This article is proudly sponsored by ProGuides.
Esports coaching can be a tough concept to get your head around. In traditional sports, like basketball and baseball, physical and athletic mechanics are so crucial to separate the wheat from the chaff.
That isn’t the same case in video games. Yes, there are some physical aspects to esports superiority, but the greatest League of Legends players are typically also the smartest. So how does a coach intersect with that dynamic? How can good coaching affect a player’s skillset? ProGuides, a website that offers 55 on-demand coaching courses in games like Fortnite, League, and Hearthstone from some of the biggest names on Twitch and in esports, offered to weigh in.
“The quickest way to get better is tool refinement,” a coach who works for ProGuides said. “Calibrating a mouse, or a refresh rate could go a long way in performing better. It’s near-instant. It’s crazy how many players are suffering losses from just bad settings.”
That makes sense. The first thing we do as competitive players is establish bad habits. Some of those are broken when we eventually understand that it’s not smart to dive past every tower we see on Summoner’s Rift. But the more ephemeral stuff—the suboptimal mouse sensitivity that’s become second nature to us—often requires an external force to drill us into better play.
After that initial tune-up, ProGuides serves as a lasting reservoir of knowledge to help players turn into the best versions of themselves. Imagine having constant access to a whole database worth of knowledge and being able to review the tape with some of the best esports coaches in the world who can go over your feints, attacks, retreats, and builds in exacting detail. It truly is like being on the roster of a triple-A esports organization. The coaches will offer you a winning strategy and they’ll also make sure you know what to avoid and what bad habits to drill out of your game.
“Map selection, for example, is critical to wins,” the coach said. “Cadence, pressure, weapon selection—a ton of stuff. Players get better, faster, when they know what not to do.”
Naturally, ProGuides enforces a strict selection process for those they bring on as coaches. The company requires its staff to reach a certain ranking threshold in their game of expertise, as well as submitting a highlight reel and completing a thorough interview to make sure their play passes the eye test.
You can read a more thorough interview with a ProGuides coach or check out the service yourself.
