There are lots of ways to earn money and one of the most controversial ways is gaming. People play games and earn money, but it is not as easy as it sounds. Usually it will take a long time to make it to the top, either by being good or by entertaining the audience.

Esports background

The career of esports wasn’t popular until the late 2000s because that’s when esports took off, especially with Counter Strike, Halo, and Quake. Those are the games that started esports, especially Quake and Counter Strike.

After the late 2000s, Dota 2 came out in 2013 and it was super big; people made so much money by playing this game and companies held big tournaments. The game is still very popular; they held a tournament where the total amount of prize money was $30 million USD. This is also the most amount of money ever awarded in a gaming competition.

Players winning absurd amount of money from esports

As said, Dota 2 has insane prize pools. There will be players earning lots of money from the game. John Sudstein, AKA N0tail, is the player that earned the most amount money in of all esports history. He earned $6,890,591.79. off playing Dota 2. Kyle Geirsdorf AKA Bugah made 3 million dollars of a tournament by placing first place in the Fortnite world cup. This 16 year old just became a millionaire off a game. This is also the most amount of money claimed by a single player. In the esports history

Clans

Clans are teams that invite strong players to join them. The better the clan is the more benefits they can offer. However, joining them is very hard, but the more famous the clan gets the more money they make. Clans make money in two ways. First, they make money off their players. When these players play in tournaments and split their money with clans, in return the clans provide them with sponsors and fame and sometimes even a place for them to live. The second way clans earn money is by making merchandise. People from all over the world buy their products and they earn lots of cash.

Streaming

Being good isn’t all it takes; you have to know how to attract an audience. People might watch you because you are good at the game or they just watch you because you are very entertaining. For example, CDN 3rd is a famous Twitch streamer, and he is not good at a single game but he is decent when it comes to shooting games. He plays lots of games, including RPGs and shooting games, but people watch him because he is entertaining, interacts with his audience, watches videos, and sometimes even raps.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) is a first person shooter game. S1mple, another Twitch streamer, is considered the best CSGO player. He slays in tournaments and wins lots of money. One of the reasons so many people watch him, in contrast to CDN 3rd, is because he is a very good player. He is part of a very big clan called Liquid.

Clearly, a place to stream is important. Twitch is the biggest streaming platform for gamers, with millions of people streaming every day, famous or not. Without a proper streaming platform Esports wouldn’t be as famous. Twitch even holds a big meet up event called TwitchCon. TwitchCon is an event where famous streamers meet fans and play video games. This event makes millions of dollars each year.

Sponsors

Sponsorship is very important because without sponsors people may be good but they don’t make that much money. But getting sponsored is very hard so most players join clans first, which can help them get sponsorships. Clans are where people recruit good players so they can compete in tournaments. Sponsors are more likely to sponsor clans than one single player because they can make more money off clans. For example, a gaming accessories company called Steelseries sponsors a clan called Faze. Faze is one of the most successful clans in the world and they recruit players from all over the world to play different games and earn up to billions of dollars per year. SteelSeries usesFaze to advertise their products so both the company and clan make money.. Like in physical sports, this has been going on for a long time.

Dangers

Esports is also risky because when a clan wants to sign you they may persuade you think that they are good, but then when you win money you only get 3-4 percent of the winnings. This has happened to a lot of young gamers, including me. You feel real proud when you earn $500USD but then someone in the clan sends an email to you talking about the contract, and then boom, you only have 20 dollars left in your pocket.

There are a lot of scammers and their targets are usually younger gamers. To prevent this from happening, tell your parents first and let them read the contract to see if there is anything sketchy in it. Sometimes parents will be proud of you while others will be angry. All you have to do is find someone that is older and smarter than you and tell them to read it and see what they think; if they say there is something bad in it, trust them.

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As you can see there is such a big ecosystem behind esports. Lots of people don’t know how big this business is, but it generates billions of dollars. Lots of people disrespect esports, but these boomers have no idea how complicated and skilled gamers have to be to compete.