a pro gamer career is short.

Become a Pro Gamer: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2021)

Become a Pro Gamer: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE (2021)

This Guide provides a strategy on how to turn your gaming skills into a career. The use of a systematic approach and techniques that work will allow you to get the first results fast.

Become a Pro Gamer: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE 2021

This is a complete guide to becoming a Pro Gamer in 2021. If playing video games is your passions and you are looking to:

Then proven tactics delivered to you step by step will help you achieve it all.

We will cover the basics of pro gaming in this chapter.

Including the pros and cons of going pro.

You will also break free from common fears that hold you back from pursuing your dream career.

Most of us think a pro gamer is someone who plays video games for a living.

But here is where the tricky part comes in.

Are you considered a pro only if you are paid by a team or sponsors and compete in esports tournaments?

Or can you be counted as one if playing video games is not your full-time job, but you still make money doing it?

Any activity that involves playing video games and monetizing it is a career.

There are tons of ways to do it nowadays, especially if your charisma game is strong and marketing skills are on point.

While any pro gamer can be streaming on a side (actually a lot of talented streamers made it to a team using their streams as a way to get noticed), –

Not every streamer is an actual professional player.

Obviously, streaming has become a big part of the industry.

Its a great marketing channel and is included in tactics, but is not the primary focus point of the tutorial.

This Guide gives a strategy aimed at Pro Gamers, those of you who want to feel the taste of being on a tournament scene, feel the adrenaline coming from the crowd, and climb up to the top of the league.

What motivates people to become professional gamers?

You get paid to do something you love

Good income (and lots of ways to earn)

Love for competing (video games are designed for it)

Traveling the world (tournaments in different locations, flights, hotels, adventures together with your crew)

Sounds exciting and somewhat idolizing, doesnt it?

To balance it out, here come not-so-appealing aspects of going pro.

Low income (if you are a mediocre or below player)

Opportunity cost (think education or other, solid career you could pursue)

Stress (constant stress to be the best, competing in front of a crowd, lots of competition)

Health issues (possible lower back and eyes problems)

As you can see, the list is quite controversial which leads us to the next part.

As tempting as the idea of becoming a pro player sounds, it bumps into a large wall of fears.

Lets see if they have any solid grounds for them.

Not everyone gets the amount of effort put into reaching a pro-level.

Some can say pro gamers job is to press buttons and entertain the viewers.

But is it true? Is there really no prestige (or money) in esports?

The industry is as competitive and lucrative as ever, where only the best and the nerdiest gamers succeed.

Yes, esports is profitable only if you are very good.

For some, its a natural talent (still requires time and dedication), for others it can be developed (more time, more effort).

How do you know if you can pursue a pro gaming career?

For example, a great indicator of your potential would be reaching the top ranks of any ladder by yourself.

You can also ask your circle for an honest, unbiased opinion about your performance.

Make sure these are people who you can 100% trust though.

The opportunity cost factor starts to kick in when you fear that playing video games wont get any skills that will be transferable to another career.

Its true you dont take a standard path such as getting a college degree or a regular job.

(Although now degrees in esports are available, and this trend will be getting stronger.)

But you will develop a lot of skills (ability to focus, train your mindset, manage stress, be disciplined, work in a team, etc) to beused in other fields.

And, most importantly, you get to progress by doing what you truly love. Its much more fulfilling as opposed to a secure career.

Add a strategy to the equation, and you will get results.

Well, success in any field comes with a portion of the sacrifice.

But dont worry, you will be having fun with your friends if you want to.

The thing is that your priorities will change once you get immersed in the esports culture, so will your definition of fun.

Another aspect to consider here is that a pro gamer career is rather short.

Ask yourself a question Are several years of my life that I will spend having my career a priority, worth it for me?

If the answer is yes – great, keep on reading.

If this sounds like an immense commitment, this is not the right path for you.

Many participants worry that once gaming becomes a job, the whole concept of it will stop making sense.

Indeed, hours of playing the same title and staying focused can make you start craving escapes into the real world.

If you know how to keep the balance, get support, and do not skip on the activities that fulfill you,

There is a lot of drama, immaturity, stupid jokes, negativity, fake personalities. Much of it is caused by the age of the gamers, they are teens mostly.

Esports is no different than any other industry out there. An absolutely hideous drama can happen at any office in any field.

As long as you position yourself right and build the relationship within the industry effectively, you will avoid most of the toxicity.

