Despite esports being heavily focused towards competition and operations around it, such as streaming, production or other team-focused assignments, becoming an esports journalist is still a very viable career path to choose, if you’re ready to face some of the bigger downsides this career has.
Journalism as a profession is (luckily for you and me) actually a very open one and a relatively easy career path to get into, at least in the grand scheme of things. After all, any one of us can easily be a journalist: grab a laptop, find something newsworthy, write about it objectively and there you go, you’re basically a journalist!
Of course, it’s not that easy in the slightest, but that’s the basic idea. In reality, most journalists come from some sort of language or writing background. In my case, I graduated Media and Culture in Croatia, which made journalism one of the main pillars during my studies. There I learned about how to write news by the book, which meant understanding the structure of news and how the news cycle works and operates.
While beneficial, I know many esports authors and journalists who did not take the same path, so there’s no one clear answer here. What is absolutely needed is a love for writing – if you don’t love spending time looking at thousands of words on a screen, this one’s not for you.
For me, a surefire first step, if you’re early in your career and thinking about writing about anything, not just esports, is to try and find someplace to write and publish your work. For me, that came through a series of volunteer gigs, blogs I created and other websites I worked on during my collegiate years.
Ideally, if you’re into esports, you should know someone who knows someone in the industry. For example, a grassroots esports organisation, a small collegiate tournament series, or an online event. Then, you just write about them (or for them). Grassroots and small esports brands are everywhere today, and in Croatia, for example, Esport Adria is one that often seeks volunteers and junior writers who like esports and writing about it. I’m sure your region also has something similar.
After finding someone who would like to publish your story for free, it’s up to you to just write as much as you can and learn as much as you can from those around you. Sadly, in esports journalism, there are not a lot of senior journalists around that can help you with some real-world experience, but almost anyone with experience will be very happy to answer questions or even give your work a read if you ask them.
“If you need direct, actionable steps, do this: write a 300-word news story about a tournament,” Dota 2 The International 2024, Copenhagen, Denmark. Image credits: Valve via Flickr.com
Many journalists and authors view the process of writing itself as a tool, just as a race car is just a tool the driver uses to win races or a keyboard is just a tool to insult teammates between games. That being said, it’s also the first “tool” you should acquire. In addition, every journalist must have the ability to research topics and ideas, a level of confidence that allows them to approach people and talk with them, a basic understanding of video and photo editing tools to make materials that support the articles, and an overall good work ethic.
Most of these things are so-called ‘soft skills’, because journalism is, at its core, a people-first profession. Sure, you’ll get by with writing news and covering a match here or there, but the real fulfilling part of this job is to find out interesting people and stories, which is tough to do if you’re not interested in talking to people all of the time.
As for hard skills, you need to know your way around a computer, and you should know how to use CMS software such as WordPress to publish your stories. A good idea is to also know how to use a camera, take good photos and be familiar with social media and the latest trends, since getting your stories read is what this is all about.
There are tons more, but if you approach me and tell me that you know how to write and use WordPress, that’s an excellent first step.
Well, yes and no. As with any creative work, there’s a chance you might go a long time without making any money. The esports industry is known for not being the most lucrative one for journalism and content writing, but there’s a bit of money going around that can plug holes in your budget. As your skills and personal brand grow, you’ll open other ways of earning, such as newsletters, Patreon subscriptions and perhaps end up as a full-time member of an esports media outlet (these are, however, very rare today).
If all of this looks interesting to you and you’d like to try out a career in esports journalism, I wholeheartedly applaud your decision. I’d suggest trying it out as a hobby or a new skill, and then pursue depth and proficiency. It’s not a hard job per se, but it’s one of those things that are deceptively easy to learn and incredibly hard to master.
If you need direct, actionable steps, do this: write a 300-word news story about a tournament, such as “tournament X is starting on date Y”. Then, compare it to the ones that are published on esports media outlets. Then, do a similar thing 10 more times. Write about a player’s move to a new team, a game score, or a recent development. Just write. See you at the next one!
Featured image via Freepik
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