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Isn't the very definition of 'pro' that they get paid to do it? Prize money, sure, but also sponsors.

michaelt 4y ago
You can get paid without getting paid well. Take [1] as a random example - 18th in the pubg global championship, and they've made $53k split between 3 players in 2022. How many hours of practice do you think they have to put in, to be 18th in the global championship and earn $17.7k per person? [1] https://liquipedia.net/pubg/BBL_Esports https://liquipedia.net/pubg/BBL_Esports
- wingerlang 4y ago
  Aren't they getting a salary for those hours of practice? That's what I mean with pro, as in professional, as in having gaming as their profession. Honestly, $17.7k for _18th_ place, in PUBG of all games, seems very high to me as a prize. But I am sure they split a lot of that with their organization, coaches and whatever they have, and taxes on top of that. Even so, people work for minimum wage so it all just, depends.
  - tashoecraft 4y ago
    A lot of the teams aren't organizations, and the ones who are can sometimes get pretty low salaries, from what I understand. With how much movement there is in the leaderboard year to year, the team who came in first in 2020 placed last in 2021. For how many hours of time played, it's well below minimum wage. And of course it is different, playing a game has plenty of benefits, I'm just thinking about longevity of esports as a whole.
- tashoecraft 4y ago
  I don't believe that's per person, that's total for the team. So <18k for 4 players and a coach. The tournament went for 20 days, so missing out on any income you could generate from another job during that time, excluding the coach that's 4.5k per tax, on the largest money making opportunity all year.
- NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
  I don't know anything about e-sports, but I know something about professional sports - and the prize money at the top end is small compared with the endorsements. Tiger Woods only made 10% of his fortune in prize money, for example.
  - JamesSwift 4y ago
    And yet he made $120,895,206 in tournament winnings. It just emphasizes both that the orders of magnitude is nowhere the same in the direct compensation side, and a universe of difference on the sponsorship side.

You can get paid without getting paid well. Take [1] as a random example - 18th in the pubg global championship, and they've made $53k split between 3 players in 2022. How many hours of practice do you think they have to put in, to be 18th in the global championship and earn $17.7k per person? [1] https://liquipedia.net/pubg/BBL_Esports https://liquipedia.net/pubg/BBL_Esports

wingerlang 4y ago
Aren't they getting a salary for those hours of practice? That's what I mean with pro, as in professional, as in having gaming as their profession. Honestly, $17.7k for _18th_ place, in PUBG of all games, seems very high to me as a prize. But I am sure they split a lot of that with their organization, coaches and whatever they have, and taxes on top of that. Even so, people work for minimum wage so it all just, depends.
- tashoecraft 4y ago
  A lot of the teams aren't organizations, and the ones who are can sometimes get pretty low salaries, from what I understand. With how much movement there is in the leaderboard year to year, the team who came in first in 2020 placed last in 2021. For how many hours of time played, it's well below minimum wage. And of course it is different, playing a game has plenty of benefits, I'm just thinking about longevity of esports as a whole.
tashoecraft 4y ago
I don't believe that's per person, that's total for the team. So <18k for 4 players and a coach. The tournament went for 20 days, so missing out on any income you could generate from another job during that time, excluding the coach that's 4.5k per tax, on the largest money making opportunity all year.
NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
I don't know anything about e-sports, but I know something about professional sports - and the prize money at the top end is small compared with the endorsements. Tiger Woods only made 10% of his fortune in prize money, for example.
- JamesSwift 4y ago
  And yet he made $120,895,206 in tournament winnings. It just emphasizes both that the orders of magnitude is nowhere the same in the direct compensation side, and a universe of difference on the sponsorship side.