We all have roles in this little funtime sport of ours. Some of us are champions - collecting podium finishes, big checks, and plaques - like an overweight pigeon in a park near a retirement home. Others of us are newbs, who have hearts (if not throws) in the right place.
But I've come to realize, for myself, that I'm something else. I'm not a podium finisher (at least, not very often), and I'm no longer a greenhorn. No, I'm someone to be overcome. I'm a check mark. A mini-boss that someone conquers before they move on to the big bad.
Me? I'm a mid-level boss on axe throwers' quest in leveling up, and I'm really, really into it.
Playing the part of a mid-level boss in axe throwing
For a long time, now, I've not been a competitor that people can just breeze by. I can pretty consistently (if not in a tourney away from home - if I'm being honest) hit bulls and do alright with clutches. I can EVEN joke around and throw at the same time. But I'm not at all a perfect-season, 81-every-night thrower.
These things being true, that makes me...I dunno...in the top third of Meduseld Meadery's axe throwing war party. A strong thrower, to be sure, but not a powerhouse.
That means it's not uncommon for throwers who started after me to, eventually, get my goat. And I've noticed something: the throwers to get my goat are, at that very moment, becoming someone who can challenge even the very best throwers in our leagues. It's almost as if I'm an overweight, under-heighted canary in the coal mine of their development. Or, to put it in a better way that I can extend the metaphor on - it's like I am the baddie they beat for the next level of their equipment before going to a new zone.
Knowing this about myself, I have been trying to act the part a bit more. I've been grooving into it. Now, I'm not doing the typical mid-level boss fight stuff where I get real braggy and tell them how they'll never get past me - or how their journey is gonna end in a body bag or whatever. Though, now that I write it out, it's tempting to do so.
Celebrating the success
No, instead I hype them up a bit more - I celebrate when they beat me because I know (even if they don't) that beating me means they've reached a development point. They've "collected" a piece of axe throwing at the Meadery that they'll need to defeat the big boss at the end (in this case, I think of the "big boss" as several throwers at the Meadery, but listing them out in this case seems weird).
Why do I do this? Well, to put it frankly: It's more interesting to be excited for another thrower's success than it is to be pissy about losing to someone who, on paper, I should be able to win against.
Is it the end-all, be-all if someone gets a win on me? No, absolutely not - people beat me every time I throw. BUT I do carry in me the memory of being a brand new thrower and getting a win on someone who I looked up to in the sport. I realize that while a loss (to me) is a small matter, a win (to a newer/less experienced thrower) can mean a whole lot more. I'm not gonna be the jerk who minimizes that.
So I've decided being a miniboss is kinda fun. And as the leagues roll on and I get better myself, I'm looking out for other minibosses that I myself can conquer. And I dunno...eat their crystals so I gain a new armor set? Does that work? It works for me, anyway.
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