EPThttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/sports/othersports/02video.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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Until recently, Emmanuel Rodriguez worked on a stage, under bright lights, amid intense competition and before cheering fans. He was a professional video-game player, and a world champion.
Now he works at the customer service desk of a Sam’s Club in Dallas.
Rodriguez, a brash 23-year-old whose nickname in the gaming community is Master, dominated an international field in July in Dead or Alive 4, a popular fighting game, on the Microsoft Xbox 360. He picked up $5,000 and a trophy for the victory.
The competition, held in Los Angeles, was part of the world individual finals of the Championship Gaming Series, a league started two years earlier by News Corporation and DirecTV. And Rodriguez, given his success and his swagger, was a star. As a designated franchise player, he received a base salary of $30,000. During the regular season, he lost only one match, good enough to be named North American most valuable player.
For Rodriguez and others like him around the world, playing video games had become a career.
That, however, has changed for many players. Video games may be as popular as ever — people in more than 65 percent of American households play, according to the Entertainment Software Association — but the professional sport of gaming has nearly collapsed.
Major companies have pulled sponsorships and several tournaments have folded. And in November, News Corporation and DirecTV unexpectedly shut down the Championship Gaming Series.
Rodriguez and more than 100 salaried players had their short-lived dreams dashed. He returned to the job he left in 2007, at Sam’s Club.
“Going into this, I busted my heart out,” Rodriguez said recently. “It felt like I put in all this energy to build something big. I felt like everything I built up was gone.”
For years, video gamers sharpened their skills for fun wherever they could find competition — in basements, dorm rooms and even big-box stores. Companies recognized the potential of marketing products to this vast informal community, and a sport began to grow.
Tournaments were created and existing ones expanded. Events appeared on cable television and on the Internet. Leagues formed, and players received exclusive contracts.
But the recession has left only one significant competitive circuit in North America, Major League Gaming.
“We have driven everybody else out of the business,” Matthew Bromberg, the league’s president and chief executive, said in a recent interview at his office in Manhattan. “The history of league sports begins with one league.”
Bromberg said Major League Gaming had not lost any sponsors and would turn its first profit this year. Since 2006, he said, the company has raised $42.5 million in venture capital. The 2009 season begins this weekend at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J.
Professional gaming is divided between two distinct segments: personal-computer gaming and console gaming, which is played principally on the Xbox 360. Major League Gaming features Halo 3, a first-person shooting game.
Personal-computer gaming tournaments and sponsorships have been hit particularly hard by the recession.
“It’s kind of like someone hit the reboot button on gaming,” said Craig Levine, a 25-year-old who formed a team as an undergraduate at New York University in 2002.
The current landscape resembles the one he entered, with few endorsements and little prize money. His group, Team 3D, is credited with becoming North America’s first professional gaming team. Levine managed the team until May 2007, when he sold it to the Championship Gaming Series. The team played the seminal computer game Counter-Strike, in which five-person teams fight as terrorists and nonterrorists.
Levine helped develop a model in which independent players could sign with a team, then compete around the world and online. Success garnered sponsorships, in part to cover travel expenses and entry fees. He said that top players could earn from $50,000 to $60,000 a year in winnings and endorsements.
Rodriguez began playing in this fragmented circuit. He graduated from high school in 2003 and soon after he focused on Dead or Alive, entering online tournaments and small live events.
“I was spending between $200 to $400 to go somewhere to win $200 to $400,” he said, laughing. “Personally, I wanted to see how far I could go. I didn’t play for the money.”
By 2007, he had won several major tournaments. Big money and stability arrived for him and others with the Championship Gaming Series, playing Counter-Strike, Dead or Alive and other games. The league held a draft, established franchises and opened a competition in which players chased $1 million in prize money during the playoffs.
In 2006, Major League Gaming was the first to offer contracts to top players. The Championship Gaming Series did the same, and there was a rush to sign the best gamers.
The Championship Gaming Series began with a five-year plan, but it was shut down after two. DirecTV officials who ran the league declined to comment for this article.
If fewer opportunities are available worldwide, that has not stopped young gamers who play Halo 3. Nearly six million copies of the game have been sold since its release in September 2007, according to the market research firm NPD Group.
Justin Brown, 18, is one such gamer. In Major League Gaming, he plays on a four-person team he started with his twin, Jason. As high school seniors last year, they each won $30,000 at tournaments. They have been playing Halo since they were 13.
“On the weekends, we would play for 12 hours straight, only taking breaks to eat and sleep,” Justin Brown said. “That was the greatest time of my life then.”
Within a few years, the brothers were unbeatable in tournaments online and around their hometown, Urbana, Ill. At one tournament, held at a local theater, they won movie tickets.
The stakes quickly grew. At 16, they paid their way into a Major League Gaming event and finished fourth. A year later, they finished second in the league’s championship. College will have to wait as they pursue gaming careers.
“I never expected to make money off of it,” Brown said. “Thinking about it, it’s just amazing. We are a small class of people who are able to do this.”
In 2008, three players in Major League Gaming earned more than $75,000, and three others had six-figure salaries, largely from endorsements. Justin and Jason Brown are well on their way; Old Spice recently decided to sponsor their team.
Major League Gaming shows events live on its Web site and operates GameBattles.com, a site used by more than a million players, mostly amateurs. A narrow but defined path remains for those who want to become pros.
Rodriguez was a pro, and he still has few challengers in Dead or Alive 4. For now, though, his game is without a league. He plans to host his own tournament this spring in Dallas. He has also taken up a new game, Street Fighter 4.
Rodriguez said his mother and sister recently asked him if he might consider college or seeking a higher position at work. He told them he intended to give this quest one more shot.
