How To Become A Pro Gamer

GameDailyBiz reports on what it takes to make it on the pro gaming circuit. From the article: "The simplest answer would be by getting good enough in their game of choice to attract the attention of others already playing the sport. While gaming is still not at the point where there is a vast network scouting talent and coaches turning players into champions, there are people looking for up-and-coming talent. Win enough and you'll attract their attention."

Comments

The Other way Around

[superpulpsicle]

Why don't companies hire a bunch of people just to lose online. I want to play online and have a close game but eventually win. What keeps people coming back is winning.

What is the sense of paying 20 really good players in a competition in some LAN party. I am not sure the masses would be convinced to buy the game.

How?

[voice_of_all_reason]

Be a girl.

Re:Hmm

[hal2814]

You'll start to see scholarships when you see the single trend that all forms of money-making entertainment (including sports) share: Get a very large number of people to pay to watch a very small number of people perform. "Pro gamer" will be a legitimate career option when you can get people to pay to watch others game.

Re:Hmm

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

People already pay to spectate the major competitions (WCG, CPL), but what needs to happen is spectating needs to be more fun. You can't do that as long as all the progamers are jumping to the newest games that arn't even ready yet. CPL is especially bad for this, they went from Painkiller to Doom to FEAR to quake4, each time switching before the next game was even out. What should happen is switching to something custom made for competition/spectating, like a modified quakeworld. Get the right automated camera tracking stuff, a good shoutcaster (TSN does this nice for cs), and you could make it actually enjoyable to spec.

Of course the game is important too, not just the engines specability-- CS (The biggest online competitive game) is actually one of the most boring to spectate considering how long people can spend waiting for the round to end to save a weapon, or other long periods of inaction. Plus using a round based system instead of a timelimit makes it hard to schedule, which is important for speccing.