Kergy’s Korner #22: So You Wanna Be A Pro, Eh?


Warning: Cynics should stay away from this article. I am about to write all about becoming a Pro VS player – having never actually experienced being a Pro VS player. And yet, I feel qualified to write on this subject. Perhaps it is because I wish to become one. My VS skills seem to be increasing day to day, and my current deck is performing well – and with the invite I’ve already been blessed with (I’m still the President of the ‘Jeff Donais’ #1 Fan’ Club), I have a lot of confidence going into GenCon.

Part of this results from the kind of Pro I’d like to be. Yes, I like the idea of winning glory and a fat wad of cash. Turning Pro itself is a sign that a player would like to get in on the action and score some fame and a payout along the way. But there are different kinds of Pros – those that are in it only for the money, and will do anything (short of cheating…well, usually) to get that money – the cutthroat players; those that are in it for the love of the game – the dedicated souls; and those that are in it for the thrill of competition, and to have some serious fun – the adventurers. Most people will be a mixture of two or more of those qualities, but most people lean towards one, above all. The first thing you might want to think on, is what kind of Pro do YOU want to be? This is important, because it may determine whether or not you should even be ON the Circuit.

(continued...)

I’m not too terribly fond of cutthroats, for example – I think they play for the wrong reasons – or at least, the carry themselves in a way that is not befitting of a Pro. Money and celebrity are not, in my opinion, worth being known as a jerk – or trampling all over people. I think that a lack of courtesy and respect for your opponents shows a lack of respect for the game as well. And if they respect nothing else, every Pro on the Circuit should respect the game. It is simply shameful to accept the check in one hand while giving the VS community the finger with the other. On the other hand, I think that the player who doesn’t take the game seriously also disrespects the game – when you’re playing in a tourney with a $250,000 payout, you should act professionally at all times – and by that I mean that you should play competitively and like you want to win. Remember, above all, that as a Professional VS player, you are an ambassador for the game – everything you do and say reflects on the game and the community. That kind of responsibility should not be taken lightly.

Respect for your opponents – and for the game – is only a part of what it takes to be a Pro, however. Even if you play for the love of the game, or for the fun and adventure, you need to take the game seriously in other regards as well. For one, it will take a substantial amount of money. Granted, you can test on mtgplay or mws until you find the deck you want, and then just buy the individual cards you need – but that’s simply not enough, in the end. I like to have at least 2 of every card kicking around – if not a full playset – and I run two or three decks at a time. One should also have a bunch of traders to be able to get the cards you need as you need them.

As well, you will need to buy packs to practice drafting – not to mention Sealed, if you wish to try an qualify by that route. Since we know that drafting has an important place in the upcoming Pro Circuit events – Day Two will have 6 rounds of draft – it is important to get used to building decks from only a few packs – and to learn how to make spontaneous decisions about what cards to select and when to select them. Drafting uses an entirely different set of skills than Constructed does, so being an incredible constructed player, or an incredible 60-card deck architect, will not help much on its own when it comes to drafting a deck.

And since we’re talking cost – don’t forget that you have to GET to the Pro Circuit events – and most often this will cost quite a bit, if you include gas or train/bus/air fare, hotel (even shared) and food. Essentially, the early PC events will be more of an attempt to recoup some of the money you’ve spent on the game rather than winning any actual cash in hand.

As well, the expenditure involved surpasses cash-flow. You must expend an inordinate amount of time practicing. Being a true Pro player means that you should look at this as a job – not necessarily your full-time employment (although some people do make it such) but certainly a job.

Finally, as a Pro, you should be Boy Scout prepared. You should know what to play, and, through testing against netdecks, how to handle just about any situation from any given deck archetype. To do this you need a dedicated gaming group who will spend a lot of time testing back and forth, and giving advice on what works and what doesn’t. Team strategies also work well, where the entire team has various game-plans set in motion during the tourney. Any competition takes as much preparation and strategy as it does performance and raw skill.

