The Invisible Game: The Mindset of a Winning Team

by Zoltan Andrejkovics

Competitive gaming and eSports among youths became a major theme these days. For a professional gamer, having the best strategy or belonging to a team with the best skills are sometimes not enough for success. Real life tournaments are tougher than we can imagine.

The Invisible Game covers the necessary mental development of eSport players. The book helps to prepare the players' minds for the challenges, both on the map and in real life.

We overestimate the power of our daily thoughts, and we forget the potential of our inner wisdom. This book guides you with honest life experiences of an eSport team manager on a journey to find the mental balance for peak performance.

Genres: Psychology, Gaming, Nonfiction, Self Help, Sports, Leadership, Games

190 pages, Paperback

First published May 9, 2016

About the author

Zoltán Andrejkovics born in 1985, Head of esports at Docler group, married and father of one. He always had an interest in fields of interpersonal psychology, team dynamics, competitive gaming and eSports. His professional experiences gave a lot of real life examples how team members could achieve real goals.

Reviews

[Margje Elbers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive book about e-Sport psychology.

[Chanel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nonfiction author Zoltan Andrejkovics was kind enough to send me an e-copy of his premier title The Invisible Game: Mindset of a Winning Team in exchange for an honest review of his work. In this book, he details - from first person experiences - the different skills, abilities, and states of mind that one must hold in order to achieve success in the eSport (more conventionally known as "online gaming") community.

I, personally, am not a player of video games, yet (like most of us I'm sure) I know plenty of individuals who are highly dedicated to the gaming community at so many different, individual levels. Though I have never taken an individual interest in video games, I always find it fascinating to read and learn about topics outside of my realm of experience and knowledge, which was what piqued my interest most about this title. Prior to having found his account on Instagram (@zoltanandrejkovics) I had never even heard of the term "eSports". However, after having read his eBook, it is clear that this name fits much better than other, conventional, titles. I feel that the term eSports (rather than "online gaming", "professional gaming", "competitive gaming", or "pro gaming") carries with it a higher level of respect and reverence for the amount of skill, focus, and determination it takes to become professionally successful within the eSports community - as detailed by Andrejkovics in his book.

While the premise of the book obviously centers around the eSports community, much of what Andrejkovics outlines as successful skills for gaming apply to many other areas of life. Over the course of the 10 chapters in his book, Andrejkovics touches on topics such as goal setting with intention, preparing mentally for achieving goals or facing obstacles, honing in on tactics and strategies that best help meet our goals, finding and maintaining internal motivators to persevere in the face of hardships, and keeping an open mindset to allow ourselves to be aware and objective in our emotions, actions, and interactions. Throughout my reading of his book, I found myself making connections with what he was speaking about in terms of eSports with aspects from my own personal life (health & fitness, career, relationships, etc.) He outlines many ideas and key concepts for gamers, from which a reader can draw motivational and inspirational quotes that can apply to every day life.

The chapters that spoke most to me were "Sensing" (being mindful of yourself, others, and the world around you), "Emotions" (allowing them to flow, yet channeling them in healthy ways), "Thoughts" (the power that they hold over our mind, body, actions, and reactions), and "Leaders and Captains" (as I found much of what he outlined in this chapter applicable to my life as a teacher). Much of what Andrejkovics discusses in these chapters reminded me heavily of my power yoga practice - ideas on being mindful in order to take an objective account of all areas of our lives in order to make more logical, positive, and growth-inspired decisions. He even incorporates yogic beliefs and ideals into his writing to add depth to a reader's understanding of how far back these concepts have been studied.

In the same vein, Andrejkovics also incorporates metaphors for those (like me) who understand best in more poetic, wordy terms, interdisciplinary connections for those who understand best in cross-curricular terms, hand-drawn visuals for those who understand best in more photographic terms, and also paraphrases from scientific studies for those who understand best in more linear, logical terms. As well, he intersperses quotes - some from well-known individuals - throughout his chapters that add to whatever the focus is for that specific section. Some of the quotes are labeled as to whom originally spoke them. Others, however, were unlabeled, and it was unclear as to whether this meant that they were from quoted anonymously or if they were phrases from Andrejkovics himself.

