One of the most direct consequences of the growth of electronic sports is the considerable increase in the capital available to clubs to offer the highest comforts to their players, in addition to covering all their expenses and paying their salaries.
Thanks to this increase in capital, the concept of ‘gaming house’ is becoming increasingly common among professional esports clubs. It is a house or flat where teams live temporarily or permanently to train and improve their game throughout the day (although there is also time for other things) and more directly and energetically.
EDG Gaming, one of the best teams in China League of Legends, has just released its new gaming house located in the center of the city of Shanghai and is valued at several million dollars.
Who Lives in a Gaming House?
Living in the workplace with other colleagues can be a nightmare for many. However, it becomes a necessity for professional esports teams, for whom a ‘Gaming House’ means improving their performance and results.
Those who make up a gaming house are mainly the players, who are approximately 6 people, 5 regular players, and their replacement, the team coach, and sometimes in more elitist gaming houses, has his private chef and physical trainer for the players.
Its principle is simple: to create a better collective dynamic by grouping esports players and trainers in the same place, to receive a joint and exhaustive training for the competitions. The costs and fatigue of traveling to competition venues are reduced. Physical exercises, regular visits by a physiotherapist, and three weekly fitness sessions are added to avoid chronic injuries to the neck, back, or fingers. For mental preparation, there are meditation sessions.
The traditional ‘Gaming House’ model, which appeared in Seoul at the beginning of the 2000s, mixed a place of life and work, but it is in evolution.
What is it Like Living in a Gaming House?
Six young people live together, playing an average of 10 hours a day, and earning more than 2,000 dollars per month. They are professional esports players and live in the Gaming House.
The alarm clock sounds at 9 AM, although the most swirls set it an hour later. They have breakfast and dedicate themselves to daily tasks. At 11 AM, everyone has to be ready to go to the gym, eat and start the six-hour group training sessions, which, with a break in between. From that moment on, everyone can devote their time to whatever they want, although by necessity, they remain connected. As elite players, they have to maintain a high level of individual play and must know the characters and strategies they will use the next day as a team. That’s why they usually play for three to four hours a day in a personal capacity.
With them, much of the stereotypes are lost. They apply the maxim “means sana in corpore sano,” because as their manager says, to be the best, your mind has to perform at its best, and that is decisive in their games. They go to the gym and have a cook who prepares balanced meals and dinners every day except Saturday, the only time that if the week has gone well, they celebrate outside. In the Gaming Room, which is the room in which they train, they are forbidden to introduce anything other than water, chips, or energy drinks.
In the end, it will be the results that make the professional teams choose this model. If it proves to be more efficient, as more and more people recognize, there will be a change that many consider necessary.
How Much Does a Gaming House Cost?
In general terms, we could say that a club would be considered elite from the four million dollars annual budget, while in the U.S., that figure could reach 300,000 dollars in the case of LoL, although there are exceptions,” industry sources detail. The average budget for a League of Legends Super League team is about $200,000 a year.
To the cost of competing must be added those of the gaming house or the esports center, two concepts of different spaces where teams train, play and in the case of the house, even live. These facilities are a vital conditioner, as they take a good part of the resources beyond the sports and non-sports staff. However, if a team has several top-level disciplines, the total budget, including operating costs, can even reach one million dollars.
