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I haven't won anything from playing games competitively. Nothing. Well, I won $75 in a "freestyle" DDR tournament at Arcade Infinity, but looking back on it, it was nothing more than a popularity contest and it looks uncoordinated and clumsy, so it's nothing I'm too proud of.
I was slightly more coordinated than this guy.
I've read books like "Talent is Overrated," saying that before you can get really good at something, you have to put in at least 10,000 hours. I'm not entirely convinced of that, since it seems that by the time I put in 10,000 hours, everyone good has already put in 100,000 hours. When it comes to competitive gaming, I have some sort of ADD--I jump from being average in one game to average in another game.
It all started with Marvel vs. Capcom 2, since that game was synonymous with my interest in playing competitive gaming. I went through all sorts of stages with that one, from "Those stupid Koreans at the arcade are so cheap because all they do is HPx4 - HVB and if you try to jump in they just call CapCom AAA!" to discovering all sorts of broken tactics like AHVBx3, Guard Breaks, and Anti-Air assists, to discovering the vibrant tournament scene. I never did enter a tournament though, since I was somewhere below the average at my local arcade which paled in comparison to the legends at SHGL.
From there, I moved on and concentrated on rhythm games. DDR freestyle was something stupid, but at the time I was determined to get really good at Beatmania IIDX. Up until 6th style, I showed considerable promise--I got up to playing 7 stars in little more than 2 months, but from then on I stalled. Then, everybody got the console version and just rocketed past me, since I was too poor to afford a JPN PS2/IIDX controller.
Believe it or not, one of these was $100. Now you can probably get 3 of them for $100.
Sometimes, my friends and I would pick up random games and play them competitively. I remember when Tetris Attack started making waves, and it seemed like no matter how much I played, I was stuck on some primitive level. Three of my friends picked up and got really, really good at it. While I was struggling to make something more than an 5 chain, they "had to" limit their own chains to 12 because that was where the score for chains was capped.
In my first year of college, Warcraft III came out and I just got hooked on it. Yet for all I played, I could never get that good at it. I played something like 200 games in 3 weeks, and still could not pass rank 8 (out of 20, back when it was difficult). Frustrated, and with grades on the rapid decline, I gradually quit. Grades would decline even more once I began Final Fantasy 11, but that's another story.
The next games I would move on to would be Tekken 5 and 3rd Strike. Tekken 5 just got released, and 3rd Strike was still cresting on the wave of popularity after the Daigo parry. I ended up joining SDTekken, but I never felt very good about it because it felt undeserved. I always tended towards the bottom, and I had anti-clutch moments in the four tournaments I entered. I was triple perfected in one, and lost matches at the last second because the wrong move would come out. I would lose to "the biggest scrub in the tournament" at one event. The most embarrassing loss I dealt with was when I went to a beginners tournament in San Diego. I was facing a guy that I used to practice a lot against, and in those rounds the score was something sick like me winning 32-2. But in the tournament, I won the first match easily and was up 2-0 in the second match... then I just straight dropped 6 rounds in a row.
Who DIDN'T want to play 3S after watching this?
With 3rd Strike, I attended weekly gatherings at my friend's house and again, I was somewhere near below average of the group. One fine day, he wanted to try getting into Guilty Gear, so he invited nearly all of the SoCal community to his house... and I just got spanked at 3rd Strike... by people who didn't even main this game! They primarily played Guilty Gear! I was convinced that I didn't have what it took to play that game either, so soon that faded away. Tekken faded away when I graduated from San Diego, since I found it harder to get games in LA... they were both incredibly far and the community was a lot more standoffish than San Diego's.
I tried Starcraft BW but by then, everyone was too good. I would get raped by D players, and I would rape D- players. A lot of times I would lose matches because I would make huge retarded blunders at key situations. I don't think I ever stopped an early Zealot rush or a 5 pool. I'm not even sure I won a standard TvZ because if the mutas didn't outright destroy me, my micro against lurkers was atrocious. But I sure would have lots of troops because I had good APM! =\
After that, I kinda stayed away from it all. When SF4 came out, I only played online and against my brother, and never really bothered to seek out competition. When Tetris: The Grandmaster 3 (TGM3) came out at Arcade Infinity, I got really good... for a bit, then when I hit S3/S4 I hit a wall and gave up. I played a ton of Soul Calibur 4, but when gatherings were moved from my city to Irvine, a city 45 minutes away, I didn't even bother to go. Tekken 6 I played strictly online. I had some friends that wanted to get into MLG Halo 3, but the team dissolved because we couldn't find a good 4th player. That, and we also could not win objective games, even though we were decent at deathmatch. (I think we literally held a party after winning our first King of the Hill on Construct.)
