Dozens crowd around six flashing, bright monitors, eyes fixed on the on-screen action.

After several intense minutes of white-knuckle gaming, a bright thunderbolt pushes the defeated player off the screen and a message declares his opponent the winner. The two human combatants then shake hands as friends and fellow gamers congratulate the winner.

This scene plays out two Saturday nights a month at Zero Gravity Trading Cards, Games and Collectibles in the Moreno Valley Mall. After prodding from customers, owner Jerry Rosby decided to begin hosting the Nintendo “Super Smash Bros. 4” tournaments in April.

Esports, or electronic sports, have long had a place in video game culture, with competitions being held in arcades, homes and some video game stores such as GameStop. But a recent rise in professional paid players and teams may have esports on the brink of becoming the next sport to attain major league status.

“Every single mainstream sport had its breaking out moments,” explained Patrick Creadon, director of the upcoming gaming documentary, “All Work All Play.” “Somebody somewhere said, ‘We should make this legit. We should make this a pro-circuit where people get paid to play their favorite games.’ And lots of people said ‘That’s a terrible idea. Who’s going to pay to watch someone play golf?’ The numbers don’t lie.”

This week, thousands of gamers are expected to converge on Comic-Con International in San Diego to test their skills.

Dozens of game designers and companies will be present at the huge pop-culture event, including Nintendo, which again will be taking over an entire room at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina for casual play and tournaments.

Tournaments will be held every day of the convention starting Thursday, giving fans the chance to win a variety of prizes, including amiibo figures, which connect to gaming devices, T-shirts and more.

Along with being able to play some newly released games such as “Splatoon,” the Nintendo Gaming Lounge will feature many unreleased games, including “Super Mario Maker,” “Yoshi’s Woolly World” and “Skylanders: SuperChargers” from Activision for the Wii U console.

Zachary Levi’s Nerd HQ event will also feature a gaming experience.

“The entire top floor will be dedicated to gaming, and people will be able to play a demo for ‘Star Wars: Battlefront,’” Levi said. “We’re the only ones offering that.”

As large-scale tournaments gain popularity in the United States, they have been commonplace in other countries, including Korea and parts of Europe.

“North America in many ways is catching up to the rest of the world when it comes to professional gaming,” said Creadon, whose film follows a group of “League of Legends” teams as they fight their way to the Electronic Sports League’s largest and most prestigious tournament, Intel Extreme Masters. “It isn’t unusual to see 15,000 people pack a hockey arena watching esports, but that’s what it’s like in other places in the world.”

However, the growth has not gone unnoticed in the United States.

Recently two American universities, Robert Morris University in Chicago and the University of Pikeville in Kentucky, have begun offering incoming students gaming scholarships. RMU recently opened the first varsity esports facility in North America.

“And I think other schools will soon follow,” said Creadon.

Big money at the top

The top-earning esports athlete, Chen “Hao” Zhihao, 24, of China raked in more than $1.1 million in a combination of tournament winnings and endorsements playing “Dota 2,” a multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Valve Corporation, according to esportsearnings.com.

“Those games have larger pools,” explained Alex Chiricosta of Burbank. Chiricosta is helping bring one of the largest “Super Smash Bros.” tournaments, Paragon, to the Ontario Convention Center in September. “I think the biggest I’ve seen for Smash was about $20,000.”

The pool for the Paragon tournaments are nearly $2,000. Although that may seem like a pittance compared with some of the other prizes, Chiricosta said some popular and top-ranked players can make a good amount of money by streaming online.

“It all depends, but I’ve seen people make $30 in an hour, and I’ve seen others make $3,000 in an hour,” he said.

Through Twitch, a website that allows gamers to live stream their gameplay, fans can pay a monthly amount, sometimes $5, to follow along and play with their favorite esports athletes.

Top-ranking “Super Smash Bros. Melee” player, Joseph Marquez of San Jose, who plays under the handle Mang0, pulled in nearly $20,000 in tournament play alone, according to esportsearning.com. That does not include the money he earns through streaming and endorsements.

Marquez recently took part in the Community Effort Orlando Gaming tournament in Florida, which was sponsored by various gaming companies as well as Warner Bros. and Microsoft.

Opportunities

For some players, tournaments like those at Zero Gravity at the Moreno Valley Mall are a chance to find out if they have what it takes to go pro.

“It’s great to be able to test your skills and see how well you do against players,” said 18-year-old Nacia Edwards of San Bernardino.

She is a third of a sibling Smash team made up of her older brother, Malik, 20, and their 14-year-old brother, Joshua. The Edwards siblings were among more than 30 contenders gathered on a recent Saturday ready to go head-to-head against other players, some of whom are ranked competitors in the expanding esports world.

Esports and professional gaming can also open doors for people in search for a lifelong career.

“They can get into other aspects of the industry,” explained Chiricosta. “Like any other sport, you may not be able to become a professional baseball or basketball player, but you can be a coach or a trainer.”

Those who have the skills can be recruited to test, design and develop games for large video game companies, too.

“Growing up, you may hear parents say, ‘Are you going to play video games for a living?’ ” Creadon said. “Now they can say, ‘Yeah.’ ”