Esports stars learn life as pro gamer is a full-time job
Some say ‘dream job’ is more than fun and games
Lucas Tao Kilmer Larsen, 21, remembers fantasizing about how awesome his life would be if he could become a professional video game player.
“That’s going to be a dream job and I’m going to enjoy my life so much more,” Larsen recalls thinking when he was a 15 year-old growing up in Denmark.
The reality, he has learned, is quite different.
As esports continue their march toward mainstream acceptance, video game publishers, teams and players all find themselves learning on the fly and navigating new, and in many cases unexpected, challenges that were once reserved for top tier traditional sports athletes and celebrities.
In recent interviews, Larsen and other pro gamers shared what it is like to be on the front lines of this mushrooming industry, revealing an ever-evolving world of long hours, leaguemandated obligations and few mechanisms for esports athletes to push back against the standardized expectations.
“It’s definitely my dream job. But over time, it’s become more and more a of a job . . . . It isn’t as fun as anymore, I see it more of a job now,” said Larsen, better known on the League of Legends circuit as “Santorin.” He says he logs up to 14 hours of gameplay per day, and only sees his friends “once a year, for 5-8 hours.”
Though while they noted that their early visions of this new-age career path are very different from the reality, they all said they embraced many elements of their current way of life.
“It’s not as awesome as people imagine,” he said, before adding that he has had a chance to travel the globe and attain his goal becoming one of the best players in the world — and being recognized as such by fans, which he described as “pretty awesome.”
These kinds of conflicts are emblematic of the current moment in esports. Adoring fans come with concerns about security and problematic access to players. Rich contracts come with onerous hours and a pressure to maximize personal branding. Feature roles in slick commercials and magazine features come with the risk of losing focus, and losing
a job in a world where the average playing career spans just a couple years, less than an average NFL running back.
Finding balance
“I see it more of a job now. ... It’s not as awesome as people imagine.” — Lucas Tao Kilmer Larsen, pro gamer
For pro players, almost all of whom grew up before a viable career path as a gamer seemed possible, striking the right balance between work and life can be tricky. Larsen’s 14-hour days are more or less standard among his peers and represent one of the longest work weeks for any job in the United States, according to the American Community Survey PUMS data set.
League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) players like Larsen routinely practice