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Blick Meets Tantrix

The story of blick & Tantrix The first time I met Tantrix was in a summer math camp in 2002. One day we had to choose a game to learn, or practise it if we already knew it. I didn’t really like this, because usually I found most of the games boring, or totally uninteresting. So there was Tantrix, totally unknown for all of us with my friends, barely anybody signed up on it (me and another guy). I thought this is the perfect choice, two people can’t play for too long with any game. Two teachers joined us. We learnt the rules and then played two games. I don’t remember what was my impression of the game, I was happy that it was over quickly. I came last, so you wouldn’t think Tantrix would play such big role in my life. So how did I become a fan? Well, two months later I was bored at home after school. We had just got broadband internet after 56k, so I was discovering the web. I thought I’d check out if there are any of my friends playing there from the math camp. I registered my nickname from the camp, which I almost never used apart from that 1 week. In the lobby there was Sirpi, who was one of the teachers who joined us when I first played. We started to talk and play and I found myself playing all day long after school. In my first 6 months I played more than a thousand games (which at that time seemed a lot, now I know there are bigger fans). I didn’t care about counting tiles, or evil big strategies, I was enjoying the games and the community so much, that I even took English at school more seriously so I could have better conversations with foreign players. But especially the Hungarian community was awesome, everybody was so dedicated to the game. I remember those days, when I was suffering to become a master, my emotions were like a rollercoaster, it affected my behaviour with my friends at school… I changed my name when I turned yellow (reached 900 points), and I remember after a half year playing I reached 950 points. I found this the best thing in my life so far. When I received the questionnaire e-mail, I worked on the answers for like a week, just to be sure they were correct and didn’t have any grammar mistakes. In the first few years I was celebrating anniversaries of registering Tantrix, and becoming a master officially. The plan was always the same: Tantrix all day long, my mother brought my breakfast to the computer, I ordered pizza which was not very often in our family, only like twice a year. These days were more important than my birthdays, I loved to spend a full day with my hobby. My parents were more or less supportive, but my brothers always thought it was stupid to spend so much time on one game. So once they tricked me. They came to the lobby as a guest, and asked me to help them to learn the game (they were in the other room!!). So I started to explain, and so on, and for some reason I had to go to ask them something, and I saw it was them. It was quite funny, I hated them for this, entering my private life. Going Deeper... In 2005 four Hungarians - including me - went to the German Open. I enjoyed the Hungarian offline meetings a lot, these people were really good friends of mine. But the Opens were special. I was so surprised, when I realized, that people understood me when I was speaking in ‘English’. This taught me that languages are the most useful subjects in school. I’ve attended every open I could afford since that and in 2006 I won the British Open. I remember, when it was over, I listened to ‘ABBA – The winner takes it all’ on my MP3 player, and I was crying of happiness. When I was telling my friends, family, they become more and more supportive, for that I can’t be thankful enough. If my parents didn’t let me follow my path in life, maybe I would have stopped playing long ago. I started to organize opens and took bigger part in the Hungarian Tantrix business from 2007. It was coincidence of course, but I managed to win this open. This was the first time I met Mike, which was really special for me. By that time I was playing for 5 years, and it felt like meeting Michael Schumacher. Apart from emotions, friendships, happiness and my greatest hobby I can thank Tantrix for so many other things. I was travelling a lot to opens, which I loved. Maybe that’s why I decided to visit one of the players in Canada for 5 weeks with another player. This was a breakthrough, first time out of Europe, so far away. I think somewhere there I became addicted to travelling. Then came 2010, when I went to New Zealand… It was a dream since I started to play, but as a child I really believed, that I had no chance to go that far. But I’ve got this opportunity, and I spent maybe the best 3 months of my life. All in all, playing Tantrix was not only a game, it has become a lifestyle, maybe the most important thing I’ve ever done, which affected every part of my life. Sometimes I’m wondering, how my life would look like if I never met Tantrix. But I can’t imagine a better way…

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