I don't think a lot of the competitive players are necessarily athletes with late night practices. Not trying to sound like an asshole by saying that tho

Ive also kind of wondered this. I play a LOT of hockey but as a competitive person I really like comp TF2. The only thing holding me back is the scheduling of matches and all of that. Its a shame. I just don't really have the time and I think that's a problem with a lot of the invite players as they start to go on with their lives outside of TF2. They run out of time to play TF2

a lot of players don't go to both school and work. competitive gaming is time consuming so if you don't have the time, that's too bad. my last few seasons as a starter, i only had a part time job and was a part time student.

you may sacrifice a lot as a competitive gamer. it's not a misconception.

I take a 30 minute - 1 hour break as soon as I get home and then I start doing homework and studying until like 15-30 minutes before scrim time to warm up. If I have time after scrims, I would study or do something for another day. If I haven't finished my homework or study yet, I would do that in between scrims.

I've noticed a direct correlation to my school attendance and grades to my time spent playing TF2, and let me tell you it's not a positive one.

To answer your question though, you have to be very diligent about your work. Only you know your schedule. If you start doing your schoolwork the moment you are free from school or work, and you don't finish in time to play TF2, then you simply don't have time to play TF2. At that points it's up to you to decide what's more important.

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I've had to move to stop playing the last season (and the next) due to my work schedule and school. I want to be on a team, but I can't make the scrim/match times. All I can do is play MGE and the occasional pug.

There's not really a good answer to your question. It's the biggest problem comp tf2 faces right now imo. If you can't regularly get 3-4 nights off between sunday and thursday 9-12 you basically can't play on a team. At least not a mid-level+ and serious one. It really sucks, but without an infrastructure built into the game to play organized matches we'll always have the problem.

How many morning buses have you missed? :3

Put your school/social life first. If you don't have time to play tf2 full time, you can still play 6v6 in pugs mid day/late at night. I've personally taken off a few seasons just to focus on school. Now that i've got my job goin for me I can play tf2 and balance things a bit better.

Another tip I can give, is to be forthright with your teammates about your schedule and find something that works for everyone.

Start up computer, and the internet is only to be used for homework or listen to music. Only when I finish all my assignments, I open up Steam/Skype/-whatever else you open- (to avoid distractions). If you have tons of homework, then take a break every now and then, grab a snack, stretch, maybe watch a video or two, then back to work.

Video games don't get you far in life. Also, most importantly... Don't forget, it's just a hobby.

becoming invite in life is more important than becoming invite in tf2.

If you're playing a sport for school/rec, and its practice isn't immediately after school, you just have to bear it and wait until offseason to play. All of last year I stressed myself out because I had to balance going to school, afterschool practice, come home, bullshit my way through homework (don't do it, please just don't) and depending on the day, go to club practice or try and schedule a scrim. Throw on day-to-day things like relationships and running errands and you basically have zero time to do anything.

i work 40 hrs a week + gf of 7 years + 16 credits/semester. that's been my schedule for the past 4 years. just get your important shit done using having fun (tf2, drinking, heroin, etc) as motivation to bang that shit out

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I can't play league TF2 since my parents require me to go to bed at 11 pm EST. If you can't play until at least 12 AM, you can't play. I don't even do anything besides school and 9 hours of work a week.

I work 40 hours a week and just reserve 3 nights per week for TF2. I am playing on a more casual team so it is also not a problem to cancel a night every other week.
To answer your question: It is probably just about priorities. If you want to play competitive TF2 more than do other things, you will make room for it.

Unless you truly have a ridiculously busy schedule where you're taking 5 AP classes, playing sports, and working you can probably make time for yourself to play. You just have to be smart about it and plan ahead. As soon as you get home from school start working on your homework and if you have a light load one night get an early start on something. Make sure you turn in all of your work in on time to get maximum credit for your work. Now if only I could follow these pretty obvious tips myself... <\3

my first two seasons of invite i was pretty booked, it was also my freshman year in college. i had school from 7-3 and work from 3-9 everynight. I had time in between classes to finish homework at the library, but i'd still make time to play with my team when i got home. keep a balance, if tf2 is taking away from your real life, call it quits.

