Young stars win video game endorsement

Jonathan "Fatality" Wendel lives with his parents, plays computer games for eight hours a day and has just landed a six-figure deal to endorse high-tech products as a "cyberathlete."

Wendel, 20, and others like him are breaking new ground for the multibillion-dollar electronic games industry, which hopes to leverage a growing corps of PC warriors to elevate tournament-based gaming to a professional sport complete with teams, talent agents and lucrative endorsement deals.

Companies including Intel Corp., mouse-maker Logitech Inc. and router company Linksys are spending up to $1 million a year to sponsor game tournaments like QuakeCon in Mesquite, Texas, which last month drew 3,000 people and offered $45,000 in cash to the three top players of the popular game "Quake III: Arena" by id Software.

The corporate players are eager to cash in on video gaming's huge popularity. The Interactive Digital Software Association says 145 million Americans play PC or video games.

"That is more than there are golfers in the world," estimates Mike Barnes, a St. Louis agent who represents Wendel.

The sponsorship strategy is proving an effective way for the troubled tech sector to get its name in front of teens and twentysomethings without spending millions of dollars on TV spots or magazine spreads.

Demonstrate technology

It also gives companies a way to demonstrate the practical uses of their technology by creating a sort of weekend-long infomercial for microchips, peripherals and other hardware.

The pro gaming events often draw thousands of raucous spectators who crowd inside warehouse-sized spaces to stage their own amateur competitions. While the amateurs "frag" each other in fierce competitions over several days, the pros battle each other for cash in the next room, eliminating each other until only two are left.

The finalists then take the stage for matches displayed on giant screens for a crowd that industry officials say can include several tens of thousands of online spectators.

NVidia Corp., a graphics chipmaker in Santa Clara, spends as much as $100,000 a year to back such tournaments.

The tourneys, which are also popular among young people in Korea and Europe, help power an industry whose U.S. sales increased from $5.1 billion in 1997 to $7.8 billion in 2000, according to the Interactive Digital Software Association.

Lots of the competition takes place in the Dallas-based Cyberathlete Professional League, a 4-year-old private business that stages tournaments worldwide. Cash prizes provided by corporate sponsors total $500,000 this year, according to league founder Angel Munoz, a former investment banker.

Some league sponsors back players by paying for their hotel rooms, air fare and sometimes even paying them salaries. In exchange, the players -- most of them no older than 25 -- use mice, keyboards or other equipment made by the sponsor.

Cyberathletes are not your typical corporate shills. Logitech used to sponsor players more readily -- until it realized some were forgetting to roll out of bed.

"They forgot what time the plane was leaving," said Fred Swan, a marketing director at Logitech. "We would have them working in our booth at a tournament, and they would go on a break and go sign a deal with a competitor."

Fans are also a different breed. They would forgo bathing and warm bed for playing.