EPTThinkin of taking a semester off school to go pro? - Page 3
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Leafs
Canada41 Posts
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cmen15
United States1519 Posts
On January 03 2012 23:16 igotmyown wrote: I'd like to see a teamliquid/EG/other SC2 80's style public service announcement, with a cheesy vanilla ice beat, and each player posing and delivering one line a time. Jinro: You want to be cool? Sheth: Stay in school! TLO: you may think you have it all figured out Idra: But reality might make you angry Huk: when sometimes your dreams turn out to be hallucinations This did it for me : ) hehe | ||
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TheToast
United States4808 Posts
I think what really shocked me was a thread some weeks back was a video showing off the StarTail gaming house. Like 20 guys sharing one apartment and two bathrooms, 5 guys to each tiny room. In the same thread someone posted a video of the MVP gaming house, 11 guys sharing one 20'x20' room, beds literally side by side, end to end the whole area oof the room. After seeing that, I've never been able to understand why anyone would want to be a progamer. People see the lights and cameras and don't think about everything that goes into getting to that point. Years of tireless hard work, living in a foriegn country far from family and friends, living situations that would make college students unconfortable, low income, and lots of international travel. And for what? For a small chance to end up getting an average salary for 60+ hours of work a week? For foreign players HuK is really the only cinderella story, went from unknown to super star (if you can call 60k a year a super star, that's like the salary of an accountant) in two years. Sure Idra's making a decent salary now, but only after years of toiling away in BW and hard, hard work in SC2. I can't fathom the resolve it takes to actually endure all this, especially for only 20k a year. I can only imagine that comes from immense passion for this game. The kind of passion that motivates people to ladder endlessly instead of making blog posts about "going pro". If you have to make a blog post asking whether you should go pro, you don't have that passion; go back to your regular life. | ||
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Nizzy
United States839 Posts
On January 04 2012 00:39 LuckyFool wrote: Nice post Nizzy I agree with almost everything. Looks like you did a lot of research for this. Like Huk said, most of this is sad but true. Money in general in the scene is top heavy I feel. Tournaments usually only pay out the top 3 or top 8. If something like IPL3 origins (32nd got 1k) was more regular I think things might start to change a bit. But that was an exception, a one time thing. That kind of event isn't happening once a month. I consider myself someone who invested enough time to get to a fairly competitive level (clearly at least a tier below average top foreigner) but I never actually put sc2 ahead of school or work in my life to really try to close that gap. Now sc2 is purely a hobby which I love playing/being part of, but I work a regular job and make quite a bit much more money than I would be had I tried to close the gap and be an average pro. Some people who know me better or see the level I'm at ask me why I never wanted to "go pro." pretty much for reasons I just said. Dignitas.Merz spoke about it recently in a really nice blog he posted, living the life of an sc2 pro isn't all fun and games either. It's actually REALLY hard work and you could be putting in a ton of time without getting much results. Which is the case for many average pros like him aren't top top foreigner (huk/idra/nainwa etc). My "real job" is much MUCH easier in my opinion than having to practice sc2 to compete consistantly with top players or koreans. I have huge respect anyone who legit tries for it in sc2 though (guys like Merz) It takes an insane amount of dedication and work. Thanks LF. Yeah man we've met at a few events you're definitely a level above me, you could have done pretty well in the NA scene. I think you're someone around the same age/situation as me and understand this better. | ||
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Nizzy
United States839 Posts
On January 04 2012 00:54 TheToast wrote: This is a really good post, 5/5. I think what really shocked me was a thread some weeks back was a video showing off the StarTail gaming house. Like 20 guys sharing one apartment and two bathrooms, 5 guys to each tiny room. In the same thread someone posted a video of the MVP gaming house, 11 guys sharing one 20'x20' room, beds literally side by side, end to end the whole area oof the room. After seeing that, I've never been able to understand why anyone would want to be a progamer. People see the lights and cameras and don't think about everything that goes into getting to that point. Years of tireless hard work, living in a foriegn country far from family and friends, living situations that would make college students unconfortable, low income, and lots of international travel. And for what? For a small chance to end up getting an average salary for 60+ hours of work a week? For foreign players HuK is really the only cinderella story, went from unknown to super star (if you can call 60k a year a super star, that's like the salary of an accountant) in two years. Sure Idra's making