Jarge · @Jarge__
7th Nov 2015 from TwitLonger
My thoughts on the UK scene.
There's been some drama in the UK scene so I'm going to add my thoughts into the mix.
If UK players want to be successful they actually have to start trying to improve. This idea that UK players play for 10 hours everyday 6 days a week is actually ludicrous. Literally no UK player I am aware of actually does that so let's drop this idea that "we're trying just as hard as anyone else". No. You're not. If people truly wanted to be successful then they'd put in the effort. They would actually play 8+ soloQ games everyday and actually review them with the intent to improve. Please someone show me a match history of a player where they actually spent 8 hours a day practicing for more than 5 days in a row, sustained over a 2 week period.
Also, before people complain that "but we have school/college/work, we can't play for 8 hours a day we don't have time". That's also bullshit. When I first started seriously doing coaching in Challenger Series, I had a full-time job, but I still invested 8+ hours every day (literally 7 days a week with no day off for weeks/months) and the majority of my time in days off into improving my team and improving myself as a coach. I maintained this schedule for around 1.5 years until I got a job offer from Fnatic. But let's be clear - I had been coaching for 2 years before I even got a single pay cheque, improvement takes time and people should be patient.
Fact is, a lot (not all) of the people complaining that the UK scene isn't sustainable are people who essentially want to be played for doing their hobby. They can't compete on the EU scene because they never seriously invest in trying to improve and they feel like because they play 30 soloQ games a week that someone should pay them for it just for turning up to a LAN and coming 3rd.
Let's also address the EU involvement. When I was coaching FM, we had 2 EU players. This is because the team had higher aspirations than just UK scene. UK players that say that the involvement of EU players ruined the UK scene are literally just jealous of the fact that they were never good enough to make it in the first place. What the EU imports did, was raise the quality of the team as a whole which allowed those UK players to improve and compete in a better environment. This in turn raises the skill level of the UK players inside the team and forces UK players outside of it to step up and compete or simply lose.
This is the nature of competition. Either you're good enough or you get nothing. Asking to be paid for mediocrity is frankly embarrassing.
TL;DR: Step up, improve or stfu & gtfo. You are not owed anything. Go out and earn it.