Chuck...you're killing me here...more than usual...Jeez can't even find the right gif for this moment either...Google's failing me at the most important time...I'll settle for a
video of me right now.
I honestly don't know where to begin with this. As someone who has also shared your pain of long shifts at a job that keep you away from fun times to be had with friends, I can completely see why this outcome has happened. With all you've done since stepping up, this community is going to be rather different with you around in a leadership position in my eyes at least - though that may be rather weird of me to say since my job and other things in life have prevented me from coming back full time to this community - and possibly others as well. When I ended up leaving, several of the guys from DoD:S tried to keep in touch with me and some succeeded for a while, but most kind of didn't after a while (my name change for Dark Souls II PvP probably didn't help much either....heh..sorry guys....) and I kind of got out of the circle. You were the only one who I can say for certain kept contact with me 100% through my time away. Daily, if not every other day, we'd have a discussion over something or you'd bring up something random and crazy that was going on with the community that you knew i'd love/hate/both. Regardless of our conversations, we kept touch completely. Some may have tried and wanted to keep contact with me, but I just couldn't get around to them to start conversations effectively and maintain them. You forced me to. You made sure I didn't leave you behind and forget about everything. Even as my rival to the very end you refused to let me get away. As I left eGO for a short period, you were the one that constantly got on to me about coming back. The others kind of just accepted me leaving as my decision was justified by it being my own. They might have been sad at the fact but they seemed to not want to go against my reasoning to abandon a community I had stuck with for 3+ years. You hounded me daily; sometimes they'd be subtle, sometimes it would be frank and direct. You would constantly tell me that I should come back and that many of my old friends still mist me and wanted me back.In all honesty you are the main reason I still maintained a connection to eGO as a whole. For that, I begin my thanks to you.
I did indeed say "begin", because this post is far from over, I warn you. This is my heart bleed post. If you don't want to see Ol' Sonic pour his heart out onto a web forum, the door is to your right. Have a nice stay and thank you for visiting the Heartbreak Hotel. Oh where to transition this to...I guess from the start. I can't really recall where it was that we got together. Probably started playing around in the servers together and just started chatting each other up until we had a small friendship growing. Then Realism where we both fought side by side ridding the world of [Insert Team Side Here]. Some weeks and months go by and suddenly we're both eG's, promoted on the eGO Birthday. Later on down the road, you end up passing me up in the ranks making our rivalry even further in your favor. It was a bittersweet moment for me, as I have to admit. I was 100% proud of you and knew it was well deserved but, as I've said, our rivalry made me kind of bitter that you were pulling ahead. Later on that year, I managed to finally gain my O and be on even ground with you only to have you pass me up yet again for a position I had my eyes set on since I first got a taste of admin. Your promotion to Advisor was one that should have had rivalry instincts flaring with crazy anger that you had beaten me yet again. This time, however, I was nothing but proud at the fact that you had gotten this far. I even sat down the night it happened and asked myself why I wasn't upset about you beating me for the n'th time. I couldn't come to a conclusion other than a man the truly deserved the position obtained it. The only way to beat him is to continue to get better and overcome the obstacle before you. You gave me something to strive for and something that made me better myself in every way. I honestly could never finish thinking you for that. Insert cliche "I'd not be the man i am to day if it were not for you" sentence.
As my time in the spotlight faded and I lost touch with eGO due to time constraints and leaving the community, you rose once again to fill in the slack and picked it up with no hesitation. Sure you never show your true colors to everyone (Don't think i forgot about all the times you've complained to me

) but that's what is needed. People need a leader who knows what he's doing and appears to be unaffected by anything negative that's going on. They need a leader who can make decisions under pressure without going "Gosh this is really hard, man. Can you just give me a minute to think here?" From the day we both got promoted to G and we really started getting closer, i knew deep down you'd get ahead of me and would always be at least one step further. I buried that deep down and told myself i wouldn't let it happen. What you've accomplished over the years has proven that my insight is pretty damn keen and that I know a good man when I see one.
Now you owe me. I got more emotional to a number of people I'd rather not show this side to. If we ever meet up, you owe me a drink. A strong one. Strong enough to make me forget all about the people who might possibly judge me for being a mushy sack of emotions on here. While we're at it, make it five.
You've got a heart of gold, Chuck. Don't let them take it from you.