The Supergamers

This programme contains some strong language.

-COMMENTATOR:

-'Welcome back to the European LCS.

'The teams are getting set for battle.'

Welcome to the world of professional video games.

-ALL:

-DOUBLE KILL!

It's called eSports.

'He gets caught on the fence.

'Pounces, taking both players.'

Every day, all over Europe, the world's best gamers are competing,

and hundreds of thousands of people are watching.

It's a world that's closed off from large parts of society.

People who don't understand eSports are the same people

who don't use the scroll wheel on a mouse,

they just hold the side and scroll it down.

But its biggest games are watched live by 30 million people.

This could be the first kill in Sweden

And Vizicsacsi is roasted by Odoamne!

Well, to anyone asking questions like,

"When is eSports going to get big? Will it ever be mainstream?"

Look at this. It's like a football stadium.

CHEERING

I'm Dan Howell, and I'm a YouTuber.

Gaming is one of my specialities,

and I want to know the secrets of this world.

CHEERING

This is it, this is it! Yeah, come on! Come on!

I've spent the summer with three British eSports players,

all at different stages of their careers.

An overnight sensation who's got something to prove...

KaSing saves H2k once more.

As a personal achievement, I think it's worth it.

But, to others, it's like, yeah, he's still playing a video game.

I'm going in, going in, going in.

..a big name of the past fighting to regain his status as a champion...

It's always the same.

We played every fight wrong for the entire mid-game. We still do it.

I just want to get back to competing,

I want to play against teams that I look up to.

..and a young hopeful, still at school,

who is willing to give anything to make it.

This year, I think his grades have suffered a little

because of...his other commitments.

That's my goal, actually, just to win one event,

just to tell me that I'm really good at the game

and, like, I can do this in the future.

I want to know the inside story of eSports -

how it's gone from an underground hobby

to a multi-million-pound world,

and what sacrifices you must make to become an elite professional gamer.

I'd say, out of my total free time,

a strong 99% is spent playing video games.

In fact, let me type /age. On this game, I have apparently played...

Oh, my God! ..1,855 hours,

which is either quite depressing or impressive,

depending on what side of the fence you're on.

I have been a gamer all of my life,

but I am nothing compared to the new generation of professional players,

who have dedicated their lives to become the best in the world.

Now gamers like me don't just play for hours,

we watch for hours, too.

I watch quite a lot of games that I like, sat here in the chair,

watching it streamed on the internet.

There's so much about it I don't know.

How does someone actually become an eSports player?

What do they do with their time? How does anyone get any money?

Is it a safe thing to do with your life?

Something that I'm interested in,

that I would like to know a lot more about.

OK. This is it.

CHEERING

-COMMENTATOR:

-Coming to you live from Berlin, Germany,

where our teams are getting set for battle

as we continue Week Seven of the Summer Split.

I've come to Berlin in Germany

to see the world of professional gaming at its highest level.

There's going to be enough people there, and the Baron goes down.

Secured this time by ROCCAT.

This game is League Of Legends.

Here, it's a spectator sport,

filled with action designed to thrill a crowd.

I'm used to seeing it online,

with the other 100 million people who watch it every year,

but this is the first time I've been part of the live audience.

Come on, come on.

Now I've got a chance to spend some time with three British players

so that I can find what they're risking for this career,

and what rewards it brings.

And ROCCAT have taken out H2k.

Oh, no! No!

This is Ray Tsang.

He is a rising star, known in the eSports world as KaSing.

He is 22, and from North London.

He plays the number one game, League Of Legends,

in the crucial role of Support.

He's helped his team, H2k, rise to third in the league.

And his dream is to make it to the World Finals.

KaSing was bought up as one of three brothers in Tottenham,

where he has is real-life friends from school and college.

At 19, KaSing made a big decision,

to dedicate himself to eSports, against the wishes of his parents.

-First of all, I wanted to go pro, even whilst I was in college.

-Yeah.

Like, in second year, just wanted to do this.

Cos I didn't think I wanted to live a normal life

where I have a job from nine to five, and not enjoy it at all.

You had to prove to yourself that it was worth taking this risk,

at the same time that your parents

weren't really encouraging you to do it. That must have been...

In a way, if you can go through this barrier

where even if you're not getting any help or support,

and if you have the fortitude or mentality to just ignore it

and just continue and do what you want,

I think this is one of the most important things you can ever have

in League Of Legends. Like, you need a strong mind.

THEY SING IN GERMAN

All the elite League Of Legends teams have to live in Berlin

as a condition of taking part in the top division.

They eat, sleep and train here in gaming houses.

This is the training camp of the League Of Legends team H2k.

It's where they practice for 12 hours every day.

I know this game. I've played league of Legends,

but I can't even keep track of what's happening on the screen.

I mean, that's the difference in skill.

The keyboard dexterity you need to be this good

is a form of athleticism.

How can you deny that? Are you looking?

KaSing's meteoric rise from a mid-ranking player to a star

is one of the stories of the season.

Usually, a standard day would be, like, three till six, one set.

You'd have a break for one hour, for lunch and stuff, until seven.

-From seven to ten, you have another set.

-Wow.

And then, after 10, till 11, you have analysis.

And then, after that, when it becomes 11 and then 12,

you always tend to be in one more game.

So then, after 12, you can do what you want.

CHEERING

League Of Legends is the titan of the competitive gaming world,

and the biggest name in eSports.

