I was in Seattle a couple weekends back and stayed in the same hotel as all of these teams. I noticed all these skinny early 20's type people walking around in small groups in the hotel, all in jumpsuits with there names and sponsors on them. I had honestly never heard of Dota before but we met players, broadcasters and coaches in the elevators and received a crash course education. Crazy #### these e-sports are. crazy money as well.
My total ignorance to this scene was pretty eye opening as well.
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I'm jealous of the NFL lifestyle. 6-7 month offseason depending on if you make the playoffs or not, only one game a week, and it's not even a requirement that you live in the same city as you play in during the season. I wouldn't exactly want to be a defensive/offensive lineman due to a really short career window likely ending with brain damage, but any other position seems like a dream career
Kicker. You can play till you are 40 years old. Just don't miss any big kicks.
The limitation on this becoming truly mainstream is the very short careers of the players. The marketing of pro sports is built around stars, and if the best players are only at the top of their game for 3-5 years, it's hard to build up much of a profile.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fotze
If this day gets you riled up, you obviously aren't numb to the disappointment yet to be a real fan.
And that's easy to say from an outsider perspective whose only ever done it for fun. But basically 8 months a year away from home and family, countless hours in the gym, extreme physical demands on your body, and tremendous amounts of pressure/stress... There's a reason they play golf all summer instead of hockey.
I'm jealous of these guys salaries but would I want to play hockey for a living? I really don't think so, the lifestyle would make me really unhappy.
I chased the dream for a little while, I know what it entails. And I obviously failed.
But again, I'd do it all for a chance to play in the NHL.
I played "professional" video game (Counter Strike) from about 2002 to 2009. This did include salary + winnings and can honestly say you can make quite a living doing so and even more so now with the streaming on twitch and the prize pools exceeding millions of dollars.
I was fortunate enough to travel the world (for free) including stops all over Europe, Asia and North/South America. I was able to live and play daily in Seoul South Korea for 4 months on live television while still being able to soak in all the touristy things that most people spend thousands of dollars to do and therefore I'm very thankful for the opportunity.
With that being said my personal life outside of gaming definitely suffered, never being home (in Canada) for more then a week or so at a time takes it toll on you, its a life style that doesn't interest everyone but I don't regret it. I've made a lot of friendships all over the world which have opened up tons of opportunities when traveling now 6 years later. I could go into more detail obviously but no need here, if anyone's actually interested shoot me a PM.
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E-sports has really taken off in terms of money-making in the last few years. For a long time, Starcraft and Counter strike had the highest payouts for their tournaments (maybe some others, can't remember). These tournaments were organized by independent third parties who put up the prize money themselves, and the biggest tournaments would see prize pools in the +$100k range.
Then DOTA (defender of the ancients) happened, where the owners of the game (Valve) started organizing tournaments and massively increased the prize pool to millions of dollars. This gave DOTA and other MOBA's (multi-player online battle arena) a massive influx of talent and popularity. The reason for giving away all this money was to promote DOTA, as DOTA is one of the free 'hook' games for Steam (1. download Steam 2. get DOTA free 3. Spend your entire gaming budget in Steam)
It is definitely a young mans game as the time commitment is immense.. if you aren't earning it isn't really feasible for a family lifestyle. I used to scrim with some professional CS teams back in the early 2000's and I have a good buddy who did it for a living while getting his finance degree. Seeing the level of dedication was pretty intense, but then again this goes for any sport. As Royle9 says you get to experience a lot of different things and some of them were good enough to travel the world doing it. The ones I know were either not good enough to do it for long or were smart enough to get out early and attain something while doing so..
Entertaining to watch though and I hope it keeps growing as a sport.
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Last edited by GreenLantern; 08-12-2015 at 10:45 AM.
I played "professional" video game (Counter Strike) from about 2002 to 2009. This did include salary + winnings and can honestly say you can make quite a living doing so and even more so now with the streaming on twitch and the prize pools exceeding millions of dollars.
I was fortunate enough to travel the world (for free) including stops all over Europe, Asia and North/South America. I was able to live and play daily in Seoul South Korea for 4 months on live television while still being able to soak in all the touristy things that most people spend thousands of dollars to do and therefore I'm very thankful for the opportunity.
With that being said my personal life outside of gaming definitely suffered, never being home (in Canada) for more then a week or so at a time takes it toll on you, its a life style that doesn't interest everyone but I don't regret it. I've made a lot of friendships all over the world which have opened up tons of opportunities when traveling now 6 years later. I could go into more detail obviously but no need here, if anyone's actually interested shoot me a PM.
Are you this guy?
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I'm just waiting for the day e-sports starts to include sports games and not just RTS
Fifa was popular for a while and even features in CGS which was televised on directTV in the U.S
Not sure the prize pool but it was in the $50,000 range IIRC.
Not a big MOBA fan, but I do enjoy watching stuff like the Evo tournaments where it's all fighting games. I like the fact that those matches are much shorter in duration, so I don't have to devote a ton of time at it.
Really, watching e-sports is no different than watching real sports. Traditionalists may say it's a nerd activity, but is Fantasy Football really any less nerdy? It's just another form of D&D IMO.
So is whacking at a disk with a twig while balancing on ice. So is killing each other for possession of a ball. So is seeing who can hit a thrown ball the furthest and running around some arbitrary base placements. So is trying to get a ball in a hole hundreds of yards away with a goofy club.
Except its infinitely more entertaining to watch real life athletic competition than it is to watch some guy use a joystick to control pixels on a screen.
I can appreciate these guys have a high level of skill in the medium (good for them for making money at it), but I have no idea how this stuff has such a huge audience. And I say that as someone who genuinely enjoys gaming.
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A few weeks after crashing head-first into the boards (denting his helmet and being unable to move for a little while) following a hit from behind by Bob Errey, the Calgary Flames player explains:
"I was like Christ, lying on my back, with my arms outstretched, crucified"
-- Frank Musil - Early January 1994
Except its infinitely more entertaining to watch real life athletic competition than it is to watch some guy use a joystick to control pixels on a screen.
This is completely your own opinion. Obviously enough people find it entertaining that they are able to hand out millions in prize money. I would venture to say they aren't watching the players sit there hammering the joystick, they're watching the gameplay.
Some people find doing math to be entertaining.
It's no one's place to comment on someone else's hobby and whether or not it's "dumb". And I say this as someone who has zero interest in video games -- except Batman. That s*** is awesome.
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Last edited by Coach; 08-12-2015 at 02:12 PM.
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