Gamers are a passionate lot, spending hours playing and perfecting their skills. Modern online multi-player games have allowed what was once a solitary pastime into a social experience, with groups of friends and strangers playing together across the globe.With so much time and energy expended, the opportunity to make money from their expertise would be the ultimate dream for many gaming enthusiasts. Video game tournaments between friends are commonplace, and now the very best have the chance to put their prowess to good use.Games developers saw the potential and acted upon it. E-sports tournaments are competitions where individuals, and more often teams, go head to head to win the trophy in a particular video game. Some of the biggest competitions have enormous cash prizes on offer, for example the Dota 2 competition organised by Valve in 2017 had a record-breaking $24 million prize pool.

Pro-Gaming Leagues and Tournaments

E-sports have a huge following, so it’s no surprise that there have been moves to make it more like a traditional sport, with professional teams, leagues and rankings. The biggest E-sports company in the world is ESL, which organises thousands of competitions every year. Many game developers are creating pro leagues similar to other sports, with players on salaries as well as playing for the chance to win prizes.

Partnership with Existing Sports Leagues

E-sports are hitting the mainstream, and in the USA both the NBA (basketball) and MLS (soccer) have made partnerships with the creators of the sports video games NBA 2K and FIFA 2018. For the first time, professional sports leagues are operating their E-sports counterparts, showing that E-sports have well and truly left their niche status behind.

Getting Involved

Unlike more traditional sports, E-sports has a slightly more level playing field for those wanting to break in. There are thousands of competitions happening all year round, and most of them are open to anyone, amateur or professional. If you have what it takes to be a pro video game player, you can enter some of these competitions and start making a name for yourself.