What It Took for Jay Won to Become an 'Overwatch' Champion
This story is part of The 2020 Project, a Men's Health special project that explores the lives of 20 different 20-year-old men across America. To learn more about the others, go here.
LAST YEAR, Jay Won ascended to the pinnacle of his sport. Granted, Won’s world is esports and his game is Overwatch, a team-based first-person shooter. But before you scoff, consider this: Won’s team, the San Francisco Shock, claimed a purse of $1.1 million in front of a 12,000-person crowd at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Weeks before that event, Won was named the MVP of the national Overwatch League, and then, at the world-title game last November, he collected another MVP trophy. As with any other competition, success in esports can be expressed in numbers: Split-second reactions can determine the outcome of a match.
And the same goes for personal success in esports. A few months after helping his team win the world title, Won announced via Twitter that he was quitting Overwatch to play a brand-new game, Valorant—a move that pushed Won from the top into the unknown.
200
Amount in dollars of Jay Won’s share of his first esports prize. He collected the winnings in 2014 as part of a midtier Counter-Strike team while living in Shoreline, Washington. “That was the first time I made money off of gaming,” he says.
16
Age that Won left his high school and his family behind to live with his first team, in Atlanta. “My mom didn’t even know what I was talking about, but eventually she still went to Georgia with me to make sure I wasn’t killed or kidnapped or whatever.”
8 to 12
Hours a day he plays video games as a professional, with time split between team practices and individual drill work. “The time we put in is crazy as we try to improve. Mentally, I believe it’s a sport. You need to have a mental edge.”
6
Number of players on a team in Overwatch, where Won became a specialist. The game is a team-based shooter featuring characters with different specialties. The goal is to take the most territory or move a payload farther than another squad.
150,000
Value in dollars of the contract Won signed to play Overwatch for the San Francisco Shock in September 2017. Because he was under 18, he could practice with the squad but had to wait until April 2018 to formally compete.
#1
The goal Won (aka “sinatraa”) has for his debut season competing with the Los Angeles Sentinels in the first-person shooter Valorant. “I want to be on top again, and that is something I plan to do,” he says. Won plays Valorant as Sova and Raze. When he competed in Overwatch, the developers created a sinatraa-style Zarya skin just for him.
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