Are geeks the new jocks?

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For the longest time being referred to as a “geek” or a “nerd” used to be something that would be used to make you feel bad about yourself. Not anymore though. The tides have turned. If you haven’t heard of esports before, it is essentially professional multiplayer video gaming played competitively in front of spectators. Sounds pretty sweet, doesn’t it?

Imagine it, getting paid (a lot of money, if I might add) to play video games all day long. Well while it may sound easy, it is definitely not. These individuals train and work on their skills as much as any other athlete would, on top of that there are so many people playing games nowadays it is very hard to stay at the top. It is estimated that in the years 2022/23 there will be more than 3 billion people playing video games (source) - that’s almost 1/3 of the current world population. And if you like talking about numbers, games revenues in 2020 were estimated at 159.3 billion dollars. That’s a lot of cash.

As you can already tell, this blog post is dedicated to all the gamers, the geeks, the nerds, and everyone who has ever held a controller. It is awesome to see the impact esports has had on the world and the way people perceive gaming. After this very informative and entertaining introductory text (that my colleague will for sure make me edit)*, I wanted to showcase some of the biggest names in the industry and what makes them the geekiest geeks.

*EDITOR’S NOTE: Hope you’re enjoying this edited version everyone.

#1 Faker - League of Legends

With a pool of 100-120 million players, it is hard to stand out but Faker somehow managed to do it. With his exceptional mechanical prowess and seemingly unlimited knowledge of the game, Lee Sang-hyeok managed to become one of the greatest League of Legends players of all time (source).

At 25 years old his estimated net worth is at 4 million dollars. A fun fact about Faker is that he dropped out of high school to pursue professional gaming - something I don’t encourage but thought it would be a fun thing to know.

#2 Tfue - Fortnite

So what happens when gamers end up on social media? Chart-topping numbers, that’s what. Turner Tenney took his popularity and moved it over to other apps such as Instagram and Twitch, which made him one of the most popular Fortnite players to date (source). At 24 years old his estimated net worth is also 4 million dollars but unlike Faker, who is a notoriously shy person, he is not afraid to take on the spotlight (source). Some of his stats are 11. 9 million subscribers on YouTube with 1.4 million total views, 10.8 million followers on Twitch, and 4. 7 million followers on Instagram. Talk about a social media gamer, huh?

#3 Tommey - Call of Duty: Warzone

Lastly, we have to talk about Thomas Trewren, a British Call of Duty player and streamer, who at 29 years old holds the title for the best Call of Duty: Warzone player (source). As Call of Duty is such an iconic franchise, Tommey managed to cement his place as one of the best players quite early on. Even though his net worth might not be as large (200k$) he is still considered one of the most popular European players as well as a well-known CoD personality.

Well, it is safe to say that the geeks are taking over. They grabbed their keyboards, computer mouses, controllers, and joysticks and marched into battle for online supremacy. They took something they were being ridiculed for and made it their own. It is something we should all be inspired by. Something that was once just a hobby has now turned into a multi-billion dollar industry and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us next.

By Marko Grahovac