Your mom is wrong: You can get somewhere playing video games.
In fact, you probably should be investing more hours in zigging and zapping–that is, if you want to turn pro.
And even then you might not be able to take down the self-described Michael Jordan of this fledgling sport: Matthew Leto, a.k.a. Zyos.
“I’ve made more money at this on the console side than any other person,” said the 22-year-old Texan, who won the $20,000 Halo championship at the 2003 World Cyber Games in Seoul. “This is my full-time job. I cleared about 80 grand last year doing this.”
Leto will try to stuff a little more into his bank account this weekend when he and about 840 other professional gamers and wannabes compete for a share of $27,000 in the Midwest Mayhem tournament in Rosemont. Gamers will go at one another in a massive Halo 2 free-for-all, then settle into teams of four. Only two games are played in four separate contests: Halo 2 and Super Smash Brothers Melee on Nintendo GameCube.
The Chicago tournament is part of a circuit sponsored by Major League Gaming, a 3-year-old gaming league that runs 13 live and two online events a year and manages corporate sponsorships and appearances for contract players like Leto.
MLG’s brass is psyched about Chicago, which they say will draw the young league’s biggest turnout to date–about 145 teams of four and about a dozen doubles–perfect momentum heading into the $85,000 season championship in New York later this month.
And by all accounts, pro gaming is expected to be even bigger next year. It already has drawn the attention of TV networks and magazines.
Tom “Tsquared” Taylor, Leto’s teammate on the powerhouse Str8ght Rippin squad, ha been featured on MTV’s “True Life,” and in Entertainment Weekly and a host of other magazines and TV stations.
“Even going to airport, you hear, ‘Oh, Tsquared, I really look up to you,’ ” he told RedEye.
When Taylor talked to us this week, the cocksure Floridian was juggling a 10-hour practice day, a $250,000 tournament of 10-on-10 Battlefield 2 and an afternoon teaching session.
Did we mention his company, gaming-lessons.com? For up to $50 an hour, you might be tutored on the finer points of Halo by a 14-year-old named Xena, and a 7-year-old named Lil Poison, two of Taylor’s 13 professional instructors.
“I have my own clothing line. It’s crazy. The amount of people interested in pro gaming and how much it’s grown is crazy,” Taylor said.
The sport has its genesis in, well, Sega Genesis, says MLG co-founded Sundance DiGiovanni. Frat houses in the early ’90s played Mortal Kombat and Sega’s hockey game for bragging rights.
The advent of PlayStation2 and Xbox changed everything. “That led to us,” he said. “Xbox supported network gaming–eight people playing on two TVs. Before, four people on one TV was the most you could get.”
Halo made its debut over the holidays in 2001 and was an immediate hit for Microsoft. “At the beginning of 2002, you saw people having college tournaments, playing in churches,” DiGiovanni said.
It got DiGiovanni hooked. He and MLG co-founder Mike Sepso were dot-com consultants who wisely sold the business. The intensely competitive friends couldn’t decide on their next move, until the night DiGiovanni had a few friends over to watch them play Halo.
“People were wagering money,” he said. “Something sparked.
“That’s when we looked at each other and said, ‘This is it. This is what we want to do.’ “
DiGiovanni and Sepso traveled the country rounding up college kids and put on their first tournament in October 2003– “to say it was a fiasco would be kind,” DiGiovanni said.
The fever has spread to Chicago, where teams like Dennis Marchetti’s TeamGag will play in its first tournament. TeamGag was started by a couple of DePaul students, says Marchetti, 21, an Indiana University student from Long Grove.
Marchetti, a.k.a. GagOnSexy, says the tournament and the lure of pro gaming is bringing together Chicago gamers and may spark more local contests.
“If we were to do well … we’d take a little bit of a harder look [at pro tournaments],” Marchetti said. “It’s kind of like a goal in the back of our minds.”
Midwest Mayhem
What: MLG Central Conference Championship, featuring product booths and events.
When: 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday; 8 a.m. to
1 a.m. Saturday; 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday
Where: Hyatt Regency O’Hare, 9300 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Rosemont
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plthompson@tribune.com
