Mahid U

I'm Mahid Uddin and I have always been great at video games. I spent most of my childhood playing shooters such as Counter Strike and Halo. Not the best games for an elementary schooler, I know. I was another one of those squeaker kids on a game they should not be playing, but at least I was good at it. It was around middle school when I finally started playing for money, nothing crazy yet, just 20s here and there. By that time I was trying to juggle many different hobbies and school, some of which but not including to, badminton, cross country, soccer, cycling, and swimming. However, I dropped all of that to focus on the big things in life, e-sports and video games.

In high school I got my first offer to join a team, and I could not have accepted it any quicker. The transition to team play was wicked as I was spending much of my free time video reviewing or scrimmaging. My daily schedule would run from waking up at 6AM to go to school, then scrimmaging with the team or video reviewing from 3PM to 7PM. It was mind-numbing work staring at a screen for five hours a day, but the opportunities I got were endless. I managed to partner with 5 Gum for a year and traveled to in-person competitions.

The picture above is of me getting second at one of them. However, during my entire e-sports career I would never place above second place, and this is still continuing. I have now transitioned away from professional teams and to playing collegiately, even placing third nationally with UGA this year. It has never been an issue balancing school with e-sports, but never placing above second place has always nagged at me. My goal this upcoming season is to finally place first in playoffs or nationals and hopefully break this curse that I have deemed it to be.