How To Train Your Gaming Skills

Video games have gone from a novel concept where two people could volley a white pixel back and forth to a multi-billion dollar industry. Where games were once limited by old-school technologies, they are now brought to life with state-of-the-art graphics, immersive VR and AR capabilities, and impressive narratives that see franchises draw comparisons with Hollywood blockbusters, in scale. Once upon a time, we had the same old familiar faces in the form of Sonic, Mario, and Link, whilst now, we have an almost unlimited range of games to explore. Especially ambitious, sprawling franchises like Overwatch, Call of Duty, and League of Legends.

In addition, professional gamers can play these titles at grand tournaments, which promise big rewards, with pros able to take home millions. Chances are that you’re familiar with these tournaments, and if you’re here, you’re most likely interested in games. However, it’s fair to say that if you’re contemplating getting involved on a professional level at gaming tournaments, you have to be prepared to prove yourself.

Competition is now more fierce than ever, with people growing up playing games and attaining proficiency at an increasingly younger age. In order to complete games, it takes the right mindset, a willingness to practice constantly, and diligence to learn the constantly evolving strategies in the game of your choice. But beyond that, we have some tips to get you competing at the highest level. Here are a few tips that might just put you in a league of your own.

Start By Learning From Guides

Guides are a priceless resource that are crafted by some of the most passionate gamers. They are a great place for any novice to start as they teach you skills from the ground up. If you need to learn lingo, optimal map strategies, and everything between, you should consult the nearest guide you can find. It’s easy to find guides for Overwatch and League of Legends boosting as they’re some of the more popular titles out there. However, even some of the less popular games will have extensive guides that can explain your favorite game from the ground up.

You’ll need to consult this before anything else as they’ll teach you how to learn. Without some of this foundational knowledge, you won’t understand more complex explanations by top-level players.

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Watch Pros on YouTube and Twitch To Learn Strategies

After you’ve built a strong foundation, you can start watching pros. It would help to choose pros that use a similar strategy to yourself, but just make sure you watch people that explain their thought processes well. While all pros will be skilled, not all of them will take the time to explain what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. As this list of top pros from Dot eSports outlines, there are plenty of diverse gamers out there worth researching before you make a marked effort to shadow a specific someone. The advantage of studying a pro and learning from their recommendations is that this will typically steer you in the right direction. Just be sure to do your best to find someone who is just as good a teacher as they are a player.

Practice Strategies with Friends and Unranked Lobbies

Make sure to not just learn the theory behind good play but also be able to replicate it. This might seem like the easiest or most enjoyable part, but picking up skills and using them in appropriate situations in the heat of the moment can be trickier than you think.

We suggest setting up games with your friends to get the physical skills and strategies down and slowly move over to unranked lobbies and eventually ranked lobbies. Taking Valorant as an example, many players buy a secondary valorant account just for practicing to guarantee the MMR does not decrease while practicing. Also, as you get better at performing under pressure, you’ll need to ensure you can continue to perform against more challenging and tougher opponents.

With all of that in mind, also be sure to keep up with balance patches and know what new changes a game’s sequel will bring to the table. As PCGamesn states, taking part in alphas and betas can give players a heads up on changes to a game before it even hits store shelves. So being able to adapt to these changes on the fly is a skill that can only be earned through years of practice, so get started now.