When TiMi Studios launched the mobile video game, Call of Duty in October 2019, the game changed the life of Romanian born gaming enthusiast Michael Vlaicu, who was by then already known as “Starbeast”, the rising star on the gaming horizon. Being one of the biggest mobile game launches in the history of video games, Call of Duty generated more than US$480 million in revenue from 270+ million downloads. In the recent past, Michael has emerged as one of the top-ranking, energetic faces on the Call of Duty Mobile scene. Leading one of the most engaging communities in the game with thousands of followers who view his stream online, Michael’s story begins far away from the exciting and happening world of video games, in the communist country, Romania, where he was born on January 1, 1986.
Born in a country undergoing one of the worst phases in history with a civil war and life full of hardships for common Romanians, Michael’s family was also facing the brunt. Talking about those days, he reminisces, “We would line up for bread for hours, I would eat meat only once a week and cheese was a luxury to come by. As a kid, I remember telling my parents that I wanted to have Tropicana juice, but they could not buy it for me because it was damn expensive.” Tired of the daily hardships, his family chose to shift to Holland, eventually choosing to settle down in Canada.
For young Michael, who was only 9 at that time, day was spent scouring the streets for discarded furniture, since they didn’t have money to buy new one. During this difficult period, though the family felt safer, Michael’s young mind kept looking for ways to shut down the real world and that is how he developed a passion for gaming. He started visiting the local video game parlour to play the games and after school each day, the kid would spend hours honing his skills on the Super Nintendo, which was a big thing back in those days. Soon, he gained a reputation as quite the gamer among the neighborhood kids.
Michael’s father noticed his son’s passion for gaming and bought him a MS-DOS computer, pushing his son to get hooked on to learning C++ programming language as well as typing. As a result, Michael is today one of the fastest computer typists in his province and he can type 130+ words per minute, with 99% accuracy, which is no less than amazing! Owing to his fast typing speed, Michael has also received several accolades and honors in the gaming world.
The boy who would go on to become ‘Starbeast’ in the future cut his teeth playing games with Victor “Nazgul” Goosens, as a member of Team Liquid, for the world-famous game StarCraft, right when it was introduced. He started building his expertise from there and gradually rose up the ladder, playing on several video games, winning most and losing some. Talking about that time, Michael says, “It was during my time with StarCraft & Warcraft that I noticed my typing skills came in handy. I felt like a superhero among my competitors, and I just wanted to keep that exhilaration going.”
Today, Starbeast is a Facebook Gaming pro, his exclusive stream being one of FB’s biggest partners. He continues to revolutionize the gaming scene with his Call of Duty Mobile gameplay, in which he pushing intelligence in an aggressive manner, earning many young followers in return. Obviously paying a tribute to thousands of his fans and gaming colleagues, Michael has the last word, “COD Mobile is my favorite game of all time. This is the future – it allows you to play on PC, Tablet and Phones.”
