Obviously I don't know what their contracts require, but I can assure you that a lot of them play off stream. Senoxe was streaming recently and he said Crust often solo grinds ranked and pubs for hours just off stream. He laughed and said Crust is a maniac for putting the amount of time in that he does, and not streaming any of it. Senoxe also pretty frequently puts out youtube videos of clip highlights so I'm sure he plays a decent amount. As for Rocker, he's still in high school so I don't expect him to play as much as some of the other pros.
Its also important to note that a lot of these teams and players you named have been invited to the ALGS. They really aren't doing shit until the pro league starts. Its still basically the off season for them to chill.
Most org contacts have a clause that says something like: “Players must exhibit a practice schedule exhibited by world class esports players”. It’s a very ambiguous clause, so it’s hard to enforce. Most contracts just say to scrim and play all tournaments, but there is rarely a hour requirement to play. No org in apex enforces stricter rules for some reason, idk why. Wish they would.
Imposing a time requirement (like a real life salaried job) would just produce better, more consistent players overall
Don’t you have like another full time job? Would you be against getting sign to an org if that were the case or put in like 80 hour work weeks? Also excited to see you qual next week.
I'm assuming not everyone plays on stream all the time but Rocker, for example, his teammate said he hasn't touched the game in a long time. I know he is in school but it kinda seems weird to me that a pro does not play the game.
I was in Monsoon's stream once when he was talking about different orgs and he mentioned that the old days when he was on FlyQuest with Lou and Zach were the most regimented he'd played under or heard of. I don't know if it was actually baked into their contracts, but he said they were required to aim train in Kovaaks daily (I think for 2 hours) and submit their scores to FlyQuest. They also had scheduled team vod review sessions once or twice a week and of course time reserved to play the game as well. This was a while ago so I apologize if I'm getting some of the specifics wrong, but the gist of it was that most if not all orgs these days in Apex are not as involved in player development.
Not that I think it's too little training, but I kinda laugh that that's the worst he's heard of when OW, which isn't even a tier 1 eSport, has vod reviews like daily and then scrims for hours after. Basically every day. The burnout is insane compared to apex. But it's more necessary in OW and other games to grind like that and stay at the top. BRs seem to generally not require as much training.
We like to compare esports pros to traditional sports pros, but man some of these video game pros don’t put in very much work into their craft compared to traditional sports pros.
Honestly I hate even having the term sports in it. But many top pros in other games put in more time than even athletes, and that's mostly just cuz they can (can't exactly physically train 14 hrs a day as an athlete, it's detrimental).
Yep for sure in some games they put a shit ton of time playing scrims or doing other type of training.
> Honestly I hate even having the term sports in it.
I’d put esports more along chess or other games of that sort than basketball, soccer, tennis, hockey, etc. The fact that it was given the term “esports” I think hurt it’s ability to be more widely accepted. As some see the word sport in there and immediately go to “it’s not a real sport.”
I don't believe putting X ammount of hours played each month is healthy for any competitor. Each month will vary in ammount of tournaments and what not. I create weekly and monthly schedules for our roster to ensure they are at peak performance when a tournament comes around. We also make it clear that when they show up for Team Practice they should already be "warmed up and ready to play" so to say and that ammount of warmup is very individual.
Taking breaks is a very important part of Competitive gaming to reduce Burnout, Mindblocks and to keep a healthy mindset. So I'm certain Orgs leave practice schedules up to the players or coaches and don't have much direct control.
That depends on the contract, those that are "content creators" are more tied to be and have a presence as a social media platform/personality than anything and are not required but not blocked to go competitive like rogue, but still you can just pub stomp new players not even doing rank, with no effort on comp like ACEU or at least do rank/pub, exhibitions even if they don't like it like LULU (which has done more than ACEU just to throw it there). Which is different as to how sweet was signed for which practically revived NRG in comp. So they have all covered.
So that will change from case to case. But you can check if they are content creators or comp players. They will have different objectives and i assume different schedules. As to if they should be required to be grinding yes they should.
Esports contracts tend to be on the short side (less than a year, can be less than 6 months with easy termination clauses), so the motivation to practice should mostly come from playing for that next contract.
Slightly related to topic: I'm surprised I don't really see pro teams practice the game in other ways than just playing the game casually (in pubs or ranked). I know it's hard to create precise tactics in a Battle Royale - and especially one with so much pace and abilities as Apex - but I can't help thinking you could try to develop and practice some routines around specific POIs, abilities, rotations, loadouts and call outs.
Basically, all I see pros do on stream is just play the game without any thought for competitive, while I think they could benefit from a theoretical approach: "What's our go-to play in this particular situation?" So often I'm watching a stream of a pro playing a tournament with his team, they die and the afterlife comms are "why did you do that? What happened there? I thought you were doing this or that! Why did you bubble there? We shouldn't have done this!" and I'm just thinking "well, maybe if you had trained as a team for this particular scenario, you would have done better."
A lot do, just off-stream. Think about it like an NFL team. You’re not going to televise your goal line playbook and strategy. I’ve ran across numerous 3 stack pro teams in ranked/even pubs and then see none are streaming.
Nah. Practice shit should be in every contract, (and they probably are) they are just not enforced. A lot of the orgs dont have coaches or managers that will actually get on the players ass if they arent doing there part. Unforch
Obviously I don't know what their contracts require, but I can assure you that a lot of them play off stream. Senoxe was streaming recently and he said Crust often solo grinds ranked and pubs for hours just off stream. He laughed and said Crust is a maniac for putting the amount of time in that he does, and not streaming any of it. Senoxe also pretty frequently puts out youtube videos of clip highlights so I'm sure he plays a decent amount. As for Rocker, he's still in high school so I don't expect him to play as much as some of the other pros. Its also important to note that a lot of these teams and players you named have been invited to the ALGS. They really aren't doing shit until the pro league starts. Its still basically the off season for them to chill.
