Buzz
A professional gamer is someone who has a thorough understanding of the video game they play, constantly working to improve their skills and learning from other top players to elevate their level of expertise. To become a professional gamer in any game, ensure you have the right equipment for the smoothest gaming experience possible. Upgrade your controllers, keyboard, or mouse for a smoother, more comfortable play. Regular practice and learning from the best – professional gamers – are essential. Remember, if gaming stops being fun, take a break. There's no need to get frustrated over video games!
Steps
Upgrade Equipment
Invest in a high-quality controller to replace the standard one. While using a standard controller is fine, upgrading it can really enhance your handheld gaming experience. Look for ergonomic controllers with balanced weight distribution for comfort during long sessions. The choice of controller largely depends on personal preference, so it's a good idea to read reviews and test controllers at a gaming store if possible.
- If you're serious about competition, consider a wired controller. While wireless controllers are convenient, they can suffer from lag, which means a delay between pressing the button and seeing the action on screen.
- If you're a PC gamer, you can plug in a standard Xbox or PS4 controller via USB and use it for most games released today. However, this type of controller has a major drawback for first-person shooters, where using a mouse and keyboard offers greater precision.
Invest in a good headset if you enjoy multiplayer games. When playing multiplayer games, it's crucial to have a quality headset that allows you to clearly hear other players. Make sure to get a headset with a high-quality microphone so they can hear you clearly, which will improve communication and coordination during gameplay. You can also use it to report enemy movements in competitive games.
- A good headset can even enhance single-player gaming, making it easier to pinpoint where sounds are coming from in the game.
Invest in a good keyboard and mouse to improve your PC gaming experience. While there's nothing wrong with using standard mouse and keyboard setups, upgrading these peripherals can significantly enhance your gaming experience on a PC. Consider getting a mouse with extra side buttons for key mapping and a wide DPI range for more precise movements. You should also choose a keyboard that feels comfortable and maintains its sensitivity during long gaming sessions.
- Many gamers prefer mechanical keyboards, which use physical switches under each key to activate commands, offering greater responsiveness.
- DPI stands for 'dots per inch' and measures how sensitive and accurate your mouse is. A DPI range of 400-1600 is recommended for customizable settings.
Upgrade the CPU, graphics card, and RAM to boost your PC's performance. If you're a PC gamer with a budget for upgrading, consider enhancing your system components. If your computer runs smoothly for general use but struggles with new games, upgrading the graphics card is a good first step. If your PC can produce great visuals but lags, you might want to upgrade the CPU. Adding more RAM can also greatly improve overall performance.
- Unlike handheld consoles like the Xbox and PS4, you can upgrade individual components of your PC. Even if you're not confident in doing it yourself, you can take your PC to a repair shop and pay a small fee for someone else to do the upgrade.
- Apple computers are rarely used for serious gaming. They don't have many customizable components like a PC, and most game developers don't create games compatible with Apple machines.
Tip: If you can only afford to upgrade one part of your PC, prioritize the graphics card. If the graphics card can render images more efficiently, the CPU won't have to work as hard processing data.
Practice regularly
Play games regularly to improve your skill level. Whether you're aiming to become a professional gamer in any game, daily practice helps you enhance your skills, understanding of the game, and reaction time. You should consistently choose competitive game modes and track your progress over multiple sessions. Regular gameplay is the best way to master the mechanics and strategies necessary to become a champion in your chosen game.
- Avoid "smurfing" in competitive play to truly improve. Smurfing involves creating a new account or changing game modes to match up with less experienced players. While it might feel satisfying to dominate newcomers, it's not a productive way to get better at the game.
- If the game has an Elo system or ranking, monitor your progress to see if you're leveling up over time.
Take regular breaks to avoid burnout or physical strain. Playing for several hours a day can lead to exhaustion. You should take a 5-10 minute break every hour of play to rest your eyes, give your wrists a break, and let your body recover.
- Depending on the type of game you're playing, you should limit your playtime to no more than 3-4 hours daily to protect your eyes, wrists, and prevent sitting for too long.
- Games like turn-based RPGs and puzzle games can be played for slightly longer periods. For more intense games requiring focus, such as first-person shooters or horror games, take longer breaks and play in shorter sessions.
- Video game addiction is a serious issue. If you're finding it hard to stop playing, talk to your parents, friends, and seek therapy to help you deal with it.
Tip: If you're feeling angry or discouraged, it's best to pause your gaming for the day. Tomorrow, you can continue playing, and there's no need to ruin your entire day over one game.
Stay focused on the game and avoid distractions. Although it might be tempting to multitask, like listening to podcasts or chatting with friends while gaming, it can prevent you from truly improving. You should set your phone to silent, disable email and social media notifications on your PC to concentrate solely on gaming.
- Both Xbox One and PS4 have notification systems. You can turn these off from the main screen, under "settings" or the "account" tab.
- Usually, you can mute in-game music for single-player and multiplayer games to focus more on gameplay.
