Archive for February, 2010
Budgeting and Financial Planning for MLG Season
On February - 26 - 2010
Since the 2010 Major League Gaming Pro Circuit is fast approaching, I decided to put together a basic expense report that most players or teams will experience while traveling to an event. This financial planning guide is for any team or player that has never been to an event, and perhaps even for experienced players looking for a few extra tips on ways save as much money as possible during an event. It can be difficult for those new to the league to bootstrap funds in order to travel to one event, let alone every single stop on the Pro Circuit. Having a general idea of how much you are going to need for each event is important information players will need to know when securing money from parents or potential sponsors during a typical season.
Healthy Gamers’ Mission!
On February - 25 - 2010
Earlier this week, my brother and I launched the Healthy Gamers’ Facebook Group as a joint effort to make people (gamers) more aware of their overall health and wellness. Both my brother and I have relatively successful sports backgrounds, however neither of our diets were necessarily healthy. Earlier this year my brother decided to limit a number of high calorie meals from his diet and told me about his plan to become more “healthy.” We both do quite a bit of exercising on our own time, so I did not take him seriously one bit. Long and behold he continued his healthy eating regiment and asked me to help him create a video asking other people for advice with his diet. After holding off on making the video for a few days, I thought rather long and hard on the idea of asking others for advice on healthy eating. After outlining the basic concept for Healthy Gamers, we decided to create the Facebook Group to provide a joint collaboration effort to enable everyone the opportunity to share and provide personal advice on becoming a more healthy and fit individual.
MLG Please Keep Annoucements Consistent!
On February - 24 - 2010
For everything I love about Major League Gaming, there are a few things that truly get under my skin. MLG has, for the most part, always had multiple games on the circuit. After the end of each season there is usually an announcement within the first or second week of February for the upcoming seasons’ Pro Circuit titles and event locations. We are now in the third week of February and there has been little inclination of event announcements or games being featured on the circuit. The only obvious game indication, of course, is Halo 3 which came to realization after the Doritos Combine official announcement by Sundance on February 3rd. There are two fundamental problems with delaying announcements until the very last second year after year after year.
Eliminating Distractions to Improve Your Game
On February - 23 - 2010
During the 2009 MLG Season I implemented a few rules during our practice schedule to eliminate some external distractions from our game (mainly for CALiNORTH). Today I decided to elaborate on a few ways to eliminate outside distractions to improve the quality of your gaming atmosphere. Let’s begin:
Probably the most distracting factor when gaming all too often causing some annoying problems during practice times. Electronic notifications includes cell phones, iPod Touches, pagers (does anyone still have these), and any other shiny handheld device that can be picked up while gaming. Checking your phone after you die (Gears of War) means you aren’t calling out positions and helping teammates. It shows your teammates that you are not focused on improving yourself and your team. We implemented the “no phone” policy because we wanted everyone to be 100% focused on the task at hand — improvement! I do not want to see or hear about you texting the girlfriend for some “cinnamon sugar cookies.”
Retiring as a Gamer? Uh No…
On February - 22 - 2010
Can you really retire from professional gaming? I consider gaming to be an ageless sport or hobby (for those unconvinced of gaming’s merits as a sport) and often joke with some of my teammates and friends about players announcing their retirement from a game, only to come back after a brief stint of absence. It’s a redundant process, one that becomes increasingly humorous with each passing announcement thread or blog post. Despite the obvious humor in retiring from a video game, there are a few relatively recent retirement announcements that have had an impact on several teams in Major League Gaming:
Each of those player’s had different reasons for choosing to “retire,” but realistically they are very capable of continuing their gaming careers at a high level of competition. Beyond the obvious emphasis on age as a contributing factor of retiring from competitive gaming (as ridiculous as it sounds), I want to examine some of the other elements that come into play.
Favorites: Montages
On February - 21 - 2010
A few of my favorite montages. Check them out.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpknpab-Ms8
