On June 26 2011 04:23 PhiliBiRD wrote:

and 13 is not a prime age, the main reason being that your brain has alot of growing to do. the actual prime imo is gonna be 17-25. your brain actually peaks at around age 23 (so technically I think thats the prime prime age)

I can count the number of broodwar progamers who reached their prime at 23 with the number of fingers on my feet.

Gamegene

United States8308 Posts

June 25 2011 19:27 GMT

#44

And honestly, younger players are just aggravating as hell.
I hate it when I have to deal with immaturity online because I get enough of that in my day to day life.
Unfortunately, for every good guy like you there's 5000 babies who piss off the grown ups.

FecalFrown

215 Posts

June 25 2011 19:30 GMT

#45

WHY YALL GOTTA HATE FROM OUTSIDE DA CLUB? YOU CAINT EVEN GET EEN.......

HAHAHA

User was warned for this post

Razuik

United States409 Posts

June 25 2011 19:31 GMT

#46

I would say that the people who give you no respect simply for your age are the immature ones.. especially if you've displayed yourself as mature for your age.

Zeke50100

United States2220 Posts

June 25 2011 19:31 GMT

#47

It's less about maturity and more about reliability. For example, it's hard to trust younger people if they can't legally drive to a LAN or cannot accept prizes or sign contracts.

To be honest, though, people claiming that they don't want to play with younger players because they're likely to be more immature are immature themselves, unless they've found a definitive link between maturity and age beyond what is artificially driven into our minds.

Spikey!

Australia6 Posts

June 25 2011 19:32 GMT

#48

It does suck, and it's quite obvious that young people can have lots of skill (see Leenock).

I think legal reasons may be a large one. You legally can't sign contracts yourself and have them legally binding a lot of the time.

In some countries you can't actually earn that much money that young (In Australia you must be 14 & 9 months) to have a job and if a competition wants to be legit, it probably requires you to claim your earnings as opposed to just cash in hand which other jobs do for people who work younger than the legal age

quRax

Korea (South)264 Posts

June 25 2011 19:33 GMT

#49

On June 26 2011 04:04 _Nano_ wrote:

Show nested quote +

no its not
its 12+ in europe

It's 12+ in Germany i guess i bought my copy in Sweeden and it says 16 +

Boyo

United States226 Posts

June 25 2011 19:33 GMT

#50

I totally feel you... Im 14 yrs old and am top 50 for masters in NA, but nobody cares since i am under 18. Ofc u can go on about contracts etc, but what it all boils down to is whether or not the kid has the passion and drive to succeed as a starcraft player. Young talent is what ushers in new generations of gamers, so why should people as a community reject them? I have competed in many local lans etc, and a good fraction of the people are under 18. It only makes sense that the community should work with us so that we can excel and actually join pro teams. Every time I apply for a team my heart sinks when i scroll down the requirements list and see 18+... Age is just a single indicator of maturity. Its sad to see how such a label defines peoples' views and impressions of younger players.

Veritassong

Canada393 Posts

June 25 2011 19:35 GMT

#51

We don't HATE kids,
because age is something that's always changing. saying that we HATE kids is just as silly as saying that we hate our past selves. Ageism is not the same as racism and sexism.
The reason why you are having so many difficulties is because of the way social and legal structures are built around this world. When authorities make laws and rules, they make generalizations (which is necessary). Kids overall are less mature and more unstable than adults, due to their dependency on their parents, therefore there are more elements that they cannot control, and therefore they carry more risk. Not only in Esports , but think any contract or paper that you have to sign

LlamaNamedOsama

United States1900 Posts

June 25 2011 19:35 GMT

#52

The points about legality are understandable. The "[most] younger kids are annoying/immature" is just a bad generalization, though. People mistake two different conceptions of maturity which justify this incorrect mindset. Maturity refers to either biological maturity or maturity of character. The former is one people associate the term with, so they automatically assume that the latter is contingent upon that physical age. The problem is that maturity of character actually refers to things like responsibility and things like tact, which most teenagers should have developed. Psychological science, for instance, determines that the human brain develops proper judgment capacity at around 12-14 years of age. Another problem is that there is no clear line in the sand between "an immature kid" and a mature one, so the generalization of all "young kids" fails once again. It's arbitrary to claim that an 18 year old is suddenly more mannered than a 17 year old, and it's just as arbitrary to claim that divide between 2 years of age and so on. The only proper distinction is one of legality.

