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There are many elementary school students who want to become pro gamers. However, playing games as a hobby and becoming a pro gamer are very different.



In particular, reporter Kim Ki-tae met students who are going down that road, saying that constant competition is not easy.



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Joo Jun-young, a 16-year-old junior high school student, comes to the academy twice a week to learn games.



How to move the character to subdue the opponent, what strategy to use in a crisis situation, Junyoung's eyes and hands are constantly moving.



The dream of the students gathered here is to become the second Faker who won the League of Legends World Championship.



[Joo Jun-young/Student: (pro gamer) is very divine among friends? It is such a revered existence. While receiving cheers from the fans at the stadium... I want to be an exemplary player for all pro gamers.] At



first, there was opposition, but as the awareness of the profession of a pro gamer improved a lot, I got the support of my parents.



[Lee Hyun-jung / Joo Jun-young's mother: I didn't really want to go pro gamer. The child wanted so much, and I think he had talent. I'll support you for about a year, so try it, that's how I started.]



The road to becoming an official pro gamer is not easy.



Students here can take the 4-month regular class if they pass the 1-month evaluation class, after which they will be evaluated by the coaches.


In fact, you are given an opportunity to audition to join the 3rd team squad, and they compete virtually through the eye of a needle.



Last year, e-sports suffered a lot of trouble due to the issue of unfair contracts by underage professional gamers.



Since then, standard contracts for players have been introduced, and treatment has been improved.



The average annual salary of domestic pro gamers is around 170 million won.



[Kim Ha-neul / T1 e-sports academy coach: I am focusing on these aspects of personality in the game and attitude toward life outside the game.

Skill is important, but I think that if there is a problem (attitude), all of my skills will not come out.]



The market value of e-sports is increasing with the establishment of a non-face-to-face culture due to the corona

virus

, especially as e-sports is adopted as an official sport at the Hangzhou Asian Games next year. expected to grow further.



It seems that more and more young people are chasing the dream of being a pro gamer and poking through the needle hole.



(Video coverage: Park Hyun-chul, video editing: Park Jin-hoon)