4 ms·

last 5%? I've been top 1% and slightly below 1% at peak in video games that have milions of gamers and I wouldnt say that top 5% is filled with "truly talented

last 5%? I've been top 1% and slightly below 1% at peak in video games that have milions of gamers and I wouldnt say that top 5% is filled with "truly talented people" Top 5% is just decent people, but they are very, very, very far from top 0.1, 0.5%, etc. At 1% I've been faaaaar from 0.5%, 0.1% people.

wing-_-nuts 3y ago
I'm in the top 15 bf4 tankers in the US. I run a very unique loadout that's very specific to my PTFO playstyle and the most common threats I deal with. It has glaring weaknesses that few ever exploit, but if you knew the game and actually tried to counter me, you absolutely could. Sometimes, the .001% have simply found their particular niche in the ecosystem
- hirvi74 3y ago
  I miss that game so much. What's the server population like these days? What is your load out? I was a Jet main.
  - wing-_-nuts 3y ago
    Ah, there's probably still 500 players still playing on PSN. Probably the same on XBL and maybe 2x that on PC I'd guess. The only problem I see is a 'dead sea' effect, where a lot of the folks still playing are very good, and the games can be lopsided and not fun for the average player. I hate to see them stomp on average dudes. I always hold back capturing the last objective, and I never shoot into deployment even if I'm taking fire. The game should be fun and fair for everyone. As I said, I'm a tanker. I run smoke screen, thermal camo, and LMG. It's an insanely fun play style because everyone relies on their minimap and thermal optics and I'm basically a 70 ton ghost on the battlefield. It's crazy how easy it is to sneak up behind enemy armor or juke incoming shells because everyone is looking for a white blob or a red marker on their map. Also, given I'm almost unspotable, aircraft tend to leave me alone unless i'm dealing with a pro jet pilot that's looking for me. Sometimes I will piss off the enemy team and by the 3rd strafing run I'm like 'wow bud, you really got nothing better to do with your day, huh?'
threatofrain 3y ago
The world of video games can't be compared with anything else — except sports — in terms of competitiveness. If you're in the top 32 you're in the A-list of celebrities in that niche, and if you're top 64 you're a second-tier celebrity. Anything after that and it's hard to get paid. Imagine a country where only the top 64 surgeons get paid.
- vanattab 3y ago
  No one is talking about getting paid only becoming skilled in some domian.
  - threatofrain 3y ago
    Yes, and becoming a professional in a domain is a heuristic for tiering skill. The reason why OP is so dismissive to the top 1% is because they're not good to break into the industry.
- TehShrike 3y ago
  This is a function of the market for a particular skill, not the skill distribution within that market. The skill distribution for surgeons is ~the same as the skill distribution for baseball. The reason surgeons get paid to work as professionals is because there is demand for people who can perform surgery.
kulahan 3y ago
I'm no good anymore, but in the VERY early days of SC2, I was good enough to occasionally get matched up by the ranking system with players like WhiteRa and Idra. Shocking how much better they were than me. Technically in the same league, but in terms of skill it wasn't even close. The top .1% really are something special in these types of cases. Pretty neat stuff.
- karmakaze 3y ago
  I just looked and the top 4% of the SC2 ladder is Master+, which I consider to be quite an accomplishment. At the same time, there's so much range of skill within the master's leagues as well as even in the Grandmaster (top 200 players in each region). Even the difference between the top 5 pros and next 10 are visible in matches. This reminds me of the range of skills in Go (board game), from absolute beginner 30-20k (kyu) beginners, 19k-10k casual, 9k-1k amateur (me), then 1-7d advanced amateur (dan), then 1-9p (pro dan). Each few 'stones' of difference can typically squash or run circles around the other. So many orders of magnitude.
  - kulahan 3y ago
    It's kinda fascinating, isn't it? Small adjustments make such a massive difference. I had a similar experience in League of Legends. I'm no good at that game, but a streamer who was a backup for cloud9 (a support player; I forget who, but his name was kinda edgy iirc??) played with his viewers sometimes. I was a support main at the time, and I just remember feeling like he was more dangerous than his ADC in terms of pure damage. How? It's not possible. It's so confusing. I never figured out how he was so successful with his extreme aggression in lane, but I was utterly fascinated.
jwestbury 3y ago
Likewise -- I played in CAL-M in Counter-Strike back in the day. This statement dates me, I realize, but for those who aren't aware, CAL was the top online Counter-Strike league, and CAL-M was the second tier. IIRC, there were ~10 teams in CAL-I, the top tier, and about 40 teams in CAL-M, separated into multiple regions. (Lower tiers were CAL-IM, i.e., intermediate, and CAL-O, i.e., open - anyone could join CAL-O, but getting past that required promotion.) Anyway, point is, I was probably in the top ~1000 Counter-Strike players in North America in the early to mid aughts. But the gap between CAL-M and CAL-I was just ridiculous -- we're talking about the gap between a college sports team and a pro team. The average CAL-M team wouldn't win a single match in a CAL-I season. So, yeah - the gap is increasingly large the closer you get to the top of a given pursuit.

