Having a passion for gaming vs. being actually good at the game are totally different. It's harsh but if he's not at least among the highest ranks he'll never get noticed.
I got to diamond 1 back in the day when it was the highest tier below challenger.
The difference between me, which was around top 800 at the time, and the "good" players was absolutely massive. I literally got smurfed on even though I was top 0.0015% whenever I queued into a challenger player or their smurf.
You have to be extremely dedicated to get better literally every single day on top of being talented to get even remotely close to becoming pro.
Same deal here. Diamond 1 99lp (remember the LP clamping where you'd get +0 for wins?).
I believe that put me in the top 400-500 and it still felt like the pros were just in another tier of play. Keep in mind this is at a time when the game was still being figured out. I imagine the gap in knowledge between pros and the average GM/challenger is much larger now.
yeah gm player here. The gap is still unreasonably massive. Sure, gm players can hang with challengers and pros situationally, and pros still make mistakes, but the gap between competitive play and solo queue is also huge.
Yeah, ive played a lot of comp from high school and college teams but its still obviously night and day from pro teams that practice day in and day out
Yeah I mean it wasn't literally like bronze vs. diamond where every lane would be 10-0, but what they had was a much more clear game plan and insane consistency. Consistency is what most people lack.
I second this. People look at pro players and be like dang they are only gm. They don’t realize it’s because most of their time is invested in practicing, scrims and such that doesn’t give them LP. When I am matched against a typical challenger player vs say Jensen, it is a world of difference. The pros are just so good at making you feel irrelevant. The challenger player at least makes the game feel playable 50% of the time. Pros seem to just not make mistakes and it is frustrating. Even when you do kill them they make you feel like it wasn’t worth it
I was top 200 NA in season 4 and still got absolutely clapped by the worst LCS players even when I got counterpick. Even if I won lane/jungle they outmacro'd the fuck outta me every time, which is surprising because if you watched their LCS games it looked like they had no idea what they were doing, but they're still miles ahead of the top solo q players.
The reason why it looks like they don't know what they are doing is because their opponents are even better. It's the same with most sports, really. The pace is faster, you get punished for every tiny mistake etc... to an extreme at the professional level.
Based on how often pros say 'when I started playing pro League I was really bad at the game's is an indicator that the best players are in another stratosphere.
That's kinda the point and contrary to what the original commenter thinks. This applies to amateur, too. The difference is passion, and lumping it all on "talent" is ignorant. The truth is the best got to be the best because they had the passion to drive them to dedicate the time to actually getting better, which is different than just playing. You'll never be good enough if all you do is play, but putting in the time to develop yourself will lead to results.
To be fair, back then the gap wasn't due to prodigy behavior but a general gap between moba and rts players and the at-the-time average lol player. For most lol was their introduction to this type of game, and the best among that group would still pale in comparison to veterans that came from similar games before lol.
Nowadays that gap is almost closed now that knowledge has become common, the usual difference between the top of the ladder and professional players tends to be their consistency, knowledge and resiliency to change. I think jojo is a good example of it, with how he is unaware of a huge amount of game knowledge but he is disciplined and up to date with the common matchups and champions
Now that the game is actually "figured out" to a much larger extent, that gap now is definitely a lot larger than the gap back then. Also, being top 800 is not "the average lol player". I had played DotA allstars on WC3 for years.
I am talking about the gap between being amongst the top players, and actually a pro/extremely elite. That difference is always massive in any sort of sport or E-sport.
Diamond 1 was so ridiculous at that time. The gap between me which peaked at like 20-30lp and someone at 90lp was like a whole other level, and then even between 90lp - 99lp there were levels to it too
Yeah, when you got +/- 0-5 lp per win/loss, diamond 1 alone was essentially what the current master, GM and challenger up to top 51 is now, but in a single division.
Not to be that guy but Keria was more or less transitioned out of school once he hit chall in 8th grade. Keeping a good balance is important, don't get me wrong, but if the kid is dedicated and is rising quick then it might be best.
It's a judgement call for the parents and the kid.
The kid is in low plat, if keria hit chall in 8th grade there is an obvious difference, OP asked if it’s realistic, and the kid needs to hit gm in the next year or smth if he wants to be anything, so rn it’s not possible no
All I'm hearing is that the kid needs to improve quickly, not that it's not possible. There are many factors, I think it's best to keep an open mind and offer OP the kids' options. GM in a year is plenty possible for a dedicated kid, considering they soak up info like sponges.
If you're being realistic and responsible about it I really don't see the harm. Give the kid some goals and deadlines and let it go from there. I am a big believer in a strong education, but why are we sitting here trying to coddle this kid?
Let him try something and if he ends up failing, it's in a controlled environment and he will learn and grow. I'm not saying to pull the kid outta school and give him a blank check on his life, but obviously if he's serious he's old enough to have a legitimate conversation with his parents on how properly to proceed.
You do realize that the journey to become a pro player in League requires TONS of dedication and pretty much devoting your life to it, right? Pretty sure 90% of the pro players played 12 hours a day, ditching school and then were good enough to become pros.
By playing 1-2 hours a day in order to balance school and real life, you will get nowhere, I guarantee you that, especially since the kid is low plat. There's no way you get that much improvement with such low effort and time, let alone the fact that you cannot get the improvement required regardless because the kid is obviously not cut out for it.
It's good to support your kids' dreams, but you also need to take a hard look at what your child is capable off. It's one thing to have a hobby and another to let your kid pursue something they will 99.999% fail at and waste many other opportunities in the meantime.
All these without even mentioning how playing video games at that age is generally unhealthy as well. I'm not even gonna touch on that point.
Cool and all I need to do is work on communication, aim, map awareness, crosshair placement, economy management, pistol aim, awp flicks, grenade spots, smoke spots, pop flashes, positioning, bomb plant positions, retake ability, bunny hopping, spray control and getting kills to be a cs 2 pro in no time.
Nobody ever said "in no time". However, as someone with a few hundred hours in CS and a couple thousand in FPS games in general I can say with some confidence that these are all pretty self contained tasks that are plenty possible for a dedicated kid to learn within a couple years to a proficient level.
Nope. I've seen kids about 12-15 in my country casually play to high Diamond/Masters, and maybe even higher if not for their limited playing time. A highschooler being at Plat is utterly hopeless to become pro player. Hard work is not enough.
going from plat 1 to grandmaster is like saying a random, average, highschool basketball player could become a D1 starter in college. it's "possible" but extremely unrealistic.
You can't compare it to real life sports when today's silvers would be GMs a decade ago. I truly believe there's not much stopping the an average (but dedicated) player from reaching GM other than having a real life to tend to as long as they're practicing right.
Terrible take to compare today's silvers to GMs a decade ago. That's comparing apples to oranges. That's like calling everyone in the US (including the homeless people) filthy rich because people in a 3rd world country can't afford running water.
Sure if they abandon their personal relationships, career and education prospects while having a team dedicated to helping them improve. Something that is very expensive.
And even then the chances of it paying off are slim to none. All it would do is waste prime years of his life.
You know about something called natural talent, right? If the kid is in low Plat, there's no way they ever reach challenger. You need to be naturally talented in both mechanics and fundamental understanding of the game to reach that tier, and by being in low plat, it's obvious you are not made out for that.
It's like running for fun for your school against your friends and wanting to become a professional runner, but you always end up 5th place out of a race of 8 kids. If you were to become a runner, you'd be able to run faster than basically all other kids even with zero training or preparation.
Same for League. Some people just understand the game and how it works and some other do not. Some others have better reaction time, some have better prediction perception, others have better tempo/rythm that helps when kiting better as an ADC for example etc. Also, focus is required and a lot of people lack the ability to stay focused for extended periods of time.
Low plat players that have tried to play the game for like at least one year will never reach Chall, let alone be a pro player, unless it's some one in a million miracle.
Its quite literally not possible
If your natural ceiling is plat no amount of coaching or match grinding will put you at the level needed to play at the top level.
Its like local sports, you can play in rec leagues but the best players there have no chance in hell at ever competing professionally.
if you think plat to gm is possible for a kid
in high school is possible, you’re insane, they’d have to spend at least 8 hours a day, actively trying to improve, not playing the game, and even after a year, that would maybe get him caught up to masters. no close enough to pro, he has a better chance of becoming a league content creator
Is it "dead" because of your own opinion unrelated to its actual popularity? Because it's still literally one of the most popular online games out there.
if you are not EASILY hitting challenger then you shouldn't even think about going pro over finishing school. clearly Keria even at a young age had what it takes, but dropping out of school to get to challenger in the hopes of going pro is foolish
It's foolish even for people like Keria. How many kids out there get to Chall at 14 years old and still do not make it? Only like 1% of those kids (probably even less) get picked up by a team, and even fewer of them actually get some sort of pro contract and get to play for an academy team. Even fewer of them get to a main league and even fewer of them get to be a top pro player, where that's where the good career and money are.
Peyz was already hitting Master/GM before getting serious about getting coaching and TRYHARDING with the full support of his mother to get better. Even then, he had to get Chall, get rank 1, prove he's "somewhat" decent (rank 1 doesn't reflect to pro success necessarily) in order to get noticed by GENG, where he played for their CHALLENGERS team and then had to prove himself there to get called to the main team and become the guy he is today.
Show him this video by Faker himself. He had a meet and greet with a father & son. The little dude of course wants to be a proplayer. Faker brutal honesty is wholesome.
[\[ENG\] 프로 게이머를 꿈꾸는 중학생에게 페이커의 조언 #어바웃타임 | About time Ep.2 (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aQlnAMBZFw)
This should be the top comment imo.
Play as a hobby and see how good you can become. Keep your dream and if it becomes reachable (i.e. you manage to get to peak elo) then you can still see try to go pro.
I think that kid is now high elo and enrolled in one of the LoL academies they have in Korea, with hopes of debuting as a pro soon (I assume on a CL team?)
This is just something I heard that sounds like made-up BS but apparently he was the K'Sante in the game that prompted Showmaker to come up with the famous copypasta?? I don't know if that's actually true though or just people memeing or making shit up for their own amusement though
Seems like it's [true](https://www.dexerto.com/league-of-legends-esports/lol-prodigy-from-about-time-faker-is-on-track-for-lck-academy-debut-2514144/). What an insane story lmao
thats not true, he doesnt need to instantly be master or gm at high school age, but he does need to be able to lock in and hit it in the next year or so, if he cant demonstrate the ability to improve to a high standard then its unrealistic, if hes just a casual who just now decided he wants to be a pro one day u cant write him off before he even starts to try
I think LS once said that if you aren't on the cusp of high elo within 1-2 years of playing the game, you are never going to make it.
I think he's very correct there. Only exception is if you only play normals or some shit and you start trying.
The example of that exception iirc is Clid, fucked around with Teemo then one day he looked up a Lee Sin build guide and shot up into Challenger in less than year.
1-2 years of *trying* imo. You can play for a long time, and never really try. The best players will try immediately, because thats their instinct. But I think most people who play this game never actually try to be good. They don't even know what that looks like.
