It’s the dream, isn’t it? To play your favorite video game and win millions of dollars doing it. Of course, for most of us this will only ever be a dream, but for a small number of the most talented, being an e-sport professional is a very lucrative career where gamers are earning enough money to retire before they hit 30. But who are the best players out there? Who should you be following in the upcoming Kiev Majors and other important tournaments?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQahpvrPDpc
Well, thanks to this ranking of current e-sport gamers, here are 3 of the best players out there that you should know about:
Puppey
Despite a name that reminds you of cute puppies, e-sports gamer Puppey is ruthless when it comes to a competition. At just 27, the DOTA and DOTA 2 player is widely regarded as the top in his field and one of the highest earning e-sports champion having made over $1,300,000 in prize money so far. The biggest of these being a mega $220,000 pay out from just one competition. Puppey, real name Clement Ivanov, is also the founder and captain of prominent DOTA 2 organization Team Secret who are considered one of the best teams in the business with wins including the Shanghai Major in 2016.
However, Team Secret came into controversy late last year when member Jacky “EternaLEnVYy” Mao quit the team amidst allegations that team director Kemal Sadikoglu and Puppey would not only neglect players by not paying them on time but skim 10% off winnings without letting the rest of the team know. Sadikoglu has since left the team and will be replaced before the Kiev Majors.
PPD
PPD, real name Peter Dager, has made himself one of the highest earning e-sport players in the world at just 25. Known starting out his career playing Heroes of Newerth, ppd has found his biggest success playing DOTA 2 and is the current CEO of the Evil Geniuses organization. Most notably Evil Geniuses made history when they won the International 2015, taking home a massive $6,000,000 with PPD as the captain at that time.
Dager is thought to have won just over $2,600,000 in prize money so far and plans to quit before he reaches 30, and with such good wins under his belt it seems likely that this evil genius will have acquired himself a hefty retirement fund by that time.
Suma1L
If you thought Puppey and PPD had made their millions young, Suma1L has been ranked the third highest paid gamer in the world with earnings of over $2,400,000 from just 29 tournaments – he’s only 17. The Pakistani teenager, real name Sumail Hassan, started playing DOTA 2 when he was just 7 year’s old and since then has become arguably one of, if not the best, players around.
Achieving the Guinness World Record for being the youngest gamer to achieve a $1,000,000 win in a tournament, Suma1L has also appeared in Time Magazine’s Top 30 Most Influential Teenagers. Currently a member of Team Evil Geniuses with PPD, Suma1L was one of the winners at the historic International 2015. It will be interesting to see just how well he will do in the next few years as e-sports gaming becomes more and more popular.
