The career of a pro-CS player is a dream. You can play all day, travel probably the whole world, and get a considerable salary and prize money! Today we will inspect the opposite side of the medal: grueling workouts and weeks or even months on the road. Let’s talk about how to get into eSports.

Forget matchmaking games

The first thing to do on the way to real CS:GO is forgetting standard matchmaking. Playing in the rating mode is useless. Firstly, you won’t meet the requirements of the technical level of competitive servers: the tickrate is two times lower, and the quality of the server itself is worse. Secondly, no serious player trains and plays on Valve’s official servers.

A career needs to start at third-party sites, first of all, we’d say FACEIT, but possibly ESEA. In the first case, you do not need to pay for the start, but you will have to pay for the ESEA subscription and renew it every month. Regardless of the platform chosen, you need to climb the local rating table as soon as possible. The main goal is to get as close as possible to the maximum rank.

The rank directly speaks for the skill and winning ability. Without this, there is simply no point in trying to get into professional leagues. After gaining the maximum rank, let’s say at FACEIT, you need to qualify first in the FPL – Challenger, and if you can prove yourself there, then you can get into the FACEIT Pro League itself. Now you are in the circles of pros who win majors, and you can buy a BMW if you collect all your loose change in all your apartments.

Develop communication skills

Just being a good shooter is not enough. You need to be a good teammate, namely, you need to pump up your social skills. First, that means the capability to talk to people in general. The more friends or acquaintances you have who are related to the game, the higher the chance to get into the team or compose a team from scratch.

Secondly, you need at least a basic knowledge of English. Even if you plan to play only in teams that communicate in their native language, you can’t avoid communicating with opponents, admins, and provided success – with journalists. Without being able to say something more than “Hello, my name is player” the road to eSports will be much harder.

Control emotions and toxicity

Even if you are an exceptionally good player and the people person, if in the game you are calling your teammates names for the slightest mistake, you are unlikely to be seen in a team.

In addition, excessive emotionality interferes with the game. No one wants to listen to a flow of accusations in the direction of the game, lags, cheats or any other problems, instead of hearing useful information.

Go to a club

Visiting computer clubs is a very important stage of your formation as a player. You can only participate in weekend tournaments, but it’s worth it. Such trips will not only help you make new friends but also to get a feeling of a LAN game. Playing for even a small prize significantly transforms the competition.

You can become a master of training by staying at home and practicing, but not a master of a real game. Performance at the local LAN-tournament is an excellent test of the strength of everything at once. Does the tactic work, will you be nervous when playing in front of others, will it be possible to adapt the rounds on the go? Only one tournament will provide answers to these and many other questions.

Get lucky

Building a career in virtual sports, unfortunately, depends not only on skills. In order to reach the highest level, it is advisable to start early (at 13-14). The farther from this age you begin, the harder it will be to achieve the goal. But even if you start at a young age, you will still need luck.

Find the right people, play the right tournaments, meet the right agents and manager. Even not missing the mouse button at the right moment makes a difference. All this requires elementary luck. However, even if you are not lucky on the first attempt, you need to try again and again.

Protect yourself from total bad luck. Even champions are not insured against this, so you always need to have a backup plan. You should not leave school for the sake of a career, or think about turning away from everything else in life for the sake of CS:GO.

Summing up, in order to become a pro you need to start your career as early as possible, train daily, communicate with professional players and make a name for yourself, attend tournaments and be a little lucky. And always have a plan B.