Remember when your parents kept saying that you wouldn’t get anywhere in life if you spent all of your time sitting inside playing video games. It turns out they were wrong.
There is a whole community of people that are making good money from playing video games and the industry is only getting bigger. Esports has had a relatively short history, but it’s soon set to be just as relevant as traditional sports. One of the greatest things about Esports is that anybody can get into it if they are good enough and know the right route to take. If you think you can give some of the world’s top gamers a run for their money, here’s how to make inroads into the Esports industry.
Practice
Just because you always come top of the leaderboard when you’re playing against your mates, which doesn’t mean you’ve got what it takes to challenge the best players in the world. These people don’t mess about so you need to train, just like a football or basketball player would. You also need to sort out your gaming setup. Fitting your keyboard with custom keycaps so you’ve got the best possible configuration for your chosen game is vital. One missed key can mean the difference between winning and losing when you’re in a tournament. Try to stick to one or two games and hone your skills rather than spreading yourself too thin. Your competitors will live and breathe their chosen games.
Local Teams
As with any sports, finding a local team should be your first port of call. Esports is becoming more popular, and teams are popping up all over the place. If you can’t find a local team to join, get a few friends together and start one of your own. The beauty of Esports is that you can start a team with people that you play with from all around the world, they don’t necessarily need to be local.
Twitch
Anybody that’s serious about making a living from video games needs to be streaming on Twitch regularly for two reasons. Firstly, you can actually make a fairly good amount of money in donations if you’ve got a big fanbase. To get followers you need to be good at your chosen games, but you also need to be entertaining. That means having a good personality but also playing in an interesting and exciting way. As well as bringing in cash from donations, Twitch is a wonderful way to get yourself noticed. Teams will often watch Twitch streams to scout new players so if you prove yourself on there, you never know what opportunities might come your way.
Esports is only in its infancy now, but some people are already making millions from it. You could have a lifelong career in playing video games if you get in on the ground floor, so start practicing and trying to find other competitive players to put together a team today, you never know what could happen.
