All Work All Play

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1

Good luck.

I'm not known for...

Are you gonna get all teary?

You gonna get...

- Huh?

- You gonna get teary?

What do you think?

Ladies and gentlemen,

welcome to the intel extreme

masters world championship!

To open the tournament,

it gives me great pleasure

to introduce you to the director

of pro gaming, Poland's

very own michal blicharz!

It's an emotional moment

for me,

because it's been

a dream of mine

to bring the intel

extreme masters here.

We are all here in this room

right now

because we all know

that at any given moment,

something special can happen,

something unforgettable,

something epic.

A moment that all of you

will take home with you.

If she destroys this on film,

10,000 nerds

will cry out in agony.

IT'S A LIMITED EDITION TOY

FROM BlizzCon.

Yes, you broke it.

Look.

This is my first true love.

It's a game.

"Unreal tournament."

And, by the way,

i haven't played this game

in quite some time,

so I'm horrible at it right now.

But I used to be good.

When he plays

and it's a really intense match,

whenever he jumps in-game,

he tends to do this...

He's gonna hate me so much

for doing it,

but this is what he does.

I started playing it in 1999,

and I organized tournaments

so I could compete myself,

because nobody

was doing it at the time.

WE USED TO COME:

INTO Internet CAFS

like hustlers

going to a pool hall.

Come in with as much swagger

as possible

to scare the opponents,

but that wasn't pro gaming.

I mean,

the first place prize was $50,

and I would actually have to win

that $50

not to starve for a week.

Most of us wouldn't break even,

but we played for the thrill

of it, for the love of it.

And, gradually, kind of,

you know, the sport grew.

People watch other people

play video games.

Yes, you heard me right.

Who would want to watch

teenagers just clicking away,

playing their video games

all night?

Sitting, watching other people

playing computer games all day.

Really?

It's hard for me

to bring anybody

just from the street,

sit that person on my couch,

and tell them

to be enjoying this,

but take them to a stadium,

and they will love

the experience.

I think you don't need

to use words then to translate

what this phenomenon

of esports is.

Imagine what they'd do today

if golf became a sport, right?

We'd never heard of it before,

and someone from Scotland

said we're gonna knock

a ball 500 yards into a hole,

and we're gonna put a tiny flag

in it so you can just about

see it and give you some hope.

And that's...

Then go to ESPN and say,

"do you want to cover it?"

And they'd be like,

"you must be mad."

When there were no video games,

kids played soccer,

they played football,

and they'd have these dreams,

"if I could do this

for a living, man!"

But now almost every kid

plays video games.

For the first time,

there's professional athletes

doing that.

And that dream's powerful.

You can look at

the prize-winning pools

for all the players.

They're all up

in the higher echelons

of getting close to

half a million now.

It's moved from this little kids

in a basement

to everybody celebrating what

has become an awesome sport.

intel extreme masters

is a tournament circuit

which is the oldest of them all.

The ones that were started

before it, they've died off

because their business model

hasn't been realistic.

We're into season nine,

and it started off

in the old bedroom-cast style.

Lounge giant crt monitors

with people tucked behind them.

I AM Marcus "djWHEAT" Graham,

broadcaster

for the global gaming league

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