The mentality of a pro gamer: A lifestyle for life

A growing world of Esport means a growing group of aspiring pro gamers

As many of you already know, the E-sport scene has been growing at a rapid rate for a while now. It spiraled out of control with the release of Street Fighter 4 and Starcraft 2. Two good games with a lot of depth and balance, and a huge crowd behind it. Livestreaming made the E-sport sector explode in combination with these games.

Games are becoming more then just a way to relax and have some fun. They are turning into a new generation type of mental sport, where people have the chance to show off their mental skills and mindgames. Of course you can still enjoy games, and you can still play them to relax and have fun, but if you like competition, the E-sport world can be another means of satisfying your competitive needs.

A lot of people are following some of the top players of games now; via live streaming, tournament broadcasts, interviews, own fansites. Just like you have fans following other famous sportsmen and women.
Some of them want to get good at a game and become succesful pro gamers. Only a few will ever make it to the top.

There are a lot of factors involved in this like time, talent, motivation, attitude, joy, support and the list goes on. For players that want to get to the top, or at least attempt to reach the top, it can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. Many times, a wall will be hit where it just seems you will never be able to get any further. This is your limit, you give up, the odds are too slim, you get too nervous, you fear or hate losing games. The game is not balanced, you played a lot of games per day to train but it does not seem to get you anywhere. It is an endless loop.

Many players will probably recognize a few of the thought patterns that are mentioned above. Especially players that are trying to climb up the mountain where the best players hang out. It goes without saying that reaching the very top of anything will be quite the challenge for any person. But there are ways to gain succes and reach your goals. A certain mentalitity and mindset that will keep you going no matter what, but does not exhaust you over time.

 Interview with oGs.Nada, a popular Korean Starcraft player

The mentality of a pro gamer: Starcraft 2 point of view

Most people know that most of the top players train a lot, probably close to an average workday worth of time is invested in improving their play almost every day. During interviews you often hear some of these top players say things like: "I train 8 hours a day, you just have to keep practicing, you have to push yourself to the next level."

While this is nothing short of solid advice, many people that want to reach the top and read these interviews, misunderstand the true meaning of these answers. They start playing an insane amount, just spamming games all day, every day. Even if they don't feel like playing, they force themselves to play anyways, because they MUST play X amount of games every day to get better. That's what the pro gamers do right?

Then they hit that oh so lovely wall that we all know about. You cannot move forward any longer, you cannot understand why you are not getting better anymore. You start getting frustrated, oh my god another loss, this will look horrible on my record. The nervosity or rage increases, every loss enrages you and you quickly dive into another game, only to lose again and again. Never mind being the next best gamer, I will never make it. How can someone like Grubby reach the top and why do I fail?

Well here is why: You are doing it wrong!

I will give a thorough explanation of the mentality that a player like Grubby has, that allows him to reach that level that so many fail to reach.


Getting into the head of a top player
Pro gamers deal with certain factors in a totally different way then the "average joe in the gaming world". They will be able to turn losses into "wins", a dissapointment into hope and joy, and squeeze out an extra ounce of efficiency when training hardcore. I will divide the mindset and mentality and give you an understanding of  how you should be thinking if you really want to get high up in the ranks.

The Basics
You want to be doing everything stemming from some basic ground rules that you can always fall back on and that will point you to a positive direction every single time. A few good basics that almost all pro players posses:


1) Empty your head.
Instead of overthinking everything you are doing, it is often best to just take your mind off of your task for a while. Short breaks give your brain the time to process some of the information. It also gives you a chance to balance out your adrenaline levels, and become calm again, especially if you had a long and tense game.

Your focus will be much stronger and constant if you take small breaks as well. The most important thing is to just NOT think of anything SC2 related and have some fun, play around a bit, anything that does not require much focus and helps you get rid of anything that bothers you.

Now you might say that you often watch pro players play countless games in a row without breaks on stream. While this is true, it is also true that these players have much higher stamina, more experience, and generally don't have to work out as much information since they have already invested insane amounts of time in figuring out the game and their own behaviour and strengths/weaknesses.

2) Losing is winning, walls are your friends.
What is this guy talking about? Losing sucks, and walls mean you are stuck and reached your limit! Doh! -Not if you dig deeper and move past the initial feel that conventional wisdom has trained you to feel when you do not succeed at something. Society trains you in a way that says: If you do not succeed, you fail. You made an error. Shame on you! -This does not seem beneficial right? Let's turn this switch off and replace it with a shiny new one!

