Legit (Touchdown Edition)

Chapter 1: Cyber Athletes

When it comes to sports and competition, nobody can deny that the world is changing. Sure, in countries like Italy and Brazil, a classic sport like soccer still rules. In America, baseball players still dream of hitting the game-winning home run at Yankee Stadium, while football players hope to someday play on Super Bowl Sunday.

These traditional athletic dreams no longer stand alone. To begin with, the emergence of the X Games has completely transformed the sports world. Skateboarders and snowboarders are now as common as point guards and running backs. And now, because of remarkable advances in technology, the pursuit of athletic greatness has expanded even beyond the coolest skate parks and highest mountaintops. A new generation of athletes now competes in the limitless frontier of cyberspace.

From every corner of the globe, these "cyber athletes" are chasing their dreams with the same hunger and intensity as their counterparts in other sports. They want to perform at the highest level. They live for the thrill of competing in the high-stakes world of professional gaming. Just like LeBron James, Albert Pujols, and LaDainian Tomlinson, these cyber athletes are good at what they do--really good.

So, what is a cyber athlete? Very simply, he or she is someone who plays video games competitively. Cyber athletes come in all shapes, sizes, ages and skill levels. They train daily and enter tournaments, where they match skills with other excellent gamers. The very best of them compete in professional leagues--earning a lot of money.

The emergence of modern-day cyber athletics can't be traced back to any one particular moment in time. However, its popularity was certainly on display in 2001, when the first World Cyber Games took place in South Korea. This international tournament attracted the best cyber athletes from around the globe. Not only did players want to stake a claim as the world's best "cyber warrior," but they also wanted a piece of the $300,000 being awarded in prize money!

Of course, the field of cyber athletics wouldn't even exist without cyberspace itself. The Internet connects the world, providing access to music, movies, games, shopping and unlimited information. More importantly, the Internet gives you the opportunity to be in touch with people--close to 1 billion people surf the Web every day! Have you ever stopped to consider how amazing it is that people can communicate instantly through cyberspace? Can you even imagine the world your parents grew up in--a world where people were not connected?

We are living in an era of fast-paced advances in the growing field of communications technology. We take much of it for granted, but we really shouldn't. Imagine how different things would be if, for example, Alexander Graham Bell hadn't invented the telephone. Bell's invention was intended to instantly connect people over distances far greater than they could have ever dreamed. That concept has since paved the way for much of the communications technology that is part of our daily lives. This includes the Internet, cell phones and even live gaming. Imagine the look on Mr. Bell's face if he were able to witness two people, a thousand miles apart, playing Xbox against each other!

The world has changed at a spectacular pace as a result of the Internet. Not surprisingly, young people have been able to understand these technological advancements better and more quickly than adults. In fact, 12 to 18-year-olds are usually the first age group to embrace new technology when it becomes available. Teenagers carried MP3 players while their parents were still listening to CDs. They were also the first ones to send text messages, use digital cameras, watch high-definition television and even shoot video directly from their cell phones.

In some cases, young people are the ones creating new technology. You may have heard the story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Back in the 1990s, they were college students at Stanford University in California. They started working together to develop a new search engine for the Internet. The result of their hard work was Google, which is now used by millions of people every day. Being comfortable with all things tech has clearly paid dividends for young people. It has made it possible to be successful at a younger age than ever before. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are good examples. Friends and coworkers, they were frustrated by the difficulty of watching videos on the Internet. These two young men came up with an idea that would make the experience easier and more enjoyable. Before long, their Web site YouTube had become one of the most popular destinations on the Net.

With technology expanding into every aspect of the human experience, thousands of career opportunities are popping up. As with Google or YouTube, technology is big business. Billions of dollars are being plowed into research, product development, software and many other areas of this exploding industry. Software giant Microsoft spends over $5 billion a year just on research and development! Young people are discovering that they can have exciting jobs in fields that interest them--like the video game industry (which is also referred to as "interactive entertainment"). Sure, it's fun to just kick back and play video games, or if you're really talented, compete professionally. But it's also rewarding to be on the creative side of things, working for a software company as part of a team that develops and sells video games. Not only is it satisfying and fun to be employed in this field, but it can also be extremely lucrative. The thought of earning a good living in the video game industry would have been crazy just a few years ago. Now there are thousands of people getting paid to help create and sell the games they love to play!

It's incredible that everything came together so quickly. The enthusiastic response to the World Cyber Games and other tournaments might have been the catalyst. Because of their success and positive feedback, it was only natural that video game leagues and organizations would spring up everywhere. In 2002 the very first professional video game league was born in the United States. Known as Major League Gaming (MLG), the organization focuses exclusively on console video games (as opposed to computer games). MLG has become the league of choice for some of the best professional gamers in the country. MLG is to gaming what the NFL is to football, or the NBA to basketball.

Holding live competitions across America, MLG is a platform from which bright young stars can emerge and gain prominence. One of the brightest young MLG pros is 16-year-old Bryan Rizzo, of Palm Harbor, Florida. Bryan travels around the country playing Halo 2.

When he's home, Bryan can usually be found in his room, eyes fixated on his flat-screen TV, Xbox controller firmly in hand. The headset he wears connects him to his teammates. They talk about upcoming tournaments, discuss strategy and have fun messing around. Mostly though, they practice intensely. It's not uncommon for them to spend several hours a night getting ready for the next tournament.

At only 16, Bryan ranks as one of MLG's top players. That's a tremendous achievement, considering the depth and quality of the competition. His steady rise is a tribute to his passion and determination. Bryan hadn't specifically planned to become an elite professional gamer, but it's extremely cool that it worked out that way. His success has led to some awesome rewards, including the opportunity to travel, earn money, make lifelong friends and learn a lot about the video game industry.

Bryan's journey began more than six years ago. At that time he was an average 10-year-old kid. Like his friends, he had already been into video games for a long time. Bryan found that compared to most people he knew, gaming came pretty easily to him. He played whenever he had free time, usually between baseball practice and school. Nobody--least of all Bryan--could have predicted that one day he would be a famous gamer, traveling around the country as one of MLG's top stars. One thing was certain, though--when it came to video games, Bryan was a natural.