EPTI remember when I was in 9th grade, I read an article in a computer magazine about people making money off of games, in particular Counter Stirke. They were interviewing a female pro-gamer that said she was making an easy $40,000 a year, this article was about 8 years ago. At the time I didn’t think much of it since I knew it was a very hard game to play and I didn’t have much interest in it since my parents at the time didn’t like me playing shooting games.
It was madness to think that pro-gaming could be sustainable career, even for fun it would seem too much of a time investment at the time.
For most of my teen years I spent most of my free time playing the Pokemon Trading Card game. It was something I enjoyed very much because I have always been competitive at heart. No matter what I had to be first, because if you’re not first you’re last.
My brother had started collecting and playing Pokemon 2 years before me. Being the younger brother that I was I took in interest at about the age of 7, but at this point I was just collecting looking at the pictures more than anything and glazing at how shiny the cards were. Then as I grew older I started hearing about Pokemon tournaments and such. My brother seemed more interested in it and I would always watch him play to see how the card games worked.
I was hooked. My brother went to his first Pokemon Tournament when I was 9 years old. He would not let me attend because he didn’t think I was ready yet, he would slowly teach me on the side. Still casually playing I continued playing until the next year when I became 10.
I had been playing a lot of Pokemon with my friends and had a pretty easy time beating their decks. The Illinois Regional Championships were coming up and my brother decided to let me go. With the help of his friends they gave me a deck to play and this was my first tournament ever.
It was quite amazing from what I remember there was a show up of about 300 people or something, quite large for an event like this.
That day I ended up taking 3rd place I believe my brother took 14th in his age division. In PTCG there are 3 age group 11-,12-14, and 15+ at least that’s how it was back then, things have changed now. To achieve 3rd place I beat one of the most dominating 15+ age categories players son, Jimmy Ballard. After a couple years I had learned that Jimmy’s son was undefeated until I came in, which is one of the main reason why me and Jimmy became good friends for the rest of my Pokemon Career.
For the next few years I would dominate the 12-14 age category in Illinois winning trips around the nation for World Championships. I only had the two Vernola twins as my competition. They were downright amazing at the game and I wish they had continued their careers in this game for as long as I did, no doubt they would’ve been better than me, but like most kids at school I had to keep this on the down low or else you would never be able to survive the social ladder. Some people grow out of child hood hobbies, but I didn’t want to because what other people thought.
When I turned 15, I moved to Toronto but also marked the fact that I have moved up from the 12-14 category to the big leagues, the 15+ age category. Due to moving I was not able to attend a pokemon tournament in Toronto until the Toronto Gym Challenge of 2006. The prize of this tournament was a trip to Anaheim California to compete in the World Championships. Being my first tournament in the 15+ age category I was a bit worried, but after some grudging matches against the best player in Eastern Canada, Greg Creswell I was able to win my first tournament in Canada and in my new age category. I became the new “Beast of the East” after that tournament for the next couple years. I remember I would go to tournaments and people would fold to me in the Round of 8 or 4 because they knew they could not beat me and they would rather get home early. I would get kids from the 10 and under age group for signatures on their cards, that was my little spot light in fame and it was great. As the years went by and as I progressed through highschool I practiced less and less and less and attended less and less tournaments. The problem in Canada you have to travel at least an hour to get to a tournament which kinda demotivated me, which was the reason why I only attended the major tournaments since they were actually held in Toronto. As of now I am retired “washed up” as you may say. The people that I could beat before flawlessly have a fighting chance against me now. After 2 years of not making it to the World Championships I called it quits. I still played just to show up, but I would only make it to the round of 8 or 16 at National Championships, just shy of a spot at worlds.
So back to the question what is eSports?
Does it have to be a computer game? No
Does it have to be something where the players are making a salary? No
For something to be eSports its as simple as having a dedicated community whether it has prizes or not.
eSports is when a group of people that care so much about their hobby they turn it into something amazing.
eSports is when that guy you call a “nerd” in class goes home to play with his online friends instead of going to that party.
eSports is an underground community of people that do what they like and they do it with the passion of a real professional.
eSports is each of you reading this blog right now.
eSports is what gets you up in the morning because the night before you had some bad games and you want to show yourself that you’re better than that.
eSports is that guy who works in a dirt 9-5 job, but his life couldn’t be any better because he has something he loves when he comes home.
eSports is the hope that one day people will recognize what we do.
eSports will never die because as long as we have a passion for any game, eSports can only grow.
So lets stop the bickering of what game is eSports, what deserves to be in the spotlight what doesn’t.
Choose your eSport,
and wear it with pride because not everyone has something that they have a passion for.
We are eSports.
You are eSports.
What’s your eSport?