“I still believe in gaming,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just gave it up.”
Now he works at the customer service desk of a Sam’s Club in Dallas.
Rodriguez, a brash 23-year-old whose nickname in the gaming community is Master, dominated an international field in July in Dead or Alive 4, a popular fighting game, on the Microsoft Xbox 360. He picked up $5,000 and a trophy for the victory.
The competition, held in Los Angeles, was part of the world individual finals of the Championship Gaming Series, a league started two years earlier by News Corporation and DirecTV. And Rodriguez, given his success and his swagger, was a star. As a designated franchise player, he received a base salary of $30,000. During the regular season, he lost only one match, good enough to be named North American most valuable player.
For Rodriguez and others like him around the world, playing video games had become a career.
That, however, has changed for many players. Video games may be as popular as ever — people in more than 65 percent of American households play, according to the Entertainment Software Association — but the professional sport of gaming has nearly collapsed.
Major companies have pulled sponsorships and several tournaments have folded. And in November, News Corporation and DirecTV unexpectedly shut down the Championship Gaming Series.
Rodriguez and more than 100 salaried players had their short-lived dreams dashed. He returned to the job he left in 2007, at Sam’s Club.
“Going into this, I busted my heart out,” Rodriguez said recently. “It felt like I put in all this energy to build something big. I felt like everything I built up was gone.”
For years, video gamers sharpened their skills for fun wherever they could find competition — in basements, dorm rooms and even big-box stores. Companies recognized the potential of marketing products to this vast informal community, and a sport began to grow.
Tournaments were created and existing ones expanded. Events appeared on cable television and on the Internet. Leagues formed, and players received exclusive contracts.
But the recession has left only one significant competitive circuit in North America, Major League Gaming.
“We have driven everybody else out of the business,” Matthew Bromberg, the league’s president and chief executive, said in a recent interview at his office in Manhattan. “The history of league sports begins with one league.”
Bromberg said Major League Gaming had not lost any sponsors and would turn its first profit this year. Since 2006, he said, the company has raised $42.5 million in venture capital. The 2009 season begins this weekend at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J.
Professional gaming is divided between two distinct segments: personal-computer gaming and console gaming, which is played principally on the Xbox 360. Major League Gaming features Halo 3, a first-person shooting game.
Personal-computer gaming tournaments and sponsorships have been hit particularly hard by the recession.
“It’s kind of like someone hit the reboot button on gaming,” said Craig Levine, a 25-year-old who formed a team as an undergraduate at New York University in 2002.
The current landscape resembles the one he entered, with few endorsements and little prize money. His group, Team 3D, is credited with becoming North America’s first professional gaming team. Levine managed the team until May 2007, when he sold it to the Championship Gaming Series. The team played the seminal computer game Counter-Strike, in which five-person teams fight as terrorists and nonterrorists.
Levine helped develop a model in which independent players could sign with a team, then compete around the world and online. Success garnered sponsorships, in part to cover travel expenses and entry fees. He said that top players could earn from $50,000 to $60,000 a year in winnings and endorsements.
Rodriguez began playing in this fragmented circuit. He graduated from high school in 2003 and soon after he focused on Dead or Alive, entering online tournaments and small live events.
“I was spending between $200 to $400 to go somewhere to win $200 to $400,” he said, laughing. “Personally, I wanted to see how far I could go. I didn’t play for the money.”
By 2007, he had won several major tournaments. Big money and stability arrived for him and others with the Championship Gaming Series, playing Counter-Strike, Dead or Alive and other games. The league held a draft, established franchises and opened a competition in which players chased $1 million in prize money during the playoffs.
In 2006, Major League Gaming was the first to offer contracts to top players. The Championship Gaming Series did the same, and there was a rush to sign the best gamers.
The Championship Gaming Series began with a five-year plan, but it was shut down after two. DirecTV officials who ran the league declined to comment for this article.
If fewer opportunities are available worldwide, that has not stopped young gamers who play Halo 3. Nearly six million copies of the game have been sold since its release in September 2007, according to the market research firm NPD Group.
Justin Brown, 18, is one such gamer. In Major League Gaming, he plays on a four-person team he started with his twin, Jason. As high school seniors last year, they each won $30,000 at tournaments. They have been playing Halo since they were 13.
“On the weekends, we would play for 12 hours straight, only taking breaks to eat and sleep,” Justin Brown said. “That was the greatest time of my life then.”
Within a few years, the brothers were unbeatable in tournaments online and around their hometown, Urbana, Ill. At one tournament, held at a local theater, they won movie tickets.
The stakes quickly grew. At 16, they paid their way into a Major League Gaming event and finished fourth. A year later, they finished second in the league’s championship. College will have to wait as they pursue gaming careers.
“I never expected to make money off of it,” Brown said. “Thinking about it, it’s just amazing. We are a small class of people who are able to do this.”
In 2008, three players in Major League Gaming earned more than $75,000, and three others had six-figure salaries, largely from endorsements. Justin and Jason Brown are well on their way; Old Spice recently decided to sponsor their team.
Major League Gaming shows events live on its Web site and operates GameBattles.com, a site used by more than a million players, mostly amateurs. A narrow but defined path remains for those who want to become pros.
Rodriguez was a pro, and he still has few challengers in Dead or Alive 4. For now, though, his game is without a league. He plans to host his own tournament this spring in Dallas. He has also taken up a new game, Street Fighter 4.
Rodriguez said his mother and sister recently asked him if he might consider college or seeking a higher position at work. He told them he intended to give this quest one more shot.
“I still believe in gaming,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just gave it up.”
