Professional gamers move from “basement to big time”
From the July 4 edition of The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
Author Michael Kane followed the best Counter-Strike video game players in the world for more than a year, documenting the ascent of these professional gamers. His new book is “Game Boys: Professional Videogaming’s Rise From the Basement to the Big Time.”
Counter-Strike features two military-style teams battling to complete an objective or eliminate the opposition in a first-person shooting game. The two best Counter-Strike teams in “Game Boys” are Team 3D and CompLexity. Team 3D was the only team with major sponsorships. Its chief rival, CompLexity, was self-funded by the team manager, Jason Lake.
“When I saw this guy Jason Lake at a tournament, he really stood out, pacing behind a row of kids at their gaming consoles, hollering and stamping his foot,” Kane said. “My original concept was to cover it as something of a ‘Friday Night Lights,’ and I had another team in mind, Team 3D, because they were the defending champion. As soon as I got to the tournament and realized they had a challenger … I thought this could really be a fun story.”
Lake’s CompLexity franchise battles Team 3D through several tournaments in the course of the book, against the backdrop of a changing business model for professional gaming.
Kane began covering professional gaming as an assignment for the New York Post but was approached to expand it into a book.
“I was 37; most of these kids were 20, 21,” he said. “I did my best to act 20 or 21, dress down, don’t shave, kind of learn the language.”
Most Counter-Strike players were lucky to make a few dollars when Kane began the book in 2005. The elite few could make a living at it, but most gamers left professional gaming in their early 20s. Now, with Championship Gaming Series taking Counter-Strike players to television (Season 2 recently began airing on G4), the economics have changed.
“I think there was a bit of a natural burnout, but … even these elite gamers were pulling in 20, 25 grand a year,” Kane said. “Which is fine if you aren’t paying rent. But at 22, 23, living with your parents gets old. Now that they’re making more money, that’s the encouragement they need to stick with this. We’ll see what happens with professional gaming. TV leagues have come in and doubled the pot, which is great. I’m sure the gamers in my story will stick with it as long as they’re getting double what they did before.”
Kane said he thinks now that professional gaming is being exposed to a wider audience, the television success of pro gaming will increase.
“The new organizations involved who are pouring money into this and putting these kids on TV have a real sense that video games are becoming an increasing part of the fabric of American and global entertainment,” Kane said. “It’s going to work, and there will be professional and competitive gaming. The games are getting better; more people are playing. Kids who have grown up as gamers will, 15 years from now, be in positions of power.”
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