It's played by five-man teams,

each with their own tactical role in the match.

The aim is to battle across the virtual field

and destroy the opponents' home base, called the Nexus.

H2k, they want to finish right now.

The premier division of League Of Legends

is the Championship Series, or LCS.

It's made of ten European teams, who compete every week in Berlin.

Fighting for a place

in the end-of-season Playoffs in Stockholm,

to qualify for the World Championships.

The current salary, that's around 25k for six months.

-And I think that's pretty decent, actually.

-Yeah!

Like, that's like 50k in one year.

Riot Games, the company that created League Of Legends,

gives a salary to every player in the top division.

Their teams and sponsorships pay on top of that,

and then there are bonuses.

Like, also added onto that, you also have Playoffs

and where you finish in Playoffs, you get money on top,

which is bonus money.

-And if you make it to Worlds, that's where the big money is.

-Mm-hm.

Remember when we had two waves pushing, and we got punished for it?

This is when we need to punish them.

It's time for post-match analysis.

Where, apparently, getting dressed is optional.

They'll spend two hours dissecting every move in their last game

with their coach, a former player known in the community as PR0LLY.

If we freeze here. Here, they have to overextend all the way here.

Before KaSing joined them six months ago, H2k were struggling.

Now they're third in the league.

People have called this the KaSing Effect.

'I think the KaSing Effect...'

THEY LAUGH

..as silly as it sounds, it really is...

I would summarise it just kind of as like the missing element

to a group of things.

In our case, it was like our four-man team.

So this is actually a mistake on their part.

Because they had two waves pushing again.

Like, remember we had two waves pushing, and we got punished for it?

This is when we need to punish them.

These guys are superstars in their own right

but even on a rare night off, they can't afford to go too wild.

You guys don't really drink excessively that often,

-though, do you?

-I did it twice my entire time here.

-Yeah.

And I've always felt like shit the next day.

-So, basically, I won't get good practice.

-Yeah.

And I pretty much ruined two days for myself.

Serious business, professional gaming.

Surprisingly, it really is.

Like, if you think about it, all the other nerds in the world

that ready want to make it are all competing for your job.

So you actually are always being tested. Every single week is a test.

The gaming house in Berlin reminds me of a student flat,

shared between the five players, the coach and the manager.

And even with a big game today, the team doesn't get up till 12.

So I'm back in the pad and, as you can see,

I am surrounded by all the essentials

that you need to be a pro gamer -

pizza, crisps and bags of mini muffins.

It is very much a gaming house.

I think that someone got through quite a few of those last night.

What are they up late doing last night?

Just practising for the big game today?

That's what they tell you,

but I think more kind of the teenage/young adult, rebellious,

"You don't tell me when to go to bed,

"I go to bed when I'm ready" kind of thing.

And then wake up feeling like rubbish the next day.

Like every professional sports club, they need a Chief Executive.

Richard Wells is only 24.

He took over H2k last year when they were struggling,

and has put all of his savings into turning the team around.

Do you feel like managing the guys day-to-day

is like being a teacher at school? Getting them to do things on time,

turning up, doing the work when you say?

Or are they, you know, independent young adults?

100% like school.

We get taxis because, God forbid, they'd walk 20 minutes to work.

We get taxis every day. Which, yeah, is just like a school bus.

Which is always nip and tuck if they're going to make it on time.

They'd stay in bed all day if they could.

So it takes, you know, the parental figure

to drag them out every day

and, yeah, it couldn't be more like school, really.

KaSing is preparing for the biggest match of the season.

It could be his ticket to the World Finals.

'Right now, it's like I want to 100% focus

'on just trying get to Worlds, and we can't afford to slack now,

'until after the entire Worlds is finished.'

Do you feel like you have to make it to Worlds

-to feel like it's been worth it?

-You know...

I mean, it's just want to make it to Worlds and then I can say that.

-Yeah.

-But right now it's like...

My only motivation right now is just to go to Worlds,

so that's what keeps me waking up every day, practising, doing this.

Mm-hm. Yeah.

These are the TV studios used by Riot Games,

the giant gaming company that owns League Of Legends.

The company makes 1 billion a year from the game,

and supports leagues in four major territories across the globe.

Every week, crowds can pay 15 euros a ticket

to be part of the studio audience.

So the hat's a character from the game.

It's called Rammus, and it's one of many hats that you can actually get.

And what does it mean to you to have this hat on your head?

To show my support for the game

-and to look like an absolute fool in front of everybody.

-Good.

-Do you guys think he's doing a good job of that?

-Yeah, yeah.

I watch the LCS on the stream, I'm like crying,

I'm like, "Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!"

So it's very exciting.

I don't like the other celebrities in the world,

so these are pretty much my heroes.

ARE YOU READY?

CHEERING

ONE! TWO! THREE!

CHEERING

-COMMENTATOR:

-'As you can see,

'the crowd is absolutely hyped for a big day.

'Earlier, we caught a glimpse of everyone outside.'

Today could be a big step in H2k's season.

A win could mean a place for them at the Playoffs in Stockholm.

But they are up against their biggest rivals, Fnatic,

the undefeated team at the top of the league.

OK, good luck, guys.

This studio is absolutely insane.

I had no idea the production value was this big.

I mean, look at these screens, look at all the technology, the crowd.

It's like any major sport,

with commentators, analysts and big TV money.

H2k want to stop Fnatic short.

