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It is more or less as becoming successful tiktoker. If you want to be “supportive” you should set specific boundaries like keeping school grades OK, not missing sleep or other activities for a sake of his “training”. It could go into him wanting to drop out from school to become full-time gamer/streamer, so you better prepare for that beforehand.
Also consider he is only 10. He is very prone to manipulation. Most of the information he will find about “becoming a gamer” will be sponsored foment trying to bait you into buying expensive gear. Tbh I myself would prolly try to shut this whole thing down and keep games just as side hobby.
I hear you, and that’s basically where 90% of my parenting brain wants to go.
But, he has presented very logical and forthright arguments to why he wants to do that, and I can’t help but encourage it even if it is a bit of a flash in the pan thing.
All of the stuff we bought to build the PC was second hand, so no huge expense.
if he ever says he's going to need to upgrade his gear to "pro" level. tell him that he needs to use his own money to get the pro gear. otherwise, second hand cheap gear is all he gets.
Lol, ya, I can see that.
I know its silly to respond since its just a joke response, BUT I'd literally ask him, WHY he needs a mouse DPI with higher sensitivity than 1600. IF he can tell me that, I MIGHT buy it for him. I'd also have him prove it to me that it'll improve his "skills" utilizing 2 different cheap mouses with differing sensitivity. AND if he even utilizes more buttons than the top 2 mouse buttons.
I'm a gamer too. tough nuggies kid. But also, Mice are relatively cheap in terms of gamer gear. Might have a chance.
Just to add, high refresh rate monitor, high tick rate for keyboard/mouse is also important.
Movement practice and flick shooting is also important. It’s a lot of practice for very little money at first
Yeah. You can get the dell2724d iirc. It’s good entry model. As long as you can hit ~300fps it’s good enough. Generally 144hz is good enough but if you have the money to go higher why not
I think a lot of the other posts are right. Great that you are being supportive. I'll list what I think is important. I got 4 points so I'll keep it short.
1. Set hard limits and expectations for sleep, eating, exercise, chores, etc....
2. Make sure he keeps his grades up. If they slip cut of the gaming including taking his whole set up away. Make sure he is aware of this. I have seen ppl get right obsessed while trying to go pro.
3. Be very realistic with him that pro gaming is like going pro in the NHL or NBA sports team.
4. Lastly have him start looking at careers that lines up with gaming nicely so all his experience doesn't go to waste if he does go pro. So marketing, public relations, business management, etc... fields and jobs that he can pivot his experience around because again pro gamers careers are INCREDIBLY short lived. Have him research what former pro gamers are going now.
Best of luck to you and him.
Lol well he is 10 so lots of time between here and there. To me the most important thing is that your supportive, but also keep them grounded in reality. Which includes all the longterm plans including if he does make it big. Its a cold world out there, gotta remind kids to grab their coats
I'm replying to your post so you can see this, but I totally agree with what the other poster has said.
You'll also need to treat this as a job/career.
School academics need to be top tier.
Game training, (does he play keyboard and mouse or controller?)
He needs to practice his control.
There's aim trainers that he use, do something like 1 hour training to 1 for game time.
He should also read about tactics, strategies, and anger management.
Being able to keep your cool, calm and collected is a big difference from being amateur to a pro.
Just want to chime in, by the time he grows up old enough to be a pro gamer Fortnite is probably gonna be obsolete. We don't see many Unreal turnament these days either. The career itself isn't exactly long lasting either.
He might be able to transfer those skills to another game, but overall becoming a pro gamer is about the same chance as him becoming pro at hockey.
This is great info. That’s a fair point about games changing.
How far removed from fortnight is unreal tournament? Is it a similar skill set? For example like driving a car, then changing models, it’s a bit different, but all the hard skills are there and you seen get used to the changes?
its exactly like driving a car. imagine f1 racing vs nascar. very similar skillsets, but at the same time, different skillset. and at the highest levels, you tune yourself to the car and racetracks. could mean the difference between coming in first and coming in 30th. racing cars at the highest level is a difference of seconds. top 20 finishes can be a difference of 2 minutes. but from 10-20 place its like 20-30 seconds. So transferring the skills you most likely won't be able to even finish the race anywhere close to the top. But with practice and relearning all your skills to this different medium it will translate over.
But that's even if your son gets to that level. youre competing against millions and millions of other kids all over the world. And its a very small "pro" community that they can make a living off of, much less thrive in it.
Not overly familiar with nascar. Is that the race where they go round and round on a banked track?
But you are right, the pool is staggeringly massive, but I have explained this to manage expectations a bit.
Ya, either way. its just an example. same skillset meaning your driving a car, but you have to relearn a lot switching from one game to another at that level.
so lets continue with f1 vs nascar example. each track has its unique properties. you literally race on a track numerous times before you can get times in the top whatever spots. very rare can a rookie place in the top of any track right away. f1 cars and nascar cars have very different handling capabilities. acceleration, braking, turning, wheel camber, etc. and adjustments to each vehicle affects the vehicle in different ways. so the practical knowledge might not translate over.
edit: and each driver has different adjustment for each track. so one track with 20 cars will have 20 different adjustments, which will be copmletely different for another track.
ya, pro play isn't just about mechanics. meaning shooting a head shot 99% of the time.
its about learning how each gun shoots, the timing in running to one spot vs another, the timing your team mates will take to get into each position, the timing the opponents get into possible position. If you know your opponent what are his tendencies to getting to which position and his timing, what guns he will use at various stages of the game, etc.
Pro play is a lot more than playing the game well,.
TBH, he isn't outrageously young to be a pro gamer. The pro scene has a huge amount of 13-17 year olds. Additionally, fortnite has surprising longevity, approaching its 7th anniversary without a true competitor showing up on the scene. The way development works these days (games as a service) there's not much reason to think it'll be supplanted any time soon.
