BENGALURU: The Ukrainian duo of Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev and Gleb " Funn1k " Lipatnikov have turned the proverb "All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy" on its head, earning a cool Rs 2.5 crore a year by playing multiplayer video games for a living.Edward and Funn1k are new-age athletes with a cult following in the gaming community. They are considered the Messi and Ronaldo of electronic sports , with their autographs selling for $4-60 (about Rs 250-3,710) online.The duo plays for the Ukrainian multi-gaming electronic sports club, Natus Vincere or Na'Vi, and travels across the world for a form of sport they have been playing for the last decade.Edward began his e-sports career 12 years ago, in an internet café with a "fat" monitor, and has won several world championships since then. He is adept at playing the online tactical and first-person shooter game, CounterStrike: Global Offensive, and is commonly referred to as "Pistol King" for his deft shooting skills."Now, gaming is a way of life," said the 26-year-old, at the sidelines of an MTS India-sponsored event in Bangalore, who quit his studies at the age of 17 to become a full-time gaming professional. "I am always tied to the seat, that’s my frustration," he said, adding, "After a while, I think I want to get out and do a physical sport."However, Funn1k, who is studying engineering in Ukraine , has ambitions to go deep into e-sport . Funn1k plays Dota 2 , a multiplayer online battle arena game and the sequel to Defence of the Ancients (DotA) Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne."In the future, maybe I’ll become a coach, mentor the new ones," said the 21-year-old, referring to the industry that is slowly getting organised. Competitive electronic gaming is growing, not just because of many gaming enthusiasts but also a larger number of viewers who turn up to see the players in action.Stadiums around the world broadcast digital games tournaments to a packed audience, with live commentary, just like one could imagine in cricket and tennis. Digital games market intelligence firm SuperData estimated that the total eSports viewership surpassed 70 million in 2013.This year, at the annual Dota 2 championship tournament in Seattle, over $10.93 million (about Rs 61 crore) was awarded at the event, making it the largest electronic sports event to date. This was greater than IPL’s total prize money of Rs 40 crore.As a validation, three-year-old Twitch that allows players to stream their games to an interested audience from PCs and consoles was bought over by Amazon for $970 million (about Rs 6,000 crore) this year.The multiplayer gaming scene has not taken off in India, partly due to bandwidth constraints. But MTS India is aiming to eliminate that constraint by offering the multiplayer game gaming platform called GameGod, with Counter Strike Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Dota 2."We expect 50% of our India revenue to come from data services through this in the near future," said Leonid Musatov, chief marketing officer of MTS India. For serious gamers, it entails a rigorous discipline to stay on top of the game."Every player brings in unique strengths, and we strategise before starting any game," said Edward, who plays his part for five hours a day. But does it ever get boring? "There are always new chapters, new characters, upgrades to keep up with," said Funn1k. "It never does (get boring)."