Professional Gaming

Professional Gaming: It's Bigger Than You Think

By Jeffrey Adam Young

Right now, somewhere in the world a teenaged girl is playing a computer game in her bedroom and her mother is calling her to dinner from the kitchen. The girl shouts back, "Okay, Mom. I'm playing in a really important match. I'll be right there when I'm finished."

That's right. She just referred to a computer game as an "important MATCH." As in a SPORT.

For those of you in the "reality police" who are about to blow your whistles on the scenario presented above, you may be surprised to learn that there are currently full-time, professional computer game players—the most successful of whom make six figures annually by playing in competitive gaming tournaments. Thinking of professional gaming as a sport may seem like a stretch, but those individuals who are excelling in it devote the same type of skill, passion, and commitment that a real-world athlete does.
Pro Gaming 101

So, what is professional gaming? In the strictest sense, it's a set of gamers who are rewarded money for winning computer game competitions. But, like most major sports professional gaming is a lot more complicated than that. First, you need to know that professional gaming hasn't been around very long. Prior to the birth of pro gaming, thousands of players would duke it out as individuals and teams over the Internet. In addition, serious players set up face-to-face meetings over Local Area Networks (LANs). The popularity of these two forums led to the formation of the first professional gaming league in 1997. Today, there are three major professional gaming leagues and thousands of local and regional contests that help catapult players to the major professional tournaments.
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Girls Got Game

As you might imagine, at the professional level competition is stiff. Just ask Stevie Case, aka Killcreek, the world's first full-time professional gamer. She shot to immediate fame after she beat Quake game designer John Romero at his own game. She's now retired from pro-gaming to take a more behind-the-scenes role as a game developer. According to her, in the short time between her professional gaming stint in the late '90s to the present, the competition bar has been raised considerably.

"Today's professional gaming is like a pro sport," says Case, "Players must practice every day in order to keep their skill level up. If you miss a few days, you're going to lose something. It used to be that only a handful of women players who showed up at tournaments could really compete. But today, every single woman player who enters a tournament is phenomenal—their just as skilled as the guys in the tournaments."
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Social Computer Gaming: No Longer an Oxymoron

The stereotype of computer gamers as shut-ins who don't possess social skills is shattered by the professional gaming movement. Most of the games that are played at the competitive level require team-play, so by definition they are intensely social. Serious teams assign roles to each player; much like a coach would assign a position to a sports player. Much strategy planning is often discussed prior to matches, and a review the effectiveness of those strategies often takes place post-game. And gamers that meet at tournaments often form lasting friendships.
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A Word from Our Sponsors

Take a look at any major league sport today and you'll find them full of sponsorships, from brand names on the stadiums to logos on the player's jerseys. Professional gaming is no exception. Even since its inception sponsorship was a big part of professional gaming, enabling players the means to pay for their expenses while focusing on their sport. Witness Stevie Case's sponsorship by controller manufacturer SpaceTec IMC. Today, some of the biggest events, teams, and players tout big-name sponsorships. A British professional gaming team that is the subject of several Internet film documentaries, Four Kings, is sponsored by Intel. The current "Tiger Woods" of gaming, Johnathan Wendel, aka Fatal1ty, is sponsored by game accessory manufacturer Auravision. And the biggest competitive gaming event of the year, the ATI/AMD Cyber X Games: Windows XP Championships in Las Vegas is sponsored by all the brands listed in the event's title as well as a host of other major names in the gaming and computer industries. Ultimately, these sponsorships do several things, including helping boost the awareness of professional gaming, providing consistent flow of income to professional players, and helping pay the fees necessary to plan and hold major competitions.
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A Worldwide Movement

The professional gaming phenomenon is truly a global one. Thanks to the Internet, players on different continents are able to hook-up and play online. And there has been a broad acceptance of computer games as a legitimate pastime overseas. In some countries playing games is even more mainstream than in the US.

Journalist Marc Saltzman, whose coverage of video and computer games includes CNN, USA Today, and hundreds of newspaper, magazine, and online outlets, recalls his experience from a trip to Korea. "It seemed every other TV station was showing televised computer game competitions. They were split-screen: one half showing gameplay, and the other showing the intensity on the participants' faces."

In 2000, Korea was the birthplace of the World Cyber Games—an Olympic style competition where teams representing each country play for medals in a variety of different computer game tournaments. Even domestic-born competitions draw players from around the world. Joe Hill, president of Cyber X Gaming, notes that "40 percent of the participants in our ATI/AMD Cyber X Games: Windows XP Championships are from outside the US."
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The Circuit

As professional gaming develops, so do the number and variety of tournaments for its players. The first major tournament coordinator to hit the scene was the Cyberathlete Professional League. They hold seasonal championships and regional tournaments around the world. The World Cyber Games, as mentioned above, are an Olympic-style event where national teams compete. Their 2004 event will be held in San Francisco. The newest and most exciting tournament coordinator to appear on the scene is Cyber X Gaming[www.cyberxgaming.com]. Offering the biggest overall and single-tournament purses, in 2003 Cyber X Games gave away more than any of the other tournaments, totaling $600,000.00 in cash and prizes over the course of several qualifying tournaments and championships. In 2004 this company will up the ante even more with two major events and many regional qualifiers around the globe.

"We are addressing the need for major events that bring together hardcore and fringe gamers in a variety of game formats," said Cyber X Games' Hill.

At the ATI/AMD Cyber X Games: Windows XP Championships, Microsoft is sponsoring the Windows XP Female Pro Gaming Quake 3 Competition, the Windows XP Female Counter Strike Team Event and the Windows Gamers of the Year Awards. $20,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded to the best gamers.

"From LAN competitions to Internet matches, Windows XP offers the most performance and stability for gaming matchups," said Susan Kittleson, Windows Gaming product manager. "Now, with the ATI/AMD Cyber X Games: Windows XP Championships, we'll have an opportunity to recognize and further support the growing number of women gamers playing on Windows."
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Who's On Top?

Much like college football, there's no clear number one team or individual in professional gaming. Because there are so many local, regional, national, and international tournaments, a definitive metric of who the best players or teams are has not yet emerged. There are winners of each tournament, but it's difficult to judge how to weigh those winners against victors from other tournaments. Certainly, players like Stevie Case and Johnathan Wendel have managed to achieve celebrity status for their skill and consistent victories, but no all-inclusive leader-board of standings is available. As the circuit evolves, this is clearly a direction that spectators and players alike would enjoy.
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Getting Involved

A great way to start following the professional gaming circuit, and possibly someday join its ranks, is by going online. There are several community sites that cover the subject including GotFrag and ESReality. Take a gander at one of these sites, and you won't believe how deep the rabbit hole goes. You can also start playing against others online and in local LAN parties and tournaments. From there you can form or join a team and start playing on a regular basis. Don't expect to be the world's best gamer out of the gate, but with a lot of time and determination, you may just be the next toast of the Professional Gaming world.

Jeffrey Adam Young has been playing video games ever since they existed, and writing about them for almost as long. He spent a decade as a journalist covering games for major newspapers, magazines, and websites. He currently runs his own business writing for advertising, marketing, design, and PR projects.