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Hey Teamliquid,
I have started a new project to contribute to the Esports community. I am starting the Southern Methodist Esports club, bringing us to the CSL, and becoming my journey to become a pro at Starcraft 2. I will be blogging, streaming, and making videos during this time and wanted to share it with the people on TL.
My main site is Dean Becomes a Progamer I hope you visit and like what you see. Here is the copy of the original post on the site:
Hi, I'm Dean Elazab, and I want to become a progamer. I have been playing Starcraft 2 since it came out and am finally ready to get serious about it. I am starting my training for the CSL and wanted to create a space where I could talk about my expierences. I hope my readers/viewers enjoy the ride and help me through the way. I will be streaming my pratice, posting videos, and basically just writing about the starcraft community.
I am also a social media marketer, and hope to at least work with one of the pro teams in this sense. I see a lot of potential for growth for some Starcraft teams, and would love to help them grow. In that sense, I will also be writing about the business of Starcraft and the potential for American companies to use sponsorships as a form of positive advertising. With our Starcraft scene growing every day, I know businesses would love to benefit themselves by sponsoring teams and tournaments, all they need is a little convincing.
So leave a comment and talk to me, I know I'll need help in this journey!
Dean Elazab
 
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Thanks for sharing, and good luck dean!
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this is probably like the 10th im going to be a progamer blog and so far, none of them came even close
though good luck i guess
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Out of curiosity what league are you currently in?
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On September 03 2011 02:19 OutlaW- wrote:
this is probably like the 10th im going to be a progamer blog and so far, none of them came even close
though good luck i guess
you mean this month? :D
j/k, good luck with your adventure!
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South Africa4316 Posts
On September 03 2011 02:19 OutlaW- wrote:
this is probably like the 10th im going to be a progamer blog and so far, none of them came even close
though good luck i guess
I think the mistake people make is they decide to become progamers before they see if they have what it takes. From what I know, most actual progamers started out just playing the game passionately and got exceptionally good before deciding to become progamers. It's a bit like a 6-year old deciding that they are going to play professional football one day: The sentiment is nice, but most 99.99% of the time it doesn't work out.
That's not to say that you shouldn't give it your all! However, I would suggest practicing semi-seriously (3-4 hours a day) in your free time, before making any big decisions.
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Well, I am currently Diamond. And this isnt my first venture into progaming. I played Counter strike in CAL:I league, and ended up doing pretty well. I have also seen the potential in Esports as a marketing major so this project of mine is also to get some notoriety in the scene, and hopefully either play or work for an esports team when I graduate.
I know a lot of people say they will do this, but they are just caught up in the hype. Because I have my team counting on me, I have no choice but to improve. And with that, I hope to start taking tournaments online and showing that I can win. Im not expecting to become Idra or Huk status in a month, but I know I can train and compete with the lower tier teams and try to get involved.
For everyone who is skeptical, I would like you to please comment on my site and keep me going, show me that I have a reason to not slack off!
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On September 03 2011 02:27 Daigomi wrote:Show nested quote +On September 03 2011 02:19 OutlaW- wrote:
this is probably like the 10th im going to be a progamer blog and so far, none of them came even close
though good luck i guess I think the mistake people make is they decide to become progamers before they see if they have what it takes. From what I know, most actual progamers started out just playing the game passionately and got exceptionally good before deciding to become progamers. It's a bit like a 6-year old deciding that they are going to play professional football one day: The sentiment is nice, but most 99.99% of the time it doesn't work out. That's not to say that you shouldn't give it your all! However, I would suggest practicing semi-seriously (3-4 hours a day) in your free time, before making any big decisions.
I cannot express how much I agree with this post, and how true it is.
Honestly, you see a bunch of people that are at the high masters (hell, even grandmasters) point and they, despite considering it or not, aren't really considered "pro-gamers." They may be hella good compared to the rest of the community, but it takes a certain personality and mentality to truly push all the way and become a pro gamer.
I'm not saying you're bound for failure though, you'll just have to fight for it... do heed Dai's advice -- play the game a bit, then decide. A lot of people decide they want to do something when they have no experience in it at that very moment, and then realize as they're doing it that it's boring as hell... and for some people, SCII is just boring... however, it's everything but impossible.
Edit: Oh, ok diamond. Still, you have a little ways to go, so fight for it.
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Calgary25996 Posts
Chill becomes the prime minister of Canada
Hey guys. Today I decided I'm going to become the prime minister of Canada. Follow my blog to watch me try my best!