I think a key is finding a team with a similar situation. My team is full of guys in similar situations to me (full-time work, family, school, etc). We play together about 3-4 hours a week total. We are probably on pace to make invite in 2024, but we're having fun together and doing so in a way that doesn't encroach on our other responsibilities in life.

Do you want to play comp TF2? YOU CAN DO IT, JUST DO IT.
Do you want to make invite in a few seasons? Then you're probably out of luck.

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there's a lot of people at the top right now that don't really play that much at all-- but at one point they had to put in the grind to get where they are.

it takes a lot of work to get your mechanics in an fps game sharp. it's something a lot of people here take for granted. I'm of the opinion that doing that though should be step 1 since all it really takes is time.

Quality time is much more important than 'lots of time'. Playing will eventually give you the necessary experience to recognize situations and react accordingly. Once you understand situations and start making good decisions, you should focus on improving individual elements each time you play. For example, work on how to be more efficient at mid fights, or how to push spire more efficiently, etc. Too many teams just go through the motions without ever focusing on improving the little things. TF2 is 75% teamwork and decision-based, and 25% raw DM-based. Yes, I pulled those numbers from my behind, but the gist is that you can spend a bit of time getting yourself to a point where your ability to DM is adequate. Beyond that, you need to play enough to recognize situations and react properly. For some people, that's 2-3 hours a week. For others, it's 5 hours a day.

As far as schedule goes, it's important to find teammates who are as into improving as yourself. Being on a team that wants to spend 3 hours a night working on things when you only have time to spend an hour will not go well. On the flip side, being on a team that wants to play an hour or two a week will become frustrating for you if you want to grind it out and play 2-3 hours a night.

Most of the upper invite players have enough knowledge and experience with the game to play an hour or two a night, 3 or maybe 4 nights a week and stay at the top. I'm not sure how open/IM/main players feel about their own need to practice.

Smaka pretty much summed it up. In between his advice you need to find a happy medium of where you want to be skill wise in the game and what your schedule allows. If you want to be invite, you will most likely need to invest a lot more time into the game. While individual skill can come faster to some than others - learning to playing smart, making proper calls, and how to play as a TRUE team is something that takes time and dedication. Finding a core group of players to either grow with, or if you are lucky enough to get on an already established team that can teach you are your best bet.

I'd love one more shot at invite, but realistically i'll never make it back. I typically play 1 or so hours a night, 3 nights a week which for me works perfect on my open team. So really i play anywhere from 5-8 hours any given week. A lot of main/invite players (at least the ones i have paid attention to on my friends list) average 20+ hours a week...some going all the way to 30+. When you sit back and look at that, to some it can almost be a full time job. I work 50+ hours, am married with a kid...and even then i struggle to get on some nights when my team needs me...so once again, be realistic with what you can contribute without over committing yourself.

I have a 6 year old. So, I can't really leave the house at night, and he goes to bed at 9 :/ So wtf else am I gonna do besides play video games. I didn't play comp tf2 while I was in college though - simply chose to do other things.

It all comes down to how much time you're willing to commit, and how much sleep you're willing to sacrifice. For me that's a lot of lost sleep.

When I played fall soccer combined with school I simply didnt play at all that season. But honestly just get your important shit done then do whatever.

I've found it difficult to find 6 people that want to go over the basics or Team DM stuff like focused targeting and having a role for each person at each intersection. I find a lot of people just want scrim scrim scrim and never end up working out the stuff that counts at every point, every fight.

I think the key is to find 5 other people with the same work ethic as yourself and have the same goals. WHich is tough to do, hence the constant turnover of teams every season.

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