More and more young people and adults dream of becoming professional gamers. After all, what could be better than turning your hobby into a profession and spending your days playing PC or console games? Not to mention that the best players receive salaries in the 5-digit range and play for prize money amounting to several million euros.
The life of a professional gamer sounds like a dream come true. In fact, however, it is not so easy to turn this dream into reality. As with any other professional sport, competition is fierce in gaming. In the following article, we have therefore summarised the most important tips for your career as a professional gamer. Among other things, we explain what kind of training is particularly important, which games can earn you the most money and which mistakes you should avoid at all costs. Have fun discovering!
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The basic requirements: motivation, diligence and discipline
As the title “pro gamer” already reveals, you are a real professional. You should not get the wrong idea about this profession: you are not paid to just sit around at home and play the games you feel like. No, quite the opposite.
As a pro gamer, you have to work incredibly hard to continuously improve your playing and thus always belong to the best gamers. Because just like in any other professional sport, your own team expects high-level performance from a pro gamer. If this is no longer achieved, then you are quickly kicked off from your own team. Just like in football, basketball or other professional sports.
Before you decide to become a pro gamer, you should therefore be aware that this is a very demanding profession and not the paid pursuit of your hobby. To be successful as a pro gamer, you need a lot of motivation, diligence and discipline. Because only with this is it possible to belong to the one per cent of the best gamers in the world who actually receive five-figure salaries.
The right game
If you are ready to work hard for your dream of a professional gaming career, then it is time to choose a game. Because unfortunately, you can’t turn gaming into a career with every game available. Instead, there is only a small selection of games that are played in major tournaments for millions in prize money.
What’s more, the skill level of gamers is so high that you need to focus entirely on a single game if you really want to make it to the pros. This is the only way you can invest enough training in your game to reach the level of the best gamers. Even the best professional teams in the world, who actually earn an incredible amount of money from gaming, only focus on a single game.
Before we explain what these games are, we want to give you a tip on how to save money. Before you buy a game and train for a career as a professional player, first try the free demo version of other popular games at https://www.richardcasino3.com/games/all, where you can get free spins without having to make a deposit. This way, you can make sure that simple entertainment is not enough, and you really want to invest $50-$100 in a new game.
The games, for which there are professional leagues and high-paying tournaments, are divided into two categories: MOAB and shooter games. From the first category, the games League of Legends, Dota 2, and Arena of the Valor are especially popular. League of Legends has the highest-paid league in the world, and Dota 2 tournaments pay out the highest prize money ever!
But the shooter games also promise millions in prize money: not only classics like Rainbow Six Siege but also the most famous shooter trend of recent years, Fortnite, are suitable for your career as a professional player. The highest prize money and team salaries in the shooter category can be found in CS:GO. At the same time, CS:GO is also particularly beginner-friendly because there are significantly more tournaments than in other games.
The only game that does not belong to these two categories but still has high prize money is PUBG Mobile. For this game, there are even significant tournaments for the mobile smartphone version! So even if you can’t use every game for your pro career, the selection is big enough that you’re guaranteed to find a game you like. Take your time with your selection, as you will be investing a lot of time in the game afterwards.
Once you have decided on a game, you need to start training. As with any competitive sport, gaming requires years of hard training to be able to play at the highest level. This means, of course, that you really have to play your chosen game extensively. The best gamers in the world play many hours a day. After you have developed good basic skills for your game, you should proceed more methodically than just playing for a few hours.
Instead, it is worthwhile to work specifically on your weaknesses and develop strategies for a better game. Streams by professional gamers, who often comment on them in detail, are particularly helpful. Here you get an incredible amount of tips from the best players in the world and don’t even have to pay anything for them.
However, a successful eGaming career requires more than just training on the PC. Because this is really a competitive sport. You can only achieve top performance in gaming if your body is able to withstand such a strain over a longer period of time.
Professional gamers, therefore, spend 15%-25% of their total training volume on physical training in the gym or in nature. You should also do mental training to increase your stress resistance and concentration. In addition, a healthy diet is crucial for you to stay healthy and productive in the long term.
Make a name for yourself!
Just as you can’t just apply to play for FC Bayern Munich or the New England Patriots, you can’t just jump into pro gaming at the highest level. Instead, you first have to build a name for yourself in the lower leagues.
In theory, this is relatively simple: just play your chosen game for a long time and successfully. The better you do and the further up the rankings you climb, the more attention you will receive from the best players and teams in the world. Sooner or later, such a team will contact you.
The right team and the first competitions
As mentioned above, professional teams usually find you and not the other way around. Once you have made a name for yourself in the gaming scene, better teams will sooner or later invite you for training matches. If you convince them again and again, then a team will make you an offer.
Of course, you will initially receive offers from smaller teams. Here, too, there is a parallel to sports like professional football: these small teams give you the opportunity to participate in professional competition and thus increase your name recognition. In addition, you can already win your first prize money in these smaller tournaments, which, in turn, allows you to focus more on your career.
After a few years of convincing in smaller tournaments, one of the big teams will recruit you. Then you will truly have reached the goal of your career. Because the best teams in the world not only receive a salary of up to €10,000 a month but also play for extremely high prize money. Last year’s annual Dota 2 tournament, The International, paid out an incredible €41 million in prize money!
Always have a plan B
Playing all day, being one of the best players in the world and then winning millions in prize money: life as a professional gamer actually sounds too good to be true. In fact, if you want to reach such a level, you will have to put in a lot of hard work over several years, during which you will earn almost no money with your gaming.
But there is another fact to consider: even if you take on all these hardships and dedicate your life to gaming for several years, success is not guaranteed.
Because like any other professional sports career, there are countless variables in eGaming pro gamer that can prevent you from achieving your dream. Therefore, it is extremely important that you always have a plan B in addition to professional gaming. Therefore, don’t neglect your studies, school or work for your gaming, so that you still have another alternative in case of emergency.
