I Am A ex former Pro Gamer turned full time traveler (106 countries, waiting for Corona to pass!)

What's your favorite year to visit?

Haha the title is indeed a bit weird and was totally not chosen on purpose to get into time travel stuff. but hey, I love Dark from Netflix so why not talk about that too lol

Have you ever met another time traveler?

Not here, but in another parallel universe.

What is the best strategy and why is it spamming Peasants and building a Town Hall next to the enemy’s base?

Best strats are usually what has been adapted by the community as current Meta strats. Spamming peasants and building a towern hall next to the enemy base would certainly be not one of those meta strats! lolz

Do the ex and former cancel each other out making you a current pro gamer?

Not a current pro gamer anymore, just playing for fun now. But I used to be pretty decent (top 3 Germany Id say) and am happy to have gotten back into it as my old beloved game received a lot of attentions since the release of Reforged. Even though Blizzard fucked it up badly.

turned full time traveler

I... read that wrong at first lmao

But anyway, you said you had some good stories from hitchhiking, can you tell us one of the most interesting ones?

Sure man, there are so many that its very hard to pick, but here are two quick examples:

- HItching a ride with a (very pretty) girl that was on a way to a business meeting without time to change. He asked if I could drive and then started to strip down half naked in the car next to me while changing into her business outfit.

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- Hitching a ride with a former NASCAR driver in Utah when I was kind of stuck due to a nearby prison. ended up staying in his place and getting a cap and pic from him and his old racing car, which was also still parked in his yard. He was around 80 years when I met him, you can check the video here to check him out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTQUkYYaQ7g

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Theres much more, maybe some day ill write a book about it when Im done seeing every country.

I like that she had time to pick up a hitchhiker but not to change clothes.

yes first thing she asked before saying hi was "can you drive?" :D

Did you make enough to “set you up for life” or will you eventually need to return to streaming / gaming / working?

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Interesting. What is this guy trying to sell?

Not really trying to sell anything, I thought the purpose of these are to make yourself available to questions and after looking at how others are doing these threads, I have done the same by putting in links to provide more details. Sadly, I have nothing to sell to you directly :)

How did the dinosaurs really die?

they could not handle the GOT finale I showed them while traveling back in time :D

If you’re an ex former gamer, does that mean you’re currently a gamer? Or is it because you’re a time traveler you used to be a former gamer but you traveled back in time and are a gamer again?

I am still a gamer, but not on a pro level anymore. I do not have the time to get back and maintain that level, which would require around 7-10 hours of gaming each day. Not possible if you have another job already and other hobbies :) But i did it when i was young!

How do you make money now? What's your current job?

Oh a serious question, nice :) since my last 3 year trip I came back to London and worked for an online marketing tech company. Have quit that job again though so from october i wanted to travel again but if things dont change for bettter soon, i might have to postpone for another year and would then find a new job probably close to the alp mountains in Austria or switzerland.

What is your opinion on wc3 reforged?

Very bad, blizzard fucked this up sadly. Still, the community is strong and keeps the game alive, we got a bunch of nice tournaments in for sure but it could have been so much bigger and better if Blizzard were to release a ready-game instead of a half finished beta that pisses everyone off. Lets see what the future brings, but it looks like WC3 aint a priority for them anymore. Sadly..

• Any advice for a female who plans to solo travel(after COVID)? And any places to avoid?

• How long does it take you to plan a trip?

• What are your essentials when traveling?

• Of all the countries you’ve visited, what are 3 where you had the most fun?

• One place/destination everyone should visit/experience at least once in their life?

Thanks!

Heyhey!

- Find a place that has low cases for sure, wait for a super accurate and fast covid-19 test (right now they are unreliable still and take 2 days) and last but not least, perhaps consider waiting till the vaccine is out which might still happen this year. Without those, you will not be able to travel without thinking of it, unless you plan to do some remote hikes in the wilderness like me :)

- I am pretty good at planning now, ive got a few templates and a lot of experience with it. This would be a good topic for one of my upcoming travel shows actually! I will put it on my todo list :) But to answer the question: For a trip to a specific region that would take lets say 2 weeks, I would use around 3-4 hours to plan it and that would include all the potential highlights

- essentials: Get in touch with the locals, meet people and see amazing scenery to cover with my camera

- even a top 3 is hard to answer, but i have page called favorite moments and you will find some cool stuff there : https://www.chrisontour84.de/travelreports/favorite-moments/ (should update this again hehe)

- Some place that offers things you can not see anywhere else in a second place. For example: Wild life in the Galapagos, you will see animals that you never thought would exist and you can only see them there.

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Hope that helps a bit :)

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Cheers,

Chris

Favorite countries? Which country has the best coffee?

