Ninja is the next "Cover Athlete" from ESPN Magazine

Tyler Blevins, the Fortnite and better known pro streamer around these parties like Ninja, became the first professional player to appear on the cover of ESPN Magazine. Appropriately, the site presents an in-depth profile on Ninja, in which it addresses (or at least acknowledges) the controversy over its reasons for refusing to broadcast with women and, at some point, "suggests" $ 500,000 per months reported.

The profile examines some of the competing pressures that Ninja faces: Maintaining and raising its profile by taking part in public events, while keeping its core fan base – that is, Twitch subscribers – happy and busy. "When we decide whether I go to an event, the salary must be there," he said. "If it's not paid, how much weight do you have, are you going to network, is this network $ 70,000 worth?"

He aired with @Drake. He won the @FortniteGame Pro-Am with @marshmellomusic. He has released the beta version of @CallofDuty Blackout to 271,000 viewers.People can not stop watching @ Ninja.https: //t.co/PWGTjlXQCVSeptember 18, 2018

He also insists on the importance of practice rather than mere play, that is, attention to detail and analysis of what went well in each game. "You can play every day, you do not practice, you die, and well, you go to the next game," he said. "When you're training, you take every game seriously, so you have no excuses when you die, you're like: I should have turned around here, Should have been pushing there, I should have stalled myself. "Many people do not do that."

Regarding his reluctance to work with female streamers and the negative reactions that followed, he stated that he had "badly spoken" during the initial interview, but that he remained basically the same. "It's my wife – it's the person with whom I've sworn to spend the rest of my life.The fact that someone thinks I can judge how I protect my relationship and try to make it political … Really? " he said. He plans to collaborate with popular women on Instagram and says that he is happy to play with women in groups or at events, where he can "more control the story, without drama or silly rumors," but did not say that he could change his mind about one-to-one streaming.

It's an interesting and revealing profile, and the fact that Ninja is an "athlete" cover is quite remarkable. The print edition of the next issue of ESPN Magazine, which will also include a report on the killings at an NFL Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, in August, and other content related to the esports, will go on sale on September 21st.