Anyone a competitive gamer?

[WB]

Just wondering if anyone here regularly does competition stuff, like CAL or something.

[IskatuMesk]

no but I have followed the competitive scene of Starcraft very closely and I know a lot about OSL ect and how to professionally game, not that I've played consistently in over five years to really back that but yeah.

[Whiplash!]

I used to play on a level below a pro gamer, but above an average gamer. And same w/ mesk, I follow the competitive SC scene pretty well.

[Aekenon]

I'm probably average at best.  Frankly I'm just too gentle to play in the competitive scene.

[Zilla-]

lol i suck

[Meta]

Yeah, I also used to play SC semi-seriously a long time ago (Mucky and the ICL guys used to play as well ). I even progressed a bit in WGTour. Nowadays I don't even follow the progamer scene much, although I occasionally watch VODs and replays.

[Magic]

Not particularly, unless playing in a Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 league at work counts. That was awesome (we recently ended since the TNA game is out next week and the next Smackdown is out in November), we actually had real belts and a league table set up, wtih different tournaments and matches played in our lunchtimes. I was John Cena and ended the league with the TV champion belt. w00t.

I think I was certainly better than most people at school and college, though naturally I played games a lot more, but I'm not sure I could stomach being a full time professional gamer. I always get hot blooded when playing very competitively so the fun tends to get sapped out.

[IskatuMesk]

That's the thing about professional gaming. It's not a game, anymore. It's a sport, and sports only reward the winners. Either you're a winner or you're a loser.

Even a lot of Korean progamers falter under the pressure.

[Lavarinth]

Not particularly, unless playing in a Smackdown Vs. Raw 2008 league at work counts. That was awesome (we recently ended since the TNA game is out next week and the next Smackdown is out in November), we actually had real belts and a league table set up, wtih different tournaments and matches played in our lunchtimes. I was John Cena and ended the league with the TV champion belt. w00t.

I think I was certainly better than most people at school and college, though naturally I played games a lot more, but I'm not sure I could stomach being a full time professional gamer. I always get hot blooded when playing very competitively so the fun tends to get sapped out.

I hope you've watched or plan on watching Grandma's Boy because that is the best movie about QA testers. Ever.

As for me, I have not been competitive at any time. I can beat my friends are nearly any game, but beyond that I can't effectively do anything in the midst of a competition. My cousin on the other hand was first in Ladder once in StarCraft for a few weeks, but that was before the Korean uprising.

[Marco]

I never once considered gaming professionally.  To me, thats just 'lol'.  There aren't many games that pay well for winning, and those that do have events that are few and far in between.  And then theres the fact that you actually have to place 1st to make a decent salary.  I forgot where I heard it, maybe it was here, maybe it was somewhere else - that some guy who was a professional gamer made like 27k over 7 years.

Professional gamer?  No thanks.  Only when this country goes apeshit over some game like Korea does will we finally have a format where a few lucky/skilled individuals can make slightly above minimum wage for a year.

[wibod]

Professional gaming in europe and asia is where it's at. Europe has many football leagues set up and runs a lot of CS and CoD4 tournies. Even the non paying pro scene is pretty hardcore with groups like SK Gaming and Nihilum being top PVE guilds.

[Rocco]

I used to play SC competitivley, but haven't in a long while, I was alright but not a pro, I still follow pro SC stuff now.

[mAc Chaos]

I think I'm pretty good at games I play, but professional gamers don't play games as games, they play them as work.  I remember watching some Halo tournament players, and how they said they hadn't played Halo as a game for years.

Besides... when the game is hot, you get tons of money... and you're good at it.  But then it gets old and nobody cares about it anymore and new games come out, then what?  Your college degree in playing games all day isn't going to get you anywhere.

[wibod]

I think I'm pretty good at games I play, but professional gamers don't play games as games, they play them as work.  I remember watching some Halo tournament players, and how they said they hadn't played Halo as a game for years.

Besides... when the game is hot, you get tons of money... and you're good at it.  But then it gets old and nobody cares about it anymore and new games come out, then what?  Your college degree in playing games all day isn't going to get you anywhere.

The fatality guy ran into this problem, but it didn't matter since he was playing Quake3 and Doom3. These games still have a somewhat healthy player base and they have tournaments at quakecon every year. The answer is to play dead games that are still supported by the companies or tournament organizers.

[IskatuMesk]

Starcraft is 10 years old and it will outlive sc2 in the competitive market for sure. If you want to be a competitive gamer your choice is obvious for a title to play on.