A story about gratitude and entitlement
Amazon’s Twitch Prime offered me and other Amazon Prime members a free subscription to any Twitch streamer, and I used mine to subscribe to DrLupo’s stream. After learning that there was a Discord server for subscribers, I got into it by linking my Twitch account with Discord, and made my introduction. I posted in the LFG channel for Xbox One, and stepped away.
By morning, I received a couple of responses from people who were also interested in playing Trials of Osiris. I looked them up, and added them to my friends list.
On Sunday, I fired up Destiny, intending to run Trials until I grew bored of it. I hit up IcarusUndead, one of the guys from DrLupo’s Discord server. IcarusUndead had never gone to the Lighthouse, and I made it my personal mission to see to it that we’d get there.
Shortly after we got into a party, a guy that I’ve played with in the past, Leonaeu Reeves, invited me to chat. Leonaeu Reeves established a reputation for trash-talking other players and talking himself up, even though he’s an overwhelmingly average player.
The last time that I played Destiny with Leonaeu Reeves, he wanted to get carried through the King’s Fall raid on Heroic, and he hadn’t boned up on any of the raid mechanics. I should have bailed when even his clanmates ghosted on him, but I really wanted to knock out the Oryx challenge, and I stuck with it through an overwhelming number of wipes. Details of these many failed attempts can be found in the following two pages:
20160730 9:23PM bungie.net/en/Legend/PGCR?instanceId=5296673006&characterId=2305843009259344551
20160731 12:53AM bungie.net/en/Legend/PGCR?instanceId=5296769458&characterId=2305843009259344551
This, combined with his attitude in our post-raid discussion, left a sour taste in my mouth.
I took us to the Classic Free-for-All playlist for warmup, and to gauge the competence and attitude of IcarusUndead against Leonaeu Reeves. The first game that we instanced into (bungie.net/en/Legend/PGCR?instanceId=5704046696&characterId=2305843009259344551) was already in progress – we joined in just as the heavy ammo spawn was announced.
I lucked out, spawning in near C heavy. I killed a player near C spawn, and secured heavy, clawing my way up the scoreboard. My two fireteam members were not as fortunate, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
When the scoreboard came up, Leonaeu Reeves lamented how I’d gotten control of heavy ammo. I acknowledged that it provided me with a leg up, but also told him that I had to defeat two players in order to secure it in the first place.
We queued up again, looking for a fresh game.
“I don’t like Rumble,” he griped.
Fool, how else do you expect to increase your personal competence? There’s nothing better than subjecting yourself to the chaos of free-for-all and learning from your every encounter.
The second match (bungie.net/en/Legend/PGCR?instanceId=5704136409&characterId=2305843009259344551) was played out on Vertigo. IcarusUndead ended the match with 23 kills, outperforming me.
I told Leonaeu Reeves that I’d get back in touch with him after the run, and he left the party.
I searched DestinyLFG.net for a suitable Trials partner. IcarusUndead and I went through two failed runs before picking up a third player who stuck with us until we hit a flawless passage. I asked my fireteam whether they’d be down to keep playing for a chance to get the Vigilant Disciple, Destiny’s year three “Scarab” emblem, and they were game.
While we forged on in hopes of obtaining the emblem, I received messages from Leonaeu Reeves, which I responded to bluntly:
I blocked him and moved on, but the incident warranted reflection. I could have done more to avoid hurting Leonaeu Reeves’s feelings.
The run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArHZdL_X1tg
IcarusUndead later went on to write me a favorable review.
I want to close with this: no one owes you anything. You want something? Go earn it, or play the lottery and hope that it’s your lucky day, but don’t cry when you don’t end up with the golden ticket.