I've been playing Sea of Thieves almost since it came out in 2018. Being a huge pirate nerd and having not found a game like it since AC: Black Flag, Sea of Thieves was my bread and butter. I played almost every day, and I got one of my closest friends into it at about the same time. Despite its issues and sometimes frustrations, it's remained my favorite game to this day.

A couple of years ago, I was able to convince my roommate to get an XBOX and the game, thinking he'd enjoy it and we'd have some good times. By then, I was at the highest levels (at the time) for all the factions except for Athena and could easily solo a sloop against a pretty good galleon. However, what I never thought would happen was after 6 years and nearly 2000 hours in the game, he'd beat me.... at everything and almost as much playtime.

When he first started playing, he felt like he was a detriment to the ship, despite my friend and I encouraging him and offering to help him improve. And so, while he was playing on his own, he met a group of players who played the game HARD. I'm talking 10-12 hour long grinds, completely serious, etc. And he was making tens of millions per grind. To my surprise, he made it to Pirate Legend only a few months after having started. He played to an unhealthy amount over that summer (while I had a job and obligations), and he surpassed me at Athena, the "endgame faction." I didn't think much of it at that time. By the time he was playing there were easier ways to get reputation and level up, but it still felt like "shit, you have no idea the grind it took to get there."

That toxic group ended up cutting ties with him, and my friends and I were able to get him to see the toxic behaviors he had developed from playing with them, but then he started rubbing it in my face, "Who's level X in Athena?" So I started playing unhealthily just to get past him. I reached the max (at the time) just before he did last December. . . and then Rare (the company) added prestige levels to ALL factions, making the max 500. And somehow through that update, he got 4-5 free levels. We logged in the first day, and despite us both having been even before the update, he was there ahead of me, which made me look back at my grind to get past him just feel completely worthless and for nothing.

Fast forward to now, and he is ahead of me in every faction by quite a margin. Any time I make my goal to beat him and either do or get one level below him, he does some grind, or plays a lot during a double-reputation event, leaving me to feel completely defeated.

Do I blame him? No. It's a game and I'm not one to be petty over a game.

But it's gotten to the point where the game itself, and even some friends, recognize him as more experienced.
- A friend I convinced to get the game recently made a comment saying "that's why he got you into this game." And it took way too much convincing to tell them that I had been playing for 6 years and that I got him into the game. And even now I still have to convince them.
- A friend compared how many voyages/gold we had completed/made, and he had a significant lead on me for both. meaning if anyone were to look at our profiles, they'd say he was the more experienced.
- They've gone to him for advice and have even told him (despite him telling them I've played longer and knowing much more than him) that they want to play with him over me because he has the most experience.

I reached my breaking point a few weeks ago. I reached 78 while he was at 80, with the plan to do a grind the next few days to surpass him and gain a healthy gap. Until I talked to him the next day after he had played, and he was at 86. I gave up.

I play this game because I love it. It's the perfect pirate game for me, and I'm not going to play it to the point where it is no longer fun, or where I get extremely burnt out of it just to get ahead of him. And while I've explained all this to him, and assured him it wasn't his fault or anything, I just feel defeated and the game kind of feels empty now.

Call it insecure or whatever, but everyone in my friend group has a game that's "their" game. Where we are experienced and skilled, and the numbers in the game show it. His game is Apex Legends. He has over 10000 hours in it and it shows in everything. Another friend's is Battlefield, and he is god-tier with his sniping skills that it's not even funny sometimes, or DRG, he has every overclock in the game and has gotten almost all of us into it. Another's is Helldivers 2, etc. etc. Every person in our friend group has a game that they can say "yeah, I'm good and have worked hard, and the game shows that. Sea of Thieves was 'my' game." And I feel like I've lost that...

I brought it up with him, and he agrees he took it from me (again, I am not blaming him). He agrees that he knocked me from being the Sea of Thieves player of the group. But what probably stings the most is that out all of us, I have the most passion and love for the game. Like I said, SoT is my bread and butter. I'm a pirate and history nerd and there's has been no other game that I've enjoyed more than it. So when he told me, "don't worry, we'll find you a new game to be the guy for," I found myself saying, "But that's what Sea of Thieves was."

Idk what I was really aiming for with this post. Just something that's been stuck in my head, and whenever I play the game, it feels empty and melancholic now that I am no longer the person of the group people will go to for it.

All I can really do is raise my tankard to him as he continues to surpass me.