We think youll agree with us that the majority of these fears are just negative stereotypes (most likely created by gamers who werent able to make it).

Stay focused, use the tactics provided and you wont have to worry about any of the above.

Before we get to the strategy, you may want to know some numbers.

Its important to understand career perspectives in the industry you are about to get into.

In this chapter, well cover the most lucrative esports games, ways to earn in the industry and how much you can make as a pro player.

40 years ago the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics of 1972 was held at Stanford University. This is the official start of the industry.

80ies and 90ies brought new technology and more ways to play.

QuakeCon took place in Texas with hundreds of attendees, media coverage, and even Activision sponsorship.

Cyber Athletes Professional League (CPL) was born that took esports to a new level

Massive growth. Prize pools, a number of tournaments, players, and fans have skyrocketed.

The start of the Twitch era united viewers and players on one platform. It also made it possible for players to wake up famous overnight.

Esports is as serious as ever- teenagers can now win 1 mln dollars in prize money solely. Even more, can be earned from other sources.

Colleges started pushing degrees in e-sports.

For example, over 25 universities in the US are offeringscholarships for esports degreestopping $25k at Arcadia:

ESports market revenue worldwide from 2019 to 2024

In 2020 esports generated almost one billion dollars revenue globally.

The number should increase by 1.5 times by 2024 according to the forecast.

ESports audience size worldwide from 2019 to 2024

The industry had over 400 mln viewers around the world in 2020 and keeps growing.

You can see, the peak hasnt been reached yet, it will continue to boom.

Complimentary products and services are rapidly developing: online passes, tickets to events, subscriptions, merch. More gaming content creators and related jobs appear every day.

New opportunities that are not even available today will be arising.

That said, its a great time to enter the industry.

Lets see trends and numbers to find out where the fame and money are.

Total Prize Money Earned By Esports Players Worldwide 2015 – 2020

* Data sourceTop 100 Highest Overall Earnings – Esports Player Rankings:: Esports Earnings2020 tournaments and prize pool data is affected by COVID but shows trends

Dota 2 has experienced a 50% steady increase in the number of players and total tournament prize money won.

CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) has gone through an immersive 300% growth in total earnings, 30% growth in the number of players and tournaments.

Fortnite had the biggest cumulative player earnings just in one year after joining the esports scene.

Dota 2, CS:GO and Fortnite are leading the way.

If you choose to build your gamer presence via streaming, the list of most popular games differs:

It is no secret, a pro gamer career is short.

However, career length and top achievements vary from individual to individual. They will directly depend on your effort and strategy.

Lets see what the golden age for esports player is:

* Keep in mind, these are statistics on tournament earnings solely. Any income made off other sources of income is not taken into account.

Pro gamers officially start earning in tournaments at the age of 16 -17 (16 is a legal age anyways)

The results keep improving and reach the peak at around the age of 20, where it stays on a peak until 24 – 25. The career typically begins to decline once you turn 25.

Younger gamers start off well in Fortnite

Dota 2 and CS: GO are leading the way among more mature players (70% play Dota 2, 30% are in CS: GO)

Most prize money was made by players 19 – 25 y.o. in Dota 2 and CS:GO

Gaming is a high-paced environment. Oftentimes you gotta make decisions and move your fingers in a matter of split seconds.

At age of 25, the speed of the body and brain goes into the next stage wherethe reaction timeslows down.

It becomes harder to compete with teens who have much faster cognitive abilities.

It doesnt mean your career stops then, but most likely you wont be taking top places in competitions.

With that comes the most popular question:

Your earnings will depend on the number of money-making channels in use. The more you have, the more you earn.

The first way is to win cash prizes at tournaments.

We took the last 3 years of the world top 500 players earnings in prize money solely:

How Much Esports Players Make Per Year

They range from $60,000 to $260,000 (the average is $145,400) per year if you make it to the top 500 list.

By the way, the biggest cash prize in history was distributed from the 2019 Dota 2 International Tournament:

The 1st prize was $15.5 million and each player got $3.1 million.

2021 Dota 2 The International 10 has a $40 mil prize pool, nice!

Once you get recruited by a team, you are entitled to a salary.

It depends on sponsors, team level, terms in the contract, etc

The reported average salary of an esports team player is $3,000 – $5,000 monthly.

Other ways of making extra cash come from streaming and social media.

One of the most popular approaches is to get sponsored to play a particular game on stream. Earnings here vary from 1 to $1 per viewer hourly all the way to infinity for top streamers.

