The term 'professional' can be thrown around lightly at times. In technology, you'll often hear the advertisement boast something like "the new, improved [product] Pro", as if its predecessor was a hastily thrown together piece of amateurism. In Denzel Washington's movie Man on Fire, one criminal after another claim they're "a professional", forgoing that they've been caught by - and are about to get justice handed to them - by a mentally unstable bodyguard.

When it comes to the world of gaming, the term "Pro" can be even more confusing.

At IGEC 2019...

At the 2019 Inven Global Esports Conference,  the subject of being a professional in the world of gaming on stream will be tackled, and the different fields will be explained. Where does the area of professional streamers end, and where does the area of professional players start? The definitions seem to overlap often, and especially with the battle royale genre exploding over the last years, the area is greyer than ever. Additionally, many competitive gamers are switching careers and focus on streaming - what's that all about?

In the Oxford dictionary, the noun professional is described as follows:

• A person engaged or qualified in a profession.

The accompanying sub-definitions are:

•  A person engaged in a specified activity, especially a sport, as a main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.
• A person competent or skilled in a particular activity.

So, shortly speaking, a professional is someone who is good at something and gets paid to do it. And yet, this is too broad within esports. Take Summit1g, for example. When he still competed in Counter-Strike, he could easily be called a CS: GO pro. Nowadays, however, he's streaming GTA V and other games on a daily basis for a huge audience, netting him big sums of money. But to call him a GTA V pro, arguably, goes a bit far. Or does it?

If there's any field in which words are picked with extreme care, it's the field of law. And at IGEC 2019, we're privileged to be joined by a pioneer, someone who has combined the complicated world of law with video games and esports. Ryan Morrison, founding partner of law firm Morrison Rothman LLP and CEO of Evolved Talent Agency, is making a panel appearance once more.

The Legal perspective

Last year, Morrison spoke about some of the horror stories fans of esports do not get to see. Players are often unprepared, naive and get themselves into quite a predicament. This time around, the lawyer takes us on a more philosophical tour. What is a professional player? Is it someone who simply participates in tournaments, or do they have to go all in and practice on a daily basis, change their Twitter tag to include their game of choice and travel across the world until a burn-out catches up to them?

Similar questions can be asked about streamers. Is there a number of hours you have to dedicate to be called a pro streamer? Is there a specific amount of followers, concurrent viewers or hours watched you have to hit?

It was difficult to make a distinction between pro streamers and pro competitors before battle royale games took over the gaming scene, and the arrival of the genre hasn't made it any easier. Ninja, Dr. Lupo, Shroud, Dr. Disrespect and many others are probably most known for their streams. Yet from time to time they're flown out to compete in teams, or even play from their own home in tournaments with huge prize pools. Do those people have two professions then? At IGEC 2019, Morrison will evaluate the situation, discusses if our vocabulary is up to date and explain the broader implications of what divergent definitions of professional gamer means for the esports industry.

Ninja is a former Halo pro, and now he streams Fortnite a lot. 
Is he a pro streamer? A pro Fortnite player? Both?

But that's not all the esteemed lawyer is walking us through during his panel. There's an ongoing trend where esports players are turning their back on competing, and pick up Twitch to live a streamer life. Where is this coming from? As someone who has helped numerous players in both fields, Morrison can explain what's causing the shift.

When and where?

This panel will take place at 3:00 pm in the Crystal Cove of the University of California Irvine's conference center. If you're wondering how we should define different branches of pro gaming, and what's causing a migration from competitors to streaming, be sure to attend!

For more panels, check out: https://www.invenglobal.com/igec/panels.