Update #1

Back again with another post. For this update, normally I would conduct an interview with a "mentor" but with a subject like this, mentors are an odd commodity. So for this I am going to use myself as a mentor, and give details about how I learned about E-Sports, what games I've played and how long I've played them.

When and how did you learn about E-Sports?

Well, I used to play a lot of Call of Duty and whenever I would play, I would always play to win. This isn't necessarily E-Sports, but its the mentality of going into a game, and trying to beat others in strategy, reaction time, and sometimes just luck. People might not realize how much raw strategy goes into playing video games at a competitive level. Think of it like Chess: you need to predict where your opponent is going, how to counter it, and how to confront the situation without losing too many of your "pieces". Pieces in this case being your lives, in a game like Call of Duty.

When the game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 came out, there was a mode called League Play. This was a pseudo- E-sports game mode that pitted 4 players against 4 players. If you won a lot of times in a row, you got placed in a global rank, that showed you how you lined up against the top players in the world. My team and I got placed as the 206th best team in the game. Now this number might not seem that much, but out of the thousands of people that make teams for this, it was quite an accomplishment for me at the time.

I wanted to get better, so I used the internet to find out how to further my skill at the game, and I stumbled upon a few websites, one being MajorLeagueGaming.com. This website opened my eyes to the world of competitive Call of Duty, and while I didn't go on to compete in many tournaments, but it did introduce an entirely new front for everyday entertainment.

What games have you played Competitively?

Mostly Call of Duty, I spend a lot of time growing up playing this title, and any games that came out with Call of Duty in the title, I bought and played.

League of Legends, while I didn't play this very much, it introduced an entire new genre of gaming.

Most recently, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This is one of the most popular E-Sports games of all time, and I spent a lot of time trying to get better at it.

Other than those, I've played other games at a somewhat competitive level: Destiny and Pokemon to name a couple.

How do I get into E-Sports?

First, find a game that has a competitive audience, and that you play/want to play. To find this, a website that works well is Twitch.tv which is a video game streaming website that many tournaments for games are played on. As soon as you find a game you want to get into, read everything you can about it and just spend time playing and learning the game. Learn the way people are playing the game right now and how you can do things better, and figure out what you need to do to be in the top percentile. You need to find a team. There is only so much one person can do and you cannot beat everyone with just yourself. The next step is to sign up for tournaments on MajorLeagueGaming.com and see how you match up against others. What comes next is up to you, if you get to the point where you are winning consistently, look for larger tournaments and some will have money prize pools.



I will be back with another update next week.