Teeworlds

Beginning

I started Teeworlds in 2009 under the nickname CokoL. Back then, I would spend 3-4 hours daily on a 16-player CTF (Capture the Flag) server called gV, playing alongside other beginners like me. One day, I encountered a highly skilled player and became determined to surpass him.

In my task to improve, I discovered an "aimbot by Greentea" and decided to use it for a few weeks. With the aimbot’s triggered aim assist, I managed to outperform him in shotgun and hook battles, feeling triumphant at the time. However, this came at a cost — about 80% of the time, I would end up banned from servers. Realizing this wasn’t sustainable, I decided to learn how to play fairly.

I adopted the nickname ZoOoM and began playing without cheats. Thanks to the foundational experience from my previous gameplay (even if it was aided), the transition wasn't too hard. I eventually joined a clan double» by some great players (sadly, I can't recall the leader's name). They introduced me to strategies on popular CTF maps like ctf1, ctf2, ctf3, and ctf5, which helped me improve drastically.

After that clan disbanded, I encountered FeeL from the Dj Team. Through him, I met their leader, dj_kemp, and joined them in 2012. We participated in numerous trainings and clan wars (FWs), and I got to know some amazing players:

wHy — creator of my skin from Q Clan,
Karatel — an always-positive guy,
unNameD — a smart and serious player,
Louna — an intelligent girl,
and the entire ProteoS team.

One memorable moment was during a tough FW against Doz' team. I broke my keyboard on mid-match — both WASD and arrow keys stopped responding. Desperate, I switched to the numpad and somehow managed to help my team win 6:4.

That summer, both Dj Team and ProteoS faced declining activity. To keep the community alive, we decided to merge into a new clan called Oops!. After playing a few dozen matches, I left the clan due to disagreements with certain members. Eventually, Oops! also dissolved.

In autumn 2012, I joined [Eclipse], where I met skilled players like locr1d, a6ru, Karatel, and wHy. The skill level in this clan was noticeably higher compared to my previous clans. That year with [Eclipse] was full of exciting FWs, fun moments, and, admittedly, occasional frustrations. However, I eventually grew tired of the CTF gamemode and decided to leave the clan (though I can’t recall the exact reason).

As zCatch Player

At the end of 2012, I accidentally discovered the zCatch gamemode. My first game was on 02.12.2012, and the next day, I achieved my first victory on 03.12.2012. The game was hosted on an old Teevision server with clans like Arc', DR'9, and various smaller clans. I quickly grew to love this gamemode because of its speed and the thrill of having just one chance to eliminate an opponent. I played it every day, but almost daily, I received warnings about spamming from other players, which became a bit of a joke.

After a couple of months, I became more skilled, and clans began to take notice of me. My first zCatch clan was .eXe, which had a fun atmosphere and a suffix attached to the name. Unfortunately, it was abandoned after a few weeks. Still fond of having a suffix in my name, I created .7z on 16.01.2013.

Over time, I joined several other clans like Exp, Revolution, and Mathematics. In March 2013, I participated in my first zCatch tournament organized by the ONE• clan. The match began around 17:00-18:00, and I trained for 3 hours on a regular zCatch server before the tournament. It lasted 3.5 hours, ending around 21:30. I secured second place, with Jan (future .Pryde) from Arc' taking first and afri coming in third.

Seeing the excitement surrounding the zCatch tournament, I asked afri (the leader of ONE• and the tournament organizer) to organize a second one. He agreed, saying, "Okay, but not now, maybe in summer or autumn." A few months later, I was invited to join ONE•, and in the summer of 2013, the second zCatch tournament took place. This time, it ended after 2.5 hours with nameless tee (future Yee) winning using a camping tactic. I came in second, and Positiv placed third. After the tournament, I left ONE• because afri began to protect Yee, who was accused of camping.

In the autumn of 2013, I participated in the Battle of Titans 1o1 Tournament, featuring the most skilled zCatch players. I finished in 4th-5th place, defeating Lion and ic in duels. Unfortunately, I didn’t perform well in the third round against Assa due to constant lags. After that, there were no major events.

In 2017, I joined the raD clan but left after a few days because they were looking for stronger players (likely to compete on the gCTF arena) and kicked MaraseaGirl for no specific reason. Together with MaraseaGirl, we created the Seirei clan in Spring 2017, which had no strict requirements or binding to any specific gamemode.

In October 2018, I submitted an application to become a moderator for the DDNet zCatch GER servers on the DDNet forum, and in November, I was accepted. I began posting all bans on the official ban page. However, on 16.01.2019, I stepped down as a moderator. In February 2020, Pain invited me to become a moderator on the zCatch 0.7 servers.

