Advice for Aspiring Pro Call of Duty Players from the Pros Themselves

With the massive growth that the esports industry has gone through in recent years, pursuing a career as a professional player in a competitive video game is more realistic than ever. A whole new generation of esports athletes are currently honing their skills and working passionately to get their shot at making their dreams a reality.

Professional Call of Duty is currently at its most lucrative stage in its history as an esports title, and this has in turn motivated hundreds of aspiring players to compete at events and hopefully win a major LAN or get noticed and signed by one of the top organizations in the professional scene. We were able to sit down with a group of professional Call of Duty players from multiple teams and learn what they believe is the most important thing for aspiring players to do in their quest to making competitive Call of Duty their career.

Lamar "Accuracy" Abedi - Team Kaliber

"You can't just get online every day and play just to play Call of Duty. You have to get on and treat it seriously, so that you can learn as you play. Don't waste your time as you play. You need to adapt, progress and learn. " 

Joshua-Lee "Joshh" Sheppard - Red Reserve

"The main thing is commitment. It takes a lot of hard work. I played for so many years before I got to the point where I was making a career out of it, and even at that point there have been hard times where you have awful events that make you not want to play, but then you have amazing events where you are on top of the world. You are going to have your lows and highs, and you just have to stick through it. " 

Jevon "Goonjar" Gooljar-Lim - Lighting Pandas

"The only advice I can give for people that want to go pro is to base your life around Call of Duty. When I was in high school, I would always watch these matches, and it inspired me to get better. I literally devoted my life to Call of Duty. I would miss school, I would stay home, I wouldn’t go out. I would just grind COD, COD, COD! It became my life, it’s the only way to do it. Put the time in and get your name out there. Once you get your name out there, it’s just all about performing." 

Daniel "Loony" Loza - Rise Nation

"If your passion is Call of Duty and you want to become a pro, just never give up. All of the players I came up with quit, they didn't want to stick to the grind, and I am one of the only ones that stuck with it. To this day, they tweet me that I was the one who stuck with it and it payed off. You have to grind and find people who have the same goal and mindset as you and won't go down after an event or two. I have gone to plenty of events where I placed horribly, my first one I placed top 32. It is one of those things where if you are really passionate about it and actually want to do it, you just have to put all of your work into it. If are going to sacrifice a lot, I sacrificed a lot, you will come out successful, but you just have to make sure you learn something new everyday." 

Anthony "Methodz" Zinni - Rise Nation

"It is not really easy. It is like Football or Baseball, some people have it and some people don't. For the people who do have the potential, if you just play the game a lot, watch streams of the pros and work to get better, it will come to you eventually. It is not going to happen overnight. The pros you see today did not do this overnight, it didn’t happen in two weeks, it happened over years. Don't get down on yourself, as it is very frustrating at times. I felt that a lot going from one of the most notable pros back to the bottom. It was frustrating to get a taste of that top pro level and then not be there for years. Just don't give up, don't get down on yourself and just keep working." 

Matthew "FormaL" Piper - OpTic Gaming

"If you think you are the best at your school, that is great. I started there too, but as it opens up more and more, and you figure out how many players are actually playing the game, you get to see where you are at. For me personally, when I got to see where I was actually at, it just motivated me to put a lot of time in and realize that if I could make a living off of this, I was going to put one hundred percent effort into it. You have to give a lot of time, thousands of hours, and if you are not ready for that, I would not advise it. However, if you are and have a chance to go pro and live this lifestyle, I would recommend it. It is a blast and an amazing experience."

As with any career in life, you will be rewarded with success if you are willing to put in the time and effort to achieve your goal. All of these players who are competing at the highest level of Call of Duty currently had to start where aspiring professional players are beginning now. With the future of esports looking brighter and brighter, there is no better time than now to take the leap of faith and pursure your dream of becoming a member of the next generation of esports athletes. 

(cover photo courtesy of Tech Raptor)