Hider

Denmark9391 Posts

June 25 2011 19:36 GMT

#53

Funny fact. I was definitely more mannered when I was 13-16 years old playing wc3, than I am now (22). But I was not more mature, and there was a lot of things I did not really understand back then. But maturity is not equal to mannerism.

eighteen8

105 Posts

June 25 2011 19:38 GMT

#54

when i was 13 i went outside and had fun with my friends and socialize, instead of staying in my dark room during daylight and play some pc games.
maybe all these people want to protect you and give you the opportunity to do the same instead of spending your youth playing pc games.
i can garantee you, that you will have enough time for playing pc games when you are older unless you shoot yourself b/c of psychic disorders due to spending your youth in the basement [/exaggeration]

Geordie

United Kingdom653 Posts

June 25 2011 19:44 GMT

#55

Whatever you say, 13 year old kids are ALWAYS going to be less immature than 18+ adults simply because your brains are not as developed as them. Science says so.

Darkness2k11

Chile313 Posts

June 25 2011 19:46 GMT

#56

Well, i am 15 years old, and yes, it is kind of annoying when you want to play in a tournaments, or join a team, then you read the requirements and it says: "you need to be at least 16 years old in order to play/apply". While it is true that a lot of underage people are indeed very immature, not everyone is like that.

There are a lot of young players with great potential, but i understand why teams or tournaments won't allow people under certain ages, because some are immature or because of the law issues. Nevertheless, i think teams should make exceptions for some players if the team thinks they are worth it, because young players have a lot of potential, and giving them the environment they need to become better players, could really pay off when they get older and get to travel to live events and represent their teams.

Pokebunny

United States10654 Posts

June 25 2011 19:47 GMT

#57

Legal issues. It sucks.

RedJustice

United States1004 Posts

June 25 2011 19:47 GMT

#58

People who make sweeping generalizations about your character and skill based on your age are dumb. Everyone should make evaluations of individuals based off their actions. It is an unfortunate things that happens though, whether you are a girl, or too young, or too old, or whatever the hell it happens to be. In the long run though, people who decide you aren't worth talking to because of your age are not people worth being around anyway.

As for the tournament/team stuff-- I think people here have discussed some of the legal/commitment issues. Just like with child actors, or serious competitive child athletes, it requires a huge investments from the family and parents to make it work. At a younger age, many things are out of your control. If your parents don't have the commitment you do, it may be impossible to make it work. The sacrifices needed in terms of time, and travel, and reorganization of the rest of the family's lives around your commitments are a hard thing to sell-- especially considering that for every child prodigy (of chess/gymnastics/acting/singing/swimming) that makes it, there are thousands more than never quite achieve what they and their family has been pursuing for so many years.

If you are truly exceptional, and your parents are willing to back you in all of it, don't give up your pursuit to join a professional team and compete. Otherwise, use the next few years wisely to get even better, make friends with people who value you as an individual, and take the scene by storm when you reach that age.

Sworn

Canada920 Posts

June 25 2011 19:47 GMT

#59

Listen all of the younger kids here I'm only 16 and I can't join the 18+ stuff either but it makes sense. You can't do anything legally like accept prize money and for the clans that don't want under 18s because of past experiences with annoying little kids you should blame the kids not the clans. It just makes sense and I personally accept it even if im annoyed because of it.

KimJongChill

United States6429 Posts

June 25 2011 19:48 GMT

#60

Every year I grow older, I look back and think about how stupid and foolish I acted during that time. It's extremely hard to be mature without life experience, for which being intellectually precocious will not compensate. Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong, but besides the logistical issues which other posters have discussed, it's just more reliable to trust players over 18 (which I assume is because that is when puberty ends, or high school ends, or something).