Staying Competitive

When you think about competition, it's everywhere in everything you do. Most of it is friendly competition, which is extremely positive in most circumstances. Then you have competition in business, which can get rather harsh. I try to focus on friendly competition, even in business circumstances, because it's always helped everyone achieve more by trying to be the best they can be. But when it comes to gaming, I like to win. On more than one occasion, this has turned me into a complete internet asshole, even though no harm was meant. Growing older has helped me to be able to keep my composure in highly competitive gaming situations, where a misclick could ruin hours and hours of work.

Retaining a positive outlook on your game is essential. You want to be the best, but your going to lose. You have to deal with that, because no one is perfect. There are right and wrong ways to lose. Badmouthing your opponent, then jumping into the next game is the wrong way to lose. Throwing your controller is the wrong way to lose. If your playing a game like Starcraft 2, you have the ability to watch replays of your games and learn from your mistakes. One key to staying competitive is learning from your own mistakes, as well as others. I can lose a close game and instantly find where I went wrong, what I should have done instead, and see holes where I could have done better. After doing this numerous times you'll incorporate all the knowledge and it'll be a reaction.

You can read a million strategy guides, buy the top of the line hardware and software, watch all the tutorials and replays of others playing in the world. However, without practice staying competitive is highly unlikely. Some professional gamers play their games of choice for over 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you go to school, you can't do this. If you have a job, you can't do this. Does that mean you can't beat the person that does practice that much more? Most games are balanced well enough these days that you can retain some sort of competitive advantage without "the grind", although you definitely won't be min/maxxing playing 4-5 hours a week.

I actually haven't played any games since I started writing, so I think it's about time to get some inspiration for future articles. Thanks again for reading, good luck, have fun, and good game!