Are pro-gamers comparable to athletes, and exactly what does it take to play games for a living?

Just how good at video games are you? Perhaps you can thrash all your flatmates at Pro Evolution Soccer; you regularly top the Forza Motorsport 2 online leader boards; or have a Counter-Strike clan that regularly wipes the floor with all opposition. If you’re in this bracket then perhaps you’ve already considered the possibilities of entering a tournament for cash prizes. But it’s here that the men are separated from the boys, or in Kathy Zablotzky’s case, the psychologically tough from the weak-minded.

“You do have to learn to focus,” says Zablotzky, the Dead Or Alive expert who won the UK crown last year and went on to compete for the London Mint in the World Championship Gaming series. “It’s not like playing in your sitting room. It’s actually very difficult to keep that extreme focus going for five minutes in a tournament, and many of your opponents will try to play mind games to make you lose that focus.”

Zablotzky is unusual. Not only because she’s a female gamer who takes a regular salary from honing her Dead Or Alive skills, but also because she’s competing with the best at the age of 53. “Yeah, I’ve had a few problems because of it. Particularly as part of a team it can be problematic. Obviously, the 18-year-old male gamers want to find out who the female member of their team is and then I turn up. It doesn’t impress many people, but I don’t care. I’m just there to enjoy myself. Some of the team were fantastic, but there were one or two that found it a little bit intimidating.”

And intimidating is the operative word, because while many players may flourish in online tournaments at home, when it comes to playing under match conditions they’ve been known to wilt under the pressure. The players we spoke to highlighted the supreme focus required to deal with the hot lights, a screaming audience, and floor managers constantly telling them where to stand and what to do. There’s very little time or opportunity to relax or meditate on your next game and – perhaps more importantly – your next opponent.

There are several pro-gaming leagues in the world, including Canada’s Pro Gaming League and the Major League Gaming in America, but perhaps the biggest of all is the Championship Gaming Series. In the UK, the two teams that regularly fight it out to reach the CGS finals in Los Angeles are the London Mint and the Birmingham Salvo. Competition to reach the finals is fierce and the prize money for the winning team is $500,000. Understandably, CGS only takes the best teams from each of its competing countries, which include Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Singapore, the UK, China, Malaysia, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. It’s a truly global league covering every continent except Antarctica.

“I am employed directly by the Championship Gaming Series to run the Mint franchise,” explains Ben Woodward, London Mint’s general manager. “My daily activities include supervising my ten players and their daily practice schedules. I spend time looking for sponsors for the team and league while also updating the site and managing the staff I have for the site.”

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