As gCTF Player

To be honest, back in 2013, most players on zCatch used the gCTF gamemode solely for 1o1 duels to compare who was the best. Around 2014, gCTF clans started to form, organizing 2o2, 3o3, and other team-based competitions. Since I had already met many russian players through zCatch, I decided to create the russian gCTF clan LastOne' with Lowe, KiberKuK, chaos, and a few others (I can't remember all the names). I began teaching KiberKuK how to play better (though I wasn't the best teacher back then).

Eventually, I left LastOne due to an incident where KiberKuK uploaded a screenshot claiming he "won 10:3" against me, but it was actually his friend playing under my nickname. He commented "it was ez" and I couldn't tolerate this behavior. In the spring of 2014, I was invited to mew' by Cuube. There, I met players like Destin, CallMeGod, Js, and many others.

I left mew' for an unknown reason and joined ObaY with Destin, Nexus, Black*Star, and many German players. After a few weeks, I rejoined mew' and began teaching another player, 'Anki. However, I had a falling out with 'Anki and left him. Then, Destin invited me to join GoT (Good old Times), where I played with Nexus, Genyar, and Cuube. Later, GoT was renamed to Dominant!, a more serious clan for gCTF.

After 4-5 months, Cuube left us and invited me to join Sama, a European vanilla clan. After some time, a few of us moved to AurOra, a vanilla clan, but I later returned to mew' in the spring of 2015.

In the summer of 2015, Cuube and I created the WGH (We Go Hard) gCTF clan, which included players like Cuube, Js, shotm7, and myself. We played many games and won some exciting vanilla fw's, including victories against [EVIL] 6:5, 6:3, 6:3 on CTF, 10:1 on gCTF and 3:2 on FNG gamemode. It was a golden age of WGH, our win rate was 77.064%, 84 wins and 26 loses.

On January 3, 2016, WGH participated in the first gCTF 2v2 Tournament organized by kosmos. We entered with two teams: WGH #1 (Cuube and Blade) and WGH #2 (Js, ZoOoM.7z and shotm7). Our first match was against 'Arc (Rilla and Vio), which we won 10:7 and 9:7. Third match was against hookZ→ and we beat them 4:3 on ctf3 map. However, Blade suddenly went offline, so I decided to play under his nickname but also continued playing with WGH #2 to avoid suspicion.

After switching between teams, we managed to advance and placed second and third in the tournament. The team received a prize of 75 euros. I stopped my activity in WGH due to issues with my right hand, which caused me to lose feeling in my mouse for a month. I began to recover my skills in zCatch and played some casual games with my new pupil, Karti in Love.

In March 2016, I left WGH and, in the summer, joined Legends with Destin, Nexus, Cuube, Genyar, and CallMeGod. Our win rate was 85%, 85 wins and 15 loses. However, the clan soon developed a bad reputation due to the behavior of some members, and I left them in the autumn of 2016.

After trying to join kosmos but withdrawing due to issues with anonymous players and x0sef, I restored my old LastØne' clan with Skyrx (former KiberKuK), Nerox, and Naruto. However, after 12 fw's, Skyrx and Nerox accused me of not being active enough and not contributing to the clan’s statistics, which led to my departure in December. I then created Seirei clan, where there were no strict requirements or gamemode restrictions. Players could play whenever and however they wanted.

In February 2017, I participated in the second gCTF 2v2 Tournament by kosmos, teaming up with Js as the Fairy Tail team. We placed fourth and earned 40 euros. After the tournament, I stopped playing gCTF seriously because the games became monotonous. It felt like a camp game, with players just avoiding each other in the middle of the map.

In autumn 2017, I attempted to return to competitive gCTF by joining Aura, Js' clan, but it didn’t work out. Motivated by Js, I reopened WGH in June 2018 with shotm7, NoyrEx, Vegeta (future My Love Emilia), and Koksy. We played several games to announce our comeback and placed ourselves on the gCTF server’s Discord.

A few days later, I suggested creating rooms for each clan on the Discord to display their games for both statistics and activity purposes. Although my proposal was initially rejected as unnecessary, it was later implemented, and players started using it.

Unfortunately, my experience with the community took a negative turn due to the lack of respect and support from some players. After a series of frustrating encounters, I left the gCTF scene. I didn't want to be part of a community that didn't respect itself.

In the end of 2017, I returned to zCatch and a bit of CTF, casually playing public matches with newbies. It was a refreshing and relaxing experience, reminding me of the joy that drew me to the game in the first place. On 24.02.2022, I stopped using the nickname ZoOoM.7z and adopted the name Hikaro.