At the end of the book, Andrejkovics adds a section titled "Key Thoughts" where he has collected the major take-aways from the reading and compiled them into a condensed list for the reader to easily flip back to and review. This list-form of his major concepts from the book help the reader to more concretely grasp the overall purpose of the book and can more readily access these details at any given time, as the need arises for a refresher.

Overall, the book reads similar to a lifestyle/self-help piece that also provides insight into the mentality and motivation behind eSports professionals, as well as those who aspire to be or be like those professionals. On a grander scale, though, it was a good reminder for me (and hopefully for many others) of many traits, mindsets, habits, and behaviors that one can employ every day in order to experience a more motivated, driven, and positive journey through life.

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives an insight into a relatively new branch of sport. eSports is rapidly growing throughout the world and obtaining large amounts of followers.
This book shows how eSport athletes mentally prepare for and carry out competitions. It shows huge similarities to how conventional sport athletes mentally prepare for competition.
I really enjoyed reading this and it has opened my mind to eSports.

[Rewi Andrawidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like eSport Games especially Dota 2. Reading this book remembered me why positive psychology is so important in team matches.
This book is very unique and has no readalikes, maybe Flow by Csikszentmihalyi.

[Zack F · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a extremely informative book for someone who is looking to enter the esports industry like myself. This book was meant for the gaming enthusiast that wants to understand the ins and outs of what exactly goes through an esports athletes head when playing. The excerpt when Zoltan explains the emotional train from denial to acceptance is 100% relatable to experiences I have felt myself.

I’m a visual learner and this book provides an ample amount of photos to explain theories that I may have missed otherwise. I was engaged from Start to finish and patiently waiting for zoltans next book from amazon. Zoltan has reminded me that the dream of working in the industry is attainable as long as I keep my head focused. I highly recommend this book to everyone from the passionate gamer to the individual that has misconceptions on the hard work it actually takes to be skilled at video games.

A notes from the book that had more of an impact on me:

-New abilities do not emerge gradually, they happen in leaps.
-being in the correct mental state is critical to success
-you must give and receive positive affirmations
-#1-10 on page 176 & 177. You won’t regret it.

[Pascal Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for anyone being part of a team or wanting to. Andrejkovics explains in detail every aspect that is needed for the making of a healthy and successful team, not just for esports but even in general. Even for an Individual this is a great book. The parts about setting goals, practicing, preparation as well as mentality are a great guidance for anyone wanting to seriously improve.

[Kyle Durham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was eager to read this initially. I read The Inner Game of Tennis prior to this and almost expected this to be an esports version of that. What I got was something akin to a sports psychology overview with a desperate attempt to connect itself to esports. I felt like there was almost nothing in this book that was solely dedicated to esports. It was almost as if the author repeatedly forgot they were supposed to be writing about esports and then went back and put the letter “e” in front of each occurrence of athlete and sprinkled the word “esports” throughout.

[티티킹 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Stanley Sanaphay · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a great read about learning the mindset inside the esports players. Very infomative and a lot of amazing quote along the way. There also hand drawing to illustrate to help visual the information from the book.

I was about to learn so much and find this book was worth reading.

[Helfren · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a book. Have been dreaming to read this book for a long time. Probably since 2016. Liked the content and loved the guide generally on how a team should perform as a winning team. The formula of improving yourself also attract my attention a lot. Thanks for the read.

[Sitenza47 · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me as fan of esports psychology this book was clear 5/5.
Great!!!

[Bjorn Nabben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book touched me in a positive manner, I do not really expected it.

[Chris K · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Invisible Game is an excellent book for e-Athletes to read if they want to improve their mental health in the long run. The book covers basic things and general tips for teams that are not playing well together. Practice and dedication is emphasized a lot throughout the whole book. Many engaging examples from other sports and real life are used to relate the various topics to the reader in the book. I would recommend The Invisible Game to anyone who plays any competitive video games at a high level.

[Neumann U. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the armchair philosophy nature of the book, great self-improvement read for gamers.

[Muhammad Fauzan]

i want read this book for my script