With the development of digital technology, there are many kinds of jobs which have been affected, while others have been born out of the digital economy. One of the job role affected by the digital economy is a professional electric campaigner. E-sports is also a profession, similar to non-video game competitions such as chess. Because E-sport is supported by the internet or other high-tech platform and carried out by using electronic equipment as sports equipment, it is mainly carried out by intelligent confrontation between people. With the continued progress and innovation of internet technology, it has greatly promoted the rapid development of E-sport. So E-sport did not exist before the advent of big game, and professional E-sports are new class created by the development of the digital economy.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, people from all over the world have carried our E-sport on the internet, a huge platform. And with the development of electronic technology, some large games which have been more and more popular by people. In turn, there are several large international E-sport competitions in the world. For example, WCG (World Cyber Game) in South Korea, CPL (Cyber Playing League) in the United States and E-sport World Cyber in France. In addition, the 18th Asian game in Jakarta in 2018 has to include E-sport as a performance event. The digital economy provides promoting way and platform for the E-sport, which helps E-sport develop fast.
My friend is a great gamer, he spends the amount of time playing the computer game. Once he asked me to accompany him to a tryout at a club, and I knew that there are many professional E-sport players. I had not thought anyone would play gaming their career, and it is unlikely to happen. Now, these E-sport players spend more than ten hours every day practising to improve their skills. The digital economy promotes the development of the E-sport industry, driving the rise of a number of clubs and professional leagues, and changing the development track of the E-sport industry to a large extent. With the promotion of E-sports on digital platforms, some international E-sport competitions offer huge bonuses to the winners, which encourages professional E-sports players to have enough money to support their cost. In 2015, SuperData Research estimated that the global E-sport industry generates about $748.8 million in revenue that year. Asia is the leading E-sports market with more than $321 million in revenue, compared with about $224 million in North America, $172 million in Europe and about $29 million in the rest of the world. Now E-sport is developed very well, professional E-sport players can earn a considerable income in one year after joining a professional team or club.
Due to the E-sport is a new market, surrounding the E-sport related things will emerge, such as current E-sport has formed the upstream-game makers, middle-event and club operations. The downstream-live platform game maker of industry chain holds the game version of the alternation and design of the game, at the same time, the content of the tournament to give for related authorization. The competition is the core resource of the whole E-sport industry, including the competition, club operation and commercial value development. These factors have led to the gradual professionalization and normalization of E-sport players. For example, on November 18, 2003, the general administration of the sport of China officially approved E-sport as the 99th official sports competition. In 2008, Chinese general administration of sport reclassified E-sport as No.78. The European E-sport federation was found in April 2019, the member is the UK, Belgium, Germany and other European countries.
These facts indicate that professional E-sports is becoming more and more standardized and its development has been greatly promoted. In addition, the live broadcast platform of E-sport id the communication channel to get through the content and users of E-sport, as well as the most important flow source and realization channel. The market scale of E-sport industry is still expanding, but the supply of professional talent players is insufficient, and the market is not matched with the supply. Due to the development of the digital economy, professional players have grown from nothing, from non-professional to professional. Moreover, the E-sport player is a new job, high level, high-quality E-sport players, E-sport team coach, E-sport data analysis, E-sport project sparring and other related positions are needed.
In the future, E-sport players will become more and more professional, and some institutions and even schools will be built to train E-sport players to improve the current situation which there are not enough E-sport players. Competition among competitors will also become more and more intense. Professional E-sports will increase with the more new game created. On the other hand, the E-sport players are usually between 24 and 27 years old, their careers are short. When professional E-sport players retire, their future career paths will be an issue, because playing game does not create as much value as other skills. The retired professional E-sport player is not likely to find a new job. As a result, there could be many E-sport players who are unemployed.
Reference:
Abbas, B. K., Jasim, I. A., & Nsaif, W. S. (2019). A Comparative Study of the Growth of Electronic Sports in the World and the Important Global E-Sports Achievements.
Ashton, Graham (18 April 2019). “European Esports Federation to Form With 12 National Members” Retrieved from：https://esportsobserver.com/european-esports-federation-formed/
Gaudiosi, John (28 October 2015). “Global esports revenues are nearing 2 billion”. Fortune. Retrieved from: https://fortune.com/2015/10/28/global-esports-revenues-nearing-2-billion/
Kai-ling, C. U. I. (2006). Background of e-sports industry in China [J]. Journal of Wuhan Institute of Physical Education, 8.
Myers, Maddy (8 June 2018). “New Jersey Added A Last-Minute Esports Betting Ban And No One Knows Why”. Kotaku.. Retrieved from: https://compete.kotaku.com/new-jersey-added-a-last-minute-esports-betting-ban-and-1826678155
zezhouliu112 
Excellent post! I used to play games on pc and I was very interested in E-sports. As you said E-sport is a big platform right now, however, it may be not accepted by most of the people to treat it as a career. For example, in China, most of the families feel like playing games as their child’s main career could be wasted. E-sports have been just categorized as a ”sport” in this decades. Nowadays, more and more people start to accept E-sports, especially in League of Legend, Dota 2 and CSGO. Moreover, there are more and more international matches around the world.
I agree with you that after their retirement their career will be an issue since they have spent their most valuable time (age 24-27)on gaming. After retirement, their career path might be narrow in the future. However, I think it should not be a problem if the player is famous after retirement. There are lots of cases that player who won a championship and get retired and the try to do a streamer with a solid fan base.
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That is an informative post, as it provides the importance of E-sports, and how it enables the youngster to generate some revenue. However, the life of professionals is quite short, as it not a long-term profession. Furthermore, many health issues are also associated with video gaming (https://cyberathletiks.com/top-10-negative-effects-of-gaming-esports/). Many youngsters are less interested in their studies. I think that is the major drawback of e-sport because it is an addiction when someone plays the game, he/she spend more time on gaming, instead of routine work. That is why, if someone is interested in gaming, then he/she should have a long-term journey in e-sport.
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Hi, Zezhou, I think we do not need to worry too much about E-sport players’ career path after they retire. As you have mentioned, with the continuously developing digital economy and E-sport, other job roles related to E-sports are emerging. After their retirement, they can continue to choose jobs related to E-sports, like being a coach for professional teams and operating professional E-sports competition and teams. Furthermore, video game streaming can also be regarded as an available career path. Viewers enjoy the game being played, enjoy the streamer playing the game, or want to learn how to play the game from the streamer better. Streamers can make profits from exact brands’ advertisement needs and selling related goods to viewers, including games and related devices in their videos.
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That was a wonderful post! Writer came up with many new points of view in E-sports industry. Truly, with the development in digital devices, the world can re-access the potential profit in E-sports industry. However, how to evaluate the damage it brought to us is equally crucial. As the write mentioned, the investment in forging the professional E-sports players might lead to individual success, nevertheless, how about the other players who can not fulfill their career in this industry? They spent most of their lifetime in training the specific skills, it is difficult for them to change the vision or thought to a new area. From my personal perspectives, In terms of the comprehensive development within this industry, how to balance the benefit and drawback in spending time in digital world still remained mystery.
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