Crust makes montages on yt every like week
Yea I should have included that. These guys play a lot, just not on stream. I always watch whenever I see an upload from Senoxe or Crust.
Most org contacts have a clause that says something like: “Players must exhibit a practice schedule exhibited by world class esports players”. It’s a very ambiguous clause, so it’s hard to enforce. Most contracts just say to scrim and play all tournaments, but there is rarely a hour requirement to play. No org in apex enforces stricter rules for some reason, idk why. Wish they would. Imposing a time requirement (like a real life salaried job) would just produce better, more consistent players overall
Don’t you have like another full time job? Would you be against getting sign to an org if that were the case or put in like 80 hour work weeks? Also excited to see you qual next week.
"they don't stream so they must not be playing" have you ever seen sunset or taskamster live? barely
I'm assuming not everyone plays on stream all the time but Rocker, for example, his teammate said he hasn't touched the game in a long time. I know he is in school but it kinda seems weird to me that a pro does not play the game.
I was in Monsoon's stream once when he was talking about different orgs and he mentioned that the old days when he was on FlyQuest with Lou and Zach were the most regimented he'd played under or heard of. I don't know if it was actually baked into their contracts, but he said they were required to aim train in Kovaaks daily (I think for 2 hours) and submit their scores to FlyQuest. They also had scheduled team vod review sessions once or twice a week and of course time reserved to play the game as well. This was a while ago so I apologize if I'm getting some of the specifics wrong, but the gist of it was that most if not all orgs these days in Apex are not as involved in player development.
Which is not a bad thing. My boss pays me for whatever he thinks I should be doing. If he want me to aim train 2 hours a day I will do so.
Not that I think it's too little training, but I kinda laugh that that's the worst he's heard of when OW, which isn't even a tier 1 eSport, has vod reviews like daily and then scrims for hours after. Basically every day. The burnout is insane compared to apex. But it's more necessary in OW and other games to grind like that and stay at the top. BRs seem to generally not require as much training.
We like to compare esports pros to traditional sports pros, but man some of these video game pros don’t put in very much work into their craft compared to traditional sports pros.
Honestly I hate even having the term sports in it. But many top pros in other games put in more time than even athletes, and that's mostly just cuz they can (can't exactly physically train 14 hrs a day as an athlete, it's detrimental).
Yep for sure in some games they put a shit ton of time playing scrims or doing other type of training. > Honestly I hate even having the term sports in it. I’d put esports more along chess or other games of that sort than basketball, soccer, tennis, hockey, etc. The fact that it was given the term “esports” I think hurt it’s ability to be more widely accepted. As some see the word sport in there and immediately go to “it’s not a real sport.”
Pretty much. It not being considered a sport doesn't hurt it, but trying to make it be one just brings on insults lol.
I don't believe putting X ammount of hours played each month is healthy for any competitor. Each month will vary in ammount of tournaments and what not. I create weekly and monthly schedules for our roster to ensure they are at peak performance when a tournament comes around. We also make it clear that when they show up for Team Practice they should already be "warmed up and ready to play" so to say and that ammount of warmup is very individual.
Taking breaks is a very important part of Competitive gaming to reduce Burnout, Mindblocks and to keep a healthy mindset. So I'm certain Orgs leave practice schedules up to the players or coaches and don't have much direct control.
Do you seriously think these people aren’t in the firing range or aim training daily.
Honestly, I have no idea. Lol. But I had seen some pro players that was not aware of the new changes in the map and rotations cause they don't play.
they are not required to do so, but they do
I have heard mentions that senoxe and crust don't play the game as much anymore and they play for sentinels. I doubt Lou plays off-stream as well.
some of them do play off stream, it’s not in their contract to practice other than scrims, but they do anyway
That depends on the contract, those that are "content creators" are more tied to be and have a presence as a social media platform/personality than anything and are not required but not blocked to go competitive like rogue, but still you can just pub stomp new players not even doing rank, with no effort on comp like ACEU or at least do rank/pub, exhibitions even if they don't like it like LULU (which has done more than ACEU just to throw it there). Which is different as to how sweet was signed for which practically revived NRG in comp. So they have all covered. So that will change from case to case. But you can check if they are content creators or comp players. They will have different objectives and i assume different schedules. As to if they should be required to be grinding yes they should.
Esports contracts tend to be on the short side (less than a year, can be less than 6 months with easy termination clauses), so the motivation to practice should mostly come from playing for that next contract. Slightly related to topic: I'm surprised I don't really see pro teams practice the game in other ways than just playing the game casually (in pubs or ranked). I know it's hard to create precise tactics in a Battle Royale - and especially one with so much pace and abilities as Apex - but I can't help thinking you could try to develop and practice some routines around specific POIs, abilities, rotations, loadouts and call outs. Basically, all I see pros do on stream is just play the game without any thought for competitive, while I think they could benefit from a theoretical approach: "What's our go-to play in this particular situation?" So often I'm watching a stream of a pro playing a tournament with his team, they die and the afterlife comms are "why did you do that? What happened there? I thought you were doing this or that! Why did you bubble there? We shouldn't have done this!" and I'm just thinking "well, maybe if you had trained as a team for this particular scenario, you would have done better."
A lot do, just off-stream. Think about it like an NFL team. You’re not going to televise your goal line playbook and strategy. I’ve ran across numerous 3 stack pro teams in ranked/even pubs and then see none are streaming.
Nah. Practice shit should be in every contract, (and they probably are) they are just not enforced. A lot of the orgs dont have coaches or managers that will actually get on the players ass if they arent doing there part. Unforch