In the end, it becomes what you put INTO the tourney as much as what you get out of it. The more effort you put into acquiring cards, testing decks, and working out the minutiae of the tournament environment, the more likely you are to succeed. Set reasonable goals for yourself and brace yourself with an idea of what to expect.

Remember that you have to sacrifice to succeed – legends become legends through hard work and strength of will. If you give up, quit, or refuse to put the necessary effort into training, you are not likely to perform well.

Still want to be a Pro? Then good luck, and I’ll see you at Indy!

I agree with the great majority of what what said in this article as an almost pro player, I won a PCQ but am not in the right situation financially to make it to an actual PC event so I gave my invite to someone who would make use of it, despite how Badly it hurt to do so :'(. I'm a mix between the adventurer and cutthroat myself. I love the competition and tend to be pretty serious about it, without however being a "jerk". Which not all cutthroats are, but there are the bad seeds in any group. It does take TIME, and MONEY reguardless how of you become "pro". I know I myself consider this a job, one which I happen to love and if I could do this fulltime, that would be great. Anyway I'm babbling.

To all potential Pro: Good luck,
To all Pros: I should be in indy, but since I'm not Good luck :)

How the hell do I join that club! Nobody drops more secret information on upcoming sets than Jeff. The other Upper Deck guys must flog him daily, but he's my hero.

Kergster, can we talk? Your "Ask Not What Your Metagame Can Do for You" stuff was one thing, but this? This is one solemn article. If anyone's being cynical here, it's you.

Maybe it's because I don't ever play in tournaments, and as such, I have managed to keep my innocence and naivete, but someone needs to get you some Prozac or at least booze, because you are just no fun anymore. And remember VS players, "You must take this game seriously at all times, as the shadows of hatred and failure lie in wait around every corner, searching for their next victims. With each passing game, another innocent life hangs in the balance. We must all strive, night and day, to play the game to it's utmost potential, lest all that is decent and good crumble before the forces of our hated enemy, the illegitimi legions, who seek to destroy VS and all that it stands for." For lack of a non-cliche, lighten up man.

I'm starting to worry about you.

One thing that in my experience tends to apply to most pros ... and more and more as a game increases in size etc is as follows:

The shift in feeling from "My deck is doing well" to "I have a deck that is doing well".

Most pros don't feel nearly as strongly about individual decks as more casual players. In most games (I'm leaving L5R style games which are very heavily on one side of the flavour/rules divide) you can't fulfil your drive (if you only play some decks) either as

a) a cutthroat gamer - what if they're not the best at the time

or

b) a dedicated fan - how can you love a game fully without exploring all angles of it?

Pros that do feel strongly about individual decks tend to be in that position either because they're trying to break a card (and looking for recognition for doing so, in my experience) or because they are so good with a certain archetype that there is to them no point in wasting that experience by playing a different one. This second type tend to do extremely well wwhen their chosen archetype is dominant (and thus become famous players), but to have a slew of poor results at all other times, relying on their greater experience and skills to keep them professional at all.

Just my quick comments :)

Darjien

For Raw Deal, Team Fully Baked was essentially a Professional team without a format. We played and tested like there was money on the line and we all had different play styles, but there is one thing that is really ugly about professional level play...

YOU CAN'T CARE ABOUT YOUR OPPONENT

I may be a pretty nice guy off the table, but if there is money on the line, making you cry is a positive, not a negative. I wil taunt you, i will tease you, i will tell you what you need to do to not lose, knowing you cant do it, I will beat you without mercy, without compassion and without any regards for your emoitional well being. I will know your metagame, i will know your decks and i will beat you.

Somerwhere in here is a credo.... I'll have to work on that.

Truthfully, being a professional competitor is not a good thing for emotional development but at least VS has a low level of payout (realistically it looks like a pro player could win 5-20 grand a year, nice pocket change, but not a living).

It is like wrestling, or acting or being a cop. If you can do anything else, do it, because it is a lot of work for little payoff.

Am i rambling?