This is what I think when I see people opening threads about becoming a progamer. It's not a switch you flip and then go "okay, now I'm dedicating my life to this." If you weren't already playing at the high masters / grandmasters level and winning tournaments and playing 20 hours per week, you aren't even in a position to attempt to become a progamer.
If you meet those criteria then I apologize, but I haven't see anyone making these threads meeting them.
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dont listend to the haters dean i expect to see u at the top of the ladder in no time
good luck
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haha Chill, I agree with you that its a a big request and dream, but I have decided to give it my best. The very reason I made this blog is to make myself be accountable for my actions. If I can get my CSL team high in the rankings, or get a shot to join any pro team, I would consider it a victory. Im not saying its a sure thing, what I'm saying is that I am going to work for it and it might be entertaining to read/watch.
I want people to see that others are trying to make it in the starcraft scene, and that the "top players" are not set in stone. Getting into masters is my first step, and I feel I'll get that done soon.
Also, why not try? I mean if you wanted to be prime minister, you would need voters, why wouldnt you use an online medium to garner that following? Using a blog is a way to get people to know more about you then just your position on politics, so yeah, start one and see where it gets you. If you write daily and are entertaining and knowledgeable, then I'm sure you can steal a few % points in an election ^_^
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baller posted.
this is legit.
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Hi, I'm Tom and I've decided that I want to become a professional basketball player.
I shoot hoops every week with my friends at the park and I'm better than most of them. But, once school is done, I think I'm going to train really hard and join the NBA. As long as I suddenly put my heart and soul into this game, I'll be dunking over Lebron in no time.
I'm not interested in being like everyone else and just hyping this process, but I do plan on making videos, streaming, and blogging and doing hourly interviews about my training instead of just spending more time training.
I feel that the social media aspect will definitely give me an edge over the masters players who have been grinding out non-stop games against the best in their region for the last year.
Wish me luck and make sure to visit my website!
www.iRecentlyDecidedToGoPro.com
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no one has gone pro without a pro nickname
good luck dean 'looking mean' elazab
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South Africa4316 Posts
On September 03 2011 02:48 balmung135 wrote:
haha Chill, I agree with you that its a a big request and dream, but I have decided to give it my best. The very reason I made this blog is to make myself be accountable for my actions. If I can get my CSL team high in the rankings, or get a shot to join any pro team, I would consider it a victory. Im not saying its a sure thing, what I'm saying is that I am going to work for it and it might be entertaining to read/watch.
I want people to see that others are trying to make it in the starcraft scene, and that the "top players" are not set in stone. Getting into masters is my first step, and I feel I'll get that done soon.
Also, why not try? I mean if you wanted to be prime minister, you would need voters, why wouldnt you use an online medium to garner that following? Using a blog is a way to get people to know more about you then just your position on politics, so yeah, start one and see where it gets you. If you write daily and are entertaining and knowledgeable, then I'm sure you can steal a few % points in an election ^_^
Like I said, you should go for it if you progaming is for you, but make sure you do it in your free time and not when you should be working towards your future. The reason I would advise people not to try is because they often think trying means taking a year off of school to try to become a progamer, and that's retarded. You should only start considering a full-time commitment to progaming when you get into grandmasters, until then you have to stick to the things that are more likely to succeed at.
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Yeah, I agree. I am taking school seriously and want to work in social media marketing. When I got into esports I saw it as a huge marketing potential for companies. I then got really into the games themselves. I am thinking of going to law school after undergrad, but I can take time in between. Because of that choice, I decided why not pursue my biggest passion and try to make it in progaming. I have a lot of time to pratice, and if it doesnt work out, I just go to law school after I'm done trying. I wouldnt drop out of school for this, but I would take time between undergrad and law school for Starcraft.
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I dunno man, a gazillion people write blogs like these but nothing ever comes out of it...to the point where I have a very difficult time taking these threads seriously. I'm not sure why I keep reading them to be honest, maybe just curiosity.
In general I think its a really bad idea to announce that you're *going* to do something. Instead I think you should just do it for a couple months first before making it public. If you make good progress and you remain serious about it for an extended period of time, then sure it might be worth looking at. The NBA analogy posted above was a very good one imo. At the stage you're at now, there's not much separation between you and the 6 year kid who decides he wants to make it into the NBA.
