Imagine that youre a professional gamer.
This is it, the final push toward being a champion.
Amid the muted chatter of your teammates on mics, the moment arrives.
Overwatch Champion Series 2024Luc Bouchon
The clock strikes zero; youve done it.
Finally time to breathe.
This isnt your bedroom or even the weekly LAN meetup, its the big leagues.
Youre a rock star, center stage.
This is the feeling of being anesportschampion.
Over the last few years, its become an increasingly attainable dream.
But the road to esports stardom isnt easy.
For most modern competitors, the path to going pro begins early.
For games likeOverwatch, that groundwork is stronger than ever.
I think it makes all this real for them, and not in a small way, Miller says.
I think it just solidifies that passion and how meaningful it is.
Theres an adjustment that needs to be made, just in terms of mindset, he says.
Youre not in your room or a team facility, locked in its quiet, coach is there.
No, [here] there are distractions, you have to be able to filter.
I think that any athlete does, anybody that makes it to the big leagues.
That doesnt quite change after making the cut, but it does become more regimented.
As with any sport, theres routine practice and team building.
But for most, it doesnt stop at training.
Content creation, usually through streaming, is also a huge factor each day.
His days are highly structured, consisting of multiple scrim blocks woven into his schedule.
At an event like [OWCS Finals] we get a PPA (player practice area).
Were in the hotel nearby and they give us a room of PCs to practice, he says.
And then, we start practicing or warming up for a match.
Most days, theres just two scrim blocks.
Hes essentially playing all day, every day.
Then, back to the game at night.
One of the biggest social stigmas associated with esports is that most of its players are sedentary.
For many players, it couldnt be farther from the truth.
Like Sugarfree, Hadi insists that maintaining an active lifestyle is paramount to being on top.
It can get the mental and physical stress out, and then get a good nights sleep.
Some days, when its really stressful, you just have to sleep a lot.
If you keep getting just six hours in, its going to be too hard.
Sometimes you just need an eight, nine-hour sleep.
The gym has really positive effects on my mental state, Hadi adds.
It keeps you more calm.
If you dont have a physical outlet, you have restlessness sometimes.
When youre a pro gamer, you have to think a lot.
But it comes with its own unique kinds of stress, much of it related to personal confidence.
Evan PGE Ngo, 21, is an American player for NRG Shock.
The reason why I never started competing was because I never had confidence in myself.
I never thought I could actually get there, he says.
But, when I was dirt broke, I didnt really have a choice.
I was like, I just need the money and I really want to work.
So, I started competing, and I started building more confidence in myself.
From there, I just kept playing.
But the transition from playing online at home doesnt readily translate to IRL events.
In person, its a little bit nerve wracking, PGE says.
But in person, I literally see how many people.
Jonathan Loda Berg, 36, is a former SwedishDotaplayer, who now owns the organization, Alliance.
Honestly, a lot of pro players struggle with that.
On stage, the experience can be anxiety-inducing.
For others, however, it can be disorienting.
Jonathan Reinforce Snowden, 29, is a retired SwedishOverwatchplayer who now focuses on casting.
Its almost like youre playing in a dream world, he says.
Youre playing on stage, the temperature difference, the headset is different.
Youre taken aback a little bit, and you just feel a bit out of it.
Then it can be hard to adjust into the natural flow of your game.
It definitely affects your special awareness, Reinforce adds.
We have to react in split seconds.
That crucial reaction time.
As young as he is, hes already faced the exhaustion that comes with the gig.
Burnout is something I really struggled with recently [while] competing, he says.
It felt like this year, the pressure was always on my shoulders.
I made my first international LAN at the Esports World Cup I have to keep the momentum.
I cant fall off.
For veterans like Snowden, that burden can contribute to the choice to retire.
A professional athlete, they require rest days; they need to rest their muscles.
They need to catch up on sleep, recover.
For esports competitors, its way more of a mental pursuit.
Thats an unbelievable grind.
Relationships, and relationship building, are among the most important elements in any athletes development.
Much of it comes from simple misunderstandings.
How could parents of a certain generation wrap their heads around playingvideo gamesas a job?
Kyle Rakattack Rakauskas, 22, is a collegiate player who recently competed for NRG Shock.
Then Im like, Oh, theres people watching him.
Slowly but surely, it started getting more real.
Seeing on-camera casters providing color commentary on their sons performance was eye opening.
This is like watching the Celtics!, Dave says.
After coming to terms with their sons status as a gaming pro, it was full steam ahead.
They even pulled him out of football to prevent any injuries that could cut his esports career short.
Some people threw away full family connections to [travel and compete], he says.
Maybe they left everything behind, maybe their parents werent super supportive.
Bailey McCann is the program lead for OWCS in North America and Europe.
To her, an essential part of making the change is bringing families to see the community in action.
Its starting to feel really integrated into peoples lives and upbringing, he says.
Scholastic programming is blowing up across the United States, she says.
I think team building is just so good for anyone, especially youth.
I learned community skills and that just helps you across your whole life.
Sugarfree, the youngest everOverwatchpro, was signed at age 13 in 2018.
To him, theres something inherently bizarre about being part of the old guard already.
All the people that I used to play with back then, theyre all retired.
It feels like its just me now, with new generations, even though Im the youngest still.
Some games remain more static and require less endless training and reinvention as the game itself evolves.
Theyre still capable of competing at the very top, he says.
People still have the mechanical skills, the intelligence, the experience builds and allows them to keep flourishing.
I feel theres always people who are like, Oh this guys old, so hes not that good.
But I dont think like that, he says.
Theres unironically nothing with [losing] reaction time.
But I feel like the younger kids, they have such passion.
They put in those extra hours, theyre so invested.
They make it count because they care so much.
Theres a certain fire.
Theyre really excited, theyre giving it their all.
I still have that fire.
[Deep] down, I just want to keep competing.
