Professional Gamers

 
 
 

Vocabulary

league	reaction	team-spirit
earn	shoot for	participant
legend	full-time	tournament
brain	part-time	concentration
battle	prestige	scholarship
qualify	briefing	battle it out
cope	analyze	figure out
clan	filed (2)	give their all
bask	options	figure out
focus	though	major (2)

 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

League of Legends is a popular, online game — and Christoph Seitz’ life. Better known as N-Rated, he’s under contract with SK Gaming.

It’s one of Europe’s top teams.

The German player can’t say how much he earns . . . But as a pro gamer, he does well.

It’s a full-time job with long hours.

Christoph Seitz: “I spend between 8 and 12 hours at most days. Before a major tournament though, it can get up to 14 or 16 hours.

That’s when you get the bare minimum of sleep. And you take short breaks to eat.

And apart from that, you’re playing.

You try to get to the point of perfection.”

Many players only spend a few years at the very top.

Along with team-spirit and talent, a pro-gamer needs excellent concentration skills and reaction times.

That’s also what British coach Joe Elouassi is looking for.

Joe Elouassi: “It may not sound that hard, but when you’re pressing several different buttons at once, there are several different processes going on in your brain. And you’ve got to do this for a long period of time.

So the other thing you need is a really high concentration level.”

In the US, e-games are very popular.

The Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania even offers sports scholarships to talented players.

The best are celebrated like pop stars. They take part in tournaments with participants from all around the globe.

The League of Legends Championship Series is underway right now, all around the world.

It’s the qualifier for the world championship.

Here in Berlin, the ten best European clans are battling it out.

Christoph Seitz and his international team are also here.

Their final briefing. The championship is also a matter of prestige, with prize money in the millions.

For the team, the tournament is exciting — but also stressful.

Sports psychologist Luka Shenka helps them cope with the pressure.

Lukas Schenka: “When you win, you analyze what worked; when you lose, you try to figure out why that happened too.

So part of my job is helping figuring out why things happen, in a realistic and objective way.

That gives players more control over things.”

Now the match is just a few seconds away.

Here on stage, the members of SK Gaming are giving it their all.

They’re playing in front of an audience of several hundred fans . . . but the live stream goes out to hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Christoph Seitz is basking in the victory. But at 23, he’s already one of the older players. He figures his pro career will be over in a year or two.

But he’s not worried about what the future holds.

Christoph Seitz: “I have plenty of options: I could go to university, keep working in the field or maybe work for a hardware manufacturer.

So it’s not something I’m giving a lot of thought to right now.

What I’m doing now is pretty tough and stressful. So it has to be my focus.”

For now, Christoph has his next goal in mind: he’s shooting for the world championship title with his team, later this year.

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Questions

1. People can earn (lots of) money playing computer games. Is this true or false? Can anyone have a job playing computer games?

2. Is gaming hard work, fun or both?

3. Playing League of Legend is very simple. It’s a very simple game. What do you think?

4. Do only Germans play League of Legend?

5. Only a few hundred people watch the game tournament. Is this right or wrong?

6. The championship tournament attracts only young enthusiasts. Is this correct or incorrect?

7. What happens after the players “retire” from professional gaming? Do they receive a pension?
 
 

A. Do you and your friends like to play computer games?

B. Computer games are only a stage in young people’s lives. Do you agree?

C. What can you say about the computer games industry and computer game programmers?

D. Playing computer games is becoming more and more popular. What do you think?

E. Are computer games good, bad, in-the-middle, neither or both?

F. What might happen in the future?