Throughout this entire journey, I've seemingly met all the great players of every game, even when they weren't that great at the time. It's kind of a jolting feeling when you see someone who wasn't that good when you first played, get top placings at big tournaments. It makes me wonder if I'm just that lacking in talent, or if it was just because I could not stick with it when I hit the first wall. And what's even crazier about it all is that my skills are impressive to people that aren't in that particular scene. To a 3rd Strike player, I was amazing at IIDX. To a Tekken player, I was amazing at 3rd Strike. To an SF4 player, I'm amazing at MvC2. To the IIDX players, I'm amazing at TGM3. Yet in each individual scene, I never amounted more to average.
Now comes Super Street Fighter 4 and Starcraft 2, and I'm just wondering if I still have the guts to play them competitvely. I've already been dealt lots of heartbreaking losses in Starcraft 2 to bad players(I've lost several games because the Z would build 6 muta and even though I had double the food count, I only had marauders and it was auto-loss), and playing with the local SF4 scene I am getting destroyed by their good players... like 0-10, 0-7.
But in the end, even if I turn out not to be the best, not to be very good... the competitive lifecycle will always appeal to me. The feeling of triumph over someone, the repeated honing of new skills, combos, tactics, strategy, learning the intricate mechanics to gain that tiny little edge... all of it is something I love to do.
Even if I am just average.
 
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Great read.
Coming back from your losses and learning from your mistakes already bumps you up from an "average gamer." Even if your win rate sometimes doesn't show it, persistence is what will set you apart from the rest.
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Once you hit that wall you have to keep pushing, if you keep skipping around from game to game you'll never be amazing. You have to be able to put up with a long time where you feel like you aren't improving at all, then you'll make a breakthrough and you'll progress in leaps and bounds, at least that's the way it works for me.
Great post btw
Also: if your micro sucks don't play terran >_>
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I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server.
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It's good you enjoy it all, even if you never get too far. I wish more people (myself included) were content with their state at life, although don't ever put yourself down to never be able to hit points of higher levels of skill. It really isn't about talent more than hard work. I mean, yeah, some people are easily more predisposed to be good at certain things, but hard work can be very fruitful too.
I think it's better if you just found your calling, so to speak. The one game you really want to focus on, but that's probably why you never go beyond average, because you seem to try to be a jack-of-all-trades with competitive games. You'll never excel at any one game if you are shifting through so many, unless you had a powerful understanding of all related games and could apply that to skill. But they're all different, and require their own technical mastery.
I'm really the same way too, constantly trying to be good at so many competitive games, but I eventually came to the conclusion that I need to just stick to the games I love. It's what I did subconsciously when I played CoD years ago pre-4, and I was on my way to going through CAL ranks, if not for my outside life interfering. I wasn't close to the best, but I would've had a chance to hone my skills. But I would focus on CoD, instead of trying to be good at so many games. At that time, I was only really good at CoD, and nothing else (which isn't anything to brag about now, probably not then either, especially to CS players).
It's kind of hard to be called "The Korean" by my buddies at school. I mean, really, I'm not even remotely there. Hell, most non-Koreans own me (not that Korean = amazing by default, just generalizing the skill groups here).
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it seems you are tying to play games that are incredibly demanding in skill in a concentrated area. Jumping from game to game, and completely different styles of games, you will never be able to master what is needed to become truly competitive to that genre/game. I can't really talk from a professional standpoint, but i have made about 900 dollars in my gaming career, and I regret every minute of it. Grades suffered to a point I did not like. Since then, I have pretty much quit competitive gaming, and moved to casual. I am still much better than the average gamer at most games in the genres I play. I also started playing poker casually at the low levels. I really enjoy the game, and get a lot of enjoyment in my life from playing it.
