Becoming a Pro Gamer
Honest thread: what does it take to become a pro gamer? Specifically:
What games are profitable, and which is most profitable?
How much time would you have to dedicate to training, traveling, etc?
How would one join a pro team?
How much of going "pro" comes from rigorous training vs luck vs natural ability?
What are the high and low ends of learning potential?
I was thinking about this (i have nothing but time), but when you figure these guys play 14 hours a day - most are working for minimum wage, or less. I suppose that's the tradeoff from playing video games for a living.
nothing to do with business...
>What games are profitable, which is most profitable
Look at twitch by game, the games with the most active streamers, viewers and subs would be most profitable
>How much time to dedicate
A solid 8-12 hours every day
>How would one join a pro team
By being good at the game and building a reputation; Kissing ass of influential people in each community
>How much from training vs natural ability
Like anything, it's a split 50/50 unless you are super dedicated or super naturally able.
>High and low ends
Be wary of wanting to be a pro gamer, it's not a sustainable career. If you haven't found some form of success before the age of 16 you most likely won't at all. By the time you're in your mid 20s you are basically ancient and contending with young faggots with better reflexes.
Avoid this career path.
I know there's a CSGO team that pays their team $3500 a month and they split tournament winnings.
you think u take mecfor money esports u fail. I best atcsc2. U see me elitr league. I roll the nickles I makecthe money man. kekeke Fukk u bitch
yeah that's nothing..
>What games are profitable, and which is most profitable?
LoL is not profitibale, most pros make McDonalds tier salaries.
Dota is the most profitable one by far, CSGO is good too. Hearthstone and Overwatch are memes. SC2 is dead. There are no other games.
>How much time would you have to dedicate to training, traveling, etc?
Dota 2 pros train for 4-10h a day, you'll need to train more to break into the scene though.
>How would one join a pro team?
All about communication and connections, try to become friends with pros and really good players
>How much of going "pro" comes from rigorous training vs luck vs natural ability?
60% training and attitude 30% luck 10% talent
>What are the high and low ends of learning potential?
Dota 2 high ends is about a million a year, there is no low end, you might just earn 0 a year if you suck.
The only games that are worth it to get into Esports are Dota 2 and CSGO, the rest will leave you earning nothing except if you're the number 1 team and evne then it's nothing compared to Dota.
Just because you have 4000 hours in Dota doesn't mean you're good or even close to becoming pro though, you most likely suck dick because you were just casually playing 4k hours instead of learning.
I play it pretty casually next to college but I still make around 1k a month from tournaments and sponsors.
t. amateur "pro" in Dota 2,
And this is why Veeky Forums is absolute shit.
How is Dota 2 have more earning potential if LoL is much more popular?
sounds like he bums dota desu...
if I had my way quake would still be the most successful but w.e videogames are for children now more than ever.
I'm actually curious, are you seriously considering becoming a pro gamer as a solid career choice?
For making it seem like you know about e-sports you didn't even include Broodwar. During the golden years, Korean pros made over 100k a year, and the top pros made over 300k. Mind you, this is with insane training schedules of 12-16 hours a day.
The real money in being a "professional gamer" is streaming. Essentially, build up a big enough audience so that you can transition into marketing to these proles. It should only be looked at as a means to an end, not a lifelong thing.
Because the scene is artificial, the LCS pays 12.5k dollars a month per split (2 splits a year) to each player. Almost all teams operate at a loss and sponsors don't pay a lot EXCEPT if you are a top team like CLG or TSM.
There is a reason why most LoL pros have to stream full time and operate youtube channels, that's where all their salary comes from. There are no tournaments in LoL with huge price pools (even their world championship is pretty laughable compared to Dota).
So if you want to become a LoL "professional" esports gamer, just become a youtube/twitch personality instead, because that's the only way pros make actual money.
Lets get to dota, most pros don't stream at all because they make too much money already. There is a 20+ million tournament every year (the International) and two 3 million tournaments as well (the majors), this alone lets the top 300 ish players make a very good living. But there are so many tournaments ranging from 50-500k a year that a lot of pro players just REFUSE to play them, especially if they're before The international.
Now, I don't have much experience from high level sponsors, my teams sponsors just gave us good computers + keyboards + mouse and another 200 bucks a month, but we just play small level NA tournaments (5-25kish prize pools).
I attended one "big" Lan (75k-ish prize pool) in my life and we got 4th place, every player in my team got around 2k after sponsor cuts.
I wish Arena Shooters were still popular, I guess there's hope with the new Quake and Diabolical coming out rather soonish.
Broodwars is so old now, the scene is just a few oldschool Koreans, I don't think anyone would even try to become a pro in Broodwars so I left it out.
Yes.
I make about 80k a year right now, in a boring managerial job. 25 years old. I want to "Do what I love". I loved playing video games when I was little, and was good at them (Halo 2, CS 1.6 and source, various RTS games). I'm wondering if leaving my job and living off my savings while I play games literally all day is a worthwhile option.
top 100-ish, not 300.*
Broodwar is making a comeback. There's a new tournament in Korea called Afreeca Starleague, and it's getting more and more viewers every time they stream. The old pros are playing in it too, like bisu, jaedong and flash. I hope it trumps SC2 for good.
Didn't know that, just heard that Kespa (or another company) killed off SC2 support.
Broodwars is a fun game to watch, I'll look into it.
I think you're too old, a lot of pros play the game since they're 12 years old.
Just become a youtube personality instead.
What games are profitable, and which is most profitable?
-These which are popular and have competitive scene which is observed.
How much time would you have to dedicate to training, traveling, etc?
-A lot
How would one join a pro team?
-By playing the game. Finding a team and grinding it to the top untill you get attention and get invited to a big organisation. What I mean is that you won't get to pro level playing solo.(teamplay based games ofc)
How much of going "pro" comes from rigorous training vs luck vs natural ability?
-Training and training. There is no luck, only game sense. Having great reaction and fast hands also can be trained.
watch documentaries, you need to be playing and studying the 1 video game you intend to play 12-16 hours a day. Nobody that plays professional gaming enjoys the game they play anymore.
This is the most important thing to realise and remember in this situation. If you want to play games professionally, be prepared to end up hating the game you're playing.
Blizzard was the one cutting off SC2 support, those dirty cock suckers.
OP how old are you? Pro gamers tend to retire young around 24-30 because their reaction times start to slow down and can no longer compete on a pro level.
>Honest thread
You would put in as much as/more work and effort than a professional athlete for 1/1,000 the payout and about an equal chance of making it to your goal.
You posted this thread because you knew deep down that it's not realistic, but you wanted us to spoon feed that fact to you.
Poker.
There's probably 500 people who are pro gamers, but 500 million+ people who'd want to be a pro gamer if they were given the chance.
You literally have 1-in-a-million chances of becoming a pro gamer.
My advice? Learn how to trade stocks instead. If you get good at that, then you'll make more money than a pro gamer, and can still stay home and play video games instead of getting a boring job.