Playing For Keeps

Playing video games may be fun, but you can't make a living at it. Or can you? A small but growing cadre of quick-fingered keyboard jockeys have joined the circuit as professional video-game players, and with at least three pro leagues paying out more than $1 million in prize money annually, a few are doing quite well.

Next week 600 gamers from 55 countries will compete in Seoul, South Korea, at the third annual World Cyber Games for prizes worth $350,000. The big draw: Counter-Strike, in which teams of "terrorists" and "counterterrorists" battle it out. Other six-figure tournaments include one hosted by the Cyberathlete Professional League, which offers $250,000 in cash and merchandise and boasts an online audience in the tens of thousands, and id Software's QuakeCon, in which 400 top gamers play Quake III and other id titles for a cut of $125,000.

Top gamer Jonathan (Fatal1ty) Wendell, 22, played baseball and football in high school but abandoned traditional athletics to play video games full time. He made more than $50,000 last year and has starred in his own MTV documentary. "I'm very fortunate," says Wendell. "It helps to have a fast learning curve, so when new games come out, I'm able to perfect them before anyone else."

The pro-video-game circuit operates much like pro tennis'. Gamers qualify for top-tier events by competing in smaller tourneys either individually or as part of a team. Organizers prefer teams because they draw more fans crucial for an event trying to sell itself as a spectator sport. Purses are relatively modest, at least by pro-baseball standards. A World Cyber Games winner might get $20,000--less than what the Texas Rangers pay shortstop Alex Rodriguez for two innings.

Still, it's a start. And the $10 billion-a-year gaming industry hopes the sport will catch on as a way to spark more interest and sell even more titles. Can overbearing parents reliving their Donkey Kong glory days through their kids be far behind?

Sieberg is a technology correspondent for CNN