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I know exactly how you feel lol. Working my way up in sf4 and still playing way too much mahvel because the game is too fun. I feel halfway competent in those 2, but before that..
Starcraft
Pump it Up
Guilty Gear
3rd Strike
CvS2
Arcana Heart
Super Turbo
Blazblue
Now I've even come to start on Melty Blood and I played Tatsunoko vs Capcom before I realized how far behind I was behind the top local, yet how stagnant everyone else seems locally.
I get you 100%. I have a D+ zerg, I can play crazy/nightmare songs on pui, have a scrubtastic Ky-Kiske, a 3s Ken that can't short short super consistently and Yun that can't finish Geneijin combos, never got past mashing rh with sakura in cvs2, learned one saki combo for AH1 but never got much further, and can kinda zone while mainly abusing tick throws with ST Sim. I actually got relatively decent (enough to place top 3 in local tourneys) in tvc/blazblue, but those have already been left by the wayside.
I know exactly how you feel though. I've had a little more success by virtue of a weaker local scene, but I've had a guilty gear player come and beat me in 3s in a tourney, that was a kick in the gut for sure lol. For a while I could simply never win a match in loser's bracket.
You take something from everything though, even when you don't think you do. Apply yourself to something and it may start to click. For proof, when I was trying to learn sc before fighters, I could barely get wins at D to stay even. Come back after playing fighters for 2 years or so, I hit D+ in a day's time >.>
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Good read, but, everyone hits a wall, infact you will hit many walls if u keep trying, its about passing them.
You always hear about players hitting walls, especially in starcraft. How many times have you read
"I just cant beat a good protoss"
"I swear PvZ is impossible"
"I have NO idea how to hold a bunker rush"
Its pushing past these walls, that take time and a lot of dedication and patience, that turns the avg person into a great person at what they do.
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Enjoyed reading this one, thanks for taking the time to write this down.
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FREEAGLELAND26780 Posts
Enjoyed this!
Welcome to the average world, haha. Though I will argue that SC puts you "above average" especially in terms of all other RTSes...
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Holy Shit!! U WON 75$!!! I on the other hand share many similar experiences yet has never won any small tourneys. except small money bets on dota... =.=
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10k hours is an insane amount of time. If you'd have put that much time into any of those, you would be good, no question.
Not many people are actually willing and able to put in that much time though. They get discouraged or bored and quit.
There's nothing wrong with that.
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Very entertaining and well written.
My first thought was, maybe you could become a coach, like when Daniel Lee tries to teach the reporter starcraft + Show Spoiler [Well I didn't do a good job, but…] +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USE1uPZbOZw I didn't do a good job, but you understand the concept. That's why I'm the head coach not the gamer Reporter: Sadly, we lost coach
Daniel Lee: No you lost. And I gave you good directions, you just didn't follow
My second thought is that maybe you're mentally weak. Not as in stupid, but reacting poorly to competition/defeat/setbacks+ Show Spoiler [failure] +. Like Mark Cuban said that when Dirk Nowitzki took a personality test, he scored off the charts ... and after some googling I believe they're referring to the Caliper test.
And finally, unlucky at cards...
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I have the same issue but I've thought of a way to make myself feel slightly better. I played CS 1.6 and Source competitively for many years but never reaching a high enough level to be recognized.
After I stepped back from it, I realized that I was better than 95% of the players who ever played these games, but competition at the top 5% was incredibly intense. I believe that this is true in every game. It's like when people say the more learn, the more you don't know.
I guess what I'm trying to get across is to be happy that you are at a high enough level to realize that you suck.  Good luck, keep gaming!
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Netherlands19129 Posts
Good read! Nice blog, keep it up XD.
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United States4796 Posts
Awesome read. Great show of modesty.
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man if it wasnt for the spotlight i would have never read this, is so good and interesting, defenitely a good read.
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go zerg imo in BW its a much easier race
if your opponent is lousy just spam hatches and ovies, and spam those larvae macro so ezpz
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God dangit I love you Joe.
Never would have known this was you if I didn't see your Twitter.
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It's just another way of competitive gaming. If you can't make it to the top anyways, don't waste your time but play another game if you have more fun with it.