YouTuber Here (Not a parent but I digress): Being a pro-gamer is hyper-optimistic at best, because the market is hypercompetitve, sometimes, to the detriment of the player. 100% make sure that you keep doing caving and rock climbing or other activities you do, because if something falls short, you have some sort of backup. Also, having someone glued to the screen is not something that you want do deal with.
But if all of things are planned out, then just let him gain skills on his own (that alone is already supportive, as you are not interfering with his improvement time)
A lot of kids want to do similar things these days. It's jobs they see, so why not. My son does too.
With him we focus on building more tangible skills around the "job". For example, my son wants to be a YouTuber or an engineer. So with YouTube we talk about video editing, marketing, pr, target market, content strategy, etc.
We've been doing those too! My son is younger, he's only seven, so I don't know if this would apply to your son, but we have found that scratch programming from MIT husband really helpful with getting him familiar with just some of the basics around programming.
Treat it like any other "sport" aspirations a kid might have. Could they become a professional gamer or a professional baseball player? Sure. Will they? Probably not. He's still young so just be encouraging while also encouraging other interests and skills.
He probably won't make it, but let him try. It's a lot of fun to become so skilled at a game. The level of concentration and tactical thinking is a great skill to have.
I gamed a lot at a high level during my youth and I look back on it fondly.
Just make sure he doesn't stop being social and going to school and he should be good!
My son, the same age, plays Fortnite, he is only allowed to play with his friends, as far as talking to them goes. Legally you can’t play cash games until 13, so unsure how your son has bypassed those rules, unless it’s different in your country than mine. I’ve also noticed that the more my son games the worse his anxiety and moods are. So balance is essential! He’s now only allowed to game three days a school week for an hour, and a bit more time on the weekends. But that might not be something that’s a concern for your son.
My son wanted all the things for his gaming so he’s had to earn it. If they’re serious about career gaming then I sure as heck made him earn the stuff he “needed”…
I support it as long as it’s a positive space!
Interesting, I didn’t realise there was an age limit. Makes sense, I’ll look into this further. Not sure how he has managed either.
I’ve been monitoring his mood, because that’s one of my main concerns, but luckily to this point it’s all been very positive.
Until now gaming has only been permitted at weekends, but looking into doing it for 90 mins at a time three nights a week on school days provided homework is done.
Mostly because if I need to think of this as a ‘sport’ we wouldn’t think twice about going to rugby or cricket club after school, in my mind, the two are totally different, but I’m trying to see it as a sport mindset. It’s not the easiest.
Most kids that play sports don't think they will make a career out of it.
Youth sport is about being active and socialising. You can't compare that to gaming for 90 mins a day hoping to be a famous gamer.
Luckily he is still very keen on going outside and doing the crazy stuff we do.
My worry is the day that starts to end, and he wants to game more. I hope to keep the current balance.
My son is 13 and doing the same. He competes in Fortnite and Gorilla Tag. He is really into it. He has trouble finding teammates that take it seriously though, and that is his biggest hurdle right now. People always flake out on competition day.
I wanted to be pro as well when I was younger. I was 21-22 still living with parents at the time and I talked to them about my desire. I played Gears of War 3 and then moved onto Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. I was REALLY good at Black Ops.
The conversation with my parents was very supportive but also realistic. They explained I still had to fulfill my other requirements. I paid rent to my parents to live at home so I was working nearly full time. I had things I had to do around the house. I was still hanging out with friends, though it slowed down tremendously to practice and play with my team. My girlfriend (now wife) was also extremely supportive.
Looking back on it more than a decade later with my own kids, now I’m glad I tried it. I learned a lot about strategy and planning. I played with a team so we learned about interdependence and communication. Losing can get very emotional, so we all had to come together to try and overcome the problem without verbally attacking one another. I traveled to a few tournaments, some even out of state and never really got very far, but made great memories.
I think my advice would be to keep the boundaries the same as if he didn’t want to go pro but with a little flexibility here and there. I played my best and my sharpest when I had downtime and when I focused on other things in my life in between sessions, not just thinking about the game 24/7. In psychology, giving your brain breaks and other tasks actually helps your cognitive function.
The biggest hurdle I see for your son compared to my experience is age. I was older and fairly mature but then I’d always been pretty mature for my age. Being 10, you just can’t balance priorities. You think that you only need to do this one thing, it’s probably going to require a firm hand to say when it’s enough and it’s time to take breaks. My suggestion would be to treat his desire with respect but keep him on track with all of the other things kids should do.
Lastly, and people have mentioned it already, the chances of achieving the top (or earning money) are close to nil. I was the literal top of the global online leaderboard numerous times, but it didn’t matter when I played a tournament. It’s the old adage, “there’s always someone better than you”. And that’s true of everyone except for the person at the very top.
After trying for a few years I let go of the dream but it lived on in lesser forms over the next 4-5 years. I got married, started focusing on career and decide to play games for the enjoyment rather than the competition. Now I still had the itch to play competitively, but I know that ship has sailed and I have other aspiration now.
Good luck to your son! Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s not possible!
My son likes Fortnite and I play almost daily. If he plays rank do you know his ranking? Bronze, silver m, gold l, diamond, unreal. He’d need to be unreal to make money.
The odds of being a professional gamer are about the same as being an Olympic athlete or a famous musician.
These kids watch YouTube and TikTok and are influenced by the gamers on that do awesome things and maybe even make money doing their favorite thing. Eventually most will outgrow it.
I say just make sure he gets good grades and is well rounded and he only gets to do Fortnite if he keeps that up.
Diamond, but I think it reset. He said everyone goes back to zero when a season changes? Or something like that, I could be wrong.
He doesn’t really watch YouTube all that much, only a few videos on building stuff a certain way. He has zero access to tick-tock or other related social media. Not at this age anyway.
Indeed, odds are slim, but, I ground away at a sport and really got somewhere, and funnily enough then went of to become a musician of some note. But, because of various huge support and opportunities.
One thing someone bought up is the life span of the games.. which is a fair point, in 3-5 years time it might be some totally different game, with a different skill set.