All that being said, just in case you want a good model of a wanna-become-pro blog, then I'd recommend this one: http://www.starcraftstory.com/
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Yeah, I started to take it more seriously about 2 weeks ago. I decided that the biggest factor in getting this to work would be motivation. Holding myself publicly accountable for failing is a big motivator as opposed to just doing it on my own. Im more doing the site for support then "look at me beasting it up and being awesome". I want to use it as a way to get myself to do better. I understand people think it will fail and it very well might, but why just stop there.
A story in my life was creating a iPhone development project that everyone said would fail. Why should I try, i was just a college freshman who wanted to become a "overnight success". Everyone thought I was just trying to follow a bandwagon. Well, I created proxomo and sold it for a pretty hefty sum. I did something most people thought would fail. So I am used to the haters and the disbelievers, they are just motivation. If i can prove them wrong then they might stop being so negative.
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I think Liquid'Tyler gave the best advise about becoming a pro gamer on SotG. Basically, he said don't bother putting your life on hold in order to *become* good at Starcraft. If you are *already* good at Starcraft then sure, you can consider putting more time into it so you can pursue your passion. But if you don't start with the natural talent then it's not worth you time sinking tons of time into the game. There's a gazillion people who mass game and do very well on the ladder, but are still not good enough to become pro.
Everyone wants to play videogames for a living but there's only a select few people who can pull it off. I don't think Diamond is good enough to consider becoming pro. Right now there's literally 4,000+ people in NA alone who are more skilled at SC2 than you right now. And we have arguably the 2nd easiest server in the world. If you were already high master or something then I could understand considering to follow your passion...but right now? I dunno.
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Well you know, the people in masters started somewhere else. They got there through hard work. Im not saying that Im gonna go sign up and win MLG right now, I'm saying that I want to take my training seriously. I dont understand why people think this is my ending point, its the opposite. Im just starting out and I know that. Its a goal I want to try my best to accomplish. Even if I dont get to play Starcraft Full time, I want to try and make it onto a team and play my best as long as I can.
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stop typing essays and start playing buddy
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Don't quit your day job. Esports is one of the absolute worst things to do in terms of $ returned per hour invested. It's fun, it's a hobby, it's a passion, but for god sakes don't think of it as a potential $ earner until you are at least top 10 GM.
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On September 03 2011 02:38 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +Chill becomes the prime minister of Canada
Hey guys. Today I decided I'm going to become the prime minister of Canada. Follow my blog to watch me try my best! This is what I think when I see people opening threads about becoming a progamer. It's not a switch you flip and then go "okay, now I'm dedicating my life to this." If you weren't already playing at the high masters / grandmasters level and winning tournaments and playing 20 hours per week, you aren't even in a position to attempt to become a progamer. If you meet those criteria then I apologize, but I haven't see anyone making these threads meeting them.
You don't like Naruto do you?
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Did anyone else think before opening the thread that it was about a dean of a school trying to become a progamer. I did.
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On September 03 2011 07:42 Darkdeath3 wrote:
Did anyone else think before opening the thread that it was about a dean of a school trying to become a progamer. I did.
I thought it was a school dean trying to become a programmer lol. It took me until halfway down page 1 that I realized otherwise.
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Prediction like every other thread:
Player makes it to masters.
The end.
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At least be entering online tournaments on TL. So many of them even have a Diamond only league and have cash prizes. Start there.
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If you're only in diamond, good luck and have fun. You have a lot of work a head of you, so I hope you are prepared for it.
I hope you can achieve what you want, but damn it's going to take a lot out of you. Hopefully you have some korean blood in you XD
Like Tyler said though, don't let your real life take a hit.
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These blog posts are just a form of self gratification without actually doing the work. You post your goals, and hope to get supportive statements from people, and thus get a feeling of accomplishment for pretty much doing nothing. Go play the game, get to a position where you're one of the best, and THEN post about the steps you will take to go pro. But what you've done here, posting that you've made your decision to become pro, it's just a false feeling of accomplishment.
I think that long term goals are nice to have, but it's probably best not to announce them to the world. Rather, keep them to yourself, and if you must announce something, announce short term goals that you can be held accountable for.
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Thanks, and yeah I am signing up for the dailies on zeek and playhem. That's where I will be trying to actually show my improvement.
And shinosai, I dont see this as any accomplishment, I see this as a declaration that I want to do something, and that if I dont I would have failed the people that are supporting me.