Best coffee would be colombia I guess, fav country is impossible to say but one of the coolest trips was to Antarctica, which is not a country though.

If you're an ex former pro gamer. Does that mean you're currently still a pro gamer?

Haha it was meant to be either ex or former, no idea why i put both^^ lets blame me being a non-english native speaker!

If you had to choose to live in any one country you’ve been to before which one would it be and why?

In terms of living, i would cross out a lot of countries that I otherwise love to visit and travel in. That includes places that generally have a lower level of safety such as Central and partly south america, parts of Africa and obvs no-go zones like Afghanistan, Yemen etc.

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So I am actually planning to open a bed and breakfast in the mountains in Austria -very safe, good for family and next to amazing mountains. Feel free to come by when I open it up in around 4-5 years after my next trip :D

Any thoughts about carbon emission of excessive air travel or do you use alternative means of transport?

I am trying to limit air travel as much as I can, generally walk as much as a i can and only use shared rides to lower the carbon emission.

Where did you go in Tanzania? What’s one underrated place to visit in the world?

Mainly went to ´climb Kilimanjaro and do some safaris, its been amazing and I feel like I have to go back :) planning to be in East africa again next year!

If you check this page, you can click on the map and scroll in to see where ive been exactly :) https://www.chrisontour84.de/travelreports/

So you used to be an ex gamer? How do you game while traveling?

I did not - different phases in my life! Actually got this timelife up in my twitch channel - maybe that helps =)

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• 1984: Born in Germany.
• 1991: Got a Gameboy.
• 1998: Played StarCraft.
• 2000: Played Diablo 2.
• 2002: Played WarCraft 3 and joined mTw!
• 2003: Went to Korea for the WCG.
• 2004: Went to China for ACON4.
• 2006: Stopped playing WC3.
• 2008: Started to play Poker.
• 2009: Started traveling! 100 countries and counting.
• 2011: Started to play Guitar.
• 2012: Moved to London.
• 2013: Started to do Climbing/Bouldering.
• 2014: Quit my job to travel full time.
• 2018: Started a new job in London.
• 2019: Started to stream on Twitch!

How do you fund your travels ?

Got a great kickstart from my gaming past and managed to develop a good sense for investments. Now I can use dividends from my shares to pay for flights

How beginner friendly is the rts genre in general? I've been wanting to play StarCraft for a while, but I'm afraid of getting overwhelmed

Its one of the harder genres to get in for sure. You need a lot of time to get your skills on a competitive level. It requires both a high level of strategical thinking, very fast hand-eye coordination and a good work moral. Without many hours of training each day, you will not improve or be able to keep your level. Thats why RTS is also struggeling to become really big like the other popular genres, even to enjoy watching games you would need a certain amount of knowledge of the game as its otherwise just too confusing. But once you get there, it is very rewarding as the games are very deep and provide more entertainment to me personally than watching football or so (Saying it as a big football fan too!)

How much money you got?

From gaming? it was a decent 5 digit figure, enough to pay for a brand new car when i turned 18 and to safe a bunch. Nothing compared to what pro gamers earn today sadly :)

How do you make a living? How much are you spending daily between gaming/travel?

So ive done both in different phases of my life and right now, I actually still have a "normal" full time job. planning to travel full time again from October though and after 3 more years of that, I will turn my dream into a reality by opening a bed and breakfast :) With that, i can actually combine both: Welcome travlers and host offline wc3 gaming events with mountain views :)

If you love everything regarding nature, what is your carbon offset plan regarding travel? Do you work with a single carbon offset company, or prefer to spread the love with local or perhaps indigenous run companies?

Had this question before- basically trying to fly as little as possible and use ride shares by hitchihking with cars that would be on the road anyway even without me. Also i love hiking very long distances :)

What is your favorite era to visit? Also, does time travel change the future or just create a new reality?

tbh I dont have a fav area and like to explore all of them

Can you go back in time and stop me meeting my ex wife? Shes a very nasty woman.

:D

As a university student in North America who desperately wants to travel, but can’t fully commit to traveling cheaply like you do, any tips? Especially considering the price to get out of North America into the rest of the world?

Hey man, sure - find a good hotspot which has the best connections to your nearby area. Use skyscanner's "everywhere function" if you are not sure where to start, it will list you all locations sorted byprice. Also make sure to not look on a specific day and instead us either a month or all year so you can check the cheapest connections. Once in the country, you can hitch hike around or take ferrys/cargo ships and it will be very cheap! You need a tent for this though as in some countries you could potentially get stuck a bit. So having a tent is great for ease of mind that you will not freeze to death if hitching a ride does not work.

How many times have your phone been stolen?

