We somehow drifted apart by sharing a hobby.

I got into esports at age 15. He got into it a couple years later.

At first, I was super hyped about him joining me. It's a pretty niche hobby (especially back then), so I never got to geek out about it with my friends. Especially because in high school, having that kind of hobby makes you a weirdo. Finaly having someone to share this with? Hell yeah. That person being my best friend in the world, whom I've known since I was a wee little kid? Hell Yeah! I was pumped!

Thing is, I had an almost three years head start, about a hundred tournaments worth of experience already. I was not any good by tournament standards, but I was still leagues ahead of him.

I was in it for the challenge. Still am. You get beaten by some guy, you train for two weeks, you meet again, this time you win. It feels great. It feels rewarding. It teaches you that hard work and discipline always win in the long run. Those tournament wins feel so good because they're so rare and you had to work so hard to get them.

My friend and I trained for dozens of hours every week, and he couldn't lay a finger on me. This went on not for days, not for weeks, but for months. I was bored to death. Burned out. I had never trained so much in my life, and yet my results were getting worse and worse with each tournament. He was so fixated on beating me that we wouldn't even talk about other things anymore.

That's when I realized... Shit. This is our relationship now? A video game? It used to be so much more. He was the guy who kept me sane, who made sure my passion didn't turn into an obsession. He was there when I needed a break from the pressure of competition, when I wanted to just chill and talk about girls, parties, anime or whatever. But now, he was the one who was obsessed with that stupid little video game. Our relationship wasn't any good, for either of us.

I tried to tell him, but he didn't seem to care. So I started ghosting him.

I still somewhat regret having to do this. I feel like I could have handled it better, I just didn't know how.