It is all about perception.

Less than 25% of players will perform their best at a World Championships.

Emile De Buin of META4MANCE at the recent Esport Africa & Sports Innovation Summit held at Emperor's Palace on 13-14 August 2018, Johannesburg, South Africa, gave a most thought provoking presentation.

There are few who do not know Emile, but for those that do not, Emile has worked in high performance and youth development swimming since 2006. He has produced and assisted national champions as well as swimmers that have represented their national teams at the Olympic Games, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, World Youth Championships and African Games. He has coached Olympic Gold Medalist, Cameron Van Der Burgh. He has also worked as a strength and conditioning coach. Emile has also represented the South African national swimming team as a coach. He is a certified NLP practitioner and Life Coach.
Many of Emile's statements struck home, and are as applicable to esports as what they are to the more traditional sports.

In essence, even though the event remains the same, the actual meaning of the event may be interpretated differently by those viewing/participating in the event.

This is no doubt the reason why you can find people at an event who love the event, while for others they will find nothing good about it.

Obviously those that win a championship, get awarded a medal, and earn all sorts of accolades will tend to have a very different opinion to the Registered Player who does not win a game.

However, in my opinion, it is not just the final results that colour the opinion of the participants. It is the entire upbringing and conditioning of the person that is far more influential.

It is easy to remain upbeat while you are on top and winning, and a little more difficult to do so when you are taking a pounding and it seems as though very little is going right.

Some may call it 'character', but, in truth, it is all down to mental strength and knowing what your goals are.

It is probably more important to develop mental strength than any other type of strength as without mental strength, a person will just flounder.

It is especially important to have such in mind sports, for those willing to get into the Protea Team and attend IESF World Championships, it is even more important.

Take the opportunity to develop every aspect of your game if you want to be great.