It is the Age of Technology and one of the biggest worldwide industries is gaming.
Let’s start off with acknowledging the fact that every one of us (well, the majority of whoever is reading this anyway) would give anything to be able to make a living off of gaming, with the chance to win thousands or even millions for being the best at your passion. However, it is certainly not as easy as one might think.
What Is eSports?
Esports is just that, electronic sports carried out in the form of professionals (or even amateurs looking to build themselves in the industry) playing video games competitively. The events are well-organized gatherings for multiplayer video game enthusiasts. You can either take part as an individual or, as is most common, in a team.
Over the years there has been endless debate about whether gaming can be classified as an actual sport and not just a competition. The very first gaming competition took place at Stanford University in 1972, where five students competed against one another in “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics” for the prize of a one-year subscription for Rolling Stone.
Most countries these days have now recognized eSports as an actual sport, although there are still a select few that have not. Russia was among one of the first to acknowledge eSports back in 2000 when the Russian Esports Federation was established, China recognized it as an official sport in 2003, the United States did the same in 2013 and was also one of the first to accept gamers as athletes in that same year. Finland accepted the official eSports title in 2017, Germany in 2018, Ukraine quite recently in 2020, and Thailand being the most recent to accept eSports as a real sport on the 22nd of September 2021.
As for the income? Well, that can vary from the lowest to the highest of income. According to CyberAthlete, if you are able to make it into an official team (which isn’t as easy as you might think), then you could get anything between R15 000 to R76 000 in a month, obviously, this can still vary but you get the picture.
You might also get a sign-on contract fee, which could be anything from R760 000 per year (again, this could vary from much less, but regardless, you still get an annual income just for being signed up).
To give you an idea, in 2019, a Dota 2 player known as Johan “N0tail” Sundstein won $7.2 million at The International.
Pointers and Understanding the Reality
Whether you want to partake casually or pursue the path professionally as a career, the below is some generally good guidance and understanding into what you’ll be looking at.
- Following Esports
A good starting point would be to start watching and following esports as one would with any regular sport. You can support your chosen players and teams and even play Fantasy League of Legends as you might do with Fantasy Football.
YouTube and Twitch would be the main go-to’s to watch esports, joining a Discord server is also a good idea to keep up to date as well as various other socials. There are dedicated channels and websites for the various games and even an esports calendar to keep track of the tournaments.
This will also allow you to get a better idea of the feel for what each genre’s experience will be like in this setting, the ins and outs, roughly what to expect, and so on.
- Observe and Learn
This can go hand-in-hand with following esports. Observe the players, observe the gameplay, take note of what they do and how they do it (this is not to say that you need to copy them to a tee, it is merely for guidance as you start off).
This can also mean reading up on the more detailed aspects of the game. Get yourself clued up as intricately as you can (this is not necessarily an absolute must and most will likely rather just immerse themselves in the game and learn like that, but personally, I like to brush up on as much as I can in every way and with certain games, this is also a great way for learning and understanding the lore and all the nitty-gritty much more in-depth. As well as it somewhat keeps the motivation there and pulls you further into the passion).
- Building The Skill
Many of us have a natural talent for gaming, many of us have the potential that just needs to be unlocked and many just really enjoy gaming but need to practice and develop. Either way, everyone can always improve. If you want to become a pro-gamer (or even if this is more of a casual sideline thing, this still plies, just not as intensely) you will need to put many, many hours into gaming; not just in your free time for an hour or two after work, but the majority of your time will need to go into developing the skills necessary for this.
If you are going to attempt to delve into getting started with becoming a pro-gamer while you’re still working a regular full-time job, this is going to be a challenge. If you have the luxury of being able to start straight off the bat with having all of the time you need, well then you’re already off to a great start.
Many esports athletes put in up to ten hours or even more on a daily basis to continuously hone their skills and keep themselves on par.
