This is my first blog and I am not a frequent visitor of this subforum, so I hope it turns out okay!
Often times, players will ask "Can I go pro?", or "Is going pro an option?" and the responses are mostly the same - "keep playing starcraft as a hobby, because going pro is most likely not an option until you are a top player, until you are top 5 GM, until you are able to compete with some of the best, etc. etc." Well, I am the product of such a response. I have done exactly that and here I am today asking the same question that I began with some years ago.
For those of you who don't know me, I am a 20 year old semi-pro starcraft player from Manitoba, Canada that goes by the handle "Kane". I began playing Starcraft when Wings was first released; before that I had never heard of RTS games, let alone broodwar, so it was an entirely new experience for me. As I continued to play and learn about the intricacies of the game, I fell in love with it. Over the past few years, I have become more passionate for this game than I could have ever imagined. This passion has helped me stay motivated and eager to practice in order to become the best player that I can be.
That's all fine and dandy, but I am also a full-time student that will be entering my final year of my undergrad (major in math minor in philosophy) in September. I've always earned really good grades, and scholarships have helped greatly with tuition. However, especially in the past year, I have found that my passion for Starcraft and my desire to be the best I can be has interfered with my studies to a certain degree. At the end of a day of classes I just want to go home and practice despite the homework that awaits. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Starcraft has become a higher priority than my studies at this point. As I write this, I have just finished my final essay for the term (and the year) just a couple hours ago. I haven't received my grades back for any of my classes yet, but i know that I will have done fairly well, but not as well as I could have done if my first priority was school and I was fully dedicated to my studies.
At this point in my life, I feel like I must decide between one of three options:
1) Take a couple years off of school and have a go at professional Starcraft, and after that return to finish my undergrad and pursue further education.
2) Finish my undergrad and then take a couple years off school for Starcraft, with the potential to return to school to pursue further education. or 3) Continue to play Starcraft only as a hobby, finish school, and get a job in the "real world".
I will now state my thoughts, reasoning, and concerns related to each choice
1) This past year in school I know I did not do nearly as well as I could have. Starcraft was a huge "distraction" from my studies, yet it is a distraction that I do not regret. Although I have earned decent grades, I feel like there is little point in returning to finish my last year if I'm going to put a half-ass effort into it because I'm constantly playing, or wanting to play, Starcraft. However, my concerns lie mostly in the financial viability of such a decision. I have no problem with taking a couple years off of school because my parents have always emphasized that I should live life while I'm still young, and pursue what I love. But at the same time, I don't want to blow all my savings if I do end up taking some time off of school; I want to at least earn some money. Between streaming and coaching and possibly some help from my lovely team ROOT gaming, it is possible that I could make it financially viable. Nevertheless, it is a risk.
2) As I have stated previously, I have difficulty in seeing the point of returning to school if I do not fully devote myself to my studies. The one advantage I do see is that then I will be completely done with my undergrad and do not have to worry about returning to finish that portion of my education. One might suggest that I completely drop starcraft for my final year and then return to playing after that, but I am unwilling to do so. Starcraft is a passion of mine, and I strongly believe that, at this point in my life it is part of who I am. I may be completely mistaken in this sentiment, but I find it extremely unlikely that I could drop the game just like that.
3) My final option is one that I think most people who don't play Starcraft or understand the devotion and time that people put into this game would choose. I feel like Starcraft is a bug in my system, and until I give progaming a shot I will never get it out of me. If I don't pursue this opportunity that I have put so much time into, (practicing, learning, etc.) then I feel as if I will always ask myself "what could have been?" Therefore, I am reluctant to choose this option, because I feel as though Starcraft has something to offer me, I'm just not sure what yet. In other words, I want to at least give progaming a shot before I give it up.
So, what do I do? Perhaps my desires are naive, and perhaps my dreams will never become a reality. But I am hopeful this is not the case. I am not dumb; I know that esports will not make me rich. But this is what I'm passionate about. This is what I have poured countless hours into, this is what I love. Simply the act of getting my thoughts out on "paper" has helped me to some degree, but I would also like your opinion. What do you think?
