Financial Stability Of Being A Progamer in NA - Page 6

On February 02 2011 12:57 Liquid`HuK wrote:



same, actually i havnt even been paid for IEM Cologne yet, sad

On February 03 2011 07:08 Holcan wrote:
You act like eSports is a booming industry, it isnt. And gaining a few thousand viewers since sc2s release isnt changing anything either, outside sponsors dont want to see viewership in the tens of thousands, they want to see viewership in the 100,000's or more.

Esports will never become socially acceptable, especially with some of the current poster childs, (heres looking at you hostile !) Outside sponsors will always view this as a niche market, the most we can ever hope for is inside sponsorships (steelseries, razer) and related sponsorships (Intel, AMD). Look at how hard the CGS failed when they brought in outside sponsors.

Sure its possible to make a profit off esports, but you definitely wont be able to pay rent, afford to marry, and do all the things you can do with a 9-5 job, unless you are the very top percentile of players, and if you are a top percentile, you need to travel to a foreign country to compete.

A good example is Axslav, he plays for Team EG, one of the, if not the pinnacle of NA esports, yet he has a career outside of esports.

On February 03 2011 07:14 2GRe-Play- wrote:


Question: why those Big Tournament havent paid the Prize pool?
it seems that they.... wait!

On February 03 2011 07:22 Jhax wrote:
Say if you coached for 50$ an hour for 4-5 hours a day thats like 200-250 dollars a day. Which is like working 9 to 5 at 25$ an hour? This and other income such as prizes and sponsorship money aswell as having computer parts paid for, would make one thing that pro gamers are pretty well off.

On February 03 2011 07:16 TBO wrote:


You need to be in the top percentile or actually higher in any sport / entertainment to make a living of it. There are 6,7 Million people organized (a lot more are actually playing though) in the german football association (DFB) and how many people are making a living out of it? we have 3 Pro-Leagues and 4th league (there are 2 of them) also pays quite well - at least some teams in it.

So you have 5 leagues with ~20 teams with roughly ~20 players eacth, that makes 2000 people out of 6,7 million, thats 0,03 Percent.

On February 03 2011 07:22 Jhax wrote:
Say if you coached for 50$ an hour for 4-5 hours a day thats like 200-250 dollars a day. Which is like working 9 to 5 at 25$ an hour? This and other income such as prizes and sponsorship money aswell as having computer parts paid for, would make one thing that pro gamers are pretty well off.

On February 03 2011 07:08 Holcan wrote:
You act like eSports is a booming industry, it isnt. And gaining a few thousand viewers since sc2s release isnt changing anything either, outside sponsors dont want to see viewership in the tens of thousands, they want to see viewership in the 100,000's or more.

Esports will never become socially acceptable, especially with some of the current poster childs, (heres looking at you hostile !) Outside sponsors will always view this as a niche market, the most we can ever hope for is inside sponsorships (steelseries, razer) and related sponsorships (Intel, AMD). Look at how hard the CGS failed when they brought in outside sponsors.

Sure its possible to make a profit off esports, but you definitely wont be able to pay rent, afford to marry, and do all the things you can do with a 9-5 job, unless you are the very top percentile of players, and if you are a top percentile, you need to travel to a foreign country to compete.

A good example is Axslav, he plays for Team EG, one of the, if not the pinnacle of NA esports, yet he has a career outside of esports.

On February 03 2011 10:13 Elp wrote:
Progaming might be able to support you right now, but not in 15 years from now. At some point you wont be able to compete with younger players, you'll be too slow. At what age you'll reach that point is debatable, but if professional athletes are an indication it's probably around age 35.

On February 03 2011 08:12 [Eternal]Phoenix wrote:
It's like any other entertainment/artistic job. Actual performance often is supplemental or at best an okay living. Most of the money comes from teaching. Music, drawing, dance, whatever - it's the same thing, only a different audience.

On February 03 2011 10:44 Lysenko wrote:


Research into the impact of age on reaction time shows variable results depending on exactly what's being tested, and reactions that require cognitive involvement (like many of the actions in Starcraft 2) exhibit less slowing than other types of reactions (like, say, pressing a button when a light comes on.)

In any case, significant slowing of reaction time doesn't really hit until age 50 or so, and it also varies a good deal from person to person.

The big reason that professional athletes often retire by their mid-30s is more an issue of raw stamina, physical speed of energy-intensive motion like sprinting, and a slowing ability to recover from extreme exertion. Sports that do not depend on these qualities so much often include participants who are successful later into adulthood.

It's important when looking at the ages at which people are successful in the Starcraft community to take into account a few things. People who are now in their mid-30s grew up with a lot less video game play experience as children, and that lack of early training and practice may have an impact on their ability to perform at a modern game like Starcraft. Home video game systems of the time had limited control and high latency that made the experience very different and not particularly analogous.

Also, given the current state of the pro gaming world (which has been laid out pretty well here) the typical 30-ish Starcraft player has already made life choices that would exclude putting in the time to succeed at the game. That they're poorly represented in the pro community could well just be a matter of having largely counted themselves out of the pool.

I would not be surprised to see the ages of pro gamers slowly creeping up over the next ten or fifteen years, though probably not dramatically unless pro gaming becomes a much more viable living than it is today. There will still be peer pressure on 30s-ish gamers to "get a real career" in a way that there isn't for people in their early 20s, and there will probably still be a stigma, an assumption of poor performance, associated with people who reach the 30 mark, whether or not it's backed up by the facts.

On February 03 2011 10:55 chenchen wrote:



lolwut . . almost every Brood War pro peaked in their early twenties and started disappearing from the scene by 24-ish. It has a lot to do with reaction time, speed, and decision making.

If the only thing you've done in the last 15 years is play videogames you're going to have a hard time getting a 'real' job.

On February 03 2011 10:55 chenchen wrote:
lolwut . . almost every Brood War pro peaked in their early twenties and started disappearing from the scene by 24-ish. It has a lot to do with reaction time, speed, and decision making.

On February 03 2011 11:02 FLuE wrote:


Pretty much 100% false.

First off, it opens up a ton of doors to work in a variety of fields that involve gaming, anything from working directly with gaming companies to working with say computer parts manufacturers as head of their sponsorship divisions etc. Someone who managed to have a very successful pro gaming career would know the ins and outs of the industry and that right there could continue with a living.

Furthermore, just because you are a progamer doesn't mean your some moron who has no other skills outside of clicking a mouse. Actually most of these top pro gamers from my experience are super bright people, have gone to college, they understand and process things quickly and offer a skill set that is quite unique and a skill set I'd much rather have than a lot of these degrees plenty of people come out of school with today that are worthless.

Everyone understands that you aren't a pro gamer forever, but if you can do it for a period of time, support yourself, have fun doing it then why not. Live the dream as long as you can and then you move on from there. To me it isn't much different than a triple A baseball player that never makes the majors and gets that big payday. A comment like that is narrow minded and shows a complete lack for understanding how the real world actually works.