Hello fellas! My name is Samuel. I've been mostly known in the community as "Samuel" (yeah, very original, I know), but also as "Cinde" or HierO". I've been playing sof 2 demo for like about like 10-12? years. I've ended my sof2 "career" as part of "c4" clan, which are very dear to me.
I am really glad to see this forum is still up and even see some familiar names around, which is great!
Basically this post is a message of appreciation to my old buddies and this community in general. I doubt many of my teammates or buddies are here anymore, but who knows, maybe they'll also swing by as I did and see this post and read my appreciation.
I know this post may come off as cheesy to some or maybe even surprising to those who remember me, but I need you to hear me out. This game and it's community is oddly enough a huge part of my childhood and life in general. Let me explain.
I'll start with the fact, that I had a straight up terrible childhood. By the time I've found about this game, I had no friends, my family was poor as bloody shit, my parents divorced and there was pretty much nobody to look after me as a kid. And there was tons of other dark shit going on in my life as a teenager. I changed like 6 schools in a matter of 7 years and dropped out of school afterwards. I was very closed person due to all the shit that's been going on and I didn't have any social life whatsoever.
One of the ways to cope with shit was putting as much time into video games as possible and since I never really had any money to buy games, the only real option was a free sof 2 mp-test, that some dude showed to me. Man, it rocked my world. It was so good, I remember playing sof for 10-15 hours straight every day. And that's where I started meeting new people and having social interactions. I didn't know English whatsoever and basically learned it exclusively by texting in-game as well as forums (I'm still learning, haha). I still remember people correcting me on most basic stuff.
As time passed, I've built connections with the people in community. As sad it might be, those were the only friends I had and I really loved them. My life was dark and miserable, but as soon as I opened the game, I had unimaginable fun, and was able to experience some form of happiness. I remember hours and hours of laughter on custom servers, where we would build people-towers and just goof around, playing mixes and wars. It was so much fun.
I remember the day when 'Hokie' has passed away, it was a real shock for me, it was as if a person I knew in real life had passed away, I was genuinely hurt. Even though I didn't know him much, still to this day I remember how he gave me a chance to do a trial for 3v that gave me an ultimate confidence boost in this game and then declined me after couple trial matches, because he was convinced I was wall-hacking. haha. I remember thinking to myself "what a dumb-ass, but damn it's a great compliment, I must be better than I think" haha.. We had many fun interactions afterwards, because I joined sK. and then joined c4. after. I still remember him today as well as 'Wombat' and 'Haapis' may they rest in peace, such fun and great people they were.
The point I am trying to make here is that for me personally, this game and community, was the best thing that could happen to me at the moment and the place I was at. I would go as far as to say it really saved my life, because I was very broken and even suicidal at times. Had literally no one to laugh with, no one to talk to. This community gave me so much of that. I know I was always awkward and felt like misfit at times, but it didn't matter, cause I had amazing time with all of you.
My English has improved a lot as I've played, communicated and used team-speak and vent. I basically ended up learning the language and it helped me change my life tremendously in the future. I started travelling when I was 18 in order to try to change my life and it did and I could never do that without being able to speak English. Today, everything is better than I could ever wish for, I just had a 5 year anniversary with my lovely wife, I have an amazing 3 year old daughter. I've made something of myself. My childhood has definitely taken it's huge toll on my life and my mental health and I'll have to deal with it for the rest of my life, but I would be in a way-way-way darker place if it wasn't for all of you guys (to whom it may concern) and this funny little game with one map. I still have the warmest memories and huge gratitude to all the people that even in a perverted and "online" way were friends and buddies to me. They were really the best thing I had and a huge part of my recovery and I no one even knew, so I though it would be good to share this with you.
I would like to mention some names that I have in mind and thank them for just being there, no matter if we had friendly or hostile interactions really, they all mattered to me (no particular order):
My estonian homies Apoc and Rocket, all my c4 teammates, all 3v, |she|, sK, avelgem (hated these kids, they were so cocky and good lmao), sL, R-Z, HaZe, and other teams, people like Ghostbuster, Reflex, King Richard steven, indOsteelo, NavySeal, Angel, Delta, or3l, Blue, Katana, Junior, Renegade, Camper, Skyline, Soul, Finnie, Blade, Dyynde, Hero, Butcher, Azzy, volume, synx, inou, luminaire, Yankowich, Xillax, priest, snugg, paahtie, murdoc, kuyuchi, mr. mike, dark, malydok, xillax (what a dick he always was haha, liked him though), camham, fainth, katana, merax, dan-g, funky, daniel, scott, frozen, and shitton of all other people I've forgot to mention from the top of my head (sorry), I just want to say thanks and hope you all are doing well!
I am not gonna check these forums much anymore, but if anyone wants to just chat for whatever reason, you can add me on steam for example: https://steamcommunity.com/id/samzy_tv
Hope some of the folks will see this message and even if most people won't, I still wanted to show some form of appreciation. Hope you all have a great day, great week and let's all have a better 2020 than it already was amarite. Bless!