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How to Become a Professional Gamer and Make Money with eSports

Who remembers Pong and Pacman? Those were the days when competing meant getting a great score at the local arcade. Sometime during the 2000’s, competitions and tournaments became very professional which in turn started attracting huge crowds. Electronic sports, or eSports as it is called, is an organised video game competition awarded with cash prizes. Pro gamers compete around the world, and some cash prizes are in the millions. The 2017 International Dota 2 championship awarded a prize of nearly eleven million Dollars and Intel Extreme Masters paid a lucky contestant winner five hundred and fifty thousand Dollars. Speaking of worldwide event International Dota 2, the global audience for this eSports phenomenon grew from two hundred million to almost three million between 2014 and 2016. An incredible forty three% increase in just over two years!

To put gaming into perspective, according to Statista, League of Legends is the most played computer game on the planet. During 2016 a hundred million people played every month.

Tips To Becoming A Professional eGamer

Try Your Hand At Every Game

This will help you figure out which games you are stronger at. For players with a strategic mind and good at managing multiple units on the screen, consider a real time strategy game. This type of game includes positioning and manoeuvring units and structures to secure areas of the map. Examples of Real Time Strategy games include StarCraft II and Wings of Liberty. The most popular competitive games are first-person shooters, for example, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Overwatch. Multiplayer online battle games include League of Legends and DOTA 2.

Choose Your Gaming Platform

You could use the Wii U, Xbox, Playstation, or the PC. Research the games you want to play and make sure they are available for more than one platform. Some games like Super Smash Brothers and Counter-Strike are only available for one gaming platform, Nintendo and Windows respectively. Another important factor to decide on is whether you are more comfortable with the controller or a mouse and keyboard.

Decide If You Want To Entertain Or Compete

Professional gaming is all about competition with the result being to win money. However, you don’t need to play a game to go pro, entertainers, on the other hand, make their living broadcasting their gameplay and interacting with fans as streamers.

Research Popular Techniques and Tactics Thoroughly

YouTube is excellent for finding tactical manoeuvres and tutorials. Play close attention to lead players and what their strategies are so that you can extrapolate what they do in your own play style.

Another essential step in the process is to join a team or a gaming league and compete at online tournaments. Go to LAN tournaments, a gathering of people with computers or compatible game consoles. If you start to consistently win online, the natural progression is to compete in live tournaments. The last step in becoming a professional gamer is getting sponsorship. This simply means that the sponsoring company will pay you a fee or give you free merchandise to advertise their product.

But without a doubt, the most important step is practice, practice, practice! To earn those six figures by playing video games for a living, you will have to practice continuously. Team Liquid, a professional league of Legends team, practice a minimum of fifty hours a week.