Eric “ESAM” Lew never goes to a video game tournament without his custom Wii U controller. But there was that time when he set his bag down before a competition in Austin, Texas, and inadvertently left without it.
Lew, who plays video games for a living, called that day’s gameplay frustrating.
“I placed worse than I was supposed to,” said Lew, 24, one of the highest-ranked Super Smash Bros. 4 players who found himself borrowing a friend’s controller. “Controllers are very important.”
Preparing for a big e-sports competition isn’t unlike practicing for a baseball game or hockey tournament. Lew, who joins dozens of competitive gamers this weekend at Denver’s first DreamHack Festival, has his own tools. He practices five to eight hours a day before a big game. The reward? He is paid and gets to fly around the globe for competitions.
“We practice everyday,” said Lew, a member of team Panda Global. “We do it to keep up with our movements and try to discover new traps and scenarios in the games. You try to learn more about the game, so we watch videos to know what the characters do, as well as watch other (competitors). You have to be in the right mental state.”
DreamHack is one of the larger e-sports events to come to town, with gamers competing for up to $100,000 by playing games such as Halo 5, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and, of course, Super Smash Bros. The festival, founded in Sweden, is an event that doesn’t stop. Literally. It’s open round the clock for those with weekend passes. Sound tiring? Attendees can add a “Sleeping Hall Pass” for an extra $20.
“It’s not just e-sports,” said Justin Moskowitz, a Denver-based DreamHack marketing organizer. “We have drone racing, drone combat, panels on body hacking and e-sports psychology and a lot of areas that people may not be aware exist. It’s also a festival, so DJ Vanic is playing on Saturday night. We have archery tag, an expo hall with a lot of tech vendors and an indie-game area where local developers big and small are going to display their games.”
But one of the more anticipated showcases is the e-sports competitions, a growing category of entertainment.
Competitive video gaming has been around for at least two decades — longer if you count arcade tournaments or friendly neighborhood matchups from the 1970s. By the late 1990s, gamers gathered socially with their computers for LAN parties, where they connected to fast internet using the building’s local area network, or LAN. Today, spectators fill auditoriums to watch gamers play each other or as teams. The action is displayed above on large screens.
But making a living playing video games is a more recent phenomena in the U.S. Companies such as Twitch, which launched in 2011, helped popularize players by streaming their gameplay live. Amazon acquired Twitch for nearly $1 billion in 2014. Last year, ESPN launched an e-sports section after seeing success with televising competitions. A USA Today story, in fact, was headlined “ESPN people are freaking out because ESPN televised eSports.” And early next year, the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas will open an e-sports arena to host competitions.
“This is normalizing the experience,” said Jack McCutcheon, a data analyst with Newzoo, a market research firm that tracks the e-sports industry. “E-sports video gaming isn’t something done only by people in their basements wearing black hoodies. The perception that gamers are really pale, nerdy guys has been around for a long time. But by putting it on television, it does away with a lot of those stereotypes.”
According to Newzoo, the e-sports economy is expected to hit $696 million this year — brands alone have spent about $517 million on ads and sponsorships — and grow to $1.5 billion by 2020.
Competitive gamers never imagined that such fun would become an occupation. But at a young age, Lew and his brother would enter local tournaments and play for fun, winning $20 here and $40 there. His parents didn’t mind as long as he finished his homework and chores. He started playing Smash Bros. at age 12. That’s when he created his nickname — he was told he had to quickly come up with a 4-digit identity. (He explains: “E is for Eric, my name, and SAM is for Samus, my favorite video game character. She’s from the Metroid series.”)
Lew, who lives in Miami, didn’t get serious until after graduating with a genetics degree from Clemson.
“I was living out my lease in South Carolina, and since I didn’t have school work, I’d enter competitions. There are so many tournaments in so many places that I don’t necessarily have to go to the biggest ones to win money,” Lew said.
A friend who was tapped to join a new professional team suggested hiring Lew, who joined in 2015. Being on a team such as Panda Global covers the cost of flights and hotels, and it offers a salary. Lew said he makes about $40,000 to $50,000 playing Smash Bros., but the top players for other games can make $200,000 to $250,000 a year. There’s also funding from sponsors. Panda Global sponsors include Toshiba, Twitch and Funimation.
“The way I think about it, I’m traveling more than my parents combined. And I’m 24,” said Lew, who travels two to three times a month for tournaments, visiting places such as Dubai, Japan and Sweden.
Lew, the highest-ranked Pikachu player for Smash 4, has won six major tournaments in the Smash Bros. genre. He gets his share of name recognition. People come up to him at tournaments asking for an autograph or a photo.
“It probably happens at least 50 people per event. For bigger events, maybe over 300 for the weekend,” Lew said. “Parents come up to me with their 7-year-old and say, ‘Hey, we watch you on YouTube.'”
Lew doesn’t know how long he will play video games full time. He has expanded into game commentating and producing YouTube videos of his own game to earn advertising dollars. But he has advice for kids and their parents.
“It’s not as scary and taboo as it used to be,” Lew said. “But I’m never about putting all my eggs in one basket. I always have a backup plan. My advice (to kids) is to focus on school. That’s a generally positive thing, while you’re pursuing your passion. And make sure you have a backup plan.”