Inside the world of professional esports

You really can make a living playing video games. But after spending some time inside Team Liquid’s training facility in Santa Monica, it’s clear this is a lot closer to being a professional athlete than sitting around playing games for fun.

Team Liquid is one of the biggest esports organizations in the world, with professional players competing across a variety of games. According to Esports Earnings, the team ranks number one all-time in esports prize money, with more than $57 million won across roughly 3,000 tournaments.

I got a behind-the-scenes look at where some of those players train, and it’s definitely not the stereotypical bedroom or parents’ basement.

The Santa Monica facility is filled with high-end Alienware gaming computers, a live-streaming studio and plenty of dedicated spaces for players to practice. There’s also a kitchen serving three meals a day, along with coaches, analysts, physical therapists and sports psychologists.

That last part surprised me. The infrastructure around these players looks a lot like what you’d expect to find around a traditional professional sports team.

During my visit, Team Liquid’s World of Warcraft players were preparing for the “Race to World First,” a competition where teams race to be the first to complete a newly released challenge in the game.

And the schedule is intense. One player told me that during the roughly two-week competition, they can play as much as 15 hours a day. Winning requires not only quick reflexes and deep knowledge of the game, but also near-perfect communication and teamwork.

Of course, there’s a huge difference between being good at video games and being good enough to get paid for it. Team Liquid says only a tiny fraction of gamers ever reach this level.

I asked one player for the closest thing to a cheat code for getting better. His advice was simple: play a lot, but don’t just play. You have to constantly think about what you can improve.

That might be the biggest difference between gaming for fun and gaming professionally. At this level, playing the game is the job.