To a lot of serious gamers, Xbox live tournaments sound like a very enjoyable way to pass the time and win money all at the same time, if you have the right skills. But this is not as easy as some people think. Being able to defeat your friends playing Halo does not mean you can have the same luck against people from all over the world. Below are some tips on how to best prepare yourself to compete.
Start Off Small
Playing the computer AI in single player tournaments is an excellent way to begin improving your gameplay. There is no value in competing against real players before you are ready and getting beaten almost instantly. It will only end up with you getting frustrated. Practice against the computer, slowly moving up in difficulty as you get better. Make sure you are always challenged, as nothing is learned from an easy win. Even if you lose more often than not, you will gain a lot of experience and practice time. In time you will even be able to play at the highest difficulty. Along the way, try your hand in the occasional online tournament to see how you fare against real people, as they often use different tactics and moves than a computer. In this way you can better judge just how much better you are getting.
Competing Online
Once you feel ready, you can start to compete on Xbox Live often. As with the single player, start off easy with one or two friends, and slowly work your way up, adding more and more competitors as you fine tune your skills. Again, make sure you always have a challenge. If you are winning easily you need to up the difficulty. The opposite is also true, though. Do not try for more than you can hope to handle, or you will lose before learning anything. While you play, be sure to keep a close eye on your opponents, particularly those that are better than you. Try to learn from their strategies and tactics to work on your own. It is great to learn from real people since you really cannot do this when playing against AI.
The Real Tournaments
Once you think you have enough practice you can try your hand at entering a big league tournament. Sometimes monetary prizes are awarded, sometimes it is just the prestige of saying you played and won. Sometimes you can even get good enough to enter national or international competitions. Keep in mind, though, that there are a select few people of this caliber, so do not feel bad if you do not make it. Just be proud of your ability to compete and win. Multiple websites host these competitions, and all vary. At times you may be able to compete against players of your own level, moving up as you improve, and others may be random.
Using these steps will do excellent in preparing you for actual Xbox live tournaments. Just keep working at it and improving and in time you will be as ready as anyone else to try. But never forget that no matter how skilled you may get there will always be a better player, so keep working.