If you're at that high a level, you got there because you loved the game. So it's not really gruelling, it's what you would do anyhow if you weren't being paid for it.
You can work harder and harder at a game but not end up better than someone with superhuman reaction times despite a lot of hard work. Also, the game changes due to patches and content updates - all that work you put in for a year understanding a mechanic might be for nothing at the drop of an update.
Even implying they do is blasphemous.
People love different things. It’s how you get masters at different crafts. Some people love solving things and some love creating... programming is both of those.
I can't, sorry. I'm pretty into playing games (though by no means a "gamer" in the sense that it controls my life, etc.) but I will often choose to program rather than play games in my free time.
You are a casual gamer, but in this context you are as much of a gamer as a random board game player is one compared to Magnus Carlsen.
Watching something compile, link and pass all your test cases after you add a new feature is a pretty big dopamine rush in of itself.
Most probably love the game, but having been a semi-professional CS player myself in the past, it very much feels like "work" sometimes.
> it's what you would do anyhow if you weren't being paid for it.
Much different scrimming for fun or playing matches with your buddies/team mates/pub stomping versus practicing very detailed specifics or scenarios, or testing different team compositions and strategies over and over and over again.
I don't think this is true. To reach the highest level you need more than passion: you need dedication and discipline.
If you only practice when you feel like it then you're not going to practice as much as someone who has a set schedule they stick to no matter whether they're enjoying it or not.
Not only that but practice or training is much different from playing and often not at all enjoyable.
I would hope that all musicians love music, but practicing is usually very tiring and not fun. My current teacher always says that if you're practice feels completely painful and hopeless, you're probably doing it right.
One of my friends trained with one of the top players in the world in her sport. When she wanted to take it easy because she was on her period, the coach, also female, said she should keep going. That dedication could be the difference between being #1 and #2.
E-sports should drop the 'E' moniker, because the 'E' part is less significant than the 'sports' part. People think playing games is less taxing and less skillful than a 'real' athlete's work, but it's not. The same level applies, upto and including the revenue model.