Level up to greater brain longevity and mental agility by learning from the youngest sport of them all – esports.
JOSEPH MARQUEZ’S HANDS are a blur. His right thumb slides from button to button, his left thumb shifting between angles mere degrees apart on a circumference the size of a 50c piece. He’s just seconds into his Super Smash Bros. Melee contest against Justin McGrath, 25 – and this is not going well.
Marquez, 27, is performing 325 actions per minute, or five inputs every second. That requires processing visual information onscreen, reacting, contemplating, strategising, and executing– all within milliseconds. His fingers slam buttons, unleashing a flurry of moves. But it’s not enough. Marquez, the oldest star left in last August’s Evo 2018 Melee tourney, falls, slipping into the losers bracket.
He doesn’t dwell on that. “I try not to think when I’m playing,” says Marquez, known as Mang0. And that strategy has worked for a decade. He is a star for Team Cloud9, a top squad in the R10 billion world of competitive gaming, better known as esports. Marquez entered his first tournament in 2007, won his first national crown a year later, and has been among the best ever since.
But he plays a sport whose players have a short shelf life. Traditional sports stress mind and body, but esports are mostly mental. They challenge your brain, especially its knowledge centres, object- perception hubs, and learning and processing engines. The reaction time and efficiency of these systems begin to diminish naturally in your mid-20s, which may be why esports are dominated by people in their early 20s. That means that Marquez may be nearing game over. Last year, he finished a career-low sixth in the world Melee rankings.
Denne historien er fra July 2019-utgaven av Men's Health South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra July 2019-utgaven av Men's Health South Africa.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
CAN YOU REMIX YOUR MINDSET?
YOU KNOW MUSIC ALTERS MOOD. NOW A NEW APP PROMISES THE RIGHT TRACKS CAN SOOTHE STRESS, BOOST PRODUCTIVITY AND LEVEL UP YOUR GYM GAINS.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET REALLY SO ?
AND DOES IT REALLY FIGHT OFF DISEASE? WE LOOK AT THE DATA.
THE SEMI-COMPLETE USER'S GUIDE TO...YOUR LUNGS
THEY POWER A WORKOUT, FILTER OUT INVADERS AND WORK FOR US 24/7-UNLESS GERMS, POLLUTANTS, BAD LUCK OR OUR OWN NEGLECT GETS IN THE WAY. TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND DISCOVER HOW TO HELP THEM OUT.
ACTION MAN
THERE WAS NO MIRACLE FIX FOR TIMOTHY FAIRWEATHER'S HEAVIER PROBLEMS. THE SECRET: TAKING SMALL ACTIONS EVERY DAY TO BUILD UP TO MASSIVE RESULTS.
THE MUSCLE SPRINT
CRUSH ALL MAJOR MUSCLE GROUPS, BLAST CALORIES AND SUPERCHARGE YOUR CARDIO WITH THIS DUMBBELL WORKOUT, WHICH HAS AN INTENSE 55-REP LADDER SCHEME THAT MINIMISES REST AND MAXIMISES FUN.
THE ULTIMATE SUMMER BODYWEIGHT BURNER
BUILD MUSCLE AND STRENGTH AND CHALLENGE YOUR COORDINATION AND ATHLETICISM WITH THIS NO-EQUIPMENT WORKOUT.
RISE OF THE BEASTS
THIS YEAR'S MILESTONE TENTH EDITION OF OUR COVER GUY SEARCH DREW 413 GUYS WHO EMBODY SELFLESSNESS, GRIT AND PERSEVERANCE. THEIR ANIMALISTIC DEVOTION TO FITNESS AND TALES OF TRIUMPH WILL INSPIRE YOU TO GREATNESS.
...I LOSE MY COOL?
DON'T WHITE-KNUCKLE IT. LEARN TO UNDERSTAND, OWN AND ULTIMATELY TAME YOUR OUTRAGE WITH OUR EXPERT POINTERS. DEEP BREATH, NOW...
MOVING MOUNTAINS
LONG HAULS, STEEP CLIMBS, EXTREME COLD AND OTHERWORLDLY LANDSCAPES IN THE CEDERBERG-OUR WRITER TAKES ON THE ELEMENTS AND UNEARTHS A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON A FIVEDAY TREK ALONG PHANTOM PATHS CUT THROUGH BEWITCHING SCENERY.
THE NEW PLYO POWER-UP
HOW MODERN TAKES ON AN OLD FITNESS FAVOURITE CAN CALIBRATE YOUR TRAINING FOR AN INSTA-BOOST OF ATHLETICISM AND STRENGTH.