|
Russian Federation5 Posts
NS' Blog: "How To Break Into eSports" 15.07.13
This is a translation of the original article from virtuspro.org.
Note: this article is for people who aren't very familiar with eSports. If you are already playing in some kind of semi-pro team then you will not find anything interesting or new here. Simply close the page and don't bother replying. Thank you!
Originally I was going to write a giant article and I even started to write it, but it was beginning to look like some kind of an epic saga that lost it's meaning. In the end, I came to the conclusion that it is actually much more simple and can be described with a few simple items that you can find below.
However, before proceeding you need to understand something. Esports, at the time of this writing, has almost nothing to do with the actual sports. For example, eSports in Russia is not recognized as an official sport, there is no federation, no sections and schools, no clear way of breaking into it. There is currently no practice where you go to any class where you learn, where you show results, become one of the best, and get invited to the team. None of this is in eSports, but all of this is in actual sports.
You break into eSports with completely different, more prosaic and simple way, but you will have to do everything yourself. Below, a few simple paragraphs describe the way if almost every modern professional player. This mini-guide is written for Dota 2 players, although it is probably true for any other team discipline.
So:
- You must play really well (seems logical, but this is mandatory and the most important point. Lots of people write to me that they would like to get into the eSports, but in the course of conversation it turns out that their experience in the game is a couple of years and is less than 1000 hours of play. Obviously, you will not get anywhere with these numbers).
- You must have a team of guys who play really well, or at least are trying to. Building a team - is a laborious and difficult work, so I would advise everyone to start with small stack of two people (better with three). It will be the backbone of the team that you can use to pick players on desired roles. You must always have this base, it is important, you can't do everything alone. You can look for players anywhere: on forums, in pub games, in the yard, it doesn't matter, good players can be found everywhere. Creating a strong team is usually not a fast process, so be patient.
- Once you have a team, you need to go and register on an open tournament for any skill level, which there are many. You can easily find out about them on eSports sites like teamliquid.net, joindota.com, you can google them, etc. It is not a problem to find one of these tournaments and it is not important which one to start with.
- If you did everything right, you know how to play Dota really well, and your team does not do much worse, then you should have taken a good place in an open tournament for any skill level, because really good teams do not register on these kind of tournaments. It is unlikely to win from the first time, though, it rarely happens, but if you are very talented, then anything can happen.
So, once you have flashed a couple of times at these tournaments - you can say you're already in the eSports, not in the big leagues, though. Then you can go to tournaments rank above that are conducted by invitations only, and poke everyone in the face with the results. Believe me, if you poke actively enough then you will definitely get invited somewhere. There are a great many invitational-only tournaments, often they held small qualifications for a few spots - there's your chance.
Again, there are many of these tournaments, a lot of news about them, and all that is needed - is to at least have a team with some achievements and contact the organizers of the tournament in time. Also, of course, do not miss the league based tournaments (such as StarLadder amateur/pro/semi-pro or ESL), usually, these leagues are made up of divisions. First, you have to play in the weakest, but then again, if you complied with the first two points, then in the very near future you will rise in the highest division, and this is a BIG eSports, so to speak.
- You will definitely need a guy who will continuously look for all these events in the network, and register you there. Usually, such people are proudly called "managers", but to be honest, absolutely any member of the team that is really interested in breaking into this accursed eSports can do this work.
- Once you have achieved significant success in various tournaments, most likely you will be contacted by some organization and be offered a partnership. If it does not happen, then you yourself should contact an organization and request its assistance.
Congratulations, you've made your way into eSports! It is possible to do without the sixth item, but to get to some large organizations, such as Virtus.pro, Na `Vi, or any other of the well-known teams - it means to officially get into the circle of the strongest. Well, hopefully, I explained the main points on the way to the big eSports clearly enough. Now, less words and more action! And remember - it all depends on you! I wish you good luck!
 
|
Thanks for the write-up! I think you should clarify that this is about becoming a professional gamer, not some other occupation within eSports.
|
Russian Federation4050 Posts
On July 15 2013 23:28 Saechiis wrote:
Thanks for the write-up! I think you should clarify that this is about becoming a professional gamer, not some other occupation within eSports.
