Every now and then, we have the opportunity to sit down and learn a bit about some of the people within our community. Today we meet with IBlubbil, a young Streamer that dedicated his channel to Trials runs on PC.
Who are you? What’s the story behind your username?
Hey!
My name is Thomas, I am 20 years old, I love competitive sports and am currently studying leisure management. For the most part, I am known for being the one guy that plays Trials on keyboard and yet competes on the highest level.
There is not really a "story" behind my username. I created my first Uplay account back in 2011 (the first game I bought on Uplay was Heroes of Might and Magic VI) and my old gamer tag used to be "th0mas9" which I only took because Thomas was taken and I thought I could change it afterwards anyways... which was not possible at the time. So long story short, Trials Evolution Gold Edition came out on the 21st of March 2013, I got pretty good at the game (always around the top 10 leader board position on all the track and global leader boards) and I got involved in the community on Twitch, the forums and other platforms so people started to recognize me by my old gamer tag. The only problem was that I never liked my old username and I could not really identify with it so when Trials Fusion came out I decided to create a new Uplay account and unlock the game on that one. For this new account, I went with the username "IBlubbiI" (which is the same that I used for my Twitch account in the previous year's already) so it would be easier for people in the Trials community to recognize me by that name. Obviously, when Uplay introduced the option to change your username a few years later I regretted switching accounts... But yes, that is the background behind my username, despite most people not knowing how to pronounce it properly ^^
How did you get into PC gaming?
Oh, pretty early I would say. I had my first PC (an old Windows 95) when I was 4 years old but the only games I would play on it were riddle and educational games (that would teach you about animals, nature, biology etc.). For the most part, I would play games at my friend’s places because most of them owned a console. I think it was on my 7th birthday when I got my first "real" pc game as a gift from my uncle, which was "Anno 1503". Obviously, at the time I struggled to understand all the game mechanics, so the story missions were quite challenging. But I soon enough discovered that there were cheat codes for basically everything in the game so I had loads of fun just building gigantic cities not caring about the economy really ^^.
From there on, I bought some games for myself, usually the ones that I had already tried at a friend's place because I already knew what I was getting into. The very first games that I bought and played were Midnight Club 2, the old Need for Speed Most Wanted from 2005 (still one of my favorite games to this day) and Gothic 2 Night of the Raven by Piranha Bytes (up to this day one of the best RPGs out there in my opinion).
Why PC?
Oh for multiple reasons:
- I never had any console except for PC
- My friends are all playing on PC as well
- I think that PC is simply the best platform to be on. It is more powerful than the other consoles, you can constantly upgrade it, you have all you will ever need on one platform combined (it's a work station, gaming platform, and you can record/stream/and edit videos very easily, save your music/movies and documents on your PC and so on and so on). The only reason that I can think of for picking up a console was to play exclusive titles, but that was never enough of an argument to buy one for me. Also many of the genres I enjoy the most (strategy games/ turn based strategy games and MOBAs) are not available on console so I would definitely miss those if I were to play on console instead of PC.
If you could play only one game for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Uh, that is a difficult question, as you will get bored of whatever game you choose eventually. I can't really put my finger on one game but it would probably be Trials. Due to the track editor, there is infinite content and you would always be having a different experience on the game. Plus the skill cap is infinite. Or Counterstrike, because no matter how long you play, you can always improve your skilland due to the game being always online with different players, every time you play will be a different experience. Maybe League of Legends also, for similar reasons as Counterstrike. The game is constantly being updated, balanced, new heroes get introduced, so your experience will probably stay fresh for a long time as well.
What game/games do you consider to have had the biggest impact on you and why?
Oh, definitely Trials. The amount of amazing people I have met from the Trials community, online and in real life is just amazing. By being a part of this community, I have met and visited people from all over the world (UK, Germany, America, France, Finland, Denmark etc.) and it has always been an incredibly fun experience. Also I would not be here, writing this right now if it wasn't for Trials ^^ I got involved in the "Trials Elite" by playing the game on a very high level and being an active community member and it has been an amazing overall experience so far. Thanks to the game, I got to fly to Helsinki numerous times and actually meet the developers of the game I enjoyed playing the most. Not only this, but I also got to be actively involved in the development of the new installment of the Trials series (Trials Rising), constantly testing and giving feedback about it. Also, my English skillshave improved significantly due to the game. Chatting and talking to people from all over the world has had a great influence on my English typing and speaking skills and I can apply that to my studies and work, which has helped me a ton so far. So yes, what game has had the biggest impact on me? Definitely Trials.
Which future game are you excited about?
Right now? Not too many really. For the most part, I am just excited about the release of Trials Rising at the moment. Primarily because I am eager to see the community's reaction to the game I have been testing for almost 2 years at this point and secondly because I can't wait to get active leader board competition in the game.
What’s your best memory about streaming? What’s the worst?
Oh, I don't think I have any negative memories about streaming, which is mostly due to the Trials community being very close and positive (I rarely stream anything except for Trials). The worst memory I have about streaming was probably having to ban someone from my channel because he just kept on posting inappropriate links but yes, that’s it really.
My best memory about streaming is definitely co-hosting a ninja tournament in Trials that took part over the last couple of months. It was organized by Lorcan (a great and active Trials community member and a super cool dude overall) and I have been helping him out by streaming and commentating a lot of the matches. As we had people from all over the world and from different time zones competing, streaming them all was an almost impossible task for one person alone. The amount of people from the community that supported the tournament, watched the matches, participated in the streams and just enjoyed the content we tried to provide has just been amazing and is definitely going to be one of the best memories I have about streaming.
