Article written by: Matthew "dayV1D" David

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Introduction from JAYEL

For those of you who do not know dayV1D, he is a professional CSGO coach and trainer. He has worked with teams such as ORDER, Avant Gaming, Adaptation, Global eSports, and CLG. So, dayV1D has plenty of opinions and experiences to share with you on what he believes is necessary to being a professional. A lot of these tips are not only applicable to gaming, but even to life.

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Overcoming Defeat

Every pro player eventually learns that defeat is not the end, but the beginning of your journey to the next victory. It is an inevitable fact that you will eventually lose a match. Knowing that is a fact, are you going to spend your time feeling bad for yourself, or are you going to learn from your mistakes and move on to the next challenge? What sets champions apart from everyone else is their ability to overcome defeat when it hurts the most. 

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It is perfectly natural to feel sad after a tough loss, it’s the mark of a true competitor. That sad feeling shows the passion you have for the game and how much it means to you. I teach my players to allow themselves three hours of feeling sad, anything past that is wasted energy that could be used more efficiently. Instead of worrying about how much that loss hurts, spend that same energy on rewatching the demo. Learn everything you can from the demo and then put it into action. Focus on the next match and how you are going to apply what you learned to get the victory. You can't win what you have already lost, there's no use in thinking about what you can't change. Focus on what you can change so that you can continue improving. Losing and doing nothing about it will never help you achieve success.

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Never be that person who leaves TeamSpeak right after a loss. It is important to process what just happened so that you can take the necessary steps to move forward as a team. Just as much as you can’t let a loss ruin your day, it also shouldn’t just bounce off you like nothing. Accepting defeat is the most crucial step in overcoming it. You need to accept that you lost, not make excuses for why it happened. Instead of wasting breath on making excuses, use that breath on discussing how to avoid losing that way in the future. Your losses paint a picture of how your career can progress forward.

Overcoming defeat is a necessary ability to have a long successful career as a competitor. Losing is one of the most painful things for a professional player to deal with. Losing is an unavoidable certainty; So, letting it consume you is counter productive--running from it is also counter productive. If you treat every loss as a lesson, you will never lose again. True champions do what it takes to rise from the ashes of defeat and conquer their next obstacle to achieve the success they desire.

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If you want to see some of dayV1D's previous tips on professional behavior, check out his tweets:

1. Punctuality: The fact or quality of being on time
2. Learning from your mistakes: Take improvement into your own hands
3. Self Improvement: Doing everything you can to be the best version of yourself
4. Communication: The most fundamental part of teamwork
5. Professional Behavior: Conducting yourself in a way you can look back on and be proud of

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If you are looking for some team or individual coaching lessons, be sure to sign-up with dayV1D in his Discord. Link here!

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