eSport - Did you know that you can make big money by playing video games?

@Bionicman (3958)
Czech Republic
February 17, 2013 5:06pm CST
The competitive gaming or "eSport" has been around for more than a decade but in the last 2 years it has really exploded. There are many tournaments a year that have a huge prize money, over million dollars. Professional players not only get the prize money they win in the tournaments but they also get a monthly salary and all equipment they need for free. In some cases they move to a "team house", a luxury house where they live with their teammates and have personal that cooks food and cleans for them so they can concentrate on training. The best thing about being a professional gamer is that you travel around the world while attending tournaments. But there are also downsides. It takes a lot of dedication. Professional players train around 8 hours a day and they experience huge pressure during the tournaments because if they don't perform well, the team might not renew their contract and everything they worked for could be gone. If you think that gaming and education can't go hand in hand, there are tournaments for students to win free college scholarship. Not every online game can be considered eSport. There are only a handful of games that are designed for competitive play and they have every single aspect of gameplay completely balanced. They are easy to learn but hard to master. Big final matches of tournaments are broadcasted over the internet (and sometimes on TV) and viewed by millions. What do you think about this? Have you ever heard of esport before? Do you think being a professional gamer is a good or bad job? Do you find it unfair that some people are getting rich by playing games while others struggle to keep up with the living while working hard physical jobs?
3 responses
@jagjit273 (1754)
• India
18 Feb 13
Well l have heard about that in a news channel long time ago and about the tournament too. But the things you described are much more. Though l love to play games but not under pressure.
@elmiko (6630)
• United States
18 Feb 13
never heard of it although i'm a gamer. i do it mainly for the fun factor though. i doubt i would do well in these type of gaming tournaments. who says video games are an addiction anyway. if you can make money at gaming then people like that are 100% irrelevant.
@bluesea3 (167)
• Indonesia
18 Feb 13
As we know, there are many ways to earn money. Such as video game, esport, etc. Basically, i just know two ways, legal and illegal way. Absolutely, it's depended from our self perspective. So, although i heard many success stories from illegal ways, i still have more interest to legal way. Just like MyLot. Only "sharing" perspective to others, we can earn some "money". We can see it like a coin. It has two sides, i think i just have to see it holistically.