wing-_-nuts 3y ago

I'm in the top 15 bf4 tankers in the US. I run a very unique loadout that's very specific to my PTFO playstyle and the most common threats I deal with. It has glaring weaknesses that few ever exploit, but if you knew the game and actually tried to counter me, you absolutely could. Sometimes, the .001% have simply found their particular niche in the ecosystem

hirvi74 3y ago
I miss that game so much. What's the server population like these days? What is your load out? I was a Jet main.
- wing-_-nuts 3y ago
  Ah, there's probably still 500 players still playing on PSN. Probably the same on XBL and maybe 2x that on PC I'd guess. The only problem I see is a 'dead sea' effect, where a lot of the folks still playing are very good, and the games can be lopsided and not fun for the average player. I hate to see them stomp on average dudes. I always hold back capturing the last objective, and I never shoot into deployment even if I'm taking fire. The game should be fun and fair for everyone. As I said, I'm a tanker. I run smoke screen, thermal camo, and LMG. It's an insanely fun play style because everyone relies on their minimap and thermal optics and I'm basically a 70 ton ghost on the battlefield. It's crazy how easy it is to sneak up behind enemy armor or juke incoming shells because everyone is looking for a white blob or a red marker on their map. Also, given I'm almost unspotable, aircraft tend to leave me alone unless i'm dealing with a pro jet pilot that's looking for me. Sometimes I will piss off the enemy team and by the 3rd strafing run I'm like 'wow bud, you really got nothing better to do with your day, huh?'

threatofrain 3y ago

The world of video games can't be compared with anything else — except sports — in terms of competitiveness. If you're in the top 32 you're in the A-list of celebrities in that niche, and if you're top 64 you're a second-tier celebrity. Anything after that and it's hard to get paid. Imagine a country where only the top 64 surgeons get paid.

vanattab 3y ago
No one is talking about getting paid only becoming skilled in some domian.
- threatofrain 3y ago
  Yes, and becoming a professional in a domain is a heuristic for tiering skill. The reason why OP is so dismissive to the top 1% is because they're not good to break into the industry.
TehShrike 3y ago
This is a function of the market for a particular skill, not the skill distribution within that market. The skill distribution for surgeons is ~the same as the skill distribution for baseball. The reason surgeons get paid to work as professionals is because there is demand for people who can perform surgery.

kulahan 3y ago

I'm no good anymore, but in the VERY early days of SC2, I was good enough to occasionally get matched up by the ranking system with players like WhiteRa and Idra. Shocking how much better they were than me. Technically in the same league, but in terms of skill it wasn't even close. The top .1% really are something special in these types of cases. Pretty neat stuff.

karmakaze 3y ago
I just looked and the top 4% of the SC2 ladder is Master+, which I consider to be quite an accomplishment. At the same time, there's so much range of skill within the master's leagues as well as even in the Grandmaster (top 200 players in each region). Even the difference between the top 5 pros and next 10 are visible in matches. This reminds me of the range of skills in Go (board game), from absolute beginner 30-20k (kyu) beginners, 19k-10k casual, 9k-1k amateur (me), then 1-7d advanced amateur (dan), then 1-9p (pro dan). Each few 'stones' of difference can typically squash or run circles around the other. So many orders of magnitude.
- kulahan 3y ago
  It's kinda fascinating, isn't it? Small adjustments make such a massive difference. I had a similar experience in League of Legends. I'm no good at that game, but a streamer who was a backup for cloud9 (a support player; I forget who, but his name was kinda edgy iirc??) played with his viewers sometimes. I was a support main at the time, and I just remember feeling like he was more dangerous than his ADC in terms of pure damage. How? It's not possible. It's so confusing. I never figured out how he was so successful with his extreme aggression in lane, but I was utterly fascinated.

jwestbury 3y ago

Likewise -- I played in CAL-M in Counter-Strike back in the day. This statement dates me, I realize, but for those who aren't aware, CAL was the top online Counter-Strike league, and CAL-M was the second tier. IIRC, there were ~10 teams in CAL-I, the top tier, and about 40 teams in CAL-M, separated into multiple regions. (Lower tiers were CAL-IM, i.e., intermediate, and CAL-O, i.e., open - anyone could join CAL-O, but getting past that required promotion.) Anyway, point is, I was probably in the top ~1000 Counter-Strike players in North America in the early to mid aughts. But the gap between CAL-M and CAL-I was just ridiculous -- we're talking about the gap between a college sports team and a pro team. The average CAL-M team wouldn't win a single match in a CAL-I season. So, yeah - the gap is increasingly large the closer you get to the top of a given pursuit.