The audience, by the time teams reach the World Final,

is over 30 million people.

They're loading onto the Rift.

The match is on.

It's going good. H2k started off pretty awesomely

by instantly killing two members of Fnatic,

and the whole crowd chanted, "H2k! H2k!"

Huni's in trouble. He gets knocked on.

LAUGHING: Oh, yes!

He puts the equaliser out. Reignover's leaped back in.

KaSing is channelling...

It looked like Odoamne was totally about to die

and then KaSing came out of nowhere and obliterated him.

-KaSing saves H2k.

-CROWD ROARS

That the sound of the KaSing Effect right there.

H2k's strategy has been working up to now.

But Fnatic are coming back.

Fnatic have four kills, looking for the ace...

CHEERING

Momentum has very much to started to shift in Fnatic's favour.

-Four members of H2k are down.

-Uh-oh.

But it's Fnatic that end up winning.

H2k have thrown the match away.

Oh, God. It was so close, as well.

Like, seriously, anything can happen in this game.

It can go so well at the start and then you lose one fight

and the whole thing is over.

HE SIGHS

It is a good sport to watch.

Yeah, today was quite painful, to be honest. Actually, er...

..I'm quite annoyed right now. But I'm not going to show it.

Does it mean more to you now that you've lost, coming out of it,

then you thought the game would mean to you going in to it?

Think it's more that, like, if we had gotten stomped,

I wouldn't be as mad or anything, or annoyed.

But it's more that we threw away the lead that we made.

Pretty much, we outplayed ourselves.

The players have sacrificed years of their lives to this game.

They know if they fail they could be dropped from the team.

I do feel for these guys, you know.

This is what they spend their entire existences dedicated to doing.

Especially when they lose something that they know they should have won.

HE SIGHS

I can understand why, you know, they've gone from, you know,

struggling to get out of bed to being excited all day

to just being...angry.

Cos this is how important it is for them -

it's not a game, it's their life.

I'm on my way to meet another British player

who has also played at the top, but is now struggling to find his form

in a team that is languishing in the second division.

This is Matt Taylor,

aka Impaler.

He is now 20 years old.

He also plays League Of Legends, and he has spent two years as a pro,

most recently with a new European team, Ex Nihilo.

From when I wake up, I'll just go straight on to my computer,

play until I need to eat.

I'll shower and then eat while I'm drying.

So, like, maximise all the time I can have to spend on League.

And I'll play, like, 16, 17 hours in a day,

and then, like, sleep and do it again.

Impaler accepts the sacrifices eSports demands.

Including unwritten rules about girls.

Just don't have a girlfriend.

Like, it's not good for you, it's not good for them. It's just like...

Nobody this age can understand

how much time and effort you have to put into this.

Impaler was brought up here in Taunton.

Ironically for a gamer, much of his time was spent outdoors.

I've always been brought up playing games.

Mainly played simple things like football,

chase, whatever you want to call it.

And I'd go out with my friends, play manhunt in the park,

chase each other around.

Four of you would get caught and one of you would be left hiding.

So five people are looking for you and then what you've got to do

is you've got to get to the bench, or the jail,

and free all your team-mates and it all starts again.

But you'd have to do it while running as fast as you can,

you'd come through this corner,

you'd jump from, like, here to down here.

Yeah, got a lot of fond memories from here.

I guess when I was in primary school and I'd sit behind my brother,

watching him, and occasionally I'd get a few hours

where I could play, when he was doing other things.

It rapidly became clear that Impaler was an exceptional player.

He moved on to League Of Legends

and, by his first year of university,

he broke through to the big time.

It was one game. There was so much on one game,

because if we win the game, we're in.

If we lose the game, we're out.

And we win fairly convincingly.

And I get up in a state of shock, like,

"Wait, what does this mean, like, for me?"

And I go into my parents' room, and I'm like, "I'm moving to Germany."

And she just looks at me, like, "What about uni?"

And that's where it all changed.

Impaler played in the influential position of Jungler,

and was regarded as one of the best on the circuit.

He was part of a dynamic young team called Super Hot Crew,

and played alongside his friend, KaSing.

We were, like, a really cool and young team.

I don't know, that was kind of like our brand.

People would, like, bring us in stuff.

One time, a group of girls brought in Super Hot Crew underwear,

with the logo printed on it, and, like, made us wear them.

After that, I joined Coast.

And that was an American team, so I lived in Santa Monica.

It was really weird to me -

you could just go outside and pick orange and, yeah...

I don't know, man.

His current lower league team, Ex Nihilo,

has to manage without the luxury of a gaming house.

It's a big come-down.

Cos once you've done something, and had a taste of what could be,

then you just want that so much more.

I just want to get back to competing.

I want to play on a stage,

and I want to play against, like, teams that I look up to.

And, right now, I just don't really get that.

The Challenger series is the League Of Legends second division,

below the LCS.

The league matches are online, but the teams are nomadic,

hopping around Europe to play showcase tournaments.

They could be in a different city every week of the season.

This week it's Ghent in Belgium.

Ex Nihilo, currently bottom of the Challenger league,

are on their way here for a weekend tournament.

Bring it in. I don't care, bring it in.

How you doing?

The team is meeting up at the city's stadium.

Players have come here to compete

for a first prize of 10,000 euros.

Ex Nihilo is set to play the Challenger league leaders,

the British Team Dignitas, in the first round.

It's one of Impaler's former teams,

coached by an old American rival, Brokenshard.

