The Business of Gaming: College Admission Essay Sample

The digital world is exploding; I know because I love to game. I am fascinated by fully immersive 3D environments where I can communicate with thousands all over the world, with the push of a button.

Two summers ago I worked in a garage, doing oil changes, taking nails out of tires and changing brakes, all to fund the parts for my gaming computer. I had never felt this enthusiastic about something before and got the feeling that this was my future calling. I researched different computer parts using YouTube and Newegg until I found the best ones for my price point. I learned that the Nvidia GTX 970 was the best GPU (graphics card) for the price. I found a good 300-Watt power supply, an AMD processor, a Ballistix stick of RAM and an MSI Motherboard. I read until I understood every component. Then I assembled it and started my journey into the cyber world.

After exploring many different intricacies of the online world, I downloaded a game called Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSGO), a competitive, 5v5, first person shooter that has been played by over 1,000,000 people worldwide. It was beautiful in my eyes, because not only was it a game, but a community. I created servers, crafted beautiful skins (designs on the weapons), traded those skins for US dollars, joined tournaments with cash prizes and met new people. My teammates were international, from countries like Russia, China, Thailand, and Sweden. They gave me insights into new cultures and helped me better understand the world. For instance I learned that the Swedish government takes around 50 percent of your income every year. CSGO not only allows instant communication, but inspires individuals from many cultures to work together, in real time, in an immersive environment, as a team to accomplish an objective. I love the collaborative nature of the gaming community and believe this is how business should and will be conducted in the future.

It took me over a year to become a semi-pro. I played in several CSGO tournaments and created numerous teams. I was determined to get better, so I did. I soon became the IGL (in game leader) for my teams. I called the strats (strategies), devised the practice schedules, set up the tournament times (not easy with teammates living in five different time zones), and captained our teams to victory.

Specifically, my vision was to create a brand, like that of Cloud 9 (a huge gaming enterprise). I named it We Script. I worked day and night creating We Script groups, interviewing different players for different levels of play and held weekly tryouts. My long term goals were to manage different teams across many different games, hire streamers, get sponsors, give players paid salaries, create aim, 1v1 and scrim (scrimmage) servers. I created our A, B, and C teams and found the best players for each.

After many tournaments and combinations of players We Script finally qualified for a major semi-pro tournament. This meant broad exposure for the We Script brand, since it would be streamed on Twitch: a live streaming service growing by an estimate of 100 million viewers per month. Some of the bigger streamers average 20,000 viewers per stream, 30,000 subscribers per month and make as much as $500,000 dollars a year. Huge corporations have taken advantage of this like Amazon, who recently bought Twitch for $970 million dollars. The tournament was for semi-pro teams looking to launch their careers as pros and go to LAN (local area network) games. The tournament was competitive and We Script, the underdogs, surprised the other big deal teams finishing second, only to fall in the finals.

Creating We Script, developing servers, managing teams, streaming on Twitch, and interacting with an international community is fascinating. The business of gaming is a massive opportunity and through my curiosity to learn, I have a front row seat.