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So a few weeks ago, I put out an article (here) about following your dreams, especially in relation to E-Sports. I used TLAF-Liquid`TLO as an example of this, as well as a few other analogies. I was quite upset at the time regarding something I had read (it shall remain nameless unless someone requests it). Essentially, the author said it was too hard to live in ‘the real world’ by following your dreams, especially in relation to E-Sports, and that getting a higher paying mainstream corporate job was the way to go.
Obviously, having given the last 8 years of my life to Western E-Sports, that pissed me off to no end. For someone to come forth and write something like that, and publish it for the E-Sports community to read, was rather sickening.
I wrote a more positive article about following your dreams and doing what you love, because at the end of the day, its your personal happiness, not your bank account, that matters. And if those two things are directly linked, I feel sorry for you.
Myself at IEM Shanghai this summer
Before anyone gets carried away reading this blog saying “WOAH CAMERON! HOLD ON, you do need financial stability in order to live” that fact is not lost on me, and I do touch base with that in my original article.
Anyway, I wanted to talk about what it is I do for a living (sort of, I mean, this job as an E-Sports journalist puts me through school, but by no means do I make enough to sustain a stable living off of in North America).
I work for Fnatic PTY LTD (FnaticMSI) for those of you who don’t know. And what my job is essentially is a writer. My title for all intensive purposes is labelled as a Journalist or Content Development if you prefer. I get paid a monthly salary to write feature articles, whether they are opinionated or based on solid facts.
I write general team and sponsor news, so long as it surrounds Fnatic and its partners. I conduct feature length interviews with professional players of various E-Sport titles, whether they are from Fnatic or not. I also write scene-news when it pertains to a game Fnatic supports, I run our facebook and twitter pages along with the Editor in Chief, I am sometimes sent to offline events (most recently, IEM Shanghai) to take photos, videos, write a live blog and other content previously mentioned.
My personal setup
I stay at home when am not sent to events and update scores and publish the content that floods in from on-site journalists. As well, I take the initiative (to some peoples distaste) to promote my work within the E-Sports and sometimes mainstream media outlets.
I help run promotional events such as give-aways and contests that are run by Fnatic or its partners, and help promote them. As well I do reviews of products and/or services in the E-Sports industry.
The more behind the scenes portion of my job entails meetings, contacting players/teams/leagues for interviews or comments on situations. It also involves a lot of discussion within the organization on the current state of E-Sports and what we can do to help, etc.
I do all of this because I love E-Sports, and for the most part I love the people in E-Sports. E-Sports has been a major part of my life since the age of 12 when I first ran into the WCG through an ad on battle.net while I was playing Warcraft III RoC. E-Sports is the one industry where you can compete without bias, whether you are young old, fat or skinny, etc, etc, you can still compete. E-Sports will always remain to be a part of my life, a rather large part, I mean, it’s how I met my lovely girlfriend for crying out loud : P
I hope people can understand what exactly E-Sports is and can be, and that people shouldn’t be afraid to be proud of their involvement or love for E-Sports. I know I’m not, I always tell people about E-Sports and what I do and how they can get involved, even if they aren’t the most accepting, who cares?
Myself and a fellow E-Sports Journalist, Bruce
A lot of people think as an E-Sports journalist, you don’t do a lot of work, and for many that is true. Many journalists who do this for volunteer work because they love E-Sports will write a few news here and there, and pitch in when they can. However I felt today it was necessary that I speak about what I do as a Journalist/Content Development guy at Fnatic.
E-Sports takes all kinds of people to operate. From your hardcore enthusiasts who always try to help and pitch in, to the fan who just tunes in to watch his favourite player, and of course to the budding professional and wannabe professional gamers and so much more.
Myself at IEM Shanghai again
For instance, other than E-Sports I am a fulltime student at Cambrian College where I am taking a 3 year course in Business Administration, where I will then move to China for University in order to get my BA and then my masters. I rock climb (specifically bouldering), I hunt (moose, partridge, duck) I listen to post-hardcore and punk music and used to frequent punk shows. Many people have an ‘E-Sports or gamer’ life and a ‘real life’, which they desperately try and keep separate. For me, I try and keep them combined as much as I can, I don’t think it’s fair to you as a human being, to be kept quiet about one half of your life, to the other half.
Myself and my CS hero, Savage
Below is my youtube channel, I just uploaded more IEM Shanghai videos (ALL Counter-Strike stuff) as well, if you haven’t seen my photos from my 39 day trip to China, you might be interested in those, as well as the daily blog I run, (which I post the full entries here now as well ; )) but if you missed the back issues while I was in China, you may wish to check them out.
YouTube
flickr
Personal Blog of an E-Sports Journalist
 
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Seems like a supernice job, what more can be asked then to work with your hobby!
Keep spreading the word! 
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Good reading, continu doing whatever you like.
In the link to your blog, you typed a "/" instead of a dot "." between famsy and wordpress.
http://famsy/wordpress.com/
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You have a similar setup as I; Very nice, you must be a fnatic fanboy? ;o jk
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if you're a paid writer you shouldn't be writing something like "for all intensive purposes"
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On September 07 2010 01:38 coplice_ wrote:Good reading, continu doing whatever you like. In the link to your blog, you typed a "/" instead of a dot "." between famsy and wordpress. http://famsy/wordpress.com/
Fixed, thank you : )
And I work at Fnatic, ; D
And it's a blog, I also miss spelled words. It is just something I write for myself, so I don't really go over it, nor does anyone else like my editor would at Fnatic.
