7 ms·

Meet the Counter Strike e-sports team where everyone is over 60

71 points by SQL2219 9y ago

Blackthorn 9y ago
This is how you grow the pie. There's an economic lesson in here for every targeted industry.
eurticket 9y ago
Teen Slayer
slantyyz 9y ago
I thought the headline was amusing until I realized that I'm only a little more than a decade away from being a sexagenarian who will probably still be playing Street Fighter.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Are you one of those crazy oldschhol ST players?
  - slantyyz 9y ago
    Nah. For some reason, I just couldn't get into SFII back in the day. I didn't really start playing SF until Alpha came out. Like a lot of other people, I took a break from video games for a few years, but my interest in SF (and fighting games in general) was revived after seeing EVO Moment #37.
    - hkmurakami 9y ago
      Oh Moment #37 ;) Still my fighting game of choice to this day.
- KSS42 9y ago
  Me too. I've been playing CS on and off since it came out. But Netrek is still my favourite multi-player team game.
- mikestew 9y ago
  I didn’t find amusing at all, being less than a decade away myself, and having come off a Call of Duty session last night where I’m sure I was in the top half seventy percent of the time. I might be old, but cunning, patience, and strategy can still frag yer ass. :-) Now at an e-sports level? Frankly I can’t judge as games haven’t been something I put effort into, but I imagine it’s like anything else where there are few outliers, but mostly dominated by younger players. I know I m just not as quick to juggle the multiple things that need tracking, all while trying to line up that headshot. Not crippling by any means, but noticeable. On a “fun on a Friday night” level it doesn’t make much difference, my K/D is about the same as it always was. But once in a while I’ll go up against an organized team and where previously I could help keep it respectable, now we just get run over if the randoms on my team aren’t any good. In summary, I’m still a pretty good casual player, but I’m not the strong player on any arbitrary team anymore.
bitwize 9y ago
It's a great thing to see older folks involved in gaming, but are they going to be even competitive? Empirical data suggests that the cognitive capacities which produce gaming skill peak at about age 25 and enter steady decline after, which is why top-tier e-sports pros are virtually all in their teens or early 20s.
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Even if they have a lower ceiling and could never compete at the highest level, I think older players could go toe to toe with lower but still competitive levels, especially in a team game with plenty of strategy. And I think promoting this is a worthy cause. I'm formerly a competitive golfer and there's plenty of 60 somethings out there who are better than me even though I can hit it 50 yards past them. I expect (and hope for) similar things playing out in gaming.
  - bllguo 9y ago
    perhaps in a different game! Unfortunately, currently popular competitive video games all demand fast reactions and hand dexterity, and the strategy typically comes second to mechanics. For example in counterstrike you still need to be able to hit the shots, no matter how great your tactics are. I highly doubt that really old players can compete in these kinds of games. maybe older folks getting into games will help spur the creation of more strategic competitive experiences where older players are on a more even playing field
    - slantyyz 9y ago
      FWIW, there are a lot of still relevant "older" players approaching their 40s in the fighting game community.
      - lawn 9y ago
        To be fair, 60 is a lot more than 40. There are many top athletes in other sports at 40 but very few at 60.
santaclaus 9y ago
I remember reading a while back about a link between competitive bridge (the stereotypically old person card game) playing and a lack of cognitive decline in aging adults. I'm curious if competitive video games have a similar anti-brain-aging effect.
- QAPereo 9y ago
  I’d be baffled if they didn’t. Time and again studies have shown that the complex overlapping cognitive demands of games such as shooters have a distinct and lasting benefit. IIRC, researchers in one case studied people playing an early iteration of the Splinter Cell franchise. They believed that the combination of having to manage inventory dynamically, memorize and keep track of shifting 3-D map, plus seek out and engage hostoles added up to quite the workload. This would tend to fit with the “use it or lose it” theory of neuroplasticity.
kleiba 9y ago
"As a recent retiree [...] at 62-years-old" -- sigh, oh, Sweden. A dream.
- T-A 9y ago
  https://www.thelocal.se/20171214/what-swedens-new-retirement-age-means-for-you https://www.thelocal.se/20171214/what-swedens-new-retirement...
roma1n 9y ago
Well, it's counter strike we're talking about. They probably started playing it in their teenage years.
- EliRivers 9y ago
  Apropos of nothing much, I think I've still got the 8MB alpha version from about the year 1998 burned on a CD here somewhere. As I recall, run the executable and CS is added to the opening menu of Half Life. Why do I remember it being 8MB? That's an odd thing to remember.
- chrisbennet 9y ago
  I didn't down-vote you but whomever did, probably did it because you didn't read the article. Second paragraph: "At 62-years-old, she was the youngest member of the team, but all the members had something in common beyond their age: none had ever played Counter Strike before."
anonova 9y ago
The stats on their site (https://lenovo-silversnipers.com/ https://lenovo-silversnipers.com/) seem off, e.g., BirDie has 82 hours of play time and 199 kills. That's averaging ~25 mins between kills! Surely, they're not _that_ bad.
- rasz 9y ago
  I agree, those stats look too good.

