I have personally found this issue growing more apparent, when gaming starts encroaching too much on our personal lives. Can it ever really be considered a life choice or career?

I only say this off the back of receiving a job offer this afternoon that would slightly restrict my rather tight schedule as it is. I depend on the fact I can personally promote myself during my lunch breaks and keep in contact with most on skype during the day to ease my work load when im home.

I feel it when I’m unable to go and be with the person I’m rather close to due to me having DreamHack Valencia on all weekend followed by cups followed by more and by the time I’m done its 1.00am and I’m hardly a bundle of fun to be around.

My schedule aside, where do we draw the line? I have seen some of the best gamers out there utterly ruining their academic path by being so focused towards gaming. Is there a point someone should tell you to stop being so involved in something so short term within your life or should you pursue what you love with your full intentions.

You only need to look around at the people making a living from gaming to see it as appealing. Who wouldn’t want to make a good wage playing games? With streaming now being available to anyone out there with the possible chance of making money off that if you are good enough or even just funny enough to bring in a audience we are seeing a influx in people doing just that.

The likes of Curse & EG flaunt their rather opulent lifestyle surrounding gaming even to the extent of having gaming houses in the prestigious Beverly Hills.

image: cursegaminghouse

Quote“On August 10, Curse, Inc. will turn on the livestream feed for its newly leased $2 million Beverly Hills mansion and broadcast the lives of its five League of Legends pro gamers across the globe through own3D.tv”

to quote forbes.com - First Look Inside The Curse League Of Legends Beverly Hills Gaming House

Clearly showing the benefit of following your passions towards eSports… but Professional gaming for me ended when I couldn’t fathom coming home from one job to do what felt like another. The likes of Stephano and many more show that dedication and ability can create something special, but how many of you would ever be the next Stephano or Fatal1ty? The likely answer is none.

image: fatality-food


You see this issue riddled throughout the gaming scene you only need to look over to the recent twitter outburst from Leigh “Deman” Smith …

Leigh Smith ‏@qvDeman

Quote“So my position has come to a head, I quit eSports or quit my job. Figured this day would eventually come. Decission time”


image: 0


From my short time casting and covering events I already feel the slight strain of it upon my day to day job. I can only imagine the constant strain it would have for someone with a real busy schedule.

I must explain the point this is not about the casual gamer who clearly had personally issues to run from and fully emerge every part of their life in gaming and suffer from that, this is about the more aware “eSports” savvy gamer that could possibly transition into something more lucrative.

Another point I might eventually write about was rather pushed to me by a tweet from Mike Rufail (eSports Advisor @treyarch)

Mike Rufail ‏@hastr0

Quote“There's a fine line between being a sponsored gamer and being a salesman. Where do you draw that line?”


This echoed personally with me after I felt myself rattling off the sponsor lines second to none promoting products I have not tried nor tested. I felt fake as anything at that point and genuinely had to reconsider what I was doing. Where do the lines get blurred and we lose the pure intentions and it all becomes about money.

image: NClEY


The point being, gaming is part of our daily lives but where should it stay for the vast majority of us.

I pose the question to you, the reader. Would you EVER consider focusing yourself towards eSports within a career choice? Did you ever find yourself putting gaming in front of matters it should not proceed?