A Healthy Gamer is a Strong Gamer!
Playing competitive games like League of Legends can be fun yet frustrating at the same time. It’s almost on the same level as playing traditional sports in a mental point of view. We get tired, we tend to lose our focus, and we rage when we see something wrong or do something wrong in the game.
So how do we fix that? We look at the Top 3 tips on how to improve our focus and mental state when gaming (in a healthy way)!
Tip #1: Eat Smart
A gamer’s diet is not supposed to be filled with junk foods and energy drinks. Yes, the energy drinks provide buffs for your focus, but the amount of sugar and chemicals are really high and therefore, it’s unhealthy.
Here’s what you should consume instead:
Dark chocolate - Healthy doesn't only mean eating "green, leafy veggies". Eating small doses of dark chocolate can significantly improve your focus. It contains a small amount of caffeine that heightens mental alertness and magnesium that removes stress from your body so you can feel good and have a very fair mood!
Soya milk - This is the best replacement for energy drinks because it provides calcium that helps your heart, muscles, and nerves in functioning properly and protein to keep you from getting tired.
Green, leafy vegetables & fruits - Sometimes, eating veggies and fruits is the way to go to be really healthy. Basically, fruits and vegetables contain lots of vitamins and minerals that greatly improves your focus, memory, and overall brain health and power.
Water - Ah yes, the classic water. It never gets old. Drinking water before starting a game gives your brain the electrical energy for all brain functions so you can think faster and win the team fight!
Tip #2: Exercise
Proper diet and a balanced workout regimen provide high levels on energy and focus during gaming.
Almost all pro players follow a fitness regimen because aerobic activities are crucial for gameplay. It’s like they’ve programmed their nervous system with proper responses which therefore improves overall speed.
Even the slightest improvements when exercising can have astonishing results in your gameplay.
Exercising can help you improve the 3 key gameplay elements:
Reaction time - This is your perception of attack, or rather the interval between a stimulus and the beginning of a response.
Response time - This is the time it takes to choose an appropriate response to the initiation of the actual movement
Movement speed - This is how fast your mind solves, getting out of trouble.
After knowing the key gameplay elements, this raises the question: What type of exercises should you do?
These exercises are:
Jogging - This will help you figure out when to exert energy and how to manage energy exertion so you can jog at longer distances. In a gameplay element, it improves your reaction time and movement speed.
Weights - Lifting weights mostly improves your physical work capacity and daily living activities. In a gameplay element, it improves your response time. For example, timing Gragas’ Body Slam ability then flashing to an Ashe that used her Flash spell (Check TIP vs TL game in the 2015 NA LCS Finals).
Team Sports - Playing team sports like basketball and football generally helps you on how to communicate with your team. It has the overall gameplay elements that are crucial for victory and it maintains healthy relationships with your friends too.
Tip #3: Proper Mentality
Climbing to Gold Rank can be sometimes frustrating. Sometimes we’re grouped with trolls, unskilled players, or even worse, toxic players. Arguing with those types of players will also make you one of them, which is bad.
Almost everyone has the "GIT GUD SKRUB" mentality. You don’t need to be good at the game to enjoy it. It’s a video game and you’re supposed to enjoy it no matter what.
A wise player once said, "You don’t play ranked to climb the ladder. You play ranked to improve your gameplay." I live by that motto when I play. When you win, then you win and find ways to improve. If you lose, try and figure out what went wrong that made you lose the game. Don’t go blaming your teammates first. Always start with yourself and find something that you did wrong that it caused the whole team fight to be a clown fiesta. Maybe you just flashed in the frontline and Blitzcrank hooked you or something.
Don’t be ignorant when you make your mistakes. Mistakes are sometimes the key points in learning a lesson. We learn from failure, not from success. Smart people learn from their mistakes. But real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.
“We all have dreams, but in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination , dedication, self-discipline, and effort”
- Jesse Owens (Four time Olympic Gold Medalist)