WEBVTT - Can you make a living playing games? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:18.160 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi, kids, 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.919 welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette and 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.000 I'm an editor at how stuff works dot Com. Sitting 0:00:24.040 --> 0:00:28.280 across from me enjoying himself profusely since the topic we're 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:30.680 about to talk about is going to be fun, uh, 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:33.600 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. It's all about the game 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.120 and how you play it, all about control and if 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.239 you can take it, all about your debt and if 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.360 you can pay it. It's all about the pain and 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:44.680 who's gonna make it. I am the game. You don't 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.800 want to play? Me? Nice? Thank you. I'm sure you 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.280 don't recognize that, and I'll tell you where it's from later, Okay, 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:56.200 But I will say that, I'm sure our long term listeners, 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:59.880 who know our propensity for quoting certain movies about video 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.600 games probably are very happy that you found a quote 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.679 that had nothing to do with certain movies, had nothing 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.160 to do with war games or tron or fighting for 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:15.240 the users. Today, however, we're going to talk about professional gamers. 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.400 That's one topic. That people have asked us to mention 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:21.720 many times in the past. We have talked about similar 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.440 topics though. Yeah, we talked about video game testers, the 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.160 play testers who as a profession actually uh work with 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.119 video game companies to test out video games in order 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.040 to make sure that they are playable and they don't 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.120 have any bugs. If you want to hear more about that, 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:37.680 we have a podcast about and we also have an 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:39.920 article on how stuff Works dot com about how video 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.160 game testers work. But in this case, we're talking about 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:45.800 a different kind of professional gamer, not someone who's testing 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.040 out a product that's still in the development stage, but 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:54.160 people who actually play games for a living. Yes, and 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.360 you would imagine that, uh, anything where you don't have 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:03.480 to sit at a desk and act will do typical work, um, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.080 would be a lot of fun. But I think and 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.520 and and for video game testing, we talked about that 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.760 it's not necessarily you know, hey, I get to play 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:15.160 games all day. This is a lot closer to that. 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.799 But it's not necessarily fun either. I mean there's a 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.160 lot of work involved in this. Yeah. The for video 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.400 game testing, it's all about you know, checking every square 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.520 inch of a map to make sure there aren't any 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:31.200 spots that you would excellently pass through and you know, 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.359 and that players would discover, could that could be an 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.480 exploit or could just be a bug that makes the 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:40.960 game unplayable. It's not necessarily fun, uh now, professional gamers, 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.440 it also there's an element of fun to it. There's 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.960 an element of of competition obviously, but it's also a 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:49.160 lot of work in the sense that you have to 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.680 really put in a lot of time to get really, 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.840 really good at certain types of games if you want 0:02:55.880 --> 0:03:00.160 to compete on a professional level. Yeah. I didn't some 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:05.080 reading on this since you know, I'm not a professional gamer. Um, 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.040 since most of these games you know aren't aren't you 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:11.639 know Tetris? Uh kidding. I do play other games besides Tetris, 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.280 but I don't play a lot of the types of 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:18.680 video games because I'm not really a first person shooter 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:20.680 kind of guy. I mean, I've played them in their fun, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.120 but it's not the thing I tend to do. I 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.760 I tend to prefer strategy games. Um, there are some 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.120 real time strategy was tournaments. Yeah. I was gonna say, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.000 don't pause the podcast and write to me and tell 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.560 me that that's not the case. So yes, I'm aware 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.200 of StarCraft is way up there. Oh yes, yes it is, 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.160 um but yeah, I mean for the most part, and 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:43.560 and things like civilization, So there's not they're not really 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:45.960 tournaments for this, but yeah, the people who are are 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.520 professional video gamers are really a very specific sort of 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.760 breed there. They tend to be young people, um, and 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:58.960 they they tend to be people who are uh for 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.200 a couple of reasons, but also tend to be people 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:09.160 who are really into uh techy and and uh scholarly pursuits. 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:10.360 I would say there are a lot of people who 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.800 are students, who are serious students who are really into 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:14.440 video games, and there are a lot of this level. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:16.000 There are a lot of people who actually have a 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.320 pretty good amount of discretionary income as well, because in 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.320 order to be a pro gamer, you usually have to 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.200 have a pretty decent gaming rig so that you can 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.000 play a game at its at its uh best settings. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:32.279 Because here's the thing about um about a tournament. So 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:35.720 let's say that you are used to playing a video game. 