In the flight company SAS's own magazine Scanorama, there was an interesting article about gaming and the most famous Counter Strike team in the world - Schroet Kommando (SK). Recently, Played.dk published the article on their website.
The article is called "Virtual Glory", written by Rob Hincks and was published in the October edition of Scanorama, Scandinavian Airlines' own magazine, and thoroughly explains for non-gamers how serious and breathtaking the world of gaming really is. "What if your teenage child earned more money than you did?" is a question the writer asks the readers. He tells about the Swedish team
SK (Schroet Kommando) and brings up the fact that they earned $300.000 in the year 2003 - divided in five makes $60.000 a year, which is higher than the national average wage. |
"Not talking about a hotdog kiosk that pays the team shirts to be washed."
Further in the article, he writes about the sponsorships SK has - the world's largest chip maker Intel. The Nordic PR manager of Intel - Peter Hayward compares gaming to Formula 1 in the article. "All the big car companies want to be involved and so it is with computer companies and professional gaming. It's a credibility thing."
Hard work behind the glory
Hincks also brings up all the hard work for this glory. The daily 12 hour training, promotional tours (SK showed in Portugal during the Euro Soccer '04) and press calls is some of the things the "young players have to endure.".
The article features
Andreas "bds" Thorstensson, manager and founder of SK, talking about his team. "Everyone in the team follows a regular exercise regime and a regulated diet, especially around tournament time."Schroet Kommando pretty much like SK Telecom
The Counter Strike team Schroet Kommando can be compared to any Korean progaming team, say like SK Telecom. They have the promotional tours, photo shoots, press calls, glory and salaries. "The top Korean players are superstars in their world, with salaries to match." writes Hincks.
Links
Played.dk - Read the whole article
Fragbite.com - Source (Swedish)