That is my fault. I kind of missed that point, sorry.
|
Thank you for the write-up. Nice and easy steps anyone can follow. Really simple, but it is always the "simple" steps people forget.
|
GRAND OLD AMERICA16375 Posts
very concise. I like it, though I would have preferred to have more information about the experience necessary to compete at high level dota
|
All i wanted to do was become a manager!
|
On July 16 2013 04:34 amazingxkcd wrote:
very concise. I like it, though I would have preferred to have more information about the experience necessary to compete at high level dota
There is no magic number, just play until you are good enough, your teams results will speak for themselves
|
I don't want to be too negative but still, what you have written is such a basic common sense in my opinion, that I doubt anyone who needs to be told that is going to break into esports. Well, on a positive side maybe it will serve as a reassurance for people who work hard trying to achieve their goal. And clear things up for people who had some sort of different illusions.
|
On July 16 2013 05:11 needcomputer wrote:
All i wanted to do was become a manager!
Build up your resume, networks and learn how to take care of players both emotionally as well as organization wise.
From there you build up :D
gl
|
United Kingdom14103 Posts
On July 15 2013 23:28 Saechiis wrote:
Thanks for the write-up! I think you should clarify that this is about becoming a professional gamer, not some other occupation within eSports.
Yeah, this is the only point I would make.
Nice write up!
|
|
|
Good article. Nice to know your pov 
|
The answer to the article people were expecting when they clicked: How to work in Esports:
2 options:
A.Know someone already working in esports. Be prepared to be poor or have a 2nd job that actually pays.
B Have breasts and be interested in working in esports. (a cute face/ability to read also helps). Be prepared to find a husband who has money.
only being slightly sarcastic on the 2nd one.
|
Nice writeup NS... Had I been 10 years younger I would have taken this path ;-)
|
I like that thousand hours of play bit. It really brings it into focus. If you play for 4 hours after work and 30 hours on weekends that's like 3 months of a rigorous schedule and if you're still into it, it might be a thing. Keep that kind of schedule up with a real job, because it doesn't pay for itself and still will likely not be even a meager living for a few years.
|
I don't think this is very accurate for Dota, sure you can be good all you want and start all the teams you want but you will never find 5 people who are skilled enough for your team to make a dent. The first and foremost thing you need in Dota is marketability, it's happened time and time again, amazing players get nowhere because they are unable to market themselves well enough in the community. Dota isn't a smart choice if you want to get involved in esports as a player because of it's current culture due to being unsupported by a developer client for so long. Sc2/LoL are a much better choice imo.
|
Being good really doesn't mean much in dota, we had plenty of cases of bad players in good teams( select, ducky, pusher, jolie, etc.)none of those were anywhere near the top skillwise when they made into big teams, and some of them never got good once in at all, so maybe nowadays being individually skilled matters a hell of a lot more considering how competitive it is, but history tells me that if you are at least decent by yourself, then what you really need to make it big in dota is to, first and foremost, suck up to everyone known and try to get yourself in, it has always been that way in dota, a big circlejerk, trying to make a new team and go down NS's path takes way the fuck too much time and effort and has a huge chance of failing, it's not something that you or anyone chooses to do consciously, I bet my ass that he didn't plan to reach what he has reached so far even slightly, he just kept on playing because he enjoyed the game for what it was for a long time, and then things started happening on their own.
|
You forgot the most important part of breaking into and staying in eSports - keep winning and don't stop winning until everyone else has lost.
|
On July 16 2013 07:09 Torte de Lini wrote:Show nested quote +On July 16 2013 05:11 needcomputer wrote:
All i wanted to do was become a manager! Build up your resume, networks and learn how to take care of players both emotionally as well as organization wise. From there you build up :D gl
There's more than likely an organization in your area that you can volunteer with to gain experience and get references.
|
I like how the first thing on this list is to put the time into the game. It seems silly but it really is the most important part. If you don't have the time to sink into it, don't have unrealistic expectations.
|
As it should be, the list is simple and straight to the point; however it doesn't elaborate on an extremely important point. It is hard to get into the scene because it's hard to find places for people to even start. There are very few amateur tournaments where people can practice and understand the competitive "metagame". Even in those amateur tournaments, it's hard to get recognized because no one pays attention to them.
