

Chances are there is still a lot you can learn about competitive Overwatch. The folks at Gamersensei.com are, in fact, counting on it. Founded in 2016, the startup company quickly raised an impressive $2.5 million dollars in funding and have since acquired valuable segments of the niche game-coaching market including DotaCoach.org and most recently Leaguecoaching.gg.



Now, the site offers coaches for 15 PC games. The majority of them pillars of the current esports ecosystem such as Fortnite, Hearthstone, Counter-Strike, PUBG, and Overwatch.



Fighting game fans will just have to keep waiting I suppose.





Private practice



The audience of gamers looking to improve their skills isn't new, but the methods of delivering content to them have changed. Whereas the concept of private video game coaching was traditionally reserved for the most hardcore elite, sites like Gamer Sensei are normalizing the idea of average gamers paying personal coaches for one to five-hour training sessions.



Nicholas "Shifty" Travis is one such coach. He specializes in Overwatch and charges $25 an hour: reasonable if you consider his experience with the game. However, a more recognizable coach, like Seb "Numlocked" Barton charges a whopping $100 an hour for his services. Upon searching the website, you can find tons coaches for a variety of prices, including some that charge as little as $8 dollars an hour -- just barely above the minimum wage in the US.



Coaches list every skill imaginable as a way to advertise themselves. One coach asks students to submit VODS of their play before the lessons so she can prepare a detailed course. Another coach boasts his 65% hook accuracy when playing Roadhog.



To better understand this growing market, I spoke with Shifty, the Overwatch coach, about his experiences coaching and his impression of the clientele:



How did you first get into coaching? Did you have pro-player aspirations (or still do?)

I've always enjoyed helping people improve at games, but I did start off as a player competing in tournaments in a variety of different games. When I was competing in some of the first tournaments in Overwatch, I noticed how a lack of leadership and focused direction were holding a lot of potentially great teams back, including my own. As a player on a team, it’s difficult to provide unbiased feedback to your teammates as your perspective is limited when playing the game.



I found that the best way to overcome this was to take on a coaching role where I could see multiple perspectives at once and fine-tune the strategic elements of a team while improving weaknesses one player at a time. With that focus, I worked my way up to coaching for pro esports organizations like Dignitas and Cloud9. I've experienced both sides - being a player and a coach. I've seen what pro players go through and must do, experiencing both incredibly challenging, but rewarding experiences.



That said, I enjoy pro coaching more than being a pro player. Gamer Sensei has provided a great platform for me to be able to coach a lot of different types of people from all over the world!







Have you noticed an increase in the demand for coaching?



Absolutely, both from the individual level as well as the professional level. It used to be that most people couldn’t see the full benefit of getting a coach for playing a video game, however, it’s not different than getting a coach for anything else in life. Do you expect to pick up Golf and play at a semi-pro level by just trial and error and reading books and watching videos?



Nor should you with video games, especially when there are a lot of resources out there that are very dated and just factually incorrect. Once people started realizing that, and seeing the improvement they, and their friends are getting from coaching, people start to catch on and recognize the huge advantage they can get in learning how to correct their mistakes and improve past their previous plateaus.







Is there an average age for the people that seek your coaching?



That’s hard to say, as I’ve coached people at young as 9 and those well into their 50’s. However, if I had to guess, I would say that the average age is probably around 21-24.