One pro gamer advises aspiring youth to stay in school. “Going pro isn’t something you aim for”

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-07-07 19:13 JST)

One professional gamer and streamer had some advice for young gamers also wanting to go pro, with the candid message drawing a big reaction online.

Pro gamer and streamer ta1yo says he often receives messages from people saying they want to quit school and pursue becoming professional gamers. ta1yo took to Twitter to respond to these messages saying, “Going pro isn’t something you aim for. It’s something you just realize has happened. Let’s stay in school.”

Sean Taiyo Henderson, or ta1yo, is a professional Overwatch player and content creator for ZETA DIVISION. He represented Japan for three years in a row between 2017 and 2019 in the Overwatch World Cup and after that was a member of Third Impact before joining the San Francisco Shock, making him the first Japanese player in the Overwatch League.

However, he also has experience balancing being a high school student alongside being a professional player and is currently enrolled at Keio University. You could say his advice comes from experience, with many in the replies being in agreement.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins has also stated that he thinks you shouldn’t quit school to pursue becoming a professional gamer. Ninja started his professional career playing Halo 3 and is now known around the world for his popular streams. In an interview with CNBC, Ninja talked about how he was still going to school while streaming and competing in Halo 3, and added, “You can’t just drop everything and focus on playing video games for a living.”

In addition, SugarZ3ro, a Valorant player with ZETA DIVISION, mentioned the effort he put into keeping up with schoolwork and gaming while in high school when talking to Riot Games’ BACKSTAGE media. SugarZ3ro wanted to raise his grades high enough that he wouldn’t need to quit gaming, and managed both as a high school student. He was also able to study for and pass his college entrance exams without having to sideline games. It was after this that he found Valorant and reached where he is now.

There’s also a pro gamer out there who only plays for one hour per day. Tekken’s longtime King player Hakaioh. In an interview with Game Cross, Hakaioh mentioned that he works fulltime as a customer engineer. In order to make time for his family, Hakaioh says he can only secure an hour per day for gaming. Despite this, he has a sponsorship with HYDE and is a member of the esports team TEAM HYDE. As for why he maintains professional gaming on the side, Hakaioh explains that King is a cool character, and he wants to make him stand out even more.

On the other hand, there’s also a 15-year-old pro gamer that quit school for family reasons. Benjy Fish, or Benjyfishy, was a professional Fortnite player until June of this year before moving to Valorant. While trying to balance school and playing Fortnite, Benjyfishy was apparently only sleeping two to three hours a night. But that hard work paid off when he won a Fortnite competition in Europe which net him a 10,000-pound prize. After that, he quit school at his mother’s recommendation to focus on professional gaming.

Apex Legends player Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen also discussed dropping out of college on one of his livestreams. ImperialHal is a player for the esports team TSM FTX. He attended college as a pre-med student but only attended for one semester. After that, he says he was enrolled for multiple years but ultimately decided to leave school. At first, he says he had no intention of quitting school or making a living as a professional gamer and wanted to continue just gaming for fun. But with his skills and the attention and achievements that came with them, he decided to drop out.

The definition of a professional gamer isn’t clearly defined, but it’s generally recognized as someone who earns money winning competitions for competitive games. There are also cases where players earn money through sponsorship deals and streaming. At any rate, to be recognized as a pro gamer and earn money, gaming skills are indispensable. It also requires an extraordinary amount of practice. Plus, depending on the genre, age can be a limiting factor in how long a player can maintain the necessary elite level of gameplay. For those wanting to go pro, this means potentially choosing to pour nearly your entire life into a game.

Besides these examples, there are other players who have put school on hold or dropped out to further their playing careers. ta1yo has even taken a temporary absence from school since playing for teams in the United States. However, even pro gamers think putting everything aside to focus on gaming is a risky move. But with our limited amount of time, choosing a career path is difficult. With all the risk involved, there may never be an end to aspiring pro players wondering if they should quit school to pursue their gaming goals.