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Let me preface this by saying I have no intention or desire to become the "next big thing", no desire to be the next big streamer or pro gamer, I simply am tired of sitting at my computer and thinking "while, this is all fairly boring and a waste of time". I want to get involved in competitive games again. I want to interact with other people who are also passionate about video games via twitter/gaming/facebook/streams.
E-Sports
I have been playing video games competitively since CS 1.5, my first experience was playing fy_iceworld with friends which eventually led into having lan parties where we would play CS 1.6, Battlefield 1942, Desert Combat and C&C Generals. This all changed however with the release of World of Warcraft which all my friends begun to play and enticed me away from CS with the promise of fun PvP and other fun things. They weren't wrong, however, this prompted an extended vacation from competitive gaming which eventually was revisisted with Dota on WC3 when that competitive itch came knocking.
Since then I have been jumping around in games mainly trying to find my place in this big blue esport ocean. I have essentially narrowed my games down to Starcraft 2, Dota 2 and Counterstrike: Global Offensive. I also spend more than a healthy amount of time watching streams which has prompted me to start my own stream. Unfortunately real life obligations have made my schedule erratic so I get very few viewers.
Now to the point, I intend to finally take my future in gaming into my own hands and stop waiting for a community to happen around me, I have realized in past years that I am very anti social and attribute this to the reason I sit at my computer in silence watching streams instead of playing in tournaments and gaming with friends. I need to find a community and dive head first in it instead of watching from the beach. However, I first need to decide how to go about doing this.
I currently have a few options, first and foremost
Starcraft
This is the most realistic option for me, it's single player which is a very big deal to me since I prefer I make the mistakes and have full control over fixing them instead of relying on five other people. This is a double edged sword however, Sc2 seems extremely lonely for someone who doesn't really know a lot of people who play. The clan system is nice but I am socially stupid enough that I have trouble finding a decent clan with people that talk. My main solution for this has mainly been to watch streams while playing and that helps a little.
My only issue with Starcraft is the fact that you have to be "on" the entirety of the game, shorter games than Dota mean this isn't a huge deal but I find lots of Starcraft gets mentally heavy, this is most likely something I could solve with practice.
The end goal here would likely be masters league and the ability to play in weekly cups, not necessarily win but just have something to work towards
Dota 2
Ah Dota, I absolutely love this game at it's core and I actually enjoy what Valve has done with it, that being said, I find it extremely anti competitive for a mid level player, Lack of mid level tournaments and lack of a ladder are two big things that stick out to me a third being game length, with each game being thirty minutes to an hour it's somewhat of a drawback compared to Sc2. Otherwise I find Dota extremely fun and I REALLY enjoy the cosmetic aspects of it. I just find no way for someone who isn't already fairly sociable to make a splash as a mid/upper tier player without being extremely skilled.
I could continue to grind games and hope a scene develops that fosters non very high level player competition
The end goal here is kind of muddy, I would love to play Dota at an amateur level similiar to go4 or zekes for sc2 but I don't actually think anything like this exists
Streaming
I should mention that, I will be streaming regardless of what I chose to do however there is a big issue here, I find in general there are two problems involved with streaming. First, being noticed, I obviously have no delusions that I will be stuck with 1-2 viewers (mainly myself watching myself) for a while, however I would be happy with eventually getting one to two hundred viewers on a good day. Second, game consistency, and this ties in with the first problem, if you aren't consistent with your time and game people wont watch this leads to my major issue with streaming instead of focusing on improving on a game, if you play different games it's going to be very hard to attract a following without serious luck.
I would love to stream and get a couple hundred viewers, I really enjoy streaming and truth be told will do it no matter what however I have the option of either focusing on a game and streaming it or trying to be a multigame streamer which I find to be an almost impossible decision.
End goal here would be a couple hundred viewers and the ability to play whatever I want.
Honestly, I think the best choice for me is to play Sc2 and try and get good at it (masters) whilst streaming, being entertaining and hopefully getting lucky enough to build a viewer base. MLG Anaheim has really renewed my love for Starcraft and I might have to give it another go.