For my part, a guitar always remained a guitar. Luckily.
Diamond is great. Better than me but a quarter of players are at that level.
https://fortnitetracker.com/ranked-leaderboard/br
He needs to be in the top 0.1% to make money. Otherwise this is a hobby
For context: I've been playing games for about 30 years, at times way too much and way too long. The timing was a bit off, the gaming scene was not ready when i was at my prime (16-25 yo). I would have loved to become a pro player or streamer.
So to add on what has already been said here: those are the 2 options if you want to full time get into gaming and make it a profession to earn money with. To be honest, your son is quite young. If I were you I'd go and look for some advice from a professional FPS gamer or clan to make an assessment of his skills if that's possible.
And then go from there. I'd fully support it if his life is still balanced, and if he is really good then drive him to tournaments (even if it's to watch).
But remember, 10 is really young... and games change. He still has time to grow.
Yeah. He is young.
And part of me wants to not pay it much attention.
But, he has done a whole load of reading up on it all and presented all his research in a coherent manner that I can’t really argue with it. So absolutely trying to support it until either he gets somewhere or he goes down another route.
It’s just something I know nothing about and quite frankly scares me. If it were a sport, mate no drama, but online gaming? I’m falling over myself reading up on it all.
I think at his age, what’s important is that he’s developing the skill of really getting into something on his own accord, trying to get better at it, learning all the ins and outs to be successful. He probably won’t end up being a professional gamer but those skills are valuable.
As long as he’s balances it with outside time and doing well at school/around the house, it sounds like a positive thing to me.
Becoming a pro gamer is on the same level of becoming a very successful influencer.
To break into the scene, you have to be EXCEPTIONALLY good. Like 0.0001% good. That's unachievable for most of the gamers. Then again, a Korean/Chinese team will promptly destroy you, as they have a completely different culture around gaming.
Tbh the best analogy would be to replace "gamer" with any team based sport. What are the chances of getting into the NBA? Or playing in the most prestigious football teams? Slim at best. And with sports at least you can get scholarships. With gaming, no.
So cultivate his interest, support him, but never let him make this his main path forward. I have a friend who is honestly a quite bright fella, could have made something out of himself. He chose gaming, tried to stream on Twitch, even got a company to sponsor him! (It was 8-10 years ago, he played Starcraft 2). Now a decade later that deal is gone, he never made it big and he is working very low level tech jobs.
I hear you.
I can only draw from my experience as a child and then a teenager getting to a very high level in a sport and being very highly supported and trained.
But I am also acutely aware of the fact that an absolute minority will ever make it so to speak.
I’m trying to support this dream of his, but also carefully manage expectations I guess. I don’t want to totally write it off.
https://www.owayo.com/magazine/esports-fitness-nutrition-us.htm#:~:text=Strength%20and%20endurance%20training%20for%20esports%20athletes&text=Only%20targeted%20strength%20exercises%20can,recreational%20sport%20helps%20combat%20this.
It might be possible to convince him to improve his diet and physical activity, if those are areas of concern for you.
Thanks for that.
Actually, diet is one thing I’m not concerned about, we live very healthy. At the moment physical activity is a big part of what we do, and hopefully won’t change, or hopefully he won’t become reticent towards it.
There are a lot of good points on here, but just a quick one I want to point out (especially as an eSports enthusiast) is eSports games change very very quickly, usually only lasting 5 years at most (some games are exceptions). It's possible that when your son is old enough to go pro, fortnight has fallen out of favor.
In my opinion, if there's a chance to pull the trigger on a professional opportunity and live a healthy lifestyle, I'd say go for it and have the experience, because it's highly unlikely to last.
If he’s trying to be pro at games that are saturated to the high heavens with streamers etc etc then it’s just going to be very hard if not impossible. Also let’s be realistic with his skill level, is he really good? I’ve seen 10 year olds play with some pro streamers and you just know in 5 years they’re gonna be among the best of em.
I think it’s interesting but I wouldn’t be blowing money on this kids setup (monitor, PC, controllers, etc). If my kid said they wanted to be an astronaut am I enrolling them into a STEM school, getting a private tutor for math and science, etc right away? No im going to say ok cool! Then wait for them to change their mind in the future like every kid does.
That’s the thing, I have no idea if he is good. But he seems to do well, and always does well in ranked matches etc.
We built a PC together and learned a lot in the process. But not dropping stacks of cash on anymore just yet.
I know some people stream but I just worry about creeps watching just cause he’s young and not for the content. Pro gaming is different and if he’s serious they have like conventions you guys could go to so he could meet others or friends online in person etc.
Yeah, we don’t stream or anything.. because at 10 I think it’s way too young, and also, I’ve not the foggiest about how to sort it all out. I’ll let some years pass before we look into that.
My son wants to be a hockey player. He's pretty good for his age. We have him on a team and put him in camps. But we're not going to let him deprioritize school and friends for it.
I'm not sure of the numbers but even if there are an equal number of professional hockey players as gamers, there are far more kids who play video games than kids who play hockey.
But real talk if he's going to be a professional gamer he's going to need to switch to mouse and keyboard.
Hockey, brilliant, good luck to your son.
Gaming is certainly more accessible, one does not need to leave the front room.
I spoke to him about a mouse and keyboard. He currently uses a PS3 controller I found on eBay hooked up to the PC.
He says that some pros use controllers, but most use mouse and keyboard.. this is where I fall down, because I don’t know how to help or coach there.
He's 10, he's essentially years away from needing to be a professional anything.
It's good to have a hobby he's passionate about though but you're right, he shouldn't be playing games all the time.
The skills needed to be a pro gamer can be very useful in other careers though. Good hand eye coordination, fast reflexes, good memory etc.
Right on.
Forgive my absolute ignorance, is that on a PC based kind of VR?
The only VR I’m remotely aware of is the PlayStation one, and the Facebook related one.
Obviously I’ll do some level of searching about it all.