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:38.360 Let's just argue for argument sake, let's pick one. Let's 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.000 call it. Let's do Quake, because that was a really 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.920 popular one in tournaments all right, first person shooter game. 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:45.720 So yeah, you've got a first person shooting game. You've 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.560 got Quake, which you can play in competitive play one 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.240 on one against other people. Um, and so you've got this, uh, 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:54.760 you've got Quake and you're you're pretty good at it. 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.640 But you have, you know, just a decent machine. So 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:59.960 what you've done is you've turned the polygon count down 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:01.640 on and you know, you've turned off some of the 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.440 effects so that the game runs more smoothly on your computer. 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:06.120 And you've got, you know, a decent mouse and a 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:10.719 decent keyboard, and um, see, you know you're good. Well 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:12.719 pro gamer is going to be running that on a 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.679 really fast machine with a really nice mouse and keyboard 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.679 set up, maybe one that's almost customized for that gamer. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.200 Some of them actually do have custom units where they'll 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:27.240 they'll play these games and that can give them the 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.039 edge they need in order to play at a professional level, 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.839 where you know, pretty good just doesn't cut it. Pretty 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:35.120 good means you're out in the first round. You have 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.400 to be astonishingly good. And one of the reasons you 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:41.719 need to have a really good gaming rig is that 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:44.080 you have to be used to playing at that setting 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:46.760 because if you're playing in a tournament, most tournaments, they're 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.359 gonna want those settings cranked up. And the reason they 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.600 want those settings cranked up is because it looks better. 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.000 If you're promoting a tournament, if you are trying to 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:57.960 get sponsorships, you want those games to look as good 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.480 as they possibly can. So you don't want to have 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:02.760 the polygon count turned down. You know, even if it 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.000 makes the game smoother, you would prefer to beef up 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:10.120 all the computers in the system rather than to have 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.359 the graphics suffer, because you don't want the cameras to 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:17.560 pick up some sort of low polygon count video game 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.839 because it makes it look more amateurish. Right, So you know, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.880 you need to have that that money just so that 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:26.960 you have a gaming rig, and a lot of the 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:32.600 professional gaming leagues and tournaments focus on PC gaming. Console 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.600 gaming is also present, but it's not as big a 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:41.520 market as PC gaming is in the tournament's realm. So 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:43.919 you need the discretionary income for your rig. But you 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.080 also need it because you need to be able to 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.279 make travel arrangements because the way professional gamers, most professional gamers, 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.719 I should add, make money is that they go and 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.120 they play in tournaments, and if you want to make money, 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.560 you know, only just play in tournaments. You gotta win tournaments. 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.279 And those tournaments may not be just down this streak 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:03.320 from your house. They may be in another city, they 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.120 may be in another country, and you will have to 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.839 travel there. You might first have to travel to a 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.400 preliminary event so that you can qualify to go onto 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.840 the next round, which might be in a different country. 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:18.840 So you're talking about a profession where you already have 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.280 to have a certain amount of money in order to 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:25.320 really to really compete at a at the top level. UM, 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.080 and there are various pathways to get there. If you 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.080 are not, you might be saying, well, why so you're 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.320 citially telling me that professional gaming is for the independently 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:35.120 wealthy and really it's just a way to waste time. 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.920 Uh not, not quite. There are ways of getting there, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:41.280 but we'll get into that. Yeah, it's UM. I was 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.240 trying to find a way to say this, but I 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.040 think the best way to say it is a lot 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:49.200 of people who are professional gamers UM fit into a 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.920 stereotype for gamers because of the things you mentioned, the 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:56.320 discretionary income, UM, and because also there are a lot 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.440 of people are are younger. So there are people who 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.720 are living in their parents basement because they don't have 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.320 to pay you know, not because they are they're fitting 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:08.440 into a stereotype, but actually they're probably fueling it. But 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.960 the thing is, um, you know they don't they don't 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:14.880 have to worry about paying rent. They are you know, 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:18.400 hanging out there. They probably have a job or you 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:20.480 know for the younger kids, you know, they're going to 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:22.640 school and have a job to to help pay for 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.640 these things. And um, so yeah, I mean I think 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.160 that's part of why there there is that stereotype, but 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:30.920 it's not it's a result of like I said, I 