9/27/2026
tl;dr: being top 0.1% in a video game is a real achievement, but the rank was never the valuable part. learning how to get good at something was.
to preface this, I’ve hit around top 700 in NA in both tft and league of legends (top 0.1%), and immortal in valorant (top 1%). completely different genres too: strategy, moba, and shooter (I love riot games a bit too much ig; creds/bloopers below :P)
I’ve basically downplayed this my entire life, but I actually think being top 0.1% in a video game is an insane achievement. it’s about as hard as being top 0.1% in chess, academia, or basically anything else competitive.
to me, the signal isn’t the rank. it’s that you figured out how to get really good at something competitive. games just make that process accessible to way more people.
that said, I don’t think games are worth much later in life (I basically only play for social reasons now). but before you’re 20ish? assuming you’re not trying to go pro or make a living streaming, I think they can be one of the highest signal things you can do.
why video games?
so why video games specifically? they have a few things going for them.
for one, your rank is extremely easy to measure. there’s no ambiguity about whether you’re “good” when there’s literally a number telling you exactly how many people are better than you.
they also have an insanely low barrier to entry as a kid (all you need is a basic computer + internet connection). compare that to sports, where you can get genetically or financially gapped before you even start.
and the feedback loops are ridiculously fast. play, mess up, figure out why, try again. you don’t have to wait months to find out if something works. you can see the delta next game.
I truly believe that anyone can hit top 0.1% in basically any video game given a year (or less if you’re goated!) and the right hunger to improve. here’s how.
how to get good
obviously when you first start playing you’re going to be trash. you need training wheels. your main objective is basically just absorbing as much game knowledge as possible and figuring out what is even going on.
after a few weeks though (assuming 2–3 hours a day), you should be somewhere near the average joe level.
congrats ur average.
this is where you can actually start getting good.
this is my version of the conscious competence model, with a deliberate correction step added. it basically describes how I think improvement works:
- unconscious incompetence – unaware of error
you don’t know what you don’t know - conscious incompetence – realization of error
oh wait I’m ass - deliberate correction – plan for improvement (the one I added)
figure out specifically why ur ass and what needs to change: a new technique, decision rule, habit, protocol, etc. - conscious competence – conscious improvement
ur doing the right thing now but unfortunately you still have to think about it. it eats up your attention - unconscious competence – unaware of your greatness
once again, you don’t know what you don’t know. but ur goated now, so things just happen naturally
if you want the long version, the four stages are from the science of rapid skill acquisition by peter hollins. I added a bonus correction step to fit my own needs.
where you get stuck
the biggest bottleneck here is usually somewhere between stages 1–3.
stuck at stage 1: your ego is too big and you never even consider that you’re wrong
stuck at stage 2: you correctly realize that you’re wrong but over-index on the wrong thing (it’s not always team gap)
stuck at stage 3: you correctly identify the problem but your plan to improve sucks (or you’re following the wrong advice)
being able to identify why a play was wrong and then convert that realization into a specific rule/protocol to apply next game is actually extremely difficult.
“that was bad” is useless.
“that was bad because I did x, next time when y happens I should do z instead” is something you can actually improve from.
which means learning is a skill too, and you can improve at it the same way you can get better at a game.
hundreds of tiny deltas
you basically repeat these 5 stages for every tiny part of the game. that’s where the delta between you and everyone else trying to climb comes from.
maybe you position 1% better. maybe your crosshair placement is slightly better. maybe you recognize one situation faster. maybe you know one matchup they don’t. maybe you make one fewer stupid decision every game.
none of these individually make you top 0.1%.
do it across hundreds of tiny things though, and suddenly there’s a massive gap.
the improvement also has to be extremely focused each game. trying to consciously improve more than 1–2 small things at once gets really messy unless ur a savant.
you can basically repeat this process all the way to top 1%. by then you should be advanced enough at the game (and at learning the game) that you can identify a lot of your own mistakes.
steal from people better than you
eventually though, learning entirely from yourself stops being enough.
you need to steal from people better than you.
watch what they do. figure out what they do differently. figure out why they do it differently. then steal it and run it through the same process until it becomes unconscious.
don’t blindly copy though. understand why it works, then adapt it to your situation.
for league that means watching pros, challenger players, or coaches you respect.
personally, the people I stole from:
league: my goats LS and veigarv2
tft: my heroes robinsongz and souless
valorant: woohoojin. despite the controversy, the content to learn from was great
for engineering or startups? same thing. look at the successful ones. what are they doing? what do they consistently not do? what do they understand that you don’t?
(in most cases, don’t take advice from people who have never been where you want to be)
if you actually follow this process for a year, I think you should be at least top 1%, if not pushing top 0.1%.
and I truly believe with every fiber of my being that with the right mindset, you can hit top 0.1% in basically any video game.
at some point though, you get more out of applying that same hunger to something outside the game.
the funny part is that getting good at the video game was never really the valuable skill.
learning how to get good at things was.
glhf :>