Many people around the world play Counter Strike : Global Offensive, but what does it take, to become a Ninja?

The first factor in what it takes is motivation, why you play. The initial thing that may jump to many of your minds is because it’s their job, because they get paid. However, the most important motivation came long before ever being able to make a living from CS. That motivation comes in the desire to be the best, to climb the ranks, to achieve and consistently play at the very highest level.

For these goals to become a reality, it next takes dedication to the cause. Hours of your day, every week, every month of every year. To make the sacrifices necessary to put in the practice. This practice comes in many forms and they are all equally as important. Solo practice ranging from hours on end of death match, to aim maps, to drilling smokes in your own server. Team practice where with four other players you run over strategies to achieve the perfect timing, execution and most importantly understanding.

This team practice also builds a relationship between the five players and coaching staff. This is just as important in the game as it is away from the keyboard. When a team wins, it wins together, when a team loses, it loses together. This camaraderie is the basis of a strong roster, that can bounce back from any setback and can pull their friends through any rough patches. When a group fits together well, energy, enthusiasm and ability bounce between one another. The time spent around each other travelling the world can be stressful, being away from home and constantly on the move during LAN events, but with the right people surrounding you they will build to be the best experiences of your life.

Leading up to major LAN events an extra level of the aforementioned team cohesion is added in the form of bootcamps. These bootcamps are extended periods of time where the team gathers in the gaming house. Here they will train together, eat together, live together. Practice in similar conditions to LAN events, shoulder to shoulder on one table allows the players to get comfortable with each other, any eccentric behaviour such as reactions to kills or deaths and the cramped spaces they will be facing. More insight into what the gaming house is like can be found on the Ninjas In Pyjamas Youtube channel.

What allows for such friendships to be built is the mental strength and maturity to be able to accept your mistakes. The precise mixture of humbleness and confidence in your ability to learn from those mistakes and improve. For a single player it is important to be able to asses your own game and accept when it was your own misplay or poor spell that was the problem, it is equally important to never lay the blame on a teammate who made have had a rough game and to help them regain their full ability. I’m sure many of you have played in a solo queue online and had teammates constantly blame the other 4, quickly killing communication and morale, and the ability to be above such things is an underrated quality that a Ninja must have.

Counterstrike is a fast paced game with a fast paced scene. Meaning a player must be able to pick himself up from any knock-down, sometimes over a long period of time such as a tournament knockout, or as quickly as the next round. To play every round as it comes and never accept defeat as a certainty.

Due to the scene’s pace, there is constant pressure from us as the fans for a team to play well, as there is for a football team game to game. Constantly under the microscope, with every play being criticised there is no place to hide and you must be able to take the pressure without letting it affect your mindset. We as fans also hold our favourite professionals up as idols, celebrities and role models. This means every word they say, every reaction they have will have an audience of thousands and they must uphold professional conduct at all times.

Overall, it takes a massive amount of dedication along with the skill and desire to be the best, to make sacrifices in your day to day life to be able to do what you love. Luckily for them, the Ninjas were made for this, it’s who they are.

written by Robert Gooderson