How To Make A Career In Esports

The world of Esports has gained a lot of traction over the past few years and has exploded in popularity thanks to the likes of Twitch, massive prize pools for competitions, and games that allow a wider variety of players to become competitive in. BetMGM recently noted that the future is heading towards a place where Esports are bigger, and far more mainstream.

However, being a player is not the only way to have a career in Esports, as mentioned, with the growth it has seen, you can be an Esports writer, a coach, analyst, commentator, event manager, agent, and a multitude of other careers.

Like any career, you will need to either gain or hone particular skills if you want a career in Esports. It’s not as simple as being a good writer, or a great player, you will need to stand out from the large crowd.

There is a great way to start, which is simply gaining work experience. This may be a bit trickier for some, but in essence, reach out to Esport teams and organizations and find out what work you can to learn the business basically.

You are unlikely to be paid for this work, but telling future employers that you learned your particular trade at a massive and well-respected org will go an incredibly long way. Once again, this is basically volunteer work, so being paid might not be possible.

The fact remains though that you can volunteer at an org, help out at a tournament, even write or work on the social media accounts for a particular event, whichever comes to fruition, the knowledge you will gain is invaluable.

Once you have been exposed to multiple facets of the business, choose a niche you will want to work in. Do you want to write? Commentate, work with a team, find the niche you are passionate about, and work within it.

This is easier said than done, but the sooner you start working across multiple niches, you will find the one that suits you the best and that you find the most enjoyment in. This is vital to ensure you don’t go down the wrong path and become discouraged.

Obviously, a great thing to do is to attend events, whether it’s a tournament, gaming expo, or any event related to gaming, go to it, walk around, chat with people, learn the business from people who are doing it. These types of events are becoming more and more popular worldwide.

If you want to become a player, the most important thing is practice, practice, practice. You will need to put a lot of hours into your game of choice, you must know it like the back of your hand.

You will also want to enter as many competitions as you can. This is a bit easier with solo games such as Fortnite, but in many games such as Counter-Strike, Rainbow Siege, Call of Duty, there are ranked competitions that you are playing in.

Streaming is also important. There is no use in being great in a game if nobody knows about you. It is difficult to get into, but just getting your name out there is the important part, you never know who is going to tune in to watch you. That’s how many streamers rose to fame.

This plays into another path you can take, just doing it all yourself. Start a website, write gaming reviews, write an analysis about important games you watched, do your own commentating, these are all things that take little to no money and only require you to put in the time and effort.

Think about it like this, you don’t have to work at a publishing house to write a book. There are multiple ways to create your own path. Yes, this does require a lot of work, but if you are motivated, you will find it all fun and enjoyable.

You can also go down the education route. More tertiary education establishments are offering Esport focused courses. These will give you the insight and knowledge that will put you in a position to get a job. Combine this with your own work (if you have a website or something similar) and all of a sudden you become a great candidate for employers.

It is also important to constantly stay on top of opportunities. Follow organizations, informative gaming sites like insider.games, look on career boards, stay in the loop of positions that become available, and pounce on them. Don’t be put off if you don’t fit certain criteria, apply anyway, you don’t want to miss out on a chance simply because you thought you didn’t reach a particular bar.

Much like other careers, Esport careers require hard work and knowledge. There is no real “trick” to get into this world, it is all about what you know and what you can offer. It is important to be focused on one niche, and be able to do it at such a high level that people can’t ignore your abilities.

Considering the popularity of Esports nowadays, you will need to stand out, and offer something that others can’t, whether it’s a particular skill or knowledge, it can be the difference between making it and just missing out.