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warning: this is a fairly uninteresting blog and will probably not be worth reading if you don't know anything about me
Anyways, lately I've been thinking a lot about myself, my goals in SC2, and my goals in life. I've recently reached 2000 pts in diamond league on SC2, currently sitting at #144 in North America with 2053 pts on SC2ranks.com. Two days ago, I also won 60$ taking the Cybercraft tournament in Flushing, NY over a competitive field of 32. Anyway, I've done this fairly easily without too much practice - I only have 230ish ladder games since release and <500 customs (many of those being UMS as well). I'm 15 and go to Hunter College HS in manhattan, which is a "magnet" school in a big city (50% asian, lots of homework, etc) and my parents definitely want me to see school as my first priority. They also want me to continue having some sort of social life, activities, exercise etc - continue living a normal life, but my dad is also a (casual) gamer and he supports my competitive gaming. It's gotten to the point where I feel like I need to play more than my parents like in order to progress to the next level - I recently began practicing a lot more in preparation for the Cybercraft tournament and my parents both mentioned how much I was playing. They seemed to think it was okay in preparation for the tournament, but I don't think they realize that I'll need to maintain 3+ hours a day of practice on weeknights if I want to make it to the next level. Basically, they support my desire to be good at what I enjoy but they don't want the rest of my life (especially school) to suffer because of it. so yea, basically, I'm not sure how much time I want to invest into SC2 at the moment... just having a tough time deciding what I really want to do with my life at the moment. :| I want to get sponsored and begin playing in larger tournaments, but I don't know how to make the jump from a good player to a top player. I guess I just have to start succeeding more in the larger open tournaments. We'll see! 
 
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Go do as much shit as possible that you wouldnt be able to do holding down a career in 10 years time while youre still young. And goddamn you're young (the "goddamn" part intended to sound emphatic, not pedophilic)
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i see they haven't taught you to use paragraphs in school yet
is practicing 3+ hours a night hurting your academics? i'm guessing your school's tougher than mine but even then... well i guess you can't go lower than 3+ hours if you want to make it out of noobville
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well it isn't directly but like... it basically means that I don't do any other activities, which my parents don't really like. oh and when junior year hits its gonna be even tougher (next year).
and also, blogs aren't made to be well organized and well written  cept for my starcraft history blog
@FireBlast the issue is that I might not have a decent career to hold down in 10 years if I fuck up now.
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school comes first bro, especially when you're young, so you have a basic knowledge of things.
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lol ok i get it, so you have no extra curriculars that are college application-able? i suppose you can always try to get one of our esports staff people to write you a recommendation or something to make up for that...
I might not have a decent career to hold down in 10 years if I fuck up now.
poke, thats bullshit, you're setting expectations high so a "decent" career is actually in your eyes a really really good career. i get where you're coming from but you should still put things in perspective. its very doubtful you won't have decent career 10 years from now if you want it, but your chances of getting your dream career will be if you don't go ivy or whatever. if starcraft is something you truly love, don't sacrifice what could be for what's already here (a bird in hand is worth two in the bush, lol). i'm in no position to say you're young, i'm only three years older than you, but seriously you ARE young. if you already know what you want to do with your life then you're way ahead of the game, and if you don't then that's fine, just do what you truly love now and keep your options as open as you can while doing so.
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motbob
United States12546 Posts
If Idra had the will to piss off his dad by pursuing competitive gaming in another country, you should be able to find the will to sacrifice having a normal HS life in order to pursue your passion, even if that annoys your parents to some degree.
Also, remember that if you start missing homeworks/bombing tests it is not the end of the world if you catch the problem quickly enough. If you start doing badly, you can always scale back on gaming and get your grades back up. There's nothing wrong with experimenting with different allocations of time.
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Bust ASS at gaming imo. It's going to explode soon and your parents won't be upset with your decision. However don't forget to exercise. Physical wellness goes hand in hand with mental toughness
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On October 26 2010 01:14 Pokebunny wrote:
@FireBlast the issue is that I might not have a decent career to hold down in 10 years if I fuck up now.
It all depends on your life-principles but whether you'll have a career to hold down or not won't depend on how you spend the hours outside of school for a few years in your teens. If you think SC2 is something you enjoy, why not see how far you can take it? If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose, it's all a part of the learning process, something I see as more valuable than hitting those extra grades.
