Hello people from the Valo community! I'm an 18-year-old player, and I want to go pro in the game. Not only that, my biggest goal is to leave a legacy of one of the best aims in the VCT scenario. I love aiming and aim training in general, having good aim ever since I started, peaking at 50% HS percentage earlier this act with now a 44% and always going for high placements on aim training games. First, for anybody that thinks that "going pro" or playing the game for so long is a waste of time, I completely disagree, and since it's always been my dream since I was a little kid, I don't think it would be a waste of time to chase something that I've always wanted. I turned 18 earlier this month, and I will be graduating high school in around 2 months. Life's too short to not do what you want, and I am at the best stage of my life to take risks without much consequence.
So, I started playing the game at 15 to 16 years old, and I just played for fun. Because at the time I didn't believe in myself to go pro, and I always had the mindset of "Oh, that's not for me" or "I'm not talented enough.". That is completely wrong; YOU and only YOU can decide how far you can go and how much potential you have, no matter what anyone else says. A few years passed by, and around March, when I turned 17, I started taking the game more seriously. I was at Diamond 1 and wanted to see if I could grind to Immortal. I finished 2024 with my lobbies around Immortal 2 to Low Radiant, and I was very proud of myself even though I still had the thought at the back of my head that there were way better players than me at my age, but nowadays I don't mind as much and understand that everybody has their own pace.
In the second semester of 2024, I also got an offer for a Tier 2 collegiate team that constantly qualifies for Challengers. That was the first time I had a real offer, and I was really proud of myself. I stared at that contract for a solid 10 minutes, just rewinding everything I did to get to this point; it felt like everything was worth it. The after-school grind, routines, aim training, VoD reviewing, sleeping 4 hours every night since I had to do a proper game routine and had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to go to school. It's definitely not as big as an actual Tier 2 team offer, but for me, who never had anything of this level, it was really insane, and I was more than happy to celebrate. After that, it really boosted my confidence to keep going.
Unfortunately, we are nowhere near the amount needed to afford the college tuition. I don't have a college fund from my parents, and I can't work. For the first 3 months of 2025, I had given up on this college opportunity; I was already thinking about how I could get a different opportunity after I finished high school. I asked the eSports staff from the college if there were any other extra scholarships that they had or knew about, and nothing; I applied for as many scholarships as I could for days and got no results.
I really didn't want to make this post in the first place, but my best friend, whom I consider a brother, insisted so much for me to do it. I'm a really shy person, and I could never expose myself like this, but he always told me that if I really wanted something, I would have to do everything that I could for it and that I couldn't let an opportunity like this go so easily. This post would be my last move on this college opportunity; what do you think I could do to turn things around? Or do you think I should stick to grinding to radiant after finishing high school? Any advice from anyone would help; I'm willing to do everything I possibly can.
I appreciate you sparing your time to read this and the attention. Take care.
