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Short Blog;
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today I watched an interview where someone described, to put it bluntly, how shit the life of a pro gamer is. Most teams (outside of EG, and let me just say that EG is really the only exception for a foreign team to earn lots o cash) can't pay more than 500$. I though...WHAT that is insanely GOOD! 500$ a week for playing a game? unreal!
That is until she said that is the pay, per month. That was a weird moment for me. I didn't really know how to react. If i think about it, pros would practice 8 hours a day, 7 days a week (lets just say). 500/4 =125$ a week. Divide by no# hours, and its................
................
..................2 dollar, and twenty three cents..... An hour.
wow
that is just pitiful. And btw, most pros dont even get a salary, they just get a place to live.
So after all of this I just though, why would anyone want to be a pro gamer? Working at your local supermarket would get you at least 5x as much.
The reason I am writing this blog is because I have just tuned into Liquid's new acquisition, Sea, and in front of 2500 people he is dancing with his dog to Gangnam style. He is absolutely hilarious, and although he is serious in front of his newly acquired two and a half thousand fans, and is still funny most of the time in a match, when the going gets tough inside the match I can see him change completely
He is fixated on the game, and gives it 100%. Strategy games are a beautiful thing. We are all here because we love the use of tactics with (almost) equally balanced sides to achieve victory, and right now the best game for that is SC2. It is a wonderful game, and he is doing what he loves. So for the 500$ a month or whatever Liquid is paying him, I can see that he, and many other streamers, are always smiling. It is because there is more important things than money in life. Most would get turned off from the profession because of the money factor alone, but these people gain genuine happiness and fulfillment from their job.
Maybe the bling bling in esports will increase one day, or maybe it will remain this horrid forever. But I am proud to be amongst these names on the right hand side of my screen, because they are doing something they love and fulfilling their dreams infront of hundreds or even thousands of people, which is an experience of a lifetime
 
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Liquid is a top team, and there sponsors are very good and are placed well- Sea is popular, and at the same time very strong. I'm sure he has a decent salary ^^- of course, esports is still growing. Things will almost definitely only going to get better, and the people that live in those conditions deserve but more respect from us. I can say that anyone that has the skill and balls to go into esports is someone I would like to share coffee with.
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On October 05 2012 10:44 SickeL wrote:
Liquid is a top team, and there sponsors are very good and are placed well- Sea is popular, and at the same time very strong. I'm sure he has a decent salary ^^- of course, esports is still growing. Things will almost definitely only going to get better, and the people that live in those conditions deserve but more respect from us. I can say that anyone that has the skill and balls to go into esports is someone I would like to share coffee with.
I hope it grows as much as you hope, but I remain pessimistic. The amount of people playing vs the $$ in the scene is nowhere near balanced, and 90% of pro gamers will still leave their profession with little money and work experience, so it is a tough gig. And you are right, you need a lot of skills + balls
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Not pretending to be an expert on this subject, but I heard Huk's salary used to be in 6 figures from streaming. Just Saying....
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On October 05 2012 11:02 isaachukfan wrote:
Not pretending to be an expert on this subject, but I heard Huk's salary used to be in 6 figures from streaming. Just Saying....
Esports is VERY very top heavy. Like from #1 to #10 you can see a dropoff of 10x even (or at least it was I do not claim to know current numbers).
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On October 05 2012 11:02 isaachukfan wrote:
Not pretending to be an expert on this subject, but I heard Huk's salary used to be in 6 figures from streaming. Just Saying....
And yet no one has any idea where that came from.
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On October 05 2012 11:13 mizU wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2012 11:02 isaachukfan wrote:
Not pretending to be an expert on this subject, but I heard Huk's salary used to be in 6 figures from streaming. Just Saying.... And yet no one has any idea where that came from.
There was that guy that reported that MC's salary was 10% of HuK's (which HuK himself later refuted), so people just assumed HuK was making a ton of money.
The guy I'm referring to btw is the same guy who breaks the team news before word leaks out to the foreign scene. (So far, he has gotten Zenio --> Liquid, MC --> SK, Stephano --> EG, and Sea --> Liquid, and some of the KR teams folding.) I don't think he's really an insider source myself -- I think the theories floating around is that he works for one of the KR eSports sites or that he just reads the comments and posts speculation -- but he's the most "official" source of the rumor I can even come up with.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
Well, Sea was earning something like $80k/year at MBC back in the day :O
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It's definitely not the most lucrative career out there unless you you reach the very top, even in Brood War after the top 30 or so players they did not make that much. ( salary rumors, not confirmed )
If Starcraft 2 can continue to grow its audience hopefully some day players will be making a comfortable living without being Mvp or MC.
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The number you get is for the non-top players. Top teams still get a very very significant amount of money, but yeah as mentioned...there is a huge drop-off. It's not to surprising really, considering the nature of esports.
