By Curtis Skinner
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Video gamers who
live-stream their matches online and the throngs of fans who
tune in daily to watch them swarmed a first-of-its kind
convention in San Francisco on Friday, as interest swells in the
medium of online video game broadcasting.
Lyndon Lauder, 23, traveled from Montreal, Canada, in hopes
of meeting his favorite player, Jaryd "summit1g" Lazar, who has
attracted more than 1 million followers to his game broadcasting
page.
"If I see him, I'm just going to tackle him," Lauder joked.
Gaming-focused conventions are nothing new, but TwitchCon
2015 is the first time fans, aspiring broadcasters and the
virtual stars they watch will come together for a two-day
conference dedicated solely to online game broadcasting.
Twitch, the biggest online home for game live-streams with
roughly 100 million unique viewers per month, is hosting the
event and expects 15,000 gamers to attend.
Lauder, both fan and broadcaster, goes by "LyndonFPS"
online. He said Twitch recently invited him into an exclusive
revenue-sharing partnership after he built a large enough
following on his own.
By hobnobbing with other fans at the conference, he hopes to
raise his profile enough to quit his job as an electrician and
focus full-time on live-streaming himself playing the popular
zombie survival horror game H1Z1 and other titles.
"It's what I like to watch and what I like to do," he said.
Exact numbers of how many players are able to make a career
of game broadcasting are hard to pin down, but Twitch Vice
President of Marketing Matthew DiPietro said "dozens" of people
are earning six-figure salaries on Twitch, and more have turned
it into full-time jobs.
Opportunities for players are likely to grow. Amazon.com Inc
AMZN.O acquired Twitch in August 2014 for $970 million after
outbidding Google Inc GOOGL.O , which launched a rival service
in June, dubbed YouTube Gaming. ID:nL3N0YY4YN
The growth of game broadcasting has coincided with a
parallel surge in competitive gaming in the United States. In
August, Seattle's Key Arena was sold out for a video game
tournament that featured an $18 million prize pool.
ID:nL1N10K02M
At San Francisco's Moscone Center West, attendees wandered
past booths at which companies pitched their latest
streaming-related technology to up-and-coming broadcasters,
stopped in to listen to panels on subjects ranging from women in
gaming to building an online presence, and lined up for the
chance to pose for selfies and get autographs from their
favorite players.
Jordan Maron, who goes by the handle "CaptainSparklez"
online and has 1.2 million followers on Twitch and about 7
million subscribers on YouTube, had several dozen people waiting
in line to for the chance to briefly meet him.
The 23-year-old gamer, who recently tweeted out a picture of
a Bentley luxury car he bought, said he lives "comfortably" but
is most rewarded by hearing from people he's inspired with his
playing.
"Whenever I get to meet people like that," Maron said,
"That's pretty awesome."
(Editing by Patrick Enright and David Gregorio)