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.959 think this behavior fuels that stereotype rather than them being 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.920 us making the stereotype right right, It's just because a 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.400 lot of the people One of the reasons that young 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.880 people are such common competitors and in these tournaments is that, um, 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.520 you have to have really good reflexes. Yeah, really good 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:50.560 hand eye coordination and reflexes. I read some interviews with 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.439 pro gamers and um, I said, yeah, you know, at 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.600 a certain point, your visual acuity, your you know, your 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.839 dextery sorts to to drop and you really don't see 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:05.760 people over thirty, which of course rules me way out. Um, 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:09.600 but yeah, I mean that's so that's why you see 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.440 a lot of kids and you know, younger twentysomethings in 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.760 in these tournaments. So generally these are people who are 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:20.559 not necessarily established already, or if they're established, they're tenuously established. 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.320 And here's the thing about being a professional gamer is that, yeah, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.160 you can in theory make some big money if you 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.480 are really really good and you win some tournaments. For example, 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.760 one of the one of the go to references, one 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:33.680 of the ones most probably one of the most famous 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:38.679 professional gamers in the Western hemisphere anyway, is uh is 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:43.400 Jonathan Wendel, also known as Fatality UH. And that the 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:48.720 the eye and Fatality is the number one Uh. He's solite. Yes, 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:53.400 he actually won a tournament where the the grand prize 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.400 was a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Well for that year, 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.760 that means he won fifty grand on top of whatever 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.360 else he might have earned in other tournaments or other 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.439 other ventures. But there's no guarantee that that's gonna repeat 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.320 the next year. So you know, in order to in 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:11.880 order to be a professional game or you may not 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.480 be able to have a sustainable career in the sense 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.920 of you don't know that next year you're gonna make 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.600 that same amount of money, or even any money at all. 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:21.680 It may turn out that, you know, you just have 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.560 a bad day at the tournament, or or it may 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.320 be that the the next crop of players are just 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.400 that much better. It may be that the tournament switches games. 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.040 That's something that we really need to focus on, because 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.000 think about this. When you are a professional athlete, all right, 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:42.079 the rules for your sport rarely change in a huge way. 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.440 They normally change in tiny ways, and even then you 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.200 will hear players really complain. I remember back in the 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.600 Olympics that there was some discussion about the soccer balls 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:57.040 being used in the soccer games because they were slightly 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.960 different from a standard that have been used previously. And 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:02.600 I mean that sort of thing is a big deal 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:06.120 because that tiny, little change can affect how well an 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:10.440 athlete at that level can perform. But think about that, 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.480 you know, like, that's the tiniest change. But if you're 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.839 a professional gamer, the changes may be monumental. It may 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.760 be that one year they're doing quake and the next 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.320 year they've switched to counterstrike. Those are two totally different 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.600 games with different physics, different there's different frame rates, there's 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.439 different you're gonna have a different experience. You know, you're 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:30.880 gonna move at a different speed, the weapons behave in 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:33.760 a totally different way. Plus you know, it may be 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.600 that one game is a one on one style game 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.560 and the other game is a team based game, which 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.079 then affects not just the physics, but truly the strategy. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.800 You have to learn new maps, you have to you know, 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:49.640 be able to really adapt to it. So professional gamers 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.000 may have some pretty big hurdles from one year to 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.880 the next, which means that it is really hard to 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.760 say that you're going to make a decent amount of 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:02.640 money year over year. Now you could do what Fatality did. 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.920 He was really really smart. He ended up making his 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:10.760 own brand, and he ended up partnering with uh various 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:17.600 component manufacturers things like video game graphics, cards, and gaming gear. 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.680 And because of that he's able to make money through 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:24.120 those means, not just as a professional gamer, but through 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:29.400 these licenses. So that's one way to continue to earn money. 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:31.560 Even if you were to have say an off year 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.319 in the tournaments, you would still have this other source 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.640 of revenue. It's also smart to do if you are, 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.800 you know, creeping up on that age thirty and who 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.160 knows when your your reflexes will start to just give 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.160 a little bit, because remember again, at this level, the 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.560 tiniest detriment can mean the difference between losing and winning. 