EPTWithout knowing much about professional gaming I would think that a mental coach can help overcome a lot of obstacles concerning motivation and the abilities of the mind. Lots of professional athletes use them to get a better mindset.
Best of luck.
Losing in Challenger as a full-time player - Page 3
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Mina
109 Posts
Without knowing much about professional gaming I would think that a mental coach can help overcome a lot of obstacles concerning motivation and the abilities of the mind. Lots of professional athletes use them to get a better mindset. Best of luck. | ||
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scypio
Poland2127 Posts
On August 28 2013 22:37 virpi wrote: [....] he also lost to hyun, polt and stardust. coming in second is actually the most terrible thing that can happen to you as a competitor. you were close, but you just barely didn't make it. and still, you could see that his spirit wasn't broken. [...] WTF man, JD just took like 4 silvers in 4 months including the season finals, he made a lot of money and is in every pro-gamers comfort zone. He earned 55k$+ and he is not done yet as far as 2013 is concerned. Without these second places his performance would be truly disappointing. Our OP is not doing all too bad this year either. These kind of slumps happen to most pros, especially if the meta shifts away from the things they are comfortable with. You just take a look at the big picture (looks pretty good in 2013), adapt and climb right back up. | ||
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Treetop
United States140 Posts
I think you need to stop seeing the game as the big, bad evil that you have to overcome and start seeing it how you use to. Something really fun! What I'd suggest is going on say...Kings of Tin or Chanman's UMS series and just play around to have fun! Start up your stream one day and just play some 4v4 fan games with your viewers! Hell, have a fan lend you a bronze account and go do some silly fun strategies so you can have some laughs while you play! Sure, this is still your job, but try and find the fun in it as well from time to time. Break up all the monotony and pressure with some silly games! I really think it would do wonders for you to do that once a week or so. You're a total pro and damn good at what you do. You'll bounce back and you'll kick ass again. | ||
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ROOTIllusion
United States1060 Posts
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UnspokenOwl
United States5 Posts
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HerbMon
United States460 Posts
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virpi
Germany3598 Posts
On August 28 2013 23:28 scypio wrote: WTF man, JD just took like 4 silvers in 4 months including the season finals, he made a lot of money and is in every pro-gamers comfort zone. He earned 55k$+ and he is not done yet as far as 2013 is concerned. Without these second places his performance would be truly disappointing. yes, his results have been amazing. I think I've said that clearly. He still won't be the happiest player alive, because losing sucks, even if you're losing in the finals. | ||
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SaWse
Belgium102 Posts
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NanashiStarCraft
Germany48 Posts
. "while you're spending your best years in front of the pc doing the same thing over again." i think this is something you should take a deeper look at. questioning your very lifestyle can have a huge impact on your mind and focus. so get som things clear. what are the benefits of your actual lifestyle. what are your very goals in life. how does your lifestyle support these goals. Just re-read your written text and pick the little but fuzzy things, than start brainstorming about it, and write everything i mean really everything down that comes to your mind, don't value it, just write it down. get to the deeper questions for each of the item popping up. For complex Items stick with the natural planning model
there certainly are other ways to approach such a problem but from what i've read, i think a clear mind won't hurt. furthermore it is up to you finding the answers to those questions, since you are the guy living this life we can only read about. hopefully there was something helpful for you inside. greeting NanashiStarCraft | ||
Ragnarork
France9034 Posts
On August 28 2013 23:04 Douillos wrote: And what happens when the thing you enjoy is... winning? You end up with Mvp, MC or Stephano I'd guess ? OT: Do not take this too seriously, I'm by no mean a very competent thinker when it comes to this subject, but what I can see and witness is that you beat awesome players, and that this should be something that comes to mind when in doubt, not to think "i did better, now I'm terrible", but rather "I did, better, this time it hasn't worked out well, but next time it will, I know, I've already been there". And I'm confident that a player of your caliber can do it. I just can't imagine that you'll end up in a never ending losing streak, I just can't imagine that. At some point you can win against top tier players, and I think it will definitely rebuild up your confidence and a positive mind. And as you failed to qualify for Premier league, I'd like to point out that many good players have from time to time dropped in lower "tier" of the SC2 competition, without it making them immediately bad players at all, nor preventing them from bouncing back. I'm confident you clearly have what it takes to bounce back and go beyond your doubts, although it's far from easy, and I won't say it's just a matter of "dropping them", because, though I know many people that understand it wrongly, periods of doubts, depressive thinking, etc aren't something you can just "drop", it's something that must be overcome, and it takes effort to do that. I do hope this thread will help you get back confidence in your ability to progress and get a fully positive mind back again ! | ||
