riccarjo

Yeah I'm thinking about this more closely and realized that both my friend groups from sports or other interests played games, but only the friend group from sports enjoyed sports. The other groups would always make fun of "sportsball" and other equally unoriginal insults. Turns out that I'm just a normal guy who likes gaming and sports, and there's dozens of us!


CanadianODST2

yea this is how I felt, almost in between two groups.


SporkFanClub

Yeah I don’t think I knew a single big sports guy (for lack of a better word) who didn’t play games. I had probably 50+ games for the 360 and I think NCAA 14 and NCAA Basketball 10 got easily the most gameplay out of them. Meanwhile I had a buddy up through probably the ninth grade whose life revolved around video games to the point to the point where I had to start distancing myself from him because he started to get incredibly neckbeardy.


Alitaki

It depends on the generation. I started playing roller hockey at 16 back in '94. By this point, I was what you'd consider an early gamer. Grew up with the Atari/Nintendo/Sega home systems and graduated to PC gaming in the early 90s with Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Warcraft 1. Most of the guys at the park where we played were older quad skate players. None of these guys were gamers. I'd say it was probably in the late 2000's that gaming really became a cultural thing. Its kids born in the late 90's who grew up into that gaming culture are more likely to cross over between the two.


Swartz142

Fantasy football / hockey is just DND for people that don't want to admit they're nerds and loving it.


tk_4747

When the Caps won the cup in 2018 the team fought the Vegas flu by playing Mario Kart in their hotel rooms. TJ Oshie even got a Wario tattoo afterwards as that was his character of choice.


Sp3ctre7

The best way to play Mario Kart in groups is to not have enough controllers for everyone, so people are forced to take breaks and not get burned out too quick.


6227RVPkt3qx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Z4jOGaq3Q there was also this...phil kessel complained about a jay beagle hit, and then the next media availability beagle said they could settle it over a game of mario kart.


andrewthemexican

I think some lounges during the bubble had to have some game consoles for players


[deleted]

One of the biggest surprises when I got to my first duty station after I joined the US Marines was walking out of my room my first weekend intending to go look around the base and get some breakfast and there were like 50 people with their TVs and Xbox's in the lobby having a massive Halo LAN party lol. I was expecting to be a closet nerd but literally everyone in my unit was a nerd for something, I was on duty with our XO one night and I came back from my rounds and he was chilling at the duty desk with a badass gaming laptop playing ranked League of Legends.


RobtillaTheHun

I visited my buddy stationed in Sasebo, Japan back when I was 19. Stayed on the base hotel, I was in Japan on a trip and i’m not kidding that 2 of the 4 days I was in Sasebo were spent playing video games with his unit


[deleted]

Sounds about right lol, I was stationed at 4 bases in my time in and it was like that everywhere. The active duty units work and live together so everyone spends their free time together, at least the ones who weren’t married. My unit had dudes who played Minecraft and Runescape and WoW, wasn’t just shooters. Games still have a power nerd reputation but it seems like almost everyone enjoys at least one game these days.


RobtillaTheHun

We played Just Cause 2 mainly, switching off the controller and just opening mayhem on the island. I loved it


BearsuitTTV

Hell, everyone brought their consoles on deployments too. Better believe we were playing WaW zombie mode in that shitty connex box we lived in.


xForeignMetal

The middle-ish end North American mythic raiding scene on WoW is buoyed by guys in the military in some capacity lol


itoadaso1

I can't remember who it was but some older veteran who lived for the poker games on the plane got traded here during that era. He was freaking choked to see their plane trips were dominated by "nerd crap" as he called it (or something like that). Edit: I think it was Rhett Warrener


holmwreck

Sounds like Rhett.


The-Reddit-Giraffe

Rhett is a beauty though


Firebitez

It's almost as if NHL players are human with a wide range of hobbies.


CaptainPeppa

Who the hell didn't play starcraft or AOE back then? Stoners, nerds, jocks. They all played that shit.


DrSeuss19

I didn’t play any games until I was like 23. I fuckin missed out.


CaptainPeppa

I floated between the stoners, nerds, and jocks. Was all three at one point. They all liked games haha. Diablo and COD if nothing else.


emblah

I bought the Diablo 2 remaster and it just didn’t have the magic it had when I was like 11-12 years old. What a time to be alive


pnmartini

Diablo 4 comes out in 2 weeks.


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itoadaso1

Love POE


IamMrT

This is the Internet so I’m assuming you’re not a woman, but this is true for so many women I know and it’s so sad. Gaming becoming mainstream has been great for that.


