Let's discuss the struggles and the challenges of competitive gaming. There are a lot, like anything in life, it has its own set of challenges that is specific to competitive gaming. You can see this as a continuation of this post, where we answered a question a lot of people had. If you haven't read it yet, I'd highly recommend you to go read it and then come back to this one as we won't be repeating what we already wrote there.
It's as hard as you make it
Firstly, I'll preface with this: it is what you make it to be. That is to say, especially if you don't rely on it for income and to put food on the table for you or your family, you have the luxury of setting your own expectations and goals doing it. The pressure of having to win to make ends meet is something that not only is really hard to deal with but on many occasions, is also something that will take the fun away from what you're doing. If you've read this article, you know how, when it happened to me, I turned the pressure and stress into motivation to get better and to strive. You can definitely see it as a double-edged sword. I think most struggles and challenges can be seen that way actually. That's the beauty of life: What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!
I also knew some people who were in the competitive scene and didn't have those expectations for themselves, they just held themselves to their own standards; meaning that they would simply be satisfied with whether they considered they played better than last time or not. If they did, it's a win. I've also seen these people reach very high levels. I'm assuming it's thanks to them not putting as much pressure on themselves which keeps the game fresh and fun as opposed to almost feeling like a chore for some.
It is... until it's not
Everything in life is hard... to an extent. Especially when you're not used to it or don't know how to do it. It's all about understanding the skill it takes to effectively be able to do the task. With regards to competitive gaming, it takes the same skill as a lot of sports and a lot of endeavors that one would like to do on their own: discipline. Once you have the discipline to train on a regular schedule, go to tournaments, and study, then the process should be as fun as getting the reward and then it's not so hard anymore, because you know how to improve. Learning how to improve and how to learn is the major key foundation to getting good at anything, including gaming. Getting to that point is what's hard. One usually starts by following their favorite players and imitating their styles. Once one gets good at doing that, it's a very hard process to start detaching from those said players and develop one's own style. But once it's done, then the sky is the limit!
People, at the highest level of gaming, always talk about a curve that is, a lot of times very similar one to another. It always starts very slow and steady and then follows a pretty linear growth but at some point, there's a moment that it unlocks, and all of a sudden, it feels like they just improved tenfold! However, there's often what feels like a plateau right before the breakthrough happens, but it's part of the game!
Remember your why!
No matter how hard it gets, and it will get really hard the higher and better you get, you must always remember why you started in the first place because that'll be your fuel to continue day after day. That'll help you remember that do it for the love of the game and you loved it so much that you decided to pursue a competitive career! That's love right there! And if you do end up quitting because it became too hard or lame and now you're not having fun anymore, well it's also okay to understand that maybe this competitive gaming career was not for you, and better to learn it early than late. Honestly, some games do get pretty lame when everyone starts only playing to win, it feels like the fun just went out the window. But that's sometimes that's the sad reality of life: Not everything can be fun forever...
It's as hard as you make it
Firstly, I'll preface with this: it is what you make it to be. That is to say, especially if you don't rely on it for income and to put food on the table for you or your family, you have the luxury of setting your own expectations and goals doing it. The pressure of having to win to make ends meet is something that not only is really hard to deal with but on many occasions, is also something that will take the fun away from what you're doing. If you've read this article, you know how, when it happened to me, I turned the pressure and stress into motivation to get better and to strive. You can definitely see it as a double-edged sword. I think most struggles and challenges can be seen that way actually. That's the beauty of life: What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger!
I also knew some people who were in the competitive scene and didn't have those expectations for themselves, they just held themselves to their own standards; meaning that they would simply be satisfied with whether they considered they played better than last time or not. If they did, it's a win. I've also seen these people reach very high levels. I'm assuming it's thanks to them not putting as much pressure on themselves which keeps the game fresh and fun as opposed to almost feeling like a chore for some.
It is... until it's not
Everything in life is hard... to an extent. Especially when you're not used to it or don't know how to do it. It's all about understanding the skill it takes to effectively be able to do the task. With regards to competitive gaming, it takes the same skill as a lot of sports and a lot of endeavors that one would like to do on their own: discipline. Once you have the discipline to train on a regular schedule, go to tournaments, and study, then the process should be as fun as getting the reward and then it's not so hard anymore, because you know how to improve. Learning how to improve and how to learn is the major key foundation to getting good at anything, including gaming. Getting to that point is what's hard. One usually starts by following their favorite players and imitating their styles. Once one gets good at doing that, it's a very hard process to start detaching from those said players and develop one's own style. But once it's done, then the sky is the limit!
People, at the highest level of gaming, always talk about a curve that is, a lot of times very similar one to another. It always starts very slow and steady and then follows a pretty linear growth but at some point, there's a moment that it unlocks, and all of a sudden, it feels like they just improved tenfold! However, there's often what feels like a plateau right before the breakthrough happens, but it's part of the game!
Remember your why!
No matter how hard it gets, and it will get really hard the higher and better you get, you must always remember why you started in the first place because that'll be your fuel to continue day after day. That'll help you remember that do it for the love of the game and you loved it so much that you decided to pursue a competitive career! That's love right there! And if you do end up quitting because it became too hard or lame and now you're not having fun anymore, well it's also okay to understand that maybe this competitive gaming career was not for you, and better to learn it early than late. Honestly, some games do get pretty lame when everyone starts only playing to win, it feels like the fun just went out the window. But that's sometimes that's the sad reality of life: Not everything can be fun forever...