E Sports - Professional

Has any one been living under a rock up until recently...like I must have been

For the last 18months my son has been using most of his free time locked up inside his bedroom playing computer games...
me being me I often told to him to get off his backside and go find a part time job to help with his uni education

During this period he has been disappearing to brisbane, melb and sydney, to play this stupid stuff at events....I was sure the missus was paying for his airfares and accommodation, as I certainly wasnt going to give him any to go interstate to play comp games...duh..what does he think I am... a money tree

A couple of weeks ago he asked if i could drive him to airport at 5am in the morning...ruddy hell 5am???

On the way down, I asked what I was thought going to be a question, that I thought I'd not like the answer that would be given

How do you get this money to pay for your airfares and acommodation?

Back came the reply...Intel!

Intel?...what they pay for all this

Yes!!

tells me to look esports in google.

Two weeks later he flies out to London, and then he heads off to Tours in France to play more games later this week ..all paid for

The London event had a prize pool of $275000.00

One event last year had a pool of just under $11000000.00 (yes $11m)

Some prize earnings listed here

http://www.esportsearnings.com/players

I never knew it existed as a serious type of "sport" let alone knowing it had so much money tied up in it

If he does well I will be asking for board money!!!

Yeah, eSports have a real place. Weird, huh? I guess some people's heads are wired for it and many, many others
will pay to play/watch/learn to feed their competitive souls.

Guy down the street wrecked a crappy little old house and started over= it's really nice and I hope it sells well.
This week, they just began the landscaping.
Anyway, his computer-game-playing kid (12?) has the hand/eye coordination to dig the entire basement.
Extraordinary to watch the kid skim a couple of cm here and there and 8' deep for the footings and the foundation.
After-school job. Dig and place soil. His attitude was that there were never any computer games like the real world.
His moves are such smooth curves from A to B. No jerks nor hesitations.

You thought that Breaking Bad was a popular TV series, with an estimated 10.3 million viewers worldwide for the final episode?

That's nothing - there were 32 million viewers watching the League of Legends 2013 World Championships - that's right up there in American NFL Wildcard playoff viewer numbers.

I was an original "esporter" as in I used to win prizes and cash playing games. Nothing compared to what it is now.

BUT I always get the whole "I just don't get it" etc etc. My favourite is when people find out you can watch e-sports on you tube etc. They find it incredulous that people watch something they themselves could be doing, like kicking a football. When I point out that its no different someone watching a better player of the game, as it is to watch a better player of the sport..it makes them stop and think a bit.

Its entertainment, just like everything else. It takes skill and dedication to succeed at it too. Probably more so as there are more people in the world playing certain games then playing certain sports. It takes less physical demand way less space to practice.

Good one them I say, they have found a niche with something they are good at. Good on them.