Esports Players – Examples of S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Here are some examples of S.M.A.R.T. goals set by esports players at Esports Tower. Getting a winning tournament or leveling up your game doesn’t happen by chance. Smart players set S.M.A.R.T. goals for themselves so they have a gameplan to achieve their dreams.

Here are two examples of initial goals we’ll use to walk through this process:

1. I want to win a tournament.
2. I want to improve my performance.

This is a typical approach to creating goals, but both are very vague. With the current wording, the goals probably aren’t going to be attainable. The statements lack specifics, timelines, motivation, and a reality check.

Now, let’s use the S.M.A.R.T. goals formula to clarify both and create new and improved goals.

Goal 1: I want to win a tournament.

• Specific: I’ve recently joined a team of like-minded players with similar ranks to my own. Our manager started to sign us up for online tournaments with smaller prize pools. We’ve been practicing every day in preparation for the upcoming competition. I’d like to win 1 of the upcoming tournaments with my team.
• Measurable: In order to measure our progression, we will have to track 2 things. Our placement in each tournament and our win rate against each team we consistently run into. Because we will be competing in tournaments throughout the year, we are bound to run into many of the same teams. Tracking our win rate against these teams gives us a good idea of who we are particularly weak against and where we need to improve.
• Achievable: Our manager has us signed up to compete in multiple tournaments every month. The competition level varies for each, but we’re high enough rank ourselves that we have a fair shot at most of the tournaments for the year. I just need to make sure I’m holding myself and my teammates accountable when it comes to consistently practicing on our own time.
• Relevant: Since my ultimate goal is to sign to a professional esports org as a player, my track record in competition is one of the most, if not the most, important attribute to building my brand & resume.
• Time-Bound: Because there are so many tournaments to compete in throughout the year, I believe it’s a reasonable goal to shoot for 6-months to win 1 tournament.

Goal 2: I want to improve my performance.

• Specific: The last team I played for we never won any tournaments and to be honest I wasn’t too proud of my performance. I need to focus on improving my own individual performance so I can be an asset to my team. I’d like to be able to improve most of my in-game stats without additional downtime.
• Measurable: It’s fairly easy to improve most in-game stats by simply playing very slow and carefully, however that causes you to have a lot of downtime which means less total value. I want to focus on increasing 3 main in-game stats: K/D to 3.0, Time alive to 2min, and Accuracy to 60% while trying to maintain around 20 kills per 10 minutes of gameplay.
• Achievable: The average professional player has 25 kills per 10 minutes of gameplay while also having much higher in-game stats than me, so it’s very possible to achieve the goals I’m looking to achieve.
• Relevant: Although in-game stats aren’t the defining factor for how good you are as a player; they are a good baseline when comparing to the pros. If I can’t match the stats of even the lowest pro player, then that should be a good indicator of how much I still need to improve.
• Time-Bound: I don’t want to spend all of my focus in the long term on just improving stats, so I’ll shoot to achieve my goals in 3 months.

Once you go through and write your goals according to each S.M.A.R.T. characteristic, you can then combine and consolidate all the work you’ve done into one S.M.A.R.T. goal.

S.M.A.R.T. GOAL: I want to win a tournament.

• Description: I need to start to build my resume as a player. This means I need to have some tournament wins under my belt. I have the perfect opportunity to start winning some tournaments because I joined a new team. The competition is hard, but if we keep track of our tournament placement and win rate against teams we consistently play against, we have a good shot at taking the first-place title home on one of them.
• Milestone: We place 2nd in a tournament by end of Q1
• Deadline: End of Q2 (6 months)

S.M.A.R.T. GOAL: I want to improve my performance.

• Description: To achieve my ultimate goal of going pro, I’ll need to improve my skill as a player. I’ll start by focusing on improving my in-game statistics without adding any downtime. I’m shooting for a 3.0 K/D ratio, an average of 2 minutes alive, and a weapon accuracy of 60% while maintaining a minimum of 20 kills per 10 minutes of gameplay.
• Milestone: I achieve a weapon accuracy of 60% in the first month
• Deadline: End of Q1 (3 months)