How Are Esports Athletes Different From Everyday Gamers?

No matter what you’re playing, online multiplayer games are a huge step up compared to competing in single-player modes against the software’s AI characters. Humans, particularly ones who are well-versed in a game’s maps and mechanics can develop better strategies and think on their feet to adapt to events in the game as they play out.

Online players who have got hundreds of hours of practice under their belts will nearly always beat someone who is just starting out in an online game for the first time. But there’s an entire category of player above these dedicated hobbyists who have even more skill through which they’d eat you for lunch before you’d fired your first shot.

Esports players are a cut above the rest when it comes to video game skills, but what is it that sets them apart?

 

Esports Players Have Great Focus and Discipline

No matter your game, having focus and discipline ensures you cannel all of your brain’s power on succeeding and consistently apply it.

Professional esports athletes don’t just rock up to an event with their controller and start playing, they undergo rigorous and intensive training and development regimes that involve practising and practising over and over again.

Practising in esports doesn’t just mean playing the game. It means repeating the same drills over and over again, rehearsing manoeuvres and set pieces, and transferring specific moves into your muscle memory. It’s also about ensuring you communicate and work well with your teammates, preventing misunderstandings when you’re in competition.

Maintaining focus can be quite a challenge, particularly when you’re embarking on an hours-long competition or tournament. This doesn’t mean just stocking up on coffee or energy drinks, it’s about preparing, looking after your body, and making the most of your time.

For example, in poker tournaments, both offline and online, a critical part of staying focused is making the most of breaks. Tournaments are long but there are plenty of scheduled breaks that give players the opportunity to get up, stretch their legs, eat, drink, and take care of any other needs they might have. This means they can come back feeling refreshed, alert, and ready to take on the table again.

 

Esports Players Know Their Games Inside Out

Every character, weapon, vehicle, upgrade, and tool in a video game comes with attributes. One car might accelerate faster but another handles better around corners, requiring you to compromise on which one to choose.

If you’re playing a racing game like Forza or Gran Turismo, you might just pick your dream car or even one that you know is fast in real life. But real-life performance doesn’t necessarily translate to video game equivalency. Due to a quirk of coding, a limitation in a game’s mechanics, or a developer oversight, a slower real-world car might actually be the fastest car in the game or a particular vehicle modification may provide a disproportionate benefit. .

Esports players study this. Not only do they experiment with different options but they follow discussions online to see what other players have discovered.

They also know glitches, shortcuts, and tricks that may seem counterintuitive at first. For example, in first-person shooters, players will often jump around when they encounter another person. This is a tactic that makes it harder for the opponent to land a shot on them since their movements are erratic. It’s so powerful that some developers have removed this feature from their games.

 

Esports Players Have Honed Their Tactics

When you play for fun, you’re doing exactly that. Unless wracking your brain to achieve maximum efficiency on a Call of Duty map is your idea of a good time, then you’re likely to just run around and shoot things.

Esports players, on the other hand, will be much more deliberate in their movements. In team games, they’ll often traverse a map in formation, providing cover to each other, much like you’d expect to see in the real world.

You’ll very quickly spot these players if you ever come up against them. They’re hard to beat when they work as a team as, even if you manage to take out one, the rest of them are there to provide backup and they’ll quickly avenge their fallen comrade.

 

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