a decent salary now, but only after years of toiling away in BW and hard, hard work in SC2. I can't fathom the resolve it takes to actually endure all this, especially for only 20k a year. I can only imagine that comes from immense passion for this game. The kind of passion that motivates people to ladder endlessly instead of making blog posts about "going pro". If you have to make a blog post asking whether you should go pro, you don't have that passion; go back to your regular life. Thanks for the response man. To be fair with a few points: -The korean gamer lifestyle at least produces better results, its set up to produce better results. There's culture there in south korea for pro gamers that isn't here yet in NA. -Totally right about the 'dream' aspect with the lights and glamour. -To be fair in regards to the money, that is just the estimated tournament winnings. They say HuK won 60K since sc2 has been out, and its rumored that he got a 100k contract now. With stream revs, and other things he probably will get well over 100k for the next year. -Players like CatZ I believe make way more from Streaming that tournament winnings but I know he wins a lot of mid-pro level online cups and such. It's still a stressful lifestyle right now any way you look at it. | ||
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Malgrif
Canada1095 Posts
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Klonere
Ireland4123 Posts
 ) and put 100% of myself into the game seems like the ultimate SC2 experience. I guess having spent essentially 1 year away, pretty much alone working in Vancouver (as far away as SK from Ireland) has kinda given me the perspective needed to know that I could make that change. As for bedding/privacy, as long as I have a bed and a clean shower I couldn't care less.All that said I am likely never to see the inside of one IRL ever | ||
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Hakker
United States1360 Posts
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Kralic
Canada2628 Posts
A lot of people relish the idea of being a pro gamer because they think that it is an easy job that will be easy money. If you can invest 12 hours a day into something, then learning a real world skill would be quick, easy and more rewarding. I play video games for fun, I have had the thought of trying to be a pro, but I am too old for that and would rather have a job(Not StarCraft) and a fun hobby(StarCraft). Balance is great in life. | ||
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LuckyFool
United States9016 Posts
On January 04 2012 01:38 Hakker wrote: Blogs telling people not to go pro seem almost as numerous as blogs about people going pro these days... It's good. I'm sick of hearing from Johnny the gold leaguer who's telling us he's going pro only to never hear from him again after 2 weeks or so. | ||
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binski
United States225 Posts
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munchmunch
Canada789 Posts
On January 03 2012 22:17 Nizzy wrote: From your perspective, I see why you would say not to take a semester off. For my part, I took a lot of semesters off in undergrad. Did research, worked for software companies... I had a great time. Of course, my experience is not exactly analogous, since I got paid for those things, and used the money to pay for school. But as I said in my original post, if money is not an issue, then I don't think it hurts to take a semester off, if you have the right kind of personality. Was going to ask if you went to Uni or not but then I saw your edit. For someone like me college was a huge stress. There's simply no way if I took a semester off that I could get right back into it. Taking a full semester off to me makes no sense. You could at least drop down to 6 creds (2 classes), take 2 blow off electives. This would do a few things: + Show Spoiler + -Keep your student loans frozen if you have them so you don't burn your 6 month period after graduating. -Probably keep you motivated to continute the degree. -Probably also keep your parents happier that you are still continuing you degree, but just focusing on something more atm. It's not about taking off a semester to devote 4-5 months to "something" it's about how trying to go pro in NA right now is just a failure move. There's so many people trying to make it, and over the last 18 months only a hand full of pros have/are. Only 2 are really making 'super star' type money doing it. Well maybe a few more but... yeah. To be honest with you. I bet if IdrA enrolled at any average college, he could pass while still being a top 3 NA player without a problem. You have it or you don't. Quitting a job, Stopping your education, getting another free 40 hours a week might help, however you're not going to be in GSL in 4 months. lol... Thanks. You're also right that no one is going to become competitive at the highest levels after 4 months of training (or if they could, they could probably do just as well while staying in school). However, my personal opinion is that it's OK to put time into becoming better at something, even if you don't become one of the very best. I've had a few things like that in my life. For example, in high school I played chess very seriously for a few years. I got pretty good, enough to do well in lower level tournaments, but at some point I realized how much better the really good players were, and gave it