Play other games within the same genre to gain deeper knowledge and practice essential skills. If you're working to become a professional in first-person shooters like Call of Duty, occasionally playing other military-style FPS games like Battlefield or Counter-Strike can help you improve. Playing other games in the same genre lets you better understand the mechanics and strategies that make your game unique. You'll also practice differently, though still using the same hand-eye coordination as in your chosen game.
- If you're trying to become a pro in fighting games, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, and Soulcalibur are great games to experience.
- If your goal is to become a professional in real-time strategy, Age of Empires 2, Warhammer, Starcraft, and Company of Heroes are top choices to play.
- If you're aiming to excel in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, and Eve Online can help deepen your understanding of the genre.
- If you want to improve in battle royale shooters, Apex Legends, Overwatch, and Player-Unknown Battlegrounds are key games to familiarize yourself with.
Make friends with people who are better than you and play with them. When playing multiplayer games, keep an eye out for players who display exceptional skills during matches. After the game ends, send a message to those skilled players and ask if they'd be interested in playing with you. If you find a truly skilled player to team up with, follow their advice and ask plenty of questions to learn as much as you can from them.
- Learning from better players is a great way to improve your skills. Keep an open mind when they offer suggestions and try to apply the techniques and tips they teach you.
Avoid cheating or exploiting game glitches to prevent being banned. Cheating or exploiting game glitches may create some humorous situations or provide an unfair advantage, but it won't help you get better at the game. Additionally, cheating or exploiting glitches can result in your account being permanently banned from many competitive online games.
- In single-player games, cheating or exploiting glitches simply detracts from the gameplay experience and ruins the intended challenge.
Study to improve
Search for online game communities and learn from their resources. The internet makes it incredibly easy to connect with other players who are striving to improve their skills in the same game you're working to master. Look for forums and public groups where players share guides, offer advice, and give tips about the game you're trying to become a pro at.
- Many gaming communities use https://www.reddit.com/ to provide information and resources. For example, if you want to be a professional Counter-Strike player, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/. For Mortal Kombat players, visit https://www.reddit.com/r/MortalKombat/. You'll find forums for nearly every game.
Record your gameplay to review and spot mistakes. Before you start playing, enable the recording feature on your console or PC to capture the gameplay footage. You can use the built-in recording tools on Xbox, PS4, or your PC, or you can purchase and install a capture card for longer recording times. After the match, review the footage to learn from your mistakes and think about areas you need to improve during your future training sessions.
- On Xbox One, double-tap the Xbox button on the controller to automatically start recording and save the video to your console.
- For PS4, press the “Share” button on the controller, set the recording duration, and play. You can also record while playing by pressing the Share button twice, similar to double-clicking with a mouse.
- If you're using Windows 10, press and hold the Windows key and press G to record video.
Watch professional gamers and full-time streamers play your video game. Visit https://www.twitch.tv/ and search for the game you're trying to improve in using the search bar at the top. Browse through the streamers (live broadcasters) to watch professional players live-streaming the game you're interested in. Ask questions in the chat section on the right side of the screen and pay attention to their gameplay to gather advice, tips, and strategies that you can implement in your own playstyle.
- Look for professional players with fewer viewers to increase the chances of them noticing your questions in the chat.
Tip: You can also search for pre-recorded videos on YouTube, but keep in mind that the Twitch community is primarily designed for competitive gaming and live entertainment, making it an excellent resource for players looking to enhance their skills in their chosen game.
Gain an advantage in competition
Assign extra keys to your mouse buttons if you're a PC gamer. Even if you don't want to alter the key bindings that your fingers are usually placed on (typically W, A, S, D, and spacebar), assigning additional keys to the side buttons of your gaming mouse can improve your reflexes. Actions such as reloading, using abilities, or resetting the camera can be mapped to the mouse for quicker access when needed.
- You may need to download a driver or additional software to customize your mouse buttons.
Tip: This is especially useful for online multiplayer games or RPGs that have numerous abilities or attacks mapped to keys 1-9, as clicking each individual key can become cumbersome.
Lower the graphic quality to boost your game's performance. Go to the game settings and move the graphics slider to the lowest setting. Reducing the graphic settings to the minimum will enhance the game's performance, resulting in higher frames per second (FPS) and lower ping when playing online. Turning off shadows completely can also significantly improve the performance of your handheld console or PC.
- Ping is the delay when your computer sends and receives packets from the online game server. High ping means more delay between pressing a button and seeing something happen in the game.
- V-sync (frame synchronization) is crucial for many first-person shooter games but unnecessary for side-scrolling games or those with isometric graphics.
- Motion blur is often unnecessary and can be turned off to improve performance without ruining gameplay.
Avoid blaming the game when you make mistakes. Serious gamers often direct their frustration at the game when they struggle. This becomes a major obstacle to improvement because blaming the game prevents you from accurately analyzing your own actions and identifying where things went wrong. When you feel frustrated, take a deep breath, step away from the controller or keyboard for 4-5 seconds, and relax. Then ask yourself: 'What did I do wrong and how can I improve?'
- A positive attitude can help you become a master at the game in the long run. If you focus on things you can control, instead of things you can't, you'll likely find better ways to improve.
- If you're not having fun, stop playing. There's no point wasting time on a game you don't enjoy when there are many others available.
