How many times have you, the reader, heard the term “eSports”? Depending on the generation you come from you may be well versed in this terminology or you may have never heard of it. What if we took everything you may or may not know and stripped it down to the core of what it entails and dive into the misconceptions?
Here is a little backstory for you: Since 2013, I have competed in a competitive version of the popular First-Person Shooter game named Call of Duty. During that time, I competed at a high level, playing matches against numerous professionals in the scene and rose through the ranks to be a player for a top 50 team in the world. I competed in numerous tournaments with various prize pools. In the 2016-2017 season, I was approached by an established team and asked to compete under their brand. I was contractually bound to this team, and it was one of the biggest honors of my time in competition because it was the culmination of all of the years and work that I put into my very niche craft. The best part? I got to be on the team with the same three people that I played with from the time I was a little kid. We played numerous qualifiers, tournaments and wagers all to show the competition that we were a challenge. I’m happy to say that we proved that theory.
Fast forward a few years, I get an internship for a game studio. My task while I was there for 2 years was to be a part of the test team for a top 100 Steam first-person shooter called America’s Army: Proving Grounds. The cool part for me was that it was an effort to bring this game over to the PlayStation 4, branching the game into the console world for the first time. That meant it had to be played on a controller. For me, that single fact excited me more than anything else because I was surrounded by other interns who were well connected that didn’t want a summer job, but their well-connected parents told them that they got them a “neat internship at a game studio”. For me, that gave me something to prove and a chance to prove it. Fast forward a few more weeks and they announce that we are having the first internal play test. Now, for the rest of the development team, this play test was nothing more than making sure their new server worked, but for me it was a shot to make my name known with this team and prove that I could be more than just an intern.
The afternoon before the play test, the lead programmer for this effort comes in and asks for “the kids who plays Call of Duty”. He begins to tell me his backstory and tells me all about his time spent playing one of the most high-profile competitive first-person shooters ever created all while doing so for one of the most high-profile teams. He tells me of the tournaments that he competed in on the biggest stages; things that I had dreamed of. The difference between our games of choice was while mine was played on a controller, his was played with a mouse and keyboard. After listening to his story for awhile and friendly banter, he tells me that this upcoming play test will be the first ever with controller support turned on. However, that comes with the warning that this new functionality has had next to no development done on it yet. Now, for those of you who may not know what that means, simply put, I had no safety net. The game was not designed to work on this form-factor yet which meant there was no game generated aiming assistance, no programming to make it palatable for a casual gamer, there was no handicap for me to fall back on.
Yet, in my misguided teenage confidence I responded to this warning with “I bet I can still beat you.”
To really understand the gravity of this, you must realize that the man I just said that to had spent his life mastering a craft on a mouse and keyboard which automatically gave him more control that I could have under perfect conditions with a controller, and these conditions were about as far from “perfect” as one could get. This same person spent this time winning thousands of dollars, playing in tournaments worth hundred of thousands of dollars. And I thought it wise to challenge him to a duel.
The next day rolls around, and we are all setting up for this play test and the air is thick. Everyone there knew that this was turning into a very real competition. People are filtering in and out of the space looking at me and looking at the lead programmer as we snarl at each other in friendly jest.
Then the game starts.
To this day, I am not really sure what happened, but I was playing in peak form. Every single match of Call of Duty I had ever played had prepared me for this and with all the odds and conditions stacked against me, I won. I had done it. No handicap, no safety net. I won.
The entire development team walks in and everyone has big smiles on their faces and are laughing. The lead programmer walks up to me, shakes my hand and says “you’re going to help me build the controller functionality for this game. Well played.”
Here’s what I’m getting at with all this, because it’s more than just patting myself on the back. That moment propelled me into what is now my actual day-to-day career. I seized a moment at 17 years old that allowed me to put my name out there with a group of people that told their boss, who told their boss, who then wanted to meet me. I made connections and established foundations that 5 years later would be the reason I start a career in a whole different field. Those connections I made allowed me to do something that I now love that keeps a roof over my and my wife’s head. All because of gaming, all because of eSports.
The biggest misconception in this industry is that it’s nothing more than just a hobby. That it can’t lead to a career or a meaningful life. It can lead to a heck of a lot of money, but more importantly, it can lead to an awesome purpose. I am forever thankful for the time I spent pursuing competition in the eSports industry and it has opened doors that I never anticipated.
I am so thankful to see this being brought onto college campuses and professional formats because I know those guys and gals that are playing it are a close-knit group that are learning most of the same lessons that are learned in traditional sports. People vastly underestimate the positivity, camaraderie and life-lessons that come from being a part of this industry and I am forever grateful. Oh, and by the way, I’ve played ‘traditional sports’ my whole life…alongside gaming.
In closing, for those young kids that spend their free time in front of a screen competing, never lose sight of those around you and the things that really matter. Never disregard or forget your family for those games, and never be upset with them if they don’t understand. Prove it. Prove yourself. Do the right thing but chase it. Like Mike Rowe always says, “Don’t follow your passions. Take them with you.” Parents, your kid probably does spend too much time playing video games. They may be doing it for the right reasons and they may be doing it for the wrong reasons. Ask them. Show an interest. You never know where it could take them.
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