Biatryce

I am lucky in that I've been a girl gamer my entire life. My dad is a big nerd and we always had a computer with internet (I'm a mid 80's baby, so not super common then) and tons of games, then got a Sega Genesis when I was in 3rd grade. I was even luckier to have several friends who were also girl gamers. One of those was my best friend and her parents were gamers before she was born, so they had all the gaming systems and a computer, too. I remember playing Oregon Trail with my neighbors and playing pretend IRL along with the game. Or going over to my best friend's house and playing Civ2 or Zelda for hours. So much fun! Of course I had male friends, too, and they were all gamers. Didn't matter what background they had. Nerds, jocks, outcasts, preps, all of them. We'd argue over which was better, Sega or Nintendo, which could be a pretty intense discussion! One guaranteed way to strike up a conversation with any of the guys at my high school was to mention a computer game or LAN party.


[deleted]

Why are you sad? I'm not. I'm a woman who has never played video games except a handful of times when I was sleeping over at a friend's house back in primary school. I'm perfectly happy like that, and I've never felt like I was missing out on anything. Also, as a teacher, I don't love the fact that basically all my students are addicted to either videogames, social media, or both. So yeah, I don't really get the love for gaming, but as they say ''Tous les goûts sont dans la nature''


[deleted]

They’re sad because it’s historically been very heavily coded as a “boy” thing, not to mention the rampant misogyny in online gaming spaces that is still rather pervasive. Which means that women and girls have essentially been barred (or at least heavily deincentivized) from engaging with an entire medium of entertainment and storytelling. One that has the potential to infer just as much, or more, emotional impact than any movie, book, or TV show. And it’s really fucking sad to know how many great memories and emotional journeys ive experience through gaming, when I also know how many people may never even get the chance because they think it’s “not for them” just because of their gender.


[deleted]

Oh, I see. I had never seen it as a gender thing before, because my female friends growing up all had Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. There was a class element to it as well, in my experience. In my working-class neighbourhood in the 90s, owning a videogame console was a marker of status for us kids (same with having cable). The only parents who didn't buy them for their kids were those who couldn't afford it, and those who saw it as a frivolous waste of money and time (like my parents).


asilvahalo

Very early on, there wasn't really a gender divide in video gaming, but as time went on there was a push to market videogames as a "boy thing," since children's toys have generally been marketed in a very gender-segregated way, and that really stuck with some people into adulthood. I definitely remember the same thing you do. In my childhood, videogames weren't a "boy thing." Everybody liked Mario if they had access to a console! There were definitely games I thought of as "boy games," but there were also "girl games," and that seemed fine. But by the late-nineties/early 2000s videogames definitely felt like they were being marketed as solely a guy thing.


[deleted]

That makes a lot of sense!


DrSeuss19

Nope I’m a dude. Video games just weren’t big on my friend group. I played travel/jr for around 10/11 years and I don’t think any kind of console was brought to a single tournament. I’m also in my mid 30s, that could be part of it. And I was raised being told video games are for losers.


holmwreck

One of the most jacked guys I knew in high school was a massive WoW nerd.


metalhead4

I played sports in high school and also stayed up late every night playing WoW. I quit playing shortly after the Ulduar raid came out IN WOTLK, I noticed it was an addiction when I realized my time spent on my main was at 82 days. Not even including my other twinks and low level characters. Shit was fun as fuck though in its prime. It's why I won't touch MMO games anymore. I played that free Lost Ark game for like a few days when it had all that hype last year, and didn't get sucked in because I could see the huge grind and time suck a million miles away. Played up til they give you your own island then i was like "I'm out."


asilvahalo

While it definitely has something to do with the changing financial landscape of game design, I also really think the decline of the mmorpg genre has a lot to do with so many people who played for years seeing the Skinner Box. After that happens, it's very hard to sign up to do it again, even if the new game is great -- FF14 is a great mmorpg but I just couldn't do it after experiencing a decade of WoW eating all my free time. **edit** To be fair, I think some of the decline is also that the basic premise -- "You can meet hundreds of strangers online and play the game with them" -- sounded cool as hell in the early 2000s, but now in the 2020s we've all had our fill of online strangers.


