Gaming as a working professional with an 8-5 office job has always had the ironic trade-off of having enough money to buy all the games you want, but never enough time to play them. When I was just a wee lad, I always told myself that when I became an adult, I wouldn’t let go of my 6-hour gaming binge sessions, but now that I’m here, I realize I can’t even dedicate 60 minutes to a game.
Of course, money is never a bad thing, especially in this economy, and I appreciate what freedom it does allow me. I get to purchase games I would have begged my parents for years ago. But all that goes out the window when I pop in my favorite multiplayer game and meet my greatest nemesis: The unemployed.
The Adulting Life
Transitioning to adulthood comes with a lot of grief, and that’s a journey I go through in this article. When I first started my 8-5 office job, there were a lot of moments when I resisted the changes that were bound to happen in my life. Nights where I would fit my 3 hours of gaming into my 2-hour commute and 9 hours in the office, a routine that nurtured my soul but killed my body because I was getting close to no sleep at all. Eventually, the system did break me, and I had to accept that my responsibilities as an adult cut my gaming time close to zero, but then I realized something: Gaming Time and Gaming skill were related.
Because I couldn’t sink enough time into playing and improving my games, I ended up with my butt being wiped on the floor by those who simply played the game better than me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t an FPS or Fighting Game god even before I got a job, but I really was better, trust me. Tekken and Valorant were supposed to be my bread and butter, but now I get nothing but the taste of burnt toast whenever I log on. However, being the competitive guy that I am, I wasn’t going to take this sitting down. I had a plan.
Sticking to a Routine
Up until a few months ago, I was a man on a mission. I told myself I wouldn’t surrender to the time constraints of adulthood; I was going to make the most of the time I had and start a routine of self-improvement. The first step was that I needed to accept I wouldn’t be good at other games. Rainbow Six: Siege, Valorant, and Counter-Strike 2 were all off the table because I decided to dedicate my routine to Tekken. I dreamed of someday becoming this generation’s Knee or Arslan Ash, and it was time I put in the work.
I was like Saitama, the way I was practicing my backdashes, pokes, and combos like a whole workout routine. I put hours in the lab, I read all the documents, and I watched all the tutorial videos, just to find out that it still wasn’t enough. With what little time I had to improve, other players had twice as much practice time and reflexes to beat me into submission. Each practice session felt more and more like a grind that led to nowhere, and the game started to feel more like torture instead of fun. Things had to change, and luckily, I had a solution.
Keeping it Casual
My solution was that I gave up. That’s right, I gave up on trying to become just as good or even better than the competition on the ranked ladder. I was never going to have the time to memorize King’s grab chains, nor will I ever have the time to lab every single matchup my Tekken character had! The pros at the top of the mountain I wanted to climb were so high up because they turned Tekken into a career, something I can’t exactly take the risk of doing because, let’s face it, I’m cheeks.
But I didn’t want the game I love to feel like work, so instead I surrendered and started not caring too much about my rank. I played until I improved naturally, and I didn’t take things too seriously. After a while, my fear of lab monsters roaming ranked went away, and I started enjoying the game even when I was beaten to a pulp. I also stopped forcing myself into the habit of playing every day and instead made sure to get myself enough sleep and hydration to face people online and offline, something I highly recommend everyone does.
Video games are just as much a mental game as they are a game of skill. Keeping your cool and having your soul intact during every match leads to far better returns in the long run. So the next time you try to make that push to reach the ranked heavens, always remember:
“Someone who works hard can never beat someone who enjoys himself” - Baki Hanma
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