Hey, how you doing?

It's polite to say hello, you know, before you fuck someone.

HE LAUGHS

Well, experienced, maybe - they're four ex-LCS players,

they should have the experience, but it seems that the synergy isn't quite there yet.

Some of us junglers took the hint

and retired while they were ahead.

And some of us junglers are four and 0

when the others are 0 and four.

It's just banter. It's just banter.

You're not funny, man.

It'll be funny when we beat you next game.

I'm going to come over and see your face.

There are definitely bragging rights at stake here,

but more than that, a win could be a turning point

for Ex Nihilo's lacklustre season.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Here we go. Here's the Ghost.

Pops that Cleanse for five men in the mid lane.

Bam, bam, bam, bam.

And Ex Nihilo Ex-nihilate.

The match has started well for Ex Nihilo.

Here we go. Twisted Fate's got to get on.

Look at that, she's gone down, and it won't be enough...

Impaler calls the shots for the rest of the team.

Drain in two minutes, OK? We make our next play a Drain.

I've always had fun, like, beating people at things. I don't know.

It's just part of who I am, and I enjoy competitions.

And look at how quickly she goes down!

Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!

Eventually you get to the point where you start getting good.

That fight was entirely Impaler.

This is upset Saturday here at eSports Festival in Ghent.

Fuck, yeah.

Finally.

After all the pain and hard work,

Ex Nihilo has squeezed a win.

Dig are the best Challenger team right now,

so it feels so good to beat them,

and we have to play them last out of all the Challenger series.

So this is a good morale boost as well for the team,

and it's a good showing that we can actually beat the best team.

Unfortunately, there are no league points

up for grabs at this tournament.

Ex Nihilo are still firmly rooted at the bottom of the table.

Their confidence is still fragile.

And their planning is chaotic.

We need to decide what we're playing against the other teams,

cos we still don't really know what we're doing.

The team haven't even got a hotel for the night,

so they're off in search of a bed.

So we're just wandering aimlessly right now.

That is the eSports way of doing things, I guess.

This new team is kind of... It's a bit adventurous,

we're just trying to figure out something that works, and right now we're struggling a lot.

The team's manager is currently in Egypt,

there's no coach with them,

the team shirts haven't even arrived.

Where's he going?

And players know they are disposable if things don't work out.

Are we in? We're in.

'It's really important to have motivated people who want to win.'

There's always going to be someone hungrier than you, who really wants to get into the scene,

and you have to prove that you're better than them.

Sleep here.

It's a precarious life with few success stories.

I don't even have a pillow.

'I think someone worked out the statistics, but there's more chance

'of getting into Harvard than getting into a pro-gaming career.'

I'm really not sure what I want to do any more.

I'm considering multiple things - I can continue playing,

I can swap games, I can look for a new team.

I'm taking some time to re-evaluate everything,

but right now I'm not sure what I want to do.

Despite their surprise victory,

the tournament is not going well for Ex Nihilo.

They've lost half of their games.

If they don't win the next one, they're out.

This is, like, make or break for me, for this team.

If things don't go well here,

then I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to start again from scratch.

Let's go. Fuck it. 4v4. Let's go.

Come, come, come.

I'm going in, I'm going in, I'm going in.

Ex Nihilo are losing.

Their brief morale boost has evaporated

and they're back to square one.

Holy fuck.

It's always the same.

Like, we played every fight wrong for the entire mid game again.

Going for the back line there, we still do it.

We're playing two hyper carries. Just hit the fucking front line.

Wait for Last Whisper and then hit front line. It's that simple.

Good game.

Good game, buddy.

I have nothing more to say.

That's it.

Impaler is less certain of his future than ever.

This is the other side of the eSports dream.

It's all glitz and glory on the stage,

but clearly it can be emotionally devastating

because of how much they all sacrifice just to get to that point.

All of the time, all of the hard work,

everything that they gave up to pursue a career in eSports.

And you know, it makes me wonder,

if these guys are the 0.1%

that actually make it as pros,

what happens to the rest?

To find out, I've come to the middle of Sweden

to look for the passionate players

who could be the next generation of eSports stars.

Hey!

10,000 gamers are dragging their computers

into an underworld of convention halls.

This is DreamHack, Europe's biggest video-games festival

and a breeding ground for young players

ready to start their journey into the competitive world.

How many thousands of people actually bring their desktop PCs

from home just to connect them

to one of the world's fastest internet connections for a weekend?

I mean, it sounds a bit nerdy, but as someone that doesn't have

enough friends to play games with by themselves at home,

this is like a dream for me.

They bring pillows and sleeping bags for power naps...

..before they start again, fuelled by burgers and energy drinks.

What kind of imagery does this conjure up for you?

It's like walking through a market in Marrakech or something, isn't it?

Or some kind of weird future in The Matrix, like a postapocalypse

where everybody's just hackers in a weird brown room.

It's a land of competition and fantasy,

a paradise for teenage gamers.

I'm sure many of these guys dream of becoming pros,

but do they know the sacrifices that come with that decision?

I'm here to find a young British gamer

who's trying to break through in the eSports world.

This is his first full season as a professional.

This is James Luo,

gaming name Greensheep.

He is 17 years old and still at school.

He specialises in a virtual card game called Hearthstone.

He is part of the biggest British eSports group, Team Dignitas.

His dream is to win a major tournament.

-Hi, so, Greensheep?

