Professional gaming: The perfect job?

What's life like for you before a tournament? Do you train pretty hard?
I get to the city a couple of weeks before the tournament...and basically all that time before the event I'm training, practicing. I prepare myself just like a regular athlete would in a real sport -- eight or 12 hours a day, every day.

When you're not getting ready for a tournament, do you play much just for fun?
Of course. That's why I got into gaming in the first place, because it's fun. It's fun to do other kinds of games, like "Madden NFL". I'm totally into arcade games and all that stuff. I was a huge Mortal Kombat fan back in the day. I got so good, I could put one quarter in and play for two or three hours.

Is it hard for you to strike up a friendly game online? I'd imagine everyone just leaves the room when you show up.
I usually don't use my name online too much. People don't believe it's me...so it's not even worth the hassle. I'll be hammering them, get 70 kills, and they still say I'm not me.

What do your parents think of all this?
At first they were totally sceptical. I made a deal with my dad and told him: "Let me go to one tournament and see how I do. If I win some money, I'll keep going from there. If not, I'll go to school full time." Next thing I know, I'm making 30 grand a year, and now I'm moving into having my own brand. It's been pretty insane.

Your reflexes can't last forever. Have you thought much about retirement?
Creating my own company is a pretty good way to secure my future. If I can't game, then I'll just concentrate on that. Look at Michael Jordan -- he's made more money from running his businesses than from playing basketball. For any athlete, they want to make as much money as they can from their sport -- but you need to be ready for when you can't play. My goal is to build this company and give back to the community. I'm going to sponsor events and teams. We're sponsoring 30 computers here.

How do you keep your reflexes sharp?
I run four miles a day; I do real aerobic training. That keeps me fit and really keeps my reflexes up. It helps you move faster and think faster. I was a serious tennis player in high school. I was team captain in football. Most top gamers were pretty good athletes in high school. It's a lot of the same skills. It's about being competitive and thinking fast and knowing how to win -- it's not about sitting at a computer all day.

I use the same tactics in "Quake" that I used in tennis. It's all about mind games, knowing what your opponent's thinking, knowing where a shots going to go. Anything in a computer game, I can relate it to something in sports I've played. The rail gun (the heaviest weapon in "Quake") -- that's like going for the overhead slam in tennis. You set 'em up and then you drive it home with your hardest shot. It's like all the shots in tennis are, back and forth, trying to get them off balance. And when you do, you slam it down their throat. Same as gaming.

The gaming tournaments attract pretty good crowds now. What's it like playing in front of an audience?
It's exciting. When I had MTV watching me, I was psyched every second, thinking millions of people are watching me. Lot's of people might crack under the pressure, but I'm just the opposite. When people are watching me, that's when I play my best. I love it.

Do you sometimes look around and have a "How did I get here?" feeling?
Yeah, that happens. Why am I a professional gamer? It all happened so fast. It was being in the right place at the right time, and I didn't slack off once the opportunity was there. I went all out. Everything I got, I've earned. People think I get all this stuff just because of who I am, but all of it was earned. I sacrificed a lot to do this.

Are there any players on the tournament circuit who make you nervous?
I never get nervous; I just play. I know what my game is. I played "Quake III Arena" in a tournament last year, and it was the first time I had played that game in eight months. I was focusing on other games, showing that I'm really a professional gamer, not just a guy who's good at one game. So everybody's talking all this smack about how I couldn't play anymore. I went back, practised two months and basically went in there and won the biggest game of my career

When there's a tournament, I'm going to show up and get my game on. A lot of other people like to talk big, put other people down. I don't like that. I try to be as sportsmanlike as possible -- I shake hands before the match, stuff like that. But when the game's going on, I'm all about winning. I'll do whatever it takes.