0 :)

How much practice did it take to transition from being a full time gamer to having to be entertaining as a twitch gamer? Did you have to practice 'host skills' and tear away from the game focus or did it come naturally?

Most time was spent to improve the way my Twitch channel looks. I started to host cups as well and spent a lot of time designing wallpapers and backgroudn for various cups. No big issue for me to talk through my games either, just when its a super intense situation i will not talk to the ppl but that would be the case with any wc3 gamer and the audience understands it :)

How much do you pack with you when you travel? Do you have a general HQ that you go back to change clothes or equipment that you need for your next wave of places?

On my big trip, I have everything I need with me at all times. I would just leave some stuff behind if I go on a hike in which I will have to end up in the same starting point again to proceed, in that case i would leave some stuff behind and not take it on the hike.

For my new trip, i have bought new gear which is all super lightweight, so my base weight will be around 8kg for 4 season hiking gear and all clothes etc.

Did you meet grubby?

Haha yes many times. When he was not famous yet, he actually asked me if he could join my clan and I declined. That was a bad call back then haha but I received over 100 of these messages per day so who would have known! We make jokes around that nowadays :)

Is there any country you went to that was more enjoyable than anticipated?

Thanks to my love of planning in advance, I usually have a pretty good idea of what I will see. But there are some situations in which you get to areas that you could not plan as they are really insider tips of the locals and I prefer not to share those to keep these places pristine. There are a few things i can share though, so for instance hiking Mount Dabajian in Taiwan has blown my mind!

Does being an ex former pro gamer mean that you are now a pro gamer once again?

sorry this is due to my bad english im afraid haha - did not notice that I used both words there

But do you tower rush their capitals?

I tower rush everyone and everything :D

How do you start in professional gaming scene? I like to think I am alright at some games and would like to dip my hand into some tournaments, but how do I do it?

Find out if you are good first by playing multiplayer against other ppl instead of computers. it will be a different level and good games (even wc3^^) will have ladders with different skill levels, so even as a beginner you can start in the lower leagues and see if you got what it takes to make your way up. If you keep losing despite trying to improve, you will probably lose motivation quickly and realise its not for you :)

Thanks for the reply! I am basically only a multiplayer guy, so I only pitch myself against humans(I am an FPS player). I'll make it to the top rank before considering it.

Ah yea cool, in FPS its a bit different so if you are good at aiming you can make it pretty far! =)

How do you deal with tilting?

Not well, thats why i stopped poker which I also played until NL200 - some day i lost so much that i decided to cash out the rest, which was luckily still 4 digits but without that tilt day, I could have made it in the poker scene as well perhaps

Hey OP! Do you have any advice/tips for a newcomer to the esports community? In your own personal experience, how were women treated within the esports community and/or at tournaments when you were pro? Do you think that has changed? Thank you!!

Hey! When I played in 2002, we only had a few girls in the scene. They were treated very well as most of the community is male, so everyone was happy to have them!

Nowadays i think its a bit more balanced with females , but most pro gamers are still male at least in the games i follow. I see a lot of successful female streamers though and with that, you dont even need to be good at a game and rather have an interesting personality.

You could also be part of the esport community by writing for a website, covering events etc - so even if you are not pro at a game, there are ways to get in! I Would love to see more femals joining the scene to get rid of that idea that only ugly young boys are playing games, which is certainly not the case anymroe :)

Have you travelled to Nepal?

Sadly not, but i planned to do it this year! in fact, i was supposed to go there in October, but am not sure if I will do it since their government keeps changing their rules after they announced that international flights are allowed again. Also dont like the 2 weeks of self isolation. Lets see, i will follow the news on that for the rest of September and will make a call in the first week of October!

Scariest Country u have visited? What % of the year are u abroad? (On a “normal” year?)

I either travel or not. If i go somewhere while i have a job, its more like a holiday/vacation. But my only real travel trip would be the 3 years in total in which I have seen and explored every single day. Hoping to repeat this next year for another 3 years!

Scariest probably san pedro sula when we had ppl being shot by gang members over drugs probably.

In the esports scene we have had RTS, FPS, Battle Royale, and MOBA games

Which genre do you think will become the next huge esport game?

RTS is certainly lacking behind, all 3 others will keep growing for sure with Battle Royale probably being the most Main stream genre. YOu forgot hackn slay though, we ve got Diablo 4 coming up - lets hope blizzard wont fuck this one up too!

Solo travel is something I aspire to do. If the virus slows down I am looking forward to doing a workaway in South Korea at an English cafe! I am really looking forward to it.

What is the best way to enjoy solo travel? How do you enjoy it to the extent that you can without sharing the experience with someone else? And since you said you have been to Korea, what are some awesome places to check out? Thanks!

