​Our guide to eSports

Fancy playing games for a living? David Crookes explains how you can make millions by becoming a professional eSports player.

What are eSports?

As you can probably guess, eSports is short for electronic sports and describes the professional staging of competitive video gaming. It has rapidly grown in popularity over the last few years, attracting huge numbers of competitors and spectators, and now the launch of a new worldwide tournament looks set to catapult eSports into the mainstream.

How does it work?

Players compete in organised tournaments either as individuals or as part of a team. They play a particular game and try to beat their opponents, seeking to knock them out, reach the final and ultimately be crowned champion and handed a prize. As they do so, spectators watching at home or in large-capacity arenas cheer them on.

Who runs these tournaments?

The biggest organisation is the Electronic Sports League (ESL, www.eslgaming.com) which not only operates professional international and national leagues and tournaments, but amateur competitions, too. Major games publisher Electronic Arts launched the EA Competitive Gaming Division in December 2015, while Take Two Interactive is set to launch the NBA 2K eLeague in 2018. The UK national body is the British Esports Association (www.britishesports.org).

Which games are involved?

The games span a range of genres but particular favourites include first-person shooters such as Call of Duty,Counter Strike, Quake and Battlefield, and sporting games such as FIFA and NBA 2K. Fighting games including Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros figure highly and many players knuckle down for real time strategy games of  StarCraft or multiplayer online battles within League of Legends and Dota. However, the big one to check out is Over watch, which is attracting a lot of interest.

What’s so special about Over watch?