After I made my first steps with weekly Counter-Strike LANs (starting with 1.2) I finally got internet and joined a Counter-Strike clan. Then I became a Guitar Hero-addict and got into the early competitive GH scene (No online back then - just PS2s). Then a friend convinced me of WH40K Dawn of War and I learned an RTS. After that I got into simulations (Falcon 4.0 etc.).
I always got some skills in every game, but never reached anything but being better than the local guys. The only tournament price money I got was in a simple arcade game called blobby volley which I played just for fun.
But I don't regret anything. I don't think I would have acomplished anything if I just concentrated on one title as there are always people who are way more talented and focused than me. Insteat I've always played the game I wanted to play at the time.
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On April 26 2010 16:52 sArite_nite wrote:
I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server.
I hear this all of the time, and I don't really get it. I've played many games, some at very high levels, and I don't think SC takes more skill than a game like quake for example. Most games require a lot of the same skills - hand eye coordination and strategy. Except they're implemented in different ways.
An SC player isn't going to pick up an FPS or a fighting game and destroy everyone the same way that a top level FPS player isn't going to pick up Starcraft and destroy everyone. I think certain games within one genre might take more skill than another, but I wouldn't assume that SC requires more skill than any top-level game of any of the other popular genres. The level of thinking, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination in a game like Quake is mind-blowing, and happens at an insanely fast pace. The teamwork and tactics required for a game like Counter-Strike are equally mind-blowing. I don't think either are easier than the other, if you tried to pick up one of those games you would have a really, really steep climb to the top, just like you would with SC.
-edit-
Also, to the OP: I would just be content with being decent at a bunch of games and having fun. When you reach the top of the heap in any given game it gets to a point where it starts to become almost like a job. It's still very satisfying to get a win over top competition or to pull off something amazing, but it's not the same kind of carefree fun you have when you're just decent at a game and don't have much invested. It can be really draining playing games at the top tiers, because the amount of concentration that is necessary is pretty immense, and you need to keep it at the highest level throughout.
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On April 26 2010 23:33 Aether wrote:Show nested quote +On April 26 2010 16:52 sArite_nite wrote:
I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server. I hear this all of the time, and I don't really get it. I've played many games, some at very high levels, and I don't think SC takes more skill than a game like quake for example. Most games require a lot of the same skills - hand eye coordination and strategy. Except they're implemented in different ways. An SC player isn't going to pick up an FPS or a fighting game and destroy everyone the same way that a top level FPS player isn't going to pick up Starcraft and destroy everyone. I think certain games within one genre might take more skill than another, but I wouldn't assume that SC requires more skill than any top-level game of any of the other popular genres. The level of thinking, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination in a game like Quake is mind-blowing, and happens at an insanely fast pace. The teamwork and tactics required for a game like Counter-Strike are equally mind-blowing. I don't think either are easier than the other, if you tried to pick up one of those games you would have a really, really steep climb to the top, just like you would with SC.
People who play quake and CS competitively aren't "average gamers".
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On April 26 2010 23:49 sixghost wrote:Show nested quote +On April 26 2010 23:33 Aether wrote:On April 26 2010 16:52 sArite_nite wrote:
I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server. I hear this all of the time, and I don't really get it. I've played many games, some at very high levels, and I don't think SC takes more skill than a game like quake for example. Most games require a lot of the same skills - hand eye coordination and strategy. Except they're implemented in different ways. An SC player isn't going to pick up an FPS or a fighting game and destroy everyone the same way that a top level FPS player isn't going to pick up Starcraft and destroy everyone. I think certain games within one genre might take more skill than another, but I wouldn't assume that SC requires more skill than any top-level game of any of the other popular genres. The level of thinking, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination in a game like Quake is mind-blowing, and happens at an insanely fast pace. The teamwork and tactics required for a game like Counter-Strike are equally mind-blowing. I don't think either are easier than the other, if you tried to pick up one of those games you would have a really, really steep climb to the top, just like you would with SC. People who play quake and CS competitively aren't "average gamers".
I don't see what that has to do with what I wrote, to be honest. He said that a D level starcraft player would be an A level WoW players because the game is inherently harder. The reasoning I used applies for any level of player.
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On April 26 2010 17:53 siv00 wrote:
10k hours is an insane amount of time. If you'd have put that much time into any of those, you would be good, no question.