If you are truly dedicated to making this work and becoming one of the best (especially to be recognized) then you need to do some major grinding to hone your skills and finesse the game. Not only do you need to constantly improve on your abilities but you need to know the mechanics of the game inside and out if you are to make the best of it. If you feel confident enough then you can even begin to enter smaller competitions to start getting the feel for environments as such and it will also put you in a slightly more difficult level of gameplay compared to regular online gaming as well as start to build that competitive streak within.
It’s crucial to remember that in order to progress and climb the ladder once you’re in, you need to constantly top the scoreboards, hit the highest ranks, and familiarize yourself & understand the different hierarchies of leveling for the different games.
- Your System
Esports can be carried out on any platform, i.e.: PlayStation, Xbox, or PC, but by far the most popular platform is PC.
Not all of us can start with a top-of-the-range system though, but do not despair because even some of the top esports athletes started with the bare minimum; take Elijah Hudson “Elk” Gallagher for instance, he started with just a laptop that his father bought for him which couldn’t even properly run Overwatch (which, by the way, is now his field of expertise) so he had to make use of his father’s CAD-running laptop…provided he was allowed the time.
This not only goes for the internal components to have a smooth running experience, but for your peripherals too.
As long as it gets the job done and the relevant games can be run, don’t be ashamed to start from the bottom and work your way up (most tournaments provide the computers but it’s always ideal to have your own setup)
- Motivation
Now you need to make sure that your motivation, your intentions for pursuing this field, are genuine.
If you’re only in it for the money then, by all means, go for it; but as with anything, doing something because you genuinely love it will take you a whole lot further. The passion will drive you to push harder, do better, and constantly improve.
If you aren’t taking part in this for the love of it then you’re going to have many days when you aren’t in the mood for it, aren’t feeling it that day and so forth, and with those feelings you won’t reach your full potential and do as well as you can or need to. Doing it for the love of gaming will ensure that you will always give your best.
- Choose Your Game
As much as it might seem like a cool idea to spread yourself across multiple games to open up experience and opportunity, it wouldn’t be the smartest plan especially if you’re just starting out.
The best plan for beginners would be to pick a game and focus on mastering that. As mentioned in a previous point, it would be wise to learn the game inside and out so picking a game that you have a love for and interest in would be highly beneficial.
Esports covers basically any genre of game. The most common ones are FPS (first-person shooter), MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), RTS (real-time strategy), fighting games, battle royale, and card (such as OCCG – online collectable card game).
- Teaming Up
This isn’t a must as you can go in solo but teaming up is the more advisable route, again especially if you are just starting out. Being in a team will motivate and support you as well as take you further and get your name more out there.
For the most part, you will get scouted, so it’s also beneficial to make sure that you share your gaming content online, whether, via Twitch, YouTube, or other socials, it will help to get you noticed.
- It’s All About Balance
As ridiculous as it might sound to some, you need to maintain your wellbeing. With so many hours spent in front of the screen, sitting for hours on end and being completely focused for so many hours, one might forget to fuel yourself (me…I’m “one” and this has happened on countless occasions).
Keep a beverage nearby and be sure to eat before sitting down for your session, this will also ensure that you maintain focus during your game time.
Working around your gaming sessions it would be advisable that you get some sort of physical activity in; this doesn’t mean that you need to go all out on a full gym session, but even just a nice walk or some stretching, have a one-man dance party even, just something physical to keep your physical being healthy.
Also try to incorporate a nutritious diet, again, this doesn’t mean to spend hundreds or thousands on the latest diet fads or turn vegan or anything like that. Just try to incorporate a few food items that will support your health, maybe some fruit or extra vegetables even, anything that would be beneficial consumption.
Also remember to get some proper rest now and then, if you’re anything like me then you’ll know that sleep is the least of your concerns and you’d rather sacrifice sleep for other matters. This certainly isn’t the best plan of action, especially when you need to have peak mental performance for your gaming if you are to be a pro.
This about covers the baseline of what you need to know if you want to take your love for gaming further.
If you would like another part of this covered, feel free to let us know and we’ll be sure to cover it.