Dolfs is a semi-pro gamer who, with his team the Villains, competes in League of Legends.

With professional gaming about to crash onto our shores, we meet three big names in a little-known scene …

Dolfs​ twitchs his right leg rapidly as the timer counts down. From his small, bare bedroom in Papatoetoe, south Auckland, he fires commands down the line - to teammates around the country.

The tall, brash son of Filipino migrants attends clinical psychology lectures by day. By night, the 24-year-old is captain of the Villains, an eSports team about to enter a League of Legends scrimmage, or training match.

SUPPLIED/FAIRFAXNZ Lorien Gugich - AKA LoriiPops - is a 'streamer' who entertains a fans eager to watch her play video games online.

"We'll focus on our in-game responsibilities. Bun is TPs [teleports], Jack is lane allocations, I'm objectives and Karl is vision check."

​READ MORE:

* New Zealand Gaming Championship is eSports' watershed moment in NZ

* Gaming fame elusive for NZ's top talent

* Gamers make money playing e-sports

* Kiwi teen turns eSport gladiator

* eSports: Crowds, commentators, cheerleaders ... and computers?

* New Zealand Gaming Championship eSports event to be televised for first time

Dolfs (AKA Rodolfo Villanueva​) is a semi-pro - and not your stereotypical gamer.

A natural leader on the virtual battleground, his generous smile masks an imposing figure. He leads his team through intense training sessions - five hours on weeknights, 12 hours on weekends - and onwards to glory. They're on a winning streak nine tournaments long.

This is the new face of gaming.

League of Legends, or League, is the football of eSports. The team-based battle game is one of the most widely played, and widely viewed, in the gaming community.

Dolfs is what you call a "jungler", or scout. He explores the paths on the game's map, lifts the "fog of war" with his avatar, locates the enemy team and develops the strategy for his four teammates.

Tonight, the Villains are training for the New Zealand Gaming Championships (NZGC); hopeful they'll retain last year's title. The NZGC is New Zealand's national league for League, a new stepping-stone to Australia, and beyond that, the big time - Europe, the United States and Korea.

The international circuit is the pinnacle for professional gamers such as Dolfs. It has the world's top gamers battling under lights, dance music blaring over crowds of thousands, ESPN cameras capturing every kill.

But Dolfs is reluctant to aspire to such heights, age tempers his ambition.

"We're like the small fish of the small fish."

THE eSPORTS PHENOMENON

From the humble origins of arcade tournaments in the 80s, eSports have morphed into a global phenomenon, watched by an audience of 226 million who fuel an industry worth US$325 million (NZ$444.8m).

League of Legends is played by some 27 million people around the world. During peak-times, late in New Zealand's evening, about 7.5 million players simultaneously launching the game on their computers.

Connected through online servers, players form small teams and choose avatars characters, called "champions". They take to a fantasy battle map, wielding swords, firing arrows and casting spells with the aim of destroying the "nexus", or heart, of the opponents base. Along the way teams explore the "jungle" between bases. They fight turrets, computer-generated minions and monsters, collect gold, and enhance their abilities.

The most lucrative eSport game is Dota 2, another fantasy battle game. This year's The International tournament in Seattle awarded a record prize-pool of US$20.7 million.

While Dota 2 is very similar to League, other eSport games are very different. Counter Strike could be called a traditional game, the quintessential first-person military shooter has been played competitively for over a decade. StarCraft, a sci-fi game in which teams battle for galactic dominance, exploded after its 1998 release and generated a huge professional scene. It's popularity has waned in recent years.

The legitimacy of eSports is a source of constant debate, but not amongst the gaming community.

"Who cares if it's a sport or not ... the whole labelling it as a sport is more to validate it and to allow for things like international visas," Dolfs says.

The top players are scouted for teams in Australia, the United States, and even further afield. Professional teams pay salaries and give the gamers a home in "gaming houses". Training day-in and day-out, like athletes, gamers hone their reflexes, problem solving, mental stamina and team-work.

Some of Dolfs' best players have jumped the ditch to join teams which pay $300 a week. One of them - Zerotool - now lives in a gaming house in Sydney. He's 17-years-old.

New Zealand's gaming scene doesn't offer the same avenues for success. It's ebbed and flowed over the past decade, the tide pulled by the rising international circuit, only to retreat again.

"The crowd is kind of sleeping, they're waiting for someone to wake them up," the captain says.

THE COACH

New Zealand's former-most successful gamer answers his phone while leaving work on a stormy Auckland night.

"Mate, I have nightmares imagining what could have been if I had been a professional in this era."

Byron McLean is a veteran, one of the first generation of professional e-gamers. It's been awhile since he put down the controls.