Best way to enjoy solo travel is to make sure you are never really solo / alone :) Couchsurfing/Hitching is perfect for that, you will make a lot of new friends! That also answers the second question :)

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South Korea has been my first country to see after Germany, and it was due to me playing at the World Cyber Games 2003 in which we sadly did not see too much other than a few Restauratns. I will come back for sure and then put up a trip report :)

How many STDs have you caught to far? 😁

0 luckily :)

coolest people you met during your WC3 career?

SK.HeMaN and mTw.Ghostridah- those two in combination were better than any other form of communication when they had their flamewars^^

Have you ever experience dangerous situations couch surfing/ hitchhiking or in remote areas?

Not dangerous, but for hitchhiking I have been in a lot of situations in which I were happy to have a full camping gear with me, otherwise it could have been a freeze-to-death situation. Some places you have to wait for days for a single car, so always have a tent with you and enough water/food and know how to navigate

Hi Chris! Any reason why you haven't been to Japan yet?

Never had the time i would like to spend there, so saving it for when I can explore it properly. without corona, it would have been in August a month ago sadly! Now i have to keep waiting :(

What countries do you plan to travel to after the Varus?

Nepal would be the first, hopefully end of October!!

Whilst in my heyday a lot of my "budget" holidays involved contiki/topdeck/intrepid run holidays, ive always been curious as to the couchsurfing and hostel style travel.

Any horror stories you want to share?

What would be one of your biggest travel highlights?

No horror stories luckily, I have hosted around 400 people and stayed with around 1000 and only had great expierences! its really out of this world and not compareable to normal hostel/hotel situations. I was invited to ride horses in chile, shoot shotguns in a farm in Canada for example for CS situations that you cant plan for and wont expect

As someone who haven't traveled abroad a lot yet, and looks forward to doing so when it's possible, where would you recommend to travel first?

Go to places with a good touristic infrastructure - depending on what you want to see if tcould be Iceland for example for amazing landscapes and the chance to see the northern lights at winter. Other places like Papua new guinea for instance should wait until you gathered experience :)

Which country had the best people? Why? (EDIT: a word)

All of them have amazing people, you just have to be open with a positive attitude and they will cross your path.

Where has been your favourite country/destination you've travelled to so far and why? :) Lastly, as this would be a dream of mine to do the same (Travel to as many countries as I can), how do you get by the language barrier? When I go somewhere new I always try to learn at least the basics of the language and make an effort but feel it wouldn't be enough for general conversation.

One of the most common questions i get, sadly the one i cant answer. I dont like to rank countries as they are all amazing, but i have put up this Favorite Moments page with a few amazing standout examples. Will update this section as well soon again hopefully =)

Often you can communicate with gestures as well on a basic level, i had many situations hithc hiking with people that I could not directly communicate with and we used offline Google Translate, which turned out into a lot of fun and worked pretty well! I also try to learn some basic words in any country like hello, how are you, thanks etc which helps a lot to get around as it shows the locals that you try at least and are interested in their language/culture.

Ever play the WC3 Risk Europe custom game before? Pretty fun honestly

Nop havent! Not really playing custom games in general :(

Do you find that the older we get the worse we get at video games? I was also a pro esports player for a year but now after the age of 25 I feel like I can’t keep up with this 17 year olds.

Thats 100% the case, your reaction time naturally decreases in time. Having said that, if you invest a lot of time playing, you can keep a high level even when getting older and we can see that in the WC3 scene especially. Sadly, I dont invest enough time to get to that level nowdays and prefer just to play for fun without the pressure of cups/tournaments.

How come you have traveled India but not Nepal? I mean if you planned to visit Nepal I think it would've been much easier.

Edit: also was there a reason you didn't visit Agra? I mean anyone who visits India always goes to Agra if nowhere else.

I have been to India, its a big country though so for big countries i prefer to come back another time and see the rest. I planned to do the north of india and East while combining it with Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. All of which will sadly not happen due to Corona now sadly, so it has to wait a bit longer.

What was your annual income from gaming? Best year$?

Not sharing exact numbers, but it was a mid 5 digit figure in 3-4 years combined. for my age it was very good and better than other jobs people do in that age range.

Holy shit!! 117 comments in an hour??? wow did not expect that feedback, ill do my best to answer you guys now! haha

Do you have any concerns about your enviromental impact?

yep, answered in a bunch of other questions already. Try not to fly too much :)

So you're a pro gamer again?

no,just playing for fun and hosting wc3 cups!

No answers so far, also no proof. Thanks for the timewaste, interesting story tho! I would've liked to hear more.

Dude i posted this an hour ago and thought 1-2 ppl would ask me something before the thread dies up again- and had no idea about the missleading topic name I choose haha.Youve got any questions?