23 is not the age players fall off. It's just factually incorrect. Yes esports has an insanely short career length and age does matter. Not at 23. At 23, most players are in their prime. I don't know where y'all got this idea that 23 is very old for esports, it's just wrong. Sure, it is late to start a career but if you are a top player, you won't randomly disappear. Every year y'all keep reducing the age by a year. Next thing I know the new acceptable age for being a valorant pro is 18 and everyone else are old washed up bums.
1
Stupid ageism on vlr
posted in
Valorant Discussion
Comments:
Threaded
Linear
Ngl it’s pretty funny reading that thread and knowing that valyn had his career best domestic stage at 23
its more noticable in other esports like rocket league or fortnite but your cognitive ability for reaction times and neuroplasticity starts to decrease from 22-25 onwards and people think it means that they will immediately fall off when the loss of reaction times etc takes a long time and can be maintained through exercises etc
people just massively overestimate the rate of cognitive decline past that point
I hear what you're saying because it is true that there are plenty of players beyond 23 years old who are doing decently if not amazingly. This age discussion is something that has always been hit with claims that the fall off happens at X years old with the examples being spotty at best. The turnover for pro players is naturally high in a franchised esport system. Some players will only get one year or less to make themselves known before they drop into Tier 2 obscurity or worse.
I feel the reason why some fans claim that the prime age is so young is because we get very hyped about players who aren't even eligible to play for Tier 1 due to age restrictions and laws. The past few years, you could see it in Sayonara, Lar0k, Loita, Canezerra, Ion, Kozzy and so many more examples. All of these players had some serious hype around them when they were <18 in Tier 2 and the desire to see them shoot heads on a big stage is palpable. Tangent: the age situation is where CS has somewhat of an advantage because we saw donk going nuts when he was 16-17 years old. If he were a Valorant pro, he would be forced to chill in Tier 2.
Hopefully the new format for next year will give some hope to the younger players who wouldn't naturally get a chance in franchising, but to get back to the point, I agree that the prime age and fall off age are wrong - if anything it's more case by case than anything.
Discord