Ad
If you want to carve out a career playing video games, you relay have your work cut out for you because becoming an ‘athlete’ requires a zeal to push through discomfort and setbacks. But if you’ve learnt anything in the past couple of years, it’s that life is far too short to put your dreams on hold. To stand out and succeed, you must perform to the best of your ability every single time. Becoming a pro gamer will test you in ways you’ve never been tested before, so you must consider analysing your performance against top players to gauge your readiness for professional gaming.
As an esports player, taking care of your body is of great importance since you want to perform at your peak potential, so get enough sleep before matches and practice, practice and practice to build a loyal following on Twitch and stay ahead of the competition. Just as with any highly competitive career, mental toughness is of the essence. There are times when you feel like you can handle anything the game throws at you, and there are days when even the tiniest setback feels overwhelming – the difference isn’t always what’s happening, but your mental strength. Higher levels of mental toughness are often associated with better performance.
Your Mind Must Overcome the Mental Barriers and Enhance Your Thinking to Maintain Focus, Stability, And Willpower
Traditional sports and esports are much the same in that athletes face psychological demands, in other words, they must have the right attitude and mental skills to be the best. The most apparent demand is the pressure to perform. As a pro player, you’re expected to have superior game knowledge, play perfectly, and make no mistakes – think like a champion, and you’re taking a step to becoming one. Getting to the top requires coolness under pressure, so cultivate your mental flexibility so you can handle whatever comes your way, because even if you’re a pro or an athlete, you’re bound to feel the pressure of others’ expectations or your own.
Relaxation, positive self-talk, and visualisation are just some strategies to increase your mental toughness. No matter how talented you are, esports remains a genuine Wild West, and if mental blocks get in your way, it’ll be harder to live up to your full potential, so be strong in the face of adversity and try to push through difficult times. Esports is a high-pressure, high-intensity activity – there are often two professional seasons (spring and summer), post-season games, all-star tournaments, and so on. Your performance will most likely suffer if you lack self-discipline and don’t care for yourself.
A Look at The Most Common Examples of Mental Demand in Esports
The pressure to win and strive to be the best version of yourself can eat away at your mental health, leading to a bunch of issues, like misery, lack of sleep, and feeling overwhelmed. The mental demands of esports can be just as taxing as the physical ones and can include:
- Dealing with crowds: Esports is growing, and so are the crowds it draws, but how they act is the same. People love video games and are passionate about esports. Some events have virtual crowds – stream viewers – and you must perform optimally in the middle of a big and loud crowd.
- Controlling your emotions: If you can’t take charge of your feelings, you’ll experience stress and burnout, affecting your career and relationships. Any form of competitive gaming can bring the worst out of you, even if you play casual titles like FIFA (now FC). No matter the reason for emotional volatility, it can be a barrier to optimal performance.
- Commentators: Commentators (and casters) narrate, explain, or hype up the action in esports tournaments, matches, and shows. Many athletes suggest media interactions cause stress and anxiety. The truth is that, in games like League of Legends and Dota 2, you can barely hear what’s going on in the arena with your noise-cancelling headphones. However, listening to media noise outside of the games can cause distractions.
- Injury: You wear your calluses as a badge of honour, but today, all of a sudden, you start to feel a shooting pain in your wrist and back pain that feels like a dull ache. And you feel the wear and tear of long gaming sessions. If you examine current litigation, you’ll see there have been claims by players against organisations for injuries suffered due to overpractice. For more information, please visit the official website of How to Sue for Compensation; a severe injury can lead to depression, anxiety, and even PTSD.
- Reduced control over the virtual environment: Esports reflects our digitised societies, dematerialized and virtual, allowing players to train and compete with fellow enthusiasts. Performance isn’t just about winning or losing a game – hard work, dedication, and sacrifices are necessary for professional gaming. You can experience disconnections, so build good mental health.
It’s Important to Remember That Each Game Differs from A Psychological POV
Just like in traditional sports, a single mistake can have dramatic consequences, and given today’s prize pools, such errors can cost you and your teammates thousands of dollars. Each game within esports has its own complexities, which means that it differs with respect to the mental demands placed on the player, who must enable progressive and enhanced mental toughness. Mental skills are required for optimal performance, including high levels of mental toughness, emotional regulation, and life control. Put simply, you must stay calm and focused while performing at peak level.
With a seemingly infinite number of stimuli you’re exposed to during the games, it’s no wonder you’re struggling to cope with the demands of esports, which is just as rigorous and taxing as traditional sports. The question now is: How do you beat the stress of the competition? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but you can try mindfulness and meditation, building strong support networks, and giving yourself a pep talk to navigate rough patches. Don’t worry about failures but about the chances you miss when you don’t even try – the next time you make a mistake, remember it’s an opportunity to learn.