-Yeah.

-Nice to meet you.

So also known in real life as...

-James.

-And where are you from?

I'm from Blackpool in England.

James from Blackpool, and here you are in Sweden

-at a gaming tournament.

-Yeah.

-So are your parents and school happy with it as long as it doesn't clash with the education?

-Yeah.

Stereotypically, the Chinese parents want you to have, like,

-a stable job.

-An education, yeah.

-A really stable job like a doctor or a lawyer.

So they weren't really happy about me going into gaming at first,

because they didn't know where the money was coming from. Like, it's not stable.

You might win a tournament today, you might lose one tomorrow. You don't know how much you earn a year.

I believe.

Greensheep was spotted by Team Dignitas when he was only 16,

and became part of their 50-player squad.

This year has been hard.

He's been concentrating on his AS levels

for the past three months, and he's had no wins.

He needs to do well at DreamHack,

but things aren't going to plan.

-His hand's pretty bad.

-Yeah?

Greensheep has lost his first game.

Wasn't good.

That was the exact cards he needed to win. Like, no other way.

He needs to win the next round without conceding,

but he misses an easy chance.

Greensheep has crashed out of the tournament on day one,

and he's desperate to improve.

In the ultra-big-time, I have to promote myself a lot

to show people that I'm actually a really good player,

and show not just the UK players, UK people,

but everyone around the world that I'm actually good at the game

and that I can succeed.

The game he plays is called Hearthstone,

a one-on-one strategic duel

with magic spells and epic heroes

that can be summoned to defeat the opponent.

Think professional poker meets Pokemon cards.

Greensheep at 17 already knows

that making it in eSports demands a lot of time.

It could destroy his chances of getting good A-level results

and his prospects at university.

Do you think you have what it takes to make it as an eSports star?

I reckon if I go full time, and, like, proper go for it

and practise as much as I can,

then I can make more consistent results,

even get some tournament wins in there.

With the passion that I have and the dedication

and hard work I'm willing to give, I think I can make it.

But these aren't easy choices for young, aspiring players.

Combining such an obsessive sport with schooling is a big risk.

Ying Ying is a 26-year-old postgrad student from Manchester.

She and her partner Anthony are visiting

an exhibition of retro games.

They live and breathe video gaming.

She has long-term ambitions to become a professional gamer,

but she is only just realising what it takes.

I didn't appreciate it when I was younger,

how much time you're meant to be putting to a game

and all the effort that you put in, all the research you go into.

A lot of work needs to be put in to do well.

Ying Ying also plays Hearthstone,

under the gamer's name Munchkin.

She has seen how risky young players' choices can be.

With eSports in particular, they tend to recruit very young players.

So there are players

where they start off really young, go professional,

and they've come out -

maybe they've retired, maybe they decided not to play,

maybe they've not performed as well and then got dropped by the team -

and when they come out into everyday life, well,

they turn out to be... You know, they have no qualification,

they can't get anywhere, they're back to square one.

Munchkin's own gaming plans are on hold

until she has finished her PhD.

But it's a tough decision, as most players

start to lose reaction speed by the age of 22.

I had a discussion with my partner, actually -

like, if we had kids and stuff and we had, you know...

the kids wanted to go into professional gaming,

what would you say?

And there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it,

and if it's affecting your education, then the answer is no.

I'm starting to think that it is almost impossible

to succeed in eSports and education at the same time.

It's a week after DreamHack,

and I'm on my way to seek out Greensheep again

at his home town of St Annes near Blackpool.

His grades have suffered because of the time spent gaming.

In November, some of you might be sitting the entrance exam

for either Oxford or Imperial.

It's the same exam paper for both, so we're going to be looking today

at some of the questions in that paper.

F of X is X squared. G of X is two X plus three. H of X is seven...

Hearthstone is based on mathematical skill and strategy.

Plus 11 rather than X, what effect does that have?

You're squaring it, you're timesing it by three...

Greensheep was an A* student in maths

before he began serious gaming.

Coming into this year, he got an A* in his GCSE.

It was a very comfortable A*.

If you realise you can split these into twos and threes...

'This year, I think his grades have suffered a little

'because of his other commitments.'

Do you think that he is making the right decisions?

Committing all of his time to something

that he's clearly very talented at and passionate about,

but do you think that it's maybe not a great idea?

I don't have his official results for this year,

but in his mock exams, he didn't do very well.

He didn't justify his undoubted natural ability in his mock exams.

He's either got to decide he's going to park Hearthstone for a year,

really focus on his A levels next year,

and he can still come out of here with some very good A levels,

get offers at universities, or effectively to defer next year

and do it all again in a future year.

Most gamers reach their peak as teenagers...

I nearly lost it. I was like...

..and have to contend with the pressures of full-time education.

Greensheep has already taken quite a lot of time off school

to go to tournaments.

Next Saturday I'll be in France.

Lyon.

Do you ever start to doubt it,

when you're kind of out of the scene for a long period of time?

Well, I've thought about this a lot.

Every night I think about it - am I actually choosing the right path?

Should I be playing so much Hearthstone,

or should I just quit, should I go to university?

When I'm at home, and I see these events that I'm not at,

I just... It just, like, drives me

to perform better, to qualify for the next event,

to actually win an event. Cos that's my goal, actually.

Just to win one event.

It might be, like, one, it might be many,

but just one to start with,

to tell me that I'm really good at the game,

and that I can do this in the future,

and that I'm not wasting my life

and not wasting my opportunities that people have given to me.