Ask yourself this question: Assume that you are going to have the worst pro-gaming career ever. You get 2-0'd or 3-0'd out of every tournament you go to and you simply cannot keep up at all. Would you regret it? If you wouldn't regret it, if you would enjoy the experience, the traveling, the friends, etc. then definitely give pro-gaming a go!
On the other hand, if you would regret it if you never accomplished anything, then you should think over the issue more. Perhaps you could still go into pro-gaming, but give yourself more safety nets. Maybe study/play at the same time, or finish undergrad first, etc.
Of course, I say you should do these things without an inkling of wisdom or experience to back it up. It's your life, do what you want with it! :D
On April 21 2013 13:22 Nooborghini wrote: Go. Pro.
You can do it Sam. 110% Support from me and I can say for the rest of your fans as well!
Sam / Kane 화이팅 ^^
Thanks bud. Like I said though, I worry a lot about how I could support myself financially going pro.
It's hard, I'm trying to support mine as well as my parents. You'd have to plan it out for sure, to make sure you give yourself enough time so when the time runs out, you are satisfied with the time you invested and said that you gave 110% and it failed.
We can only give you great reasons for both sides but in the end, its how you feel.
If you are anything like me, giving 100% isn't enough, 110% and if I failed... then I'd call it a day. It'd be much easier if you find a roommate with the same drive as you, live together and share the expenses of living.
My opinion: option 3 is the best, but if your feeling like you will burn out of the real world if you pick it, option 2. Option 1 and Option 2 imo are not good because if you are on the low end of foreigner pros you will have a difficult time of making it big and supporting yourself. You may eventually get to the skill level where you can trade evenly with some koreans and you get on a big money team and you get to experience traveling to a few cities worldwide. But none of that makes up for the fact that you are honestly wasting 2-3 years of your very short life to play a game which is incredibly difficult to find success in. You would be prolonging your career and when you start working a 'real' job you will be kicking yourself because you'll probably start wanting more real world things like a house or to support a family and you will wish you had not wasted time on a game. However, playing this game at a professional level would be an honor as very few people can compete at a standard that lets them support themselves. If you do decide to take option 1, look at TLO. He has spent 1-2 months figuring out how to perfect his enviroment to train at his peak. He exercises, he eats well, he manages his time and schedules his practice. He works on his psychological performance. If you take option 1 and you do not follow his example not only are you living a risky lifestyle but you are throwing away all chances you have at getting success. Work extremely hard no matter what you do because whatever you do you want to succeed 100%.
Edit: Consider who lives using option 2: suppy. He has success and is on a big name team without being full time. Just a thought.
Considering you only have a year left, I highly recommend finishing the final year.
SC2 is not exactly an easy thing to do at the moment. Top 8 placements in a tournament are not necessarily a success financially considering prize money is extremely top heavy. In the end, it is your decision Kane.
As a final word you've improved immensely since the first time we met when you were mid masters not long ago, you've come a long way in SC2 since that point unlike myself who has stagnated heavily and lost my motivation.
If you can figure out a way to support yourself decently then take a year and go for it. This wouldn't even be a bad career move, I guarantee that most employers will think it's pretty cool that you made a living playing a video game. As a former Winnipeger (now in Calgary) I would definitely cheer for you.
edit: Would also buy you dinner/drinks next time I'm back there
On April 21 2013 14:19 Scarecrow wrote: 3 definitely. The money just isn't there, just keep it as a fun hobby you're really passionate about/good at.
Because money is definitely the only thing anyone should consider whenever making any decision
You may never have the opportunity to be a full time SC2 player ever again while you will have the opportunity to go out and get a job for the rest of your life.
I'd say go with what you want to do regardless if it's the best decision you can make or not.
At 20 years old you should be prioritizing your real career far over Starcraft. Sure you might regret not pursuing progaming. But how much more will you regret becoming a progamer when you realize, months or years after living in a progaming house, that you have no money, no assets, and diminished employability? Will you even be able to support yourself without welfare once you leave progaming? On top of that, the overwhelming majority of progamers never have any real success, tournaments or winnings-wise, its not realistic to think of yourself as the exception.
