Rethink and I spawned facing each other and I got a laser hit, and the rest of the first kill was about as even as could be. I finished him off in a vulcan-v-vulcan fight and had a single shield remaining. I went up 3-1 on the strength of a couple lucky quad hits and a blind smart down a tunnel, and that little bit of early luck helped me stay in the lead wire-to-wire.

Every time I made the mistake of trying to fight heads up with vulcan, my lead dwindled until I either died or escaped with a tiny number of shields. I managed a few ambushes with quads and plasma, but also stepped into a face-first smart in the central room that tied the game at 12. Careful use of spreadfire put me up 15-13 with zero shields, which turned into a tie at 16 when Rethink laid proxies in the spew and ambushed me near the fan.

I heard him picking up weapons around the corner near the low wall and pulled off a spreadfire ambush to go up 17-16, and caught him with a smart as he rushed the spew to go up 18-16 with high shields. The best smart dodge of my life was enough to let me get away from what looked like a sure kill near the fan, and I was able to get a few more vulcan hits before he finally brought me down. We caught each other in the face with smarts to make it 19-18, and I got to the spew first and then overpowered him in a quads-and-smart vs spreadfire fight to finish it off.

I've wondered a lot if I'm ready to be a gold pilot. I've watched a lot of gold demos, and plenty of live games at CCDL and at home, and I've always wondered if I could play with that sort of intensity the entire match -- treating every shield, every hit with vulcan, every split-second advantage for an entire 20 kills as precious. My last two games against Sirius and LoNi had some really rough stretches that made me question if I belonged. I came into this game not knowing if I could hold up under the withering fire of Rethink's vulcan (Drakona says "he has reflexes like a rattlesnake" and I definitely saw that on display), make the right adjustments, and play a complete game, or if I'd end up losing 20-6 like the last time the two of us played.

Thanks to everyone who's shown me what it means to play at this level -- to Jediluke for missile dodging, LoNi for plasma flooding, DKH for sneakiness, bahamut for dodging in a tight space, Souljah for escaping with minimal damage, Sirius for playing to momentary strengths, Drakona for learning from every loss, Mark392 for mastering every corner of the game, and Rethink for an excellent contest of skill and will. If I really do belong in gold, you all share in the credit.

I'll be handing out thank-you lasers all week for anyone who wants them :)

DEMO: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tbfls4rro0cv4et/dcl_rethink_lothar_lurk_20150420.zip?dl=0