Hello, everyone! I am Jedo, an experienced Splinterlands player and I would like to introduce myself to the Hive Universe! I was born and raised in the Philippines and I am currently 34 years of age. I have a degree in Civil Engineering and took and passed my Board Exams a few months after graduating college/university in 2011. I started my career in real estate and residential housing construction and gained two year’s worth of experience before leaving the Homeland in 2013. I have been living in sunny California since.
I have always been into gaming and sports, especially when I was growing up. Though not a hardcore player, I have to admit my competitiveness surfaces every now and then. I played a lot of Nintendo 64 when I was younger and also got into trading card games like Pokemon and more importantly (and influentially), Magic: The Gathering (more on this later). My parents were really thrifty when it comes to electronics and computer games. Or just games in general. To this day I have not owned another console. I also played football (soccer) in High School and played for my school’s varsity team and was even named Team Captain in my Junior and Senior years. On weekends, when I had no other plans, I played basketball with people in our village.
Career-wise, I followed the footsteps of my father who also has a Civil Engineering degree and also carries the title “Engineer” which is recognized in our home country. He started a subdivision development company with my aunts and uncles and this is how my interest in the construction industry began. When I got into college, I had to give up playing sports and games (the university I attended did not have a sports program for soccer) in order to pursue a career in engineering and/or construction.
Coming into the United States, at least for me, was not as hard as a lot of other people have been saying. I have family here and some of the cousins I grew up with have been living here years before we arrived. Somehow, it still felt like home. One of the differences I noticed, aside from the weather, is the difference in cultures, which I expected. I was confident, though, that I wouldn’t have any problems melding in as I know myself to be adaptable to my environment. A major obstacle during my first few months here was finding a job that I preferred. Places that I have applied to, at least at the time, preferred individuals with local experience rather than overseas.
Luckily, I found a job at a world-renowned theme park and enjoyed every minute of my stay there. It became my main “side” job for years as I had so much fun working there. I jumped from one odd full-time job to another as making a living was hard and complicated. I still tried my best to maintain tenure at the theme park but all this had come to an end sometime in 2018 shortly after an employer from a different part of the state found me and convinced me to work for them – a construction company known for building sports fields all over Northern California. It was a no brainer – a promising career plus a much higher pay. I thought to myself this is the chance to get my career back on track and realign my life with my childhood dreams and goals. Six years later, I am still employed with the same family-oriented firm, and they even let me work remotely and move back to Southern California where the rest of my family in the US is. I just need to visit the office once every month or two so I do not lose the social touch of working with people in an office setting.
In 2021, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, a cousin of mine, who had previously introduced me to the Multiverse of Magic: The Gathering, convinced me to start playing Splinterlands. Back then, I didn’t have money to afford playing MTG and this cousin covered all the expenses for me, from buying cards to complete my deck to making sure we’re able to commute to attend events and tournaments. Now that I make my own money, I thought this is my chance to relive my childhood – playing card games for hours and having fun with it. This is my chance to somehow repay him for a colorful childhood. Unfortunately, due to life events, he had to pivot and stay away from the game. In the end, I wound up buying his assets which I own to this day.
I did not know anything about NFTs or Cryptocurrency in general but I found Splinterlands very interesting. I tried it out and the rest is history. I have been in since August 2021 and even though there are plenty of times when I lose interest in playing, I am still here and hopeful for the future. I know I own the assets I have invested in and that they have big potential for growth. I also own a variety of land plots where older monster cards can go into. If these monster cards were physical cards, they would just take up space somewhere and collect dust like boxes and boxes of bulk cards in the closet. I love the concept of land. Having a background in real estate, building, and construction, I am a firm believer in the future of land.
One of the major highlights of my Splinterlands journey is being lucky enough to be able to attend Splinterfest in 2022. At that time, I was flying the banner of a different guild and met up with a lot of great people. I doubt most of them would remember me. I was too shy to keep introducing myself. I was a nobody – an unknown, random person at the event. No one really knew me aside from 2, maybe 3 guild members at the time. (Shoutout to Jim Morgan!) I remember shaking Aftersound’s hand and telling him who I was and that I was just a nobody. He responded with “You are not a ‘nobody,’ man.” What a great guy. I hope to get the opportunity to see him again. Splinterfest was great! I mostly just watched and observed and it was an awesome feeling getting first hand information regarding the future plans for Splinterlands. I also ALMOST made the playoffs of the Coliseum of Chaos - Champion League Wild Tournament! I was Top 7 before the timer ended and already had all my games in. I’m guessing there were a lot of bonus wins from others fleeing their matches and that pushed others’ rankings above mine. All good, though. I still had a great time! There were some things I think could have been done better but overall, it was quite the experience! I hope I can attend the next one!
Continuing my Splinterlands journey, I found my way joining TEAMPH, a guild based in the Philippines, to be with my countrymen and to be part of their community. Led by the charismatic MangoMayhem, we are currently competing in Tier 4 Brawls. I am usually assigned to Wild Gold League Frays where I feel I excel the most. We have been heavily recruiting players we can develop and help us improve the ranking of our guild. Our goal is to be one of the top guilds in Splinterlands and though I know there are plenty of obstacles in our way, we know we will get there someday.
Being in the Splinterlands space for a few years, I have also been exposed to the Hive ecosystem, though I never paid that much attention to it. I see that this is a missed opportunity and I now would like to add value to this community. Learning about Hive from other Splinterlands players and realizing how great this ecosystem is made me decide to start blogging. I have always had a bit of interest in writing but I felt like it would not get me anywhere since I have no prior experience with it. Working where I am now, I am required to draft and proofread a lot of different narratives and writeups. I now find myself writing more and more work-related things and that brings the following questions: why not express myself by writing about things I am interested in or care about? Why not interact with people with the same hobbies, interests, or experiences? Why not try to make the world a better place by speaking out what’s on my mind by conveying thoughts and ideas?
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my introduction. I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Until next time!