I've grown up in a stereotypically intense Korean family where education > all but I didnt necessarily focus on studying at all. In fact this sort of environment has given me an innately rebellious nature towards academia, thinking it's just a huge conforming mess.
Even with this mentality in a blink 7 years passed and I'm graduating from my Masters from an elite university at the end of this year with a cool job lined up for next year. In all this time I did all I can to study as little as possible. I'm not saying this to be cool and that but you'll seriously get more out of being 15 by doing something exciting, and unique- seeing how far you can go with something is what will mould you into a person, not churning through those textbooks to be a nose in front of the masses.
You'll always get by, I also reckon if you're good enough SC2 player you should also have the necessary qualities (multitasking, if you will) to manage your minimum for the required academic success.
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Plus if you need a zerg to bash on for hours a night I'll be around sans monday/wednesday ^.^
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On October 26 2010 01:04 Pokebunny wrote:warning: this is a fairly uninteresting blog and will probably not be worth reading if you don't know anything about me Anyways, lately I've been thinking a lot about myself, my goals in SC2, and my goals in life. I've recently reached 2000 pts in diamond league on SC2, currently sitting at #144 in North America with 2053 pts on SC2ranks.com. Two days ago, I also won 60$ taking the Cybercraft tournament in Flushing, NY over a competitive field of 32. Anyway, I've done this fairly easily without too much practice - I only have 230ish ladder games since release and <500 customs (many of those being UMS as well). I'm 15 and go to Hunter College HS in manhattan, which is a "magnet" school in a big city (50% asian, lots of homework, etc) and my parents definitely want me to see school as my first priority. They also want me to continue having some sort of social life, activities, exercise etc - continue living a normal life, but my dad is also a (casual) gamer and he supports my competitive gaming. It's gotten to the point where I feel like I need to play more than my parents like in order to progress to the next level - I recently began practicing a lot more in preparation for the Cybercraft tournament and my parents both mentioned how much I was playing. They seemed to think it was okay in preparation for the tournament, but I don't think they realize that I'll need to maintain 3+ hours a day of practice on weeknights if I want to make it to the next level. Basically, they support my desire to be good at what I enjoy but they don't want the rest of my life (especially school) to suffer because of it. so yea, basically, I'm not sure how much time I want to invest into SC2 at the moment... just having a tough time deciding what I really want to do with my life at the moment. :| I want to get sponsored and begin playing in larger tournaments, but I don't know how to make the jump from a good player to a top player. I guess I just have to start succeeding more in the larger open tournaments. We'll see!
You can make both school and gaming happen. It really comes down to what you're willing to give up, i.e. sacrifice. When I was in College, I had to work 20ish hours a week and go to class full time. I was busy, but not too busy to do "stuff" that guys my age do. However, my sophomore year I wanted to play Lacrosse. To do that, I had to give up my time doing all that other "stuff" because I had practice 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I would come home exhausted and go to bed real early. For a time, I couldn't go out much or hang with my friends often. But I don't regret it and I truly enjoyed it.
I think that if you're willing to give up some non-essential time, you can make this happen if you want. Here's a rule of thumb I used to determine if something was non-essential, it may help you.
1. If its not school
2. If its not work (a job)
3. And if I can go to sleep instead
4. Then it's non-essential
If something qualified as non-essential, it didn't mean I had to give it up, it just meant that I could. The decision was still up to me.
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What are YOUR priorities?
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Ho dam Pokebunny you're only 15, still young!
You do know most people on TL are probably university students or recent graduates (or around that age group, anyway) - perhaps the perfect age group to look for advices since we're not too old and not too young, just in the same kind of age group but with some experience.
That being said, I used to play 2-3 hours of dota pretty much every night during my high school years, especially in grades 11 and 12. The school was 90% Asian... ok it wasn't that much, but at least 80% Asian, very competitive academically. I was thinking I could join a professional dota team. Then I realized that although I enjoyed competitive gaming, I'd have to have the pressure of winning-all-the-time on me, and would hate to do it if other people (i.e. family) depended on me. Sure, if I lost, I'd feel bad and lose out on a few dollars, but if I had a family to support, losing would mean so much more.
