Imagine you're right out of high school, making more than $100,000 a year. Now picture yourself doing it by playing video games. It happens. Not every day, but it happens.

Last week, a group of the best video game players in the world gathered in Dallas to compete for their share of $170,000 in prize money. Some 15,000 fans paid at the door to watch them. Around the world, 2.6 million more tuned in via the Internet.

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This was the Major League Gaming Winter Championship. If you know "League of Legends," "StarCraft II" or "Call of Duty," there's a decent chance you're at least familiar with competitive gaming. If not, you might be surprised to hear it exists. It does, and it has more in common with better-known competitions, or sports, than you may think: An incredibly dedicated fan base, professional commentary with live action, winners and losers, favorite players and teams, and of course, paychecks for the players themselves.

Behind the tournament was New York-based Major League Gaming, a company started in 2002 that now stages about four large-scale events each year in the U.S.

"What we do is we take something which is, to an older group, may be a little bit confusing," says Sundance DiGiovanni, MLG's chief executive and co-founder. "But we take video games, which are an incredible social platform, which encourage sharing, which allow for connected digital play across the globe -- not just the country but the globe -- and the language, just like with any sport, is the game."

To many people, pro video-gaming is an underground affair, if it even registers. To the gamers, fans and broadcasters, it's a lifestyle. You don't need to tell them who Day[9] and Evil Geniuses are.

Always evolving

Should you be of a certain age, you recall the Atari 2600 home console or Donkey Kong in the arcades of the 1980s. This isn't that. Among the many things the Internet has changed, one of them is gaming. And the culture around online games bears little resemblance to you and your friends fighting over the track ball on Centipede.

To DiGiovanni, electronic gaming doesn't have to be particularly different from pro baseball. It's a competition, built around an enjoyable activity, but one capable of being played at an extraordinarily high level. Sponsorships, endorsements and tournament winnings all can be part of a rare talent's compensation, as they are for a major league pitcher.

For the unquestionably elite, pay can be impressive, especially when considering many pros are still in their teens or just a few years north of 20. MLG representatives say that around 100 of the world's top players earn six figures or above annually. If you had won "StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm" in Dallas, you would have taken home $25,000.

The company, citing Comscore data, says 60% of its audience is 18-34 years old and 85% male. Major League Gaming itself brings in revenue via the gate at the events, advertising and user payments for certain enhanced features on its website. This 11-year-old company isn't public, but DiGiovanni indicates that an initial offering one day, though not yet, could be in the cards.

"I don't want to operate the business focusing on a sale or an IPO," he explains. "I want to focus on delivering quality content to the consumer, growing the revenue lines and diversifying the revenue."

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