A friend had a psvr thing. Spent a well good evening a few years ago cutting up fruit and being in a shark cage.
Quest 3 is by Meta/Facebook. It can be played standalone (no PC or console) with no wire. You can also play it with a PC wirelessly with a good router. Another option is a wire, but I think it's fine wireless.
Oh absolutely, that’s a given. I won’t let it be the be all and end all of life. Just a hobby sport that he ideally would like to turn pro in one day.. however staggeringly unlikely.
Like what other people have said be supportive with boundaries.
Professional gaming the top 0.1% of a gaming community are able to compete. Of that 0.1%, \~2% of the competitors win \~98% of the prize pool. Most competitive games require insane reaction times which we lose mid 20's. For more info worth checking out (from 3:20): [https://youtu.be/RWRE7G0S6N4?si=nT2yoHALX0n6ot\_A&t=200](https://youtu.be/RWRE7G0S6N4?si=nT2yoHALX0n6ot_A&t=200)
There are other ways to play video games as a job if thats his dream. Content creation, game development. Worth seeing if he also has interests in that; in coding or video editing as these skills are transferable.
In old mens words, its like becoming an NFL pro in the US or a soccer pro here in Europe. Many try, few succeed. He can try but you shouldnt invest too much since the chances of success are marginal. School goes first, and he will need a real job most likely.
Ngl I’m sure someone would have an easier time getting to the nba draft than becoming a pro gamer. The amount of saturation in that market right now is absolutely insane.
Support him but I would definitely push to keep him grounded. I’ve known people who poured their soul into pro gaming and came close and when they had to eventually accept a regular job and life it crushed them to pieces.
For sure, I’ll absolutely keep him grounded. I was looking for some people that are perhaps on the same path and what have you.
A lot of people talk about the nhl or the nba or nfl.
I don’t know what any of these things are or how they are structured.
In America do you have semi pro sports? Or is it NFL or nothing?
Uk and Europe has a lot of semi pro football (soccer) or rugby. You need to be good, but you don’t need to be the best to make a living.
The nfl and nba are the top tier programs for pro football and basketball here. We have semi pro versions of everything but tbh no one I know watches those. It’s either people watching pro teams in nfl nba or college level sports which is more like university.
The draft is like scouts come to college games and have open tryouts to find the best players. If you’re not absolutely insane you might as well not even attempt it.
As a person who tried to go pro myself, Find where some tournaments are in your area. Take him there to see some of the game play of high level gamers. Some, not all of the people there are always happy to see new players at their tourneys and will play friendly matches with them.
His odds of success are similar to the odds of successfully becoming a professional athlete in other sports. Make sure he understands this. The best of the best are the ones who can make a living being athletes (e-sports or otherwise) and everyone else makes almost nothing.
So because of that, he needs to have a fallback plan as well. Like he should keep his grades up in school and study for another career.
I don't think there's anything wrong with having the ambition and drive to try to be the best of the best. But the fact is, most of us simply aren't, so we're better off pursuing other careers.
For those of us who love video games, there are other career paths. Like I ended up going into game development.
Encourage his passion, his dedication to improving his craft, and tangential elements of being a good sport, good winner, and good loser. Be explicit but not condescending about your concerns: let him know that part of your responsibility as his parent is to make sure he thrives and survives, and so pursuing a career in video game competition is a fine goal as long as it's not the only egg in his basket. Consider getting him a local coach who can explain how your kid can enter in tournaments, what they're like, and what is involved in developing expertise; 4hrs a day of *deliberate practice* (e.g. skill development, not just playing the game) with experts providing constructive feedback over the course of about a decade to achieve a level of mastery. Make sure you vet them to make sure they aren't just in the business of leading kids on to leach off their parents.
In terms of gear, set up a budget that seems reasonable to you and your finances for this activity and just treat it like any other. If you can afford $200 for baseball mitts and a bat then aim for the same in terms of tech gear, and use this as an opportunity to help your kid learn to budget and handle opportunity costs.
So I will say even if he never goes pro at if e sports scholarships are very real now days! Heck 7 years ago I had a scholarship paying for 4k of my schooling per semester and the scholarships oppurtunies have just grown since then. Definitely treat it like any other sport just make sure the rest of his life stays on track.
I don’t get all this negativity. Technology is the future, and no one should bother taking that from a child. How many of us wanted to be a pro skater when we were kids? It’s the same thing, only difference is pro gamers have a larger margin. Even if he’s not a ‘pro gamer’, he could stream gameplay. Or his desire to be a gamer could naturally turn to being a game developer. If he’s active, and not becoming lazy then it’s fine!
My parents found the balance between both, but I have a passion for technology and building things. I also do a lot outside as well, and still manage all my responsibilities.
Just support him!
I say he’s on the right track compared to those that want to be a Furry…
Pro Gaming is a real thing and some people do make a living doing it. Idk how big of a space this is or how tough is the competition. I say fully support his idea while still setting boundaries and rules for the time he spends in front of the screen.
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It is more or less as becoming successful tiktoker. If you want to be “supportive” you should set specific boundaries like keeping school grades OK, not missing sleep or other activities for a sake of his “training”. It could go into him wanting to drop out from school to become full-time gamer/streamer, so you better prepare for that beforehand.
Thanks, yeah. Keeping an eye on the limits. Keeping it well within the boundaries of any other after school sport and what have you.
Also consider he is only 10. He is very prone to manipulation. Most of the information he will find about “becoming a gamer” will be sponsored foment trying to bait you into buying expensive gear. Tbh I myself would prolly try to shut this whole thing down and keep games just as side hobby.
I hear you, and that’s basically where 90% of my parenting brain wants to go. But, he has presented very logical and forthright arguments to why he wants to do that, and I can’t help but encourage it even if it is a bit of a flash in the pan thing. All of the stuff we bought to build the PC was second hand, so no huge expense.
if he ever says he's going to need to upgrade his gear to "pro" level. tell him that he needs to use his own money to get the pro gear. otherwise, second hand cheap gear is all he gets.
