The thing about competitive gaming is that we often don’t see the true depth of the actions that take place. To the untrained eye, competitive gaming seems so explosive and volatile, when in reality, most matches are determined by a few small, but tangible mistakes. The biggest error most people will make when talking about or learning competitive gaming is what they see in the individual matches themselves. It all seems like a blur with the back and forth interactions, it all seems so deep and complex, and to some degree it is.
However, you’ll notice that the only differences between players comes from how well they capitalize on individual circumstances. These are what push the meta to new heights and fight off stagnation. When the margin for error is so small and a new strategy is used that is proven to work in the meta, it’s up to the players to either crush it and advance the meta game further or stagnate and fall. This is the pivotal point of competitive gaming in its entirety. When something works, you keep doing it until it stops working, then you adapt and reset the situation until you develop a new strategy. This is the beauty of the competitive gaming experience. you learn the strategies, the skills and techniques needed to beat out all of the others and transcend to the top level of play where the ultimate battle of wits begins. Mind games on mind games.
A battle of smart, quick reactions within game mechanics all coming together for a true competition the likes of which can only be explained in simple terms to most. A competitive match in any video game is a test to the individual players strategies, skills, and knowledge of the game. The winner has a stronger grasp as a result of experience, analysis, and hard work. By being in those situations so many times, and by learning new ways to counter each individual circumstance in their optimal manner, they produce what they believe to be the optimal way to play. This is where play styles come from and where we see the clash of two minds within a gaming environment. This is how matches become so exciting and why it’s becoming so big within mainstream media. Competitive gaming is flashy while maintaining important spectator friendly characteristics. There’s high octane action in most scenarios, everything takes such immense concentration and skill that it feels like an epic battle with how masterfully they play. It’s easy to be distracted by the gameplay before we even realize that they are not seeing the game the same way as you. They see it much differently in fact. It’s a dance. A back and forth routine discovering new methods, new ideas, new concepts and skills to be put to the test.
We learn something every time we sit down and play because the game actually has no limit to its potential skill ceiling. Every time we are pushed to our limits, we try new things to exploit it.