How did you come to play Trials on PC?
When I was younger I used to play all kinds of mini games on sites like Miniclip.com and I especially enjoyed the racing games, so I had played games like Trials (and Trials legends on the Miniclip website) before. At some point, I watched a YouTube video of someone playing this game called Trials Evolution and it looked really fun so I looked it up to see where I would be able to buy it. Unfortunately it was Xbox exclusive. However, when Ubisoft announced that there would be a PC version called "Gold Edition" coming out for PC on the 21st of March in 2013 I immediately preordered the game on Amazon and the rest is history. ^^
How did you get this good playing Trials on keyboard? Any advice for those who want to follow your footsteps?
I think it is the same for anyone that starts out playing Trials. The basic concept of the game is very easy to grasp, but once you get to the harder and extreme levels in the game it becomes very challenging (and seemingly impossible) very fast. What I would suggest to anyone new to Trials is to check out "Professor Fat Shadys" YouTube Channel "The University of Trials", where he made a ton of videos showing and explaining the basic techniques and tutorials on how to complete certain tracks. I know many people in the community that started out by watching his videos and are now some of the best players in the game.
Also, do not get discouraged by people telling you that a lot of stuff in the game is not possible on keyboard, because that is simply not true. Everything in the Trials career on any game from the Trials series is very well doable on keyboard and you do not really have any disadvantage compared to playing on controller. However, some techniques might be a little trickier to execute (like accurate throttle control). To be completely transparent though, when you get to custom tracks and the hardest tracks the community put out, you will get to a point where some stuff (for the most part throttle control) is not possible as you need the analog trigger to execute the required moves. However you will only get to that point after about 1500 hours of game time, so that is nothing I would worry about and there is a ton of other stuff that you can play regardless ^^
If you get stuck anywhere on a track and you just can't figured out how to do the obstacle, I would also highly recommend checking out a replay and see how they do the part you’re stuck on. Understanding the Trials physics, how to approach different kinds of obstacles and knowing how your bike will react to what input is the key to becoming really good at the game.
And finally, anyone can do it! Some might improve a little faster than others but in the end if you keep practicing you will get it down as well. Trials is one of these games that is really easy to pick up but incredibly hard to master and the only way to master it is faulting, reflecting on your mistakes, getting back up and learning from them
What made you want to stream? Why specifically about Trials?
I had multiple reasons why I started streaming Trials.
- I wanted others to be able to see me playing live. People knew I was playing on keyboard, but because I was one of the very few that did and I was playing on a fairly high level, there were quite a lot of people that wanted to see it live.
- I wanted others to be able to help me out and give tips in case I got stuck anywhere or struggled to do something.
- I loved playing custom tracks that other people from the community created and giving feedback on them and the easiest way to do that was to stream it.
- To provide a platform for the community to come together and chat, share experiences and have a good time
The reason why I started streaming on Trials and not on any other game was definitely the community. Especially on PC Trials with Gold Edition, we had a very small but close and supportive community. Everyone helped each other out when there were any questions, we helped each other improve at the game as well as we could and at some point a lot of us started streaming and so did I.
Also, without the help of the other community members I probably wouldn't have been able to set up my stream at the time because using OBS was way more complicated back in the day. Nowadays the program literally offers you to find the optimal settings for your system with one mouse click and it works
What are your future plans for you or your channel?
For my channel(s), I will definitely keep uploading good runs that I get on ninja tracks or really fast speedruns on all kinds of tracks. I am also planning on creating tutorials for the in-game tracks when Rising comes out, how to pass and speedrun them and maybe even tutorials on how to perform the basic and advanced techniques in Trials on keyboard. Additionally I am thinking about hosting one or hopefully multiple tournaments for Trials in the future, that will be for both speedrunners and ninjas. But that depends on the community's interest and how much spare time I will have that I could invest into that.
For me personally, I am currently studying international leisure management. After being involved in the development of several game titles now and getting more insights about the development process, working in the video game industry has started to interest me a lot. For my future plans I would love to find a job in the video game industry once my studies are finished and hopefully an internship in a gaming company.
What are the first words that pop in your head when you hear the following:
- Gaming - Fun
- Hardware - Expensive
- Framerate - Most Important
- Console - Ugh
- Indie - Creative
- Strategy - Amazing
- VR - Love it
- Pixel - Graphic
- Streaming - Interactive
- Achievements - Rewarding
- Winning - Great
Make sure to check out IBlubbiI's channels:
OH MY GOD!!! I can't believe Ubisoft did this for you. I'm so extremely happy for you. You sooooo deserve this.
100% pure stud
This is the 1st time I've ever logged into these forums, but once I saw this on Uplay after playing the Crew 2, I had to track it down and post a comment.
Long live The Keyboard King. hahaha
Great article IBlubbiI
About your internship I'm sure your allowed to do it at RL should you ask. 😉
I don't know were you livw though so that might not be convenient for you.
I also started pmying the trials games with kb.
B/c as you the first was on minclip and kb was all there was. Didn't move to controls until evo came out on PC. Now I play fusion with controller on PS4. I'm nowhere near your skill though.
And like you I'm making new friends almost dayly through the community even though I've onky been active in it a few months, and the fact I've been accepted into the prestigious OTHG.
I befriended Sane the Legend the other day.
Not talked to you in chat yet. I think I might have asked you something on the live RL stream when lots of you were on.
Keep riding hard and see you out there.
I just hope we will finally get real cross platform online matches.