He was I believe #2 most played games behind braviet on the server. We lost a huge part of the server.
The thing Manny was most proud of about his stats was his losses. That's the only thing I ever heard him brag about.
"#1 most losses in the game."The part he didn't need to say was the part that everyone else already knew. More than 75% of those games he hosted himself. Probably 90% for all I know. Manny could have made his stats as good as he wanted, and in truth he did.
He was, without any shadow of a doubt, the best and fairest host in the game. He always tried to balance the game, and if it couldn't be balanced he would take the disadvantage on his own team.
That was just his nature. Manny was always, first and foremost, a gentleman. The proof of that was that he remained a gentleman despite often being surrounded by a bunch of purile man-children. When he had to he would stand his ground with good nature and good humor, but no more than that, and in doing so gained the love and respect of all who knew him.
I can't remember how many times things were slow on the server and it would be hard to even get 4 players together to play a game, then Manny would log in and start hosting and instantly there were full games because everyone knew that meant a good host and ggs for all.
I don't remember who I was talking to late one night. Things were slow and were were just chatting about life and stuff, but I remember saying that Ch0ppy was my hero, and I meant it. They laughed and said "why?". To be fair I guess that person probably didn't play chop a lot, but I wasn't much interested in the conversation after that. I guess if you don't known then you don't know.
But I suppose now I should at least
try to answer that question.
It's partly for the reasons I have outlined above; his good nature, good humor, endless patience and sense of fair play, but more so it's because I knew those things about him, absolutely, despite the fact that he didn't brag, and always listened more than he spoke. Manny loved his family, although he wouldn't often talk about them unless you asked, but when he did you could always feel the love and pride behind his words. He was genuine, even from behind a computer he still treated everyone as human beings and not just some part of a game. I never saw him ever type a single word that he wouldn't have said to someone face to face, his humanity always shone through.
Manny will remain my hero and one of the best human beings I have ever know. I will always regret never having had the chance to meet him in person. Goodbye, old friend. This was way too soon.
