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So to start this off, my dad is going to be inheriting a bunch of money in a very short period of time.
He knows how much I played broodwar, and now sc2, he knows that I wake up at 4 in the morning to watch little koreans play this strange space game. And he knows that its a little more than a game for me. So in an attempt to be nominated for best dad in the world, he said asked why I never gave pro-gaming a try (I'm a lowly 1400 diamond protoss) and to be frank, it's because my mom and step dad. They think its just a stupid waste of time. So I can only practice 1-2 hours a day because of work and RL constraints. So after talking for a while, he asked me a very straight forward question: given the proper circumstances, do you think you could make any money playing this game? And I said yes. I've always been a very competitive and driven person and I believe with the right atmosphere (basically live like a pro gamer) I could infact make some money playing the game we all love. So he said that if I was really serious about this, that he would sponsor me for 6 months. Pay my expenses, fly me out to tournaments and everything else that a pro gaming team does for it's players.
But before I really give him a yes or no answer, I wanted to get some feed back from the community. Do you honestly think its possible for someone to just switch over from a "regular" life into a progamer? What do I need to learn or forget about a regular day to day to be successful and progressive as a pro gamer? And to anyone who reads this who's on a team like EG, ROOT, Fnatic, what's it like to have an opprotunity like the one you have? Whats good, whats bad?
And to the community, would there be any interest, if this were to really become a reality (80/20 odds in favor of it happening) in me making like a daily blog of my experience here on TL?
Cheers,
kCaZ
 
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This is a terrible idea. Tell your father to save his money.
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Highly unlikely...but you may never get this opportunity again
Try to things other than gaming in korea if it doesn't work out...don't make it a complete waste
1400 diamond is pretty low...maybe you don't get to play enough though
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If you don't follow your passions, life becomes boring an full of regret.
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I think it's possible to switch but...you're not going to get anywhere if you're starting at 1400. I think it's better if you try to improve before you make your dad pay for tournaments and everything. Rather than getting sponsored by 1 person, it's better to get good enough to find sponsorship through a team.
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All fun and good aside. You're going to have to realize talent is the deciding factor.
Statistics say you aren't going to make it very far.
And also, 6 months is not a long time at all by any standards.
Sorry to step on your passion/dreams, but just trying to paint you a real picture.
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i think the very important question is.
how old are you? if you are younger than 18, i think by all means go for it.
if you are like older than that, then we have to know how good you are because it is a highly competitive field in my opinion and not everyone is "talented" enough to be able to be a legit progamer. I mean hard work do play a significant role, but take 10,000 young kids and train them in a pro gamer routine and only 10 or so will be like Flash or Jaedong. Same in other competitive fields. Not everyone can be Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps or LeBron, no matter how much time they put in.
That said, if you are confident that this wil make you happy, go for it. I will be interested with your progress if that happens but do blog it only if you feel that reporting to the community will aid your progress. If it gives you unproductive and unnecesarry pressure, you can report to us only when you have made it.
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it sounds like you're still at an age where you go to school
I would stick to school because it is a guaranteed way to make money in the long run
it seems like you haven't even experienced what it's like to practice day in and day out 7 days a week
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Go for it, life is short-ish. Make sure to outline his expectations. I would advise setting some money on some good coaches... they will help you progress your game farther than just you will (at 1400). In addition, find high level practice partners that are willing to be just as active as you... (good place to start is the practice partner thread).
As far as the switch, it depends heavily on your personality preferences. ... can you sit in a chair for a long time, stare at a screen, and still do a decent analysis of your failures after 14 hours a day? ;]
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Hyrule19151 Posts
Personally, I'd say go for half of it. Ask for some support so you can stay home and practice. Play in a bunch of online tournaments (TL Open, ITC if it ever starts up again, ZOTAC, CraftCup, etc). After a few months, if you do well, make your final decision.
But really you should finish school regardless. Diplomas and degrees last a lot longer than a gaming career.
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I would give it a try.
Play from home 8 hours a day and see if you can compete with the best on the ladder.
Take 3-4 weeks to see if you can get to top 200 and you will know if you have the talent required to go on.
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given your rating, and the amount of practice hours you have put into the game, if you where serious about this you should look at it with a tiny bit of realism.
The people competing out there are already miles ahead of you, You should try to get a set of gosucoaches and aim to rank higher on the ladder, compete online because realistically you cant win a lan yet.
You can do this but it will require practice, lots of practice. If he is serious in sponsoring you then fucking go for it but keep lan events in your TO DO list.
What will happen at the lan setting is you will travel, sleep uncomfortably, and get knocked out first day. A giant waste of time.
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On October 29 2010 01:24 YiukeDukem wrote:
Highly unlikely...but you may never get this opportunity again
Try to things other than gaming in korea if it doesn't work out...don't make it a complete waste
1400 diamond is pretty low...maybe you don't get to play enough though
Like I said, I only get to play like 1-3 hours a day if I'm lucky, I've only been able to play 400 games or so.