In sports such as tennis, too, it's downright terrible if you're not a top player. [incoming run-on sentence] Every year you're traveling almost nonstop around the world, you're living from motel to motel, there's like a 1.5-month offseason, it's hard to keep a girlfriend because you'll be traveling a ton and if you're not a great player, well, you're looking at very little money made. And tennis as a sport is extremely difficult since it's 1v1 just you and the other guy on the court, lose in a tournament and you pack your bags for the next one etc. And even the top player makes far less money than an American basketball/football player or a European footballer--for those sports, even the bench players make much more than even many top 10 tennis players, maybe about even if you consider sponsorships.
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On October 05 2012 11:23 babylon wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2012 11:13 mizU wrote:On October 05 2012 11:02 isaachukfan wrote:
Not pretending to be an expert on this subject, but I heard Huk's salary used to be in 6 figures from streaming. Just Saying.... And yet no one has any idea where that came from. There was that guy that reported that MC's salary was 10% of HuK's (which HuK himself later refuted), so people just assumed HuK was making a ton of money. The guy I'm referring to btw is the same guy who breaks the team news before word leaks out to the foreign scene. (So far, he has gotten Zenio --> Liquid, MC --> SK, Stephano --> EG, and Sea --> Liquid, and some of the KR teams folding.) I don't think he's really an insider source myself -- I think the theories floating around is that he works for one of the KR eSports sites or that he just reads the comments and posts speculation -- but he's the most "official" source of the rumor I can even come up with.
Who????
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On October 05 2012 11:32 thedeadhaji wrote:
Well, Sea was earning something like $80k/year at MBC back in the day :O
Yeah I don't think salary was the real clincher for Sea. I think he was just looking for something new and to get into the foreign scene and travel. Good for him.
On the other hand salaries are the entire revenue of a pro player. A lot of them will get extra incentivized bonuses, based on play, streaming, and other sponsorship related channels. For top streamers ad revenue goes a long way to supplement their salary. On top of that you see travel expenses and other bonuses, like gear. Salary is usually a very small portion of the support players receive.
If you had to break each portion down monetarily the pay would be a lot higher than the actually contractual salary.
-salary
-bonuses
-prize purses
-streaming revenue
-sponsorship bonuses (I doubt this exist than for other than a few other players)
-travel expenses possibly including food
-Computer equipment and peripherals
The peripherals are usually perks of a specific sponsor, but it still saves the player the cost of buying them.
I think it's a little more comfortable than you would think of it.
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On October 05 2012 12:12 mizU wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2012 11:23 babylon wrote:On October 05 2012 11:13 mizU wrote:On October 05 2012 11:02 isaachukfan wrote:
Not pretending to be an expert on this subject, but I heard Huk's salary used to be in 6 figures from streaming. Just Saying.... And yet no one has any idea where that came from. There was that guy that reported that MC's salary was 10% of HuK's (which HuK himself later refuted), so people just assumed HuK was making a ton of money. The guy I'm referring to btw is the same guy who breaks the team news before word leaks out to the foreign scene. (So far, he has gotten Zenio --> Liquid, MC --> SK, Stephano --> EG, and Sea --> Liquid, and some of the KR teams folding.) I don't think he's really an insider source myself -- I think the theories floating around is that he works for one of the KR eSports sites or that he just reads the comments and posts speculation -- but he's the most "official" source of the rumor I can even come up with. Who????
http://www.reddit.com/user/starcraft2news
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I think streaming is the main source of income for pros so watch the ads lol....thats the moral of the story.
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According to your math, even if it was $500/week that's still < $9/hr. That's... "insanely good"? Sorry, no thanks.
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only the very best foreign players make over 60k/year. if you like money progaming really isn't your field. Even the best players at the top put in so much time and travel so much it isn't an easy life at all.
edit: just to clarify I was speaking based off salary and what a team would actually give in compensation. If you want to stream 12hours a day sure you can make quite a lot of money assuming you have a good amount of viewers consistently.
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At least most pro gamers don't have to pay rent which accounts for most of the expenses anyways...
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United Kingdom16710 Posts
I would love to see a general rise in the basic salary of progamers, but that simply cannot happen without the money flowing in from sponsors. Though the status quo might seem bad, there is a plus side to this; it gives extra motivation for players to achieve success and earn the big bucks. It drives them to practice harder, longer, and smarter to get to the top. I think that's good for the game and the scene.
I would also like to add that doing so, and receiving a sizable salary might actually do more harm than good, in its current form. Of course it varies from person to person, but it can sap the motivation and the fear that drives you on out of you. You might point to the top earners in the (now defunct) BW scene and say bullshit, but those teams run a very tight and disciplined ship. The players that earn the most are almost always the ones that practice the hardest. The environment ensures that you have to get to the top and stay there in order to keep receiving large wages. I don't know how teams like EG operate, but perhaps they need to look at how better to incentivise their players by making wage more dependent on performance.
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On October 05 2012 12:53 Grobyc wrote:
According to your math, even if it was $500/week that's still < $9/hr. That's... "insanely good"? Sorry, no thanks.
yes that's 'Insanely Good' for playing a video game
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EPT
