eSports has been experiencing its share of ups and downs over the past five years. While it peaked around 2019, COVID hit LAN tournaments hard, and the scene has been catching up ever since. Meanwhile, eSports was considered an avenue with a long-term career, as it involved minimum injury to players as opposed to traditional physical sports. Despite the longevity claims, every player who’s peaked in their mid-20s ends up dropping their eSports career for better options. Why would they just give up what many consider a dream job at their peak?
Let’s Talk Time & Money for eSports players!
To get good at any game, thousands of hours have to be invested just to keep up with the competition. Sentinels’ star player, TenZ, has over 10,000 hours on Counter-Strike before he moved into Valorant. While these numbers do sound ridiculous, many argue that considering players are pushing for a full-time job, these hours clocked in would be similar to any 9-5 job. Once you reach the top ranks, there’s still a long way to go. In team-based competitive play, players have to find teams to join, and that alone might take a long time.
For any player to start making money, they’d have to participate regularly in cash tournaments. While Counter-Strike has regular regional tournaments hosted by third-party companies, other games might not have such an option. High-profile tournaments like Valorant, Fortnite, and Apex Legends are hosted by the developers themselves. These tournaments offer huge cash prizes, but unfortunately, only 4-5 teams would end up making any real money. All in all, the amount of time and grind needed to maintain the most elite level of gaming is too much for some.
Streaming: A Better Alternative for eSports Players?
The biggest streamer in Valorant as of now would be Tarik. He, along with the likes of SomCs and GOfns, have retired and completely moved into streaming. As much as all of them love competing, they are making way more money than they were while competing. While competing, players are required to grind practice matches for hours, none of which can be streamed. Hence, even players like Tenz, who have been streaming the game since beta, have to limit their streams to short ones because of a practice schedule.
While it is true that eSports players are paid a decent salary, most of those numbers are for tier 1 teams. Tier 2 teams often keep changing their roster depending on results. This forces them to offer shorter contracts. This is a major issue that circles around every aspiring eSports player
eSports has been around the block for a while now, and players do realize the power of self-branding. Hence, it does make sense for players who peak to invest more time into molding their own personality as a streamer. For an instant level of success in streaming, having a history of being a top eSports professional accounts for everything. The money from streaming is miles ahead of competitive gaming. To reach there, players have to show their worth through trophies, which is where a successful eSports career comes into play.
