Jinx shouts victoriously as she sends a wave of bullets bigger than the surf in Malibu straight at the heart of her archenemy, Vi. Her happiness is fleeting; the bullets bounce off of Vi's Teflon-coated body armor, killing several nearby minions instead.

 

Johnny's mother would probably get angry about the things he was yelling at his vanquished opponents...if she had any idea what those acronyms actually meant. (Source)

"Haha! Go back to Minecraft, you little wuss," shouts Vi, showing off enough piercings to set off the metal detector at a P.Diddy concert. Jinx sulks and braces herself for the worst, except Vi is spamming "laugh" so hard she doesn't notice Jinx's teammate, Garen sneaking up on her. 

He lobbies a perfectly executed spin attack, separating Vi's perfectly purple-haired head from her lithe body. The Nexus awaits, wide open and vulnerable. Jinx gets excited, blows the thing to smithereens, and it's game over.

Millions of fans from around the world watching on Twitch.tv cheer and groan, depending on which team they were rooting for. The live audience at the sold-out Staples Center goes wild. Confetti rains down on the crowd like remnants from Chernobyl without all the nasty radioactive side effects. 

It's drama at its peak. And then there's the money. Most professional gamers (the few of them that there are) are popping about $60,000 a year (source). But tonight? Tonight was the League of Legends World Championships.

The winning team at the World Championships snags the Summoner's Cup and a cool million to divvy up. That's not including the players' salaries and sponsorship endorsement dollars. To put it in perspective, you could probably buy a mint copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 (the comic where Spider-Man was introduced) and still have enough left over to put a TARDIS in your bedroom—easily.

After posing for pictures, collecting fan art, and signing autographs, they'll probably grab a few burgers and head back to the team house, where they'll likely celebrate by playing even more League of Legends. After all, they've got to start practicing for next year, lest they end up like this year's losers, who are probably already signing unemployment checks between dodging angry fans and disappointed sponsors.

Welcome to the world of esports, where you can play all day and never even break a sweat. StarCraft, League of Legends, Dota 2, Street Fighter, Hearthstone, Call of Duty, Counter Strike—competitive multiplayer games where top players can make six-figure incomes.

You have more kills in Call of Duty than an actual Marine, can four-stock all your friends in Smash, and need only a single, well-placed bullet to drop just about anyone in Halo. Your parents are ready to sign off on letting you homeschool for the rest of high school to get your game time in, and you've got a streaming camera set up in your bedroom feeding right into your Twitch account. You're pumped and ready to turn pro. Or are you?

 

The actual lifestyle of most 24-hour gamers is, uh, somewhat less glamorous than young, aspiring players tend to think. (Source)

While millions of gamers all over the world dream about making it into the big leagues, only a handful of them end up able to realize their dreams of fame, fortune, and a spot on a team with housemates called things like "LustBoy," "Dr. PP," and "iGotUrPistola."

The esports scene is extremely competitive, and while it's true that top gamers make in the mid-six figures, they also often burn out within the time it takes most people to graduate high school (which you may not be doing if you're spending all your time playing video games instead of studying).

But that would never happen to you, you say. You're destined for greatness.

Okay, then ask yourself what you're willing to give up for that shot at greatness? Would you give up all extra-curricular activities? Things like a social life? Dating?

If it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something, how are you going to put in those hours? You have to eat and sleep. It's highly unlikely your parents are going to let you quit school to become a pro-gamer, so you'll need to study and go to class at some point.

Typically pro-gamers in training practice around twelve hours a day. Part of that time will be spent repeating a specific skill over and over and over again. MarineKingPrime (MKP) practiced "splitting marines" in StarCraft 2 for hours on end until it became second nature for him.

What's so bad about that, you say? How's it any different than training for an Olympic sport, or any sport at all at a competitive level (except for maybe bocce ball or curling)?

Well, for one, gaming and esports don't exactly follow the same conventions as so-called "normal sports." The term esports was coined about twenty years ago when the trend of watching other people play video and computer games became popular first in China and South Korea, and then eventually worldwide and here in the U.S. Once streaming took off, people were able to connect and watch players everywhere.

Esports are very much a spectator sport, with people paying money for subscriptions to support gamers while they sit at home watching matches and sipping hot cocoa from the comfort of their PJs. 

Companies like Twitch sponsor and stream top players much like the networks broadcast Monday Night Football. And in that way, esports really is like any other sport with a huge fan base and big corporate sponsors willing to put up the bucks to get the attention of their young core audience.

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