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So how Financial stable is it being a Progamer in North America? From what I have read on TL there is only 3 real ways a progamer makes money
1. Winning Tournaments: this is something that is very risky and in North America at least not really up par. Most Tournaments even if you win are anywhere from 100- 10,000 dollars.
2. Team Sponsorship/Salary: I am not sure how much a Sponsored team gets paid and I am sure it changes drastically with the team you are on.
3. Coaching: Many Progamers such as Incontrol, Idra, Ret, Inka, all make money coaching and from listening to JP and friends it sounds like Incontrol can make a very decent living off coaching and helping others. Though this takes away from his other gaming duties such as Training.
Every Progamer is different and it's different per team would it be possible to support yourself while on a Progamers salary or benefits whatever they may be? Or do you as a progamer have to find a part time job or even a full time job to support yourself?
While I understand that the love of the game is what is super important. I find that most of the older BW progamers and maybe current SC2 progamers are in there late 20s going on early 30s with the exception of few.
Edit: I mean't in NA not is NA, I am quite ill in the brain.
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thats it? I thought this topic was going to change my life.
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Coaching seems to be the best bet for making money as a Pro in NA, and being sponsored with a team would be useful too (particular EG, their guys always seem just fine) winning tournaments is definitely not something to count on, maybe if you win you can get some little thing you've wanted for a while, but it wont be paying your bills. i think it would become infinitely more feasible to have a part time job to pay the bills and put food on the table
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I think it's mainly the opportunity cost:
You COULD train 8+ hours a day for a chance to win max $1,000 every two weeks on a game that may not have much of a future within 2 years and where skill differentials are not clearly defined yet
...
Or... you could get a traditional 9-5/9-6 job with a regular salary and treat SC2 as a game.
Though love of the game is important, it is very difficult to substitute earning potentials in mainstream society. As a student on the other hand...
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I don't have any numbers regarding sponsored salaries (they are almost always kept secret by contract), but I'd say with some confidence that being a progamer in the US doesn't make you rich. Enough to survive for some, maybe with an above average income for a select few, but nobody gets rich off gaming.
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I'm not aware of every team's salary, but i know that its probably not enough to support them alone. This isn't golf, yet.
Streaming is great, but ad revenue helps more. If you can get alot of people to subscribe to your stream/youtube/whateverVODsites that offer that sort of pay out. You can make some money from it. However it is not enough to completely support you.
Coaching is the day job of the progamers. No i'm not talking about those who are high up in the ladder and start charging for advice. I'm talking about the actual coaches from gosucoaching or a pro team's site that offers coaching.
Tournament prize money isn't important( well it is) , but winning them and/or placing high is more important. Pros need to place high to stay relevant for their team. Most e-team owners know how hard sc2 is, or any competitive game, so they general don't kick you off right away, or maybe at all. Sponsor teams need to have high profile players to get more / keep their sponsors. I've bought Steel series equipment because of EG and Fnatic.
Edit: In my belief you don't go into progaming for the money, thats foolish and will lead to a burnout. You do it for the passion and the love of competition.
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It's not financially viable at the moment. I would put my salary up against any pro gamer's (NOTE: in the US only) and likely come out on top. But financial viability isn't the only factor here; it's a dream to do what you love. If you can at least survive playing SC2, it would be a pretty sweet life for a while.
If you're doing it for money, I would say you're on the wrong path. Go to school and get a good job. You'll make considerably more.
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Well from what i understand most contract team salaries are kept from public knowledge but the best way to be financially stable is to have a regular job and practice in your off time.
To many people come on this forum with elaborate plans and ideas on how to go pro, but in the end if you have no where to stay and cant feed yourself then you really cant focus on improving at a game.
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Just a game-sick kid, with no hopes but one dream, just a mouse and a chair ~~. NA needs a huge boost in the tournament scene like in Korea to become really financially viable. If you just want to do what you love, have fun, hopefully travel the world with friends, it's more than worth it if you ask me. Getting your foot in the door on the other hand...... ehhh a bit more difficult.
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Love and passion for the game first, thats the way to succeed. If you go in it for the money, you're approaching pro-gaming with the wrong mentality. The money will come eventually. Hopefully.
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On February 02 2011 06:04 echO [W] wrote:
Love and passion for the game first, thats the way to succeed. If you go in it for the money, you're approaching pro-gaming with the wrong mentality. They money will come eventually. Hopefully.
Or never come. See 99% of players who attempt to "go pro" for further details.
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On February 02 2011 05:55 theBullFrog wrote:
Edit: In my belief you don't go into progaming for the money, thats foolish and will lead to a burnout. You do it for the passion and the love of competition.
In my belief, you don't go into progaming for money, passion, or love of competition. You become a progamer if you are a super amazing gosu.
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I've heard it repeated here many times, the Progaming life isn't glamorous. At best you might be making more than the average gas station hand unless you're at the very top. You can go in to coaching but that's largely an unproven market and depends entirely on the interest in the game.
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I would not know specifically for StarCraft 2, but I know that it's not uncommon for a sponsored pro gamer (every time I read that written as one word, my brain says Programmer...) to never even see any tournament winnings, even if he does win a tournament.
