Fatal1ty Frags Blog-2nd Frag-Nervous in Tournaments?
Second Frag – Nervous in Tournaments?
As there are big tournaments coming up next week in Hannover, Germany for CeBIT, I wanted to talk about how to handle your nerves in game.
A lot of gamers have asked me how I handled pressure in tournaments, and say they get nervous a lot. I want to talk about how I kept my calm in tough situations and how I prepared for these moments.
First thing, if you haven’t ever been in a tournament, don’t expect much at your first tournament. I remember my first when I was 15 years old, and won by only 1 frag, but I have to say… That whole last 2-3 minutes, I couldn’t shoot a straight shot for the life of me. I shot everything but the opponent, and realized, I better have really good strategy and just shoot as many bullets as I can and hopefully it kills him. So have good strategy if you become too nervous to perform normal shots.
Second… I personally feel at tournaments it’s usually cold. So I like to wear long sleeve jackets or pull overs to keep me very warm and especially keep my hands/arms as warm as possible. I feel if my hands get cold, I tighten up, and can’t perform at 100%. I’ll be very slow and not very fast to react. So being warm is huge for me to keep my calm.
Third… Sometimes when I get nervous or a lot of people I see get nervous, they are bouncing their knee up and down endlessly during the match… Uhhh, that only gives more tendency for other parts of your body to bounce around and cause more nervousness… So what I do is, cross my legs… If you see me in almost any tournament, I always have my lower ankles crossed to protect from the bouncing knee… It works perfectly!
Fourth… Practice, practice, practice…. After you practice so much, everything becomes innate and pressure almost never comes up. You’re so used to playing, you forget to even be nervous. So if you’re well prepared, all you have to do is worry about using good strategy and out playing your opponent.
I hope this helps some of you out and feel free to ask any questions in the comments if you have more questions about being nervous in tournaments. I always love answering these type of questions on how to perform when it gets tough…
Latez.
Fatal1ty
on February 26, 2010 at 1:13 pm
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Great tips. I feel you on the cold environment subject; it’s weird how much some of these little things can impact your mentality/ gameplay.
on February 26, 2010 at 9:22 pm
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Hey man. First off happy birthday! Basicaly my question is do u in let’s say quake live practice certain strats or plays let’s say? Like u have specific plan of attack plays that setup ur opponent assuming u hit all ur shots.
How do u manage to time multiple items at once or practice it. I’m memorizing times personnaly.
How do u force mistakes on good opponents? I’m a dueler as u know so I’m constantly trying to understand the game the way u do.
Thanks man I’m sure people are mad excited ur putting this together.
All the best on ur b day!
Mark
on February 27, 2010 at 3:26 pm
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I always believe the small things are huge when it comes to competing against the best in the world. If you can add up 1-2% on each small category, it’ll add up to 5-10% advantage.
Fatal1ty
on February 28, 2010 at 3:02 am
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lol, thought I was the only one with extreme intolerance to the cold like that. I usually like wearing long sleeves not only for warmth, but it also helps my forearms slide better on the table. At home in my toasty apartment I usually use a paper towel for the same effect :)
From time to time I try to discipline myself to pick up my elbow, but always fail miserably. I’ve never really bothered to observe pro player mousing posture, but do you keep your elbow and forearm up, or does it lay on the table like a slug?
on March 1, 2010 at 3:09 pm
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Hey Fatal1ty:) i was wondering if u can help me in my COD4 gameing? i do gud but i get nervouse alot to the end of the game ??any ideas?
Matthew
on March 2, 2010 at 3:59 pm
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Hey fatal1ty,
was wondering about creative drivers, do you play with cmss 3d on or off, and what about crystalizer, and all at what levels. the cmss-3d is really confusing, the more surround sound I force it the less I feel like I can hear positions. Thanks.
Cslaya
on March 2, 2010 at 11:26 pm
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hey mark, thanks for wishing me happy bday. road some cool roller coasters here in vegas and had great time being a tourist for once ;)
besides my bday, lets talk about quake live and some of my strats etc… When I time items, yes i’m timing them etc, but I’m always looking to be at an important item 3-5 seconds before it spawns. And I would like for my opponent to make a mistake by being there 1-2 seconds early. This will allow for you to shoot him once or twice while falling or going to the item and stealing it right in front of him! This is the utmost ideal situation. Becuz if you know exactly what second it spawns, and he only knows about what time it spawns, you have an edge for sure… So try to know the exact second and be stealthy, making him think he’s goin to get it, then as the second is coming up, shoot your one rocket on that item, pushing him away and you running away with it clean right in front of his face… This will surely piss him off and put him on tilt and you picking up a very valuable frag!
thanks mark. I’ll cu around bro.
on March 2, 2010 at 11:30 pm
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What settings do I use with my Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty Sound Card…
I have CMSS 3D on.
I turn on 24 bit crystalizer, but I mainly been keeping it at 50% (default I believe).
I of course have it in game mode and set on headphones!
Thats my main settings for my headphones when I’m playing competitively.
Note: If you experience something that you feel helps you better to understand it, personalization is always the best! Just don’t try to be too complicated with things. Try to have everything be natural and simple and dominate with that. Good luck Cslaya.
on March 2, 2010 at 11:36 pm
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On how to setup your posture with your hands, forearms, etc…
I try to rest my forearm on the mousepad at all times. I like the pressure and weight to be on my forearm more than on my wrist, mainly because of the pain I would get on my wrist over long periods of gaming. If you rest a lot of the weight on your forearm, you can withstand this pressure ALL DAY LONG! I created the Fatal1ty MousePad so it be big and comfy for this kind of setup. This also allows me to be more consistent. By having a good base like this, I feel my hit-scan is extremely accurate. If i move my forearm up more on the mousepad, its almost like lowering my sensitivity. So for long more precise shots, it becomes a little more exact. Then when I get in close fights, I bring my forearm almost off the table to fight those fights. Try it out and I’m sure youl’ll see what I’m talking about.
My Default Setup: 2-3 inches of my forearm on the mousepad.
on March 3, 2010 at 12:32 pm
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Hey fatal1ty,
so you’ve noticed then using windows 7 that the mouse sensitivity accel and so forth feels different from xp, is there something you can do to make it feel like xp again besides your mousefix download that did do something but not enough I feel. I have set desktop to 2/11 and 3/11