First, what goes through the mind of a competitive gamer as they fight for glory? When I first started going to smash 4 tournaments the main thing I used to think about was that I had to play perfectly against my opponents otherwise I would lose. I had this feeling in the back of my mind that if I didn't play the best I've ever played I would always lose. And that's what happened most of the time. I didn't play my best. I didn't adapt to the situations and play better. Instead I got stomped on.
Fast forward to today and I no longer think in those terms. In fact, when I compete in a tournament setting today I don't think about winning or losing at all. Instead, I focus on being in the moment-something that playing jazz guitar as taught me. As a matter of fact the only thing going through my mind when I'm playing tournament matches is that I'm having fun doing what I love to do. Now I can win sets without any pressures or stress. If only it were this easy with everything else in life. It's almost like a zen mindset that I've mastered but it took me a long time to figure out. I even had a great SoCal pr (power ranked by regions) Sheik player named K9sbruce give me morale support once. Thanks man!
However, this mindset doesn't apply to me as easily as team-based objective games like Overwatch. Sometimes when I play competitive (ranked) matches I get nerd rage. Any team-based games are bound to have toxicity (toxic players/bad communities) and overwatch is no exception. Blizzard actually released a statement about how they are going to address the toxicity problems within the game.
Anyways, part of the problem is that I'm playing solo queue and that's a general no-no when you're trying to win games and rank up. You want to have a pre-made group with dedicated roles for that.
At the same time though, not all my friends are on at the same times and some of them don't even like to play competitive often. Also, there's the fact that I'm so used to switching and working with different team comps. I actually like getting new people to play with every game. It keeps the game from getting stagnant.
I suppose I'm stuck with solo queue, work with the players I get, and do my best. That's the mindset I've developed for Overwatch. You're going to win a lot and lose a lot. I'm currently looking for a team to play on in the hopes of finding a great competitive team.
I find for team-based games you have to have a completely different attitude from playing one on one games. You have to think about the greater good of everyone rather than yourself. Just because you played amazing doesn't mean anything unless your teammates were there doing it with you. It's an almost socialist communal idealogy to these sorts of games. That one player who runs off and Rambos by himself might be able to get a bunch of kills but he can't defend himself against an entire team that's hunting him down. You're never the main character in these sorts of games. This Shakespeare quote puts it more eloquently than I can.
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven age."
Basically what this means to me is that everyone has a place in this world. And competitive gaming is no different. Sometimes you have the toxic player who curses and slurs their way through the match. Then there are the true team players who focus on teamwork. There's the quiet player who never uses his mic or types in chat. There is always that one player who's shouting with excitement with their mic, or through text. And then if you want to get more in depth there are the actual dps (damage per second), healing (healers), and tanking (defense characters) roles that overwatch and mobas (massive online battle arena games) have.
I could go more in depth about the mental conditioning involved in video games but I don't want to make this too long. Let's just say there's a lot of mental and physical training that goes into playing these games at high levels. There are pro Starcraft players who put in as much as 12 hours a day practicing for tournaments. As good as you become as a player the main reason you continue to put in time and effort into getting better is because the game is fun. If you're not having fun then what's the point? Some people will go on and join teams and possibly play in the majors but most of us are willing to settle for being great players in our region or even among our friends. One thing is certain-the competitive gaming spirit will never die. Just like how heroes never die.
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