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Yeah, the games are at least a month old, I’ve been having some issues lately with my computer not being able to record well, and my internet while at University is awful, so no streaming then! Still, fun time to be had in Fortnite, and you’ll get to see Sam’s ultimate betrayal! I finally headed home so I can upload a video for once~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeIc1xC_91g&t=65s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLAB7wN7o8
Hey guys, it’s been a rough past few weeks, but finals are coming to a close, and everything else can be focused on a bit more. Recently, our Overwatch team, Boosted Animals, which won Season 3s division 2 finals for the Overwatch University League (OWUL) got picked up by a friend of mine’s budding eSports organization, Illuzion Gaming. He’ll help make sure we’re on track and deal with all the technical stuff, and we finished our tryouts for new subs, with a few promising candidates. Make sure to follow along with us at Ulfsark, Fanout, Rzaney Gaming, Jerry23dr, etc.
Make sure to keep an eye out for us. I know we’re not quite a Tier 2 team, but we’re doing our best to improve!
Hey guys, this is the first advanced eSports blog post, and it’s gonna be a video I put together for you all. Crosshair placement is one of the most important aiming practices you can do, but very few people know how to practice effectively. Here I give a full comprehensive guide for any aspiring players to improve their aim, which can be applied to any and all shooters. Next time on the advanced eSports section, I’ll talk about aiming angles and how to utilize them effectively. Enjoy!
Now that we’ve narrowed down what to focus on, it’s time to put it to use! There are three main points you should focus on if you’re interested in starting an eSport:
1.) Find a character/weapon/play-style you enjoy!
When you start your game, you’re going to need something to keep you there. Some people pick a specific character they like to main, others pick a specific roles or character archetype. Figure out the style you enjoy most, and just play the game. Don’t fret too much about the competitive aspects when you first start. Many games even prevent you from playing the ranked modes until a certain point (level 30 in League, 25 in OW, etc.). Play for fun and get a feel for the game itself. It’s no good to play a game competitively if you don’t enjoy it, or you’ll be hard-pressed to maintain your practice regimens. In this way, be casual about your game to get a feel for it. Throughout my eSports time, I’ve never had a game click instantly that I told myself: I want to play this competitively. By playing it for fun early on, you’ll have a strong foundational knowledge of the game’s core mechanics, roles, positions, etc. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t pick it up quick. Learning takes time, but if a game is fun, you’ll hardly notice it!
When it comes to any sort of competitive hobby, it’s not enough to just grind out games through quantity. You NEED to practice effectively, or you won’t make any progress at all. If you have no idea what to work on, there’s no way to improve. This fact is true of any and every eSport, and this conversation happens at every level of gameplay. Read the rest of this entry »
With season 3 of Overwatch’s University League(OWUL) wrapped up, I wanted to share the Video on Demand(VoD) of one of our players’ perspectives. He’s the only one with a good enough computer + internet to record our games for later usage, but you’ll get the whole competitive experience from a Damage Per Second(DPS) player’s perspective. You’ll hear me with the nasally voice playing primarily D Va and Zarya as our team’s off-tank player. Our team’s the Boosted Animals (an in-house joke from one of our discord servers), facing against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s(RPI) team.
You can check out the OWUL’s website here if you’re interested in trying out or making your own team and you think you’ve got what it takes.
This week, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the earliest eSports moments, before Faker was a god, before League was even a thing, even before Starcraft was even conceived of. A time of arcade machines, the Red Scare, and the aftermath of the Civil Right’s movement. Enter 1972, a time of the American dream, the Vietnam War/conscientious objectors, and Disco. Video games are becoming a new form of entertainment, much to the chagrin of the conservative populace. Video games were primarily played as university or corporate side projects, and consumer video games were quite a ways away. Home consoles had only just started showing up on the market earlier this year. 45 years, 2 weeks, and 3 days ago, on October 19th, the first recorded/known eSports tournament took place.
Game Knowledge refers to the mental interactions and experiences between the player and the game. Knowing cooldowns, what items to buy, where to go, your role, what everything does, etc. is game knowledge. Intuition refers to the utilization and practice of game knowledge in gaining an advantage, usually predicting an opponents move, knowing their power spikes and strengths or weaknesses. Intuition allows players to make plays without necessarily having the skill to pull them off by analyzing patterns and coming up with a strategic plan. It might refer to having a point and click(low skill/interaction), but extremely powerful ability that must be timed appropriately in a fight, but otherwise be useless if used incorrectly.
Skill (often called ‘mechanics’) refers to the physical interactions and experiences between the player and the game. Being able to aim correctly, react to/dodge opponents moves, land certain abilities, and quickly outplay opponents are all parts of skill. Read the rest of this entry »
Part 1, Communication basics here.
Just like with traditional sports, eSports are played on a specific playing field that players are confined to. Some maps do this with invisible/impassable walls, and others with cliffs or insta-death locations. Games have very defined out of bounds areas due to the nature of video games, which means there’s no need for out of bounds rules that traditional sports like soccer or American football utilize. If players find a way to exit out of these zones, more often than not, they’ll fall through the map eternally, resulting in many games using a death floor in order to prevent infinite falls/loops. Competitive games are usually in a state of “perpetual beta” much like internet browsers are, constantly evolving and changing to meet the needs of the fan base.
Part 2: Knowing your playing field here.
Unfortunately for the introverts out there, communication is an absolute must in team oriented competitive games(which are often the biggest eSports due to the dynamism provided from having multiple players working in conjunction). While there are certainly games that don’t require having a partner/teammates such as real time strategy(RTS) games like Starcraft, fighting games like Street Fighter/SSB Melee, or even speed-running, most big eSports titles will involve communication in some way. Most professional teams in eSports are starting to adopt coaches to make communication as efficient as it can be. South Korea has a leg up on the rest of the world in this regard. Their background in eSports from the Starcraft era, along with their infrastructure and cultural appeal for eSports, has come to fruition in the modern day.
So what is communication?
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