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Chef
10810 Posts
Negative thinking is a huge problem in all aspects of life. Some people try to resolve it with arrogance, but really I think it's neither. You just have to devote yourself to your task, that's when you develop your potential. | ||
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TheFish7
United States2824 Posts
I swam competitively in HS and College. I joined the swim team my Freshman year of HS because I wanted something to do after school and later I was just a walk-on in college, but I eventually became one of the fastest breaststrokers in my conference of division 1. I improved throughout my career (when I started I was pretty awful) My sophomore and junior years of college, I hit this wall where I just couldn't break 1:07 in the 100 yard breaststroke. It put me in the top 16 but no where near the guys who were coming in 1-3rd, who were getting close to or breaking the 1:00 mark. For two years I just could not break this time, I tried very hard during practices, swimming as much breaststroke as possible. I would do a set of 20 100s on 1:30, when that didn't make me faster I'd do them on 1:25, when that didn't work I'd do sets of 25 reps. No matter how hard I practiced, I couldn't get faster. My senior year I went to the coach and told him I was thinking of quitting the team. My head coach was a drunk so he didn't do shit, but the assistant coach was this young guy and he talked me off the ledge. He worked with me to develop a new practice routine and it worked, I was able to improve my time (by 4 seconds!) after two years of total stagnation. What I did to finally improve was actually counter-intuitive. Instead of practicing for breaststroke over and over, which was my stroke, I worked on improving my other strokes. I went to practices with the crew team and learned rowing. I started doing yoga to work on my core muscles. My assistant coach forced me to swim events that I hated, like the 1/2 mile freestyle. I did sets of butterfly (painful) during practice when everyone else was doing backstroke. I practiced with the diving team and worked on my starts. Basically by shifting my focus during practices away from my strengths and onto my weaknesses, I think I was able to develop muscles(?) mental capacity(?) that I had been neglecting. It worked, by my senior year I had my time down to a 1:03 and I went from top 16 to top 8. And this was against guys who had been swimming for much longer than me and typically were taller and had more muscle than me. So anyway, not sure if that is applicable to starcraft, but thats how I got over my wall. Keep at it Snute! Theres no reason these Koreans have any true advantage over you. GL! | ||
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mjuuy
Norway506 Posts
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Dwighty
Norway3 Posts
I've played football on a fairly high level up until I was 19, at which point I quit. Some of the people I played with, and was regarded better than play football professionally now. The difference between those who make it and those who don't, assuming the talent is fairly equal, is that the ones who make it keeps pushing through those bad streaks and stay motivated by the goal rather than present day results. I pointed at "the western" world because most of us have enjoyed privileged childhoods. I was in school from 08.00 - 16.00, wen't to football practice between 18.00 - 20.00 every day. There is no doubt in my mind that every single Latin American or African child who had been given the same facilities, coaches and opportunities I had would have taken that chance and played professional football today. Mostly because their work ethics are better than ours, but also because it might be the one shot they have in life for greatness and success. Needless to say this makes it easier to stay motivated. From what I've read about it, your work ethics are impeccable and your mindset when it comes to improving is too. You just got to learn to feel good about yourself (even when losing) and not caring so much about 1 result to another. I'll leave this post with something Ole Einar Bjørndalen(Best biathlon athlete of all time) told us while he had a lecture for us when I was studying sports at the University; it's about focusing on the goal rather than the present: He told us that due to his competitiveness, he couldn't stand when amateur skiers overtook him in the slopes as people knew who he was and wanted to "take him down" to show how fit they were. This actually became such a big issue that he had to visit a mental trainer to deal with it, since it fucked up his training schedule(he wen't faster than he should etc). The solution was to focus ahead on what he was training for and remembering that while the amateur skier just had 1 hour of skiing every night, he might be on a 3 hour training session. In order to have a shot at the gold medal in the World Championship he had to practice right and do his thing, even though it sucks sometimes. I think this relates to your article since you talk about losing to people who don't play StarCraft professionally and having bad results. Just keep doing whatever you need to do and play your style even though it might mean you'll lose a game or two. This might just be a useless wall off text, but I wanted to post it on the off chance you'll read it and get anything out of it. | ||
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4KKiko
Croatia21 Posts
