This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.

At a Rocket League tournament in Birmingham, England, around 50 gamers are living what many would consider to be the dream: playing their favourite video game in front of thousands of fans with hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs.

But speak to the competitors, and they’ll tell you the reality can be a little different. Archie Pickthall plays for a team called GeeKay.

“It's kind of weird on the brain because now I kind of have a money issue,” Pickthall said. “I see money, that’s a lot of money, like a thousand — but to me it doesn't seem that much because my brain's so fried from seeing the crazy amounts of money. Which I don't think is a good thing to be honest, because then after Rocket League, you get kind of brought down to earth.”

“The job security is very poor,” he said. “You can get dropped anytime for nothing, and that's it.”

Esports is a multibillion-dollar industry. But while traditional athletes often retire into coaching, managing, or being a pundit, what does an esports player do when they’ve hung up their controller?

Despite the fact it’s not a physical sport, there is a consensus that esports is a young person’s game, because as you get older, your reactions get slower. Slater Thomas is 22 — and is the fifth oldest player here. He’s already making plans for his post-competition career.

“I've always wanted to teach. I've always had, you know, in elementary and middle school and high school, I had a couple teachers that I love and I still think about all the time. And for me, that's, I wanna make an impact,” he said.

If you compare this to something like tennis, this is like interviewing Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz and them saying they’d like to be a school teacher in five years’ time. So what does that say about esports and the way it's structured?

“It's true,” Thomas said. “I've lived through the stress of, I think, a full lifetime at this point. You know, I'm balding. Esports is stressful. You don't know where your next check is going to come from.”

One of the major differences between esports and traditional sports is how young it is. The industry has only been around for a couple of decades, and this means there aren’t many examples you can draw on if you’re trying to carve out a lifelong career. Robbie Douek is the CEO of BLAST esports, which puts on this tournament.

“The global gaming market, depending on statistics that you follow, is worth between $200 to $300 billion,” he said. “There are some statistics that say that it'll be $500 billion industry by 2030.”

“The esports industry inside of that is worth anywhere between $3 billion and $5 billion. So as a total market size, it’s not as big as one would hope, but it will grow and it will get bigger, and therefore there will be opportunity for many, many more going forward.”

“I think at this point, you know, are there jobs for all pros? Probably not, but there will be,” Douek added.

Phil Cooke lectures on the esports course at the University of Suffolk. He said that, unlike most traditional sports, esports doesn’t have a central governing body. This makes it harder to establish career pathways.

“There are organizations trying to do it already. A couple of years ago there was an international esports coach federation, so these organizations do pop up,” he said. “I think it has to be a wider industry step rather than any one team or person going into it.”

Back in the arena, French team Karmine Corp have just won the final and the $100,000. So, for this team at least, the wider worries about the industry can take a back seat for now.