Makin' Money While Fraggin dem Noobs!

Electronic Sports or eSports has begun to rise in popularity not just in the gaming community but in the general public. A big push for eSports would have to be ESPN's live broad cast of DOTA 2 International Tournament Event that occurred this summer. The International is a worldwide gaming competition where professional players compete to become the top contender. Since DOTA 2 is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game or MOBA for short, players in groups of fives are in teams as they battle it out to be the number one team in the world. The biggest interest besides bragging rights was the $11 Million dollar pot for the champions. 

The international saw major known Major League Gaming teams (MLG) send their best of the best to represent them and attempt to win that grand prize money. The popularity of eSports has also seen the rise of professional players. They will train vigorously and spend countless hours playing to perfect their skills in order to be the top contenders. While some might see this as a waste of time and money, they'll fail to realize that a professional gamer can actually make a living and bring massive income from their winnings when competing at professional tournaments. 

With being a professional gamer it doesn't tie a person down to one specific games. Various tournaments are held for all different type of game genres. Fighting Tournaments for games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat or Dead or Alive, there are tournaments for sports games such as Madden or the NBA 2K franchise and genres for MOBA and Real Time Strategy games with StarCraft II being one of the most popular ones. And you might think that the money they make is problem not enough to be considered doing. But an article run by CNBC showcased a retired gamer named, Dave Walsh who was making close to $250,000 a year! You can read up more about it at the link posted here (http://www.cnbc.com/id/101380550#.)

Now the rewards are enticing and may make a person consider becoming a professional gamer to enter tournaments and win large cash prizes, but also take time to consider and realize what you'll be getting into. Most, if not all professional gamers dedicate their lives to honing their craft. They spent massive hours of gameplay to perfect their skills, create strategies and study various aspects of the game to increase their knowledge and capability of the game. It's more than just run in, shoot and kill to win. Players will examine maps and layouts for new levels, study the stats of various characters and their abilities of not just their favorites but every character in a game. It may seem like fun and exciting opportunity and it still is, but don't take their work lightly.