How much training do esports players do?

[Kane99]

I imagine that most esports players play hours on end each day, much like any gamer who does nothing but game. But I think they do a lot more than that. Myself as a casual, couldn't handle the long hours of gaming esports players have to do these days. I imagine they are playing most of the day, probably streaming as that would be smart to do if you plan to train for long hours anyway. 

But, how many hours a day do you think they game to just train? 

[The Blackangel]

That's honestly not something that ever crossed my mind. I would say they train 12 hours minimum. Like Super Smash Bros would take a ton of constant training to be at a competition level. Any random fighting game like Mortal Kombat would take a shitload of training as well. You can't just do it for an hour or two to reach competition level. To truly master a game, you have to play it several hours a day, and I assume for several years as well.

Also I wonder, how does a person get into eSports to be a competitor? I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to that question anywhere. I may be doing a bad search, but I just can't find it.

[Kane99]

4 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

That's honestly not something that ever crossed my mind. I would say they train 12 hours minimum. Like Super Smash Bros would take a ton of constant training to be at a competition level. Any random fighting game like Mortal Kombat would take a shitload of training as well. You can't just do it for an hour or two to reach competition level. To truly master a game, you have to play it several hours a day, and I assume for several years as well.

Also I wonder, how does a person get into eSports to be a competitor? I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to that question anywhere. I may be doing a bad search, but I just can't find it.

I imagine it's around 12 hours or more. When I game, I game for hours, but I'm by no means a pro gamer. 

That's a good question, because I don't know either lol. I assume they join or start their own teams. That's how I see the first teams starting up. But now I hear high schools across the US are starting their own esports teams, groups and clubs. So that may be how most get started these days. 

Wish I was more social, cause I think it'd be fun running an esports team. Just not playing on it. 

Edited November 27, 2021 by Kane99

[o-o]

A lot more than we think. CSGO players do at least 10-12 hours per day, and if they ever take a break, should be a day off tops.

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

On 11/26/2021 at 9:23 PM, Kane99 said:

I imagine that most esports players play hours on end each day, much like any gamer who does nothing but game. But I think they do a lot more than that. Myself as a casual, couldn't handle the long hours of gaming esports players have to do these days. I imagine they are playing most of the day, probably streaming as that would be smart to do if you plan to train for long hours anyway. 

But, how many hours a day do you think they game to just train? 

Streaming is hit or miss. For a novice, moderate, or lower level elite player -- streaming is actually a bad idea because it exposes your style, technique, setups, position, and skill set to some of the most advanced professionals on earth whom of which take all they data and put it in to the cloud and save it in a database to break down in case they have to face you in a paid tournament (or just in a situation where they want to embarass you).

 

If you are one of the most dangerous video game competitors in the world, and area that I've gotten to on a few games, you can stream just to show off, or you can take it to the next level and stream entirely false technique that the other pros will bite on, and even have some of your buddies pop into the LIVE chat to ask you some fake questions and just give literally all fake answers. Even the most advanced professionals on earth will bite on the latter setup if its done convincingly. But virtually every single top player on some of the games that I play rarely stream these days, and virtually always delete their internal game footage that autosaves to the games systems (so other people don't break down their tech as easily).

 

8 to 16 hours per day of proper training is likely within a legit range if you plan on winning the big stuff, but there is other stuff involved that I won't reveal here. But you have to do stuff other than just game.

Edited August 4, 2022 by ForwardSlashDownPoke

[Kane99]

1 hour ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

Streaming is hit or miss. For a novice, moderate, or lower level elite player -- streaming is actually a bad idea because it exposes your style, technique, setups, position, and skill set to some of the most advanced professionals on earth whom of which take all they data and put it in to the cloud and save it in a database to break down in case they have to face you in a paid tournament (or just in a situation where they want to embarass you).

 

If you are one of the most dangerous video game competitors in the world, and area that I've gotten to on a few games, you can stream just to show off, or you can take it to the next level and stream entirely false technique that the other pros will bite on, and even have some of your buddies pop into the LIVE chat to ask you some fake questions and just give literally all fake answers. Even the most advanced professionals on earth will bite on the latter setup if its done convincingly. But virtually every single top player on some of the games that I play rarely stream these days, and virtually always delete their internal game footage that autosaves to the games systems (so other people don't break down their tech as easily).

 

8 to 16 hours per day of proper training is likely within a legit range if you plan on winning the big stuff, but there is other stuff involved that I won't reveal here. But you have to do stuff other than just game.

That makes sense I suppose, considering that all of that content is readily available after streaming. I guess I didn't think of that before I started the topic. I'm sure more pro gamers don't want their tricks revealed. 

