Head-2-Head-X / Who do you think you are? H2H edition

I was thinking on discord that H2H is a nice way to bookmark your own life, especially for those of us who've been to a few of them. It comes just infrequently enough that major changes can happen between them all. Figured it might be nice to just quietly reflect on this before the storm of the draft...

 

H2H6: Nin's the Replacements

My penultimate year of high school...looking back I probably could have built more! It wasn't like I was getting invited to cool parties or anything...

 

H2H7: ITM's manual laborers

My first year of university (out of 4). I really was quite busy in life then, between managing a long distance relationship (ended that year I think... ooft lol), trying to do well enough in physics to get good graduate placement, volunteering, attempting to try every pub within 10km of the uni... somehow I managed to relatively painlessly pop out 3 parks though. I remember this period as rather carefree in retrospect. still living at my parents for this one, in a kind of smelly teenager bedroom with poor ventilation. ooft

 

H2H8: G Force's strangelove

My last year of undergrad, although in australia this is a special year called honors not unlike the british one-year masters if you're familiar. honestly its a miracle I got anything done... its an intense year of grad level coursework and research at the same time. it did really fall apart when it came to the finals park, I just couldn't keep up with rct enough anymore. Also my second year living out of home, and I was with a friend in this weird kind of sketchy cheap ass boarding house. weird vibes with angry colombians but I had a nice desk and a nice corner window in my bedroom with lovely sunlight

 

H2H9: ITM's manual laborers 2.0

Stuck into by far the hardest year of my phd here. By this point I was with my current partner. but it was still intermittently lockdown and my research had devolved into estonians constantly yelling at me. I really do love diegetic, but I was in a pretty tough spot personally this year---just a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for the future. but i was living in an excellent house in the inner city with some really cool people who are now my close friends. my desk again had a lovely window onto the roof with a view of a bunch of quality trees, notably a bottlebrush tree with lots of rainbow lorikeets. I also had only just met a few NE'ers for the first time at this point (2019 I think? technically FredD gets the honor for #1 for meeting me and my mate harry at phantasialand at opening), which probably signified a kind of confidence to not be shy about RCT being important to me and my identity.

 

H2HX: ???

Got the PhD, got the postdoc, living in Los angeles and doing long distance again... but after a tough first year here, overall i'm now a lot happier and fulfilled than last season. I've got a relatively cute tiny studio near UCLA with some good sunlight and plants and a shared balcony with other young people who like to drink and smoke after work. living along is a fun new experience but I've managed to travel pretty widely and grow a lot as an adult human being, as much as i dont show it on discord lol. By this point i've met... many of you IRL, which is always a real joy. I hope to meet many more soon!!

 

 

 

 

 

This probably doesn't apply to me at all since I've never actually been in a H2H, but between unsuccessfully signing up for H2H9 and now I've found a lot more purpose in my life and more ways to express myself. In fact, had I been drafted for H2H9 I probably wouldn't have had the time to be led down the path I'm going right now. I really do owe it to NE over the last three years for helping me discover who I am and embrace it. I also became marginally better at RCT I can place a bush in your park maybe two

H2H8: High school kid in Thailand

H2HX: About to get a BSc in Computer Science in Chicago

 

Pretty cool actually! I sure hope I get a job during this one though

Cool idea! I'll chip in...

 

 

H2H6: Kumba's Hurricanes

Was working my first year as a seasonal ride operator at Plopsaland De Panne, after working there as a student in the previous 3 years. Spent the summer holiday at a studio at Oostende to avoid a 5h commute each day. Good days. It was also in the early years of being a coaster/theme park enthusiast, I started to learn new coaster minded friends and started to visit theme parks abroad.

 

 

H2H7: Liam's Heaven's Atlas

By 2015 I had quit my job at Plopsaland and worked in a fucking Lidl super market in my home town, so no more crazy commutes to the Belgian coast. When H2H7 came around I was there for a year which meant they were still keeping me on a temporary contract to keep me obedient and "earn myself an unlimited time contract". It was part-time, only 28h a week so plenty of time to play rct! Despite my work situation, I went living alone for the first time (the studio at Oostende was only for 3 months a year, rented from my moms friend for a cheap price so doesn't count), after having some problems with my brother and dad. 

 

I lived in a tiny, tiny studio in the heart of Gent. Right next to the Belfry. I had my bed, a closet, table and tv right next to eachother and that was it. Room filled. A small kitchenette and a basic shower cabin with toilet across. No room for a washing machine so I handed my laundry over to my grandma. I only stayed there for a year though, it wasn't really a good living situation despite that I loved being in the city centre. Torubles with my dad and brother were solved and moved back to my dad. 

 

And oh yeah, the football team that I support became champion for the first time in their +100 years of existence! Loved the football they played on the pitch, I was there for the deciding game against Standard de Liege and my studio was right in the middle of an epic celebration in the city centre where around 125K fans saw our team celebrating on boats. 

 

 

H2H8: Louis' Icons

Still working at Lidl. Still believing their bullshit though we had a strike that year that caused me to bump my weekly hours from 28 to 36 (can't believe they managed to keep me 3 years on the hook after asking for more hours, I would not take that today lol). As luck would have it, I was on a theme park roadtrip on the East Coast in the US with my friends when the R5 incident happened. I followed it with one eye in the discord app but decided to enjoy my trip instead... H2H to forget. In september afterwards I moved out from my dad, living alone again and this time for good. Renting a small worker class house near my Lidl. Lived there for 3,5 years.

