Sean Gares is getting ready to leave his Tustin apartment to catch a 2 p.m. flight out of LAX to Germany.
For the next 10 days, the 27-year-old will test his skills against Europe’s elite players in a boot-camp-like setting as his squad preps for tournaments against the world’s finest strategists.
Gares is a chess player of sorts, but his game isn’t played on a checkered board.
It’s leading his team on the battlefields of “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” a first-person shooter game popular on the eSports pro circuit.
“Counter-Strike”
A typical match lasts one hour and is separated by 15 rounds of offense and 15 rounds of defense.
A round is won on the offensive side when a team kills the other team’s players, plants a bomb, and detonates it. On the defensive side, a round is won by killing the other team and defusing the bomb.
Germany is the latest in a string of tour stops Gares and his Cloud9 teammates have taken in the past two months that include London; Cologne, Germany; Montreal; Valencia, Spain; Columbus, Ohio; and Burbank.
“Our summer schedule has been ridiculous,” says Gares, who’s known as “sg@res” to his more than 60,000 social media followers.
Chalk it up to the daily grind of life as a professional video game player on one of the top “Counter-Strike” teams in the world.
That involves juggling sponsorship appearances, media interviews, daily scrimmages, streaming sessions—and a girlfriend.
But the job pays well.
Cloud9, comprised of five players from California, Iowa, Texas and Canada, has taken home more than $50,000 on the recent tour, missing out on the top prize in a few tournaments.
Sanctioned competitions for “Counter-Strike” aren’t the big moneymakers, though.
“The tournament money itself isn’t as much as other sources,” says Gares, who earned a medicinal biochemistry degree from Arizona State University and briefly attended pharmacy school at Xavier University in New Orleans before turning his full attention to gaming.
The big money comes from sponsorships, merchandising, and online subscriptions, with fans throwing down real cash to get a little closer to their star competitors.
Fountain Valley-based Kingston Technology Inc., the world’s largest provider of consumer electronic memory products, has sponsored Cloud9 since June 2013 under its HyperX brand of gaming accessories. The club, which also includes Logitech, g2a.com, HTC, Intel, and Nvidia among major backers, has its own uniforms emblazoned with brand logos, no different than NASCAR drivers and linksmen on the PGA tour.
San Francisco-based twitch.tv, the world’s largest live-streaming site for game content, attracts more than 100 million monthly visitors and is a big income generator for eSports players. It’s not uncommon for Gares’ teammates to pull in $250,000 to $300,000 a year through the site on top of their sanctioned game winnings.
Fans can cut through the clutter of continuous posts from fellow followers during gameplay exhibitions by simply making a “donation,” allowing themselves to stand out from the crowd with a pop-up message.
Gares’ largest donation to date was $2,000, a handsome sum, for sure, but nothing compares to the tip jar amassed by teammate Ryan Abadir, who goes by the screen name “fREAKAZOID.”
“All of us have crazy donations, but he’s had a donor give well over $20,000,” says Gares, who’s competed professionally for about two years.
The team will soon meet that mystery backer from the United Arab Emirates during their trip to Dubai for the ESL ESEA Pro League Invitational from Sept. 10 to 12, when six teams will compete for the lion’s share of $250,000.
Abadir’s twitch site charges subscribers a monthly $4.99 fee to watch him take down other “Counter-Strike” competitors and offer tips and advice. The site has more than 81,000 followers.
ESports gamers also earn side cash during tournament play when fans buy $1 “stickers” to accessorize in-game characters; pro players’ electronic signatures; and digital clothing, weapons and other in-game accessories.
Gares, who’s on the tail end of his professional career, figures he has a few more good years left in him before retirement. Most players start out in their early 20s and bow out in their late 20s because of the time intensity and life changes.
And he’s already preparing his next move.
“I want to have my own company. I want to have products within the gaming scene. I want to move on to the next adventure in my career.”
