Remember playing Mario and Duck Hunt? Those were the days. To be honest I don't see competitive gaming as that lucrative (unless your a corporation that is sponsoring it). I would never base a career on something that could turn around and drop you in the end. Same goes for Actors and Musicians, but they are paid in the 100's of thousand and millions range, so being smart with their finances they can fall back on, but professional gaming? Even if someone was a "pro" for 5-8 years, which is a VERY liberal estimate, what are you going to do afterwards? Say you started at 20. By the time you get out your 25-28, that's a good chunk of your life that could have been spent going to school, building a lasting career, starting a family or whatever. I don't know honestly, I guess it's appealing to some, but not very secure in my eyes.