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Question about the shelf life of Esports pros

Lucky Iccy·10/27/2015, 9:28:24 PM·1 votes·805 views

I have been following Pro league really extensively this year and one thing that struck me as odd is the REALLY low expected career length of pro players. We are in season 5, so only 5 years have passed since it was a thing but still, there are less than a handful of players still around from the beginning and many casters and experts and such seem to think a players is a "old timer veteran" after like 2 or 3 splits.

Hell in physical sports even like NFL football the player career span average is much longer and that is in a sport where your body is constantly beat to hell and as you age you loss effectiveness. We still have players rountinely around 10+ years. Where as in LCS it seems that we have players in their early-mid twenties being considered to old to play and basically NO palyers over 30 or 35.

My question is, does this stem from some unseen reason I'm missing that causes them to not be able to compete or is it more that the rewards for being a professional esports players are not worth the effort long term. If it is the latter I think it would be super healthy to up the rewards and keep these players around, as they establish fan-bases and become icons in and of themselves, which fuels a ore popular scene all together

TL:DR can someone explain to me why pro players never play very long?

3 Comments

Awkward Couch10/28/2015, 3:48:09 PM1 votes

This is a really good question. I have been watching league since season 2 so I have seen a lot of people come and go over the years. The shelf life, as you put it, of esports players is really short mostly because of reaction times. Right around 23 is when your reaction time starts dwindling down, that's just due to age. That doesn't mean that you can't still play esports, it just means that typically one is at a disadvantage. The other problem is the timing of it all. Most of these young rookies are just out of high school. Bjergson had to take a split off so he could finish high school. Dig EU had to replace one of their players because they were too young to play in the LCS. Because of this age group, most kids want to go to college and get an education and start planning for their future. As much as we may like to dream it, making a living until you hit age 65 and can retire is just not really feasible playing video games professionally. Hearthstone is a good example of where people are older and still play games professionally, but I think it boils down mostly to reaction time and the fact that good players are just getting younger. That's my take on the situation please let me know what you think.

Stillname10/28/2015, 6:16:19 PM1 votes

There is a lot of competition for spots in LCS teams. If you think about it despite the fact that millions of kids take up football in high-school in the US none of them are currently competition for NFL spots, but everyone who plays league in high-school is potentially competition for an LCS spot.

Then we move on to college where players can potentially move onto the NFL and we see that it is also harder for football players to really learn all of the decision making parts of the game. A player playing from their freshman year in college till graduation where they are ready to move onto the NFL plays about 50 games in a competitive environment and only about 10 of those are against competition that are their own skill level and truly test them. A potential pro league player can pop that out in a week easily.

Then we move onto the NFL where once a player is already in they are only competing with a small handful of people each year in their position to keep their job. Compare that to the league environment where every split a team has to prove they are good enough to stay in the LCS and each player has to complete with everyone in the soloq ladder that plays their position it takes a lot of effort year round to keep a spot.

Both leagues have a very high standard for success though (winning the Super Bowl or winning Worlds) and both have a high turnover rate for players (average expectancy for playing the NFL is around 3 years I think) but these are some of the reasons that league players come and go so quick.

Kal Vas Flam10/28/2015, 7:51:26 PM1 votes

Part of the problem (emphasis on "part") is that a lot of the management for these teams seem to think replacing players is the fastest way to improve. Most of these guys are about even in skill level, so it comes down to synergy and strategy. Neither of which hash themselves out over a mere few months, and constantly swapping players only enhances the difficulties of getting teammates on the same page.