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Australia8532 Posts
In an interview IdrA gave about leaving CJ Entus he stated that one of the reasons was the practice regime which included:
12 - 14 hours a day of practice
2 hours of "free" gaming
and 2 days off a month...
12 months a year = 24 days off per year.
365 - 24 = 341 days. With an average of 14 hours of gaming in general per day that is about 4,774 hours a year of gaming. When people talk about sacrifice they do not joke. IdrA could have been approximating/my memory could be totally fucked; but the commitment is huge.
This isn't me saying don't do it - this is me saying if you''re serious; drop everything you're doing and commit, 100% to gaming. The biggest deal i would say is participating in tournaments; any experienced player will tell you that laddering is a different world to tournament play. Tournaments, tournaments, tournaments. That is all i can suggest. Oh and participate in tournaments.
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On December 10 2010 14:05 compscidude wrote:
i'll be realistic here.
you will have a greater chance if you stop school and play games from a younger age.
This was the case for Flash, one of the dominant player in SC history.
He started when he was 15, and big portion of his time went to practices.
If your motivated to succeed in e-sports, i recommend having your priorities changed.
Gaming would have to be your first not school, and by all means, this doesnt mean you
must drop out. But rather, you have to understand that doing good in school is not what you
would be expecting, given that you are motivated to succeed in gaming.
So my point is, set your priorities.
How are you going to spend you time?
Korean progaming is much different from the way top foreign players (outside of Asia) play. It's not an option to just "stop school" and play.
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as qxc already said, you'll make more money giving lessons than actually winning tournaments. you just have to be able to get good enough to be respected in the community.
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to me being a pro always meant being able to be good and still sustain real life, at least in the States.
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On December 10 2010 16:30 ShangMing wrote:
You're not understanding the definition of "pro" at all.
I understand it perfectly well. I am just very confused as to what your position is as you seem to be confused about it and using circular reasoning.
An amateur gambler plays on the side, while they have a main job that supports them.
So what about people who can't support themselves through progaming, play on the side and don't have a job? Like almost every foreign player outside of Korea?
So what about top amateurs back in SC BW? Where they semi-pro too?
To call someone like HuK a semi-pro is a huge insult, in my opinion, also as IdrA said in a recent interview with Artosis, many of of the current S-Class players don't even belong up there.
You are confused again. People in S class aren't pro but it is an insult to call Huk a semi-pro? Huk won tournaments where the prize money equals the costs of attending. Huk isn't S class.
Those people in S class won a lot of money and are on the track of making more, as GSL prize pool is so huge because of Blizzard.
And from tournaments alone, IdrA has not made that much at all... If he were to financially support himself, the money would presumably be from a salary from his team, which would apply to other players on other teams as well. On a last note, many top Korean BW players make 6 figures.
lol
Idra had or still has a progaming license, which is the definition of being a progamer in BW. You are semi-pro in BW if you are on a proteam but don't have a license.
Idra is also S class. So how is Idra not a progamer? But calling Huk a semi-pro is offensive?
You are new to esports, new to TL and you are confused about your own position.
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you are a pro or you aren't. just compete and figure it out, man
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Don't, 2000 rating in 8 months at sc2 is like very very bad.
I barely play and I wasn't even good at sc (c+ - b-) (i play sc2 once a month or so) and I could climb up diamond with almost no effort.
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Please specify, by pro do you mean playing on Korean TV or having notability among online communities within the United States? Even the latter will not be easy, and you will likely not net any cash(practicing for hours and hours each day, time that could have been spent working at a standard job.) It is the dream of millions to be a pro gamer. Also bear in mind do this for the love of the game, even if you do achieve notability after thousands of hours of practice and make a decent show in a few tournaments your name will not go down in the history books, and you will be all but forgotten about in a few months as everyone jumps onto the bandwagon of the next upstart. I mean not to discourage you but this is the way things are in the world of e-sports. Despite all of this if you still want to go for it it is your choice. Just make an informed decision prior to potentially waisting years of the best time of your life.
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If you want to be considered to join a pro team you're going to have to be good enough to prove it by winning in tournaments. You should be able to win any low profile local tournaments that are going on in your area for starters. If you can't even do that then there's no hope of competing in big tournaments like MLG, IEM, or the GSL, the tournaments that actually pay out substantial prize money.
You'll be expected to consistently qualify through huge brackets of people and compete on an even playing field with the likes of other pro gamers. So my advice is, go play in tournaments, online or offline, and find out for yourself how difficult it is, and whether or not you're really ready to make that kind of commitment. One thing you should remember is that trying to become a pro-gamer is a gamble. Even if you have all the passion in the world for Starcraft 2, there is no way to be guaranteed success. As much as it sucks, natural talent is a huge factor in one's ability to be successful at the very top levels.
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To be brutally honest, if you had RTS talent you would be much higher than 2000 diamond, which is pretty ordinary for those who put in a decent amount of time to playing. I'm around 2000 and I hardly ever play the game.
It sounds like you are pretty set on this, so here is what I think you should do. Dedicate a few months, maybe 3-4 after school to see how high you can go. Attend every live and online tournament you can, and ladder like a madman. If you are not in the top 30 or so on the ladder at the end, with some good tournament results, then I would quit and pursue a career that will actually get you somewhere in life. There is no reason you can't play Starcraft as a hobby like most of us. Besides, pro-gamers work like dogs for relatively little pay. Their practice routines are borderline inhuman.