For 10,000 viewers, you can make anywhere from $100 to $10,000 per hour of gameplay.

You can also include sponsored videos here (roughly $5,000 per 30-sec ad on Youtube).

You can offer subscription services to your Twitch channel at $4.99 per month, and get 50% into your pocket (the other 50% goes to Twitch).

If you manage to attract more than 10k viewers for each stream, you will get 70% for yourself.

You have to be consistent though to get this level of viewership.

The historic record in Twitch subscriptions belongs to NINJA. From his subs alone he was making close to $1 mln monthly. His subs decrease from 270,000 to 7,000 doesnt affect the fact he is the top paid streamer to this date.

He is now at $17 mln followers on Twitch, $50 mln net worth, multi-million contracts with sponsors.

Donations are the oldest form of getting money from your fans. The good thing about it is that all of it goes directly to you.

The largest recorded donation ever received on twitch was $57,000 USD made to Sodapoppin, a popular World Of Warcraft streamer.

You can add pre-rolled or in-stream ads just like Youtube on our channel.

CPC (Cost Per Click) normally ranges at $2- $3 per 1000 views.

You add affiliate links offering a discount for your viewers when shopping on affiliate sites. You get 3% – 10% off each sale and fans get to save money. A win-win.

Can be your own merch with your logo or anything engaging that fans will want to buy. Your personal brand has to be somewhat established by that point.

In this chapter, you will get expert tips for selecting a game and gear that works.

But first, lets cover all levels of your pro gamer career.

Once youve chosen your game, get prepared to play hundreds of matches to reach the highest level possible and make a name for yourself.

Step two is to join a team and start playing with it against other teams. No more competing with random players.

This is when you start participating in tournaments and competitions and build your status as a pro esports gamer.

In this step, you continue progressing with your team or change it and join another one.

Whatever works better for you on your path to reach a semi-pro league – you do that.

Once you are competing on a semi-pro level, you get to play against experienced players.

You continue to rank up and, congrats, you can consider yourself a true pro gamer.

Here is where the fun reaches its peak as you are now fighting for a spot among the best from the best, the Elite.

On the Path From an Amateur To a Pro

Its not as simple as it may look. Imagine that in order to become not just good, but the best, you will have to play the game for hours every day.

Trying to master several games at the same time with the intention to make up your mind later is not rational as it will be a waste of effort.

Focus on your long term goals and use the following 3 criteria to make the choice:

You have to like the genre and the game

You will be playing it a lot. You dont want to be stuck with gaming content that doesnt make you fall in love with it or motivate you.

If you enjoy several titles, but are naturally better at one of them, stick to that one. It will help you become a pro faster.

There are 2 common strategies here: choose a well-established game or a rising star.

A well-established title with a proven history of achievements, tournaments, and prizes is a safe and guaranteed way to go. On the downside, they are super competitive.

A new, prospective game has fewer newcomers but there is always a risk you wont stand the competition and disappear from the esports scene (use data from Chapter 2 to see trends).

To become unbeatable, you need the best gear. Saving on equipment may end up costing you a chance or require more effort from you.

The gaming peripherals market is full of options you can choose from. You can research what other pro players recommend and why. This will help you choose products that 100% work for you.

Your setup as of an aspiring gamer will include the following must-haves:

It has to be capable of handling games above 150FPS with no lag.

Here you are looking to get a 144Hz monitor with a 1 millisecond response time.

Its recommended as it is the fastest, the most durable, and tactile of all keyboards on the market.

Whether you prefer a mouse or a controller, it will be the continuation of your hand. Make sure to choose a model that fits your hand size, grip, and feels overall comfortable after playing for hours.

Hearing your teammates well and making sure they hear you clearly is very important. A pro headset will make you feel as immersed in the game as ever, which will help you to perform your best.

This component often gets overlooked while it shouldnt be. Think of your spine, back, neck, and arm muscles – all these will be restrained from hours of play. Gaming chairs are engineered to take care of these issues and prevent them from becoming a problem that can negatively affect your performance

Now that youve got your setup ready, its time to start grinding!

In this chapter, you will learn how to keep going strong in esports by:

The techniques will help you get contracts in the blink of an eye; and prevent such a dangerous thing as burnout.

Lets get right into the strategies.

The truth is this is going to be your main activity for hours per day.

Practice can get boring, very boring, but you still have to be able to keep your focus and keep grinding out your skills EVERY DAY.

