Does age really matter in eSports?

Considering the infancy of the e-sports industry, the image of old pro gamers is strange to a lot of us. We are all too used to seeing young people, teenagers and sometimes even children appear on the competition stage and perhaps that is because video games are seen as the domain of the youth. . Possibly because of this, players in their late 20s are said to be starting to consider retiring from playing. With younger and younger players, like 15-year-old Brit Jaden Ashman, who won the Fortnite World Cup, dropping the average age of players, it makes us question whether the players are older belongs to competitive eSports or not.

Perhaps this trend is not too surprising given that not so long ago, video games were primarily intended for children and teenagers. In 2021, however, video games and thus e-sports have become the primary entertainment choice for people of all ages. Surprisingly in esports, we’ve really only seen the younger generation of pro players dominate the arena across various titles like League of Legends, Dota 2, Valorant, CS:GO and more again. As the years go by and young professional players mature into their late 20s, we see many of them retire or just fade away, out of touch. A lot of us will be quick to blame their age as the reason they can’t compete as professionally as they used to, but how true is this assumption?

In this article, we discuss the effect of age in eSports, the benefits for younger and older players, and we also got some insights from players. Dota 2 veteran, Chai”Mushi“Yee Fung.