Berlin Allianz DoA Female on what professional gamers sacrifice to «get there»

From the gaming house where Livia Teernstra lived after she moved from New Zealand to Sweden to pursue her dream. Photo: Livia Teernstra

Name:
Livia Teernstra

Position:
DoA Player

About the author
Livia «Liefje» Teernstra is the Dead or Alive female player for Berlin Allianz. The New Zealand native has also enjoyed working as a gaming journalist in the past.

Many people look at professional gamers and think that they have the ultimate lifestyle. Playing video games for money and travelling around the world, it sounds like the life of a rockstar! And in some ways, it is. However, there are things that some people need to do to make it to the top and basically “live the dream”.

I’ve spoke to a lot of wanna-be pro-gamers that think that just by sitting on their butts all day they too can have the lifestyle that so many people want. They think that the sponsors are going to come to them, that their online skills and occasional tournament attendance is going to be enough to achieve their goals. Wrong! In extreme cases, people go to great lengths to become a professional gamer. Sometimes, talent just isn’t enough. Like with most things in life, to achieve a dream some sacrifices have to be made.

Some are small but some are pretty extreme.

One thing some people might have to give up is working full-time. With so many tournaments around the world many people simply can’t afford to take the time off or their bosses won’t let them. I know of gamers that have actually just chosen to attend an event, consequentially losing their job over it because they could not have the time off.

Some may call it stupidity, but I think it’s dedication, and it’s the kind of dedication that sometimes might be necessary to make your aspirations come true. Other people have simply just quit their jobs in order to focus on gaming totally. There are a number of CGS players that have done this before and after the combine.

Take former LA Complexity member Adande «sWooZie» Thorne and new SF Optx member Chris «NinjaCW» Harris. They quit their jobs before the combine in the hopes of getting drafted. Other gamers have quit after they have been drafted such as Stockholm’s Sofi «Miss» Breton and London Mint’s Chris «ChrissyB» Bullard. This is because to be at the top of your game you need to put in the hours necessary, just like any professional athlete.

Moving is another thing that many professional gamers have had to face in taking their careers that one step further. Take all the Counter-Strike players in Complexity for example. They are living in a gaming house where I’m sure they had to the comforts of their hometown to be able to do. Professional gaming commentator Marcus «djWHEAT» Graham is also someone else who moved his family from his hometown to LA in order to be able to work for the Global Gaming League. More recently, coL manager Jason Lake has announced he’s taking up his roots and moving his entire family to LA in order to focus on Complexity full-time.

I myself moved 17,000 miles around the globe away from my friends and family to live in a gaming house with the «girlz 0f destruction». While it may sound really fun and awesome it’s also something that’s very difficult to do.

It’s also a general trend that significant others find it really hard to cope with being with someone who is not a gamer themselves. Often times though, gamers will choose the other way and simply give up playing to please their other half. On fewer occasions though, I’ve known guys to pick the games over the girls. I think this part is all about balance. It’s one thing to be dissing your significant other for a practice scrim and it’s another thing forgetting their birthday because you’re too busy raiding on WoW. If you can organize your priorities well there’s no reason you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Professional gaming is usually a career path that many parents frown upon. That’s probably because a really common thing that people do to try and become a professional gamer is either drop out of school or take a “pause” from higher education such as university.

Education is always important as it gives you something to fall back on if your gaming career doesn’t work out. But if you’re thinking about taking a break from university, think really hard about it because for a lot of people it’s really difficult to return once they’ve left. A lot of people in the 1v1 first person shooter scene have done this and it’s been a huge uphill battle for them. Is what they gave up really worth it?




The last and final sacrifice one must be prepared to make in order to go pro is time. It takes time to get good. Sure you might be born with sick aim but you’re going to need to invest time into the other aspects of the game to really become the best. For some people practicing 20 hours a day is the way to do it, for others they’d rather watch demos for hours. But the bottom line is that you need a significant amount of time. Your friends will have to understand that you can’t come and party every weekend because some weekends you might have to have a clanwar or a LAN.

It’s not about “practice, practice, practice”, Fatal1ty style, but doing what suits you to become the best and no matter what that route is it still will take time. What most people don’t understand is that it takes determination and risks to do something like professional gaming. It’s not crazy to sacrifice such things to get to the top, many people in e-sports today have done this.

In this business you’ve got to roll with the punches and if you really want it, you won’t give up.