The problem with many is that they fail once their passion turns into a job. But if you employ two effective tactics, your training will be a breeze.

Forget about motivation when it comes to training, it will start running low at some point.

What you need to build your practicing routine on is DISCIPLINE.

A smart schedule is designed to help you with this and take care of 2 other issues many aspiring esports players run into:

Trust me, thousands of talented gamers fall into this trap.

It hurts to see years of great potential wasted due to the lack of commitment or excessive training.

The actual amount of hours will depend on your daily to-dos. Whether you have school, sports, or other commitments – you will be tweaking your schedule based on them.

But the secret to quickly ranking up in a competitive ladder is to treat your practice like a job.

The common recommendation is to dedicate anywhere between 8 to 10 hours per day to play.

This time will also include breaks where you get up from the chair, move around, have a bite, etc.

Its important that you dont go to the extent of losing focus while training (remember the burnout factor).

Therefore we do not recommend playing excessive daily hours (12+) unless you are part of a team and train for a tournament season.

When you join a team, you also add team practice,scrims, and matches training (if any) to your schedule, and keep practicing solo.

By that time your mindset and skills will level up so much that advancing the gaming routine will be a pleasure for you.

Depending on a teams objectives, your schedule may vary. The typical scrim hours for pro players include:

4 – 6 hours per day, 5 – 7 days per week for team play, scrims.

Add more hours per week (about 10) for tournament training.

Add actual matches during the active season.

Add the time needed for preparations, team meetings, or other activities related to team play.

Now you get the idea of how your schedule will look once you are with a team.

It will be challenging, but so rewarding at the same time.

This is the second very important training tip for you.

You strategize and stay intentional about practicing so you get better with each session.

Every esports game includes many variables and mechanics you need to learn and incorporate into your gameplay. You master every aspect to the point it becomes a reflex.

Things like the last hitting, aiming accuracy, maximizing actions-per-minute, or whatever else the game requires to get a kill – you have to nail it.

For example, if your game of choice is CS:GO, you will learn nade lineups (throwing grenades), all callouts, and pop flashes. Even rifle spray patterns.

While you keep improving in step 1, you start researching more game strategies. This is your mission now – to always be on the lookout for new tips and techniques.

Keep checking tutorials, interviews, reports for your game.

Watch other pros play on popular platforms

You want to play like them. So what can be more efficient than observing them play on Youtube, Twitch, and others. It will help understand the pattern, or special finger movement, or even gear setup? Everything goes

Plus often they share their insight on why they made a certain decision in a situation. It will give you new tips to use in your gameplay.

Every time you learn something new, make sure to try it in action the same day or put it in your calendar. Otherwise, you will forget.

You can dedicate a few hours per week to research and then implement the stuff you learned into your gameplay.

Always try to find gamers who are better than you to play against or alongside them.

By doing that, you will progress tons faster.

The technique was employed by KoreanDJ who made a remarkable rise to one of the top players in 2006 -2007 and stayed in the top 30 gamers throughout his whole 10-year career.

The concept of the tactics was to money matching the best pro gamers so he could play against them and eventually pick up your game.

You have no other choice but to improve when learning from the best.

You replay your own matches to identify the mistakes and fix them.

Do not underestimate this tactic, it is very powerful and is widely used in many industries.

Athletes, actors, bloggers, even politicians watch their performances to find the weak spots and work on them.

How do you know you are getting better?

Simple. You are now beating those who you couldnt win last week.

Benchmarking is a great way for keeping track of your progress.

Once you notice your improvement overall, you focus on improving your weak areas.

First, you identify them and then dedicate time to work on each one exclusively.

For example, you can dedicate one week to practice accuracy only, or tactics or teamwork.

This way you get to fine-tune your skills to perfection (or almost:).

Now that youve got your practice schedule figured out, it will be very easy for you to follow the next tip which is

Balance is the key. No matter how cliche this sounds, this is 100% true.

Here is a real-life example for you.

David is a close friend of mine whose career as a pro gamer was looking bright. He was super dedicated to gaming and even researched homeschooling.

He managed to build his class schedule so that he had enough time for both studies and gaming.

He trained in LOL (League of Legends), reached Plat 1, and then switched to Overwatch that was in its early infancy back then. As the game mover from Alpha to Beta, he already built a name for himself in the community.

Needless to say, he didnt have much of a social life during that period and spent much time inside.