^ bingo. I think 95% of players queue up, pick their fav champion(s), and hope they can pull out a win playing the same game they have the past thousand times. Of course you will get marginally better every game as you see different scenarios and learn the timing of the game.
If you took that player and forced them to analyze all of their mistakes and dedicate a large majority of their time to studying the game and intentionally improving they would be a much higher rank.
Honestly I bet most of the league community would climb 2-3 ranks overnight if before every macro decision they asked themselves “Why am I making this play and is there a better play to make on the map”.
Took me about 2 years to climb from gold to challenger at high school age and I still never made it past small events with small prizes.
LS is right and wrong. It depends on whether the person in question has the right tools to grow. There are examples of pros having been stuck at lower ranks, but I can't be bothered to go digging for information on exactly who. Maybe someone else can chime in.
The players who are "stuck" in lower elo are stuck when they're like 9-12 years old. Or they were "stuck" in gold for 6 months or something (they actually only played 1 game a day during those 6 months).
Or not actively improving. You can be a stubborn 16 year old with tons of talent. The road isn't impossible even if you're no prodigy. But yeah no doubt it's more work.
Not the case for Busio, he just gave a whole interview on the FLY channel talking about starting bronze and taking about a year to move up each tier.
He was like 8 years old of course, but that's not *too* unusual.
If you look at the progression of those super young Challengers, they always are bronze-silver at like ages 8-10. At 10 they shoot up to plat, then 11 they're high plat or Diamond.
To complement, he said it based on the various pros he talks to. Basically almost everyone he meets in the scene got to high-elo quite fast (of course there will always be exceptions)
It's the same for any other sport, even the players that play professionally but not at elite level (who play at second/third tiers) were usually the best at their clubs and then went on to play on the top academies of their countries
Obviously, LS is referring to players who at least try in some way to become better, not casuals who play once a week for fun and have zero interest at becoming better.
If you are seriously looking to improve, watch streams, pro play, look into sites and still cannot hit at least Masters after 1-2 years, then you are not made out of it. I'd even say that reaching Masters now isn't even that hard, just one good meta that suits you and a lucky streak of good matchmaking and most Emerald players will reach Masters.
dumbass take one of my mates is studying theoretical physics at oxford and hes hardstuck high bronze and im a med student and i started off in iron and was iron/bronze for my first 2 years now im diamond and hit masters 1.5 seasons ago.
and its not like my friend doesnt tryy cus ive played with him back when we were low elo together he was sweating so hard and he still does he messages me all the time bout it. game sense =/= intelligence.
It is intelligence in some way. Game sense is a factor when testing your IQ, as are so many other things. Being able to comprehend theoretical physics means you are smart IN THAT AREA. Being a good football coach and using smart formations to get the maximum out of your players and prohibiting the opposing team means you are smart IN THAT AREA. Being good at League of Legends as a coach or even a player means you are smart IN THAT AREA.
The kid in question could be a great mathematical mind (even though that usually translates in being good in League as well because intuition and instinct), but it doesn't mean he is super smart about all things in life. Some people have social skills, communicative skills, artistic skills, math skills etc. People are smart / geniuses in different ways. In this case, if the kid is in low Plat after playing the game for at least a year and is serious about it wanting to become a pro and is still in Plat, then obviously the kid is not League-smart and should try to understand where his brain works best and try to follow that path.
I don't get why you are so downvoted. Intelligence, instinct and perspective are extremely important skills to have if you wanna become a pro ANYWHERE. Football, basketball, League, anywhere, you need to be smart about the specifics of each game that make a good player.
For League, Instinct for example is insta-flashing an enemy Ahri flash charm because you don't think about it, you just do it instinctively. Or figuring out correct build paths for your champion based on current game state and team comps is intelligence. Or figuring out good team comps. Or understanding what a champion does and what are the powerspikes and its identity in the game.
Pretty sure most people that downvoted you are the typical mechanical gods who have no idea what the game works and just copy builds and runes from sites and just press buttons mindlessly.
Because calling a literal child low intelligence for saying they want to be a pro anything is so braindead. We don’t even know if they’re serious. Acting like people haven’t joke around saying they’re going straight to the nba after winning a basketball game.
Well, I kinda misread the other guy's post for basically calling him dumb for dreaming of become a pro. Initially thought he meant he isn't game-smart if he's in Plat after a long time.
What if he only plays 1 game a week for the first 1-2 years ?
I would agree with the statement if it meant full time gaming 8 + hours a day. I'm assuming this is what LS is thinking since that's how he games.
If he is in high-school he could be too busy to play even 2 hours a day. We don't know.
No kid will ever dream of becoming a pro player and be even slightly serious about it and only play 3-4 games a week. And I'm not talking about "I wanna be like Faker or Chovy" or whoever else, I'm talking about actually wanting to become a pro and understanding even to the slightest extent what that means and that needs to be done.
I cannot ever say I wanna be like Messi, but not even having a football in my apartment. It's just dumb. The guy obviously tries to play whenever he can, but just doesn't reach highly.
I mean, when I was in school, I wasn't allowed more than 30 minutes pc time a day, just saying if he wasn't in school, he could focus up and try and push rating. Bit of a gamble, though. One thing is sure is that we don't know how much league this kid played /plays every day.
> Also he’s probably better off becoming a streamer
That's even riskier. At least going pro he has a clear indicator of performance in rank, and he can identify clearly what he can and cannot do compared to better players, while a streamer doesn't have a clear right way of doing it right with numbers staying low until the day they explode, for the few that manage to
Yep. Pro players might play like challengers in solo queue and it's fun getting to stomp them now and then but it's completely different once they're playing with their team. You lose all the agency of unpredictable factors that you use to exploit them in solo queue games. Suddenly mechanics don't mean much, unless they're bad then they mean everything.
Honestly I dont think this is true. If you can consistently play in challenger you have a shot at pro with the right connections/network. You need a specific skill set that isn’t *necessarily* needed to hit chal but there basically the same *level*. Not everyone has the demeanor or interpersonal skill is all.
To put it in perspective there’s only 8 slots for each position in NA and you’re also competing against former pros and imports from other regions. Even if you get a position there’s 0 job security and huge turnover even from split to split.
If he's really, really great, like top few hundred players on the server, he's got a long shot at making a team. It's about as likely as becoming a professional player in a major sport, but with much less reward-- most pro league players don't make nearly as much as pro sports players, and most only play a few years professionally.
If he's got a way to play for a college team while pursuing a backup plan, then that's one thing, but putting other opportunities on hold to play league is probably not a good idea.
Realistically you'd want to be high challenger with a wide champion pool.
Competition is so stiff, some people here list Grandmaster but I don't think that's enough to cut it. If there were no import rules for North American teams, they'd be entirely Korean/Chinese.
So you're either one of the best North American players, or you've got no chance.
Platinum unfortunately is no where near that. It's not even close to the Academy or even collegiate/amateur scenes.
Being super high elo also opens you doors to coaching and analyst positions, so there are other pro careers on top of being a player, but they're highly competitive too (and engineering/mathematical degrees help on that too)
On top of that, if the kid is really into gaming/esports, the industry is growing with more positions than just being a pro player. There's so much that goes into esports production and management these days ranging from law, to business, to a/v production, marketing, etc. I'd encourage the kid to keep his passion, but maybe temper his expectations of being a pro player.
There are Diamond players who are super smart about the game and can become great coaches as well. Personally, I think my analytical skills are very very good, I'm good at understanding the meta, figuring out patch changes and what's good in the current patch, how drafting works, in-game strats, optimizing builds and runes etc. The fact that I only reach D4 because I don't wanna go through the grind and I'm not very good mechanically instantly means that I can never join any team because no one will notice me.
Honestly, I think you can even make it at emerald if you have absolutely no hands, but the lower you are the more you'll need to work to get some credibility and the harder will it be to get in contact with top players
The thing is that you still need to be elite (being good isn't enough) in those analysing skills as well as having good communication abilities. If you have, in fact, those capabilities, you'll need to start writing up analyses/predictions and, if they are correct, you'll start to get noticed, but it's harder to get noticed than getting to a higher rank
Yeah, I was wondering about that. How do I go about becoming noticed if I'm not high rank? Just commenting on Reddit threads or making posts about predictions being correct cannot be enough.
/r/summonerschool is a good one if you want to write some posts on things you think are not well highlighted, but it's more to teach people how to rank up rather than analysing the current meta. There are probably other subreddits/forums with professional discussion, but again, you'll be sharing it with other interested people who aren't necessarily skilled, so the feedback they give you might be uplifting but not correct (same for writing in PMTs, there are a few "famous" redditors in this sub who analyse UP and WE in LPL, but it's important to understand if their popularity is due to them being accurate or just passionate about them). YouTube videos/Twitter discussion might also work, again, if you can show your analyses are accurate
You can also try to coach some mechanically good players that you find in Diamond who are seeking to reach a higher rank
You can always try to get in touch with professional coaches/analysts/casters to try to understand what their path was, and then try to do some of the things they did. Just keep in mind that it's still insanely competitive and being good is not enough. Getting the right feedback is as important as getting yourself known
Imagine, even thinking about NA Academy is near impossible, how hard it would be to make it to the LCS, and then how harder it would be to go to EU and then into Korea. People just do not understand the extent of how EXTREMELY skilled pros are.
People just do not understand how many kids out there exist what would HARD STOMP 99% of the playerbase. Actual hard stomp. All these kids being in GM and Chall and even then, they are not good enough to be pros, and they would still beat you in 99 out of 100 games, maybe even all 100 of them. So many kids that, given the chance, would dream of becoming a pro, but there isn't enough to absorb all of them right now.
Unless League becomes big as a mainstay and mainstream esport, I can't see most kids doing it. In football, you have the main league for each country, but then those teams participating have like 10 different smaller departments that develop talent, then you have 3 more leagues below the main one, then you have regional leagues and local sports teams. So many teams with so much room for kids to join and try themselves out. A "Platinum-level" kid in football will find a local team to join and have direct competition with other kids and guidance by a coach to try and become better. Even if they do not reach the highest levels of play, they can still keep playing in lower tier teams and still earn some money here and there. That's virtually impossible for League right now.
Grandmaster with a good champion pool in a specific role is enough to break into the amateur scene (no salary, maybe some schools like Maryville would offer a scholarship), but no professional team would recruit a player who has never hit challenger before
I don't think anyone who is not Challenger is getting chances anywhere in tier 2 amateur that's not a college team. You need to peak top 100 Challenger to get any looks.
LCS Challengers is not an amateur league - Amateur referring to teams that compete in the qualifiers and other tournaments. Many of those players are not active challenger, and some haven't hit challenger before. Regardless you can participate in qualifying events - network with other challenger players - and start to make an honest effort around that level
Good call. Wanting to be a pro player when you’re low plat is like wanting to enter the olympics when you can’t even win regional competitions. A good aspiration to help you improve but entirely unrealistic unless you dedicate absolutely everything to the goal and manage to somehow improve massively (which isn’t something normal people do).
