What's at stake?

It seems as if the line between electronic sports and traditional sports is getting narrower by the day. After all, there are now arenas where you can watch competitive gaming and superstars are even being forced to. In order to ensure success, players are even going as far as taking performance enhancing drugs. To catch this, many top tier leagues are resorting to using Olympic techniques to find which players are cheating. With prize-pools being much higher than ever, the rewards from cheating are much higher.

Millions upon millions of dollars are on the line each year, which means people can make a living off gaming. In order to win this prize money though, you must be the best, and in order to be the best you have to devote at least 8 hours a day for months, possibly years. This requires a deep passion for the game you are playing and this is often difficult to find.

Introduction

An Introduction to a

 world wide phenomenon

The picture above showcases a tournament for the computer game Dota 2 that had over 10,000 people attend and a 18,000,000$ prize pool. 

Many video games today have vast competitive scenes with many followers and devote fans. Some people don't even play the games and just participate as a spectator sport. Others choose to try to be the best at specific games and become very successful. 

So just how big is this gaming thing? Let's start with this: 205 million people watched or played Esports in 2014 -- meaning that if the Esports nation were actually a nation, it would be the fifth largest in the world. And while eSports have long been biggest in Asia, especially gaming-mad Korea, North America and Europe now claim 28 million eSports fans and the number is growing by 21 percent a year.

 The signs of success already mirror the achievements of major sports. Game tournaments sell out giant arenas, and some attract at-home audiences larger than those of top traditional sporting events. Madison Avenue’s highest fliers, like Coca-Cola and American Express, have lined up as sponsors. Prize money has soared to the millions of dollars, and top players earn six- or seven-figure incomes and attract big and passionate followings, luring a generation of younger players to seek fame and fortune as gamers.