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My advice :
School First A good balance of Social Activities Gaming and Other hobbies as second.
These should be your focus if you do not aim to be a pro-gamer, which, unless it is truly your dream and have faith in it, I would discourage you to do it. I know I really sound like I wan't you to be "like everyone else" or something like that, but I deeply think your activities and hobbies at your age will define a lot of things for your twenties.
- School First benefits are obvious, it enables you to choose between a large variety of carreer. Aim for B/A- and above average, A+ in what you want to excel at (your choice : math, arts whatever). School should still leave you a lot of free time at your age.
- Now on a more contreversed subject, especially here on a gaming site. I think you really should balance your spare time for multiple activities. * Never turn down social activities (unless there is a very good reason). Your social interactions at 15 will have a great impact on how you will interact later and you must have good habits in this area, it will be one of the most important skill for everything in your life : in your job, making friends, your love life etc. * I believe you will feel a lot better when you become good in multiple activities in your life, you play baseball cool that's what I'm talking about. Maybe add another thing and that's it. * You like gaming this is obvious. Continue playing but only if you still do your share of social activities and have side activities. And this should be enough to make you semi-pro, you will still invest a lot of time in gaming and being at this level should make you feel good enough about it.
Now you do what your heart tell you, but for real progaming, this is very much an all-in. You cannot go halfway in pro-gaming and failing is not an option (unless you realise it soon enough). Now, you might have the potential I don't know, this is your choice anyway.
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Hot damn, ya....From what I'm seeing (basicly all of your work is busy work from text books/reading&writing) ya, thats absolutely nothing. I guess you could say I'm one of those "smart" kids and ya I did go to a high school that was pure bullshit, but having an experience in college, watching my three physics majors work on homework.....good lord man.
Everything is relative, to you I guess 2-3 hours for a nights worth of homework might seem like a lot, I have spent twice that on half of one assignment and people I know...good lord man you don't even wanna know.
My biggest hint would be really think about your time at school. Do you waste any time just sitting? I multi task quite well so if there was an assignment I would quietly work on that while listening to the material. I also believe that while in school you are to LEARN, not SOCIALIZE. So with that in mind you may say I'm crazy BUT, seriously don't waste time talking to your friends in school that you can talk to more freely and easily outside of school.
Short n sweet version, DO SCHOOL AT SCHOOL, DO LIFE AFTER. And be glad that your work isnt mind numbingly difficult for the most part....fuck Physics 100 at my school dude.
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you should always put school first. trust me on this
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On October 26 2010 07:28 N3rV[Green] wrote: Hot damn, ya....From what I'm seeing (basicly all of your work is busy work from text books/reading&writing) ya, thats absolutely nothing. I guess you could say I'm one of those "smart" kids and ya I did go to a high school that was pure bullshit, but having an experience in college, watching my three physics majors work on homework.....good lord man.
Everything is relative, to you I guess 2-3 hours for a nights worth of homework might seem like a lot, I have spent twice that on half of one assignment and people I know...good lord man you don't even wanna know.
My biggest hint would be really think about your time at school. Do you waste any time just sitting? I multi task quite well so if there was an assignment I would quietly work on that while listening to the material. I also believe that while in school you are to LEARN, not SOCIALIZE. So with that in mind you may say I'm crazy BUT, seriously don't waste time talking to your friends in school that you can talk to more freely and easily outside of school.
Short n sweet version, DO SCHOOL AT SCHOOL, DO LIFE AFTER. And be glad that your work isnt mind numbingly difficult for the most part....fuck Physics 100 at my school dude. it's not a lot to me, i'm comparing to other schools etc
I could work more if I had to.
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United States11390 Posts
On October 26 2010 03:48 sixghost wrote:Show nested quote +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. Sneaky brag blog poke. I tried ctrl+F'ing the terms "king" and "tvt" but found no results.
What is this.
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On October 26 2010 07:36 Harem wrote:Show nested quote +On October 26 2010 03:48 sixghost wrote: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. Sneaky brag blog poke. I tried ctrl+F'ing the terms "king" and "tvt" but found no results. What is this. You're my friend on bnet? o.o
On October 26 2010 07:34 DoctorHelvetica wrote: what are you wearing ... not this again
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On October 26 2010 07:31 ZoW wrote: you should always put school first. trust me on this
ZoW is right. You should definitely focus on school in order to get into a decent university just to have a backup plan. Getting an A-/B+ is pretty easy, it is getting the A that's hard. With your grades right now, you will get into SUNY/CUNY easily (maybe not CUNY Honors), but if you want your dream school, you're going to have to get As.
Also, this is a good time to develop social skills, since some of these people are going to be lifetime friends. Plus, having many extracurriculars isn't really necessary, though being leader of an organization definitely helps.
U.S. Progaming is at its infancy, especially with SC2, and I'm not sure how stable will the game look 5 years down the road. This game could be another fad in America, as the gaming scene routinely changes to the shiniest graphics. I don't see E-Sports growing in America because of many factors, though I am a pessimist. You're going to have to think this through before sacrificing a lot for so little in return. Just wonder what happens when a B-teamer quits in Korea, and what happens to them if they can't make the A-team, their skill set doesn't apply anywhere else.
