Croatian Players Have Earned Over Two Million Dollars So Far

The most successful gamers in the world are slowly entering the realm of millionaires or, to put it better, they have already become one. They play various computer games for their clubs, transfer to other clubs, and become stars, at least for those who follow gaming. In this world, we also have our own assets or stars among gamers and streamers, as well as professional players in e-sports. So, let’s see who these boys and girls are who, if you watch their recordings, passionately play games, jump, scream, and do everything that athletes do in sports arenas.

Who is Who

First of all, for those who are less familiar with the world of gaming or have no idea about it (like your journalist, who, admittedly, knew how to play computer games about twenty years ago), let’s state that a professional gamer is someone who engages in playing video games professionally. We divide them into two groups: streamers and e-sports players. Streamers play for an audience in live broadcasts and earn based on their skill, personality, and sponsorship contracts depending on the size and engagement of their audience. E-sports players are primarily paid for their skills, although personality and popularity also play an important role. One does not exclude the other, so a large number of e-sports players regularly stream, and after their gaming careers, some choose to engage exclusively in streaming. These are people who have turned their hobby into a professional career, becoming world-renowned and trophy-winning gamers. As can be read on various portals, they spend hundreds of hours at the gaming console, which is incredible, and it is undeniable that besides professionalism, it is also about passion.

According to data from Esportsearnings.com, last year there were 306 Croatian e-sports players who were awarded a total of 2.2 million dollars in prize money across 1118 tournaments. The most rewarded game was ‘League of Legends’, with winnings of 723 thousand dollars, which accounts for 33.13 percent of all earnings by Croatian players. Luka Perković, known as Perkz, is the Croatian player with the highest earnings, totaling 585,736.60 dollars, all won by playing the video game ‘League of Legends’. He is, therefore, our most successful player. Perkz is his gaming name, or nickname, which almost everyone involved in this sport has. He is a prime example of a passionate professional because, as portals report, he trains with his team G2 for six to ten hours a day, four days a week, with two days reserved for full-day competitive matches.

Even God rested one day when he created the world, and Perkz’s team has one day for rest. We just wonder, given that this is about passion, do they use that holy day for something else. And Perkz could because he graduated from music school, so in his free time for relaxation and recharging, he enjoys playing the guitar. As stated on the blog of the site Equestris.hr, from this guy who is still in his twenties (born in 1998 in Zagreb), we can expect many more European and world medals and his continued reign on the Croatian gaming scene. Allegedly, he will be hard to surpass in the near future because he is a professional of super heavyweight category in the game ‘League of Legends’. From 2015 to 2020, he played for the team G2 Esports, competing in the European Championship League of Legends European Championship (LEC). Since the spring season of 2021, he has been playing in the team Cloud9, in the North American League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), but he returned to Europe and today plays for Vitality as one of the most awarded and successful players in Western Europe and the world.

Ranking List

Next in terms of earnings is Jurica Risek Jur3ky (21) with 155,826 dollars, but he earned it in the game ‘Fortnite’. Following him is Dan Ušić known as rpr with earnings of 137 thousand dollars in the game ‘Apex Legends’. He has a computer services business RPR in Valtura. Another player with earnings over one hundred thousand dollars is Leon Pešić or neLo, who earned 107 thousand dollars in the game ‘Rainbow Six Siege’, where the total prize was 132 thousand dollars. This 28-year-old from Rijeka also turned his hobby into professionalism at a young age, and now he is in the organization WYLDE in the position of coach, where one of the owners is the legendary athlete Usain Bolt. His greatest success was the ProLeague final in Japan in 2019, where his team finished first. His second greatest success is that he managed to enter the ProLeague twice. Franjo Blažević, known as reqvam, is the fifth most successful Croatian in gaming. Last year, he earned nearly 93 thousand dollars in the game ‘Hearthstone’ (the total prize is slightly less than 122 thousand dollars). Luka Rukavina, or Lukarux, accumulated nearly 79 thousand dollars playing the game ‘Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds’ (122 thousand dollars). Interestingly, his teammates from Serbia and Croatia, which is why they are called the ‘Serbo-Croatian Quartet’ (Luka Lukarux Rukavina, Jovan Tomašević Naylup, Jurica Baronić ivas10, and Miloš Darinković Qbettinhos) enjoy great respect on the international scene. Ivan Koturić Sportbilly is seventh on the list of the best Croatians, with earnings of 72 thousand dollars in a game called ‘Heroes of the Storm’. Following him are Antonio Radelja known as Radelja with earnings of 61 thousand dollars in the game ‘Fifa 23’ (over 72 thousand dollars), Petar Matejić KaLaS (almost 57 thousand dollars) in the game ‘Smite’, and tenth is Adrian Benko Deathwalker, with almost 56 thousand dollars, also, according to data from the Esportsearnings platform, earned in the game ‘Smite’.

Young and Younger Old Professionals

As can be read, to become a professional gamer and earn some money, one must start to perceive their hobby as a job. Only the most passionate in these games are ready to take that step because anyone can be excellent at a video game, but as wise people have said long ago, five percent talent and ninety-five percent work is the formula for success. This applies to a career in video games, and, after all, we can confirm this ourselves because many of us play some game on our mobile phones, and the longer we play, the better the result.

Similarly, if a player from Croatia (or from nearby countries, especially those from the southeastern side) wants to succeed, they must surpass the level of a regional player, impose themselves; otherwise, their earnings will not be sufficient to live off, especially not enough to save some money for rainy days. Engagement must be complete, but as one of them said, that’s why they engage young people, teenagers, students… Unlike athletes who end their careers today and in their late thirties, gamers have a ‘shelf life’ until thirty. We would expect the opposite, but as they say, all that traveling exhausts a person, constant sitting by the computer, so their role today fades. After all, let’s look, six years ago among our best players were then boys in their early twenties: Petar Brljak (now 14th on the list of the best Croatians), Dino Tot LiMiT (22nd), Luka Trumbić Lukezy (25th), Toni Šabalić Sacre (not in the top hundred)… Those are not bad positions, but after six years, younger forces are pushing out the older ones, even though those older ones are actually young people. It seems that only the best player – Perkz, who is 27 years old – is resisting this, but that seems to be the exception that proves the rule.

Of course, there are also prejudices about such players: that they are asocial, that by engaging in front of computer monitors they do not develop social skills… However, as Professor Krešimir Krolo from the Department of Sociology at the University of Zadar stated in his research back in 2016, such claims have proven to be untrue. He presented a number of data indicating that all of this is actually contrary to the prejudices we have about gamers. We are left to see whether gaming will become as popular as other sports or will remain with a smaller number of followers.