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Hey guys, this is a bit late, and I have another earlier one coming later once I edit it. Here’s my GWYF stream for the week after Thanksgiving! It finally got uploaded so here ya go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0kI8hUSOU

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!

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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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Every gamer knows the feeling you get when a bit of nostalgia pulls at your heartstrings. Whether it’s replaying classic titles like Super Mario Brothers 2, or just revisiting one of your favorite childhood games, the kind you used to hop onto right as you got home from school or finished with your chores/homework. They might even be some casual game you played with friends for a little bit when it was released, often going to each others houses and hooking up some LAN cords to play together.

For this week, me and my friends decided to set up our own Minecraft server. I told myself I’d focus more on the creative aspects of Minecraft if I ever played again since all the previous times I’ve played with others, we’ve played the game out as much as possible, even trying to casually speedrun to the ender dragon in a larger group. So after a 2 year hiatus, here I am again, playing Minecraft with a focus on catharsis and relaxation. Instead of having a longer post detailing what we did, I’m just going to edit a spectator video later and add some pictures now for this post so you guys can see a water house I made for yourselves. Cheers!

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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 »

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