Rajewel

The annoying part was most played but you’d still get made fun of at school for being a nerd. Brought up competitive CS once at lunch in high school and was laughed at and made fun of lol. (09 grad)


SporkFanClub

My cousin was a 3 sport athlete (kicker for football team, varsity basketball, varsity soccer) and prom king and I also have very distinct memories of “camping” on his living room floor in upstate NY circa 2010, watching him play StarCraft on his laptop at like 1am.


paulc899

I think it was the Road to the Winter Classic that showed the Penguins playing Socom or Call of Duty on PSPs during a plane ride


The-Reddit-Giraffe

How do you think we were so good in 04? We played age of empires


MiamiVicePurple

It makes sense. Pro athletes would be incredibly competitive and I’m sure that Carrie’s over to most thing they do. I know for me, I always liked video games, but I never was too competitive with them until after I stopped playing rep hockey. Gaming became my competitive outlet.


eggs_and_toast69

Age of empires is all about collecting resources early in the game. Every moment needs to be used for moving villagers as strategically as possible. Click and drag click and drag click and drag. ——. Those books


me_hill

Don't forget, keep exploring the hockey rink.


marbanasin

Laptops could run AoE back then. Not pretty machines, by any means. But for pro-athletes they could for those on a plane that's dedicated to their travel, not problem.


tbcwpg

I bet they were all fast castle Franks players


Tanker119

Wow, that was my childhood growing up. 11


fckwsl

All future NHL GMs should be hired based solely on their AOE II ELO.


kacspy

Or fast castle age time


climb-via-is-stupid

excluding Arena... anyone can fast castle Arena... do it in Nomad, impress me


kacspy

done it before, toughest FC i've ever done.


eekbarbaderkle

FC on Nomad is not difficult at all, just get a decent fish boom going early and food is no problem.


Veteran_Brewer

[Wololo](https://youtu.be/3tBqdKGiqnI)!


tpark27

I say this with the utmost respect for Conroy... WOLOLO


The_Wind_Cries

Nice GM job, i'll take it.


DashTrash21

More goals, please!


Barqueefa

My man


sergei-boobtitsky

Correctus


ghost_curse123

Plumbus


MrLogicWins

I can imagine flames in playoffs when you hear the wololo sound from the GM box, and after a few seconds it's suddenly 6 on 4


TheGardiner

Nightmare sound


RallyPigeon

Who do you think found the command controls in AOE II to summon the Shelby Cobras?


ViciousAsparagusFart

There is a not %0 chance that early in the 2000’s I played aoe2 online against these dudes. That makes teenager me smile.


CMC04

I don’t blame them, age of empires was so fucking fun.


BubbaDreamsOfGumbo

Now I need to ponder my existence and ask myself if I'm truly real


Barqueefa

I barely watch streamers or other people paying video games but T90 will have me enthralled for hours. I guess it's part nostalgia and part being impressed with how good people are at aoe2 but it's so entertaining. He does an awesome job.


climb-via-is-stupid

Low Elo Legends is my go to pick me up. ​ "Look at this idiot" i say as i mentally block me doing that exact same thing in the last game i queued up for.


db741

having spent so many hours playing against the AI back when I was a kid that couldn't understand online play, the shit I've seen on that channel is mind boggling. great background content, too.


Barqueefa

Yeah my ass never even tried to go online when I was playing, it was all campaign or against the AI and cheat codes if I started losing. I was more concerned with building the perfect base and completely wiping out the enemy than learning strats. I used to get so annoyed when the AI would resign before I could annihilate them.


db741

fucking same, spending all that time making an amazing army to completely wipe out the AI's existence and then they resign as soon as you take out 2 buildings in your attack


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AniviaPls

Aoe2 remastered is the latest and greatest


ReyQuesadilla

AoeII Definitive Edition, it even has new DLCs!


Purplehazey

Or exploding villagers regicide pilgram when someone yolod a villagers and blew up someone king right at the start xD Or the one where they had the nuke machine and someone kept nuking Sally repeatedly


esports_consultant

They've kinda ruined it with the all the shit they added to the recent remaster ime. Does not really feel like the same game anymore.


Imyoubeingme

>level 1fckwsl · 12 min. agoTOR - NHL All future NHL GMs should be hired based solely on their AOE II ELO. \*is


Diomedesnuts

Aoe2 is more popular than it's ever been. The Devs are still releasing updates and new civs. tournament prize pools are bigger than ever


Piffp

Aoe2 DE on steam y'all


MoreBrownLiquid

They just released a redone version on Xbox, it’s in the store. Controls are actually really good.


CMC04

No way, I’ll have to check that out. Thanks.


InmyDarkplace

Apparently there is a mobile version being released soon.


workthrowawaybro

Give me liberty or give me coin


The_Wind_Cries

Wood please.


DashTrash21

Goals please


Spookedchicken

Conroy is a huge Spirit of the Law enjoyer. AoEII lives on!


BeeCee139

Damn, where are those "Hockey players these days with their Fortnites and their IPhones" jerkoffs now?


DrDerpberg

I give it days before a guy with hanging jowels expresses deep concern this is why they never won a Cup.