71 points by SQL2219 9y ago

Blackthorn 9y ago

This is how you grow the pie. There's an economic lesson in here for every targeted industry.

eurticket 9y ago

Teen Slayer

slantyyz 9y ago

I thought the headline was amusing until I realized that I'm only a little more than a decade away from being a sexagenarian who will probably still be playing Street Fighter.

hkmurakami 9y ago
Are you one of those crazy oldschhol ST players?
- slantyyz 9y ago
  Nah. For some reason, I just couldn't get into SFII back in the day. I didn't really start playing SF until Alpha came out. Like a lot of other people, I took a break from video games for a few years, but my interest in SF (and fighting games in general) was revived after seeing EVO Moment #37.
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    Oh Moment #37 ;) Still my fighting game of choice to this day.
KSS42 9y ago
Me too. I've been playing CS on and off since it came out. But Netrek is still my favourite multi-player team game.
mikestew 9y ago
I didn’t find amusing at all, being less than a decade away myself, and having come off a Call of Duty session last night where I’m sure I was in the top half seventy percent of the time. I might be old, but cunning, patience, and strategy can still frag yer ass. :-) Now at an e-sports level? Frankly I can’t judge as games haven’t been something I put effort into, but I imagine it’s like anything else where there are few outliers, but mostly dominated by younger players. I know I m just not as quick to juggle the multiple things that need tracking, all while trying to line up that headshot. Not crippling by any means, but noticeable. On a “fun on a Friday night” level it doesn’t make much difference, my K/D is about the same as it always was. But once in a while I’ll go up against an organized team and where previously I could help keep it respectable, now we just get run over if the randoms on my team aren’t any good. In summary, I’m still a pretty good casual player, but I’m not the strong player on any arbitrary team anymore.

bitwize 9y ago

It's a great thing to see older folks involved in gaming, but are they going to be even competitive? Empirical data suggests that the cognitive capacities which produce gaming skill peak at about age 25 and enter steady decline after, which is why top-tier e-sports pros are virtually all in their teens or early 20s.

hkmurakami 9y ago
Even if they have a lower ceiling and could never compete at the highest level, I think older players could go toe to toe with lower but still competitive levels, especially in a team game with plenty of strategy. And I think promoting this is a worthy cause. I'm formerly a competitive golfer and there's plenty of 60 somethings out there who are better than me even though I can hit it 50 yards past them. I expect (and hope for) similar things playing out in gaming.
- bllguo 9y ago
  perhaps in a different game! Unfortunately, currently popular competitive video games all demand fast reactions and hand dexterity, and the strategy typically comes second to mechanics. For example in counterstrike you still need to be able to hit the shots, no matter how great your tactics are. I highly doubt that really old players can compete in these kinds of games. maybe older folks getting into games will help spur the creation of more strategic competitive experiences where older players are on a more even playing field
  - slantyyz 9y ago
    FWIW, there are a lot of still relevant "older" players approaching their 40s in the fighting game community.
    - lawn 9y ago
      To be fair, 60 is a lot more than 40. There are many top athletes in other sports at 40 but very few at 60.

santaclaus 9y ago

I remember reading a while back about a link between competitive bridge (the stereotypically old person card game) playing and a lack of cognitive decline in aging adults. I'm curious if competitive video games have a similar anti-brain-aging effect.

QAPereo 9y ago
I’d be baffled if they didn’t. Time and again studies have shown that the complex overlapping cognitive demands of games such as shooters have a distinct and lasting benefit. IIRC, researchers in one case studied people playing an early iteration of the Splinter Cell franchise. They believed that the combination of having to manage inventory dynamically, memorize and keep track of shifting 3-D map, plus seek out and engage hostoles added up to quite the workload. This would tend to fit with the “use it or lose it” theory of neuroplasticity.

kleiba 9y ago

"As a recent retiree [...] at 62-years-old" -- sigh, oh, Sweden. A dream.

T-A 9y ago
https://www.thelocal.se/20171214/what-swedens-new-retirement-age-means-for-you https://www.thelocal.se/20171214/what-swedens-new-retirement...

roma1n 9y ago

Well, it's counter strike we're talking about. They probably started playing it in their teenage years.

EliRivers 9y ago
Apropos of nothing much, I think I've still got the 8MB alpha version from about the year 1998 burned on a CD here somewhere. As I recall, run the executable and CS is added to the opening menu of Half Life. Why do I remember it being 8MB? That's an odd thing to remember.
chrisbennet 9y ago
I didn't down-vote you but whomever did, probably did it because you didn't read the article. Second paragraph: "At 62-years-old, she was the youngest member of the team, but all the members had something in common beyond their age: none had ever played Counter Strike before."

anonova 9y ago

The stats on their site (https://lenovo-silversnipers.com/ https://lenovo-silversnipers.com/) seem off, e.g., BirDie has 82 hours of play time and 199 kills. That's averaging ~25 mins between kills! Surely, they're not _that_ bad.

rasz 9y ago
I agree, those stats look too good.