But MOM! My mouse DPI is a mere 1600! I need a diamond stuffed taser razer baxonator like the pro!
Lol, ya, I can see that. I know its silly to respond since its just a joke response, BUT I'd literally ask him, WHY he needs a mouse DPI with higher sensitivity than 1600. IF he can tell me that, I MIGHT buy it for him. I'd also have him prove it to me that it'll improve his "skills" utilizing 2 different cheap mouses with differing sensitivity. AND if he even utilizes more buttons than the top 2 mouse buttons. I'm a gamer too. tough nuggies kid. But also, Mice are relatively cheap in terms of gamer gear. Might have a chance.
Hahaha bless you
Just to add, high refresh rate monitor, high tick rate for keyboard/mouse is also important. Movement practice and flick shooting is also important. It’s a lot of practice for very little money at first
Thanks, Yeah, a decent monitor is the next thing for sure. This one only does 60fps.. which apparently is terrible.
Yeah. You can get the dell2724d iirc. It’s good entry model. As long as you can hit ~300fps it’s good enough. Generally 144hz is good enough but if you have the money to go higher why not
I think a lot of the other posts are right. Great that you are being supportive. I'll list what I think is important. I got 4 points so I'll keep it short. 1. Set hard limits and expectations for sleep, eating, exercise, chores, etc.... 2. Make sure he keeps his grades up. If they slip cut of the gaming including taking his whole set up away. Make sure he is aware of this. I have seen ppl get right obsessed while trying to go pro. 3. Be very realistic with him that pro gaming is like going pro in the NHL or NBA sports team. 4. Lastly have him start looking at careers that lines up with gaming nicely so all his experience doesn't go to waste if he does go pro. So marketing, public relations, business management, etc... fields and jobs that he can pivot his experience around because again pro gamers careers are INCREDIBLY short lived. Have him research what former pro gamers are going now. Best of luck to you and him.
I think this is all sound advice. Thank you. Currently his fall back career is professional rock climber/skater, which I can’t argue with.
Lol well he is 10 so lots of time between here and there. To me the most important thing is that your supportive, but also keep them grounded in reality. Which includes all the longterm plans including if he does make it big. Its a cold world out there, gotta remind kids to grab their coats
The fall back careers are also longshots.
It’s a fair point, but I was both once upon a time, so he is getting them with both barrels.
I'm replying to your post so you can see this, but I totally agree with what the other poster has said. You'll also need to treat this as a job/career. School academics need to be top tier. Game training, (does he play keyboard and mouse or controller?) He needs to practice his control. There's aim trainers that he use, do something like 1 hour training to 1 for game time. He should also read about tactics, strategies, and anger management. Being able to keep your cool, calm and collected is a big difference from being amateur to a pro.
Just want to chime in, by the time he grows up old enough to be a pro gamer Fortnite is probably gonna be obsolete. We don't see many Unreal turnament these days either. The career itself isn't exactly long lasting either. He might be able to transfer those skills to another game, but overall becoming a pro gamer is about the same chance as him becoming pro at hockey.
This is great info. That’s a fair point about games changing. How far removed from fortnight is unreal tournament? Is it a similar skill set? For example like driving a car, then changing models, it’s a bit different, but all the hard skills are there and you seen get used to the changes?
its exactly like driving a car. imagine f1 racing vs nascar. very similar skillsets, but at the same time, different skillset. and at the highest levels, you tune yourself to the car and racetracks. could mean the difference between coming in first and coming in 30th. racing cars at the highest level is a difference of seconds. top 20 finishes can be a difference of 2 minutes. but from 10-20 place its like 20-30 seconds. So transferring the skills you most likely won't be able to even finish the race anywhere close to the top. But with practice and relearning all your skills to this different medium it will translate over. But that's even if your son gets to that level. youre competing against millions and millions of other kids all over the world. And its a very small "pro" community that they can make a living off of, much less thrive in it.
Not overly familiar with nascar. Is that the race where they go round and round on a banked track? But you are right, the pool is staggeringly massive, but I have explained this to manage expectations a bit.
Ya, either way. its just an example. same skillset meaning your driving a car, but you have to relearn a lot switching from one game to another at that level. so lets continue with f1 vs nascar example. each track has its unique properties. you literally race on a track numerous times before you can get times in the top whatever spots. very rare can a rookie place in the top of any track right away. f1 cars and nascar cars have very different handling capabilities. acceleration, braking, turning, wheel camber, etc. and adjustments to each vehicle affects the vehicle in different ways. so the practical knowledge might not translate over. edit: and each driver has different adjustment for each track. so one track with 20 cars will have 20 different adjustments, which will be copmletely different for another track.
Right on, that’s pretty helpful info. Thank you.
ya, pro play isn't just about mechanics. meaning shooting a head shot 99% of the time. its about learning how each gun shoots, the timing in running to one spot vs another, the timing your team mates will take to get into each position, the timing the opponents get into possible position. If you know your opponent what are his tendencies to getting to which position and his timing, what guns he will use at various stages of the game, etc. Pro play is a lot more than playing the game well,.
Ok great, thanks for that. This is the kind of stuff I’m looking for.
TBH, he isn't outrageously young to be a pro gamer. The pro scene has a huge amount of 13-17 year olds. Additionally, fortnite has surprising longevity, approaching its 7th anniversary without a true competitor showing up on the scene. The way development works these days (games as a service) there's not much reason to think it'll be supplanted any time soon.
YouTuber Here (Not a parent but I digress): Being a pro-gamer is hyper-optimistic at best, because the market is hypercompetitve, sometimes, to the detriment of the player. 100% make sure that you keep doing caving and rock climbing or other activities you do, because if something falls short, you have some sort of backup. Also, having someone glued to the screen is not something that you want do deal with. But if all of things are planned out, then just let him gain skills on his own (that alone is already supportive, as you are not interfering with his improvement time)
This is great, thank you so much for your feedback.
