{"id":65239,"date":"2014-05-29T14:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=65239"},"modified":"2014-05-29T14:06:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T12:06:58","slug":"15-richest-professional-gamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/65239-15-richest-professional-gamers","title":{"rendered":"15 richest professional gamers"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot of money in professional gaming<\/a>. You only have to look at this year’s Dota 2 The International<\/a> to see the kind of wealth gamers can obtain from playing their favourite title – currently the prize pool is sitting at just over $7 million (\u00b1R73.3 million).<\/p>\n

Just how rich are the richest gamers? Courtesy of Business Insider<\/a>, here are the top 15, what games they\u00a0play, and how much they have taken home from tournaments.<\/p>\n

15. Park ‘Lyn’ Joon – R3.3 million\u00a0from 77 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Korea’s Park “Lyn” Joon earned most of his cash playing WarCraft 3.<\/p>\n

\"Park<\/a>

Park Joon<\/p><\/div>\n

14. Jerry ‘EGM’ Lundqvist – R3.5 million\u00a0from 29 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Sweden’s Jerry “EGM” Lundquist has already made close to R200,000\u00a0from seven tournaments in 2014 alone. Main game – Dota 2.<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/a>

Jeremy Lundqvist<\/p><\/div>\n

13. Henrik ‘AdmiralBulldog’ Ahnberg – R3.6 million\u00a0from 36 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg, who also hails from Sweden, earned R3 million\u00a0from a single tournament playing Dota 2.<\/p>\n

\"Henrik<\/a>

Henrik Ahnberg<\/p><\/div>\n

12. Gustav ‘s4’ Magnusson – R3.6 million\u00a0from 38 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Sweden’s Gustav “s4” Magnusson also plays Dota 2. He started his career in early 2012.<\/p>\n

\"Gustav<\/a>

Gustav Magnusson<\/p><\/div>\n

11. Joakim ‘Akke’ Akterhall – R3.66 million\u00a0from 47 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Joakim “Akke” Akterhall, from Sweden, is a 26-year-old Dota 2 player. Besides being involved in the competitive Dota scene since 2006, he also won the Nintendo Swedish Championships three times: in 2004, 2006, and 2012.<\/p>\n

\"Joakim<\/a>

Joakim Akterhall<\/p><\/div>\n

10. Jonathan ‘Loda’ Berg – R3.7 million\u00a0from 47 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Sweden’s Jonathan “Loda” Berg has been on 12 different Dota teams. He gained recognition when he joined The Alliance in 2013. He’s taken first place in 23 tournaments.<\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/a>

Jonathan Berg<\/p><\/div>\n

9. Jung “Mvp” Jong Hyun – R4 million\u00a0from 50 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Jung “Mvp” Jong Hyun, from Korea, plays both StarCraft: Brood War and StarCraft 2.<\/p>\n

\"Jung<\/a>

Jung Jong Hyun<\/p><\/div>\n

8. Jang ‘Moon’ Jae Ho – R4.6 million\u00a0from 81 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Jang “Moon” Jae Ho is one of the WarCraft 3 players featured in the documentary “Beyond the Game.” He’s also a StarCraft 2 player.<\/p>\n

\"Jang<\/a>

Jang Jae Ho<\/p><\/div>\n

7. Lee ‘Flash’ Young Ho – R4.68 million\u00a0from 47 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Lee “Flash” Young Ho, a Korean StarCraft: Brood War and StarCraft 2 player, earned over R2,5 million\u00a0before the age of 18.<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/a>

Lee Young Ho<\/p><\/div>\n

6. Clement ‘Puppey’ Ivanov – R4.7 million \u00a0from 39 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Hailing from Estonia, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov has earned a respectable amount from competitive Dota 2.<\/p>\n

\"Clement<\/a>

Clement Ivanov<\/p><\/div>\n

5. Jang ‘MC’ Min Chul – R4.74 million\u00a0from 78 tournaments<\/h3>\n

One of the top StarCraft 2 players in the world, Korea’s Jang Min Chul has made his money by\u00a0regularly placing in tournaments of all sizes since 2010.<\/p>\n

\"Jang<\/a>

Jang Min Chul<\/p><\/div>\n

4. Oleksandr ‘XBOCT’ Dashkevych – R4.74 million\u00a0from 41 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Another Dota 2 champ, Ukraine’s Dashkevych has been raking in the money since 2011.<\/p>\n

\"Oleksandr<\/a>

Oleksandr Dashkevych<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Johnathan ‘Fatal1ty’ Wendel – R4.76 million\u00a0from 36 tournaments<\/h3>\n

The world’s first prominent professional gamer, America’s Johnathan Wendel success playing first-person shooters earned him massive cash prizes and sponsorship deals with major computer hardware companies.<\/p>\n

\"Johnathan<\/a>

Johnathan Wendel<\/p><\/div>\n

2. Danil ‘Dendi’ Ishutin – R4.77 million\u00a0from 43 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Ukrainian Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is well known in Dota 2 circles, and featured in the Valve documentary Free to Play<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Danil<\/a>

Danil Ishutin<\/p><\/div>\n

1. Lee ‘Jaedong’ Jae Dong – R5.4 million\u00a0from 52 tournaments<\/h3>\n

Korea’s Lee Jae Dong made huge sums playing StarCraft: Brood War before moving on to StarCraft 2 in 2012. In the second half of 2013, Jaedong became one of the world’s top StarCraft players.<\/p>\n

\"Lee<\/a>

Lee Jae Dong<\/p><\/div>\n

Source: Business Insider<\/a><\/h6>\n

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Battlefield Hardline gets gameplay video<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Papers, Please creator making new game<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Celebrate Tetris\u2019s 30th birthday in Joburg<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “poorest” on the list has taken home over R3 million from gaming tournaments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":65245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[12495,2218,21,6751,4155,635],"class_list":["post-65239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-dendi","tag-dota-2","tag-headline","tag-richest-in-gaming","tag-starcraft-2","tag-world-of-warcraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65283,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65239\/revisions\/65283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}