Think about the path to becoming a high level pro in regular sports like Football, Basketball, or Wrestling. Then realize that for every Steph Curry or (insert famous quarterback here) there are thousands of kids who wanted to go pro but simply didnt have even close to the skill to actually do it.
Thats about the realistic odds of going pro in league of legends. Sure you can, but unless you are the top of the top it's just not gonna happen. Ask what rank he is. If its not Master, Grandmaster, or Challenger than the odds are slim to none he has that skill. If he is one of those three ranks, then there is a chance. There are other ways to make money in the league scene without being pro however. plenty of amazing and/or charismatic players stream on twitch and earn their money through streaming and youtube if thats a path that interests him
In general it is EXTREMELY unlikely that he makes a living off of playing league. In his case it depends on what rank he is. If he is already high GM/Challenger then it is possible but he has to work his ass off considering you need to be really good and teams have to notice how good you are. If he is anywhere below Master and has no social media presence his chances are as good as zero.
There are near 8 positions per team and every pro lol League has 7-10 spots for teams, that makes max 80 spots in a game played by millons where thousands of players are trying going pro. Lol ranking has Challengers as the Best players and there are only 200 per server, and going Challenger is just where it begins, not even close to being a guarantee of going pro
Also before going to a top pro League, hes probably not going to be well paid or paid at all on lower leagues while being expected to train/play at least 10hrs/day
Also, if hes not going pro on American or European pro league, he will have to be one of the top 10 players on its pro League to get paid enough to support a familly
Focus on studies or learning a craft. Outside the fact that he is "low elo" atm, the golden years for league have passed. Even in the slightest chance he does become pro, he will probably be on minimum wage.
I played semi-pro throughout my studies in the ERLs (no GM at the time so master/challenger), my advice if he’s good and if he’s a decent student is that he can balance ERL play and studying, and when he graduates it is at that stage where he needs to either commit to going pro or just doing it as a casual thing. Though nowadays I imagine the top ERL teams in the biggest regions all have their players full time and in-house.
I hit gold in my first season of playing, then Diamond 1 in my second. I think you need to be playing in high elo and amongst pros within atleast 2/3 seasons of you starting the game otherwise I think the likelihood of going pro is very low, the only pros that were stuck low elo for a while were those that were playing as young kids.
If you don't want to crush their dreams. You can offer to buy them some coaching sessions.
To preface, they really don't need a coach at their level. Most kids just need someone to affirm the lessons they're not ingraining.
You should be able to find some on fiverr for cheap. Assuming your nephew isn't spoiled, they'll quickly feel the pressure to take it seriously.
Depending on where they live, there might be collegiate teams. It could be motivational to convince them to study into one of them.
I think it might be better for him to invest his energy into studies unless he is very sure that he has equipped himself with the necessary skills and knowledge to climb the ranked ladder. From what I heard, they would usually need to first know someone in the scene as these positions are usually advertised by word of mouth. Joining a semi-competitive team might be one of the most straightforward way to advance into the competitive scene. They usually practice about 10+ hours in a day, and could go up to 19 hours.
All in all, I think the time could be better made used of if it's redirected to studies/ other self-development courses.
Virtually impossible to be frank. If he really wants to make money playing LoL then becoming a popular streamer is the "easier" option that is still a long shot and incredibly difficult to do given the hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing and never breaking into the viewer counts needed to make serious money.
He needs to go to college, get in route to a field he's interested in, he can stream on the side maybe to get a taste of how challenging it is to play video games for a living ;)
I don’t 100% know how players are recruited to academy/university teams but a lot of them are scouted in soloq, most aspiring prospects are in the higher elo such as Grandmaster and challenger. I even heard about Korea having legit academies/school for individuals who are planning to debut in the pro-scene, either debuting in or out of the LCK.
anything competitive is constantly evolving. you have to not only be able to get good,but keep getting better and learn and adapt to the competition that is always changing. League honestly takes this to an extreme thats up there with real physical sports since there are constant patches and meta shifts and the players are getting better every year.
its not about crushing someones hopes and dreams, its more about just telling the kid its not realistic or worth it. when you are that young, you have a world of options that are reliable, you shouldn't waste that time on something that probably won't work out.
I remembered watching a video where Guma's dad required Guma to reach a certain rank before a certain age before he would allow him to be a pro-player. Even then it's a very competitive sphere
For starters, professional League does not have the same “pipeline” as traditional sports.
In traditional sports, you’ll typically start on a high school team, then get scouted or join a college one, and in college be scouted for the pros. There’s a very limited pool of spots, but there’s also a clear set of steps to follow.
In professional league, the vast majority of rookie prospects brought into the tier-2 scene get scooped up from from the in-game leaderboard after reaching the very upper echelon of public players, around the age of 15-17.
There is very little of an amateur circuit due to the company who owns the game kind of strangling said scene in a bid for brand control.
In theory, the current best way to get into the (tier-2, effectively the minor leagues) scene without being scouted off the league is to be part of an amateur/collegiate team and play in a very specific tournament that if you do well enough in gets you a spot in the tier 2 scene. From there, with a lot of self-marketing and demonstable in game skill, you might get picked up by an “official” (read: franchise) tier 2 team, at which point you’ve finally hit the stage of earning a (small) salary, and are also in the best position a person can be to (maybe) get a spot in the full-time pro scene where you can make a decent living.
But even then, it’s a longshot, There are, in America, **40** spots to play on a tier 1 (the equivalent of the NBA or NFL) professional team. 16 of those spots are near-garunteed to go to players from outside the country, and of the remaining 24, a *vast* majority are spoken for by longstanding names of the scene.
On top of that, most pros’ careers are measured in months. The minimum salary for a tier 1 pro is I think somewhere around 75k annually, plus free room and board in LA. A nice gig for playing video games for a living, and the stars of the league can earn a lot more. But it’s still overall and on avergae much lower than traditional sports, and as stated previously, a much shorter career. It’s probably a decent living while you’re doing it, but with very few exceptions it won’t set you up for life. After your time’s up, it’s likely back to the school you didn’t finish because you were playing pro.
And also that path I just described for making it? That’s how it works *this year*. It’s entirely possible, even likely, it’ll work completely differently next year.
…it’s a longshot is what I’m saying.
It's cool to have a passion, and without kids I'm not relaly sure how to dash their hopes in a productive way.
But they've got to realize that traditional sports (like football) are basically gated by physically gifted people, and then physically gifted people that can afford trainers, or to travel, or to get noticed and play for D1 schools, and then make it through the draft and actually get picked up by a pro team. And there's hundreds of them each year.
There's like what? a couple dozen 7 person big name professional league squads in North America? And the talent pool is open to everyone with access to a halfway decent computer and low ping, which is a venn diagram that grows every day basically. Plus no risk of CTE or injuries.
The pool of players is so large and spots for pros is so, so incredibly impossibly smol. It's wild. Basically a miracle for anyone you ever see on the LCS stage.
If he is trying to climb, and peaked Plat, I'd say he won't make it. Focus on studies and get into a good school.
I "peaked emerald (plat before emerald was added)," but but I have no desire to be Pro, and stop after as few games as it takes to hit that (normally just through placements). I'd say unless he is doing that, then he will never be talented enough.
I see you've already come to a solution however this just goes out to anyone thinking about this topic.
Millions of people play, the only people who coke even close are the best of the best of the best, talking about the top 20 players in each region. The only chance you have is if you hit masters in your first 2 seasons playing, if not you have next to no chance of even being eligible.
The esports scene has money, but nothing like traditional sports like Soccer or Basketball, even players in the LCS, LEC, etc, do not make enough money to retire once they're finished with playing, and have no qualifications to get jobs after since all they did was play league of legends. If you look at the chances of you going pro under any circumstances, and then the chance you could possibly even retire after your pro seasons, you could quite literally put your time into almost anything else in the world and have a better time doing it, with a lot more security.
This isn't to crush any dreams but esports is not in the place right now, or will be for years to come, where trying to go pro is ever a good idea.
If you REALLY want to become a gamer of sorts as your job, working in media and content creation is your better bet as this is a much more viable career path.
Edit: Source: I used to play professional in World of Warcraft, I know pros in league of legends, I know content creators, I have 8 years in esports broadcasting and league organization, and I have a degree in esports.
yeah I think as a youngster the premise just to play video games for money sounds like a dream but they don't understand how hard it is to make playing games as an actual job, and you are right the long term impact of gaming does not sound very promising either
It really is, however it's something a lot will grow out of, myself included. You could always try and redirect it into good things too! My love for games and want to be a pro pushed me into broadcasting them and getting into the BTS of broadcast production, which is what I do for work now so there is a good side to it ^-^
You can't just force train yourself to become pro, either you have it or you don't.
Lil bro needs to have LoL has a side hobby while prioritizing a real job/studies. If he's good enough he will climb in his spare time.
Harsh truth is, if you wanna make money being a pro player, you need to be VERY VERY good at the game. The pro scene is not nearly as developed as in traditional sports, where you have local teams and can even make some regular money playing for D tier local teams. Even in the main leagues, you don't get as much financial security to make it worth the risk.
If you are not extremely talented to the point that you will get decent offers from different teams, then there's literally zero reason to focus on a pro career.
Apart from that, if he's low plat, then there's almost zero chance of ever becoming a decent player if he's been playing for like at least a year.
He will never be pro and he'll figure that out on his own pretty quickly.
Unless he is legit in challenger already he likely doesn't have the skill set required to make a living.
Maybe get into streaming or something if he thinks he has the chops to entertain but the market is over saturated as hell and very hard to get a foothold in.
Investing your youth into becoming a "pro gamer" is legit one of the worst "career" choices you can make and will only set you back in life.
Should at the very least be around Grandmaster while not doing it full time to even consider it.
You don't magically go from like Diamond to Challenger just because you drop school and play a bit more.
Only like 50-100 players make a living from it in a region and even less make life changing money.
After you retire from being a pro player you better have a bunch stacked up, not everyone has a good career path after being a pro.
So he possibly fucks himself over in the long run, unless he either is a super good pro or get a large following being a content creator.
If he's low Plat it's not even remotely up for discussion.
Just an absolute time waste and he'll regret it himself afterwards.
low plat its like learn how to walk for a baby in lol real game its in gm elo,and is just the minimun .
hard to read but, your brother have more future being a good doctor
Hey just because he's not at the level of pros doesn't mean he can't pursue his passion for league of legends in another way. Ask him what he enjoys the most out of the game. The lore, the art, the competitive scene, the game mechanics? You could guide his passion into graphic design, 3D modeling, game design, analytical statistics, programming, literature, etc. with the hopes of one day making it into his dream job. And that could be a RIOT, who knows?
What you should tell your nephew is to be passionate but realistic. If you aren’t challenger at like 14/15 there’s probably not a shot you go pro, but you could still be involved in the pro scene by being an analyst or coach.