 

 

H2H9: Josh' Adventurers Club

2021, the corona edition. The year before was without a doubt the best year of my life. Lost almost 30 kilogram, quit at Lidl and after doing some interim jobs got the bus driver job I was aiming for. Went for regular walks/hikes, bike rides and was feeling fitter than ever. At the end of '21 I was starting to go back the wrong way when it came it my health and weight, but during H2H I was at peak conditions, physically. Still living at the house I rented near to the Lidl, my now former workplace. 

 

 

H2HX...

Well 2 years ago I bought an appartment, so I don't live in that rental house anymore. Still working as a bus driver, still enjoying that job a lot. Weight and health worse than pre-covid, but trying to take 2024 with a positive attitude and get back on track. I miss being fit, I miss not having a risk on walk-of-shames on rollercoasters. Financially, had a rough patch last year, hope to fill the reserves and save for a future USA trip... 

H2H9: Crazy

H2HX: Less Crazy

In all seriousness, the last three years of my life have been such a paradigm shift that it’s hard to compare. I fell in love, got my heart broken, took a train across America, left the country for the first time to explore Europe, made new friends, lost my best friend, made more new friends (some from here!), and made peace with childhood dreams and wishes. I used to look at my life through the lens of cycles (how have things changed every year, every three years, six, half of my life etc.), but now it feels like it’s all caught up with me. It’s a strange feeling to describe, when you’ve lived life in a sort of shell, a cocoon, and to finally venture out of it and experience being a person, real and present. Feeling free to be yourself, realizing you don’t have to hide yourself. Realizing that you are free to define yourself the way that you want, create what you want.

So that’s where I’ve been at. RCT now is this funny thing that I’ve had, like a microcosm of this idea. The limits are only where I choose to define them as of now, and I’m free to explore and have fun beyond them, to be curious and imaginative.

And of course I’m curious and excited for this H2H as well. I won’t be the same hotheaded newbie eager to prove himself, but that’s totally fine with me. I’m just grateful that I’ve had this game and community as an outlet throughout, even if I was just lurking at times.

oh this is a really fun one for me

 

H2H5: Elementalists

this was my junior year of high school and i vividly remember frantically working on Art of War while traveling on a trip to visit colleges. shortly before my first era in this community ended... hard to believe it was only three years and i've been back for 6 now.  

 

H2H6: Heavens Gallery

i came "back" around the end of my sophomore year of college but i didnt really feel like i was all that back as much as visiting.  i think i built for a collective total of 3 days in between the end of my college semester and traveling, after which i feel like i went awol again.  

 

H2H8: Team Spacecrab

super depressed dude at a job i hated, spending a lot of time working on music in my free time but feeling like i wasnt really getting anywhere with it.  signed up on a whim after not checking NE for years and seeing a facebook or instagram post.  kind of questioned why i was taking so much time away from music at the time but it felt right. also i had just emergency moved out of my old place due to constant water leaks, and was living at a coworkers house.  i remember building haystack in his basement lol.  winning H2H and open got me back into the game and getting to know people in the community.  funny enough talking to other gay people from NE was one of the first times i ended up questioning a lot of things in my life...

 

H2H9: Scream Queens

girl mode!  and my band had just released an album that had the most positive reception i've ever experienced, eventually leading to us getting signed and touring a lot.  and it was the end of covid lockdown with vaccines rolling out.  and I ended up quitting my job halfway through to run my recording studio full time.  kind of dropped off the earth again because of all this and wish i could have been more active, and i definitely take partial responsibility for us coming up short in the end. 

 

H2H10: ???

busier than i've ever been, playing 50-60 shows a year and touring the country, working on 30-40 studio projects a year and kind of again asking myself what the fuck i am doing signing up for this, but i cant stay away clearly.

Cocoa it's so true that H2Hs are nice bookmarks to your life. Every H2H is such an intense time, and so closely tied to non-RCT stuff happening.

 

H2H5: I was still in highschool, my penultimate year. My RCT skills were developing rapidly but I was inexperienced in contests and dealing with deadlines. Stayed up late for every park I built on, swore to never do that again afterwards. Sitting in my attic until 5 am, trying to be quiet to not have to elaborate on why the fuck I was up that late to my mother the next day. That was a pretty predictable and steady life so the vivid memories are mostly contained within NE here.

 

H2H6: second year of uni, had my first job working at IKEA. Was feeling great about my RCT, but NE was turbulent. Uni was quite demanding. Work was a nice mindless escape, but even that turned stressful for a little bit during the disaster week in which exams, coworker drama and shit hitting the fan at NE all coincided with each other around the time that Lijiang was being built, if I recall correctly. H2H6 was super stressful, but also fruitful in the end, some real magic happened here. Inspiration fueled by diving deeper into my music hobby.

 

H2H7: post-bachelor, was moving past adolenscence, had my first smartphone, started dating which I barely did before, with more of my social life moving away from my hometown and into Amsterdam. H2H was a much more relaxed experience, with chill team members. (my) parks got done early so I had time to go on dates on deadline sundays and stuff. I vividly remember chilling at the park while being in close touch Fisch and Tolsimir among others. This was such a chill period. Miami Horror's Illumination was the soundtrack to this time and especially #diamondheights.

 

H2H8: Since H2H7 I had gained a masters degree and was working on my teaching degree, doing an internship. Was de-facto living with my girlfriend at the time. Was feeling mature and confident in life despite a few setbacks. My girlfriend knew about H2H and was frequently asking me 'how's tycoon', and accepting that I would not come to bed every two weeks whenever a park was due.

 

H2H9: by this time I found work at the school I used to intern at, but I was stuck at my mom's place in my hometown which was not ideal. I was also working at a private tutoring company, essentially telling small groups of teenagers to shut up and do their homework. I had a lot of freedom there, used that time to argue on discord and draw sketches for parks using the companies markers. Pretty chill time considering the circumstances.

 

H2HX: TBD