Seriously, the amount of negative attitudes towards people who just want to do something special is crazy. doubt any of these naysayers have ever tried starting something on their own. So quick to kick anyone who is ambitious down because they are the people who have seen what will come. like they have some divine knowledge of knowing whether someone will fail or not. If you told every small business that its 90% chance of failure so just give up, then we wouldn't have the 10% that make it. Because they would have listened to people like you who just want to crush them and tell them they are doing something wrong.
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On September 03 2011 07:09 Complete wrote:Show nested quote +On September 03 2011 02:38 Chill wrote:Chill becomes the prime minister of Canada
Hey guys. Today I decided I'm going to become the prime minister of Canada. Follow my blog to watch me try my best! This is what I think when I see people opening threads about becoming a progamer. It's not a switch you flip and then go "okay, now I'm dedicating my life to this." If you weren't already playing at the high masters / grandmasters level and winning tournaments and playing 20 hours per week, you aren't even in a position to attempt to become a progamer. If you meet those criteria then I apologize, but I haven't see anyone making these threads meeting them. You don't like Naruto do you?
thats a very random and incorrect reference
if the OP was naruto then hed have no problem becoming a sc2 progamer, but he also wouldnt have posted this blog because hed just play more instead
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On September 03 2011 04:55 balmung135 wrote:
Well you know, the people in masters started somewhere else. They got there through hard work.
not really. i'm high masters, won my share of sc2 and bw tournaments, been invited to good sc2 teams, and i'm a lazy mofo who plays starcraft casually.
you can't compare "becoming an sc2 progamer" with starting a small business. The latter actually has an okay chance of succeeding.
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i wasnt comparing the process, i was comparing the fact that no matter what you do, people who wish they had the initiative will just bring you down cause its easy for them to do so.
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well you can do what you want. it's your life. As long as you're not doing anything negative to society, nobody really cares.
But when you come into a forum and say you're going to do something you think is "special," and people with a good understanding of starcraft and progaming know that it's probably a bad idea, they're going say it.
it's like if you were to say "i'm going to China to work in the coal mines because I love the smell of coal," you may think it's "special" and whatnot but people with a clearer head know it's a bad idea and are going to tell you that it is. But in the end no one really cares if you do or not because they don't know you
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On September 03 2011 02:49 Turo wrote:
baller posted.
this is legit.
Why has no one but us noticed this.
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On September 04 2011 03:33 balmung135 wrote:
And shinosai, I dont see this as any accomplishment, I see this as a declaration that I want to do something, and that if I dont I would have failed the people that are supporting me.
When you announce your goals to people, or maybe even write them down on a blog or whisper it to your cat, you receive psychological satisfaction from doing so, making you less likely to actually do anything about it. Why do you think we have so many blogs about people announcing that they are going to be pro gamers? Because they receive satisfaction, and this satisfaction is a false sense of accomplishing something by merely announcing the goal.
I'm not saying this was your intent. Most people probably don't announce their goals to intentionally give themselves satisfaction; rather, they see it as some sort of way of being held accountable. But this isn't really what's going on.
Instead of announcing the goal, I think you and everyone else would be a lot better off just going out and doing it. Or at least announcing a short term goal, because you can't really be held accountable for failing everyone in a "long term" goal like becoming a pro gamer. If you were to say, promise everyone you would play 100 ladder games this week and you didn't, we would be entitled to scold you for failing to keep your commitment. But how can we scold you for not becoming a pro gamer, since it is such a long term goal, you may always 'be on the path'. And if you ultimately give up, you'll simply fade into nothing as all other want-to-be pro gamers tend to do. My point is, if you're doing this for some kind of accountability, you're not - you can't be held accountable to this.
What exactly were you looking for in this post, anyways? For people to say, hey, cool, you spent a few minutes writing a blog post and you made a goal for yourself? Congratulations? Anyone can make a goal and announce it to a group of people. I could go write a post write now about how I've decided I'm going to change my life tomorrow and work on becoming an astronaut. But any rational person is going to say, "So what? Come back when you've actually done something to help achieve that goal."
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I'd vote for you if I were canadian, chill.
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On September 03 2011 02:19 OutlaW- wrote:
this is probably like the 10th im going to be a progamer blog and so far, none of them came even close
though good luck i guess
It takes longer than the average person is willing to wait to get results - no one is going to be a pro in a few days, which you all seem to think.
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Dude dont worry, you got this because fucking baller told you you can.
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EPT
