I was going to write my story too, as long as i can remember, as i am not good with dates (base for arguments with every single girlfriend so far lol), but wanted to read all your stories before, and lately i coudnt find the time to do it, for that im sorry. Anyways, with the help of our pinkie friend request, here it goes:
First of all i am still 5 years away from 40, although the white hair part is true, but its been a loooong time since i started playing this game; in the beginning i used to do the same thing elmo said he did: whenever i had the time and will, i’d fire ET up, populate the online servers list, and simply pick one with ppl on it, to play. At that time i played only now and then, and wasnt really “hooked”. As time went by, as every noob i started to prefer xp saving servers to come back too, but soon realized that having no limits, most ppl would have more xp than me anyway, and besides i began to dislike some of the unlimited noob custom map that by then started to appear.
So by then, i think it wasnt late 2004, early 2005, i limited my choice to servers with some ppl on them (bot plagued servers only got common later, so i meant “some ppl” as in some players but not completely full), and running classic et campaigns, wich i really liked and learned by then.
One day i came upon R*X server, joined, and when i noticed i had been playing there for several hours in a row, always having fun, despite all my sucking, my poor net connection and my ping; so from then on, everytime i connected i would look for R*X on the servers list, and soon after i wrote down the ip so i could easily and faster connect to R*X.
The intervals between each time i played started to get shorter and shorter, and soon i was playing almost everyday on R*X, only because i loved the maps and settings and even more the ppl on them, with which i never had any pooh whatsoever, and more than that, i even felt a sense of “protection” coming from the admins, as i started to be seen as a regular.
For once, Draza and fire are right, i really sucked (more), but still no one seemed to mind, and thing was sure: i could die 1000 times but i would do the freakkin objective, no matter what! Thats right, i always played as an engi, and most times with the sacred rifle, wich gave me the one chance i had to actually kill someone; this beeing said, i must add that at the beggining i didnt live much longer than a minute on any map on R*X server lol
Time went by and i was playing everyday, speccing players like vanleo and nny, hoping that one day id be half as good as they were. Krux was always very good too, he usually was always just fooling around, but whenever there was some “challenge” or he wanted to show skills, the guy was unbeatable – and, stubborn as i am, all that became a challenge, i would do my best to learn what i could and get better at the game.
Sometime along the road here I found R*X euro in wich i had a lower ping and better play, so that became my second home lol
I think a year passed with me playing almost everyday on R*X and from time to time, some admins would PM or TM me in game and ask me why i havent applyed, and say that i should – i always thought that would be like an obligation to come play, and as elmo stated on his story, i had my girlfriend related game-playing breaks now and then, and also i didnt see the point of beeing admin when all i really wanted was to play with those dudes on their server – and they let me do it already! 
But by the end of that year someone (who i think was Draza, but cant really remember, so help me out here if that was you or anyone else who knows better) had a chat with me on server and simply told me to apply, even if i didnt want level, as i was already part of the furniture anyway. Oh i have to say that since that time i never even went to another server, R*X was it for me (still is)
So i did, i filled my apply (wich i have been looking for, in the hopes it might have been kept and migrated to this forum, but it was made like 2 or 3 forums hosts ago, so sadly i couldnt find it), and went back to my business as usual, playing with “my mates”, on that good old server. Yes, i jad lag, yes, my ass got owned everytime, yes, those were always the same maps, and from time to time some noob restarted battery over and over again and swapped teams and i loved it lol
Well, by then i was playing almost every single day and i remember seeing like firewrath and moving and delfoba if im not mistaken beeing promoted to R*X, and i started wondering about my application – still not worrying though, as i (correctly) thought that once one goes R*X, one must give away part of the fun in despite of the server wellbeeing, so i guess i was just beeing selfish, or afraid of responsabilities (as my gf would put it then, about real like stuff lol) dont know…
all of a sudden, there was this first big R*X tournament, dont remember if it was Dead’s first great tournament or just a Scrim, but most admins left server for it, i asked if i could watch, but it they said it would be full, and if there were room they would tell me; some time after, one of them came back on server and asked me if i could ring for someone who didnt show up, and i went right away.
To my surprise (and i think everyone else’s), the game started right away with no directions given on what to do, it was goldrush, and i remember we were on allies, and my team went to the main gate, and i went alone to the back side – when i got to the tank, our medic was fighting like 3 guys to revive the wounded engi, and i (an engi as usual) stole all his kills, as i caught them from behind, certainly low on healt, and managed to fix the tank. Game went by and soon not only we had won the map, but also i had been the highest fragger! I couldnt believe it lol
On a side note, as soon as it ended and someone on my team was congratulating me for a job well done, i was kicked with no warning, and as i rejoined, i was told that the guy i replaced was back and i wasnt needed anymore. That sucked.
Anyway, sometime after that i was playing on fuel dump, minding my own business, when someone (elmo, draza? help here if anyone knows who that was please) !warned me: “put on your tags!”. That was awesome!
The thing is that i didnt had a clue on what to do or what had changed, ok, i could do !listplayers, cool, but what good was that for? From then on i started harassing the one guy who was ALWAYS there, and was ALWAYS cool to everybody: elmo.
He had the patience of Madre Teresa, and taught me all about commands, levels, actions, etc, etc, etc.
On the rare ocasions he wasnt there, i’d PM him on forum and voila, the next day i would have my answer, always cool and polite.
From those times i remember talking and playing with lots of ppl i still like a lot, some that i miss seeing like Serial (best med fragger i had seen), marijuana and angramanyu (all brasilians so we could talk in portuguese), tahita (absolute best defender ever, i think i never saw axis lose fuel dump with her defending), Buckwild, always serious about the game but also very cool and one of the most mature admins, SpiderPig wich was always way fun, and some that are still around like moving, choob, firewrath aka “belgian nab lawyer”, dark aka “donald duck”, draza of course, our pink boss who is the coolest guy everytime unless you step on his toes, and probably the one who makes the damn games so funny as he is always dooing stupid things as u all know (still annoys me that he cant resist pushing me whenever im laying on a ledge or high wall), shadow, elmo, who did and still does so much for R*X and for everyone on R*X, and many many others. I saw most of the dramas, and played with ppl like krux and mel, guerrier, joelaputa, hjsimpson, Passport, and many others that i havent seen since.
I still have more to add, but i gotta go now, so i will ask anyone interested to come back tomorrow if you dont mind, as i will finish this then.
I have a special thanks to give to Draza and Elmo wich will follow on that next note, too. After that, my thought about R*X, now and then, and about all of you on my virtual family – big thanks to all