New Zealand's competitive gaming scene was alive during the now-defunct World Cyber Games of 2002 to 2010, when the competitive gaming community could afford to foster players like McLean. But when the tournament folded, the opportunities died.

"So you had this huge void in the scene."

McLean moved on. He took up a marketing job in a telecommunications company, but never really turned his back on the dream.

Now, six years on, there's an opportunity to revive it.

"The whole competitive gaming scene is about to go through this massive transformation … you're about to see real professionalism come in from real companies, and real sports franchises and real investors."

Recognising the untapped market of both competitors and consumers of gaming, the New Zealand eSports Federation - formed in February this year - is working to position itself as New Zealand's UFC of gaming.

It's been described as a "watershed" moment for gaming in Godzone. This October the Federation is holding the second NZGC. It's backed by SKY, broadcast on live TV, and offers a prize pool of $30,000.

The scene is growing up, so McLean has rebooted his former team, Parallax, and is coaching the players who will grow up with it.

Parallax compete in Counter Strike tournaments, not yet part of the NZGC. But they've been playing Australian tournaments, and have just won at the Oceanic eSports Masters in Sydney.

"I was sitting with them at this tournament ... and I wasn't even playing, I was just sitting down at the computer listening to their communication and my hand was shaking, I was so nervous," McLean says.

This is the excitement - the renewed confidence - of someone who knows the potential, but has seen it evaporate.

And it's not just the competitive gamers who will benefit from the infusion of commercial cash.

Revenue opportunities for full-time gamers are growing in New Zealand. There's a bursting fan base eager to watch notable gamers live stream their virtual exploits online. And when it comes to "streamers" in New Zealand, one name comes up.

"LoriiPops … I've heard she's earning some crazy money."

THE ENTERTAINER

From 3pm most days, LoriiPops​ (AKA Lorien Gugich​) broadcasts across the world from the studio in her Napier home. Sitting in front of four large monitors, her excitable voice projects a bubbly personality into a big condenser microphone.

You could mistake her for any upcoming TV broadcaster, but LoriiPops is a new kind of entertainer; a celebrity in New Zealand's burgeoning gaming community.

The 24-year-old makes a living as the second-most popular streamer in the country, playing the latest video games in front of a live audience on the gaming website Twitch. She interacts directly with her fans through a chat room on the website.

"Depending on what game I play, I can get about a 1000 people watching. Usually I get around, on average, about 250 to 300," she says.

In the male dominated - and often misogynistic - online gaming world, LoriiPops is carving out her own future, cultivating a fan base with a precedent for positivity.

In return, her fans are happy to pay for the entertainment. Loyal fans can subscribe to her channel, paying her US$5 a month, or donate directly.

"There's a lot of generous people that are more than happy to put a bit of money in your pocket because they enjoy your entertainment."

She is also sponsored by various gaming brands, which provide products for her to promote.

"The most popular Twitch streamers have, like, thousands and thousands of subscribers. There's a lot of money in what we do."

As for how much money she makes, her subscriber count is "private". If her 80,000 followers are anything to go by, it's not to be coughed at.

LoriiPops admits that any parent would probably "shake their heads" at the thought of their child making a career out of gaming.

Her father, Aaron Raisey​ says it is a bit of a "mind-bender" for the older generation.

"We struggle to understand the concept of an online community … we grew up in a time where there wasn't any of this," he says.

Raisey gets it, though. He introduced LoriiPops to video games; she was on his knee as he played the 90's classic shooter DOOM.

And, working in Korea for the past 11 years, he's both seen the scale of competitive gaming and glimpsed the live streaming world in which his daughter now operates.

"People watch people eat food ... they just eat their dinner, and people watch that, it's madness."

He attributes his daughter's success to her open, non-nonsense personality, and commitment to her followers.

"The other side of it … is that she's a very good looking girl and, you know, this is a visual medium, and for better or worse, it helps. It helps a lot."

Raisey is wary of the "unknown aspect of living an online life" but he's proud of her success.

And success it is, LoriiPops has recently announced she will be hosting weekly gaming show on SKY, riding the eSports wave all the way to shore.

THE CAPTAIN

Back in Papatoetoe, Dolfs and his Villains won the scrimmage match, and a few more after that.

But they lost a scrimmage to local rivals Decode eSports, also competing in the NZGC.

Matched against Decode for the first round of heats, the Villains pulled out all the stops. They dominated their opponents in a 2 - 0 win, the first result of its kind at the NZGC.

Dolfs was characteristically brash in the post-match interview, describing the competition "garbage".

"We should not have dropped any kills at all. I want to apologise to the audience ... that should have been a 10-minute game."

The Villains move on to the next round.