Gaming
I've played competitively for about as long as I've been building software. Both reward reading a system quickly and being honest about why the last attempt failed.
I didn't start playing to learn anything. I stayed because a match gives you an unambiguous answer about whether your read was right.
Drafting is architecture under constraints. A losing lane is a bug you diagnose while the system is still running. Reviewing a loss without flinching is the same muscle as reading a code review that finds eight defects in your work.
7,000+
hours, in this one game alone
The most complicated system I've spent real time inside that I didn't build. Over a hundred heroes, each one changing what the other side can safely do. Seven thousand hours is why I'm comfortable being the least knowledgeable person in a complex system.
1st
intercollege tournament, first year of college
We won the intercollege tournament in my first year. Five people, each doing one job and calling what they saw immediately. A partial read shared early beats a complete one delivered after the round.
Risk
management, mostly
Position and patience over aim. Almost every loss traces back to a fight with nothing to win, or ground held past the point it was defensible.
None of this belongs on a CV. It's here because leaving it out would make the picture tidier and less true.
SteamThe hours are public. Nothing here is rounded up.