A professional video gamer.

The thought crosses the mind of any kid who spent a good part of his or her summer playing video games in the great indoors. But the dream slowly dies once kids start to grow up and realize that being a professional video gamer is more of a myth than a profession.

However, UO student Justin Chavarria was able to turn his lifelong passion of playing video games into a big payday of $250,000 for winning MLB 2K13’s Perfect Game Challenge. The MLB 2K13 video game tournament involved thousands of players throughout the country vying for the cash prize. The final four played against each other in New York City, and after countless hours on digital baseball diamonds, Chavarria came out as the winner.

“I don’t think words could properly express how exciting and amazing this whole experience has been,” Chavarria said after winning against Brad Holland to win the $250,000 cash prize on Tuesday.

A political science major at the UO, Chavarria says that he took a break from playing MLB 2K13 in May to focus on his studies, but in June he was back at it, playing the game for seven to eight hours a day.

Before he went to the championship round, Chavarria had to play against fellow Oregonian Tyson Sanders from Oregon City, who was also one of the four finalists along with Chavarria.

Chavarria said that he plans to use his money to help pay for his tuition, and to also help him save for law school. He’s also looking forward to spoiling him and his family a bit.

“I’ve been overwhelmed with emotion ever since the last out of the game,” Chavarria said, describing how he was feeling once he realized that he was going to win the grand prize. “I couldn’t be any happier right now.”