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:58.120 The reflexes a lonely childhood all in the reflexes, And yeah, 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:00.959 I mean there are there are other things too. Um 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.199 you were mentioning that that StarCraft is huge, it is, 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.280 It is monumentally huge. In Korea. Yes, South Korea, professional 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:12.959 gaming is actually viewed on a level that is probably uh, 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:18.360 approximately the same level as most professional athletes. Now that's 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.920 most that's pretty unusual. I mean most other countries, that's 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.679 just not the case. China is a little bit like that, 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:26.880 but not to the level that South Korea is at. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.720 And in the United States, you know, there's an underground 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:35.960 professional gamer uh culture, but it's it has never reached 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.840 mainstream acceptance like it has in South Korean. South Korea, 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.640 they will televise tournaments and on major networks and you 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.199 you can tune in and watch as players play against 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:47.640 each other, and there are events that they hold have 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.120 thousands of spectators who will come in and watch the 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.199 gamers play. In the United States, it's mostly gamers and 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:58.000 other gamers who attend these things with you know, friends 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.880 and family that spill out beyond that, and then a 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.079 few fans, but only a few compared to what you 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:07.640 would find in South Korea. So there's there's that difficulty too. 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:10.200 Is just the fact that video games don't have the 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.120 same kind of level of uh, fascination and respect in 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.240 the United States as they do in South Korea. Right right, well, 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:21.320 I was I was reading an interview with Greg Fields, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:24.440 who I'm really not sure how I would pronounce his handle. 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.200 I gotta put my glasses on capital I I'd say, 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.720 I'd yeah, I d r capital A. He's a he's 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:34.720 a StarCraft gamer and he's spent a lot of time 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.600 in Korea, and they were talking about, uh, they asked 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.240 him about StarCraft and why he chose StarCraft and uh, 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.920 not only is he StarCraft gamer, that's you know, his 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.840 game of choice, but he also specializes on one particular 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.640 faction and he was he was talking about you were 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.360 you were mentioning what happens at the tournament changes games. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.440 Well right now, Well, at the time of the interview, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:02.800 he was saying that Blizzard had made his faction of 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.680 choice UM sort of underpowered. I believe it was Zerg 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.200 that he preferred. UM and Terrence were stronger, and he 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:11.320 hoped that they would patch that, and they said, well, 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:14.400 why don't you just switch to Terrence or something else, Like, well, 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.160 if I do that, I'm going to have to learn 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:20.960 their strengths. And you know, once Blizzard fixes this, as 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.680 I think they will, then I'm going to be I'm 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.480 going to have to go back to my old faction. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:29.720 And you know, I would have spent a lot of 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:31.880 time preparing for a faction that I really don't want 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.080 to be playing until they patch this one. So I'm 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.480 just gonna hang in there. And but yeah, the little 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:38.440 subtle changes to the games even, yeah, it can make 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:40.880 huge difference. Yeah, the professional gamers, you gotta keep in mind, 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.520 a lot of these guys spend hours each day playing games, 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:48.120 playing against other people, seeking out people who are, you know, 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:50.960 at least ranked better than they are, in order to 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:54.200 learn new strategies and to test their own skills and 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.560 make sure that the things that they're doing actually work 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.560 in a game setting. Uh, you know, they're they're treating 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.840 it like would a professional sport. You know, it's not 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.280 necessarily that they're playing for fun. They're playing to win 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.280 in order to win tournaments. And that might sound like 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.120 fun to you, but it really is a very competitive 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.760 and very high stress kind of thing to do, because 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.080 you know, once you get to that level, once you 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.840 get into the tournament, you know you pretty much have 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:23.160 the one choice, one one chance rather to to beat 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.160 out all the other competitors. And there may be thousands 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.360 of them. Now granted, you know you might beat them 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:33.040 out by proxy, like someone else beats and uh me 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.240 and I'm out of the tournament, and then later on 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:37.320 you managed to beat the guy who beat me, and 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:39.720 that means that, you know, by extension, you beat me 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:44.000 as well. You're very mean, both of you. Um. But 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:46.440 but still you have to be good enough to get 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.680 through all those multiple levels. And you gotta remember every 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.320 single other person out there is thinking that he or 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.200 she is just as good as you are or better, 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.000 or else they wouldn't be there, um, especially you know 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.360 if they had to travel quite a distance for that tournament. Yeah, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:01.920 a lot of them do have that. I was reading 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.120 interviews with They do have quite a bit of swagger 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.159 going on. I gotta say, oh, yeah, no, there's some 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.439 there's some trash talking that that really is on the 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.440 level of of of beauty and art truly between these 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.760 guys um and and ladies. We should also mention there's 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:19.639 another way of making money by being a professional gamer 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:23.400 besides tournaments and uh and and sponsorships. Um you could 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.720 become an official well it's kind of a sponsorship. There's 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.600 a there's a professional gaming group called the frag Dolls. 