Not many people are actually willing and able to put in that much time though. They get discouraged or bored and quit.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Hmm ask any trained musician or sportsman and 10k hours is probably a given simply to get competent, not to mention "good" or "competition worthy".
The problem is getting to that point in the 1st place, thats where passion, determination and blood+sweat+tears actually comes in. Imho I've dabbled in various hobbies and when i return to the ones that i've dedicated serious time and effort into those are the one's where i can honestly reflect upon and say that those are the defining times of my life =p
edit: love the last pic btw
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I tried Starcraft BW but by then, everyone was too good. I would get raped by D players, and I would rape D- players. A lot of times I would lose matches because I would make huge retarded blunders at key situations. I don't think I ever stopped an early Zealot rush or a 5 pool. I'm not even sure I won a standard TvZ because if the mutas didn't outright destroy me, my micro against lurkers was atrocious. But I sure would have lots of troops because I had good APM! =\
Perfect description of me -.-
nice blog, enjoyed the read.
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On April 26 2010 16:52 sArite_nite wrote:
I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server.
Games are..very different from each other. Most of your starcraft skills can't really be applied on WoW, only exception maybe would be the overall attention you have to what's going on on your screen. There's no macro or micro, no build orders or anything, you're gonna have to learn how the game works, how to heal and dps, skill rotations, your character's build, what's viable and what is not. You're gonna have to learn how to calculate your stats, how to gem right, how to choose your gear right, and so on. WoW might be much easier to learn/master, but that doesn't mean playing starcraft will make you automatically good at all other games.
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I can sympathize with your, I've had my fair share of "competetive" scene back in the day. Tho I've only ever played 2 games on a level where we could talk about progaming. But the main difference between us was that I was playing these games from pure enjoyment, without the urge to go further, go pro (or atleast that's how I feel it from your post).
But you really have to sacrifice so much time in order to become somehow good at first, that many people will back off. When you've invested enough to move to the average level, you have to breakthrough the first wall, I've managed to do that only once and it was fucking painfull (Counter Strike). But once I've got on that "pro" level, things were a bit brighter again, we've played few european tournaments, even won some cash, I've played a couple of matches for our national team and we had the chance to spare with europe's best. But I had to pump even more time into practicing, hours and hours on aim maps, hours spent watching every single pro demo and in the end hours of TGs and CWs. I can't really say if it was worth it, looking back it's all clouded by nostalgia. By the time I was getting really burnt out from CS, I've gotten into a serious relationship, which only sped up my farewell to progaming (4ever). I'm playing SC2 now, I want to get better, but I have zero ambition for going pro, I know I can't do that anymore.
You should choose one game and go all out, even if you are not doing good at the moment, even if you struggle, you have to keep going. It's impossible not to improve. Sometimes you make progress which you can't really notice, but you are still getting better and better. Good luck!
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On April 26 2010 23:58 Aether wrote:Show nested quote +On April 26 2010 23:49 sixghost wrote:On April 26 2010 23:33 Aether wrote:On April 26 2010 16:52 sArite_nite wrote:
I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server. I hear this all of the time, and I don't really get it. I've played many games, some at very high levels, and I don't think SC takes more skill than a game like quake for example. Most games require a lot of the same skills - hand eye coordination and strategy. Except they're implemented in different ways. An SC player isn't going to pick up an FPS or a fighting game and destroy everyone the same way that a top level FPS player isn't going to pick up Starcraft and destroy everyone. I think certain games within one genre might take more skill than another, but I wouldn't assume that SC requires more skill than any top-level game of any of the other popular genres. The level of thinking, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination in a game like Quake is mind-blowing, and happens at an insanely fast pace. The teamwork and tactics required for a game like Counter-Strike are equally mind-blowing. I don't think either are easier than the other, if you tried to pick up one of those games you would have a really, really steep climb to the top, just like you would with SC. People who play quake and CS competitively aren't "average gamers". I don't see what that has to do with what I wrote, to be honest. He said that a D level starcraft player would be an A level WoW players because the game is inherently harder. The reasoning I used applies for any level of player. SC, Q3, and CS are all games that are much harder to play at any sort of level of competence. He wasn't saying SC players could easily dominate those games, because they are just as hard to play. He was referring to SC players playing much easier games, such as WoW.
