Would you like to know the steps to become a professional e-Sports player? The professionals in the video game field in Spain are few, but their numbers are growing, and above all, there are more opportunities, more tournaments, and more competition to carve out a place in the world of virtual leisure.
A spectacle of the 21st century, e-Sports include a variety of types of video games, such as Clash Royale, FIFA, or League of Legends (LOL), which go beyond purely online play and allow for true competition where participants reach very high levels of
professionalism.
The most prominent video games in which competition takes place are the so-called MOBAs or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, and their matches, increasingly well organized, have taken shape into true leagues, including teams.
As a result of these competitions and their evolution into permanent leagues, players and teams have become professionalized in an environment that increasingly aims to resemble traditional professional sports.
In fact, these competitions can be held online, but periodically in-person tournaments are organized and broadcast via streaming, where contenders for the prize and ranking compete for points, trophies, or money.
Becoming a professional e-Sports player is not an easy task. It requires many hours of play, skill, and perseverance…. Following this trend, in Madrid, for example, several academies have opened in recent years that combine activities to train and professionalize in the gamer world, such as the ESquad Academy.
This center defines itself as the first training academy, and its purpose is to turn amateur or advanced video game players into professional players capable of competing in the main national and international leagues.
At this academy, e-Sports are considered a professional sporting discipline, and they offer training across different platforms and video games so that each player can find the “competition profile” that best fits their playing style.
And what do they play?
According to the White Paper on Spanish Video Game Development 2018, there are 2.2 billion players worldwide – women already make up 47% – of all ages. Of these, one billion (47%) spend money while playing.
It starts by playing at home and with friends, online or alone: and although there are always new releases, some video games have already become classics that gamers keep playing in search of perfection and more points; climbing the leaderboard reserved for the most skilled.
Becoming a professional e-Sports player is not easy; there are several games where skills can be shown and trained, such as the famous LOL (League of Legends), WoW (World Of Warcraft), FIFA, or Counter Strike. These games never go out of fashion.
Main Spanish video game leagues
The Professional Video Game League (LVP), or Superliga Orange, is one of the most important competitions in the Spanish e-Sports world.
There are several types of competitions and levels, although the competition mode allows players to climb the leaderboard to reach the final and win the tournament prize in each game mode.
Players organize themselves into teams, such as Mad Lions, Movistar Riders, or X6tence.
Another league is ESL Play, one of the leading platforms in the e-Sports world. It offers tournaments of various categories and skill levels in most games. According to their figures, 8,404,625 users have played 12,709,415 matches in 104,577 tournaments.
One of the most striking details of this universe is the prize pool that players compete for in a tournament. Since it is still rare for player salaries to be published, the draw becomes the pot they hope to win.
The video game developer Riot Games, for example, has preferred to set higher base salaries for its players, which allows the average income to be higher but reduces the incentives to win the trophy.
However, VALVE, responsible for DOTA 2 and Counter Strike, inflates the prize pools, which attracts the press and rewards the teams that succeed but harms those who do not perform as well.
The site E-Sports Earnings publishes information about the prizes players have won in different tournaments, and although the list is not exhaustive (as it does not include salaries or sponsorships received), it gives an idea of the possible earnings from dedicating oneself to this.
The Danish player N0tail, for example, has accumulated nearly seven million euros in earnings and tops the list, which is filled with Dota2 players.
The money for the trophies comes in some cases, among other sources, from microfinancing or crowdfunding: in fact, in the Dota2 tournament, International, 20.7 million dollars were distributed in 2016, of which only 1.6 million was put up by Valve, the game's developer. The rest was contributed by the players themselves through the purchase of a commemorative package within the game, as 25% of its price went to the prize pool.
Equipment of the professional video game player
Like any player, the gamer also needs basic equipment:
- A high-performance computer, a Gaming PC with at least an Intel Core i7 processor and a good graphics card
- A screen with a filter
- Speakers/headphones to hear every detail of the adventure or match
- Ergonomic gaming chair, designed for long and comfortable sessions, with adjustable armrests and reclining padded backrest
- Gaming keyboard with fast switches, capable of saving and marking keys with different colors to identify shortcuts or commands
- Mouse with optical sensor and mousepad
