Professional+Gaming

Overview
Johnathan Wendel, also known by his gaming name, [|Fatal1ty], is a famous professional gamer. His game of choice is Madden. Only thirty years old, Wendell has already won approximately 500,000 dollars from his professional gaming career. He has a rigorous training regimen in which he practices gaming at least eight hours a day. Tom Taylor is another famous professional gamer. Also known by his gaming name, [|Tsquared], Tom Taylor's games of choice include Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach, and Gears of War. Taylor has already had a great deal of success at the young age of twenty-three. He dropped out of high school to play games competitively and practices eight to ten hours a day normally and twelve to fourteen hours a day within a week of a competition. He claims that one can make 100,000 dollars from one tournament. And this does not include lucrative endorsement deals that are also available to these “athletes.” The //World of Warcraft Global Arena// is a major online tournament. In 2010, the total amount of money given away at this tournament was 200,000 dollars, which 75,000 dollars of that going to the first prize winner. According to[| Wikipedia], some of the most popular online leagues include Pro Gaming League, Cyberathlete Amatuer League, Cyber Evolution, FraggedNation, eCompete-Online, Major League Gaming, ClanBase, and the Electronic Sports League. Some of the most competitive games include Starcraft, Halo, and World of Warcraft. Cyberathlete Professional League, World Series of Video Games, and the Championship Gaming Series are a few examples of some of the most competitive professional gaming tournaments. Many professional gamers are athletes, not the overweight couch potato-type that the media usually uses to describe gamers. This is probably because gaming demands the ability to make split-second decisions, discipline, and competitiveness to succeed. These are also things demanded by sports.

**History**
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**Opinion**
I think that the idea of professional gaming is very interesting because in some ways it is very similar to being a professional athlete, but in other ways it is completely different from any other professional sport out there. For me, personally, the life of a professional video gamer seems like a pretty depressing life. While I am sure being a professional athlete in a sport like basketball or soccer would consume one's life just as video games consume a professional gamer's life, there appear to me to be some crucial differences. First of all, the physical demands of professional sports would make it more harmful than helpful for professional athletes to train for more than a few hours a day. However, professional gaming does not involve these physical strains, so they can (and therefore must in order to keep up with their competition) practice at least eight hours a day. Also, being an athlete involves training in several different dimensions. There is practicing the actual game and all the different facets of that game and then there is training that focuses specifically on the body. This includes weight training, speed training, and agility training, for example. And then there is psychological training as well. This diversity of training seems much more interesting to me than having to just play the exact same game over and over and over again. I think that the acceptance and overall popularity of video games will only grow from this point forward. And with this increased interest, the industry of professional gaming can only grow as people will have more interest in seeing, following, and analyzing the competitions of professional gamers. However, I do not foresee professional gaming reaching the level of popularity of professional sports such as basketball, soccer, baseball, and football. Our culture will have to change significantly for professional gaming to be a big force. It is possible, but I think it will at least not happen for a long time. **Future Trends?**

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