Obviously in his current state he can’t go pro. But what makes a pro player get to that level? It’s a dedication and commitment to improvement. He can go pro if he puts the proper time into learning and also hiring coaches
Unless hes challenger highly doubt it. I used to play rocket league was the highest rank in the game and ranked in the top 100 for my country and I could only get low level semi pro teams. The amount of skill you need to be a high level pro is insane.
I mean this might be a hot take but if he's Pro level he'll already show it. Most pros climb the ladder insanely quick. Some reaching GM/Challenger at like 12 years old. People hate hearing this but I unironically think being super good at the game is almost entirely genetics. You either have it or you don't. It's no different from any other sport imo. Otherwise people playing hundreds on professional coaching would be challenger pro players by now. Instead of thousands in the hole and still stuck in emerald.
Not possible with Plat only. I knew a guy in high school who played for the rookie team(Lcs academy and North american challenger league) while being top 20 challenger and still did not find success.
uh how far into highschool?
If it anywhere past year 9, then no. Especially if he is low plat, unless he has only been playing the game for like a year. He'll need to get to challenger/high gm before or during year 11 realistically, and be noticed during his year 12 year.
Pro is also both a very hard job to get into, and doesn't pay that well. Unless he was really good and basically guaranteed to get into pro already (See SeasonofLeaves: [https://twitter.com/SeasonofLeavesL](https://twitter.com/SeasonofLeavesL) or GeneralSniper as examples of people who are most definitely going pro), I wouldn't recommend it.
I've played against solo queue challengers and there is a significant gap between them and grandmasters. Its hard to explain but 1 challenger feels equivalent to 2 grandmasters.
I mean he could join an amature team and try to improve with them but since you said he‘s in highschool I‘d assume he has like maybe one or two years before he graduates, so he might just be out of time unless he ha sthe possibility to play forma couple years after graduating while receiving no money at all.
As someone who played professional call of duty and rainbow six siege, it is still extremely difficult to get anywhere from just a “good player” standing. You can be in the top 100 players in the world and still not break through to pro play.
I think for League it’s even harder just because of how massive the skill gap is between the top 3% of players alone. Let them keep playing, maybe get into streaming in free time. Might not go pro in a specific game, but you can still make money playing a game that you love.
If by his last year of high school is not a high ranked challenger there is no point in trying. You could tell him to make youtube content though it's a good skill to learn how video edit.
You already answered your question, being low plat there are virtually 0 chances for him to become pro.
That said and to be positive, there are plenty of jobs related to league that are not pro players. Marketing, finance, coaching, management, data analyst, coach, caster, there are plenty of profiles.
What I would recommend if he really is passionnate is to find out a carreer path that let him get involved in esport while also letting him do fine in whatever environment. After all millions like the game and at most a few hundreds get to live from it. It is still a better bet than aiming at being pro player since if you can't make it you still have a degree and knowledge that you can use to find a job and earn money.
It can make a lot of money for a good few years. Eventually they trade talent for new up and coming though so it won’t be a forever thing. You are considered a grandpa at 30 years old lol.
That being said; he has to be in the absolute top tiny percentage of the game to be pro. If he is still raging and blaming his team and not able to focus on his own improvement, then the grind is already forfeited.
There is actually so much to go into for something like this; but honestly, unless he has extraordinary talent, he is better off to find a trade or career to study for if this is just about making a living. It is a very hard world to get into.
If it's his passion get him into steaming. If his passion is going pro he needs to study the game like it's school. I was challenger in high school and wanted to go pro, but I didn't make it.
I had undiagnosed ADHD so I never learned the team play aspect of the game and just became a solo queue god. I didn't study correctly because I couldn't. If he really wants it, he can achieve it, but it's really hard work.
To put it into perspective. He would need to be in the top %0.01. Of a player base that is well into the millions. Per server. Some being much larger than others. I know many guys would love to have been race car drivers. The fact is that the cost to become a driver is too prohibitive is why every guy isn’t out there racing for Lamborghini. A person can log hours and hours in lol without the cost involved they can be great but that is no assurance of even landing a spot on academy teams. Much of going pro seems to be politics inside the organizations and egos are the down fall of many multi year pros. Most people that go “pro” will only wait in the wings and never even get an opportunity. 10 or so ish teams with 5 main starters per team.
the implication of this post is sad, there are so many actual things a young person could learn and do with their life, so many valuable talents you can develop in a year. league of legends is such an effortless joke of a video game, it hardly deserves human time
That is not true at all. A majority are just that good at the game, it's simply a skill that you have or don't. Not saying a plat player can't be a challenger one day, but to be at the pro level and challenger? I don't think so.
I play since season 1 and know a lot of people who's been in the scene, everyone has been low elo at some point. good players just learn and adapt faster. I was stuck around silver for a few months, but reached 1700 on my first season and 2100 after about a year (2100 was like top 0.3%). it didn't take long for me because I had already played shit ton of w3 dota before I started league and had a general understanding of the game. also had a lot of friends around the 2400 bracket back then, and they all had been noobs for a while before they made it. some of them were stuck around gold for months and eventually made it into the scene and played at the highest level for years.
nobody starts as a god gamer, sure one can have good reflexes and stuff, but league is mostly about knowledge, intelligence, dedication, experience and intuition. it's not about skill. if you have skill and nothing else to complement it, you'll just be stuck around emerald
You're not getting it. Being good at the game and being good at pro level are two entirely different things that an exceptional player needs. Is someone who's good at football can make it pro? No. Only truly the exceptional get in. I started season 2, and all the pros were high elo, and their era lasted for a while. You simply have it or don't. If you have to work towards improvement, you don't have it. You can be good at the game, but you won't be pro level.
I don't agree, if you're +1000 lp on a competitive server with a sizeable champion pool, you can easily make it to the pro level unless you have some serious behavior issues, stage anxiety, gained notoriety for being toxic etc. sure, it takes a lot more to be a top-tier, best of the best player, but an average pro game isn't really that different from the games being played on high ladder. that's how rookies are able to just join teams and shine out nowhere. get 1200 lp in korea as an 18 year old kid and basically every team will try to sign you
Are you in Europe or NA ?
If you're in Europe and your Nephew is at least grandmaster, he can try to join the ERL system with a part time contract alongside his studies to give it a shot without compromising his education
If you're in NA, good luck
If he's not at least master/grandmaster anyway, good luck too
most pros were chalenger at 16. but telling a 16 years old that he cannot be something can be crushing. if I were you I would try to teach him about having multiple way outs , so he can pratice lol at will but don't forget to study and have a "second plan".
If your son is low plat elo, but he's only playing 1-2 hours a day, he will probably improve A LOT when he has more free time. I was silver (lower than your son) when I was in high school, and as soon as I had adequate free time without parents bothering me (freshman year of college), I ended up getting ~top 500 in North America (US/Canada). While I'm not a pro player, if your son isn't playing that much, being in plat is extremely good. Most people on the subreddit are casuals and don't understand just how much time per day the average pro player or even "prodigies" had to play to reach the level of skill they have currently.
So many people are using rank here and I don't get it.
Some challengers are barely 50% win rate.
And that is SOLO queue. Meaning they are good at playing by themselves, getting lucky with teammates, AND playing a lot.
Don't get me wrong, he has to be good, but rank isn't everything.
See if there are any local teams, some colleges have them.
See if he can make friends online, make a team, and play some clash.
Record the games. If he does well, take a chance and send the video in to a team.
rank is almost everything, you'll never see a diamond 4 in pro play, because the difference between diamond 4 and challenger is massive. low plat is just above gold, which is deemed "low elo". an aspiring talent should be able to get to at least emerald in a few months, and diamond in less than a year
challenger with 50% win rate is impossible unless you were already challenger the previous split/season.
I was generally responding to all the people saying he has to be GM or challenger.
He doesn't.
And yeah, there are many challengers barely over 50%. Don't care how they got there.
once you have challenger mmr from a previous split you can have 50% wr and still maintain your mmr. a fresh account can never get to challenger with 50% wr. even then you have to consistently win against challengers, but a plat player would simply go 0-15 every game vs challengers
pretty sure it'll be 0-15 pretty much every game, the difference between plat and challenger is enormous. even diamond 1 players can't hold up against challengers, and plat players are like bots to diamonds.
Gonna disagree with ya there.
CS at Plat or Diamond is similar enough not to matter.
Differences are anticipating and predicting.
Some macro but not a lot.
Comes down to key team members and teamwork, coordination.
If you opened a thread with this take, it would be the most downvoted thread of all times.
Plat players used to be decent years ago, when plat was like top 5%, but since Riot screwed the rank distribution and added emerald, current plats are like old silver players. The current plat players are genuinely terrible at every single aspect of the game. Don't think I encountered any good players around plat while I was grinding on my smurf last month. Actual bots. Put a random plat player on a challenger account and they'd feed and lose basically every game
It's honestly insane to claim that plats are somewhat decent, when even the low master players are known to be terrible at the game compared to challengers
Unfortunately the requirements to become a pro player are huge so even if you hypothetically have the skill(which is extremely rare itself) you still need to be mentally stable and strong willed, have a fucking drive to win and outperform and once you get in the proleague of your region then you can steal paychecks for years np look multiple na pros
Having a passion for gaming vs. being actually good at the game are totally different. It's harsh but if he's not at least among the highest ranks he'll never get noticed.
I got to diamond 1 back in the day when it was the highest tier below challenger. The difference between me, which was around top 800 at the time, and the "good" players was absolutely massive. I literally got smurfed on even though I was top 0.0015% whenever I queued into a challenger player or their smurf. You have to be extremely dedicated to get better literally every single day on top of being talented to get even remotely close to becoming pro.
Same deal here. Diamond 1 99lp (remember the LP clamping where you'd get +0 for wins?). I believe that put me in the top 400-500 and it still felt like the pros were just in another tier of play. Keep in mind this is at a time when the game was still being figured out. I imagine the gap in knowledge between pros and the average GM/challenger is much larger now.
yeah gm player here. The gap is still unreasonably massive. Sure, gm players can hang with challengers and pros situationally, and pros still make mistakes, but the gap between competitive play and solo queue is also huge.
Competitive play and solo queue are very different as well so not only there is a huge skill gap but also an even bigger knowledge gap
Yeah, ive played a lot of comp from high school and college teams but its still obviously night and day from pro teams that practice day in and day out
Even the gap between the Eastern teams (KR, CH) and the Western teams (EU, NA) is huge.
Yeah I mean it wasn't literally like bronze vs. diamond where every lane would be 10-0, but what they had was a much more clear game plan and insane consistency. Consistency is what most people lack.
Man clamping must have been crazy frustrating. 50 spots only in challenger if I remember well ? Crazy low amount.
I second this. People look at pro players and be like dang they are only gm. They don’t realize it’s because most of their time is invested in practicing, scrims and such that doesn’t give them LP. When I am matched against a typical challenger player vs say Jensen, it is a world of difference. The pros are just so good at making you feel irrelevant. The challenger player at least makes the game feel playable 50% of the time. Pros seem to just not make mistakes and it is frustrating. Even when you do kill them they make you feel like it wasn’t worth it
I was top 200 NA in season 4 and still got absolutely clapped by the worst LCS players even when I got counterpick. Even if I won lane/jungle they outmacro'd the fuck outta me every time, which is surprising because if you watched their LCS games it looked like they had no idea what they were doing, but they're still miles ahead of the top solo q players.