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Great blog! As a fellow e-sports journalist I definitely understand the hard work that you do as a writer. You must have a strong passion for e-sports to be able to put in long hours (both day and night) to make certain events get covered even if the event you're covering is thousands of mile away.
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Hong Kong20321 Posts
what're you planning to do after you finish your bachelors and masters? still going to be with ESPORTS? :o
nice write up about your life 
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On September 07 2010 01:57 alffla wrote:what're you planning to do after you finish your bachelors and masters? still going to be with ESPORTS? :o nice write up about your life
I will always be in E-Sports, it would take a pretty terrible situation in order for me to depart this industry.
Whether I will have a full time job within E-Sports remains to be seen, I would like for that to happen, but if its not possible for whatever reason, Ill try and get a job that is closely related to E-Sports, like with a sponsor (I am focusing on marketing in school) and try and affect things that way, and put whatever spare money I can back into an amateur team or something like that.
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was hoping for more about the profession and how you came to it
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On September 07 2010 02:09 fredd wrote:
was hoping for more about the profession and how you came to it
Will write about that tomorrow then : )
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Katowice25012 Posts
This is a nice read, I'd love to hear more
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can't wait for more! gonna read the article mentioned in the OP when i wake up tomorrow!
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Nice read and all, but there's nothing wrong with the statement that prompted your article ('‘the real world’ by following your dreams, especially in relation to E-Sports, and that getting a higher paying mainstream corporate job was the way to go.')
You can't compare it to having the passion to become a doctor or a lawyer or something similar. There's jobs in those fields, and most of them pay well if you're halfway decent at what you do. It's not even comparable to sports. Most of the major four sports in the US compete at the collegiate level. If you're good, you can get a ride to college, so even if you do fail, you're compensated in a way that will allow you to get on with a decent life.
What happens if you book it to Korea and realize that your $12k USD equivalent salary barely covers bills, let alone leaves you with spending cash for when you're not practicing 12 hours a day... Even for content developers/e-writers it's just a huge unrealistic dream. (PS. journalists don't write up sponsors or sit in on 'discussion within the organization on the current state of E-Sports and what we can do to help, etc.') You admit it doesn't pay well. They obviously use writers who have no professional training, so essentially anyone can get a job. Plus, it's a niche market. Most people don't care about e-sports, so there's a lot of people competing for only a few jobs that don't pay well.
And that's the same for everyone in the industry. It's a totally niche market. It doesn't just require passion and dedication. It also requires a shit load of luck or knowing the right people, because there's
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On September 08 2010 00:15 Hawk wrote:
Nice read and all, but there's nothing wrong with the statement that prompted your article ('‘the real world’ by following your dreams, especially in relation to E-Sports, and that getting a higher paying mainstream corporate job was the way to go.')
You can't compare it to having the passion to become a doctor or a lawyer or something similar. There's jobs in those fields, and most of them pay well if you're halfway decent at what you do. It's not even comparable to sports. Most of the major four sports in the US compete at the collegiate level. If you're good, you can get a ride to college, so even if you do fail, you're compensated in a way that will allow you to get on with a decent life.
What happens if you book it to Korea and realize that your $12k USD equivalent salary barely covers bills, let alone leaves you with spending cash for when you're not practicing 12 hours a day... Even for content developers/e-writers it's just a huge unrealistic dream. (PS. journalists don't write up sponsors or sit in on 'discussion within the organization on the current state of E-Sports and what we can do to help, etc.') You admit it doesn't pay well. They obviously use writers who have no professional training, so essentially anyone can get a job. Plus, it's a niche market. Most people don't care about e-sports, so there's a lot of people competing for only a few jobs that don't pay well.
And that's the same for everyone in the industry. It's a totally niche market. It doesn't just require passion and dedication. It also requires a shit load of luck or knowing the right people, because there's
See...that is the completely wrong attitude to have. It is exactly that negative thinking that upset me enough to write my original article in the first place. People make these very quick judgment calls on the E-Sports industry, despite its obvious youth. E-Sports has only been around for slightly over a decade -and even that age is debatable-, and with that it has come leaps and bounds. Simply because it is not at the same level as mainstream sports or other professions, does not mean people should abandon it when it becomes less profitable or harder on their wallet.
I understand your point about having a paying job as opposed to a fledgling dream, one can put food on your plate and a roof over your head, and the other might not. However, I do not personally condone blindly following your dream without any additional support (such as attending school, or working a part or full time job in order to support yourself while you work your ass off to achieve your goals.
As for the 'journalist' thing, that is exactly why I use the title 'Content Development' because as it stands, you are 100% correct, and I would feel rather childish calling myself a journalist when I am obviously limited in where I can go and what I can do as far as content is concerned.
But if people want that corporate job (which to be honest I am leaning towards, so I can turn back around and fund E-Sports my own way) then that's wonderful, it takes all types to make the world go round, I just don't like seeing kids who have the passion get discouraged because of nay-sayers and whatnot.
This is just my opinion though, and I have personally gone through a lot to get to this point in my life, and I am in College and as I said, plan on getting my masters at the end of this. It takes all types, I just don't want people giving up on their dreams when they don't have to.
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