Author: Nogame
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Ongoing improvement in a gamer’s competitive career is the single hardest thing to be consistent at. While some players seem to have a knack for getting better, other players play for years and see very little improvement.
While its impossible to write an essay that every player can follow that will allow them to constantly improve their ability as a player, I’ll tell you about the theory that I have constructed over the past few years of why some people excel in improving their competitive game play and some people do not.
If reading about a theory isn’t exactly what you had in mind on the topic of player improvement and you don’t feel that this piece of information is vital to you as a player, then you are simply looking for a quick tip or an easy way out. Constant player improvement is not something easily earned, it’s something that demands hard work. While every player has their own reason why they aren’t progressing in skill, I cannot possibly give everyone their solution. However, I can define the problem, and perhaps they can arrive on the solution they need.
Theory: Mental Barriers
This is a theory I’ve had for years, and I babble on about it to my teammates from time to time. This is simply the one thing that everyone seems to have in common when they are having a hard time trying to progress in competitive gaming.
A Mental Barrier is something that halts a player’s progression to the next level of skill. No matter how many hours they spend practicing, different sensitivities or hardware configurations they may try, they just can’t seem to get much better as a player. This is because the problem isn’t sitting in front of them, it’s in their head.
Mental Barriers can cause a player to get very frustrated and have also been known to halt their progression indefinitely. Everyone has had that friend who has played for years, but they just can’t seem to get any better. This friend probably has hit his Mental Barrier and though he wants to get better, he simply doesn’t know how.
I see Mental Barriers as invisible walls in a long hallway. The hallway is wide and has plenty of room on the sides of the barriers to walk past. At the end of the hallway you have will reached your goal of being the best player in the world. A Mental Barrier occurs when a person comes down the hallway and runs straight into a barrier, unable to go through. Since the person doesn’t realize that he’s hit it, he just keeps trying what he’s familiar with, to get past it and reach the goal. This obviously doesn’t work, and the player stays in front of the barrier for a while. All he really had to do was step back and try reaching the goal by alternate means, however he just trudges forward not knowing how to actually get past the wall and gets frustrated when he cant.
Some player’s avoid the barriers till they get deep into the hallway, usually passing the rest of us up along the way. However they always hit a barrier too, we certainly can’t see it though, since he left us in the dust.
Mental Barriers are not an uncommon occurrence in real life either. It’s usually found in older people then younger. The grandfather who has hesitated from using that new fangled computer for years, finally sits down and can’t seem to do anything right. Even though this person may be a very intelligent individual, an 8 year old could get on the computer and do much better then grandpa. Why is this? Simply because the child doesn’t have a bunch of mental barriers in his head causing him to get set-back every time he makes a mistake. There is no fear of mistake and the child has a completely open-mind to try new things. Basically, grandpa just got owned.
Perhaps this is the reason why most professional gamers are in between the ages 15-30? Probably not, but it may account for skilled gamers 30+ years of age being few and far between.
There are exceptions to my theory and there are no absolutes. I’ve known people that simply don’t have the mental capacity to tie their shoes without help (probably from grandpa) however they can understand and execute competitive theory. This tells us that intelligence isn’t necessarily a factor of your ability as a gamer. Though I do think intelligence helps in the aid of deducing what areas you need to improve upon and the grand scheme of what needs to be done, its an irrelevant factor in breaking a mental barrier.
Breaking Mental Barriers
This is the big question and obviously, the hardest to answer. Breaking a Mental Barrier is almost like having an epiphany (an instant understanding of something). Then, overnight you see a dramatic improvement in your ability as a player. I’ve broken Mental Barriers before, and after a few games, I knew what had just occurred simply because I was playing much better and it wasn’t just a streak of good luck.
Since everyone has their own hang up on why they can’t progress further as a gamer, they are the only ones who can actually come up with their solution. However, I’ll clarify a few popular solutions that have worked for others.
Keep an open mind! That means switch your style of play. If you want to get better as a player, don’t just stick to one game mode, find a new one every few weeks/months and play real hard at it. Discover the intricacies of it. When you go back to your desired mode of play, you may have an understanding you weren’t equipped with before.
If you can’t figure out how to get past your Mental Barrier, you obviously don’t know the answer. So trying new things and listening to different perspectives is the only real way to find a solution to your dilemma. Perhaps at one point something someone says will give you that one tool you need to understand what things you need to change in your game play to progress as a player. Hell, even this article may have that effect.
Listen to Others! If you want to get a good grade on a test, you have to do your homework. This is no different. If you want to be a better gamer, you have to practice, read up, and understand competitive theory. If you can’t teach yourself competitive theory (like most of us), find someone who knows how to teach you. The more worldly you become as a player, the better understanding you will have of the game and its complexities. Don’t re-invent the wheel build your knowledge on a foundation that someone else has already laid.
There are actually a few other ways to overcome your barriers, but they are all centered around keeping an open mind and looking at the game in a fresh perspective.
In Conclusion
Hitting a Mental Barrier is a common problem with competitors from any game. The common misconception is that more practice will do the trick. This is completely useless unless they know what they’re problem is, and are practicing to fix it at its base. If you’ve hit a Mental Barrier, you may have a general understanding of what your problems are, but if your answer to fixing them is ‘practice makes perfect’ then you won’t be progressing much further.
In closing I’ll tell you my biggest Mental Barrier breakdown I had. It was simple actually. One day I figured out how to shoot the Rocket Launcher. Simple as that! Before you think I’ve completely ruined my credibility, I’ll tell you why. This was simply the one small key that opened the flood gates. From learning how to time my Rockets properly, I learned other weapon timings, and had a stronger sense of player predictions. Not only did my rocket ability increase 10 fold in a matter of 2 hours, I now had the tool to lockdown a level. This lead to further understanding of spawn raping, weapon looping and then I could also look at retake methods, team deathmatch and the importance of power-ups and timing them in a very complex manner. Once I hit overcame that mental barrier, it was a year before I hit my next one.
I’m curious to hear about what other ways people broke their Mental Barriers. If you have a story, I’d love to hear it.
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