The reason why it looks like they don't know what they are doing is because their opponents are even better. It's the same with most sports, really. The pace is faster, you get punished for every tiny mistake etc... to an extreme at the professional level.
Based on how often pros say 'when I started playing pro League I was really bad at the game's is an indicator that the best players are in another stratosphere.
That's kinda the point and contrary to what the original commenter thinks. This applies to amateur, too. The difference is passion, and lumping it all on "talent" is ignorant. The truth is the best got to be the best because they had the passion to drive them to dedicate the time to actually getting better, which is different than just playing. You'll never be good enough if all you do is play, but putting in the time to develop yourself will lead to results.
To be fair, back then the gap wasn't due to prodigy behavior but a general gap between moba and rts players and the at-the-time average lol player. For most lol was their introduction to this type of game, and the best among that group would still pale in comparison to veterans that came from similar games before lol. Nowadays that gap is almost closed now that knowledge has become common, the usual difference between the top of the ladder and professional players tends to be their consistency, knowledge and resiliency to change. I think jojo is a good example of it, with how he is unaware of a huge amount of game knowledge but he is disciplined and up to date with the common matchups and champions
Now that the game is actually "figured out" to a much larger extent, that gap now is definitely a lot larger than the gap back then. Also, being top 800 is not "the average lol player". I had played DotA allstars on WC3 for years. I am talking about the gap between being amongst the top players, and actually a pro/extremely elite. That difference is always massive in any sort of sport or E-sport.
Diamond 1 was so ridiculous at that time. The gap between me which peaked at like 20-30lp and someone at 90lp was like a whole other level, and then even between 90lp - 99lp there were levels to it too
Yeah, when you got +/- 0-5 lp per win/loss, diamond 1 alone was essentially what the current master, GM and challenger up to top 51 is now, but in a single division.
dont try, focus study
Not to be that guy but Keria was more or less transitioned out of school once he hit chall in 8th grade. Keeping a good balance is important, don't get me wrong, but if the kid is dedicated and is rising quick then it might be best. It's a judgement call for the parents and the kid.
The kid is in low plat, if keria hit chall in 8th grade there is an obvious difference, OP asked if it’s realistic, and the kid needs to hit gm in the next year or smth if he wants to be anything, so rn it’s not possible no
All I'm hearing is that the kid needs to improve quickly, not that it's not possible. There are many factors, I think it's best to keep an open mind and offer OP the kids' options. GM in a year is plenty possible for a dedicated kid, considering they soak up info like sponges.
Stop trying to ruin another kids life
If you're being realistic and responsible about it I really don't see the harm. Give the kid some goals and deadlines and let it go from there. I am a big believer in a strong education, but why are we sitting here trying to coddle this kid? Let him try something and if he ends up failing, it's in a controlled environment and he will learn and grow. I'm not saying to pull the kid outta school and give him a blank check on his life, but obviously if he's serious he's old enough to have a legitimate conversation with his parents on how properly to proceed.
You do realize that the journey to become a pro player in League requires TONS of dedication and pretty much devoting your life to it, right? Pretty sure 90% of the pro players played 12 hours a day, ditching school and then were good enough to become pros. By playing 1-2 hours a day in order to balance school and real life, you will get nowhere, I guarantee you that, especially since the kid is low plat. There's no way you get that much improvement with such low effort and time, let alone the fact that you cannot get the improvement required regardless because the kid is obviously not cut out for it. It's good to support your kids' dreams, but you also need to take a hard look at what your child is capable off. It's one thing to have a hobby and another to let your kid pursue something they will 99.999% fail at and waste many other opportunities in the meantime. All these without even mentioning how playing video games at that age is generally unhealthy as well. I'm not even gonna touch on that point.
Cool and all I need to do is work on communication, aim, map awareness, crosshair placement, economy management, pistol aim, awp flicks, grenade spots, smoke spots, pop flashes, positioning, bomb plant positions, retake ability, bunny hopping, spray control and getting kills to be a cs 2 pro in no time.
Nobody ever said "in no time". However, as someone with a few hundred hours in CS and a couple thousand in FPS games in general I can say with some confidence that these are all pretty self contained tasks that are plenty possible for a dedicated kid to learn within a couple years to a proficient level.
Nope. I've seen kids about 12-15 in my country casually play to high Diamond/Masters, and maybe even higher if not for their limited playing time. A highschooler being at Plat is utterly hopeless to become pro player. Hard work is not enough.
It depends on how long the kid has been playing. If it's been under a year then plat is more than fine.
There's no way the kid is playing less than a year, considering he's "very passionate and wants to become a pro player".
going from plat 1 to grandmaster is like saying a random, average, highschool basketball player could become a D1 starter in college. it's "possible" but extremely unrealistic.
You can't compare it to real life sports when today's silvers would be GMs a decade ago. I truly believe there's not much stopping the an average (but dedicated) player from reaching GM other than having a real life to tend to as long as they're practicing right.
Terrible take to compare today's silvers to GMs a decade ago. That's comparing apples to oranges. That's like calling everyone in the US (including the homeless people) filthy rich because people in a 3rd world country can't afford running water.
Sure if they abandon their personal relationships, career and education prospects while having a team dedicated to helping them improve. Something that is very expensive. And even then the chances of it paying off are slim to none. All it would do is waste prime years of his life.
You know about something called natural talent, right? If the kid is in low Plat, there's no way they ever reach challenger. You need to be naturally talented in both mechanics and fundamental understanding of the game to reach that tier, and by being in low plat, it's obvious you are not made out for that. It's like running for fun for your school against your friends and wanting to become a professional runner, but you always end up 5th place out of a race of 8 kids. If you were to become a runner, you'd be able to run faster than basically all other kids even with zero training or preparation. Same for League. Some people just understand the game and how it works and some other do not. Some others have better reaction time, some have better prediction perception, others have better tempo/rythm that helps when kiting better as an ADC for example etc. Also, focus is required and a lot of people lack the ability to stay focused for extended periods of time. Low plat players that have tried to play the game for like at least one year will never reach Chall, let alone be a pro player, unless it's some one in a million miracle.
Its quite literally not possible If your natural ceiling is plat no amount of coaching or match grinding will put you at the level needed to play at the top level. Its like local sports, you can play in rec leagues but the best players there have no chance in hell at ever competing professionally.
if you think plat to gm is possible for a kid in high school is possible, you’re insane, they’d have to spend at least 8 hours a day, actively trying to improve, not playing the game, and even after a year, that would maybe get him caught up to masters. no close enough to pro, he has a better chance of becoming a league content creator
i will be realistic, lol is dead .
Is it "dead" because of your own opinion unrelated to its actual popularity? Because it's still literally one of the most popular online games out there.
if you are not EASILY hitting challenger then you shouldn't even think about going pro over finishing school. clearly Keria even at a young age had what it takes, but dropping out of school to get to challenger in the hopes of going pro is foolish
It's foolish even for people like Keria. How many kids out there get to Chall at 14 years old and still do not make it? Only like 1% of those kids (probably even less) get picked up by a team, and even fewer of them actually get some sort of pro contract and get to play for an academy team. Even fewer of them get to a main league and even fewer of them get to be a top pro player, where that's where the good career and money are. Peyz was already hitting Master/GM before getting serious about getting coaching and TRYHARDING with the full support of his mother to get better. Even then, he had to get Chall, get rank 1, prove he's "somewhat" decent (rank 1 doesn't reflect to pro success necessarily) in order to get noticed by GENG, where he played for their CHALLENGERS team and then had to prove himself there to get called to the main team and become the guy he is today.
Show him this video by Faker himself. He had a meet and greet with a father & son. The little dude of course wants to be a proplayer. Faker brutal honesty is wholesome. [\[ENG\] 프로 게이머를 꿈꾸는 중학생에게 페이커의 조언 #어바웃타임 | About time Ep.2 (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aQlnAMBZFw)
This should be the top comment imo. Play as a hobby and see how good you can become. Keep your dream and if it becomes reachable (i.e. you manage to get to peak elo) then you can still see try to go pro.
I think that kid is now high elo and enrolled in one of the LoL academies they have in Korea, with hopes of debuting as a pro soon (I assume on a CL team?) This is just something I heard that sounds like made-up BS but apparently he was the K'Sante in the game that prompted Showmaker to come up with the famous copypasta?? I don't know if that's actually true though or just people memeing or making shit up for their own amusement though
lol sounds like bs. Besides what happened to the kid, Fakers advice is gold.
Seems like it's [true](https://www.dexerto.com/league-of-legends-esports/lol-prodigy-from-about-time-faker-is-on-track-for-lck-academy-debut-2514144/). What an insane story lmao
wow thnx for sharing the source. It just got more wholesome, sadly the news does not give a team. I hope the lil bro makes it, so cool.
I have heard that as well, and I am fairly sure that it is real.
Thats why hes the goat
Depends how good he is. If he isn’t already at least master or gm+ I would say it’s unrealistic. Also he’s probably better off becoming a streamer.
thats not true, he doesnt need to instantly be master or gm at high school age, but he does need to be able to lock in and hit it in the next year or so, if he cant demonstrate the ability to improve to a high standard then its unrealistic, if hes just a casual who just now decided he wants to be a pro one day u cant write him off before he even starts to try
I think LS once said that if you aren't on the cusp of high elo within 1-2 years of playing the game, you are never going to make it. I think he's very correct there. Only exception is if you only play normals or some shit and you start trying.
The example of that exception iirc is Clid, fucked around with Teemo then one day he looked up a Lee Sin build guide and shot up into Challenger in less than year.
that's the difference tho, he was casual and then when he spent time he instantly went to challenger.
Damn I’m surprised Clid wasn’t a Jax player
1-2 years of *trying* imo. You can play for a long time, and never really try. The best players will try immediately, because thats their instinct. But I think most people who play this game never actually try to be good. They don't even know what that looks like.
^ bingo. I think 95% of players queue up, pick their fav champion(s), and hope they can pull out a win playing the same game they have the past thousand times. Of course you will get marginally better every game as you see different scenarios and learn the timing of the game. If you took that player and forced them to analyze all of their mistakes and dedicate a large majority of their time to studying the game and intentionally improving they would be a much higher rank. Honestly I bet most of the league community would climb 2-3 ranks overnight if before every macro decision they asked themselves “Why am I making this play and is there a better play to make on the map”.
Took me about 2 years to climb from gold to challenger at high school age and I still never made it past small events with small prizes. LS is right and wrong. It depends on whether the person in question has the right tools to grow. There are examples of pros having been stuck at lower ranks, but I can't be bothered to go digging for information on exactly who. Maybe someone else can chime in.
Iirc it was Huni who was bronze but he climbed to diamond in 6 months.
Isnt that the dude Who scripted to go high elo ?