up. I don't think of the time I put into learning the game as wasted... I consider myself fortunate to have some (small) insight into what it takes to get really good at the game. And it's fun to be able to completely trounce any casual player. I imagine a lot of people on this forum feel the same way about SC2. On January 03 2012 23:26 Chill wrote: I think your summarizing statement is good. But it depends on personality... I've met people with high paying jobs who will take a large part of the year off to, say, sail around the pacific, or learn how to build a log cabin. I could imagine someone going through life thinking, "Hey, video games are my passion. I'm probably not good enough to be a pro, but I wonder what it would be like to play video games full-time". If that person wanted to take a semester off to satisfy their curiosity, and their circumstances (financial, etc.) allowed them to do so, I'd say more power to them. It only gets harder to take time off as you go along in life. Taking a semester off for a hobby is dumb. You can play Starcraft and go to school at the same time. It's really not that difficult. Edit: I think that's my summarizing statement: Starcraft is your hobby, not your career - Treat it like you would any other hobby. | ||
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OopsOopsBaby
Singapore3425 Posts
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Nizzy
United States839 Posts
On January 04 2012 03:16 binski wrote: very good blog damn binski, keep it shorter next time brah. OH NO ITS BINSKEE, DAT BINCHANTRESS DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD On January 04 2012 03:37 OopsOopsBaby wrote: better off going on holiday in korea for one semester than going pro or going to korea to go pro. Sorry not sure what you mean exactly. | ||
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binski
United States225 Posts
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TT1
Canada10104 Posts
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ROOTIllusion
United States1060 Posts
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Nizzy
United States839 Posts
On January 04 2012 04:40 mTwTT1 wrote: i stayed in korea for one and a half week.. Aw okay thanks. Was just trying to show that your a very talented and former BW pro that played SC for a long time. I'm sure you make decent money but you have the experience that a lot of these kids don't. On January 04 2012 05:00 vileIllusion wrote: yoyo manner I hit 1.2k viewers Sorry Chirs <3 Watch your stream a lot actually, nice job man. You're like a great example. High school students probably have less time than most full time college kids and you're doing very well. Even with you doing very well it's still would be difficult for you to make a living on your on. If you were a few years older anyways. thanks | ||
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Nizzy
United States839 Posts
On January 04 2012 05:00 vileIllusion wrote: yoyo manner I hit 1.2k viewers The only thing you should be hitting are those books to get a free ride in college. The only thing I regret in HS was completely not caring/trying. You can save yourself and/or your parents a lot of money by doing well in HS to get into a college that will pay for your tuition. | ||
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Satire
Canada295 Posts
I have a natural talent for music. I can pick up virtually any instrument, and my learning curve and how quickly I pick that instrument up is unreal. When I was younger I was a prodigy on the trumpet; within a year of picking up that instrument I was playing in honor bands with kids who had been playing since they were little. My best teacher told me I had a gift and I should stick with it. Many people have told me I have something to share with the world with my talent. Many teachers and friends have told me it's my calling. When I thought about what I wanted to do in life though, I realized that if I dedicated all my time and my life to music that would take the joy out of it for me. I truly love it, but I'm not sure I would have the passion and hardwork to devout myself to it at every point in the day. This is probably how many people feel about programming. In the end, I decided to do something I find both intellectually stimulating and emotionally rewarding and become a Registered Nurse, and in the future I may potentially go on to Med School (we'll see what I feel like in a couple of years) and get my GP. When I go to work in the Nursing field I come home and feel great about myself. The reason why? Music will always be there for me. When I'm stressed out because of school, I come home and sit at my piano for a couple of hours or bang out a tune on my guitar. It calms me down and it makes me happy. I write songs, and I go into my own little world for a couple of hours. I can go to social gatherings and surprise people with my talent. (Serious chick magnet!) I love every moment I'm playing music, but I think I'd lose my love for it if I made it my job. So, above all, whether it's the money or what not, that's the reality of making hobbies into occupations. I think people have to make that distinction between a beloved hobby, and what they want to pursue in terms of their life ambition. If the two match somehow and there is a raw talent there, then perhaps you should pursue that avenue and try become pro. | ||
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