Esports have been around for coming up on two decades and for a large part of that, very few people were making any money. The exception to this trend was the emergence of the random, massive tournaments, backed by developers of the game, third party tournament organisers who had a particularly good endorsement deal that year, or investors. Players would grab a flight/train to another state/country, often hauling their entire 150 lb setup (CRT, Mouse, Keyboard, Headset, Desktop). They did this out of passion. It wasn’t about the money, as there was hardly any going around at that time. It was all for the prestige of being one of the best and comparing yourself against the competition.

Some friends bring over their PC/Laptop to game.

It started off by bringing your setup around to your mates place and having extended gaming sessions — the original LANs. Far from the more professional class of player that exists today, these days were marked by a lack of player responsibilities. It was all about hanging out with your buddies and other likeminded people, and playing your favourite games. These grew into larger LANs, which were hosted by third parties; one of the biggest being in Dreamhack in Sweden which boasts over 22,000 attendees. Having attended quite a few over the years, I can tell you it’s a lot of fun and more than a little exhausting!

Dreamhack Winter 2014 — Jönköping, Sweden

As these smaller LANs scattered all over the world became more competitive and more prominent, we saw the rise of marquee events, which are put on by third party tournament organisers such as ESL (Electronic Sports League) or MLG (Major League Gaming). These had larger prize pools, attracting players from all over the world. From this, the esports teams we know today were born, as it was able to take on some of the logistical and organisational burdens players had neither the time nor the inclination to address. During this period, players could be representing brands internationally, yet were only being paid a few hundred dollars a month or simply having their travel covered. This wasn’t necessarily the teams’ fault; the money just wasn’t there. The mechanisms to monetise esports simply weren’t in place yet.

ESL One 2015 — Katowice, Poland

In 2011, that began to change. Platforms like own3D and Twitch allowed esports to start envisioning a more concrete path to monetisation and players were creating significant followings, with large influence. Although ad revenue from streaming isn’t what it used to be, there are alternative sources of income from subscriptions and donations. Professional players are now able to retire from competitive to pursue streaming full-time, and can make anywhere between $100,000-$1,250,000 by capitalising on the audience they built playing professionally.

Player salaries have also grown considerably over the past year with the introduction of significantly more capital, as I touched on in my previous post. Professional talent in the west being offered salary packages up to $300,000 with rumours of highly inflated salaries in Asia reaching $1,000,000. The majority of players are sitting around the $40,000-$100,000 mark in the professional circuit in the west (though this obviously varies a great deal by game). As such, we are seeing more players move to North America because of increased salaries.

Even though a six figure salary for playing video games might seem like a considerable amount, it’s important to understand that the majority of these players forego higher education in order to pursue professional gaming and don’t develop the skill sets which will help prepare them for a post playing career. With an average shelf life of a professional player being approximately 3 years, it’s important that players make the most of the opportunities presented to them.