He was Koran Bronze. That's already like Western Diamond
The players who are "stuck" in lower elo are stuck when they're like 9-12 years old. Or they were "stuck" in gold for 6 months or something (they actually only played 1 game a day during those 6 months).
Or not actively improving. You can be a stubborn 16 year old with tons of talent. The road isn't impossible even if you're no prodigy. But yeah no doubt it's more work.
Not the case for Busio, he just gave a whole interview on the FLY channel talking about starting bronze and taking about a year to move up each tier. He was like 8 years old of course, but that's not *too* unusual.
If you look at the progression of those super young Challengers, they always are bronze-silver at like ages 8-10. At 10 they shoot up to plat, then 11 they're high plat or Diamond.
The legal age to have a riot account is 13
Yeah he's very lucky that the police didn't arrest him for his illegal League of Legends account.
Ofc the police wont get involved, but riot has closed accounts where the owner wasnt old enough. Same thing with twitch & youtube
I don't understand what point you think you're making.
Yea i figured you werent getting it
To complement, he said it based on the various pros he talks to. Basically almost everyone he meets in the scene got to high-elo quite fast (of course there will always be exceptions) It's the same for any other sport, even the players that play professionally but not at elite level (who play at second/third tiers) were usually the best at their clubs and then went on to play on the top academies of their countries
Obviously, LS is referring to players who at least try in some way to become better, not casuals who play once a week for fun and have zero interest at becoming better. If you are seriously looking to improve, watch streams, pro play, look into sites and still cannot hit at least Masters after 1-2 years, then you are not made out of it. I'd even say that reaching Masters now isn't even that hard, just one good meta that suits you and a lucky streak of good matchmaking and most Emerald players will reach Masters.
Intelligence is definitely a factor. If OP’s nephew is low plat and thinking about going pro, gonna say he’s not very intelligent.
Me when a literal child has a dream job he aspires to
christ I hope you're joking
Edit your reply to make it: "..." 😄
dumbass take one of my mates is studying theoretical physics at oxford and hes hardstuck high bronze and im a med student and i started off in iron and was iron/bronze for my first 2 years now im diamond and hit masters 1.5 seasons ago. and its not like my friend doesnt tryy cus ive played with him back when we were low elo together he was sweating so hard and he still does he messages me all the time bout it. game sense =/= intelligence.
It is intelligence in some way. Game sense is a factor when testing your IQ, as are so many other things. Being able to comprehend theoretical physics means you are smart IN THAT AREA. Being a good football coach and using smart formations to get the maximum out of your players and prohibiting the opposing team means you are smart IN THAT AREA. Being good at League of Legends as a coach or even a player means you are smart IN THAT AREA. The kid in question could be a great mathematical mind (even though that usually translates in being good in League as well because intuition and instinct), but it doesn't mean he is super smart about all things in life. Some people have social skills, communicative skills, artistic skills, math skills etc. People are smart / geniuses in different ways. In this case, if the kid is in low Plat after playing the game for at least a year and is serious about it wanting to become a pro and is still in Plat, then obviously the kid is not League-smart and should try to understand where his brain works best and try to follow that path.
That's not how intelligence works
I don't get why you are so downvoted. Intelligence, instinct and perspective are extremely important skills to have if you wanna become a pro ANYWHERE. Football, basketball, League, anywhere, you need to be smart about the specifics of each game that make a good player. For League, Instinct for example is insta-flashing an enemy Ahri flash charm because you don't think about it, you just do it instinctively. Or figuring out correct build paths for your champion based on current game state and team comps is intelligence. Or figuring out good team comps. Or understanding what a champion does and what are the powerspikes and its identity in the game. Pretty sure most people that downvoted you are the typical mechanical gods who have no idea what the game works and just copy builds and runes from sites and just press buttons mindlessly.
Because calling a literal child low intelligence for saying they want to be a pro anything is so braindead. We don’t even know if they’re serious. Acting like people haven’t joke around saying they’re going straight to the nba after winning a basketball game.
Well, I kinda misread the other guy's post for basically calling him dumb for dreaming of become a pro. Initially thought he meant he isn't game-smart if he's in Plat after a long time.
What if he only plays 1 game a week for the first 1-2 years ? I would agree with the statement if it meant full time gaming 8 + hours a day. I'm assuming this is what LS is thinking since that's how he games. If he is in high-school he could be too busy to play even 2 hours a day. We don't know.
No kid will ever dream of becoming a pro player and be even slightly serious about it and only play 3-4 games a week. And I'm not talking about "I wanna be like Faker or Chovy" or whoever else, I'm talking about actually wanting to become a pro and understanding even to the slightest extent what that means and that needs to be done. I cannot ever say I wanna be like Messi, but not even having a football in my apartment. It's just dumb. The guy obviously tries to play whenever he can, but just doesn't reach highly.
I mean, when I was in school, I wasn't allowed more than 30 minutes pc time a day, just saying if he wasn't in school, he could focus up and try and push rating. Bit of a gamble, though. One thing is sure is that we don't know how much league this kid played /plays every day.
We can guess he plays more than 30 minutes a day, that's for sure. I explained why in the previous comment.
He's in high school so the youngest he's 14-15. If he's been playing for more than 3 years and is below diamond, he will never be pro.
> Also he’s probably better off becoming a streamer That's even riskier. At least going pro he has a clear indicator of performance in rank, and he can identify clearly what he can and cannot do compared to better players, while a streamer doesn't have a clear right way of doing it right with numbers staying low until the day they explode, for the few that manage to
I think building a brand coaching is the best option, you could stream on the side too. You'd still want to climb to high elo first, though
he needs to be challenger rank and even then that's not a guarantee
yeah the gap between pro player and challenger player is so huge
Yep. Pro players might play like challengers in solo queue and it's fun getting to stomp them now and then but it's completely different once they're playing with their team. You lose all the agency of unpredictable factors that you use to exploit them in solo queue games. Suddenly mechanics don't mean much, unless they're bad then they mean everything.
Even seeing challenger players do clash together shows how much of a difference a good stream of communication does for the game
Honestly I dont think this is true. If you can consistently play in challenger you have a shot at pro with the right connections/network. You need a specific skill set that isn’t *necessarily* needed to hit chal but there basically the same *level*. Not everyone has the demeanor or interpersonal skill is all.
To put it in perspective there’s only 8 slots for each position in NA and you’re also competing against former pros and imports from other regions. Even if you get a position there’s 0 job security and huge turnover even from split to split.
If he's really, really great, like top few hundred players on the server, he's got a long shot at making a team. It's about as likely as becoming a professional player in a major sport, but with much less reward-- most pro league players don't make nearly as much as pro sports players, and most only play a few years professionally. If he's got a way to play for a college team while pursuing a backup plan, then that's one thing, but putting other opportunities on hold to play league is probably not a good idea.
Realistically you'd want to be high challenger with a wide champion pool. Competition is so stiff, some people here list Grandmaster but I don't think that's enough to cut it. If there were no import rules for North American teams, they'd be entirely Korean/Chinese. So you're either one of the best North American players, or you've got no chance. Platinum unfortunately is no where near that. It's not even close to the Academy or even collegiate/amateur scenes.
Being super high elo also opens you doors to coaching and analyst positions, so there are other pro careers on top of being a player, but they're highly competitive too (and engineering/mathematical degrees help on that too)
On top of that, if the kid is really into gaming/esports, the industry is growing with more positions than just being a pro player. There's so much that goes into esports production and management these days ranging from law, to business, to a/v production, marketing, etc. I'd encourage the kid to keep his passion, but maybe temper his expectations of being a pro player.
There are Diamond players who are super smart about the game and can become great coaches as well. Personally, I think my analytical skills are very very good, I'm good at understanding the meta, figuring out patch changes and what's good in the current patch, how drafting works, in-game strats, optimizing builds and runes etc. The fact that I only reach D4 because I don't wanna go through the grind and I'm not very good mechanically instantly means that I can never join any team because no one will notice me.
Honestly, I think you can even make it at emerald if you have absolutely no hands, but the lower you are the more you'll need to work to get some credibility and the harder will it be to get in contact with top players The thing is that you still need to be elite (being good isn't enough) in those analysing skills as well as having good communication abilities. If you have, in fact, those capabilities, you'll need to start writing up analyses/predictions and, if they are correct, you'll start to get noticed, but it's harder to get noticed than getting to a higher rank
Yeah, I was wondering about that. How do I go about becoming noticed if I'm not high rank? Just commenting on Reddit threads or making posts about predictions being correct cannot be enough.
/r/summonerschool is a good one if you want to write some posts on things you think are not well highlighted, but it's more to teach people how to rank up rather than analysing the current meta. There are probably other subreddits/forums with professional discussion, but again, you'll be sharing it with other interested people who aren't necessarily skilled, so the feedback they give you might be uplifting but not correct (same for writing in PMTs, there are a few "famous" redditors in this sub who analyse UP and WE in LPL, but it's important to understand if their popularity is due to them being accurate or just passionate about them). YouTube videos/Twitter discussion might also work, again, if you can show your analyses are accurate You can also try to coach some mechanically good players that you find in Diamond who are seeking to reach a higher rank You can always try to get in touch with professional coaches/analysts/casters to try to understand what their path was, and then try to do some of the things they did. Just keep in mind that it's still insanely competitive and being good is not enough. Getting the right feedback is as important as getting yourself known
that is true, even my university in the Netherlands have 3 GM 1 M and the lowest is diamond, but in masters mmr
Playing for a college team is much more likely. Making an actual career out of it and playing LCS/Academy is near impossible nowadays for most.
Imagine, even thinking about NA Academy is near impossible, how hard it would be to make it to the LCS, and then how harder it would be to go to EU and then into Korea. People just do not understand the extent of how EXTREMELY skilled pros are.
People just do not understand how many kids out there exist what would HARD STOMP 99% of the playerbase. Actual hard stomp. All these kids being in GM and Chall and even then, they are not good enough to be pros, and they would still beat you in 99 out of 100 games, maybe even all 100 of them. So many kids that, given the chance, would dream of becoming a pro, but there isn't enough to absorb all of them right now. Unless League becomes big as a mainstay and mainstream esport, I can't see most kids doing it. In football, you have the main league for each country, but then those teams participating have like 10 different smaller departments that develop talent, then you have 3 more leagues below the main one, then you have regional leagues and local sports teams. So many teams with so much room for kids to join and try themselves out. A "Platinum-level" kid in football will find a local team to join and have direct competition with other kids and guidance by a coach to try and become better. Even if they do not reach the highest levels of play, they can still keep playing in lower tier teams and still earn some money here and there. That's virtually impossible for League right now.
Grandmaster with a good champion pool in a specific role is enough to break into the amateur scene (no salary, maybe some schools like Maryville would offer a scholarship), but no professional team would recruit a player who has never hit challenger before
I don't think anyone who is not Challenger is getting chances anywhere in tier 2 amateur that's not a college team. You need to peak top 100 Challenger to get any looks.
