That anyone has ever made a living off of gaming is just a marvel to me. I mean, we Kotaku bloggers squeak by: off-hours, Crecente is a journalist, Eliza's a goth singer, Ashcraft's a hobo and I am heavily involved in Ireland's Chinese orphan black market. But man can not subsist on games alone.

But apparently subterranean basement dwellers can. Otherwise known as 'professional gamers'. There's still companies out there trying to market these guys as athletes, and Major League Gaming has just signed Final Boss Team (not pictured), a group of hard-core Halo 2 clanners, to a $1M+ contract.

Of course, they're not all millionaires... the five guys will be paid $250,000 each over the next three years. Not enough to go to bed in a pile of money or snort cocaine off of Paris Hilton's posterior, but certainly enough money to justify a life of gaming, sloth and muscular atrophy. Florian Eckhardt

Play Halo, Get Rich [Kikizo]