What happened next is he started college and played college-level Overwatch teams. It was that time that the game went live.

He probably felt hes been missing out on social life, and once he met new friends in college, he started to party.

He tried to balance it out, but you can only last that long with little sleep and a chaotic schedule. The game was requiring more time and so did the life outside of it.

To make the story short, there was a great contract laid out for David that ended up getting signed by another player.

The talent was there, the dedication and a strong start but he was no longer able to keep up.

Without feeling the life passes you by.

You create a system where your top priority activities come first, others follow.

Start with hours required for competing. Your primary goal steps (practicing, gaming strategy improving, networking)

Include non-gaming important activities (schooling, work, etc)

Add healthy body maintaining activities (sleep, food intakes, sports)

Include other refueling activities (meeting friends, studying..)

Its super important to understand that you dont exclude any off-screen activities that fulfill you, from your life. Otherwise, you are at risk of repeating Davids story.

A recent studytells that a well-balanced schedule has a healthy mix of steps aimed at achieving goals and activities that energize you.

This is the type of schedule you want to build for yourself to be able to keep your mental focus, motivation and prevent burnouts.

Remember that your body has a limited amount of energy. Use it wisely!

As a pro gamer, you want to focus on your passion – video games. But how are you going to market yourself?

The earlier you start making a name for yourself online, the better your career will be.

You will get to build a fan base, make money, and get noticed by all the right people (scouts, sponsors)

And you will have full control and ownership over your channels once in a team and start dealing with sponsors and contracts.

Read on to learn how to grow your gamer personal brand fast.

Here you want to get all channels with your gamer name: Twitch, Twitter, IG, Youtube, etc.

And when registering for a platform, you stay selective and do it with a goal in mind (and not because the channel is hyped up).

Ask yourself the following questions:

How can this platform help me achieve my goals?

What kind of content will work the best and can I deliver it on a regular basis?

Do I need help with this and what kind?

Once you get on a platform, you create a strategy (tips on that in a minute).

You focus on building your fan base.

And later down the road, well-thought social media accounts will make you look more appealing for sponsors, subs, and donations.

Streaming platforms such as Twitch are an excellent way to showcase your gaming talents and get noticed.

Some streamers actually made their way into the esports arena through streaming.

Another great idea is to add all your best gameplays to Youtube, for example. This is going to be your golden collection for advertising your strengths to the audience.

Make sure to set up Youtube and Twitch to earn revenue from viewers regardless of the viewership size at the moment.

The way you present yourself matters.

You do need to spend a little time and create a sharp bio for yourself highlighting your uniqueness.

The same goes for your photos. Think of the signature colors you will be using through all your channels, your avatar pic. Whether it be a logo or a photo? (we recommend using a photo as it gives a more personal touch).

Will it feature your face, half body, or full body?

You only have one chance to make a first impression – make sure your profile pic conveys a message about yourself.

What is it you are trying to tell about your gaming persona to the world with this photo? It has to communicate your strengths and uniqueness.

Its a great idea to get help from professional people with some starter photos (its tons of freelance sites with low m, etc

Below are examples of great looking pro-gamer profiles.

Check out how professional they look and how sharp their intros are:

Youve got your accounts set up and looking nice.

Start thinking about your public image strategy. The best strategy is to build up your reputation that revolves around your strengths as a gamer.

Putting yourself out there for the sake of it will not only not take you where you want to be, but will harm you.

Youve been streaming and have a dozen Youtube videos uploaded with each generating less than 100 views. Does it do you any good? No.

You will have people interested in you much quicker by having one video with several thousand views. This is how you use Youtube strategically – by uploading your very strong gameplays or a compilation of the best moments highlighting your talents.

Your goal is not just to upload content regularly, but to do it so that every new piece of content strengthens your online presence.

If you dont have new content that will add more value to your gaming persona, its ok to skip posting. Its better to be not regular than useless or boring.

This way you will be increasing your followership much faster and stand out more for sponsors and scouts.

Imagine them deciding between you and another gamer who is on the same level as you.

If your social media game is stronger, the number of followers, likes, and viewers is greater – they will choose you.

Showcasing your strengths in the game is important, but you also need to make sure your online persona keeps up.

These are 3 tips to help you with that:

Keep up with the events in the world, read the news, and be aware of the latest trends. You can dedicate 15 min of your time scrolling the news feed and read about whats trending.

Example: Not long ago I was watching Ludwig play on Twitc.