The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about an interesting pro-gaming cottage industry: Pro-gaming trainer.
The story looks mostly at 18-year-old game tutor Tom Taylor who runs Gaming-Lessons.Com. The site has a number of people working for them, teaching about games including famed 8-year-old gamer Lil Poison.
Gaming-lessons.com says its youngest "Halo 2" instructor is 8-year-old New Yorker Victor De Leon III — better known by his online gamer name, Lil Poison — who has given several lessons a month since late last year, fitting the classes in after he has done his homework. His father, also named Victor, says his son has used some of the money he earns from lessons (hourly rate: $25) to buy a hamster, named Cortana after a character in the game. Richard Jefferson, a forward with the New Jersey Nets basketball team, says several professional gamers, including Mr. Taylor, have helped him "raise his game" through "Halo 2" coaching sessions. Mr. Jefferson, 26, says he didn't pay anything for lessons, though he did give away some tickets to basketball games. Mr. Jefferson holds
Very interesting story and it shows a lot of forward looking by the WSJ to find a story about pro-gaming that hasn't been told yet, at least not in the mainstream press.
