Gaming
esports
How hard is it to become a Dota pro? UK streamer Sheepsticked explains
From struggling to raise her MMR to the 'gross comments' she deals with online, Alex 'Sheepsticked' Roberts reveals the hurdles she's having to overcome to make it to the top.
Becoming one of the best esports players in the world is hard. You’ve got to prove your mechanical skill, and combine it with a knowledge of the game that surpasses everyone else’s. Then you’ve got to find a team, players that bring out the best in you as you do the same for them. Communication and being tilt-proof and the mind games of high-level play are thrown into the mix, and this is all before the stress and pressure of playing in front of a live audience – who are possibly cheering on your opponents.
“A lot of people laugh when someone says they want to go pro – after all it's an insanely hard thing to achieve and requires a lot of hard work and dedication to the game. Well, I want to do it anyway.”
MMR problems
There’s more than a few hurdles for Sheepsticked to make it over, and she’s not naive to the challenges of them. After announcing her ambitions, her community, friends, and a portion of the Reddit community came out in support, but those challenges are always there. Sitting at roughly 5.5k MMR, Sheepsticked isn’t the highest rated player you’ll ever see – and she knows it.
Since the original post, she tells us that she’s improved, saying: “I definitely feel like I've gotten better, and understood the game more.” Working with high MMR friends, watching replays, and using educational tools (she happily points out how much D2Bowie’s videos have been a crucial part of that) are helping her make progress. But, “embarrassingly,” in Sheepsticked’s own words, her MMR hasn’t changed.
“I know that I'm doing something wrong, I know that I'm not playing as well as I should be.”
And it’s hard to know exactly where you’re going wrong, too. Practising last hitting, memorising cooldowns, it’s all a series of mechanical skills that you can improve, but pinpointing those areas feels like a cycle of self-improvement that doesn’t always get to the root of the problem.
“The last open qualifier, we lost, and we lost because I didn't farm enough. I can go into my next game and farm really well, but then I might still lose, and I'll be like, 'why did I lose this game? Oh, it's because I got caught out of position.' Then I need to fix that problem, but every game is going to be different, right, so I'm not sure what my main problem is. I think it's my game sense being pretty horrible, and then I just stop farming.“
Sheepsticked at The International
© Alex 'Sheepsticked' Roberts
Whenever a woman shows up on Twitch or Reddit, some people are instantly just like ‘oh my god’. They'll talk about how horny they are or something, and it's disgusting.
In Dota 2, Marielle ‘Layla’ Louise became the first female player to compete in a Major main qualifier just last year, but the road forward is otherwise unpaved. When looking at comments online, Sheepsticked has noticed a difference in how some people react.
“Whenever a woman shows up on Twitch or Reddit, some people are instantly just like ‘oh my god’. They'll talk about how horny they are or something, and it's disgusting, honestly. Every time a woman shows up, they're just really gross about the whole thing. You have that, you have people that meet you in game, and if they find out you're a girl they'll just completely ignore you.”
Anyone that flames me, I just want to prove them wrong
It’s impossible not to notice, when speaking to Sheepsticked, how she’s aware of how far she has to go. She’s also aware that she’s not quite a household name, she’s aware there’s a lot to be done, and she’s aware that she still has to prove herself.
Her story so far isn’t one of overcoming immense odds to find her throne – we’re not quite at a point where Sheepsticked is a commonly known name in all Dota 2 circles. In fact, it’s a reminder that there are people out there, many of whom you’ve never seen before, with a dream to go pro. Many won’t make it, and Sheepsticked says that her only regret in announcing her ambitions is that she doesn’t want to be known as “that person who posted that Twitlonger, got a bunch of attention, and then just failed,” but that’s not going to stop her, or anyone else who has done the same thing.
“Anyone that flames me, I just want to prove them wrong.” Going pro is, undoubtedly, a lofty height to be aiming for, but we all love an underdog – those stories of someone talented making the leap of faith that the rest of us can’t.
Keep on dreaming
Many of the people in Sheepsticked’s position won’t make it. There’s no doubting that there are only so many players who can play in the Majors.
But, as long as Sheepsticked does her best, as long as she improves and works hard, does it matter? Closing out our chat together, I asked Sheepsticked if she had any parting words. Not every aspiring pro player is going to make it, but without dreams and goals, without supporting those with a passion, we wouldn’t have those pro players in the first place.
“If people express interest, or dreams, or goals, they're trying to do something, and I think a lot of people don't respect that. At least they're trying, at least they have something. People that put other people down, for whatever reason, I don't know why they do it, but putting down other people's goals is sad, I guess.
“Why would you flame someone for saying they want to do something with their life? At least they're trying to do something. That's more than can be said for a lot of people who just let life pass.“
If you want to follow Sheepsticked and her progress, she streams six days a week, taking a break on Saturdays, over on twitch.tv/sheepsticked.
