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How to Coach All Games Without Knowing Any

Jake Utities

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Some Qualifications:

St Louis Park Esports Coach (5 years) 

    • First HS esports program in MN
    • (HSEL) National Championship Winner
      • With 10+ teams qualified for nationals 
    • 57 player program

RLCS General Manager (Alpine Esports):

    • Top 8 NA finishes at every Regional Event

Varsity Rocket League Coach: UMN 

    • Won MNSU Rockstar LAN
    • Won Northstar LAN
    • Top 5 Regular season finish in Big 10 

Other:

Creator of MNVL

Executive Director of MN Esports @ Fenworks

Founding Member of ISEA 

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Understanding the Pyramid of Cohesion

  • Credit: Caleb Hallauer (Doctoral Candidate: 
    • Based on the last 50 years of sports research
    • Studying effects of technology on the brain
  • Similar to Maslow Needs Hierarchy 
  • Consistency
    • Base - Nothing without it
    • This will be fluid
  • Support
    • Feeling of belonging
    • Necessary in comms
    • Coaches play a huge role
  • Trust
    • Predicting the future
  • Cohesion
    • Never perfect, always in flux

Cohesion

Trust

Support

Consistency

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Building Consistency

Everything else depends on consistency

    • Roles
    • Practice Times
    • Seriousness
    • Communication

Macro and Micro level

ThePhoto by PhotoAuthor is licensed under CCYYSA.

ThePhoto by PhotoAuthor is licensed under CCYYSA.

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Building Support

Sense of belongingness 

Understanding personal perspectives

Communication

How can you rephrase your wording

    • Show perspective
    • Show respect
    • Show support

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Building Trust

Means something different in gaming: 

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"Being able to accurately predict what your teammates are going to do"

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Cohesion

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Understanding Cognitive Load

Brain is a processor

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How fast you make a decision is based on how fast you can process the relevant information

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Reducing Cognitive Load

  • What can we do in esports to reduce our players cognitive load and reduce their decision-making time?
    • Build consistency in communications
    • Build consistency in play 
    • Build trust in teammates
      • "Accurately predict what they are going to do"
    • Build muscle memory
    • Know your set plays or your openings

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ThePhoto by PhotoAuthor is licensed under CCYYSA.

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Proper Goal Setting

  • DUMB
    • We want to get better as a team! 
  • Specific
    • We want to get better at pistol rounds (Valorant)
  • Measurable
    • We want to win pistol rounds 100% of the time
  • Attainable
    • We want to win pistol rounds 75% of the time
  • Relevant
    • We want to win pistol rounds 75% of the time in our scrims and matches
  • Time oriented
    • We want to win pistol rounds 75% of the time in our scrims and matches during the next two weeks

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Intentional PRACTICE

Most teams scrim wrong (including pros)

  • Design your practice to achieve YOUR GOALS

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Example: 

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  • Goal: 
    • We want to win pistol rounds 75% of the time in our scrims and matches during the next two weeks

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  • Intentional practice: 
    • Standardize your buy (consistency)
    • Pistol accuracy drills
    • Play an entire match where you only do your round 1 buy. 
    • Work with another team to do a full practice of pistol rounds

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Bonus: Tilt Control

Cortisol! 

Emotions:

Fear > ALL

Anger: 

Reversion

Lack of Creativity

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Questions