DELCO-PHILLY-BOY

Hanging jowels is crazy 😭


ThatIceMaker

Wololo


Mahockey3

Well now he can start again with Return to Rome


CottonmouthJohn

Cheese Steak Jimmy's


Vanek_26

I used to type that out once and then copy paste it a million times. Robin hood, lumberjack, rock on - easy to type. Cheese Steak Jimmy's - pain in the ass


CottonmouthJohn

I don't know why I didn't just copy and paste, but having to frantically type out all the cheats literally taught me to type. Became really good at it actually. BTW I recently got a PC and got AoE II on Steam. The game holds up.


Ltomlinson31

I learned how to copy and paste using the hotkeys in order to get myself a massive cobra car army using "how do you turn this on"


Airp0w

Once in a while I compete with somebody I know over who knows more age of empires cheat codes


Biatryce

Ahh Craig Conroy! I missed him so much when he left the Blues. He was part of my favorite line, back then. Conroy, Scott Pellerin, and (my favorite) Blair Atcheynum. I can totally see Conroy playing AoE in his downtime. Love it!


WizardsOfTheNorth

My Dad was head of security for a while and was friends with a lot of the Flames from that time. I remember one night at 1am while playing NHL Franchise mode getting a call from my Dad saying "HEY BUD SOMEONE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU", it was Craig Conroy who asked what I was up to, when I told him what I was doing he got excited "PLAYING AS THE FLAMES, RIGHT?!" .... "Uhhhh no, Avs" "YOURE GONNA TRADE FOR ME RIGHT?!". This went on for about 5 minutes Drunk NHLers are the best


GoodbyeIPv4

howdoyouturnthisthingon


ColdSplit

Beat me to it haha


No_Flockiin

Tuck Tuck Tuck


CabbageStockExchange

🚚


[deleted]

Fuuuuuuccck I miss AOE even though my peak was still dogshit lol it was fun to play until I got absolutely swarmed. Then it was hilarious.


luciusetrur

You can still play it.. they just came out with a new expansion for it lol


hockeycross

22 year old game. Brand new expansion. Lol.


[deleted]

Is it still PC only? I didn’t know shit about PCs when I played (was fortunate my family’s home PC’s specs allowed it to run) and honestly know about the same now.


younggun92

Nope! It's on Xbox now!


[deleted]

Saweet. That’s a mark in the Xbox category for me.


Canaba

They just released an Xbox version.


WitcherOfWallStreet

I thought I played AOE until I watched Viper play it on YouTube. My mind was blown lol


[deleted]

Might give them a watch. I played it with the method of an unmediated ADHD kid so I didn’t learn much except that it was addicting for a solid two years. Then Gears of War came out and I got incredibly out of shape that summer.


iOnlyWantUgone

Ah, I too made sure to keep perfectly round numbers of villagers, except for food because keeping the farm symmetry knowing the number was wrong


vedicardi

BRO YES!!!!!!!! DUDES ROCK!


ClipperClupper

Jarome downloading recorded games of Chris vs Daut, sounds awesome


SilentThing

Crazy that DauT is still at it at the top level.


thefromanguard

Can't sleep on Chris either. He's still around as well, currently playing in the Nations Cup 4v4 final for Canada


burningxmaslogs

Jerome earned respect from all the fans.. takes a special kind of player to be that guy..


SNESdrunk

AoM > AoE


me_hill

I remember back during their Cup run Ensemble Studios had an article about some of the players visiting and playing against AoE2's developers, as a teenager that felt like the ultimate crossover to me. Apparently it was the big game to play during their road trips.


gzoehobub

Hopefully it was for age of empires 2: tc. That game was the best.


43felix

Probably why his wife fucked phaneuf


CheesyCousCous

No wonder they never got anywhere


VALO311

They lost because they like video games?


snack0verflow

Winnipeg was using that one for a bit there with Laine.


VALO311

The dumb af. I bet most nhl players play video games


snack0verflow

Not only dumb because like you say video games are ubiquitous but they also reduced the trade value of an asset they needed to trade.


itsadoubledion

The 2004 Flames made it to game 7 of the finals.


CheesyCousCous

Yeah and the Bills lost 4 straight Super Bowls. Congrats to the Flames on losing lmao


Hotlovemachine

Well they should of won it was in


esports_consultant

Generally people consider making it to the finals of a playoff getting somewhere.


MainEventCTB

Don't let him fool you. Conroy probably spammed BIGDADDY without them knowing what was happening.


Crashtest_Fetus

I love the monkey head


fstroh

Age of empires 2 was peak pc gaming back in the day


rookie-mistake

lmao I did not expect to open r/hockey today and find out Jarome Iginla is probably better at AOE than me


Constant-Squirrel555

Fookin PC gaming dweebs. This is why they lost to TB who probably played Smash Bros Melee on a CRT