Same thing happened with my favourite hobby (piano performance). Nimble fingers in both piano and the computer keyboard! I eventually got my ARCT (sort of a music college degree) in piano performance in grade 12, which was my initial goal. When it was time to decide for my university program, I again thought that if I was pressured to perform at a super-high level and my family depended on it, I might crumble under pressure.
So I chose infrastructure engineering. It's sort of like SimCity, but more real and a lot more complicated. It's my final year in university and I don't regret my decision right now. I still play dota in my spare time and play piano professionally, at weddings and events (earning spare money). There may be a lot of things you like to do, spend time on, and become good at, but you should set out on what is your career path and take along the rest as hobbies. Hobbies can help you on your career (keeping your mood up, enjoying a diversified life) but don't let them drag you down.
That's how I set my priorities and made my decisions - hope it helps make yours!
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Do you have any other goals or passions in life? I mean like do you want to do anything other than play SC2? The most important thing is to find a job that you really love to do. If being an SC2 player is the most important thing to you, more important than any other possible occupation, then I would suggest to you to pursue your dream, because if you don't you will likely regret it.
But don't decide too quickly, because your current viewpoint is probably extremely biased, since you play SC2 for fun and you probably don't have much in-depth experience in any specific career fields. I suggest just thinking about and doing some research on what you want to do in life other than SC2, and if SC2 outweighs them, then go for it. Just remember that playing SC2 professionally can be strenuous and make it more laborious than fun.
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Hey poke, it's "ze" here if you don't already know,
I don't really know how serious you are about competitive gaming but, I think if you want to get into a good college/university, you really have to start cracking down and at least do enough to get into those schools. Casual playing while trying to do well in school is completely fine, but it's hard to do both at a high level. And seeing your post, you really seem like you are more worried about your career than gaming, but you still love competitive gaming.
Here is what I believe in, I think you can still live a good life without games (or even just casual gaming), but you need a solid career to continue to live life. The choice seems pretty easy to me.
What sort of stuff are you interested in going into btw?
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Just for comic relief
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/Bi7fO.jpg)
IMO you should always put school first, which is why I put it at the top of the triangle. I was stupid enough to choose gaming and social life when I was at your age (I'm 20 now) and I kind of regret it today. You seem to have the talent to make a living from gaming and you are young as well, but don't let your grades suffer. Remember, even Flash is studying One day you will wake up to realise you are not that into gaming anymore.
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On October 26 2010 02:45 Necosarius wrote:Just for comic relief IMO you should always put school first, which is why I put it at the top of the triangle. I was stupid enough to choose gaming and social life when I was at your age (I'm 20 now) and I kind of regret it today. You seem to have the talent to make a living from gaming and you are young as well, but don't let your grades suffer. Remember, even Flash is studying One day you will wake up to realise you are not that into gaming anymore.
That diagram is so true haha
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It's all about managing time. You can do both well in gaming and education if you know how to manage your time. You probably won't have as much of a social life as your parents want if you do pursue gaming more seriously though =/
I personally try to take a quick 30 minute break when I get back from classes to browse TL and other sites, then do all my school work, then play SC2. =/
Good luck!
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I would do what most others are saying and stick with school for the time being. Finish HS and finish strong so you have options when you graduate but it's not like if you pic kschool over gaming then you'll never make it far. A lot of people here go to school full time and/or work and still play. For me I go to college full time and work part time but can still be around your rank. Point is it's not about school or SC2 it's just about how much attention you give both. I'd stick with school as your main priority now because there isn't much you can do if you don't make it in gaming without a high school diploma. Best of luck man let us know what happens!
PS lol @ the diagram
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Just look at a few things...
You're 15 - you have a long gaming career ahead of you so there's no
SC2 JUST came out - it has a long competitive lifespan so you have time
You can't be a competitive gamer yet anyways - Meaning there's almost 0% chance you could travel to play big tournaments or do anything crazy like that. Maybe during the summer, but being only a 1/2 time participant isn't going to get you terribly far.
Good grades open more doors than they shut - At some point you're likely going to want to lean on your high school education to get something done.
So what's the rush? Keep practicing SC2 when you can (and since your time is limited MAKE IT COUNT) and then when you are older and your schedule opens up a bit more you can really go for it.
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EPT
