Former Gamer Professional Christos Sakoutis explains that gaming is not as easy as one imagines
Endless hours with play groups, not on a stadium or in parks, but in front of the screen.
They are modern gamers, most young people aged 20 to 30 who have managed to turn their hobby into a profession and even with many distinctions in Greece and abroad. Christos Sakoutis is one of them, being at the beginning of his adolescence with an older brother, one of his hobbies was video games. His habit of playing together, either on the console or on a computer, was very strong and even formed the basis for his life to change and pursue gaming professionally.
“In the Gaming Treaty there is no common time, starts with the day and stops when it has no” plate “, that is, when you are tired,” explains Mr. Sakoutis, speaking to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency and explains that ” Different, for me the 4 hours in front of the screen were the beginning. The professional part of gaming came by itself. The involvement began to become more intense when we were discussing with friends at school so we were on an internet cafe. There we knew other people we played together for various games, either collaboratively or opponents and formed teams, such as football or any other game that requires team and parks, just in front of a screen. This has been the reality of our own sport for a long time, ”he says.
“Knowing more players, I got to know the first turning point in the first competition I participated in local and concerned only the cafe players we visited. This was my first contact with the most competitive part of the game. After through the game and my own evolution, I met other players online and through them teams and organizations that worked exclusively in the game’s online area. So, the journey of professional gaming began, “he points out.
Through the game itself and random acquaintances, as Christos Sakoutis points out by the first amateur team, without basis and without organization, just five players who took part in online tournaments, each from his home or neighborhood cafe. , with money prizes. “Five players who” chased “all sorts of competition, won what we could and established as the first professional team in Greece, contracting each player from some e-sports organizations. We participated in all the Greek tournaments that participated either locally or online until 2019, when we stopped, because there was simply nothing else to win, ”he notes.
When they reached adulthood, they sent their gaming resumes to various organizations and groups abroad and did not take long to eliminate the geographical borders. “I was called to a Dutch team that had a position in the national competition, with which we won second place and from there they all got their way,” he points out and describes how this journey continued: “Organization in the organization and team in the team. Either they approached me after my achievements as a player, or I approached them through the game, I took part in countless national and European tournaments by 2022, of which I was a paid player, with a quarter of a three -month contract, as much as a three -month contract, And the period held by a competition.
My daily life was competitive for all this time. I spent countless hours in front of the screen taking advantage of my free time as a student and playing the game purely professionally. With personal and team training supervised by “special” coaches who put the respective teams. I found myself competing next to the best players in the world for a long period of time with the same imminent recognition as a player. “
As he explains, “at the end of 2022 I was diagnosed with tendonitis in the carpal tunnel, which made me impossible to participate in a competitive level. The top of my professional career lasted by mid -2020, the first quarantine period, until the end of 2022 where I was voluntarily disrupted by the last winnings of the Balkan Tournament I took part at the time, which we won with the same Greek teammates. that we started this journey. Throughout this there have been many sources of income, whether prizes from the tournaments, some kind of salary from approved teams, or donations from spectators I had on my channel, in which I lived live during the hours I was playing. My total profits from the game amount to about 20,000 euros in two years, but money was never stable. “
Christos Sakoutis explains that gaming is not as easy as one imagines. Evolution may be different for everyone. “To live by the game itself. With what this entails. With countless hours in front of the screen, endless days preparing for a game and too many sacrifices in real life. Unfortunately, the game is for fun and the involvement with it is excessive, despite the experiences and good times, it stops offering pleasure and makes it something else, not a game, “he concludes to send his own message to all these Children who spend endless hours in front of the screens.
