I once tried to tell someone what I have done. As a professional player who belongs to A League of Legends squad, I have lived and trained under the same roof with many teammates from around the world. My friends didn’t understand me at all, and they kept asking me if that is something like playing Candy Crush.

Well, I am 26 years old and I have been at the world’s esports scene for four years. I am part of an esport squad with five more gamers. We get prepared, we strengthen strategies, refine communication, always commanded by the major of all, the coach of the team.

Depending on the country, the salary is different. My teammates and I receive our respective monthly wage, but the team also provides us with a home with all the equipment and additions needed to do daily training. This is from the most advanced gaming equipment to the internet with 150 Mbps, not to mention the lowest latency available to connect to the Miami server, the same one that connects Riot players, developer of League of Legends. We all live and train in the same house. The gaming house is designed for keyboard athletes to train, live, and prepare with everything they need, to become the top exponents in the League of Legends.

Accommodated in five quarters, are the six players of the squad, coach and team manager (yes, there is a manager). It is a large apartment in a high middle-class area where the best services are not lacking. The task of the guys starts one when it is time to start with the training.

For three hours the coach, watches us, immersed in us and on our screen. One, two, three games, approximately 40 minutes each. The coach looks closely at the game, while the rest of the squad gives directions through our diadems, always without turning away from the monitor, without turning to the next one that is no more than 20 centimeters away.

When the game ends, the indications begin. The coach has notes for all the team that takes just a few minutes to stretch their legs and returns to action. Between five and five and a half in the afternoon, the training stops; we must breathe to continue. Some go for a walk; others join the daily trip to the corner shop. You have to hurry because the next training leg starts at six in the afternoon. As in an office either, the workers have to be back, sitting in his office chair, that, that yes, being specialized for long sessions of play have all paints to be more comfortable than a professional regular. The work session does not end until past nine in the evening when we start the individual training.

The coach said that the team is closer than ever. It may sound presumptive to the press in the middle of an interview with our team, but the atmosphere of camaraderie has been felt ever since we all enter the ‘gaming house’. The team has already half a year working and living together, and yet we still party together, making the official walk to the corner store between training together, and even watching series together when it’s time to stretch our legs and close the day.

Being one by one every day has allowed us to develop quickly in a game whose operating rules are updated every couple of weeks. The best dynamic of the teams in collective is one that cannot be presumed by others who are dedicated to fighting games.