It’s like the old saying goes, as soon as you’re born, you start dyeing. Well, it’s kind of the same in esports because as soon as the controller gets used, you’re going to start losing. Even when you do win it won’t feel like you’ve really achieved anything because you’re just a noob and these games mean nothing right… right? WRONG! Ok well maybe your Stewie2k, but what I’m going to be talking about in this article still applies to these kinds of top tier players too because guess what? You might be able to play a perfect round, you might even have an undefeated year, but what really matters is how you got there, how you got that good. That is sure as hell the only way you are going to stay in a winning position. It just takes a bully to be a winner sometimes, but only champions are good at losing and turning the act of making a mistake into an advantage in the long run. Think I’m crazy? You haven’t seen anything yet! By the end of this article you’ll want to play so terribly that no one will be able to possibly defeat you, and not even Stewie2k beat that sentence. 

The first thing you need to extinguish from your thought processes is the negative connotations that come from losing, from being down or from being beaten. Sure, you aren’t exactly reaching your goal when these things are happening. Though, losing creates a highlighted perspective into your game’s weaknesses, and thus, can be used to carefully determine how to improve your game so that you can win all of the time. Some mistakes are easy to see and these can often be the most frustrating to deal with and accept responsibility for. Other mistakes are much more subtle and can even create positive sub structures to other skills which are less useful, but not overall more effective. 

When you lose, take a chill pill, preferably Valium, and analyse what went wrong in your game not what went right in your opponent’s game. In a first-person shooter such as Counterstrike Go for example, if you peek and get headshot, then the problem isn’t the headshot, it’s when you chose to peek. You need to improve your game sense to be able to correctly determine when is a better or correct time to peek instead of going off chance. These kinds of subtle improvements can be made all over your game and in ways you never though possible. All you have to do is stop blaming and start taking responsibility for what happens in the game. It’s not a big mystery how top players play well. They do the right things at the right time. This kind of knowledge comes from personal reflection and contemplation on mistakes, even small ones. 

Remember, a winning move is only a winning move against a less skilful opponent. That very same move may prove useless or even fatal against a professional player. So, it’s important to keep perspective of where you are in the skill ladder structure and the kinds of moves your making against those same kinds of players. At the same time, mistakes against less skilful players that turn out to be mistakes could prove advantageous against professional players who may not be ready for that particular playing style. In this way it’s important to keep mistakes in perspective and consider the kind of opponent you are up against. 

Mistakes are what makes winning so enjoyable. The act of avoiding mistakes makes us feel capable and winning cements this feeling into an instance in time where you are feeling positive emotions. You’ll often find that before you make a mistake, there will be a short burst of negative energy that is emitted in your thought process or cognition and then symbolised in gameplay which has a negative outcome. It’s all about staying positive and keeping those positive thought processes if you really want to dominate, you need to be having a good time. That can still be a very intense good time, effectiveness can be determines by how few mistakes you are making. Because if you don’t make any mistakes, your opponent can’t even hit winners against you. 

Happy failing gamers!

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