Yeah I game a lot, but I don't know if I want to play for 8 to 16 hours a day. Then again if I didn't  have other work to do, I would probably be into gaming that long. But, on another side, I wouldn't know what to play, considering I'm not a pro at most games these days. 

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

15 hours ago, Kane99 said:

That makes sense I suppose, considering that all of that content is readily available after streaming. I guess I didn't think of that before I started the topic. I'm sure more pro gamers don't want their tricks revealed. 

Yeah I game a lot, but I don't know if I want to play for 8 to 16 hours a day. Then again if I didn't  have other work to do, I would probably be into gaming that long. But, on another side, I wouldn't know what to play, considering I'm not a pro at most games these days. 

It just comes down to fun at first. If you play a competitive title for just a couple hours a day and are having fun, that can lead to getting good, then ultimately playing in tournaments for money.

[Kane99]

2 hours ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

It just comes down to fun at first. If you play a competitive title for just a couple hours a day and are having fun, that can lead to getting good, then ultimately playing in tournaments for money.

Yeah I suppose. I've played many games early on for just the fun of it, and I would often get good. Like Gotham City Impostors, a FPS that I played a ton of. I remember being pretty decent in it, but I don't think it had anything like a competitive following. It would have been wild to try to play this game competitively. Just wish the game was popular these days, because it's a fun FPS multiplayer game imo. 

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

8 hours ago, Kane99 said:

Yeah I suppose. I've played many games early on for just the fun of it, and I would often get good. Like Gotham City Impostors, a FPS that I played a ton of. I remember being pretty decent in it, but I don't think it had anything like a competitive following. It would have been wild to try to play this game competitively. Just wish the game was popular these days, because it's a fun FPS multiplayer game imo. 

Any game I've ever played online with some sort of rankings seems to have some sort of competitive field; but that doesn't mean it involves tournaments. If you were good at it, you can just go for the #1 Rank in the World on it, which is harder than winning tournaments most of the time.

[Justin11]

That's where they earn their money from. So, they need that time devotion to train and prepare for any opponent. But I don't expect eSports players to train the whole day because they're earning a living from it. Soccer players who earns much from their career or NBA players don't even stress that much to get ready for matches. 

[Empire]

Well, I say anywhere from 3-6 hours. Longer on weekends. Treat it like a job and have set hours. I'd also recommend having a "fun, non-competitive" game outside of the game(s) you're preparing for to wind down. When I was competitive in CS & SC in the 2000s, Diablo was my come down game. Remember, Football players don't go home and relax by playing more football lol.

I say the best tend to be hand picked 🙂 

[ForwardSlashDownPoke]

11 hours ago, Justin11 said:

That's where they earn their money from. So, they need that time devotion to train and prepare for any opponent. But I don't expect eSports players to train the whole day because they're earning a living from it. Soccer players who earns much from their career or NBA players don't even stress that much to get ready for matches. 

Many e-sports players do, in fact, train throughout an entire day. But there has to some sort of precautions to prevent mental burnout. In reference to the last post in thread: I've known alot of players that practice for longer than 6 hours. Some of them stream it.

[Kane99]

1 hour ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

Many e-sports players do, in fact, train throughout an entire day. But there has to some sort of precautions to prevent mental burnout. In reference to the last post in thread: I've known alot of players that practice for longer than 6 hours. Some of them stream it.

Yeah I can imagine it taking a toll on people to play nearly all day long. I know some of us could easily play games all day, myself included, but it's more casual for me to play games all day, because I'm not training for anything. But I can see the pressure building if you're a pro gamer, playing the same game over and over to master it as best you could. 

On top of all that, to stream as well, puts a lot of pressure on one. Or so I would imagine. 

I can see many people over-training as well. 

[Justin11]

8 hours ago, ForwardSlashDownPoke said:

Many e-sports players do, in fact, train throughout an entire day. But there has to some sort of precautions to prevent mental burnout. In reference to the last post in thread: I've known alot of players that practice for longer than 6 hours. Some of them stream it.

Hmm, that's way too much if you ask me. I wonder how much they're earning for them to devote such kind of time daily to train and prepare for contest? 

[Kane99]

4 hours ago, Justin11 said:

Hmm, that's way too much if you ask me. I wonder how much they're earning for them to devote such kind of time daily to train and prepare for contest? 

Yeah it's crazy how much esports players have to play. I couldn't do it myself, because you have to stick with mostly one game for the whole day. And honestly I don't think I could do that. I do play games for long hours sometimes, but I don't think I could do it for a whole day, at least not these days.