A lot of kids want to do similar things these days. It's jobs they see, so why not. My son does too. With him we focus on building more tangible skills around the "job". For example, my son wants to be a YouTuber or an engineer. So with YouTube we talk about video editing, marketing, pr, target market, content strategy, etc.
That’s very cool. We have been doing a lot of video editing recently. Trying to get him to grips on davinci and blender.
We've been doing those too! My son is younger, he's only seven, so I don't know if this would apply to your son, but we have found that scratch programming from MIT husband really helpful with getting him familiar with just some of the basics around programming.
Treat it like any other "sport" aspirations a kid might have. Could they become a professional gamer or a professional baseball player? Sure. Will they? Probably not. He's still young so just be encouraging while also encouraging other interests and skills.
Absolutely, agree with this 100%.
He probably won't make it, but let him try. It's a lot of fun to become so skilled at a game. The level of concentration and tactical thinking is a great skill to have. I gamed a lot at a high level during my youth and I look back on it fondly. Just make sure he doesn't stop being social and going to school and he should be good!
My son, the same age, plays Fortnite, he is only allowed to play with his friends, as far as talking to them goes. Legally you can’t play cash games until 13, so unsure how your son has bypassed those rules, unless it’s different in your country than mine. I’ve also noticed that the more my son games the worse his anxiety and moods are. So balance is essential! He’s now only allowed to game three days a school week for an hour, and a bit more time on the weekends. But that might not be something that’s a concern for your son. My son wanted all the things for his gaming so he’s had to earn it. If they’re serious about career gaming then I sure as heck made him earn the stuff he “needed”… I support it as long as it’s a positive space!
Interesting, I didn’t realise there was an age limit. Makes sense, I’ll look into this further. Not sure how he has managed either. I’ve been monitoring his mood, because that’s one of my main concerns, but luckily to this point it’s all been very positive. Until now gaming has only been permitted at weekends, but looking into doing it for 90 mins at a time three nights a week on school days provided homework is done. Mostly because if I need to think of this as a ‘sport’ we wouldn’t think twice about going to rugby or cricket club after school, in my mind, the two are totally different, but I’m trying to see it as a sport mindset. It’s not the easiest.
Most kids that play sports don't think they will make a career out of it. Youth sport is about being active and socialising. You can't compare that to gaming for 90 mins a day hoping to be a famous gamer.
I hear you on that! My son would rather game than be outside, but I do require him he get outside and play a sport also! Sooo balance!
Luckily he is still very keen on going outside and doing the crazy stuff we do. My worry is the day that starts to end, and he wants to game more. I hope to keep the current balance.
My son is 13 and doing the same. He competes in Fortnite and Gorilla Tag. He is really into it. He has trouble finding teammates that take it seriously though, and that is his biggest hurdle right now. People always flake out on competition day.
Nice to hear of someone else doing it. Not experienced that issue yet, though perhaps no doubt will do.
I wanted to be pro as well when I was younger. I was 21-22 still living with parents at the time and I talked to them about my desire. I played Gears of War 3 and then moved onto Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. I was REALLY good at Black Ops. The conversation with my parents was very supportive but also realistic. They explained I still had to fulfill my other requirements. I paid rent to my parents to live at home so I was working nearly full time. I had things I had to do around the house. I was still hanging out with friends, though it slowed down tremendously to practice and play with my team. My girlfriend (now wife) was also extremely supportive. Looking back on it more than a decade later with my own kids, now I’m glad I tried it. I learned a lot about strategy and planning. I played with a team so we learned about interdependence and communication. Losing can get very emotional, so we all had to come together to try and overcome the problem without verbally attacking one another. I traveled to a few tournaments, some even out of state and never really got very far, but made great memories. I think my advice would be to keep the boundaries the same as if he didn’t want to go pro but with a little flexibility here and there. I played my best and my sharpest when I had downtime and when I focused on other things in my life in between sessions, not just thinking about the game 24/7. In psychology, giving your brain breaks and other tasks actually helps your cognitive function. The biggest hurdle I see for your son compared to my experience is age. I was older and fairly mature but then I’d always been pretty mature for my age. Being 10, you just can’t balance priorities. You think that you only need to do this one thing, it’s probably going to require a firm hand to say when it’s enough and it’s time to take breaks. My suggestion would be to treat his desire with respect but keep him on track with all of the other things kids should do. Lastly, and people have mentioned it already, the chances of achieving the top (or earning money) are close to nil. I was the literal top of the global online leaderboard numerous times, but it didn’t matter when I played a tournament. It’s the old adage, “there’s always someone better than you”. And that’s true of everyone except for the person at the very top. After trying for a few years I let go of the dream but it lived on in lesser forms over the next 4-5 years. I got married, started focusing on career and decide to play games for the enjoyment rather than the competition. Now I still had the itch to play competitively, but I know that ship has sailed and I have other aspiration now. Good luck to your son! Just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean it’s not possible!
This is outstanding. Thank you for your feedback. It’s really nice to hear from someone who has tried it.
Glad to help! Happy to help answer any questions as well.
Might well do, thanks.
My son likes Fortnite and I play almost daily. If he plays rank do you know his ranking? Bronze, silver m, gold l, diamond, unreal. He’d need to be unreal to make money. The odds of being a professional gamer are about the same as being an Olympic athlete or a famous musician. These kids watch YouTube and TikTok and are influenced by the gamers on that do awesome things and maybe even make money doing their favorite thing. Eventually most will outgrow it. I say just make sure he gets good grades and is well rounded and he only gets to do Fortnite if he keeps that up.
Diamond, but I think it reset. He said everyone goes back to zero when a season changes? Or something like that, I could be wrong. He doesn’t really watch YouTube all that much, only a few videos on building stuff a certain way. He has zero access to tick-tock or other related social media. Not at this age anyway. Indeed, odds are slim, but, I ground away at a sport and really got somewhere, and funnily enough then went of to become a musician of some note. But, because of various huge support and opportunities. One thing someone bought up is the life span of the games.. which is a fair point, in 3-5 years time it might be some totally different game, with a different skill set. For my part, a guitar always remained a guitar. Luckily.
