no rewards, only tears... salty salty tears


edit: on a serious note, i think it can be more rewarding than wroking as a cashier on a supermarket or other 10000+ jobs for that matter.

cooller was a "pro" player for like 10 years. Even if he were to have worked at mcdonalds, the most skill-less work in the job, still in 10 years he would have been promoted enough times to overall have earned vastly more than any quake player.

There are more rewards then just money.

But money makes the world go around? And pays the bills? Etc etc

false about making the world go around...HOW COULD YOU GET THAT WRONG!?

106.000 usd earned from 2003 till 2011. 106/(9x12)=981 usd/month. for sure it beats russian average sallary. Plus he could have had a part time job for most of the time playing quake. Plus he did what he likes to do

Also thats only from tournaments, did he get any sponsorship money?

He could have earned way more than $981 a month after a few years of experience, if not from the very start, and increases as years go by.

Had cooller committed as seriously on earning money (or into studying) as he was into playing quake right now he would be earning easily over 10 times that. In one year he could earn more than what he earned in 10. plus have all his savings and and keep on earning that 10x amount every year, whereas all his esports success lead him to right now earn $0 from it.

So at least financially wise it didn't work that well for 10 years of working experience, and he isn't precisely signing boobs nor getting recognized on the street every day.

what makes you think he could earn 100k a year? do you?

Depends on the year (yes I'm not poor like most ESR peasants Kappa), but on point cooller is waaaay more hardworking and waaaaay more successful than myself. He "deserves" that and way more.

At least financially-wise what he chose as work is not anywhere near as rewarding as many, many, many, many other choices, if he was as hardworking in those as he was when competing in pseudo sports.

I think it's safe to say that in 10 years from now -so when he has 10 years of full time experience and dedication to "actual work"- cooller will be earning over 100 grand every year, if not way more. Picture him starting a business and putting the 24/7 hours he did in quake3, which is what thresh and fatality did (both worth over 10m).

Are you picturing these things happening in Russia?

I haven't been to Russia, but
http://www.forbes.com/2011/05/17/cities-with-...aires.html

North America is not the only place in the world where people have opportunities and can make a great living. And weirdly enough, the sole active Quake competition is financed by a wealthy Russian that was a former player; exactly like cooller.

Well, there are very well paid jobs you can do from any place in the world over the internet. And if you are really good, which you can be with several years of experience, your salary is not scaled down to your country of residence (as in: what got you employed was your skill, not the fact that you live in a cheap contry).

One example is working in IT as a software developer. I know people working for USA-based companies remotely from UK, Italy, Australia and the like and rest assured they are getting paid very well.

So, not only the guy could have won *less* than he did, with all the time put in quake and some talent (which he may or may not have), he could easily be a very good software developer. With this I would expect ~80k USD/year no problem while staying in Russia.

Fair enough. It's hardly "just by working at McDonald's" like megaman3 first said though.

I would be useless developer even with 10 years of experience OpieOP
I will stick to sucking dick.

Just imagine cooller timing every bit of beef and bacon that gets cooked in the kitchen.

This is a really retarded question. Of course its rewarding and that is all subjective anyway.

The thing with quake is that its a really fun game that happens to have a very steep learning curve. You have to spend a considerable amount of time to understand the physics, aim, timing, positioning and all other aspects of the game. So when you put in dedication and hours into learning those things and putting them up against other people who have done the same, you feel a great sense of reward when you get the top spot.

The same can be said for anything, perhaps I think magic the gathering or some dorky card game is really lame, but to the best magic player in the world he has dedicated time and practice into being the best so for him its hell of a rewarding. Unless you are like the only person in the world who practices a certain skill or craft, you will always find reward at being truly the best at something.

I very much doubt Cypher at any point thought "yey i'm the best razer mouse customer in the world........ : | ". That is just plain fucktarded. He probably thought something more along the lines of... All these people I just beat put in a lot of practice and time into understanding and perfecting a skill, and I beat them all in competition to be the best, on top of that it was both a fun and rewarding experience... so fuck yea I have the biggest quake penis..

My point is that what might seem dumb and a waste of time to you is not necessarily so for other people. Especially when the task involved has a big following high skill requirement.

the end

Messi must think to himself. "Yay, I'm the best adidas customer in the world....."

yeah exactly... was about to put the same analogy.
Of course they all could have used their dedication to archieve other goals in life, but they liked this one and became successfull, and that is worth more than the money.
I have a friend that quit his job to do a cycling trip of 7000km.... he lost money in the process but when he got there i bet he felt pretty good.
And when he talks to his grandchildren in the future he will tell them the trip story, not the (4month work + 5000usd) story..... well... same applyes to quakers... they have a hell of a accomplishment to brag about the rest of their lives

MtG is awesome.

Your world is pretty narrow sir, if you compare McDonalds carreer, to earning money in a part time hobby. Tbh there are less more rewarding things in life, than being good in something (even if it's quake).

There's no better feeling in gaming than winning in Quake. Nothing comes close... yet.

moneywise: no

fame/personal satisfaction wise: yes

In case of Messi both answers are yes thats because more people understand football than quake.

i think i didn't notice how good i became, i just played the game because it was fun and the more skill you have the funnier it gets.

Definitely not worth it, although I have fond memories.

Hellllll nooo. But I'm not good so I can't say

no other feeling similar to when you're playing at your absolute best

pushing yourself to be better constantly is a reward if done correctly (read: no stupid raging), you build character.

This applies to alot more things then quake of course but that's not the point of the question

getting good at games with stagnated scenes is a really bad feeling

good for cypher... tell him that some player frag with a 5€s mouse

Yeah it was all worth it.

It's the reason why I still play and haven't kept playing any other game except for Quake.

The amount of time and dedication and effort needed to get to any decent level at Quake is colossal. You don't do it without building a lot of good skills that not only help in Quake but help in life as well.

I work in a helpdesk. When I first started people warned me that the place has a high turnover rate because of the amount of work and high pressure scenario's that come up. You have to close a certain amount of jobs every day and deal with people high up in the business chain, if you lost any of their data for instance you'd be in deep shit and probably find yourself out of a job.

But I found that compared to playing Quake in front of a crowd, when you're behind a few frags with 2 minutes to go at match point with a couple thousand dollars prize money on the line, the pressure of my job just didn't compare. I found it easy to deal with.

Not to mention the mental side of Quake. There is no excuse for losing and nothing stopping you from winning except yourself. Quake really puts all of your own self into the game and when you lose, it's because YOU as a person lost. Your ego takes that hit directly to the face and you have to find a way to deal with it and get better. There are no XP levels, perks or any other random shit that gives a stupid advantage to players and cause the game to become unbalanced, it's 100% personal skill that decides if you win or lose (in duel, anyway).

If you can apply yourself in Quake and get to the top 10-20 in your country there is no reason you can't apply the same dedication and mindset to doing the same in most other scenario's in life (barring of course physical limitations when it comes to sports).

Great post man.

Youšll be swimming in pussy.