A pro esports player in France?
Isn't it a dream to turn your favorite activity into a career? Who
wouldn't give up financial stability to live off their passion? How many people have never dreamed of standing on
stage in front of tens of thousands of spectators, like a Stephano or a YellowStar who just won a world
championship? The idea is appealing, but the path to get there can be far less so.
Whatever the sport (electronic or not), to hope to live decently off it, you have to be
in the top tier. And even more so for esports, especially in France. Given its almost non-existent
official status, I would never advise anyone to jump into esports full time. It's an enormous risk in my
opinion.
Why? Simply because there's already competition in place, and you have to beat the elite if
you want to be part of it yourself. I'm talking here about reaching the very top to have any hope of securing a
good spot. What sponsor would agree to pay minimum wage for a player who isn't the top French player and doesn't
have strong visibility (Twitter/Facebook)?
Furthermore, if a player wants an income they can actually live on (I stress that we're
talking about living in France), they need to count on wins at European and world tournaments. You have to beat
Korean players who train more than ten hours a day on the same game as us. That implies enormous sacrifices for
a small chance of getting there. In a tournament, everyone wants to win, and there's only one winner.
Here are my tips for young players tempted to get into the scene:
- The full-time idea is very risky. Only the elite manage to live off it.
- Esports should stay a passion alongside your studies and work.
- If you have a good stretch of free time available, you can focus on esports to improve well; try to optimize your free time so you don't waste it drifting around.
- Try to stick to one game or type of game. It's very difficult to be at a competitive level in two very different types of games (RTS/FPS).
- Keep a good relationship with the game's community: avoid raging or insulting behavior when you lose. It's immature behavior and I see no long-term benefit in it. Video games are an exact science determined by lines of code — if you lost, there's a concrete reason for it.
- The game should stay fun. If you get tired of the game or just don't feel like playing, take a longer or shorter break and switch activities. I've done this several times myself, and each time I came back more motivated to play again.