On October 29 2010 01:30 awu25 wrote:
it sounds like you're still at an age where you go to school
I would stick to school because it is a guaranteed way to make money in the long run
it seems like you haven't even experienced what it's like to practice day in and day out 7 days a week
I'm actually turning 19 in a month or so, and I won't be going to school to next fall anyways. And I still plan on going 100% but I thought if I don't give it an honest try, then I'll always wonder what might have happened. And I have no idea what it would be like to practice day in and day out so thats why I wanted to get alot of feed back before I make my decision.
On October 29 2010 01:26 ketomai wrote:
I think it's possible to switch but...you're not going to get anywhere if you're starting at 1400. I think it's better if you try to improve before you make your dad pay for tournaments and everything. Rather than getting sponsored by 1 person, it's better to get good enough to find sponsorship through a team.
I don't plan on just flying out randomly to tournaments, I know 100% that thats a waste of time. My plan that I thought of was like to practice straight for a month and a half and then start by making short trips out to LANs with a prize pool a little bit more than the cost of the flight there. And do this for like 3 months and see where I am at by then.
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Don't go ALL IN, finish highschool and then go try to be a progamer so that way if it doesn't work out like it does for most people you can fall back on the standard go to university get 9-5 job like everyone else does.
Edit: oh you're finished highschool.
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On October 29 2010 01:28 dtz wrote:
i think the very important question is.
how old are you? if you are younger than 18, i think by all means go for it.
if you are like older than that, then we have to know how good you are because it is a highly competitive field in my opinion and not everyone is "talented" enough to be able to be a legit progamer. I mean hard work do play a significant role, but take 10,000 young kids and train them in a pro gamer routine and only 10 or so will be like Flash or Jaedong. Same in other competitive fields. Not everyone can be Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps or LeBron, no matter how much time they put in.
This
Make sure of the reason why you are at 1400, if you're near your mechanical ceiling (you should be able to tell more or less) odds aren't that great. It's much easier to get good when your mechanics are keeping you down (considering your amount of playing time) than if you aren't good and/or quick to grasp little details about the game.
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Like others have said, before you go have your father invest fucktons of cash into you being a progamer in korea you should try to mass game on bnet and get high ranked to justify the move. Besides if you are 1400 ranked its not like going to korea is going to add to your skill. You have to learn to practice and develop skills on your own, you can't just say you need to be thrown into the progaming life style to fully become a progamer and get good. You need a solid foundation to begin on, and 1400 seems pretty shaky.
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To make it simply i would try to place high on the ladder first.
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It takes natural ability that you might not have. You should probably just save your money and not waste 6 months of your life.
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In my opinion I think you should try to push 4-6 hours for a couple of weeks and see how that feels and how much your game improves. 1400 isn't a very high rating to start at and you probably have a long way to go before you get the "game sense" that you can't really learn without 2000+ hours of Starcraft behind you.
So basically, give it a shot, see how things go, ask (pay) a good player to take a look at some of your replays and have them judge how far you will be able to reach.
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On October 29 2010 01:35 tofucake wrote:
Personally, I'd say go for half of it. Ask for some support so you can stay home and practice. Play in a bunch of online tournaments (TL Open, ITC if it ever starts up again, ZOTAC, CraftCup, etc). After a few months, if you do well, make your final decision.
But really you should finish school regardless. Diplomas and degrees last a lot longer than a gaming career.
Yeah most importantly, I plan on going to school 110%
And playing in online tournaments is going to be a big part of this to see if I can place in the top 10 consistently and that should give me a fairly ok idea as to where my progress is.
On October 29 2010 01:34 Lglow wrote:
Go for it, life is short-ish. Make sure to outline his expectations. I would advise setting some money on some good coaches... they will help you progress your game farther than just you will (at 1400). In addition, find high level practice partners that are willing to be just as active as you... (good place to start is the practice partner thread).
As far as the switch, it depends heavily on your personality preferences. ... can you sit in a chair for a long time, stare at a screen, and still do a decent analysis of your failures after 14 hours a day? ;]
I never thought of the coaching, but now that you brought it up, I'll definetly be doing that. And if gaming would be my "job" for 6 months I absolutely could practice in a chair for that long. And ever since BW I've always been able to look at my performance when fresh eyes no matter how long I've been playing.
On October 29 2010 01:35 ScDeluX wrote:
I would give it a try.
Play from home 8 hours a day and see if you can compete with the best on the ladder.
Take 3-4 weeks to see if you can get to top 200 and you will know if you have the talent required to go on.
Like I replied before, this will be my goal in the first 2 - 3 months, hitting top 200 that is.
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EPT