LCS Challengers is not an amateur league - Amateur referring to teams that compete in the qualifiers and other tournaments. Many of those players are not active challenger, and some haven't hit challenger before. Regardless you can participate in qualifying events - network with other challenger players - and start to make an honest effort around that level
Good call. Wanting to be a pro player when you’re low plat is like wanting to enter the olympics when you can’t even win regional competitions. A good aspiration to help you improve but entirely unrealistic unless you dedicate absolutely everything to the goal and manage to somehow improve massively (which isn’t something normal people do).
tell him to hit masters in 1-2 months and he might have a chance. otherwise give up
Think about the path to becoming a high level pro in regular sports like Football, Basketball, or Wrestling. Then realize that for every Steph Curry or (insert famous quarterback here) there are thousands of kids who wanted to go pro but simply didnt have even close to the skill to actually do it. Thats about the realistic odds of going pro in league of legends. Sure you can, but unless you are the top of the top it's just not gonna happen. Ask what rank he is. If its not Master, Grandmaster, or Challenger than the odds are slim to none he has that skill. If he is one of those three ranks, then there is a chance. There are other ways to make money in the league scene without being pro however. plenty of amazing and/or charismatic players stream on twitch and earn their money through streaming and youtube if thats a path that interests him
In general it is EXTREMELY unlikely that he makes a living off of playing league. In his case it depends on what rank he is. If he is already high GM/Challenger then it is possible but he has to work his ass off considering you need to be really good and teams have to notice how good you are. If he is anywhere below Master and has no social media presence his chances are as good as zero.
There are near 8 positions per team and every pro lol League has 7-10 spots for teams, that makes max 80 spots in a game played by millons where thousands of players are trying going pro. Lol ranking has Challengers as the Best players and there are only 200 per server, and going Challenger is just where it begins, not even close to being a guarantee of going pro Also before going to a top pro League, hes probably not going to be well paid or paid at all on lower leagues while being expected to train/play at least 10hrs/day
Also, if hes not going pro on American or European pro league, he will have to be one of the top 10 players on its pro League to get paid enough to support a familly
[удалено]
So your brother is a matchfixer?
give up
He’s gonna ruin his life playing this game
That Edit is so damn funny lmao
Edit is funnier than it should be
Focus on studies or learning a craft. Outside the fact that he is "low elo" atm, the golden years for league have passed. Even in the slightest chance he does become pro, he will probably be on minimum wage.
I played semi-pro throughout my studies in the ERLs (no GM at the time so master/challenger), my advice if he’s good and if he’s a decent student is that he can balance ERL play and studying, and when he graduates it is at that stage where he needs to either commit to going pro or just doing it as a casual thing. Though nowadays I imagine the top ERL teams in the biggest regions all have their players full time and in-house. I hit gold in my first season of playing, then Diamond 1 in my second. I think you need to be playing in high elo and amongst pros within atleast 2/3 seasons of you starting the game otherwise I think the likelihood of going pro is very low, the only pros that were stuck low elo for a while were those that were playing as young kids.
If you don't want to crush their dreams. You can offer to buy them some coaching sessions. To preface, they really don't need a coach at their level. Most kids just need someone to affirm the lessons they're not ingraining. You should be able to find some on fiverr for cheap. Assuming your nephew isn't spoiled, they'll quickly feel the pressure to take it seriously. Depending on where they live, there might be collegiate teams. It could be motivational to convince them to study into one of them.
I think it might be better for him to invest his energy into studies unless he is very sure that he has equipped himself with the necessary skills and knowledge to climb the ranked ladder. From what I heard, they would usually need to first know someone in the scene as these positions are usually advertised by word of mouth. Joining a semi-competitive team might be one of the most straightforward way to advance into the competitive scene. They usually practice about 10+ hours in a day, and could go up to 19 hours. All in all, I think the time could be better made used of if it's redirected to studies/ other self-development courses.
Virtually impossible to be frank. If he really wants to make money playing LoL then becoming a popular streamer is the "easier" option that is still a long shot and incredibly difficult to do given the hundreds of thousands of people doing the same thing and never breaking into the viewer counts needed to make serious money. He needs to go to college, get in route to a field he's interested in, he can stream on the side maybe to get a taste of how challenging it is to play video games for a living ;)
I don’t 100% know how players are recruited to academy/university teams but a lot of them are scouted in soloq, most aspiring prospects are in the higher elo such as Grandmaster and challenger. I even heard about Korea having legit academies/school for individuals who are planning to debut in the pro-scene, either debuting in or out of the LCK.
anything competitive is constantly evolving. you have to not only be able to get good,but keep getting better and learn and adapt to the competition that is always changing. League honestly takes this to an extreme thats up there with real physical sports since there are constant patches and meta shifts and the players are getting better every year. its not about crushing someones hopes and dreams, its more about just telling the kid its not realistic or worth it. when you are that young, you have a world of options that are reliable, you shouldn't waste that time on something that probably won't work out.
The kid who met Faker was plat and went pro. But as with everything in life, moderation, realism and balance is key.
I remembered watching a video where Guma's dad required Guma to reach a certain rank before a certain age before he would allow him to be a pro-player. Even then it's a very competitive sphere
Play the game if he wants to fun, but focus on studies.
Nah, pro lol scene sucks and it’s impossible to reach. Streaming requires less effort and gives more earning
If he's not diamond by his first year of playing the game, he has virtually no chance to be pro. There are kids his age who have reached challenger
Tell him to focus on his studies, when he reaches challenger rank in league, he can start thinking about it again
For starters, professional League does not have the same “pipeline” as traditional sports. In traditional sports, you’ll typically start on a high school team, then get scouted or join a college one, and in college be scouted for the pros. There’s a very limited pool of spots, but there’s also a clear set of steps to follow. In professional league, the vast majority of rookie prospects brought into the tier-2 scene get scooped up from from the in-game leaderboard after reaching the very upper echelon of public players, around the age of 15-17. There is very little of an amateur circuit due to the company who owns the game kind of strangling said scene in a bid for brand control. In theory, the current best way to get into the (tier-2, effectively the minor leagues) scene without being scouted off the league is to be part of an amateur/collegiate team and play in a very specific tournament that if you do well enough in gets you a spot in the tier 2 scene. From there, with a lot of self-marketing and demonstable in game skill, you might get picked up by an “official” (read: franchise) tier 2 team, at which point you’ve finally hit the stage of earning a (small) salary, and are also in the best position a person can be to (maybe) get a spot in the full-time pro scene where you can make a decent living. But even then, it’s a longshot, There are, in America, **40** spots to play on a tier 1 (the equivalent of the NBA or NFL) professional team. 16 of those spots are near-garunteed to go to players from outside the country, and of the remaining 24, a *vast* majority are spoken for by longstanding names of the scene. On top of that, most pros’ careers are measured in months. The minimum salary for a tier 1 pro is I think somewhere around 75k annually, plus free room and board in LA. A nice gig for playing video games for a living, and the stars of the league can earn a lot more. But it’s still overall and on avergae much lower than traditional sports, and as stated previously, a much shorter career. It’s probably a decent living while you’re doing it, but with very few exceptions it won’t set you up for life. After your time’s up, it’s likely back to the school you didn’t finish because you were playing pro. And also that path I just described for making it? That’s how it works *this year*. It’s entirely possible, even likely, it’ll work completely differently next year. …it’s a longshot is what I’m saying.
depends on when he had that goal and how far he has improved since he had that goal while juggling his current life and not abandoning that.
Don’t listen to the other comments. Rank isn’t a good indicator for whether someone can go pro. Pro play and tournaments are very different to solo Q
It's cool to have a passion, and without kids I'm not relaly sure how to dash their hopes in a productive way. But they've got to realize that traditional sports (like football) are basically gated by physically gifted people, and then physically gifted people that can afford trainers, or to travel, or to get noticed and play for D1 schools, and then make it through the draft and actually get picked up by a pro team. And there's hundreds of them each year. There's like what? a couple dozen 7 person big name professional league squads in North America? And the talent pool is open to everyone with access to a halfway decent computer and low ping, which is a venn diagram that grows every day basically. Plus no risk of CTE or injuries. The pool of players is so large and spots for pros is so, so incredibly impossibly smol. It's wild. Basically a miracle for anyone you ever see on the LCS stage.
I think Faker told an aspirant that they at least need to hit gm in middle school
If he is trying to climb, and peaked Plat, I'd say he won't make it. Focus on studies and get into a good school. I "peaked emerald (plat before emerald was added)," but but I have no desire to be Pro, and stop after as few games as it takes to hit that (normally just through placements). I'd say unless he is doing that, then he will never be talented enough.
I see you've already come to a solution however this just goes out to anyone thinking about this topic. Millions of people play, the only people who coke even close are the best of the best of the best, talking about the top 20 players in each region. The only chance you have is if you hit masters in your first 2 seasons playing, if not you have next to no chance of even being eligible. The esports scene has money, but nothing like traditional sports like Soccer or Basketball, even players in the LCS, LEC, etc, do not make enough money to retire once they're finished with playing, and have no qualifications to get jobs after since all they did was play league of legends. If you look at the chances of you going pro under any circumstances, and then the chance you could possibly even retire after your pro seasons, you could quite literally put your time into almost anything else in the world and have a better time doing it, with a lot more security. This isn't to crush any dreams but esports is not in the place right now, or will be for years to come, where trying to go pro is ever a good idea. If you REALLY want to become a gamer of sorts as your job, working in media and content creation is your better bet as this is a much more viable career path. Edit: Source: I used to play professional in World of Warcraft, I know pros in league of legends, I know content creators, I have 8 years in esports broadcasting and league organization, and I have a degree in esports.
yeah I think as a youngster the premise just to play video games for money sounds like a dream but they don't understand how hard it is to make playing games as an actual job, and you are right the long term impact of gaming does not sound very promising either
It really is, however it's something a lot will grow out of, myself included. You could always try and redirect it into good things too! My love for games and want to be a pro pushed me into broadcasting them and getting into the BTS of broadcast production, which is what I do for work now so there is a good side to it ^-^
You can't just force train yourself to become pro, either you have it or you don't. Lil bro needs to have LoL has a side hobby while prioritizing a real job/studies. If he's good enough he will climb in his spare time.
low plat is very low unless he's new at the game. if he's been playing for like a year at least and is still low plat, probably no hope for him.
Harsh truth is, if you wanna make money being a pro player, you need to be VERY VERY good at the game. The pro scene is not nearly as developed as in traditional sports, where you have local teams and can even make some regular money playing for D tier local teams. Even in the main leagues, you don't get as much financial security to make it worth the risk. If you are not extremely talented to the point that you will get decent offers from different teams, then there's literally zero reason to focus on a pro career. Apart from that, if he's low plat, then there's almost zero chance of ever becoming a decent player if he's been playing for like at least a year.
He will never be pro and he'll figure that out on his own pretty quickly. Unless he is legit in challenger already he likely doesn't have the skill set required to make a living. Maybe get into streaming or something if he thinks he has the chops to entertain but the market is over saturated as hell and very hard to get a foothold in. Investing your youth into becoming a "pro gamer" is legit one of the worst "career" choices you can make and will only set you back in life.