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On April 27 2010 02:45 sixghost wrote:Show nested quote +On April 26 2010 23:58 Aether wrote:On April 26 2010 23:49 sixghost wrote:On April 26 2010 23:33 Aether wrote:On April 26 2010 16:52 sArite_nite wrote:
I beg to differ. Any Starcraft player is not an average-skilled gamer, we who are D have learnt skills far beyond the comprehension of any average gamer.
I bet you, if you played WoW now you'd be one of the best on your server. I hear this all of the time, and I don't really get it. I've played many games, some at very high levels, and I don't think SC takes more skill than a game like quake for example. Most games require a lot of the same skills - hand eye coordination and strategy. Except they're implemented in different ways. An SC player isn't going to pick up an FPS or a fighting game and destroy everyone the same way that a top level FPS player isn't going to pick up Starcraft and destroy everyone. I think certain games within one genre might take more skill than another, but I wouldn't assume that SC requires more skill than any top-level game of any of the other popular genres. The level of thinking, multitasking, and hand-eye coordination in a game like Quake is mind-blowing, and happens at an insanely fast pace. The teamwork and tactics required for a game like Counter-Strike are equally mind-blowing. I don't think either are easier than the other, if you tried to pick up one of those games you would have a really, really steep climb to the top, just like you would with SC. People who play quake and CS competitively aren't "average gamers". I don't see what that has to do with what I wrote, to be honest. He said that a D level starcraft player would be an A level WoW players because the game is inherently harder. The reasoning I used applies for any level of player. SC, Q3, and CS are all games that are much harder to play at any sort of level of competence. He wasn't saying SC players could easily dominate those games, because they are just as hard to play. He was referring to SC players playing much easier games, such as WoW.
I beg to disagree with CS reference here, if we are talking the average, it's very well possible that bad team will walk over significantly better team with some luck. When the difference is vast, it won't happen ofcourse. I've experienced quiete a lot of these screw moments (back when mr12 was in play), when noob and disorganized team beat much better team just because of retarded unpredictable rushes and lucky hs's. Aim servers were to blame. That won't happen in any RTS or games where the entry skill level required is higher (Quake, UT).
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Really now? Good players losing to worse players would never happen in any RTS?
@OP: I am the same way, I tend to be able to pick up games easily and quickly become better than all my "casual" friends, and I generally will look for some competitive community online to further hone my skills, but that's about as far as I go. This usually ends up with me hovering around the equivalent of C level in any competitive game. But meh... I'm perfectly fine with being "that one guy who's good at video games" despite not putting very much work into it (or being any good relative to the competitive scene), and I suppose this total lack of ambition is what separates us 
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Nice read. Makes me reflect too as a gamer :D
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very cool read. this applies to myself in so many ways methinks
COOL >_<
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Thanks for all the positive responses. It feels great since my first TL Blog post was absolutely horrendous and unfocused.
If there was a time for me to get really good and near the top, it was in my high school and college days when I had tons of free time and no money to go out. Now I'm working 9 to 5 and on top of that, have picked up some other hobbies that take away from gaming time. Because of that, I don't mind being just an average player now. I can't compete with a player like  Flash who sleeps for 3 hours and practices for 28 hours in a single day and although that's the extreme of the extremes, putting in an hour a day versus putting in 3 hours a day makes a big difference.
There's actually very little carry-over between games, so even if you are good at SC it won't even mean that you're good at another RTS. I was also decidedly average at Company of Heroes, and that game doesn't even have very many units or base management at all. I don't imagine being average at SC makes you great at WoW, just like how being average at SF4 didn't make me great at Super Mario Bros 3.
For that matter, switching characters or races has never made a game easier for me to win. If anything, it just makes it much harder since I have to relearn the fundamentals for that race/character.
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i liked the read, and can totally relate. EXCEPT IM D+ OHOHO!
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Something I don't see mentioned here is that there is such a thing as innate talent. No one questions that certain people are never going to be professional athletes, and most high-level college athletes simply don't physically have what it takes to compete at the highest level no matter how much they practice. Some people are physically and mentally extremely well-suited for competitive gaming, and some people aren't. Being a high-level (roughly, top 200?) player in a game where there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of players is going to be outside most people's grasp no matter what they do.