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Step 1:
I highly suggest before considerring the "pro" gamer lifestyle that you watch this:
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTIyODM3NDY0.html
Its corny, I know, and it feels like watching a cheesy MTV special but its actually dead on about the industry of progaming.
Step 2:
If you still want to dedicate your life to becoming a pro gamer after considerring the requirements to realistically make a living off gaming, and the potential hardship and consequences it takes to get to the top (very very small % of people ever get paid to play games professionally). Now consider how many people enter for qualifiers in a tournament, and only maybe 2-3 take home money.
And keep in mind that ALL of them practice just as much as the top players to achieve even this.
Now you must practice. Practice until your eyes bleed, dedicate every waking hour you ahve to improving, find people to learn from, study your game, study everything you can about getting every advantage in the game. Timings, specifics, tricks, all of this is necessary to be the best. You MUST play a LOT.
Step 3:
Enter tournaments. If you're a rising star you'll get noticed, by teams, apply for sponsorships, or get noticed enough that you can recieve sponsorships. Use your vast experience and knowledge of the game to teach others and sell coaching lessons. This will sustain you more than tournament winnings will unless you're a natural IdrA (who I should add played brood war competitively for YEARS to reach the status he is at).
----
This is how you become pro, but being a successful professional gamer is hard, and most of the time not worth it. I have been offered sponsorship to play q3a and WoW arena competitively in the past, while the idea of playing q3 for money was intriguing (I won ~$300 total in local/online ladder tournaments), I was also going to college, and did not feel dumping my future was worth the minimal gain I saw in competing. I didn't feel I was good enough to warrant dropping out of school and screwing up my future for a game.
The offer for Arena competing was also intriguing, but by thsi time I had a paying career and the amount that my friend (who was on our team that got offered sponsorship) makes is really really low. Its a livable salary that he makes in total, but I opt to keep my career and make stable income.
So think about that much, and remember that pro gaming can be an awesome thing to get into, if you have the drive, ambition, and can really play any game at a high level naturally, you'll be able to survive in the industry. Otherwise I highly recommend against it. Being good at SC2 isn't hard, but being as good as the people who win tournaments is another story, and most of them really only break even on the winnings. As many people have already pointed out in the thread so far.
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I started 4 weeks after the game came out, coming from a FPS scene and started in bronze with 2 wins and 33 losses after my first 35 games. I know stand at 2k diamond with 60%+ win ratio (including my initial 30 losses) what you've achieved is in all honesty nothing, and this is the scary thing about bonus pool. 6weeks back, OMG huk hit 2k points, he is so fucking pro. 6weeks later, inflation occurs, holy shit im at 2k. me > huk.
However, Enter every online tourny, TLopen,ESL series, every lan etc. CONSISTENT (thats the important word here - many people can pull off a one-off fluke win @ X tournament) get into the top 8/4/final etc etc. Then you'll be spotted.
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Only one who can stop you from being a professional gamer, is you.
But you will need a few things
- 6 - 8 hours a day training /practicing
- Find Practice partners who are better then you
- Watch / Study Replays (Worked in to your 6 - 8 hours)
-Study Build Orders
-Timings
-And the replay. Terrans will save 2 scans for the 7:30 minute mark. Why? Thats Around the Time DT's are going to be out. Its stuff like that that puts Professional gamers on a new level.
Advice. I would Hit the top 200 and then buy lessons from a player you respect on Gosucoaching.com. Thats what I did. It will kind of help you get put on the radar. + you will have a few replays to release :D
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Win tournaments, straight up thats pretty much the only way to get noticed by pro organizations.
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It is not impossible. TSL_Rain got into the GSL semifinals without progaming experience.
I think Incontrol had school, coaching, and work at gamestop while still being able to play starcraft at a competitive level as well.
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there was a national geographic documentary covering the wcg 2005 SCBW scene and they injected Xellos (top korean at that time) and a newb with these things that would go into their brain and they could monitor how their brain reacted while playing starcraft
and what they learned is that xellos brain reacts very differently then the newb in ways that different lobes were used in much higher % than the other guys, so you might have to have a special brain to do it
but if its your dream then you can do it
you just have to invest 100%
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My advice, try to finish college and THEN try to become a pro.
Thats what im trying to do :-]
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On December 10 2010 14:10 Waking wrote:
Also, sorry to be a dick but I started playing late in the beta (had never really played an RTS before) and went from low silver to ~2500 diamond in about 7months.
Duwd, it everybody starts posting his/her SC2 experience, nothing will help him. Besides, this is my first RTS, playing for 2 months and im crushing 2k+ diamonds --> but it doesn't matter at all to the OP
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On December 10 2010 19:19 ScrubS wrote:Show nested quote +On December 10 2010 14:10 Waking wrote:
Also, sorry to be a dick but I started playing late in the beta (had never really played an RTS before) and went from low silver to ~2500 diamond in about 7months. Duwd, it everybody starts posting his/her SC2 experience, nothing will help him. Besides, this is my first RTS, playing for 2 months and im crushing 2k+ diamonds --> but it doesn't matter at all to the OP
Actually it does. He's gotta be realistic, 8 months from bronze to 2k diamond is not that impressive, he needs to work a lot harder than that. if he thinks thats impressive then he needs to know that its a lot harder than he thinks
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you can't just say "I will go pro" what your really need to do is just play have fun and try to learn. Play some turnies here and there and just have fun playing. if it turns out you are wining allot you might aim for making it a living but don't start with "by this amount of time I will be pro" because that won't work as the level of play that is required for the highest level is so insanely high (even now when its actually not that high compared to what it will be in a few years).
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EPT