Quite often you will be paid a set salary, which from what I have heard (as has been mentioned above, you are not allowed to disclose your pay quite often, pro gaming contracts can be as dodgy as you like, and you have very little support if it goes horribly wrong) is nothing to shout about at all, at best it sounds like it just beats out minimum wage and you probably get a hardware donation of some kind (or if you or your team is sponsored by, eg, Bose or Intel, you might actually be forced to use their products, at least while attending a tournament)
I have a few friends, and a few neutral aquaintences who are pro gamers, and none of them are doing that much better than the people I know with regular 9-5 jobs, and they do actually work 9-5 as well, if they aren't flat out training then they are coaching or working on other things that bring in some extra money (working fro streaming services, coaching, part-time jobs, etc)
This will probably vary from team to team/sponsor to sponsor, but I have heard from more than one person that in their team, the only person who gets to keep a full tournament winning is the person in their team who is considered 'the best' (or most recognisable, or famous, so your Daigo, or Ryan Hart, or etc for SF, I can't think of any SC2 examples, especially the korean names I know, those guys operate quite differently it seems, what with the provided housing and etc)
Everyone else on the team gets their winnings split between the rest of the team. I am not sure how this works for straight up team games (Gears of War, Counter-Strike, etc) but I suspect the team captain (or best player) would get a larger portion of a win.
If you want to do it without a sponsorship or a team salary though, then get ready for a whole world of working 9-5 just to pay for the frikkin' travel costs to get to all these tournaments. It really is something someone does because they love the game, and that game (or genre) specifically. I know a fair few high level gamers who simply do not game, at all, outside of that one game or genre that they play.
But yeah I am sure other people know a lot more than me, but by the sounds of it you can do quite reasonably, but it will vary between different games and sponsors/teams. It can also end very quickly with you rushing to get a job at McDonalds before your rent payment is due because I have heard a few horror stories about dodgy contracts where you can be let go with zero notice and for no reason.
But hey, if it's your passion and you genuinely have the dedication and mindset to make it work, go for it. You only live once. Worst that can happen is you end up back at square one looking for a 9-5.
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Pro-gaming today, in my opinion has the same vibe as professional sports did in the early times, if I remember correctly, professional athletes then did not compete or devote their entire lives to the game, they still had regular jobs and such because the money was not there yet for it to be a full time job.
I feel that right now that is where pro-gaming is at. A lot of people do it while having another job, but a few are lucky enough to do it full time.
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United Kingdom138 Posts
On February 02 2011 06:12 echO [W] wrote:
Pro-gaming today, in my opinion has the same vibe as professional sports did in the early times, if I remember correctly, professional athletes then did not compete or devote their entire lives to the game, they still had regular jobs and such because the money was not there yet for it to be a full time job.
I feel that right now that is where pro-gaming is at. A lot of people do it while having another job, but a few are lucky enough to do it full time.
Well I think of a lot of professional sports which aren't really "popular" are not that different to starcraft even today. e.g. Athletics, Swimming. Basically, because people dont care about them like football or basketball, there is no inherent money in Athletics or Swimming. Some countries pay their athletes well because they want gold medals in the Olympic but many don't. Hell, you probably cant even give lessons as easily as in SC2 because you have to be in person and not that many people bother to pay for personal coaching in swimming or athletics.
Even for popular sports, you will struggle to be good enough to earn enough to equal a 9-5.
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On February 02 2011 06:43 plagiarisedwords wrote:Show nested quote +On February 02 2011 06:12 echO [W] wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Pro-gaming today, in my opinion has the same vibe as professional sports did in the early times, if I remember correctly, professional athletes then did not compete or devote their entire lives to the game, they still had regular jobs and such because the money was not there yet for it to be a full time job.
I feel that right now that is where pro-gaming is at. A lot of people do it while having another job, but a few are lucky enough to do it full time . Well I think of a lot of professional sports which aren't really "popular" are not that different to starcraft even today. e.g. Athletics, Swimming. Basically, because people dont care about them like football or basketball, there is no inherent money in Athletics or Swimming. Some countries pay their athletes well because they want gold medals in the Olympic but many don't. Hell, you probably cant even give lessons as easily as in SC2 because you have to be in person and not that many people bother to pay for personal coaching in swimming or athletics. Even for popular sports, you will struggle to be good enough to earn enough to equal a 9-5.
This.
A lot of the smaller town local football teams here (south of the UK) consist of people who work as painters/decorators/technicians/etc as a dayjob and play football for fun, getting paid to play for the local club is almost negligible.
And some of them are still beating the bigger teams who's players are on thousands per week 
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There is no financial stability, unless you do something like gosu coaching, which will go down in price as the market realizes what the coaches gives arent worth such a steep price and there are plenty of quality players out there to give advice for free, or you practice so much that you are essentially earning slave labour wages to earn a salary from one of the larger teams.
99% of people in esports give more money to esports than they will ever get out, its not economically viable, unless you are literally ripping people off of their money, you will not make money enough money in esports to actually note.
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Well, I think of it like this:
Many young (18-25) adults in european countries, australia, etc before going to college, or into a job after college, fly to a new country, and get a job there. This provides them with just enough to get by, and allows them to stay in the country for as long as they want (think of it like a vacation) they're not in it for the money, they're in it for the experience of seeing new people, new places, etc. (example: go to whistler, I think I was the only teenager in the hotel that didnt speak with an australian accent!)
Becoming a professional Starcraft player is kind of like this, except you're doing a job you enjoy!
From what I've heard
If a player wins a tournament they get to keep their winnings, and they also get a salary from the team they are on to support themselves. This makes it very possible to be a professional gamer.
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EPT
