
‘Video Gamer’ may soon join Astronaut, Athlete and Super Hero on children’s lists of what they want to be when they grow up. Those who reach the top of the e-sport may do well financially since video game competitions can be quite lucrative.
Okay, first, let’s tackle the concept of e-sports. If you’re one of those people who have a hard time thinking of chess or poker as sports, the idea of video games as sports will probably throw you for a loop. However, last week ESPN.com featured The International – the fourth annual world championships of the popular video game ‘Defense of the Ancient 2’ (Dota 2). The event, which was held in KeyArena in Seattle, sold out. In addition, more than 300,000 people watched the event on a popular video game streaming website.
Total prize money for the tournament was $10.9 million, a record for video game competitions and all the more remarkable because fans raised much of the prize money. That’s a big step up from the first championship. It was held in 2011 in Cologne, Germany and the teams competed for a grand prize of $1 million.
The League of Legends championship, another big gaming competition, is coming up in October. Two teams will compete in Sangam Stadium in Seoul, South Korea for bragging rights, the Summoner’s Cup, and $1 million in prize money. USA Today reported last year’s championship “was watched by more people than the NBA Finals, World Series, and BCS (Bowl Championship Series) National Championship [college football].” If that seems like a stunning statistic, consider this: 67 million people play League of Legends every month.
According to PCWorld.com, “Playing PC (personal computer) games has become a bona fide career option and right now business is booming… A confluence of events occurred at just the right time in 2010 to reinvigorate the PC’s strong legacy of hardcore competitive gaming. Most significantly, the PC’s return as professional gaming’s platform of choice is tied to the economic rise of Asia along with huge missed opportunities by console game manufacturers.”