You're takeing all this stuff way too serious. You are pro gamer, what that basicaly means is that you are able to devote your time to play games and get something in return. Everything else is down to you. That means you decide how to organise your pro gaming life, how you spend your time or your money and What will be your general attitude towards all things and people involved. That stuff has come from the inside not from your parents, not from your friends and certainly not from your manager or sponsor. (I'll get to that later) Don't worry about not doing the right stuuff, you have set your direction by chooseing a pro gamer career, you need to listen to yourself when it comes to decision on how exactly pro gaming career is going to unfold for you. Chill out, you don't have to practice shitload, its actually contra productive.It takes time for your brain to integrate stuff that you are learning in game, and if you play 8-11 hrs a day it isn't happening. And no sleep does not cut it, for stuff to integrate and for brain to learn you also need some chillaxing "alpha" states. Often times pro gamers win tournaments after comeing back from vacationor from the break, when they have taken the time for their body to slow down and and let the bits and pieces they have learned to fall into the right places for them to be able to use them in game. Bad stuff your brain tells you is actually something you need to pay some attention to. For example you need to hang out around people for your brain to activate circuits that will make it work efficiently. Same goes to all the "regular" stuff you might be missing due to too much practice like moveing around and excersising or dateing which is needed for your body to start generating and enjoying the right kind of chemicals for you to work well. Few more tips, when imaginary stuff that involes other people starts playing around in your head, try actually getting in contact with the person (or equivalent) and have conversation about that and you are certain to be positively surprised when it comes to what will unroll. Usually, merely thinking in that way you are forced to fully realise it's your brain conveying you a usefull message, listen to the message behind the words. Use all your senses when looking for the message and not just the words and you are certain to hear it, In general do listen to your self, trust your self about what you are gonna do and decisions you are makeing, especially the big ones. On a regular bases ask yourself, Is this a career for me ? Is that what I am doing good for me, does it feel right to do this in my life ? If it does not, it's OK to move on. If it does, keep asking questions on how exactly is it right for you to proceed. Answer questions honestly until things are clear enough for you. Here you might come to some answers that your managers, sponsors or any other entitiy that has some stock or interest in you might not like. Talk to them. Notice how the really persistent and resiliant SC2 top players have a unique personality, the "I do what I feel is right way to approach things for me" attitude. They are into business of clearing stuff up regularly. And doing what is right to them. That makes them flexible and resiliant, good in the long run. Take Naniwa, MC, Stephano, Polt.. to name the obvious ones who let their unique character shine and all have a fairly interesting carrer even if we would discount their achievements. Don't stop until all the important questions are arisen and answered and until you are ready to sit infront of the computer and play the game with a clear and open mind ready to learn. All the way until you are ready to enjoy whatever you are doing as much as you ever did. Good luck to you and if you need some help in applying what I have written you are free to PM me. Edit: Most of the stuff that I have written is not very well formatted and I bet there are typingt mistakes.. I hope it can further convey general attitude I was trying to convery in the post :-) | ||
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EGLzGaMeR
United States1867 Posts
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Gojira621
United States374 Posts
And if you're a pro playing this game and not having at least some fun doing so, then you really need to rethink what you're doing. I'm not trying to say that the complaints and sadness from the players aren't legit or unwarranted, but you guys have seriously got to think about where you're at and how many other players probably wished they had the chance to be where you are and have the opportunity that you do. Snute even has a couple tournament victories to show for it, that should be proof enough that you have the skills to be good enough to win. Talk to other players, see what they do, exercise, eat more. Take a step back and look at what you've done. Even if you haven't won a tournament as a pro you still likely play for a big-name team, are probably mid to high grandmaster, etc. Every pro player has accomplished a lot to get where they are even if they're not putting out results. | ||
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HandA711
202 Posts
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Demicore
France503 Posts
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spudde123
4814 Posts
I have never considered self-help books as a tool for myself before, but this was pointed to me so I decided to read it after seeing what it is about. I haven't yet finished it, and can't really talk about any changes in perspective at this point, but the arguments and exercises in the book are definitely worth considering. The book talks about learning to deal with thoughts, images, emotions as what they really are. They are in your head, but you don't have to be invested in them if they are not helpful to what you see as important, which is your performance ingame. | ||
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