November 2017

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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!

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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.

Not necessarily a recent gaming session per se(shadowplay stopped supporting my older hardware in their updated versions), but I decided to throw together a video for you all to enjoy this week! Feel free to like, share, or subscribe it with whoever, and feel free to give me some tips on video editing as I’m still new and practicing some techniques.

With Worlds 2017 wrapped up(no spoilers! Here’s the start of the opening ceremony before the games), it’s time to talk League of Legends. Recently, my friend group and I have gotten back into League of Legends. We’ve certainly played League off and on since we all stopped playing it competitively as a five man ranked team 3 years ago, however, with one of our newer members starting to learn League, we’ve dived back in head first. As with Minecraft, I’ve decided that if I ever got back into League I’d play it for the purely casual aspects of it, enjoying the experience and avoiding unnecessary stress from trying to climb on the ranked ladder. As a result, it’s been a much more enjoyable experience, and our skill from playing competitively before has stuck around through thick and thin, albeit a bit rough nowadays.

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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.

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