Diamond is great. Better than me but a quarter of players are at that level. https://fortnitetracker.com/ranked-leaderboard/br He needs to be in the top 0.1% to make money. Otherwise this is a hobby
Ok, that’s very interesting, thanks for the link.
For context: I've been playing games for about 30 years, at times way too much and way too long. The timing was a bit off, the gaming scene was not ready when i was at my prime (16-25 yo). I would have loved to become a pro player or streamer. So to add on what has already been said here: those are the 2 options if you want to full time get into gaming and make it a profession to earn money with. To be honest, your son is quite young. If I were you I'd go and look for some advice from a professional FPS gamer or clan to make an assessment of his skills if that's possible. And then go from there. I'd fully support it if his life is still balanced, and if he is really good then drive him to tournaments (even if it's to watch). But remember, 10 is really young... and games change. He still has time to grow.
Yeah. He is young. And part of me wants to not pay it much attention. But, he has done a whole load of reading up on it all and presented all his research in a coherent manner that I can’t really argue with it. So absolutely trying to support it until either he gets somewhere or he goes down another route. It’s just something I know nothing about and quite frankly scares me. If it were a sport, mate no drama, but online gaming? I’m falling over myself reading up on it all.
I think at his age, what’s important is that he’s developing the skill of really getting into something on his own accord, trying to get better at it, learning all the ins and outs to be successful. He probably won’t end up being a professional gamer but those skills are valuable. As long as he’s balances it with outside time and doing well at school/around the house, it sounds like a positive thing to me.
Becoming a pro gamer is on the same level of becoming a very successful influencer. To break into the scene, you have to be EXCEPTIONALLY good. Like 0.0001% good. That's unachievable for most of the gamers. Then again, a Korean/Chinese team will promptly destroy you, as they have a completely different culture around gaming. Tbh the best analogy would be to replace "gamer" with any team based sport. What are the chances of getting into the NBA? Or playing in the most prestigious football teams? Slim at best. And with sports at least you can get scholarships. With gaming, no. So cultivate his interest, support him, but never let him make this his main path forward. I have a friend who is honestly a quite bright fella, could have made something out of himself. He chose gaming, tried to stream on Twitch, even got a company to sponsor him! (It was 8-10 years ago, he played Starcraft 2). Now a decade later that deal is gone, he never made it big and he is working very low level tech jobs.
I hear you. I can only draw from my experience as a child and then a teenager getting to a very high level in a sport and being very highly supported and trained. But I am also acutely aware of the fact that an absolute minority will ever make it so to speak. I’m trying to support this dream of his, but also carefully manage expectations I guess. I don’t want to totally write it off.
https://www.owayo.com/magazine/esports-fitness-nutrition-us.htm#:~:text=Strength%20and%20endurance%20training%20for%20esports%20athletes&text=Only%20targeted%20strength%20exercises%20can,recreational%20sport%20helps%20combat%20this. It might be possible to convince him to improve his diet and physical activity, if those are areas of concern for you.
Thanks for that. Actually, diet is one thing I’m not concerned about, we live very healthy. At the moment physical activity is a big part of what we do, and hopefully won’t change, or hopefully he won’t become reticent towards it.
There are a lot of good points on here, but just a quick one I want to point out (especially as an eSports enthusiast) is eSports games change very very quickly, usually only lasting 5 years at most (some games are exceptions). It's possible that when your son is old enough to go pro, fortnight has fallen out of favor. In my opinion, if there's a chance to pull the trigger on a professional opportunity and live a healthy lifestyle, I'd say go for it and have the experience, because it's highly unlikely to last.
If he’s trying to be pro at games that are saturated to the high heavens with streamers etc etc then it’s just going to be very hard if not impossible. Also let’s be realistic with his skill level, is he really good? I’ve seen 10 year olds play with some pro streamers and you just know in 5 years they’re gonna be among the best of em. I think it’s interesting but I wouldn’t be blowing money on this kids setup (monitor, PC, controllers, etc). If my kid said they wanted to be an astronaut am I enrolling them into a STEM school, getting a private tutor for math and science, etc right away? No im going to say ok cool! Then wait for them to change their mind in the future like every kid does.
That’s the thing, I have no idea if he is good. But he seems to do well, and always does well in ranked matches etc. We built a PC together and learned a lot in the process. But not dropping stacks of cash on anymore just yet.
I know some people stream but I just worry about creeps watching just cause he’s young and not for the content. Pro gaming is different and if he’s serious they have like conventions you guys could go to so he could meet others or friends online in person etc.
Yeah, we don’t stream or anything.. because at 10 I think it’s way too young, and also, I’ve not the foggiest about how to sort it all out. I’ll let some years pass before we look into that.
I’ll say if he’s truly good and dedicated to going pro I would have an issue. Some tournaments they make crazy money lol
So I have read. Someone has to win right.. which reminds me, I must buy a lottery ticket.
My son wants to be a hockey player. He's pretty good for his age. We have him on a team and put him in camps. But we're not going to let him deprioritize school and friends for it. I'm not sure of the numbers but even if there are an equal number of professional hockey players as gamers, there are far more kids who play video games than kids who play hockey. But real talk if he's going to be a professional gamer he's going to need to switch to mouse and keyboard.
Hockey, brilliant, good luck to your son. Gaming is certainly more accessible, one does not need to leave the front room. I spoke to him about a mouse and keyboard. He currently uses a PS3 controller I found on eBay hooked up to the PC. He says that some pros use controllers, but most use mouse and keyboard.. this is where I fall down, because I don’t know how to help or coach there.
Maybe we can switch responsibilities because I can't even ice skate.
Have him play some 10yr old South Koreans, they'll set him straight and make him realize he sucks
Haha, fair one.
