[ColdNoMore]

Jacksonville shooting suspect: A serious player in the high-pressure, big-money world of competitive gaming - The Washington Post

The potential financial upshot for esport competitors rivals some traditional athletics. The five-person team that won The International 2018, a “Dota 2” online battle competition that concluded over the weekend, walked away with more than $11 million in prize money. Additional prizes for runners-up put the total prize pool at more than $25 million.

But esports also present their own unique form of overwhelming pressure.

“There is no other sport in the world in which one day you can be a teenager playing a game by yourself, and the next day, because someone scouted you from your online account, you’re thrown onto a stage for millions to criticize,” ESPN esports reporter Tyler Erzberger wrote in an article on the pervasiveness of mental health issues in the esports community published Friday, before the shooting.

“There’s little to no assimilation period. There’s no road map for how to deal with the criticism. There’s just you, on the stage with four teammates, facing down the biggest moment of your life with no lifeline.”