The random teams and players that make it big have either had an old face from the scene or have been lucky enough to be exposed to a tournament and beat a top team. I never understood how teams and players came up from the blue so I'd like to know more on how a player/team approached an organization/tournament. I kind of find it hard to believe people just poked them and showcased their skills. There has to be something more that made them buy into it.
Often times when an organization lets go of a team, they talk about a difference in agreements with the players. So, what are the common statements in those agreements? This can let players know ahead of time and let them prepare to act it out.
Overall it's a straight forward introduction on how to break out as a PLAYER, but doesn't talk about other roles in eSports. The main issue in eSports since it started has been a lack of contributors. There needs to be more knowledge of how contributors and players interact and come to agreements. Results speak a lot and getting those results will require you to play hard, but I'm convinced the hardest part is selling yourself.
|
i think theres another method of getting into the scene. assuming you are decent, sucking known people's dicks will get you playing time.
|
This is the same process regardless of the game. Nice summary. Although you have to see if its worth it. I love esports and wanted to get into it and kind of still do, but if the sacrifice isn't worth it, best to just be a fan and go to events for fun and try to have a life instead.
|
This is pretty cool. Thanks for providing your own perspective on it.
|
how come nobody ever talks about the professional scene drug abuses?
It's also an international scene now, where drugs are legalized, so --- nobody is ever going to bring up or?
|
On July 20 2013 10:31 Jaybles wrote:
how come nobody ever talks about the professional scene drug abuses?
It's also an international scene now, where drugs are legalized, so --- nobody is ever going to bring up or?
Drug abuse? You mean Adderall?
|
Good article! I also think this applies to a lot more in life, you can make a simple plan and then try following it (following it can be really hard though).
|
Having good looks and/or an entertaining personality is what is most needed. Raw skills are not that important (you need to be competent, of course).
|
On July 22 2013 02:08 AnomalySC2 wrote:
Having good looks and/or an entertaining personality is what is most needed. Raw skills are not that important (you need to be competent, of course).
For being popular on Twitch, I agree 110%. For actually winning things, not at all.
|
No matter what kind of industry you are trying to "break into", the steps are always very similar. You need to be good. You need to put yourself out there. After that, you need to get a little lucky and be discovered. People don't like hearing this, but its normal for some of the best talent out there to languish for years before making it big. Esports is not different than any other talent driven industry in that way.
|
First of all, I appreciate that you write something, and maybe encourage ppl younger than me to be part of the e-sports scene. Thank you.
But isn't what you write a bit obvious? I mean, getting good in a game, playing tournaments,
having good results, has anyone doubted this is the way before he or she read this article? No offense, but I think you do not know how exceptionally good and talented you are and that you, so it seems, had the time and focus to change your talents into success.
Similar to mothergoose's opinion, in my own opinion the most important factors are talent, focus, enough time, and connected to that, sleep. I cannot work 8 hours per day and then try to be a semi pro in any game, no matter how many games I have played. I know a guy who has over 6000 games in HoN, but has 1600 MMR at the most. I by myself have played too many games in my youth, which got me decent in some of them, but never really good in one. So I lacked the focus.
Again, thank you for your insight, but please be aware that your success is a product of many factors, and that there's no recipe to get to pro gaming.
|
Good write up nska. Thanks for giving us a little info on how to break into epsports in general.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/dota2/2013_05_23_vpnsblogs_banner.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/dfs/articles/NS_Blog_Break_Into_Esports/iem_katowice.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/dfs/articles/NS_Blog_Break_Into_Esports/sl_kiev.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/dfs/articles/NS_Blog_Break_Into_Esports/ti2_seattle.jpg)
