Feb 2, 2016: It was just another night of MMA training, until it wasn’t…

I was about a month out of losing a razor-thin, split decision in my second fight. Admittedly, it was not my best performance, and I deserved to take the L, despite what my friends and teammates said to console me.

I could sit here and give a multitude of reasons as to why I came out so flat, but it never sat well with me when other fighters get to the end of the fight and lay out all the excuses as to why they failed to get the job done…

“I came into the fight injured.”

“My personal life got in the way.”

“I wasn’t there mentally.”

As much as I detested it, I did the very same thing at that moment. The next day, I made a post outlining all of it…every single thing that I had going on in my life including injuries, technical deficit, and my feelings about it all. Then, I kinda threw up in my mouth, because I knew that I had held myself back and made every excuse. 

So, I never posted it, and ended up rewriting it…but it was here that I vowed not to put it on anything other than me.

I vowed right then and there to come back stronger than ever. Little did I know, my body had other plans…

The reality was, I was broken up worse than I thought, and I was heading straight into an invisible obstruction that would cause the biggest skid of my life. 

I had pulled (or torn) muscles in my groin prior to the fight. It was so bad that I could not throw kicks in the weeks leading up to the fight, and I was hobbling just trying to throw my hands, but I absolutely would not back out, especially after I had an opponent had back out on a fight that was lined up in September of that year at the very last minute.

You know, that really sucks, and it’s something that you might not have experienced yourself, but imagine, if you will, doing everything possible to get into peak physical conditioning for the fight of your life, and then absolutely nothing happens.

I swallowed it, and kept it to myself, because I most certainly was not the first one this has happened to and it won’t be the last. 

I fought to the best of my ability that night, and lost a totally lackluster fight... a stark contrast to winning a bloody slugfest in my amateur debut. It didn’t sit well with me. I kept my mouth shut and kept training hard without any break, determined to turn it all around on the next outing. My life and my livelihood depended on it.

To borrow a phrase from behind-the-scenes UFC content, I had experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. There’s just something biologically ingrained into you about the outcome of a fight, and for good reason. Without rules, a ref, and a safe environment for fisticuffs, losing a fight in nature usually means losing your life, a few teeth, some brain capacity, or at the very least…getting your girl stolen (or something similar). The long and short of it is, it doesn't feel good. 

I walked out of that fight not even being sore (at least not any more than a moderate training session would have left me), but it hurt so bad on the inside. I resolved that I was going to pick myself up, fix some technical issues, and get back in there as quickly as possible. The truth was I was really riding high on life at the time. I was going 100 miles per hour.

Riding the momentum of a 100 pound weight loss, I figuratively gave the man the finger and walked away from my 9-to-5, moved across the state to train more often, and was helping people as a personal trainer living my dream life.

I always dreamed of a life where I could train my body, mind, and spirit every single day, eat amazing food that fueled my body to optimum performance, and rest hard while having a great time. 

So, when I wasn’t training myself or someone else, I was completely enamored with the newness of Rainbow Six: Siege. I waited until after my fight to buy the game and dive in. The full release version came out on the Tuesday before the Saturday fight. 

I held myself to that promise, because I knew how obsessed I was over it and needed to concentrate… but now, I was in it all the way. The game was such a good outlet, because of its complexity. It was more than just gunfights, just like MMA was more than just boxing or just grappling. The parallels of the different disciplines of mixed martial arts and the disciplines of Siege exercised my brain in a way that helped improve my problem-solving skills in all areas on and off the mat.

About a month after that fateful night, Operation Black Ice was released. This was the first major expansion for the game, and it introduced two new operators, a new map, and a host of other content. The two new operators were Frost and Buck, two Canadian special forces members. The new map, Yacht, was also set in Canada and featured a large open-area setting with perilous, long hallways.

I remember being so blown away that Siege was getting DLC so quickly after launch. It was my first experience with the gaming as a service model. I thought it was so cool that everyone got the new map, Yacht, for free right off the bat. You could also earn the new operators by just playing the game, although you could unlock them early for exclusive access through buying the year pass.

It was brilliant! There would be no separating the community with DLC like Call of Duty or pretty much every other online multiplayer game in existence at that time. There’s a lesson to be had here on investing with time, money, or loyalty…but, another time.

Ironically, the very day Operation Black Ice would come out, my life would change forever.

I was helping a teammate train for an opponent that I had competed against in my first fight… you know, the bloody slugfest. Earlier in the night during BJJ, I felt my knee on the same side that my groin was torn, tweak. It didn’t feel that serious, so of course, I ignored it and kept grinding.

Then, the fighters in the gym moved into working stand-up and sparring…

It wouldn’t be long before I would be down for the count…not from his punches, but from mine. 

I’m a natural southpaw, but I was fighting in an orthodox stance to mimic the opponent. As I went to throw a cross, my knee just gave, and I knew something was horribly wrong. I could tell because the blue mat of the gym rushed to meet me, as I face planted from the momentum of throwing the strike. 

The pain was intense, but it only lasted a few seconds. There was absolutely no contact at all at the moment my ACL unraveled like a bad piano wire. I remember crawling to the side of the mat out of the way of the action thinking that my night was over at the very least. Little did I know, I would be out of training indefinitely and out of competitive mixed martial arts forever.