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:34.320 They are sponsored by Ubisoft, and frag Dolls are it's 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:39.520 this group of ladies who are all very very strong 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.639 video game players, and they will enter tournaments as a 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:46.159 team or as as a member of the frag Dolls, 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.080 and they represent Ubisoft. They're they're also there to represent 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:56.440 the female gamer demographic and also just to kind of 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.000 be another voice in in the whole video game industry. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.120 So they're kind of like spokespeople as well as professional gamers. 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.760 But they're getting paid specifically by a company to do 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.000 this sort of stuff. So it's a little different from 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.879 the people who either join as a lone wolf in 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.919 a tournament, or what's more common is that you'll see 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:22.120 teams or clans of gamers joined tournaments. So you might 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.119 have a clan of of gamers who are all you 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.920 know of the professional level, joined the tournament together and 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:33.119 uh and either play and team based games or they 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.000 may be playing one on one, but you know they're 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.760 all you know. By by having a group of them there, 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.800 they have a more likelihood of winning the big prize 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.359 as a clan. Um. And to join a clan, you 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.399 pretty much have to already show that you are a 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.320 really good gamer, and then you essentially get uh. You 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.399 gotta get lucky. You gotta have someone from that clan say, hey, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.280 you know there's this guy's an up and coomer. He's 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.800 showing real promise. Um, I think you'd be a good 0:18:56.840 --> 0:18:59.320 addition to our team. And then you know, each team 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:01.560 has its own way of determining whether or not they 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:03.600 want to bring someone else new in. But then you 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:05.560 might be able to join a clan. And the nice 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:10.680 thing about clans is that they can sometimes get sponsorships 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.919 as a group, and sponsorships can sometimes help pay for 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:17.040 things or at least offset costs like travel costs and 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:20.440 lodging and all that kind of stuff. So it's one 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.879 way that players can pursue a professional gaming career without 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:29.399 putting as much a personal investment into it as as 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:35.280 they would otherwise. Yeah, it's still not easy, but it's possible. 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:37.679 So so what do you want to What do you 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.760 do if you want to become a professional gamer? I 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.640 think the simplest you got to start out, as you said, 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.360 with some serious hardware. I mean, if you're using your 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:51.760 two year old PC, it's not gonna I mean, yeah, 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:53.919 you can get started, you can, you can learn how 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.640 to play the game. I think that, uh is probably 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:01.320 a primary importance, really is um, you know, if you 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:04.320 look at it at the manuals for games like this. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.399 Then going on my personal experience, when I remember playing 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.479 Warcraft three a few years ago, I never bothered learning 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:15.440 the key combinations to make my troops form up on 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.399 one another, to you know, make squads. And I didn't 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:21.960 bother learning about the bill orders that a lot of 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:24.840 people were using. So then I'd go on battle dot 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.440 net our battle now. I'm sure a lot of people 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:33.520 admit the dot um and I you know, basically get later. Yeah, 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:35.760 and it wouldn't take any time at all because for me, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:37.640 I like figuring out. I was like okay, so what 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.120 will I do here. Meanwhile, my opponent was sitting there going, Okay, 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.080 I build this, I build this, I build that, I 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:45.640 build that, and I'm ready to go, and you're gonna 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:47.280 go find him and I'm gonna kill him. And that's 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.199 pretty much what happened every single time. Because you have 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:52.080 to learn the commands, and you have to learn these things, 0:20:52.160 --> 0:20:54.600 you can move very very quickly. Speed is of the 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.359 essence in these games. There's some great videos online that 0:20:57.400 --> 0:21:01.000 show professional gamers using those those keys, strokes and UH 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.800 and the commands um at a crazy rate, especially the 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.640 Korean players who are playing StarCraft. They they are particularly 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:13.280 known for that, where they are using a crazy number 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.880 of commands per minute. I mean it's it's it's easily 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:20.679 more than a command per second. For a lot of 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.720 these players where they are are are they've already got 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.200 their strategy before they've even started the game. And they've 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:30.399 just started they just start implementing it as soon as 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:33.560 the game says go. So it almost becomes a contest 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.960