Life as an E-Sports Player

E-Sports is a fairly new phenomenon that combines the competitive structure of regular sport competitions like tennis and soccer, with video games. It’s slowly growing and young people are quickly jumping onto the scene. Luke ‘Subfloor’ Gougeon is a young, fresh E-sports player who competitively plays SMITE, a multiplayer online battle arena game.

Only entering the competitive scene last year, Luke’s already a part of three different E-sports teams, entered a multitude of competitions and has sunk over 2100 hours into the one game! Jessica Mercieca sat down to talk to the gamer about his gaming career.

Q. How did video games first enter your life?

A. Video games started for me when I got an Xbox for Christmas, I think I was 6 or 7. Quite a long time ago.

Q. So how did you see video games as you were a kid and a teenager. Where they just a simple hobby or something more important?

A. Nah, I just had a casual interest in games for years. Sometimes I was really into them and other times I fell off and couldn’t be bothered. It was just something I did for fun.

Q. So what made you plunge into competitive gaming?

A. I just enjoyed one game for a long enough to become really good at it. Played enough hours to rise in the ranks.

Q. What was your first experience playing video games as an e-sport?

A. I played in some community tournaments around the start of last year and then I qualified for the pro league around February in, I think.

Q. How much time did you spend preparing for these community tournaments and what did you do to get better at the game? Did you have to travel to these events and how many people would compete?

A. The community tournaments were just one day round robin type things, online, and at that point the competitive scene wasn’t really fleshed out so I’d just warm up with a couple of games before.

When I began in the pro league, we would scrim other teams for maybe 20-25 hours a week to practice, on top of just recreational playing. There were 8 teams with 5 players each, and at the end of the season (last October) we travelled to Melbourne to compete in the LAN finals against the other top four teams.

Q. Right now how are you treating being an e-sports player? Do you consider it as a career path or are you focusing on other things?

A. I’m sticking with it on the chance that it could turn into a full time job; similar to how it is for American or European players, however it doesn’t prevent me from working part time jobs and exploring other opportunities. If sometime down the road I have to make a choice between e-sports or conventional work, I’ll choose whichever option is paying the best.

Q. So how does your usual week go? How many hours do you train, work or study? How do you balance an e-sports lifestyle while still earning enough money to live?

A. Most of my days are split into work during the day and practice during the night. I have a couple of part time jobs during the week otherwise I’m just at home practicing or writing. I live at home so I don’t need to be working full time to stay afloat financially and combined with saving winnings from tournaments I’m managing alright. Practice hours fluctuate, some nights it can be one hour, others up to four.

Q. Video games have a strong social stigma around them regarding health. How do you take care of yourself and do you have health concerns?

A. Yeah obviously I hear a lot about the health concerns around it all and it always makes me think about the people working desk jobs doing generally the same thing. Many people who work public service spend their entirety of the day sitting and looking at a screen.

I do most of the obvious stuff that anyone working with a computer is taught. Get up and walk around every hour, look at different things around your environment every once in a while to refocus your eyes. It’s pretty simple stuff. And as for the bigger health concerns I generally manage to workout three times a week, on top of general out and about activity and going to work, so I’m not worried about personal fitness.

Probably the one area I fall short in is eyesight, I’ve never had any problems with my vision so I’ve never had my eyes tested, meaning I’m probably due for a set of glasses any day now.

Q. Lastly, what would be your advice for people trying to enter the competitive scene?

A. Umm, move to a bigger market like North America or Europe. *laughs* Nah, but I’d say you have to be good to start, which means playing a lot. If there’s a ranked system in your game, try to climb the ranks and get noticed by other good players/teams. Or, just team up with your friends and enter as many tournaments as possible, because any experience is good experience. Like with most things, if you stick at it long enough you’ll eventually make it.