Data Map: On December 3, 2019, the 2019WUCG Sanya E-sports Festival opened in the sailing port of Sanya Mid-Levels Peninsula, Hainan. E-sports teams from 16 countries including China, the United States, South Korea, Malaysia and Spain gathered together and will be launched to the global champions of League of Legends, DOTA2, the glory of the king, Hearthstone and the king of fighters 14. The picture shows the team of Jimei University in China playing League of Legends. China News Service reporter Luo Yunfei photo
BEIJING, April 24th (Xing Rui) The topic "Wang Sicong spends 666 yuan an hour as a sparring partner in the game" has recently caused a heated discussion among netizens in Weibo. While watching "eating melons", many people are also curious about the profession of "game sparring".
With the rapid development of e-sports industry, many new occupations have been born. E-sports anchors and professional players have gradually entered the public’s field of vision and are no longer unfamiliar. In the past two years, the e-sports sparring teacher, which has gradually emerged, seems to be "mysterious" a lot.
Spend 3 million to find a sparring partner
"E-sports sparring instructor", as its name implies, is paid to accompany others to play games. In terms of industry terminology, the customers served by sparring instructors are called "bosses". If you are willing to spend 666 yuan to find Wang Sicong as a sparring partner, then you will become his "boss".
Open the game sparring platform where Wang Sicong is located. The price of sparring on it ranges from ten yuan to tens of yuan per hour. It is not difficult to see that Wang Sicong’s fee of 666 yuan is far higher than the general price of game sparring on this platform.
Wang Sicong entered a platform as a "game sparring teacher".
As the saying goes, "there will be a market if there is demand", and the part-time game sparring of "national husband" actually reflects the demand of many young people for "finding someone to play games with me".
According to an industry data previously released by the game sparring website, in 2019, more than 27 million players searched for "Great God" to accompany them to play games, and about 68% of them were "post-95 s".
There is no doubt that "finding game sparring" has become a trend of entertainment for this year’s e-sports youth. For their favorite video games, many users have shown amazing spending power. Take the above-mentioned platform as an example. Last year, the "Golden Master Dad" with the highest order consumption spent a total of 3.08 million yuan to find someone to play games with him. During the period from January 24th to February 29th this year, a 22-year-old boy from Shanghai spent more than 1500 yuan a day on average, and found 12 "great gods" to accompany him to play 1850 games.
Data Map: On December 3, 2019, in the e-sports education center of Changchun Health Vocational College, students practiced the popular e-sports games in the classroom, while teachers taught the skills of game operation. The major of e-sports and management opened in September 2018 requires students to study more than 20 courses in three years, and e-sports training is one of them. China News Service reporter Zhang Yao photo
Millions of people’s "new rice bowls"
The blowout consumer demand naturally attracted a large number of e-sports enthusiasts to start the career of sparring. According to statistics, a game sparring APP attracted 2.9 million game sparring players last year, and 1.29 million of them made money by sharing game skills. The average monthly income of full-time sparring is as high as 7857 yuan, and the average monthly income of part-time sparring is 2929 yuan.
In the e-sports industry, it has become a consensus that e-sports game sparring instructors can earn money, and some sparring instructors at the top of the pyramid can even make a fortune through this profession. Earlier, some media reported that a senior game sparring teacher in his early 20 s earned millions of dollars by playing games with others and paid off his mortgage.
Age distribution of game gods released by a platform.
Although not every e-sports sparring instructor can achieve the "small goal" of earning 100,000 yuan a month, realistically speaking, this profession has at least become a personalized profession with the opportunity to get a high salary.
In addition, game sparring may also become the longest career in the e-sports circle. On the platform of game sparring in Wang Sicong, the average age of game gods is 23.27, and the oldest is 39. Compared with the trend of younger e-sports anchors, it seems that the age requirements of players for e-sports sparring instructors are not too harsh.
"Game sparring" also has official certification.
In 2019, the E-sports Branch of China Communication Industry Association issued the "Standards for E-sports Trainers in China" after the profession of game sparring was sought after by more and more people. This means that "e-sports sparring instructor" has been officially recognized as a professional skill, and game sparring has officially become a nationally recognized and controlled profession.
In this document, e-sports sparring instructors are divided into three levels: primary, intermediate and advanced. In order to obtain vocational skill certification, they need to pass theoretical knowledge examination and skill assessment, and both of them are qualified with a score of 60 (100%) or above.
E-sports sparring instructor certification platform.
Although e-sports sparring teachers have the qualification certification standards, some game sparring platforms do not require their sparring gods to pass the skill certification assessment. It’s just that the price of certified game play is higher than that of ordinary play.
It is reported that the total number of registered e-sports sparring instructors (including the names predicted by various channels) is about 50,000, and the number of people who have passed the examination is about 2,500-3,000. Although the above data has not been confirmed by official channels, it can at least help people to establish a basic judgment, that is, it may not be as easy as expected to get a paper certificate, and excellent game sparring is only a few people.
The sadness behind glamour
It is undeniable that there are "big coffees" in this industry that can earn 100,000 yuan a month by playing games with people, but these people are only rare in the circle. In contrast, many ordinary game sparring partners are far less capital and confidence than Wang Sicong’s asking price of 666 yuan an hour.
On a game sparring platform, a large number of sparring instructors have never received a single business since they settled in. In the highly competitive industry, an excellent sparring instructor not only has superb game skills, but also shows good comprehensive quality in emotional intelligence and communication skills. As a full-time sparring instructor, playing games may soon become a repetitive, boring and mechanical labor.
Data Map: On August 23, 2019, the 2019 Hong Kong Computer Communication Festival opened at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. The theme of this year’s Computer Festival is "Technology improves life and creates infinite possibilities", and many well-known brands in the information industry participated. The picture shows many e-sports players participating in the e-sports competition. China News Service reporter Zhang Yushe
In the face of mixed players, some game sparring will also encounter "bosses" with impure purposes and bad luck. In the final analysis, e-sports sparring instructor is also a kind of service industry, and the demand for social interaction has been running through it. When the appearance and voice have also become factors for players to consider when placing orders, higher requirements have been put forward for the supervision of the industry.
As a brand-new profession, the development of "e-sports sparring instructor" is undoubtedly still in its infancy. Behind it, it is not as glamorous as imagined. Some people earn millions a year, while others get nothing. Even if you are full of love for e-sports, the way of a sparring teacher is by no means that you can go.