Day 6 - Practice, Practice, Practice
Day 6 - The grind is real
What a day, I am actually writing this a day ahead of time. After day 5 issues, I knew I had to step my game up hard. I'm level 20 so I've got 10 Levels to go before I reach Level 30 and only 2 days to do it. The alarm was set for the morning and the only way I could make this work is if I "hardcore" these next couple of days.
The first thing I did was head to Starbucks to grab a coffee and some breakfast, get my mind working and ready for the day. I headed over to the local gaming cafe across the road, I've been there a few times in the past, really cool owners. Around 30 computers at a decent spec but everyone is smoking indoors, so it feels like you're slipping into a smokey dungeon.
I decided to head back home, not defeated...
So after talking with my friend I heard of a trick which could help make my internet more stable. The idea is when I get timeout connections or lag, switch my router from 4G to 3G.
Though the speed is less, the connection is more stable as people in the area usually throttle the internet. It actually worked. I mean my ping was stable I was able to play. Hallelujah!
Though the speed is less, the connection is more stable as people in the area usually throttle the internet. It actually worked. I mean my ping was stable I was able to play. Hallelujah!
I was back in the hotseat, ready to game away. Games today went really well. I learned more about PvP and playing as a team. I've met a a lot of people that took me through the game after I spoke to them about my challenge and decided to jump on discord to help and teach me.
[ Shout outs to the Italian guys I met while leveling up ]
[ 10 Hours in, playing with my friends in Kuwait - unfortunately a defeat. ]
[ 10 Hours in, playing with my friends in Kuwait - unfortunately a defeat. ]
During the time playing, we had a few games where we had players go AFK which was quite annoying, sometimes losing lanes due to people not being around and then going on to be crushed in a game. It wasn't until later that I realised you are able to type "/remake" after 3 minutes of game play. Something which could have helped a lot earlier.
[ Waiting for AFKs can be a bit frustrating at times.. ]
Today I wanted to improve my game play and play as much as I could with friends. eSports is what drove me into gaming and being able to compete. Solo queuing isn't really my thing. I like the interaction of playing as a team as mentioned before so for me trying to find that team mentality was key. Buying and deciding between items such as Infinity Edge or Blood Thirster for Ashe based on the game situation was interesting. Even though they're on the recommendation list, there are so many items to choose from.
[ Watching SK Telecom vs. TSM during breaks ]
Having mini breaks throughout the day I loaded a few streams to watch, just to see the difference in team play and how they play their chosen champions. Pro play is a lot faster than normal players, the excitment is crazy. Watching and playing are two different things but how could we help bring that passion into game play?
I'm a huge fan of positive thinking and encouragement so team comms are a big thing for me. There needs to be additional ways of communicating instead of "pinging" locations and typing to players. Though there is a lot of flame and talk going on in game, there should be ways to also talk with a microphone if a user wishes as communication and team play out weigh skill at times. Obviously there will be issues in people flaming over microphone but I still find comms to be one of the most important and effective ways to "get things done".
If it's working in an Agile Methodology and being co-located, it's the same thing in games. LAN's are an awesome way to do that. Unfortunately not everyone has the pleasure of being in the same room or even the same country/server when they're playing online.
If it's working in an Agile Methodology and being co-located, it's the same thing in games. LAN's are an awesome way to do that. Unfortunately not everyone has the pleasure of being in the same room or even the same country/server when they're playing online.
Day 6 I ended up playing around 20 games+ which amounted to around 15 hours of game play and managed to hit level 27. Watching the streams and playing with a lot of players over the day has sparked my eSports passion. Wanting to level up. Wanting to win. Wanting to do everything in my power to improve. I've really starting to get hooked.
[ My game play is slowly improving. Still getting a lot of deaths which I'm working on - I don't want to be the feed for the other team ]
Day 6 done and around 7 levels completed in a day. One of the most awesome gaming sessions I've done to date. I'm just missing that LAN environment! BRING ON DAY 7 - Can I reach 30 finally!?
Usability Takeaways:
Timeouts / AFKs: People being away from the game make it harder to play a game efficiently. "/remake" to restart games could be made more dominate if a team wishes to restart the game before any action has started.
Communication: The ability to have in game voice chat through the client whilst playing instead of third party software. Something to help promote team play and help build meaningful relationships.
Two Way Authentication: I've touched on this briefly at the start but I wanted to mention this here as this can stem the amount of AFKs/Bots playing. To introduce 2-way authentication system with a mobile phone could help authenticate users better and tighten security.