Competitive Esports is taking the gaming scene by storm, with leagues and teams forming all over the world in an attempt to make their mark as one of the greats. With over 75 million people watching Esports, prize pools increasing, and prominent A-List celebs such as Shaquille O’Neal and even Ashton Kutcher investing in teams, the market longevity looks promising. It’s no surprise that kids these days are so adamant about going “MLG” and spending more time in front of a screen than in front of a textbook. You can’t blame them!
Whether it’s the Overwatch League, MLG, League of Legends or any other Esports organization, the payouts are becoming a huge attraction. Last year, Dota 2 had a total of $24,687,919.00 for their international competition payout. League of Legends followed up with a 5 million dollar prize pool for their World championship, and many other MLG circuit championships paid out a respectable amount as well. For once, when you tell your parents you are going to make a living from video games, it’s actually possible. Albeit a longshot, but entirely possible.
Breaking into the competitive scene isn’t always easy, and making a name for yourself can prove to be quite daunting. Trust me, I know. During my stint on the Pro Circuit for Gears of War I put myself through the wringer, spending countless hours practicing with my team, learning callouts, rotations, and perfecting mechanics to the point my thumbs hurt the next day. Playing video games is fun, but becoming one of the best takes hardcore dedication, and might as well be considered a full-time job. That’s what it takes to maintain your spot as Top 10 on the Leaderboard. Things were much different back then, and jumping into the competitive scene today is much more difficult, especially after Twitch blew the door wide open in 2011. With more people watching Esports than ever before, it polarized players to up their game and for organizations to put their money where their mouth is. With talent from all over the world springing up, standing out in a sea of aspiring professionals is far and few between. If you want to play with the best, you have to be exactly that.
So what if you’re one of those who loves Esports, but lacks the time and commitment to compete with the greats. Or maybe you are washed up from the competitive scene and want to dabble in some events here and there, like me. Fortunately, more platforms for casual gamers to get acclimated to the competitive gaming scene are popping up, which will give you experience with small events and put some money in your pocket at the same time. The winnings might not pay my mortgage, but if it fronts the bill for my late night Taco Bell cravings, bring it on.
GamerzArena is one of these platforms, focusing on a unique style of competitive play that is not utilized quite as well anywhere else. Players register by logging in via their Twitch account and are required to stream their entry live, which gives an opportunity for competition to scope out the talent before their run. Once a competition is live, they will be able to enter in as many times as they would like during the contest window. The major difference that GamerzArena brings to the table is their style of competition, with daily contests that consist of gamers engaging in leaderboard formatted contests at their own pace. To register you must be 18 years of age or older, with no location restrictions for the free entry contests. The only caveat is needing a decent internet connection to stream your gameplay, but with integrated streaming applications on consoles, it is relatively easy.
The Esports space is becoming extremely crowded, so a platform to test the waters and prepare yourself for what lies ahead is nice to see. GamerzArena hosts several free entry contests often, so make sure to stay updated on when those might occur.
While we are speaking of free contests, I might want to bring up a pretty big one. GamerzArena is hosting a $1000 Fortnite contest, where entry is based on the number of kills you get in a single game. You can only improve your score on the leaderboard. It will run from Jan 28 – Feb 4, and users will have unlimited free reentries during that time frame. The best part, it’s absolutely FREE to enter. All you have to do is go to Gamerzarena.com and register your twitch account to enter the contest. With over 6500 users registered since leaving beta last October, they are becoming a target for competitive gamers, so get in on the action while it’s hot. I’ll see you out on the field…. but I’m not good at Fortnite, so don’t worry.