Though this isn't the girl blog I was looking for from Pokebunny. My sig was right though.
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I don't know what my dream college would be, though. I don't even know if I want to go to a top level college.
My social skills are not THAT bad.
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I'm going to be kind of blunt but I really don't know how to say it. I am a terrible talker.
You seem intelligent enough, but don't know what you'll be. You haven't quite found a passion, so spend the rest of your hs life finding that. You are already considering a career(?) in esports so find something else, whether it be academic or business, etc.
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Hey Poke,
The talk on the train back from the tournament was too lively for me to interject any real advice at the time, but here's my perspective as someone who went through the same thing at your age (my game was MTG during high school):
I've seen first hand that you've got a lot of talent at SC2, and you clearly enjoy it a lot, and it's natural that you'd want to see how far it can take you. Of course the dream is to make a living doing something you enjoy that much, and you know that it'll take a lot more time investment to have a shot at it. Like many have said in this thread though, you're still young to need to make a decision about whether to make SC2 a career at this point. Your parents wouldn't let you drop school now to pursue a gaming career, and I'm sure you know it wouldn't make sense to anyway. A strong academic finish to high school that would get you admission to a solid college is valuable regardless of what you end up doing with your life.
One thing to keep in mind though: as I've seen from competitive Magic, retirement from the game from pros is much less living off tournament winnings for the rest of their life and more finding a real job and moving on to the next stage of their life. The real value of competing in the pro scene is not making your fortune, but letting your gaming hobby support you while having a chance to see the world. We all see Idra as a very successful player, but I don't think even he sees himself competing for life.
Here's my recommendation: don't worry so much about it right now. It's important to realize that the game's still very young, and you won't miss your chance at taking it to the next level by waiting. Right now you're enjoying what you're doing--being a solid player and perfecting your game with the time that you have--so keep doing that while you continue your studies and do what's expected of you. Attend what tournaments you can, but don't stress about them. In the meantime, do the standard stuff: get involved in interesting extracurriculars, ace your SATs, and get into a good college.
Once that happens, you're in a great spot to decide what direction you want to take. If being a SC2 pro is still something that appeals to you at that point, you're free to defer your admission for a year and head to Korea for a year. And if it works out, you can ride out the pro circuit as long as it lasts for you knowing you can pick up where you left off in academics afterward.
In other words, you'll have your chance to pursue your passion soon enough. Secure your academic future in the meantime, and then give SC2 your all once you have the traditional career options to fall back on.
As for me, I never made it as big as I wanted playing Magic, but I don't regret trying, and I'm glad I was still able to get a good degree and job in spite of it.
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My advice: stay in school, go to college, continue playing Starcraft and competing in LANs on the side as much as time allows. Over time, the SC2 scene is only going to get bigger. If you go to college, you not only give it time to grow, but you also have a college degree to fall back on if things don't work out.
I can definitely tell you that following your dreams and passions is a good idea, just remember that you don't always have to take the most direct route there. Best of luck
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On October 27 2010 23:16 Arzac wrote: Hey Poke,
The talk on the train back from the tournament was too lively for me to interject any real advice at the time, but here's my perspective as someone who went through the same thing at your age (my game was MTG during high school):
I've seen first hand that you've got a lot of talent at SC2, and you clearly enjoy it a lot, and it's natural that you'd want to see how far it can take you. Of course the dream is to make a living doing something you enjoy that much, and you know that it'll take a lot more time investment to have a shot at it. Like many have said in this thread though, you're still young to need to make a decision about whether to make SC2 a career at this point. Your parents wouldn't let you drop school now to pursue a gaming career, and I'm sure you know it wouldn't make sense to anyway. A strong academic finish to high school that would get you admission to a solid college is valuable regardless of what you end up doing with your life.
One thing to keep in mind though: as I've seen from competitive Magic, retirement from the game from pros is much less living off tournament winnings for the rest of their life and more finding a real job and moving on to the next stage of their life. The real value of competing in the pro scene is not making your fortune, but letting your gaming hobby support you while having a chance to see the world. We all see Idra as a very successful player, but I don't think even he sees himself competing for life.
Here's my recommendation: don't worry so much about it right now. It's important to realize that the game's still very young, and you won't miss your chance at taking it to the next level by waiting. Right now you're enjoying what you're doing--being a solid player and perfecting your game with the time that you have--so keep doing that while you continue your studies and do what's expected of you. Attend what tournaments you can, but don't stress about them. In the meantime, do the standard stuff: get involved in interesting extracurriculars, ace your SATs, and get into a good college.
Once that happens, you're in a great spot to decide what direction you want to take. If being a SC2 pro is still something that appeals to you at that point, you're free to defer your admission for a year and head to Korea for a year. And if it works out, you can ride out the pro circuit as long as it lasts for you knowing you can pick up where you left off in academics afterward.
In other words, you'll have your chance to pursue your passion soon enough. Secure your academic future in the meantime, and then give SC2 your all once you have the traditional career options to fall back on.
As for me, I never made it as big as I wanted playing Magic, but I don't regret trying, and I'm glad I was still able to get a good degree and job in spite of it. Thanks for the advice.
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On October 26 2010 07:45 Pokebunny wrote:... not this again As your older brother I demand you to answer the doctor's question
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