Early one Friday morning two men wake up to the day they've been waiting for. They both take their gear to get ready: one man takes his basketball bag and duffel bag full of jersey, water and basketball shoes while the other takes his controller and backpack with jersey, water, gaming headset and game disc . Both are preparing for their biggest weekend ever, tournament weekend. One will play Call of Duty in multiple games in their bracket, advancing with their team to become Champion and win $400,000. The other plays with his team to advance and become Champion and win a gigantic cash bonus. Both have spent the last few months competing with hundreds of thousands of people watching, traveling the world, gaining new sponsors and practicing to become the best of the best. While many people view a sport as a physical exertion for an individual or team, many professional athletes and e-sports professionals are incredibly similar. Gaming can be as practical a lifestyle as playing football. As an e-sports professional you need to practice anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day in front of your game console or computer every day. Practice can be shown in many ways for an e-sports team. They organize scrimmages with other teams to play a series of game modes and maps to determine who wins, sometimes continuing late into the night. Additionally, you can play in small tournaments through a system called GameBattles. These tournaments can range from small daily tournaments to large weekend tournaments that can sometimes have winnings around $1,500. To become a professional e-sports player you generally need to place in the top 16 in one of the major LAN tournaments organized by Major League Gaming. Players compete in a general league... mid-card......professional port by playing 3 games, winning or losing. Overall, the similarities between an e-sports professional and a professional athlete emerge in many ways. Even though a professional athlete will have bigger companies as sponsors and bigger, higher-paying contracts, that doesn't make them all different. Both will have sponsors, both will get paid to be the best of the best, both will train tirelessly to become and stay the best, and both will have millions of people watching them play. Game environments are filled with intensity as fans watch in person, on TV and online. The practice is grueling and the competition fierce, but the rewards are astonishing. Travel the world, earn enough money to live comfortably, make your fans proud, and do what you love. Being a professional gamer is just as much of a practical lifestyle as being a professional athlete.