I played two entirely different video games professionally for multiple years. That is, I traveled around the country often on a sponsor's dollar and competed in video game tournaments for money. I believe I can provide good insights into professional gaming. If you want to know more just ask!
I'm now lead developer at LiveNinja an internet startup that I will shamelessly promote here.
It's tough, I played professionally while I was still in school. Now that I have a job I would not have enough time to play professionally. For finding a sponsor unfortunately you have to already have good tournament placings and to have proven yourself. If you have an exciting personality you may be able to find sponsors with lower tournament placings than otherwise, but still need significant success. Be warned that very few people make enough money playing competitively to live on. Although, there are more every year.
I don't know the Call of Duty scene very well, I also haven't ever played a game that didn't have one dominant console. So, I'm not that familiar with the situation. My best advice would be to attend online tournaments/ leagues. A quick google makes me think those exist even for pc. Use the online leagues to get good at the game figure out pro level tactics and such. Then once you've had reasonable success and confidence get the console that has the most tournaments. That or if you have the money just skip to getting the console that has the most tournaments so you don't have to relearn controls. Sorry there isn't an easier/cheaper solution.
This could be too many things for me to really give you a good answer. Best I can say is make sure you have a quality computer and quality internet. Don't have needless programs running at the same time you play. Some games may also be dependent on the server and other factors, generally tough to take care of that. Sorry, I couldn't be more helpful.
I was playing professionally my freshman year of college but, stopped playing because it was too much. For me I couldn't keep my grades up while playing competitively, but there are lots of examples of top players who also do well in school while playing.
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What was the saddest student journal entry you've read?If you want to play competitively I would recommend something in the MOBA genre. Probably League of Legends, but DotA 2 is also a good option. Those games have a very large competitive scene that is growing fast.
He'd make more money learning how to program (I ultimately stopped gaming to do development work). Professional gaming is fun, and you can make some money on it, but you shouldn't count on it as a career. The top top players do make it as there career, but that's not long lasting and most players don't make enough to call it a career. That said if he can keep his grades up it actually is great for building valuable skills, you are playing with a team needing active teamwork as well as planning, problem solving skills, and likely even learning to network if he is working on getting sponsors to send him to events.
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