The competitive ‘insti-gamer’

by Luke Brewer

Matthew Pritt never backs down.

He will always try to beat someone, even if they’re better than him.

As a kid, Matt’s Dad would beat him in every game and activity with no hesitation.

That’s where his competitive nature began.

“I don’t like people being able to say they beat me,” he said.

Matt is one of 10 students at EIU’s summer journalism camp.

Matt’s competitive nature led him down a path of finding his inner drive to be better.

While basketball is the sport he enjoys playing the most, football is what he enjoys watching the most.

In Matt’s opinion, football is better to watch due to its constant action.

Every play is unique and can completely redefine the scales of the game.

Matthew Pritt

It shows who will emerge victorious at the end of the day.

The games Matt plays also aren’t immune to his competitive personality.

In contrast to the action of sports, Matt finds video games to be a nice recreational activity that he can enjoy both on his own, and with his friends.

Yet not all of his games feel unique due to all shooters feeling the same.

While Matt does feel this way, he does give credit to some shooters for being unique, one such example being Fortnite with its building mechanic.

Matt plays games on Xbox for most of his games, but he doesn’t like the console.

This is because he finds Xbox to have a better social aspect than PlayStation.

One other gripe he has is that there are “no good original games”.

“HE SAID WHAT!?” exclaimed every Halo fan.

When asked about the Halo series, he repeated that it’s still just another shooter, with nothing to separate it from the others.

Regardless of whether Matt is online or in-person, his competitive nature finds a way to grab ahold and drive him.

Matt considers himself an instigator in both sports and gaming, but it also occurs when he’s with his friends.

While most of the instigation ends up being harmless, there are a few occasions when it becomes drastically heated.

People even get up in each other’s faces.

Matt says he finds it funny when people are mad, but he does know that there are limits.

He prefers to do instigation online so that the conversations never escalate too much.

Yet, he does feel bad when the anger people feel as a result lasts longer than the two to three minutes it does with his friends.

One example of how instigation between him and his friends is when a friend he had kept beating him at Galaga at an arcade.

Once he got home, Matt practiced for three hours straight.

His friend didn’t stand a chance the next time they played.

“I hate losing,” he said. These three words can summarize Matt’s entire personality.

Why is he so competitive?

He hates losing.

Why does he instigate?

He hates losing.

If you’re looking for a fun partner to play ping-pong or pool with back at Taylor Hall, Matt is your guy.

Just be ready for the competition that follows.