TORONTO – Once considered simply a rec room activity for teenage boys, gaming has become a full-fledged sport, complete with its own sport heroes.
For many of those teens who are now grown up – the video game industry is a very real career option, with some making up to $250,000 a year.
Forget the stereotypes of gamers being lonely, pale, slackers.
Stars like gamer Geoff “iNcontroL” Robinson, are revered as much as LeBron James and Sidney Crosby.
Robinson took his passion for gaming and turned it into a successful career. He is the team captain for the sponsored gaming group “Evil Geniuses.” His company pulls in 7-figures in revenue, has 40 salaried employees, 15 full-time employees and a headquarters in San Francisco.
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Hardly a slacker, the comparison Robinson hears more is to that of a professional athlete.
A professional gamer, like their MLB counterparts, is someone who makes the majority of their income from gaming, travels, is sponsored, goes to tournaments and trains up to 10 hours a day, according to Robinson.
By training he means working in a training facility, playing against other competitors (not sitting “cross-legged in a heap of Doritos”) in order to improve and work out the errors in their game.
“We’re all the absolute best at the games we play – and that’s why people watch us,” he said, “because if they could do what we could do, why would they watch us?”
A documentary film called Rise of the eSports Hero, which profiles Robinson and other gamers, airs on Global TV Saturday as part of the series Obsessions.
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