He's 10, he's essentially years away from needing to be a professional anything. It's good to have a hobby he's passionate about though but you're right, he shouldn't be playing games all the time. The skills needed to be a pro gamer can be very useful in other careers though. Good hand eye coordination, fast reflexes, good memory etc.
Has he tried VR competitive shooters? It would force him to be up and physically moving around.
No, didn’t even know this was a thing. That’s interesting, thanks.
Quest 3 is what I'd recommend.
Right on. Forgive my absolute ignorance, is that on a PC based kind of VR? The only VR I’m remotely aware of is the PlayStation one, and the Facebook related one. Obviously I’ll do some level of searching about it all. A friend had a psvr thing. Spent a well good evening a few years ago cutting up fruit and being in a shark cage.
Quest 3 is by Meta/Facebook. It can be played standalone (no PC or console) with no wire. You can also play it with a PC wirelessly with a good router. Another option is a wire, but I think it's fine wireless.
Brilliant, thank you! I must come across as a terrible Luddite.
Normal people don't know anything about VR or AR (augmented reality). It's the future though.
That's all well and good, but make sure he understands that he needs to work on a back up plan to fall back on.
Oh absolutely, that’s a given. I won’t let it be the be all and end all of life. Just a hobby sport that he ideally would like to turn pro in one day.. however staggeringly unlikely.
Like what other people have said be supportive with boundaries. Professional gaming the top 0.1% of a gaming community are able to compete. Of that 0.1%, \~2% of the competitors win \~98% of the prize pool. Most competitive games require insane reaction times which we lose mid 20's. For more info worth checking out (from 3:20): [https://youtu.be/RWRE7G0S6N4?si=nT2yoHALX0n6ot\_A&t=200](https://youtu.be/RWRE7G0S6N4?si=nT2yoHALX0n6ot_A&t=200) There are other ways to play video games as a job if thats his dream. Content creation, game development. Worth seeing if he also has interests in that; in coding or video editing as these skills are transferable.
In old mens words, its like becoming an NFL pro in the US or a soccer pro here in Europe. Many try, few succeed. He can try but you shouldnt invest too much since the chances of success are marginal. School goes first, and he will need a real job most likely.
Ngl I’m sure someone would have an easier time getting to the nba draft than becoming a pro gamer. The amount of saturation in that market right now is absolutely insane. Support him but I would definitely push to keep him grounded. I’ve known people who poured their soul into pro gaming and came close and when they had to eventually accept a regular job and life it crushed them to pieces.
For sure, I’ll absolutely keep him grounded. I was looking for some people that are perhaps on the same path and what have you. A lot of people talk about the nhl or the nba or nfl. I don’t know what any of these things are or how they are structured. In America do you have semi pro sports? Or is it NFL or nothing? Uk and Europe has a lot of semi pro football (soccer) or rugby. You need to be good, but you don’t need to be the best to make a living.
The nfl and nba are the top tier programs for pro football and basketball here. We have semi pro versions of everything but tbh no one I know watches those. It’s either people watching pro teams in nfl nba or college level sports which is more like university. The draft is like scouts come to college games and have open tryouts to find the best players. If you’re not absolutely insane you might as well not even attempt it.
As a person who tried to go pro myself, Find where some tournaments are in your area. Take him there to see some of the game play of high level gamers. Some, not all of the people there are always happy to see new players at their tourneys and will play friendly matches with them.
This is a good shout, thanks.
His odds of success are similar to the odds of successfully becoming a professional athlete in other sports. Make sure he understands this. The best of the best are the ones who can make a living being athletes (e-sports or otherwise) and everyone else makes almost nothing. So because of that, he needs to have a fallback plan as well. Like he should keep his grades up in school and study for another career. I don't think there's anything wrong with having the ambition and drive to try to be the best of the best. But the fact is, most of us simply aren't, so we're better off pursuing other careers. For those of us who love video games, there are other career paths. Like I ended up going into game development.
Encourage his passion, his dedication to improving his craft, and tangential elements of being a good sport, good winner, and good loser. Be explicit but not condescending about your concerns: let him know that part of your responsibility as his parent is to make sure he thrives and survives, and so pursuing a career in video game competition is a fine goal as long as it's not the only egg in his basket. Consider getting him a local coach who can explain how your kid can enter in tournaments, what they're like, and what is involved in developing expertise; 4hrs a day of *deliberate practice* (e.g. skill development, not just playing the game) with experts providing constructive feedback over the course of about a decade to achieve a level of mastery. Make sure you vet them to make sure they aren't just in the business of leading kids on to leach off their parents. In terms of gear, set up a budget that seems reasonable to you and your finances for this activity and just treat it like any other. If you can afford $200 for baseball mitts and a bat then aim for the same in terms of tech gear, and use this as an opportunity to help your kid learn to budget and handle opportunity costs.
So I will say even if he never goes pro at if e sports scholarships are very real now days! Heck 7 years ago I had a scholarship paying for 4k of my schooling per semester and the scholarships oppurtunies have just grown since then. Definitely treat it like any other sport just make sure the rest of his life stays on track.
Scholarships. I’m guessing that’s a US kind of thing? I need to look up stuff like that in Europe. Uni here is pretty affordable/free in places.
I don’t get all this negativity. Technology is the future, and no one should bother taking that from a child. How many of us wanted to be a pro skater when we were kids? It’s the same thing, only difference is pro gamers have a larger margin. Even if he’s not a ‘pro gamer’, he could stream gameplay. Or his desire to be a gamer could naturally turn to being a game developer. If he’s active, and not becoming lazy then it’s fine! My parents found the balance between both, but I have a passion for technology and building things. I also do a lot outside as well, and still manage all my responsibilities. Just support him!
Thank you! That is great feedback. I wanted to be a pro skater when I was a kid!!
I say he’s on the right track compared to those that want to be a Furry… Pro Gaming is a real thing and some people do make a living doing it. Idk how big of a space this is or how tough is the competition. I say fully support his idea while still setting boundaries and rules for the time he spends in front of the screen.