What in your opinion is the best option for getting involved in Esports?
 
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United States24805 Posts
I fixed the typo in your thread title. I don't think spellcheck works in that field so always double-check spelling and the like, there.
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Getting viewers while streaming isn't easy. Why would someone watch you? What makes you think you can get 10 viewers, let alone a few hundred? There are very few streamers who hit that many viewers. There are many pro players in both sc2 and dota who don’t.
I stopped played sc2 awhile ago so ill just give you dota advice.
Many people who want viewers now days do item giveaways. The short term loss is you lose a lot of cosmetics (should probably get rid of the ones you don’t want), but you might get more viewers. People will come for the items and if you're interesting enough they will stay to watch you. Since there are so many people streaming who are better and worse than you, you need to give them a reason to watch you.
Another good way to get people to watch you play dota is by playing ixdl since thats usually more interesting than MM and more competitive.
I don’t know what level you’re at right now, but If you want to get in with good players the first step is to be in the highest MMR, then try as hard as you can every game and try to impress the good players. That’s kind of what eternal envy did and it worked for him until people realized he was a dick (don’t be a dick). Granted, he had a HoN background so he was already decent at the game and had a network of people who knew him afaik.
If you’re not used to playing CM mode with good lanes, heroes, roles, etc, playing ixdl is a good way to improve because plenty of pros are playing there and if you can get a high ELO people will recognize you, and try to make teams with you.
If you want to find a team to play on and play TMM and small cups, there are many places you can look. Theres a team recruitment thread on TL, on Reddit, on NADotA and on other dota sites so you can create and join teams there. I don't know about reddit and TL because their dota section is newer, but NADotA is a very tight-knit community of skilled players and a lot of strong NA players are making teams on and off. One of my good friends recently made a team with strong NA players and they’re scrimming 3-4 hours a day and doing great.
Most important thing is to make sure you’re having fun while you’re playing though!
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On July 03 2013 16:13 13_Doomblaze_37 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Getting viewers while streaming isn't easy. Why would someone watch you? What makes you think you can get 10 viewers, let alone a few hundred? There are very few streamers who hit that many viewers. There are many pro players in both sc2 and dota who don’t.
I stopped played sc2 awhile ago so ill just give you dota advice.
Many people who want viewers now days do item giveaways. The short term loss is you lose a lot of cosmetics (should probably get rid of the ones you don’t want), but you might get more viewers. People will come for the items and if you're interesting enough they will stay to watch you. Since there are so many people streaming who are better and worse than you, you need to give them a reason to watch you.
Another good way to get people to watch you play dota is by playing ixdl since thats usually more interesting than MM and more competitive.
I don’t know what level you’re at right now, but If you want to get in with good players the first step is to be in the highest MMR, then try as hard as you can every game and try to impress the good players. That’s kind of what eternal envy did and it worked for him until people realized he was a dick (don’t be a dick). Granted, he had a HoN background so he was already decent at the game and had a network of people who knew him afaik.
If you’re not used to playing CM mode with good lanes, heroes, roles, etc, playing ixdl is a good way to improve because plenty of pros are playing there and if you can get a high ELO people will recognize you, and try to make teams with you.
If you want to find a team to play on and play TMM and small cups, there are many places you can look. Theres a team recruitment thread on TL, on Reddit, on NADotA and on other dota sites so you can create and join teams there. I don't know about reddit and TL because their dota section is newer, but NADotA is a very tight-knit community of skilled players and a lot of strong NA players are making teams on and off. One of my good friends recently made a team with strong NA players and they’re scrimming 3-4 hours a day and doing great.
Most important thing is to make sure you’re having fun while you’re playing though!
Yea my main issue with Dota is it's hard to get noticed without a lot of meta gaming and that is kind of what's keeping me away, I can play Sc2 on my schedule, when I want how I want and not have to rely on social skills to play in cups/inhouses. It sounds like a bad excuse but I am just not that great at finding teams for some reason, it's been a major flaw in my gaming since CS.
