Professional streaming gamers on twitch.tv - Part 3: What does it take to be an excellent gamer?

To become a professional streaming gamer, you must first be an excellent gamer. In this post we will try to find what it takes to be an excellent gamer.
Note that what I am telling in this post is just the opinion of an old guy who will never be good at video games and may be completely clueless about some aspects of video games.

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In my opinion, to be excellent at video games can be compared to be a top track and field athlete.

There are many disciplines in track and field, such as sprint, long distance running, shot put, pole vaulting, etc...
Similarly, there are many video game genres: first-person shooter (FPS), real-time strategy (RTS), sport games, etc...

An athlete that excels in sprint will usually not be good at shot put. Similarly, a gamer that excels at FPS (such as Fortnite) will not necessarily be good at RTS (such as StarCraft II).

It is a fact of life that many top athletes are genetically gifted. Similarly, top gamers have the necessary abilities to play the video game genre they are excelling in. If you are not gifted, you will never be a top gamer.
But being gifted is not enough to be at the top.

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Top gamers may also be compared to concert pianists: they started playing games when they were young , and sometimes very young. For example, a 19 yeors old top Fortnite gamer TSM Myth started to play video games when he was 4 or 5 years old.

Also, like top athletes or concert pianists, top gamers practiced several hours a day for several years before excelling in their game genre. This usually means that they had the support of their family. Without such support, they would not have the opportunity to practice enough.

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Of course, to be able to play video games you need to use a computer or a game console. Although these are no longer expensive, if you are not able to have access to the hardware, you will not be able to practice enough.

And for on line games, you need an Internet connexion.

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To improve your game, you need to compare yourself with other gamers. For that, you can participate in eSports competitions or on line competitions. This will help you evaluate your level of gaming. If you do not win these competitions, you should analyze how the winners play to know in what aspects you should improve.

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Finally, as in many aspects of life, there is luck involved. Meeting the right person or being at the right place at the right time may be what will put you at the top.

However, being lucky is not enough: to be a top athlete, a concert artist or a top gamer, you need to be gifted, to practice, to be persistent and to learn from others.

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In the next post, we will see the skills you need to master to be an excellent Fortnite Battle Royale gamer.

Continue to Part 4

Part 1: Fortnite, the video game
Part 2: Why is Fortnite Battle Royale such a successful game?