Eventually, technology caught up with the fans’ passion by allowing the community to directly support pro players.

Graham moved full-time into providing commentary during matches in the 2000s, similar to announcers during sports broadcasts. He spent years using services like RealAudio or Winamp’s ShoutCast during live rounds. Then starting in 2008, software that let people more easily stream video became widely available. That’s when Graham says he knew things were about to change.

“For someone who struggled for so many years to try to get esports in front of more people through writing, blogging or broadcasting via audio, suddenly we had the best way to get the most eyeballs,” Graham says. “It wasn't people who wanted to judge us, it was people who were like, ‘Wow! People playing games for money,’ or ‘this player is so good and I could learn from them.’ It was one of the largest injections of exposure or accessibility that esports has ever had.”

Though there were a few options available, one network that focused solely on gamers was Twitch, which started as an offshoot of the now-shuttered livestreaming site Justin.TV. Twitch hired Graham in 2011 to build relationships with esports teams and he now serves as the company’s director of community and education.

Breslau says the relationship between Twitch, which has grown into a platform with 55 million monthly viewers, and competitive gaming is symbiotic.

“Competitive gaming made Twitch a billion dollar company,” he says. “The competitive nature of esports, just like real sports, makes them so captivating. That's why esports as a medium has pushed streaming to where it is.”

Twitch also provides an advantage for individual players that cable never could: the ability to monetize by interacting with fans in their time off. Most pros, Breslau says, run streams nearly every day.

Twitch, which Amazon is buying for about $970 million, runs pre-roll commercials and spots during a broadcast, sharing some of that advertising money with the players. For viewers who want to skip the commercials, Twitch sells $5 monthly subscriptions to channels, with half that amount going to the player. Those payouts start to add up quickly, especially for some gamers with more than 100,000 subscribers and millions of fans watching their streams. Fans can also simply donate cash to streamers.

Robert Lee’s full-time gaming career started from streaming, which he says came easily to him. Being successful at streaming means being entertaining consistently, and engaging your viewers.

“Other gamers may not say much when they stream, but I like talking to people and showing people my skills,” Lee says. “Even when I'm playing by myself, I'm yelling about it at the top of my lungs.”