Tbh I don't see how this is much different from the all the other "should I go pro" blogs that come up once a month. Perhaps you are a little closer to that goal than some of the others, but I don't think by much. The reality is you can probably count the number of "successful" NA pros on two hands, maybe even one. And by successful, I mean are financial stable and have something that resembles a future career. And that is being generous.
I'll tell you the same thing I tell the other people: don't do it. The odds are terrible, and the reward isn't that great even if you beat the odds. The biggest problem is that if you don't make it, turning around and finishing school or w/e it is, is not easy to do. People ask "what have you done for the past few years" (employers, people who interview you for programs, etc.). How you do think you'll sound when you say "I've been playing a video game 8 hours a day." However you want to phrase it, it will be bad. You can't get the time you spend on it back; it is gone forever. And the worst part about it is that time is not spent building up to something, it is essentially wasted time.
If you want anything that resembles a "normal" life in NA culture, don't do it.
you are young and it's not like you are drinking and wasting your life away. Your major and minor are really highly regarded by lots of companies in different positions even if they didn't specifically point out they want maths/philo major.
It's a life experience that you don't really have another chance/time to do so. I am not sure which option is better for you, but I personally think going for one year pro to test it out would be worth it. it's popular for people to take a gap year before going for uni anyway, you can see it as a late gap year for yourself.
What's the timeline for the ROOT house? If it's opening up soon enough, then I feel like the best thing to do is take time off, move into the house, and practice fulltime. I don't know how much coaching you get, but if you keep streaming and start playing fulltime, I think you'd get enough income to at worst break even financially.
On April 21 2013 15:25 blade55555 wrote: If you have 1 year if undergrad left finish it. That's what I would do and play sc2. IMO that's the best thing.
2 for sure. So many reasons. After all the scene really isn't in the best place when it comes to up and coming players making money or even just making a name for themselves. A year from now however I expect things will be looking up. Good luck, whatever you decide.
Don't listen to all the people saying "It's not worth it." How can it be possibly not worth it to chase after your dreams? I would say choice 2 because you'll have a strong foundation as a backup. If nothing else, I'd like to see you pursue your dream, so that I can live that life vicariously through you, since I myself don't know what I am going to do. Go for it!
Speaking as someone who had the possibility of pursuing a career as a badmintonplayer I would really urge you to ponder really hard. I ended up not doing it and pursued my academic goals instead as it was rather quickly obvious that I would not have a chance to ever become one of the best in the world - and that would be my motivation, to excel and to win.You really need to have some incredible motivation if you are to put in the required hours. And going pro is going to be MUCH different than what it is to play as a hobby - you will at points become tired of the game, you will feel like you are stagnating - and it is at that point in time your motivation will have to carry you through.
I think you need to ask yourself: Even if I could financially support myself somehow, but I never really accomplished any major tournament wins - would that be enough for me? What would I even define as success and is that goal attainable?
I had to make that decision when I was 16/17 years old - now 8 years down the line I must admit that I do not regret my choice at all, but I can obviously only speak for me, and you will have to figure out what is right for you. Speak with as many people as you can, get as many perspectives as you can and then think hard.
If you cannot find a way to financially sustain yourself, there is no reason to pursue it for a longer period of time. Taking one year off, living at the parents' or whatever doesn't seem too bad, but if you plan to invest many many years, you should at least have a milestone somewhere inbetween, say after a year, where you put yourself at a crossroads and ask yourself, whether or not you have achieved that milestone. Something like "Can I now sustain myself financially without being dependend on money from mom and dad?".
You said you only have one more year of school left, but how much work is actually left in terms of classes? When I was in my final year of undergrad, it was the least stressful year I had, mainly because i decided to take an extra year in undergrad and split most of my classes between 2 years instead of cramming them all in one year. If your senior year is going to be super busy, this could be an option for you. Also, for me it was feasible, because I had full scholarships paying my tuition.