For the best players, losing is not accompanied by a feeling of shame, and not seen as failure. It is seen as a chance to learn something, to improve and adjust. The only time you should only ever feel slightly dissapointed is if you lose the finals of a big tournament. But even then, you got REALLY far, so that must mean you are doing something right. When a pro player loses, he will then examine why he lost from the core of his play and mindset.

So they don't say things like "I lost because his army was bigger, man I sucked there, I must spam more games and I will become better and not lose anymore". Instead this is what the thought process of a pro gamer is:

Ok so I lost, why did I lose? I load up the replay of the game. What was my general plan for this matchup and map? Why did I make decision X and Y? Was it because I felt I had too, even if I had no means of actually knowing for sure by analysis and deduction? So I made that decision because I feared X, does that normally fit into my decision making style? What do I need to change about my decision making process?

Which decision would give me the best chance to survive and increase my chance to win the longer the game goes on? This should be the base reasoning from now on when I face similar situations. I know that I can sometimes get a bit annoyed or have a bit of tunnel vision during these moments in a game, how can I decrease the frequency of these negative traits playing a role in the outcome of a game? I know myself well enough to say that losing 3 times in a row lowers my morale. I should stop here, take a break and analyse later. When I feel like playing again, I will play.

3) Transmuting these setbacks into pure gold.
So you lost a few games, but it does not matter to you. You know that this is a perfect chance for you to work on your weaknesses, your blind spots. Over the months of training you figured out a few things about yourself: You don't play well when tired, you tend to play sloppy when nervous, and you become angry if you lose a few times in a row. Well thank god that you know!

Everytime you don't feel fit, or are not in the mood, you don't play but just do something else. This can be some physical workouts, walking your dog, having some fun, doing things that completely take your mind off Starcraft 2. When you feel like playing, it's time to head back and get right into it. This prevents burnout and tunnelvision. It prevents "blindness".

All charged up, you analyse your own behaviour and thinking patterns during the games you lost, and notice you can figure it out a lot easier after your mind had some time to process all the information. You write down exactly why you made decisions, where the flaws lie in your gameplay and mechanics, and the timings and decision making of your enemy. You can even go deeper and analyze the same build that your enemy uses, from players in other fights and compare the numbers. You know what to expect when you see or don't see X at Y time in the game on Z map.

After writing this all down, you make a plan of what you want to work on. Then you execute that plan and play some games where you pay a lot of attention to the decisions you make and the why, you double check if you stick to your planned builds in matchups and on maps, and make little adjustments based on previous experience. You stop fighting your enemy, you start fighting yourself. The best pro gamers fight a game against themselves when doing 1v1, whether it be on ladder or in tournaments.

Now this might sound silly, but it is really not. Just think about it, you need to execute your build flawlessly to be efficient at the maximum level. You need to guide yourself through decisions, help yourself avoid your pitfalls and weaknesses in a game. You need to check if you are doing things in the right order, based on a priority system that works for YOU, and you alone.

 If you learn to beat your fears and nervosity during games, you gain a lot more control over your play and decision making. If you can get in tune with yourself and beat your own weaknesses by covering them with your strengths and improving on them by laying your focus on a set amount of weaknesses you want to train every day, your enemy will not really matter.

In the end, it is all about how you handle incoming information, and avoid all the things that make you play bad. A pro gamer knows exactly how he will act, and how he will feel under certain conditions. They know exactly what to look for and work on. They move past the wall and past the shame of losing, since losing only helps them get to know themselves better, and improve even more.

So you see, the true meaning of "practice and play a lot, don't give up and enjoy, push yourself to the next level" has a hidden meaning behind it. On the surface it's rather simple and short. Behind the curtains though, lies a whole range of processing, learning and coping. This is where most players trying to become good fail. It is not because they are bad, it is just that they don't have good basics to work from. They haven't learned how to learn best and find their own methods that work for them alone.

This is why every top gamer practices in a different way. You cannot just blindly copy what top players do without first understanding the underlying reason. That is what we call mimicking. Moving in the same way as someone else moves, but who is 1 ft taller and has a soar leg and limps, is not really efficient. For you taking smaller steps and not limping is much more beneficial. It works for you, but not for the taller guy.

This is a huge wall of text, but it should clear up a lot of the confusion among aspiring players that want to become as good as their heroes. This mentality does not only serve you in Starcraft 2, this mentality will serve you for life, and make your life a lot more balanced. The most important thing is to follow your heart, and do what feels right for you. To think out of the box, using your imagination and dreams to guide you right to the goal you have set.

 The world lies at your feet. It is up to you to live your life the way you want to. Don't take big leaps, but take small and calculated steps. You won't faceplant quite as hard and can keep going.

~Masayume signing off

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