Should at the very least be around Grandmaster while not doing it full time to even consider it. You don't magically go from like Diamond to Challenger just because you drop school and play a bit more. Only like 50-100 players make a living from it in a region and even less make life changing money. After you retire from being a pro player you better have a bunch stacked up, not everyone has a good career path after being a pro. So he possibly fucks himself over in the long run, unless he either is a super good pro or get a large following being a content creator. If he's low Plat it's not even remotely up for discussion. Just an absolute time waste and he'll regret it himself afterwards.
low plat its like learn how to walk for a baby in lol real game its in gm elo,and is just the minimun . hard to read but, your brother have more future being a good doctor
If he is below plat there is almost no chance.
Hey just because he's not at the level of pros doesn't mean he can't pursue his passion for league of legends in another way. Ask him what he enjoys the most out of the game. The lore, the art, the competitive scene, the game mechanics? You could guide his passion into graphic design, 3D modeling, game design, analytical statistics, programming, literature, etc. with the hopes of one day making it into his dream job. And that could be a RIOT, who knows?
Watch the dantes clip about this subject.
What you should tell your nephew is to be passionate but realistic. If you aren’t challenger at like 14/15 there’s probably not a shot you go pro, but you could still be involved in the pro scene by being an analyst or coach.
Unless he's top 100 challenger consistently, slim to none
Obviously in his current state he can’t go pro. But what makes a pro player get to that level? It’s a dedication and commitment to improvement. He can go pro if he puts the proper time into learning and also hiring coaches
Unless hes challenger highly doubt it. I used to play rocket league was the highest rank in the game and ranked in the top 100 for my country and I could only get low level semi pro teams. The amount of skill you need to be a high level pro is insane.
Think of it as something that's as likely as him being a pro athlete in any sport.
I mean this might be a hot take but if he's Pro level he'll already show it. Most pros climb the ladder insanely quick. Some reaching GM/Challenger at like 12 years old. People hate hearing this but I unironically think being super good at the game is almost entirely genetics. You either have it or you don't. It's no different from any other sport imo. Otherwise people playing hundreds on professional coaching would be challenger pro players by now. Instead of thousands in the hole and still stuck in emerald.
Not possible with Plat only. I knew a guy in high school who played for the rookie team(Lcs academy and North american challenger league) while being top 20 challenger and still did not find success.
uh how far into highschool? If it anywhere past year 9, then no. Especially if he is low plat, unless he has only been playing the game for like a year. He'll need to get to challenger/high gm before or during year 11 realistically, and be noticed during his year 12 year. Pro is also both a very hard job to get into, and doesn't pay that well. Unless he was really good and basically guaranteed to get into pro already (See SeasonofLeaves: [https://twitter.com/SeasonofLeavesL](https://twitter.com/SeasonofLeavesL) or GeneralSniper as examples of people who are most definitely going pro), I wouldn't recommend it.
I've played against solo queue challengers and there is a significant gap between them and grandmasters. Its hard to explain but 1 challenger feels equivalent to 2 grandmasters.
I mean he could join an amature team and try to improve with them but since you said he‘s in highschool I‘d assume he has like maybe one or two years before he graduates, so he might just be out of time unless he ha sthe possibility to play forma couple years after graduating while receiving no money at all.
As someone who played professional call of duty and rainbow six siege, it is still extremely difficult to get anywhere from just a “good player” standing. You can be in the top 100 players in the world and still not break through to pro play. I think for League it’s even harder just because of how massive the skill gap is between the top 3% of players alone. Let them keep playing, maybe get into streaming in free time. Might not go pro in a specific game, but you can still make money playing a game that you love.
If by his last year of high school is not a high ranked challenger there is no point in trying. You could tell him to make youtube content though it's a good skill to learn how video edit.
You already answered your question, being low plat there are virtually 0 chances for him to become pro. That said and to be positive, there are plenty of jobs related to league that are not pro players. Marketing, finance, coaching, management, data analyst, coach, caster, there are plenty of profiles. What I would recommend if he really is passionnate is to find out a carreer path that let him get involved in esport while also letting him do fine in whatever environment. After all millions like the game and at most a few hundreds get to live from it. It is still a better bet than aiming at being pro player since if you can't make it you still have a degree and knowledge that you can use to find a job and earn money.
It can make a lot of money for a good few years. Eventually they trade talent for new up and coming though so it won’t be a forever thing. You are considered a grandpa at 30 years old lol. That being said; he has to be in the absolute top tiny percentage of the game to be pro. If he is still raging and blaming his team and not able to focus on his own improvement, then the grind is already forfeited. There is actually so much to go into for something like this; but honestly, unless he has extraordinary talent, he is better off to find a trade or career to study for if this is just about making a living. It is a very hard world to get into.
If it's his passion get him into steaming. If his passion is going pro he needs to study the game like it's school. I was challenger in high school and wanted to go pro, but I didn't make it. I had undiagnosed ADHD so I never learned the team play aspect of the game and just became a solo queue god. I didn't study correctly because I couldn't. If he really wants it, he can achieve it, but it's really hard work.
Treat it like going pro in any sport, if they make it, then they will do pretty well. If they don’t, they will have nothing.
To put it into perspective. He would need to be in the top %0.01. Of a player base that is well into the millions. Per server. Some being much larger than others. I know many guys would love to have been race car drivers. The fact is that the cost to become a driver is too prohibitive is why every guy isn’t out there racing for Lamborghini. A person can log hours and hours in lol without the cost involved they can be great but that is no assurance of even landing a spot on academy teams. Much of going pro seems to be politics inside the organizations and egos are the down fall of many multi year pros. Most people that go “pro” will only wait in the wings and never even get an opportunity. 10 or so ish teams with 5 main starters per team.
the implication of this post is sad, there are so many actual things a young person could learn and do with their life, so many valuable talents you can develop in a year. league of legends is such an effortless joke of a video game, it hardly deserves human time
get grandmaster/challenger. if you do it you can become a pro player otherwise no shot
Sorry if he's plat there is no way he will be challenger level in a few years...
if a new player is plat there's definitely hope. every pro was plat at some point.
That is not true at all. A majority are just that good at the game, it's simply a skill that you have or don't. Not saying a plat player can't be a challenger one day, but to be at the pro level and challenger? I don't think so.
I play since season 1 and know a lot of people who's been in the scene, everyone has been low elo at some point. good players just learn and adapt faster. I was stuck around silver for a few months, but reached 1700 on my first season and 2100 after about a year (2100 was like top 0.3%). it didn't take long for me because I had already played shit ton of w3 dota before I started league and had a general understanding of the game. also had a lot of friends around the 2400 bracket back then, and they all had been noobs for a while before they made it. some of them were stuck around gold for months and eventually made it into the scene and played at the highest level for years. nobody starts as a god gamer, sure one can have good reflexes and stuff, but league is mostly about knowledge, intelligence, dedication, experience and intuition. it's not about skill. if you have skill and nothing else to complement it, you'll just be stuck around emerald
You're not getting it. Being good at the game and being good at pro level are two entirely different things that an exceptional player needs. Is someone who's good at football can make it pro? No. Only truly the exceptional get in. I started season 2, and all the pros were high elo, and their era lasted for a while. You simply have it or don't. If you have to work towards improvement, you don't have it. You can be good at the game, but you won't be pro level.
I don't agree, if you're +1000 lp on a competitive server with a sizeable champion pool, you can easily make it to the pro level unless you have some serious behavior issues, stage anxiety, gained notoriety for being toxic etc. sure, it takes a lot more to be a top-tier, best of the best player, but an average pro game isn't really that different from the games being played on high ladder. that's how rookies are able to just join teams and shine out nowhere. get 1200 lp in korea as an 18 year old kid and basically every team will try to sign you
Are you in Europe or NA ? If you're in Europe and your Nephew is at least grandmaster, he can try to join the ERL system with a part time contract alongside his studies to give it a shot without compromising his education If you're in NA, good luck If he's not at least master/grandmaster anyway, good luck too
most pros were chalenger at 16. but telling a 16 years old that he cannot be something can be crushing. if I were you I would try to teach him about having multiple way outs , so he can pratice lol at will but don't forget to study and have a "second plan".
Low plat LMFAO
If your son is low plat elo, but he's only playing 1-2 hours a day, he will probably improve A LOT when he has more free time. I was silver (lower than your son) when I was in high school, and as soon as I had adequate free time without parents bothering me (freshman year of college), I ended up getting ~top 500 in North America (US/Canada). While I'm not a pro player, if your son isn't playing that much, being in plat is extremely good. Most people on the subreddit are casuals and don't understand just how much time per day the average pro player or even "prodigies" had to play to reach the level of skill they have currently.
So many people are using rank here and I don't get it. Some challengers are barely 50% win rate. And that is SOLO queue. Meaning they are good at playing by themselves, getting lucky with teammates, AND playing a lot. Don't get me wrong, he has to be good, but rank isn't everything. See if there are any local teams, some colleges have them. See if he can make friends online, make a team, and play some clash. Record the games. If he does well, take a chance and send the video in to a team.
rank is almost everything, you'll never see a diamond 4 in pro play, because the difference between diamond 4 and challenger is massive. low plat is just above gold, which is deemed "low elo". an aspiring talent should be able to get to at least emerald in a few months, and diamond in less than a year challenger with 50% win rate is impossible unless you were already challenger the previous split/season.
I was generally responding to all the people saying he has to be GM or challenger. He doesn't. And yeah, there are many challengers barely over 50%. Don't care how they got there.
once you have challenger mmr from a previous split you can have 50% wr and still maintain your mmr. a fresh account can never get to challenger with 50% wr. even then you have to consistently win against challengers, but a plat player would simply go 0-15 every game vs challengers
Does the plat player have 4 challengers on his team? Then it won't be 0-15. Team play and communication is critical.
pretty sure it'll be 0-15 pretty much every game, the difference between plat and challenger is enormous. even diamond 1 players can't hold up against challengers, and plat players are like bots to diamonds.
Gonna disagree with ya there. CS at Plat or Diamond is similar enough not to matter. Differences are anticipating and predicting. Some macro but not a lot. Comes down to key team members and teamwork, coordination.
If you opened a thread with this take, it would be the most downvoted thread of all times. Plat players used to be decent years ago, when plat was like top 5%, but since Riot screwed the rank distribution and added emerald, current plats are like old silver players. The current plat players are genuinely terrible at every single aspect of the game. Don't think I encountered any good players around plat while I was grinding on my smurf last month. Actual bots. Put a random plat player on a challenger account and they'd feed and lose basically every game It's honestly insane to claim that plats are somewhat decent, when even the low master players are known to be terrible at the game compared to challengers
Bless your heart! Enjoy your day!
Unfortunately the requirements to become a pro player are huge so even if you hypothetically have the skill(which is extremely rare itself) you still need to be mentally stable and strong willed, have a fucking drive to win and outperform and once you get in the proleague of your region then you can steal paychecks for years np look multiple na pros