You've got to appreciate where his parents and teachers are coming from,

that he's just, you know, a smart kid

that could become a doctor or a lawyer,

and instead he wants to go and do this gaming thing.

I mean, I relate, cos I'm the guy that dropped out of law school

at university to become a full-time YouTube videomaker,

so if anyone can relate to the hard decisions and the weird job

that the grandparents don't understand, it's me.

Despite the precariousness of the career,

there is no shortage of would-be professional gamers.

I've come to a gaming pub in north London.

There's no reason that watching people play video games

doesn't have to be a social activity.

Believe it or not, two thirds of adults in Britain

say they play video games,

and plenty of them have either competed or would like to.

So I think all of these people here are actually watching those people

sat right there playing against each other,

having their own very, very, very mini eSports tournaments

in their own bar.

This is weekly.

This is a weekly thing. This isn't a special event or anything -

this is something that happens weekly. The atmosphere is wonderful.

Yeah, I feel the people who don't understand eSports

are the same people who don't use the scroll wheel on a mouse.

They just hold the side and scroll it down.

If they don't get it, they just don't accept it, really,

and I feel that's what eSports is at the moment. They're like,

"Well, I don't get it, so I'm just going to not like it."

Lots of people love gaming together, but we don't really...

-You know, it's nothing new. People had Lan parties before.

-Yeah.

Just now, there's a place where it's not shameful,

kind of like hiding behind your computer.

No, it's really social.

I've seen for myself the growth of professional gaming

in the last few years.

It has turned into a truly colossal spectator sport.

But it is driven by the global gaming industry

that continues to outpace every other form of entertainment.

I want to see how this casual hobby becomes a sport,

so I've come to Cologne, the Glastonbury of gaming.

In case you still thought gaming was people antisocially

playing in the darkness of their bedrooms, welcome to gamescom,

the biggest convention in the entire world for gaming,

which is attended by nearly 400,000 people.

The gaming community is clearly not a repressed subculture.

This is a powerful, mainstream industry on an epic scale.

Developers are celebrating their creations

and the gigantic profits.

After all, gaming is worth around 100 billion a year.

I mean, we've got sexy sailors, tanks and lasers.

No wonder this is the most expensive and popular stall

possibly in the whole of gamescom.

This is the future of entertainment, people.

Vibrating rabbit simulators.

And now we have a farming simulator.

With a cow mascot.

Why digitally murder people

when you can digitally harvest crops?

Just sit back, put on your favourite music,

and do some virtual farming.

I can understand why it's so popular.

Let's plough the chickens.

At the beating heart of every gaming convention

are the eSports events.

Gets the shot off. Beautifully done.

This is a tournament for Counter-Strike,

currently one of the most popular spectator games out there.

It's a first-person shooter

played between two teams of five -

terrorists versus counterterrorists.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Three guns trained at him...

The live audience here is gripped, but this expensive studio production

is all for the much bigger audience online.

With a potential audience of 100 million a month,

commercials and sponsorships are very lucrative.

And what a way to close it down, the vice with the 4K to close out,

and a brilliant game coming up on both teams.

Lauren Scott is a shoutcaster...

Time is ticking against him. And bullet by bullet, Renegades...

..the technical term for the commentators

whose voices dramatise the eSports action.

This PC is for the players to practise on?

Yeah, it's a warm-up area. They can get everything set up here,

-and it just makes going up to the stage up there - cos these two areas...

-They play up there?

Yeah. So up there, they're above the crowd, it makes it a little easier for them. It is massive, to be fair.

Cos when you just watch a stream online, you're like,

"Surely that's, like, a webcam and three people in suits?"

But then I'm looking at this, and I'm like, OK,

a lot goes into streaming an eSports tournament.

These are the people who have turned gaming into a spectator sport.

We basically try and highlight

and accentuate the important moments within the game itself.

So I just have to frame that. Like, I tell a story.

That's all I am. I'm just a storyteller.

That's it, Renegades!

That meant the world to those boys.

Shoutcasting is the profession that has transformed competitive gaming,

turning it into a true sport with a global audience,

and the ratings have increased over eight times in the last four years.

CROWD CHEERS

Renegades staying alive.

I've seen the amount of money pouring into eSports.

It's becoming more of a commercial venture even though

it remains largely unregulated.

And now some of those involved

want to make gaming into a legitimate career.

At a studio in central London,

Greensheep's team has started to look for another

young British Hearthstone player.

Team Dignitas is holding a tournament where 64 hopefuls

will compete online for the prize of a contract with the team.

Greensheep himself is the host.

Hello, guys, and welcome to the Team Dignitas

UK Hearthstone gamer search.

Hearthstone team tournaments are coming,

and they'll be really good for us, so we need a good squad.

So we've got an American, Korean, two English,

so we're looking for a UK player to join the team.

The manager of the team, Michael O'Dell,

is a legend in the world of eSport,

known to everyone as Odee.

For the gamer search, if we were to find the eSports David Beckham

in this gamer search, there, job done.

The tournament is played over two days,

and Munchkin, the postgrad student, is one of the competitors.

Munchkin's at 14.

Oh, Dark Wispers, OK.

If we had somebody that could go on and be a global brand

like that for themselves, that obviously brings our brand up

and it also brings the brands of every single player in our team up.

Most of the big international teams like Dignitas

have squads for many of the main eSport games.

