After Mike Rufail graduated from college in 2001, he turned to video games as a cheaper alternative to nights out, buying an Xbox 360 paired with popular first-person shooter Call of Duty 2. "I realized I was one of the better players pretty quickly," says Rufail, 36. Rufail went on to become a professional esports athlete and, later, founder and CEO of Envy Gaming, an esports squad that competes in tournaments for games like Fortnite, Overwatch, and, yes, Call of Duty. "I was a fairly good athlete, and played sports my whole life," says Rufail, who retired from competitive play in 2013 to manage Envy's roster. "But I also had a love for gaming." But in the past few days, Rufail's profession has been criticized by politicians and pundits who argue that violent video games have at least in part fueled America's mass shooting epidemic.

Blizzard Entertainment pioneered e-sports with its "Starcraft" franchise more than a decade ago. Now, with "Overwatch," the Irvine video game maker wants to bring to e-sports the wealth and recognition that sports such as soccer, football and basketball generate. To do so, Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Santa Monica's Activision Blizzard Inc., announced Friday it will adopt hallmarks of traditional sports leagues to form an e-sports league more instantly relatable than others spawned in the last few years. Blizzard envisions professional teams for the shooting game "Overwatch" based in a major cities worldwide. Players would be scouted and signed through free agency and receive guaranteed salaries and benefits.