Wow, Bear, you clearly have issues.

THIS IS A GAME

'Talking smack' is usually reserved for immature professional sports athletes, when they're not too busy taking steroids or taking advantage of underage women.

There's an inverse curve with the amount of physical prowess and intelligence required to play any competitive game.

Edit: I feel like I'm challening Bizarro #98 ;)

Last I checked, I didn't see Professional Poker players trying to taunt their opponents. Frankly, if you're doing that, you're spending far too much time concentrating on me, when you should be playing your own deck.

And frankly, if you were disruptive, I would ask you to keep it down, an if you didnt', call a judge.

Make no mistakes, I am also playing to win, but it's also fun. And if you do things to make it not fun for me any more, I consider that unsportsmanlike conduct.

As a note, this is the only line I have a problem with. I agree with the rest (know your opponent, etc.)

But verbally badgering your opponent is frankly uncalled for.

Poker players try to get into each others heads all the time.

Have you never seen them go after Phil Helmuth when he takes a bad beat?????

It may not quite be as mean-spirited as what Big Bear was talking about, but the Poker players do it looking for the same effect, to get their opponent off their game.

Me become Pro??? NEVER!!!

...

Well, not until I'm old enough to drive...!;)

Great article, as always! It does basically sum up who your main three groups of players/opponents will be, and how YOU should prepare for them, and the competition all together! Great article (I think I already said that...)! It really helped me out competitivly, in the sense that now I know just a little more what to look out for, and how to be prepared!

BTW, Kick @$$ in GenCon, Kergy!:p

You don't need to do any of these silly or childish things to be a professional player or reach the top of a game. You do need to realize that some people will do these things and be able to handle the situation when they do happen. My suggestion? Call a judge if it bothers you (or you think it will bother your opponent). Otherwise let them keep trying to do stupid stuff to get into your head, the more they concentrate on that, the less they concentrate on the game. Some people are good at it and can BS, trashtalk, insult your mom, and whatever else while still playing a sound game, others will mess up while trying to throw you off your game. At the end of the day the best thing you can do to become a professional player is learn to be a better player and not let anything throw you off your game (be it a big prize on the line or a jerk of an opponent).

Don't forget that this is about one specific, tiny slice of VS players - those who want to be Pros. They have to be a LOT more serious than the average player, who is likely a casual player who perhaps enters a weekly tourney at the LGS. When you're a Pro, you enter a whole new level of play, and if you don't take it seriously, you should not be there.



I think you misread me, here - I'm not saying you should find one deck and stick to it forever. I said that I run about 3 decks simultaneously. But you can only run one deck in a tourney, so you have to make a choice. And having a deck that performs particularly well against netdecks makes that choice easier;)

Read my article on the Pro Tour on metagame.com later this week, for more on PC preparation...



This is exactly what I'm talking about - a completely unprofessional attitude.

Yes, you're looking to beat your opponent. But trash talking is the wrong way to go about it. For one, it's incredibly disrespectful, and for two, it's not winning through your skills as a player, but through bully tactics. I wouldn't tolerate it in any match I was playing in.

You should always respect your opponent. You don't have to 'care' about them - in fact, you want to put emotion aside, as you're trying to BEAT them. You should definitely prepare for decks and metagame. But you should always show your opponent respect and courtesy - whether it's the PC or a 4-player LGS tourney...showing mercy or compassion won't win you any matches - not a good idea to subscribe to either - but trash talking and intimidation is for bullies, not Proffesionals.

... snip ...


Don't worry, dude...
I wasn't posting at you personally here at all... Just trying to expand on a point you had brought up.

I look forward to it... my Mtg PT experience is very limited ;) from the playing pov, so I'm always interested in what others have to say on such matters. In addition, I've not read a bad article from you yet (and yes, I've read most of the ones you've written here).

Darjien

Now i slowly walk into a corner and cry.

The winner gets $40,000.

If you get the chance to play in one of these, and you don't do every legal thing you can, then you don't belong there.