But there's always the risk that the star players

will get poached by rival companies.

Maybe a slight miscalculation, but she was dead either way,

so it didn't really matter.

-I'd love an academy one day. That'd be great.

-Yeah.

Ultimately I want to pay the players bigger salaries.

I'd love it one day if I did have a training facility

where my guys could drive in in their really big cars

and turn up, go to the gym, do the training,

do the tactics, practise, and then go home.

Since the last time I met Impaler, his team, Ex Nihilo,

have lost their crucial end-of-season match.

-COMMENTATOR:

-Meanwhile, Impaler, Crazycaps there in a very strong HP...

They now have no chance of promotion.

But Ex Nihilo looking way better in this game,

but too little, too late.

Their season is over.

To me, I took it quite personally.

I put a lot of my time and effort into the team and into the others,

so for me more than most it was pretty brutal.

It's been a bitter end to the season.

The team has dropped one of its players

and is considering another one.

Impaler's future is now uncertain.

We need to do, like, a lot of work.

We don't just need to work on our team play,

we need to work on our individual play.

So it's going to be a long road, and we need to improve.

-Do you still love the game as much as you did back in the...?

-Nah.

-No?

-No. I don't think anyone does.

-Really?

As soon as you go pro, like...

I still love the game. I love everything about the game,

but it's just, when it was new to me, it was like this amazing thing

that I didn't really fully understand.

But now it's just, like, honing in the skills

and it's mainly going over things that I already know.

Impaler's career in eSports has had its ups and downs,

but despite the team's defeat, for the moment

he remains determined to come back.

It's quite precarious, though, the world of eSports.

Cos, like, I mean, you could get dropped from a team

if you stop playing so well,

and then you kind of have no future in it.

I feel like you have to earn your spot on the team,

and if you don't earn it, then it's not yours to keep.

That's part of what's exciting about it, to me.

Sure, it's fragile,

and it's very volatile. People get replaced a lot.

But that's just part of the job for me.

While Impaler strives to make a comeback,

Greensheep is in Spain making best use of his school holidays

to pound the European tournament circuit.

I have these two months that I can fully commit to Hearthstone.

I haven't done anything for about a couple of months.

My results haven't been that great.

But while in Spain, he's had a breakthrough.

His day-and-night training has at last paid Off.

It's DreamHack Valencia,

the moment he's been waiting for half his life -

Greensheep wins first prize from an international field -

5,000 in the bank.

It's the first one I've won,

and it's actually the first individual tournament

I've won this whole year, so it feels great.

CHEERING

Victory at Valencia gives him

50 points towards the world championships,

and it renews his faith in the life he's chosen for himself.

So which does he feel closer to,

James from Blackpool, or Greensheep?

I guess probably Greensheep now,

because this game has given me so much more

opportunities to fly around the world.

I've seen so much being Greensheep rather than James,

and I've had so much more enjoyable experiences being Greensheep.

So I guess I'm more like Greensheep.

It might sound strange to you,

to feel closer to your online identity than your real self,

but I can understand why he feels that way.

-Cheers.

-Cheers!

-Cheers!

Greensheep!

Have I made my mind up yet?

No, still unsure, like.

I'd really like to do this as a career,

but we'll see what happens throughout the next six months,

I guess, and if I make it to the world championships, we'll see.

CHATTING AND LAUGHTER

It's been a month since Impaler's season came to an end.

He's started to question his long-term commitment to gaming.

It's just, like, time.

I don't want to spend another year of my life doing something that isn't going to relate to anything.

Cos when I'm done with League, what skills can I really translate to a real career?

I'm going to be two years behind at uni already

compared to everyone else. Maybe three now.

I don't want to fall behind all my friends and everyone I know.

So, yeah, I have to make up for it.

I've had, like, so many good experiences everywhere.

But I don't know, maybe normal life is pretty cool as well.

Meanwhile, the competition for a place in Team Dignitas

and the chance of a professional career as a gamer

has reached its climax.

Out of all the competitors who took part, four remain.

Now it's come down to a last test.

This time, not a game, but an interview with Odee

to see if he thinks they have what it takes.

You see tournaments and you think,

"Wow, that would be cool to do that."

And then suddenly you're actually...

It actually could be a thing.

The other three candidates are just as good, and I came fourth

in the overall tournament, so it's kind of like it's all against me.

I feel like by far I am the best player.

There's no doubt about that.

Bit amazed, to be honest.

It's not something I ever imagined would happen to me.

This is the moment that will change one of their lives forever.

I'm not very good at speeches or anything like that,

so I'm just going to come straight out with the gamer search winner.

And it's Anakin.

Oh, my God!

This is going to change your life, kind of.

It is. It definitely is.

Like, I'm just sat behind my computer all the time

just sort of doing nothing with my life,

and now doing nothing with my life

has turned into doing something with my life.

I mean, this really was the golden ticket for Anakin.

He's gone from someone just playing video games for fun at home

to having an actual career ahead of him in gaming.

And after months of deliberation,

Greensheep himself has come to a decision about his future.

He needs to focus on either his studies or his eSports adventure.

My decision, actually, is that

I'll take a break from school right now.

-So I just finished my AS levels.

-Really?

So I'll take at least one year off to go to events and stuff,

just play Hearthstone full time.

Do you feel like it's a risky decision,

-or are you quite confident that...?

-It's definitely risky,

because I don't know how many tournaments I'm going to win.

