It really is a big deal

The sense of community in gaming is a wide term. Most people may think the famous, rude and aggressive internet language blooms in gaming too. Well, in some simpler, a bit mindless team games that is correct. BUT in team games, where discipline, patience, years of practicing and advanced skills are inevitable, the sense of community is unbelievably high. In games like Dota 2, Starcraft and League of
Legends the players around the world truly act as one. No matter which team of the game you represent, a healthy sportsmanship is guaranteed.
  These kind of high class team games have gained enormous success in the last five years. And with success, money follows. The biggest news this year was that Dota 2 Esports tournament price money hit 7 million dollars. 7 million! When you compare that number in some of the biggest sports competitions, you can see how ridiculously high it is. Here's some examples (Samuel Lingle, The Daily Dot 20/05/14):

- The Boston Marathon awards a $150,000 top prize, with $806,000 money in total, easily dwarfed by The International.

- The Tour de France, cycling’s premier event, will hand out $616,500 to the individual winner and $3 million in total winnings this year. The individual amount is comparable to what each member of the winning team will earn.

- The Kentucky Derby out $1.4 million to the winning horse this year, with a pot totalling $2.2 million. Though the real money is made after the race and the lucrative breeding market. The owners of California Chrome purportedly turned down a $6 million offer to buy 51 percent of the animal before he won the Derby. Now they estimate his value is more than $30 million.

 - Every year, golfers top the list biggest earners in sports, thanks mainly to endorsements. The prize money at The Masters, one of the sport's premiere events, is fairly comparable to The International. Bubba Watson took home$1.62 million when he won earlier this year, while the event handed out $9 million total, a number that Dota itself might reach before crowd funding ends.

So you can see that multiplayer-online-battle-arenas (MOBA) really is a big deal. Now, some of you may think that gaming in this kind of level must carry the addiction issue with it. Skilled gamers do spend a lot of time practicing of course, but the word 'addiction' cannot be used. Because these games require intelligence from players, they are also intelligent to balance their lives between gaming and 'normal' life. The addiction topic can only be related to more 'mindless' games with no requirements of skills and discipline.

Sources:

http://www.dailydot.com/esports/dota-2-international-prize-pool-6-million/