Enjoy playing games 'well' for whatever 'well' means to you, and admire the people who achieve greatness without considering yourself a failure.
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Great read. Just playing Tetris Attack makes you a hero in my book. I'm not sure how many hours I spent playing that game in a friends basement, unfortunately I got too competitive and gradually they all quit. It's still an awesome fucking game.
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Your post breaks my heart because you are limiting yourself. You already convinced yourself that you will never become better than an average gamer and it's true...because you are never gonna try hard enough to break out of mediocrity. Getting good is not easy and it requires a tremendous amount of effort even for those who are considered innately talented which I don't even believe in. Everyone thinks I'm innately talented because I can play lots of games, instruments, and other hobbies extremely well but it's only because I put in a ton of effort. I started out just as bad as everyone else.
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Nice read. I feel ya bro. I pretty much strive for mediocrity at games these days :<
Atm I'm looking over omg.deus's post as I'm writing this. I'd like to say that yes, it does take a great deal of work to get good at some games. However I do believe in innate talent and quick learning, and I think we all can get pretty decent at least something if we try. But the real question is, do you want to commit to that? It's a risky move trying to make a living off of video games, and there are many greater priorities that can lead to a more stable life.
But if you're me, play the games for the fun of learning to play and for the sake of the game. If you're forcing yourself to trudge on while playing a game maybe it's not meant for you. This might not apply to people who get frustrated once in a while (or often.. I dunno) at a professional level, but not all of us have that kind of reputation.
For the sake of example, I've been playing Stepmania for a good deal of time now (2 years or so?) It's nowhere near as difficult as Beatmania imo in terms of finger rhythm games but I've gotten pretty decent. But decent is only decent, and I'll never be as good as some of the great players out there. (and hell, there's quite a bit of great players out there)
Starcraft I wanted to pursue D+ or even C- but I quit. Too hard and strenuous for me: I can't play Starcraft continuously for very long periods of time, especially solely melee/1v1 games.
Nice to know I'm one of the top at my high school though. lmao
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Totally in the same boat as you man. I think part of the issue with me is that I have only one friend that plays games in the same competitive manner as I do.
Been playing SC for so long but my biggest accomplishment is hitting C- on ICCup a few seasons ago. Mind you, the most I played in recent years was like 100 games in a month a few times so I can't say I deserve to be much better. Might be too early to tell for SC2 but I get the feeling the situation will be the same since I'm like 8-8 in a gold division atm. I thought the easier mechanics (MBS, mass unit selection) would help my shitty APM keep up a bit better but it doesn't seem like it's enough. Everyone else is getting the same boost as me I guess.
I was pretty big on CS (both 1.6 and Source) as well, but getting a decent team together takes so much effort (always one person with an attitude or that doesn't want to commit to practicing 1-2x a few hours a week), I've never really amounted to more than a pub-stomper. Now I'm only playing the game for 2-3 hours a week tops, don't even wanna try so much anymore. Maybe when cspromod finally comes out with a good version, I'll be motivated a bit again.
LoL, I've played a few hundred games and still feed like an idiot some games. Some games, I dominate. Most games, I pull my weight. But I'll never be a top player at that either or any of the other games like DoTA or HoN.
Whatever though, I still have fun at it ;p
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Great read, but just keep at it and you'll become better eventually!
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I suck at tekken 6 if it makes you feel better
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So very true, competitive gaming > all other types of gaming =S I've had my run in CoD 4 along side with a lan victory in CoD 2 and once in BF1942 Those were without a doubt one of my greatest moments, I don't know why but playing games for a point other than just playing it somehow makes the game tenfold in entertainment value.
I myself was never that great at SC1 tried my best at playing but never got the hang of it. That was way back when I was younger Going to give SC2 with my super advanced 21 year old brain
Yet I'm 90% sure it won't end in any glories
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dude awesome blog i liked it a lot, i feel the same way about a lot oft he things you do. my first game i played competitively was MechAssult for the original xbox, it was one of the first games that was made for Live!. man i was hooked, from the it was RTCW and some of the rainbow six series.
i quit video games for a while after getting bored of halo 2, and my friends got me hooked on brood war, so i got a beta key and here i am playing sc2.
if being good means i gotta dedicate 12 hrs a day to starcraft then fuck it, i like being average waaay more.
