The original Mako Reactor escape team

I wake up one morning and my name is now censored. Ah ♥♥♥♥.

As you can tell by the date, I'm a few months early, but I was actually looking forward to making this post. It's (almost) the 15th anniversary of my Mako Reactor Team. I think I just had a random cool idea when I was a kid and now there are all these elite groups everywhere. I didn't really expect people to take much notice or anything like that, I just couldn't handle the fact that STFU Zombie Mod players were really bad and I wanted to invite my friends and the best mako players around to help me beat the map. And I'd say we were pretty successful at that.

In spite of the fact that I have been absent for around 13 years of this group's history, I still think about it and its past members every now and then. I watched the old video of our mako contest win back in the day and I couldn't help but crack a smile. Those moments still stick with me after all these years. But what's most surprising to me is even after I have moved on at this point, there are some of you around who still care. Even to this day, people are still asking me to join. At any given point, we have around 130 group requests that I leave on the back burner, and back when the waiting list group was a free for all, I think we had over 200 members at its peak. It's difficult to manage these numbers when you aren't playing anymore, but I can only hope the remaining officers are still keeping an eye out and making sure that only the best remain.

I had some fairly proud moments in my gaming history with this group and its players. Before we were official, we won the mako contest. Some of us won the predator contest, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good seeing my name on both of those maps. We have currently and previously had excellent players over the years. I love that I was not the only one who took the map seriously and enjoyed beating it at its highest difficulty. We don't really "earn" anything from these wins, the maps are just so enjoyable and challenging that they kept us coming back. I think we just need to show credit where it's due and say that Hannibal [SPA] made one of the best Counter-Strike maps of all time, and I'm grateful for his contributions to the community as well Maese Danielot and Kaemon for helping him.

I see that even after 20 years of this game's release, people are still playing mako reactor - and I admire that. I'll be honest with you that I had a thought a few years ago of deleting this group entirely when we were having some leadership issues, but ultimately I decided not to. I see that people still derive some joy from this game and from this group, and if makes someone a bit happier, then I'll be glad to have this stick around for a while longer.

I might be the leader of this group, but for quite a long time now, I haven't been leading much of anything. It's the remaining officers and members who stuck around and kept things going. I acknowledge that I have not always been the best leader and some of my decisions have pushed people away. I have taken such a laissez-faire approach to running this group that some argue that it's a shadow of its former self, and you are probably right. Some of you have asked me to relinquish control of the group, but I simply can't find it in me to do that. The group is named after me, for crying out loud. It would be weird seeing Joe Blow in charge without me actually being at the helm. I just can't do it. And yes, as a result of that, leadership has certainly gone downhill. I apologise for my absence after all this time, but I really think that this game has served its purpose for me. I wouldn't count on a reunion any time soon.

In spite of that bad news, I have briefly come back to congratulate everyone who has made it this far. Whether you're still playing and having fun, or maybe the glory days are behind you like they are for me. Its been such a long time that some of you are probably married with children, which is still wild to think about. Happy 15th anniversary of this group and I hope you're all doing well. Take care.