{"id":11406,"date":"2021-05-23T11:10:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T18:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=11406"},"modified":"2021-05-23T11:10:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T18:10:17","slug":"futuresports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2021\/05\/23\/futuresports\/","title":{"rendered":"FutureSports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from WIRED<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaming Influencers Are the Future of Esports<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Top players have left pro leagues to pursue streaming full-time as the industry veers more toward content creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"esport
There’s a reason esports pros are called athletes: It’s a tough job, mentally and physically. Now, some top gamers are walking away.PHOTOGRAPH: RIOT GAMES\/GETTY IMAGES<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LUCAS \u201cMENDO\u201d H\u00c5KANSSON was playing video games for work, but he was not having a good time. He\u2019d sacrificed a lot to be a pro gamer, dropping out of high school to practice Overwatch<\/em> for up to 18 hours a day. When the Houston Outlaws tapped him to play Overwatch<\/em> professionally in 2017, he was thrilled. It seemed like his efforts had finally earned him his dream job. Then, reality struck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a reason why esports pros are called athletes. H\u00e5kansson\u2019s schedule with the Outlaws was rigid. He woke up, warmed up, and then spent the rest of the day practicing Overwatch<\/em> in a tiny, windowless room. \u201cIt was honestly a miserable experience being there,\u201d he said. His contract limited when he could stream on Twitch; he says he had to keep the focus on the league, not himself. And always, there was the looming fear that if Activision Blizzard, Overwatch\u2019s<\/em> publisher, tweaked the game too much, he\u2019d have to relearn his top characters\u2014or be out of a job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a season in the\u00a0Overwatch<\/em>\u00a0League, H\u00e5kansson quit esports to become a full-time content creator instead. He was quickly\u00a0signed<\/a>\u00a0by another esports organization, Team Liquid\u2014not just to compete, but to grow his celebrity as a gaming influencer. These days he plays another shooter, Riot Games\u2019\u00a0Valorant<\/em>, on Twitch, where he has 621,000 followers. H\u00e5kansson says he is happier and more stable now, and although the\u00a0Overwatch<\/em>\u00a0League has increased its focus on player well-being, he predicts that more athletes will follow his path. (The league did not respond to our request for comment.) \u201cI think that most people who can, will, if they haven\u2019t already. And a lot of people already have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at WIRED<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from WIRED Gaming Influencers Are the Future of Esports Top players have left pro leagues to pursue streaming full-time as the industry veers more toward content creators. There’s a reason esports pros are called athletes: It’s a tough job, mentally and physically. Now, some top gamers are walking away.PHOTOGRAPH: RIOT GAMES\/GETTY IMAGES LUCAS \u201cMENDO\u201d H\u00c5KANSSON was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}