Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy, a former member of the Cloud9 Counter-Strike 2 roster, recently shared his thoughts on the crucial importance of training for young professional players. The champion of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 stressed that aspiring esports athletes should prioritize playing the game extensively, regardless of challenges.
Recalling myself, the only thing that helped was playing, no matter what. If you`re having a bad day, you think you`re not worthy of anything, still play. There`s nothing better than just training no matter what, playing through effort. That is, even when you don`t like playing, you need to, because if you want to achieve something, you must understand that it won`t always bring you pleasure.
You must have a routine. There will be days where you need to jump in and shoot bots, go into DM, something else, because you have to become a professional. And, unfortunately or fortunately, competition is so high now that if you don`t do this, someone else will. And that`s the question of a professional versus a regular player who plays at home on their PC every day. Just push yourself and train.
Perfecto also previously discussed what motivated him to start his esports career. Zalutskiy mentioned he initially played football but was unable to continue due to heart problems, which led him to start playing CS. He stated his driving philosophy: “Everything I do, I want to become the best at it.”
Finley Holt