After I cooled down and the adrenaline wore off, It felt like I was walking on black ice, and it would continue to feel that way for about six weeks.

As you probably know, black ice is super dangerous, because it’s transparent. You usually don’t see it coming, and it can have catastrophic consequences. Being a bass guitar player, it’s not lost on me that black ice claimed the life of Cliff Burton of Metallica.

Like Dr. Harry (formerly known as “Six”...R.I.P.) says, “Obviously when assessing any potential future threats, there is that which we know and that which we don't… but it is always that which we don't know we don't know that poses the greatest danger.”...

“How are you going to train other people when you can’t stand up without feeling like the earth is trying to buck you off?”

“How are you going to build your business if you can’t pick up new clients?” (Which had been easy up to this point, practically living in the gym, proving myself through results over and over again, and sharing my personal story.)

“Why did this happen to me after I worked so hard and gambled everything to make this dream work?”

Those were all thoughts that would race through my head in the coming months and even years. 

Well, this was about the point in time that I discovered that I was going 100 miles per hour on a road filled with black ice. I had two choices from here.

1. Ignore the dangers and keep going at break-neck speed at the expense of my health, which I had worked so hard to reclaim…which would ultimately affect my performance in life and business, as well as my closest relationships.

2. Slow down, assess the newly found threats, and create a new plan.

That's the significance of what “Operation Black Ice” meant for me, and it was reflected in what the new Canadian operators brought to the equation.

With her bear trap welcome mats, the new defender, Frost, presented a new obstacle that was the very opposite of high tech (and when played correctly, an impossible choice for attackers running out of time to deal with). 

The welcome mat is undetectable unless seen with your own eyes or a drone, and they can blend in rather well in certain spots.

Upon release, many people were stepping on them left and right, allowing the defenders to pick up an easy kill on defenseless attackers. It wasn’t long, however, until players got used to looking for them and started shooting them upon jumping through a window. It’s become a reflex for higher level players, but that’s what makes savvy Frost players dangerous to this day, 9 years later. Attackers running low on time and intel have to make a hard choice between shooting the welcome mat that they may or may not know is there, or they have to be ready for the defender lying in wait to mop them up when they take their eyes off the ball.

Likewise on Attack, Buck was an instant hit. As the name of his underbarrel shotgun would suggest, the skeleton key allows buck to get into almost anywhere with soft destruction capabilities. This was the first instance of having operators do the same job, but differently. Before, there were breach charges, bullet holes, and Sledge if you were hoping to make a sight line through a destructible surface. 

Buck changed the game through the ability to achieve soft destruction from below, adding a layer of complexity to vertical play. Not to mention the skeleton key can be used to devastating effect in close range to pick up kills as a normal shotgun.

Fast forward to the current meta, and Buck also has secondary hard breach charges, making him serve the purpose of a true skeleton key and one of the very few attackers who can get into almost any fortified position without any extra help. Not to mention, the ability to create sightlines from a distance on the defender’s position without having to overcommit into the defender funhouse couples very well with his powerful rifles to make Buck a very impactful operator to this day.

The new map also gave players a chance to explore a different environment and discover new strategies for playing the game even though the map is not considered to be “competitive” due to its design. This was a great way to introduce new players to the game, as well as give veteran players something new and exciting to explore, especially seeing cameras, walls, and other environmental factors frozen in ice.

Lastly, the legendary, seasonal, “Black Ice” weapon skins would be introduced. Arguably, they are the most popular and coveted weapon skins ever to be released in Siege.

You may be wondering how the game makes any money if they give ALL the content away for free…

They give all the content that affects GAMEPLAY away for free, after those who are willing to pay for a little exclusivity, but the real cheddar comes from the cosmetics. People will pay lots of money to feel special and have the rarest items.

Some people play to be the best. Most folks play to look the best. This model of monetization focuses on selling significance, personality, and uniqueness through cosmetics. It’s been proven time and time again that people will part with their hard-earned money to look the coolest in a virtual setting… I don’t make the rules, but it is what it is.

You can take that lesson and run with it however you please… My suggestion is you don’t sit there for years like I did saying, “That’s stupid.” It’s literally what made Rainbow Six: Siege Ubisoft’s cash cow. The game had netted 1.1 B-B-B-billion dollars as of May of 2019, and has exponentially increased since, so play that info how you want.

As for me, my life’s trajectory had skidded off-road, and I would be taking the next several years one step at a time in a trial by fire…another thing that Siege is that I and many other people love.

Overall, Operation Black Ice was a great addition to the Rainbow Six: Siege experience. It brought new content, new strategies, and more customization options, all of which made the game more enjoyable and profitable. If you were playing the game at the time, chances are you have fond memories of Operation Black Ice.

Even though I had suffered the biggest roadblock of my life (up to that point), I still look back on Operation Black Ice with fond memories of figuring out the game again, adjusting to the new mechanics (body and gameplay), and visualizing where I wanted my life to go from here now that everything had just changed.

Here’s what it comes down to…

We all must remember that on our life’s road that anything could happen. There are obstacles everywhere. If we remain open-minded and patient enough, we can avoid the traps, find another way around, and make one if it’s just not there.

When new information is received, it’s up to us to grow and evolve with the META or have the game leave you behind.

Until next time when we dig into “Operation Dust Line”!

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