Another thing, if you aren't going to have the busiest year ever, and you said you are planning to go to grad school, You could always really crank out your work for the first semester, then apply for schools, of which most of the applications would be due around December, and then when you get into a program defer for a year. Most programs that accept you have conditional options that you are allowed to take a year off and still go the following year. In doing this, you could also relax a bit in your second semester of your senior year, and realistically, you know you aren't going to massively fail any of your classes if you haven't done so up to this point.
If you do this, you could easily attempt to go down the road of pro-gaming, but still be completely set with a back-up plan, and if you end up being successful in esports, it's no big deal to eventually decline the grad school offer.
When I finished undergrad I had plenty of professors willing to write me letters of recommendation to pursue any job or school opportunities which came my way. after a year or two of not working closely with any professors, I realized that I didn't personally know any professors who I would want to ask for a letter of recommendation. This is something to consider if you want to go to grad school and are deciding to finish school first then pursue pro-gaming.
On April 21 2013 15:25 blade55555 wrote: If you have 1 year if undergrad left finish it. That's what I would do and play sc2. IMO that's the best thing.
Agreed.
I agree with this too. Completing your undergraduate degree is something that you'll actually need in the future (after you try out your luck committing to SC2 full time, if you want to), and it always gets harder to go back to school after you've left. Many of my friends always thought they'd finish their degree after they left university (either bachelor's or going back for a graduate degree), but real life kept getting in the way and they never got around to it. I also majored in mathematics, and the longer you wait to complete the higher courses, the more basic math (the calculuses, linear and abstract algebras, other prerequisites, etc.) you'll forget.
That being said, I'm impressed that your parents are allowing you this opportunity in the first place. I don't think that means you should drop everything right now and play StarCraft though. I think it would be more responsible to have your degree finished and then try to play, so that you actually have a back up.
On April 21 2013 14:37 iamho wrote: At 20 years old you should be prioritizing your real career far over Starcraft. Sure you might regret not pursuing progaming. But how much more will you regret becoming a progamer when you realize, months or years after living in a progaming house, that you have no money, no assets, and diminished employability? Will you even be able to support yourself without welfare once you leave progaming? On top of that, the overwhelming majority of progamers never have any real success, tournaments or winnings-wise, its not realistic to think of yourself as the exception.
A good counter to that last bit is that there are still exceptions, and if they all thought like that, they wouldn't be where they are today. Of course, it doesn't negate the fact that his odds of being a prodigy are poor.
You should finish your undergrad. There's more expansions coming out for sc2, so there's a lot more time to think about going pro. I honestly don't think you're close to good enough to go pro and make a living off of it. You have to be extremely consistent, and this is vs people who have played far longer than you.
Play starcraft as a hobby untill you finish your undergrad and then go for pro.
Honestly this is the best option, if going pro ends up failing (not that it will) then theres your open door at the end of it.
You dont see yourself going back to education i understand but Esports is a child of a business to be getting into, there are lots of prospective jobs but very few vacancies. If you end up getting shafted you have school to go back to and finish your studies.
Never leave yourself without an option B and never let your dreams die. Those are two things that are important (and also rule out 1 and 3. ^_^)
EDIT: Also i dont know the american education system, is it possible to do all the work for your undergrad early?
I studied while i worked and me and my wife made a split decision to move to sri lanka, so in order for me to go there with the best chance i had, i finished an 18 month course in 9 months (i rushed the last 5 months so 5/14 it took me.) and another 12 month course in management in the same 5 months. I think i was working 8 hour shifts and putting 6 hours a night of work in with 12 on weekends but it was worth it. (And it really wasnt that hard, i still had a few hours everyday for relaxing.)
Honestly devoting yourself to your studies 100% and finishing them quicker is a great thing to do, if its an option.