I suppose, then, it just came down to your parents' approval.

So, I mean, how easy were they to kind of persuade?

They've accepted the fact that I can't do both

and I should really just choose one or the other.

And since I've made this decision, they're trying their best

to understand what I'll be doing the next year.

I just hope that I can do them proud this whole year.

I've now come to Stockholm.

22-year-old kaSing and his team H2k

had a strong end to the season

and made it here to the play-offs for the world finals.

I mean, this is it for kaSing.

This is the whole reason he started playing League Of Legends

competitively, to get to worlds, to prove that he was the best.

Today is the day that his dreams either go up in flames

or actually become a reality.

This is Stockholm's Hovet arena.

The 9,000 seats are sold out for the weekend.

Final preparations are under way for the first play-off

between teams H2k and Unicorns Of Love.

It's a best-of-five match that could last several hours.

I think everyone's going to be bitterly disappointed

if we don't make it to worlds.

When the crowd comes in,

I know that the game we play coming up

is really, really important.

And I don't want to lose.

The team's gaming lives have been leading to this one moment.

The worlds are a lifelong ambition.

They each know they might never get another chance.

This whole time we've been talking about

what we wanted out of the game,

but this is actually the day we can get it.

CROWD ROARS

Are you guys ready to win?

CHEERING

I think it's safe to say that the nerves have set in now,

and you can't really blame them, looking out at all of this.

I'm starting to feel the pressure, and I'm not doing anything, I'm just watching the game!

-COMMENTATOR:

-Who will be winning?

It's the start of the biggest match of their lives.

The early battles are hard-fought and brutal.

And they take the Nexus!

It's an exhausting experience for the players' nerves.

Every encounter is punishing.

This is it. This is it!

After two hours of battle,

H2k are ahead.

I don't know what he said, but it worked.

H2k are absolutely smashing it.

H2k, they want the clean sweep!

There we go!

H2k have done it!

They're on the Nexus!

H2k, 3-0 the Unicorns!

Amazing.

Look at everyone on their feet.

But even at the moment of triumph,

H2k's fate is out of their hands.

It all comes down to points.

To get to worlds,

their archrivals Fnatic must win in the next match.

-So how do you feel right now?

-Happy!

-HE LAUGHS

Are you accepting it on the inside or are you going to wait to see what happens?

I just kind of want to wait. Like, I don't want to get too happy,

because if Fnatic don't win, then we don't get world.

This time, H2k will be spectators

as their fate is decided by their old enemy.

So much anticipation.

This is the matchup a year in the making.

From the start, things are not going to plan.

Fnatic have lost one! They've lost their captain.

Origen are going to push forward!

Fnatic have not lost a match all season.

And suddenly, there's nothing Fnatic can do.

But the invincible team have started to crumble under the pressure.

And it's Origen!

When you're sitting in front of a big stage,

a lot of stress is put onto you,

because if you don't win then why do you play?

The match is going to the last round,

and at the critical moment,

Fnatic have recovered their fighting spirit.

CROWD ROARS

Fnatic are tearing apart Origen's base!

INDISTINCT EXCITED CHATTER

Fnatic at the summer split are going to make the Nexus!

INDISTINCT CHATTER AND LAUGHTER

Fnatic have won.

H2k are on their way to the world finals.

Jesus. That was...

-Oh, my God.

-You've done it. You're going to Paris.

-You made it into worlds.

-Yeah!

-The relief!

I don't know what to say.

-I'm kind of speechless right now because, like...

-Well, you know.

All the time you spend playing League, you know,

everything you gave up, and here - you've made it to worlds,

the biggest stage in the whole of eSports.

Are you ready?

-Course.

-Yeah.

I couldn't have made it without my team, of course.

I still can't believe it.

Actually insane.

You put all of your time in

essentially as if you'd never lived outside of eSports.

That's kind of what you put in. Like, it takes your soul.

Getting LCS is your goal,

and then when you get to LCS, your next goal is to get the worlds,

and each time you make that jump,

the pool of people who have done it gets smaller,

so it gets more prestigious and harder to do.

H2k have made it to worlds

and, as a bonus, just earned 30,000.

It's a moment they'll never forget.

It seems to me the decision to become a professional gamer

is an incredibly risky one.

For every success story, there are thousands of failures.

I've spent the summer following three young British gamers,

and I now feel I understand both the sacrifice

and the passion they need in this extraordinary career.

Such an amazing feeling.

The first time I ever experienced it was in London.

The entire stadium was, like, shouting,

and the stage was shaking as well.

I love that feeling so much,

because you feel so good after everyone's cheering for you,

and I think that's one of the main reasons why I still enjoy playing.

There's just something about playing on stage with, like,

your team-mates, your best friends as well,

playing against people you know and you look up to. It's like...

It's a feeling you can't really compare to anything else.

ESports is totally different.

Like, every event's at a different place across the world,

which is absolutely amazing.

So many people dream of doing this as a living,

and I'm actually doing it as a reality.

I don't know what you would have thought if someone said

the words "professional gamers", but I couldn't have possibly imagined

what I've seen following the stories of these guys.

Not only do they have the natural ability, the intelligence,

the reaction speed, but they have the passion

and the dedication that is required to take them to this next level.

They have risked everything

in one of the most fragile careers imaginable

just to prove that they are the best and become superstars.

These guys, they're not just gamers like you and I.

They're supergamers.