[frakkingcylons]

That’s a big achievement to be honest, so who cares about the word they happened to use there. Takes a lot of focus and work to be that good at strategic games like League, Dota, or Starcraft.

Edit: Actually I think optimize is appropriate in that context too. To be that good, you have to min/max every game mechanic you can.

[MperorM]

I agree that it requires an enormous amount of focus and work. At least for Starcraft, I don't think most pro's are great because of explicitly min/maxing things.

Rather they are great because they subconsciously pick up on minute details to learn from in every match they watch and play. Ask a top player why they did some maneuver, and you'll often get an answer like: "Because it's good". There really hasn't been that much system 2 thought put into it.

Being great at a video game is mostly about cultivating an instinct that always makes the right decisions.

For what it's worth, I was grandmaster in starcraft and made a decent salary coaching lower rank players during my highschool years, so I feel my opinion carries some weight at least :)