Every time I repeat this I get how whiny I sound and it's not from refusal to put myself out there it's just a simple fact that I lack the motivation to really find a team.
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Honestly i find Dota2 very anti-competitive as well, its the reason i chose to stick with LoL instead. Its a shame because i loved Dota2 for the 30 games or so i played it. I want to find that inhouse LR someone did. "And capped the noob lich gets a triple kill off his ult" or something, lulzebub
Good luck :-)
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On July 03 2013 16:41 Esoterikk wrote:Show nested quote +On July 03 2013 16:13 13_Doomblaze_37 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Getting viewers while streaming isn't easy. Why would someone watch you? What makes you think you can get 10 viewers, let alone a few hundred? There are very few streamers who hit that many viewers. There are many pro players in both sc2 and dota who don’t.
I stopped played sc2 awhile ago so ill just give you dota advice.
Many people who want viewers now days do item giveaways. The short term loss is you lose a lot of cosmetics (should probably get rid of the ones you don’t want), but you might get more viewers. People will come for the items and if you're interesting enough they will stay to watch you. Since there are so many people streaming who are better and worse than you, you need to give them a reason to watch you.
Another good way to get people to watch you play dota is by playing ixdl since thats usually more interesting than MM and more competitive.
I don’t know what level you’re at right now, but If you want to get in with good players the first step is to be in the highest MMR, then try as hard as you can every game and try to impress the good players. That’s kind of what eternal envy did and it worked for him until people realized he was a dick (don’t be a dick). Granted, he had a HoN background so he was already decent at the game and had a network of people who knew him afaik.
If you’re not used to playing CM mode with good lanes, heroes, roles, etc, playing ixdl is a good way to improve because plenty of pros are playing there and if you can get a high ELO people will recognize you, and try to make teams with you.
If you want to find a team to play on and play TMM and small cups, there are many places you can look. Theres a team recruitment thread on TL, on Reddit, on NADotA and on other dota sites so you can create and join teams there. I don't know about reddit and TL because their dota section is newer, but NADotA is a very tight-knit community of skilled players and a lot of strong NA players are making teams on and off. One of my good friends recently made a team with strong NA players and they’re scrimming 3-4 hours a day and doing great.
Most important thing is to make sure you’re having fun while you’re playing though! Yea my main issue with Dota is it's hard to get noticed without a lot of meta gaming and that is kind of what's keeping me away, I can play Sc2 on my schedule, when I want how I want and not have to rely on social skills to play in cups/inhouses. It sounds like a bad excuse but I am just not that great at finding teams for some reason, it's been a major flaw in my gaming since CS. Every time I repeat this I get how whiny I sound and it's not from refusal to put myself out there it's just a simple fact that I lack the motivation to really find a team.
no its cool. If you really cant find a team then your best option is sc2. You really have to like everyone on your dota team to play well together, which is why teams disband all the time. If you hvae trouble doing that then competitive dota isn't your game.
I'm in china for another 6 weeks but if you're still interested in doing this with dota at that point i can try to help you improve and/or get into a team to start playing forreal
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There's endless leagues and teams that could very much use admin support. I might be wrong, but, while you might get more involved in things, I severely doubt your streaming would contribute much to esports. Helping these organisations however...
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I will second that about getting hundreds of viewers while streaming starcraft 2 or dota. Take a look at someone like Avilo, he has had to build his viewer base for years to be able to attain numbers in the hundreds for sc2. Also, viewers do not seem to correlate all that well with your skill in sc2 or dota unless you are essentially a pro. Not saying that you can't achieve your goals that you have set for yourself but don't get discouraged if the viewer count seems low.
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On July 04 2013 02:15 Passion wrote:
There's endless leagues and teams that could very much use admin support. I might be wrong, but, while you might get more involved in things, I severely doubt your streaming would contribute much to esports. Helping these organisations however...
Honestly this never really occurred to me, where would you go about finding these positions.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zQCTC7e.png)
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