Esports in Australia: How gamers are turning their passion for play into rich sporting careers

ELITE Aussie athletes are forging sporting careers from playing video games, and the rewards are greater than you might expect.

Professional gamer Tyler Reilly, who captains the Chiefs Esports Club, has a game of CounterStrike: Global Offensive in his Bendigo home. Picture: Rob Leeson

TYLER ‘Tucks’ Reilly clocks on for his job at 3pm each day, settling in for an intense seven-hour work shift with colleagues based around Australia and New Zealand.

It’s a demanding role for the 21-year-old but one that comes with increasing financial rewards and significant perks, including regular overseas and interstate travel.

But the biggest perk of all is that he’s following his passion, playing his favourite video game with friends against opponents from around the world.

Mr Reilly, from Bendigo, captains the Chiefs Esports Club for Counter-Strike: Global Offensivetournaments and he’s climbing the ranks of Australia’s esports elite.

He’s currently Australia’s 45th top esports athlete, with prizemoney of more than $17,000, and sponsorship from companies including Logitech, NVIDIA, and Zowie.

Professional gamer Tyler Reilly’s CounterStrike team competed in last year’s Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Sydney. Picture: Rob Leeson

But Mr Reilly said his parents didn’t fully understand his career at first, even though they gave him space to pursue it.

“They love it now because I’ve done quite well for myself,” he said.

“At the start, they were sort of on the fence, they weren’t too supportive but they let me go and try it. Now they can see I’ve done well and I get to travel for free, which is massive bonus.”

Mr Reilly has already competed in New York this year, following team tours of South Korea and Singapore in 2017, and his biggest winning haul yet.

And that tally could increase significantly this year with a host of events planned for Australia, many offering prizemoney befitting the increasingly popular and professional competition.

Scenes from the Intel Extreme Masters Counter Strike: Global Offensive competition held in Sydney in 2017. The competition will return to Australia in 2018 with a $US250,000 prize pool.

“The prize pools are growing a lot. Just at Australian events, the minimum would be $20,000 a season, and it’s quite top-heavy as well so the winners will get a lot of that,” he said.

“It’s going to keep growing in Australia in 2018, and even in 2017 the ball really started to roll, especially getting the Intel Extreme Masters to Australia.”

Australia’s highest ranked esports players now rake in significant sums. The country’s richest esports athlete, Sydney-based Dota 2 player Damien Chok, boasts career prizemoney of more than $1.4 million, including more than $940,000 earned last year alone.

Second-place Australian Anathan Pham earned more than $600,000 from 15 Dota 2 tournaments, including more than $360,000 last year, or almost six times the average annual wage.

These winnings do not come easily, of course, and are often claimed on the international stage.

Mr Reilly and his colleagues not only practice from 3pm to 10pm each day, but they participate in regular boot camp training sessions in a dedicated Sydney gaming house where training is set to a schedule and includes gym sessions in addition to time refining strategies.

Australians face geographical disadvantages, Mr Reilly said, and can only really compete against the top players in Europe, America, or even Asia by travelling to those countries to eliminate internet delays.

But he said having more Australian esports players touring internationally was improving the Australian competition.

“I think this is the year you’ll see at least one or two Australian teams break through on the world stage and put up really good results,” Mr Reilly said.

Originally published as Esports in Australia: How gamers are turning their passion for play into rich sporting careers