:D
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Awesome blog man, reminds me of myself haha
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I feel exactly how you feel. I switch games every few months all the time. I've never really sat and dedicated myself to one game.
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ahaha good post
well worth the read
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Great Read. I recently got frustrated with Dota and gave up.
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I know what you mean. I've tried to break out of the same sort of cycle of mediocrity with Brood War, but I ended up getting discouraged after having a constant 30% winrate and never being able to pass D+. Hopefully this will be different for SC2!
Also, this story/concept kind of reminds me of a quote from Civ IV:
"If you chase two rabbits, you will lose them both."
With the rabbit in this case being excellence toward a specific game.
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I saw this in the news thread. Great read, thanks for sharing.
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Noticed you mentioned TGM3 which I thought wasn't a very common game for people to play.
I actually played/play Tetris competitively still starting with tds and then moving on to the tgm series among other things and finally settling on tetris of japan (which I'd suggest you check out if you like tetris... not sure if linking is allowed but check out harddrop.com forums for an english version)
Among the competitive tetris players I'm extremely mediocre; some of the top players can play at twice my speed. But when my friends have seen me play they're always mystified.
It goes to show , like a lot of people have mentioned, you're probably a lot better at these games than it seems. Oh and also, being average is okay too.
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I got into SC BW way to late to be any good.....
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Wow that was awesome, hell of a write up.
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Was a nice read.
You talk about having to use 10000 hours to become pro in a game. I have seen exact same number in "illustrated science" magasin, but according to your life and experiences i wouldn't count this hypothesis out. Just a little math...
10000 hours = 1.145 year
1 year = 8730 hours
If you invest 1 hour a day to gaming (casual gamer): 27 years
If you invest 3 hour a day to gaming (average gamer): 9 years
If you invest 5 hour a day to gaming (hardcore gamer): 5.4 years
If you invest 16 hour a day to gaming (Should get a life/Extreme pro): 1.7 years
So I say no wonder that you are not pro... Cause I strongly doubt that you have dedicated that amount of time in just 1 game...
According to Illustrated science Magasin, it is enough with 6000 hours to become really good, but to get the level of perfection you must use 10000 hours.
I think you have underrestimated the amount of time that is needed to become professional at a game.
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Glad this was linked from the front page.
I'm also an average-skilled gamer living in San Diego who goes from game to game.
Average SF4. Average 3S. Average Brawl. Average CvS2. Average DJ Max. Average Tetris. Average Tetris Attack. Average Starcraft (if D is Average).
Hell, it's even like that in other aspects of my life. Average TaeKwonDo. Average Karate. Average Graphic Design. Average Writing. Average SAT Scores. Goes on and on.
I can get to the point where I'm impressive to people who aren't well-versed in the scene ("Wow, you're so good at SF4" from rhythm game players, "Wow you're so good at video games games!" from friends, etc.), but I can't get to where I can ever successfully compete with the local scenes (much less regional/national). Hell, I too also meet the people who just show up in the scene and shortly after I leave it, I would find them winning tournaments left and right.
I am average... but damn do I just love picking up something and learning new shit, getting to know the community, breaking personal milestones and all that other good stuff that you already mentioned. It's all such a great feeling and a great experience, even if I am just average.
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Great post by the op, and I share a lot of your feelings man, although the games are different, I have had a lot of similar experiences (quake, quake 3, sc, bw, cs, cs:s, dota, wow, tf2) now I feel its all happening again with hon + sc2... I always get to a "decent" level, good enough to beat the casuals but bad to anyone who is into it.
Personally though I don't have a problem with it. I look at games as a hobby, I have absolutely no doubt that if I committed 8 hours solid a day playing, every day I would have the skill to be up there in any game I chose to commit myself to... The simple fact of the matter is I am not willing to commit that time.
There are Wayyy too many other things I want to do in life, things that are more important. This wouldn't be the case if I could definitely make a living off e-sports, but in this world, the way it is at the moment (at the very least in Australia), that just isn't possible... Or maybe it is but the amount of time that would need to be invested to reap profits that are just totally incomparable to other industries isn't worth the effort.
I love games, and I would love for there to be a day when competitive gaming is a solid career choice, but until that time comes, I'm quite content being that average player...
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<3
I bet you get girls tho! XD
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