Something colmpletely different... Professional Video Game Players

In the late 90's I was part owner of a mildly popular group of websites that covered professional gaming worldwide, so I keep up on these things every now and then, as I feel I'm a bit of a witness to the growth of something I think will one day be a major worldwide sport. Things are moving very quickly in that direction now with the latest news that for the first time, a professional group in Europe recruited Starcraft players from Korea. And the years of living off of scraps may be over for the best players according to ESReality:

The largest transition in esports history has been upon us, the successful pro-gamer Nal_rA got a wooping $200,000 for switching to team KTF. Nal_rA has been doing very well recently, getting to the finals of the three recent tournaments he has participated in and winning two of those. Together with NaDa he is generally considered the best Starcraft player at the moment. KTF also recruited the prominent zerg player YellOw, giving him a salary of $85,000 per year. So KTF are looking very strong, with players such as the aforementioned Nal_rA and Yellow, as well as Chojja, Reach and Sync.

Shortly after Nal_rA and Yellow joined KTF, Boxer's team, 4U, announced a new sponsor. It is the largest telecom company in Korea, SK Telecom, who will be sponsoring the team. The contract with Boxer is said to be even better than the $200,000 Nal_rA got, but no numbers have been mentioned. Apart from that salary, the team will also get a 3550 sq office and a 12 seat van.

Interesting stuff. I'm user #11 on that site, seems so long ago.