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eSports: So Maybe You Can Make a Living at That

League of Legends Championship Series. Photo by Gabriel Gagne.
League of Legends Championship Series. Photo by Gabriel Gagne.

Yep, after decades of false starts, it is now possible – for the few, the young and the obsessive – to make  a living playing video games. Sprung from LAN party tournaments played for beer money stakes, eSports has today evolved into full-blown sporting franchise, complete with teams, groupies, college athletic programs, dedicated media, arena-filling crowds and tournament prize pools ballooning into the tens of millions of dollars.

For many, this development raises a number of questions. Are these really athletes? (Hint: the U.S. government thinks so.) Why was Amazon willing to pay almost a billion dollars for Twitch.tv? And, well, just how does professional gaming work?

How Professional Gaming Works