Gaming Check Research Paper

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My First Gaming Check When the class was told to write about a “keep-sake” that we’ve all held onto over the years, only one thing crossed my mind: The first check I received from professional gaming. Some people could say that there is nothing special about a check you receive for doing something as meaningless as gaming, but I say NAY! Getting this check not only marked the start of my career as a professional gamer, and allowed me to gain four of my closest friends to this day, but also it marked the day I became one of the youngest professional gamers in the world, with a salary. Being a child the age of thirteen, becoming a professional gamer had to have been the only thing on my mind. I looked through all of these pages such as
Major League Gaming (MLG) and saw that all of these guys were making it big by doing what they loved, playing video games. I play a video game on the computer called, “Counter-Strike: Source.” It is a first person shooter that faces off a team of five counter-terrorists against another team of five terrorists. The objective of the terrorists is to detonate the bomb at one of two bombsites or eliminate all five Counter-Terrorists. The goal of the Counter-Terrorists is to eliminate all five terrorists or defuse the bomb. I had been playing this game for three years already. I was and still am to this day on a team called CompLexity Gaming. But only in 2005 did we ever get considered on the professional level. My four friends and I entered in a tournament called the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) in 2005.
All of the teams that we idled were there. When we first entered the coliseum, all we noticed were wall to wall computers and the huge trophy and check on the main stage. We all looked at each other and said in unison, “That belongs to us.” So we had our first game against a Swedish team named SK Gaming. They were seeded one to win the entire tournament, and rightfully so. We almost lost to them, but came back to win in overtime 18-16. This was shown as the biggest upset in the entire tournament. Our next three matches were against sub-par teams that we really had no worry about beating, and did. We knocked out teams left and right until we arrived in the finals, one last team left to beat. The name of their team was Team 3D. The team was made up of some of the best Counter-Strike players in the world. First half we were chosen to play on Counter-Terrorist side on the map DE_NUKE. For those who are unfamiliar, (DE) is a code word used to signify the map is a bomb explosion map. Nuke is just the name of the map. So, the first half started and we ended up losing 15-0. In order to even tie them we had to win all 15 rounds on the terrorist side. Even one win for Team 3D and they went home with the championship. We all had a meeting before the final rounds and it was basically just, “Why are we doing so poorly, we can beat the crap out of these guys so why aren’t we!” It was
a pep talk to get us fired up for the next half. We all took a final look at the trophy, and all I could see in my teammate’s eyes was pure rage. Knowing that, we went into the second half and had some nail-biting rounds, but ended up securing the 15-0 on the terrorist side! In the event of a tie, you are supposed to do two rounds on each side, and whoever has the most out of those four wins. They won the first round, and we won the last three! We had secured our first tournament victory as a team! The podium was a wonderful place to be. You were able to look down on thousands of fans, who at the beginning of the tournament had no idea who we were, then were chanting our names as we went on the first place area. Angel Nunez, the owner of the CPL, came over to us and presented our team with a $50,000 check. We all lost our breath. After this, we all took $10,000 home and were eventually picked up by an organization that wanted us to play for them under contract. We only had one circumstance; they had to keep our name. But the best thing about receiving this check was the look on my mother’s face as soon as I slapped that check down on her table. She never was behind me about gaming, and neither would I be as a parent, but she was just like, “Why aren’t you playing video games right now!” Now I make $50,000 a year playing for Complexity Gaming inc. Professional gaming has opened up copious opportunities in my life. Now my mother is one hundred percent behind what I do for a living, and she couldn’t be any happier for me. Without professional gaming being there for me, I wouldn’t have been able to afford college. But most of all, that check is most important to me, because it marked the day my mom started believing in what I do. Having that feeling of approval gets me through every day like you couldn’t even imagine.