What would be your ideal career? Can you imagine being able to earn money and support yourself and your family by playing video games? If you become a professional gamer, this, and much more, can be your reality, not just a distant dream. However, many people fantasize about this career, so breaking pro can be a very hard task to achieve, one that requires much dedication, patience and practice. Do you have what it takes to become a pro? Here’s the path to building a career in gaming:
Choose your game
When starting out, it’s best to pick one game and platform so you can improve your playing quickly and not get too confused. With a huge variety of games today, it’s impossible to be professional in all of them, so pick something you like the most and start grinding. To make your choice easier, start from a genre you like, i.e. MOBA or racing games. Next, settle on a platform on which you’re going to practice and compete. Most competitive gamers opt for PC gaming, but you can opt for console gaming as well. And finally, focus on one or two game titles that fit your criteria—the most popular are Dota 2, LoL, Fortnight, CS:GO and StartCraft II.
Schedule practice time
To perfect your gaming, you need to practice—a lot. Schedule your practice time and do it every day. Try out different tactics and approaches to gaming, and don’t miss a chance to watch professional streamers and competitors. It’s possible to learn a lot by watching others play! It’s also important to watch your own games and study how you handled certain situations, especially focusing on games you’ve lost so you don’t make the same mistakes again.
Do some networking
Practicing and getting good is not all there is to professional gaming. It’s important to make the right connections as well. To do some networking, you might want to join a gaming community (live or online) so you can meet like-minded people who might choose to support you in your future endeavors. By having friends and acquaintances among professional gamers, you can gain many opportunities to grow your skills and try your hand against the best of the best.
Make appearances
Gaming at home with your friends is one thing, but showing your skills among other people is a completely different beast you have to conquer. Attend local gaming events and try to play in order to climb the ladder and build up your name. If you’ve never played in stressful situations with things on the line, you can consider trying online casino Nederland iDeal and see how you can handle gaming and gambling for money. This experience will teach you a lot about your nerve and how to act under pressure. Later, you can start going pro by attending bigger tournaments. When you feel like you’re ready, sign up and start pro gaming.
Find sponsors
This is probably the hardest part, but crucial if you want to make a career out of gaming. You can earn money from tournament prices, but a more steady income comes from sponsorship deals where they pay you to promote their products through ads and merch. Your talents can really attract big names and bring you hefty checks from sponsors.
Invest in gear
One might think that gear deserves the number one spot of pro gaming tips, but in reality, it is not that important. Of course, it’s necessary to invest in gear similar to that used in tournaments so you can get the feel for it. It certainly isn’t cheap to buy professional gear, but it will significantly boost your comfort when it comes to playing in tournaments.
Are you ready to start practicing seriously? If you have talent, passion and dedication, you only need a small push with connections and gear and a few tournament wins in order to become a pro gamer. From there, you can only go up!