Just go back to focusing on school and wait for the next expansion beta imo, think of it this way:
- If after 1 year of just playing casually you are not good enough to get back into it, you are likely not talented enough to gamble away your carer right now, if you are talented enough to get back into it a compete at a pro level than you also have something to fall back on thus less pressure... it's a win/win - If the Korean scene actually gets big enough during HOTS so that "foreign" player become left out and practice will happen in Seoul and Seoul only than you dodged a huge bullet... unless you have no problem leaving America and traveling to a foreign country that has a very different culture and staying there for years with people that you can barely speak with
You might think you like starcraft now because you don't play it as much and don't think of it as a job, but once you start playing 10 hours a day you might find it less fun and you might find yourself not being able to practice as well in that kind of "focused" mental environment due to the pressure you fell to win now that your pay depends on it, and considering the fact that anyone that's worth something as far as opinion about starcraft goes says that people will need to play 10-14 hours to actually compete with KESPA player that do practice for that amount of time.
You really have to ask yourself if you enjoy starcraft from a strategic point of view or if you would actually like to repeat builds and practice macro for 8 hours straight so that you can get small advantages here and there and win a high level game, because throwing away a top-grades college diploma, even in today's economy, seems like a huge decision to make for a chance to be able to make a bellow average salary by working over 10 hours a day... even if said work is playing a video game.
Why not just wait 1 more year so that in doing so you can fall back on that diploma ? I don't think most employers would mind a 1 or 2 years gap as long as you can throw in some bs as to why it's there.
There are a lot of different opinions here and certainly a good example of the different mentalities around about pro-gaming.
I made it in eSports, not as a player but as a video producer and shout aster. The reason I bring this up is that you don't have to be locked into one thing. As a pro-gamer you'll have employment and life lessons that many others won't. You will be able to develop a personality and earn money other than winnings. Look at whitera... Doesn't need winnings and is living fine.
in other words, finish your studies with your chosen career in your own time. Follow what you want to do in life but also think what that really is. Be happy. Live life like you only have one
I think the best route really is what suppy is doing. Play SC II as much as you can, but get your undergrad degree. Hopefully the scene grows enough that players all can get a real salary that they can live off of, but right now its not like that.
going back to school for math later on in life seems like it'd be hard. as someone who put off going to school a few years longer than they should have, it's definitely harder going back. if you do decide to play sc2 full time, make sure you at least continue to study on your own time, and don't wait too long to go back. is there a need to get the best grades possible? from how it sounds, it seems like you're still doing okay in school how you're dividing your time now. I definitely understand wanting to chase your dreams, but playing as a hobby, you're already on root, and doing quite well in sc2. maybe consider whether you can chase your dreams while still in school.
though, just make whatever decision feels right at the time. everyone has different advice, and a different way of looking at it. if you truly think you need to quit school to chase your dreams, and make progaming work, maybe you should do it. I'd just say to rethink whether quitting school a necessity to be happy, and to pursue a career in progaming.
Go full time bro. I believe you are one of the few talents in North America right now, and the foreigner starcraft community desperately needs new blood. I believe that ROOT will support you financially to some degree hopefully, and give you time to follow your passion.
On April 21 2013 13:22 Nooborghini wrote: Go. Pro.
You can do it Sam. 110% Support from me and I can say for the rest of your fans as well!
Sam / Kane 화이팅 ^^
Thanks bud. Like I said though, I worry a lot about how I could support myself financially going pro.
One of the more profitable options would be coaching I'd imagine. There are likely a horde of zerg students who would want to learn from a top level zerg like yourself. I doubt promoting yourself as a coach would be an issue either between your stream, twitter & other Root members/root twitter =D
My opinion is a mix of option 2 and 3. Finish your undergrad while continuing to play as a hobby. Then after your undergrad (you have set yourself up for the future with a degree), decide from there. Take a few years to play sc2 professionally, or take time off to travel or look for a job. A lot can change in a year or two, so best not to shoot yourself in the foot.
Unless, you are a very sociable person and have great people skills (you can become a commentator, be involved with the community, e-sports personality), I really see no point in going pro now, and then in 2-3 years you burn out and move on to something else (a large majority of the pro gamers walk down this path). If that happens, it'll be much harder to finish your undergrad.
EPT
