Who Is The Oldest Esports Player?
It might seem from first glance that esports is a young man’s game, with so many players just scraping out of their teens performing in some of the biggest esports leagues on the planet. But, this couldn’t be further from the truth - while of course many of the grandest players in the top leagues are quite young, that doesn’t mean that competitive gaming is exclusively for the young.
In fact, it makes more sense to be playing video games more competitively if you were around when they were first introduced, right? These are the competitive gamers who are bending stereotypes of how old players can be to be deemed an esports player.
Who Is The Oldest Esports Player?
Click to enlargeThe man who is regarded as the oldest esports player in the world is Abbe Drakborg, known online as ‘DieHardBirdie’, a famous Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who picked up the game after he retired. He’s 78 years old, and keeps himself busy in retirement by streaming on Twitch, and is described in his Twitter bio as “esports’ oldest world champion”.
He’s earned quite a name for himself, even appearing on Prime Video’s Gamebreakers documentary series and flying the flag for older gamers everywhere. He earned his title of DieHardBirdie because he has “time to kill”, and he’s notorious for whistling after he scores kills in the game.
He’s entered the ring of esports by joining the Silver Snipers team, the first professional senior CS:GO team in the world, who won the Dreamhack Senior League competition. In terms of age, Drakborg is also tied with fellow Senior Snipers' member Öivind “Windy” Toverund, a “vicious” CS:GO player.
Abbe is an icon of competitive CS:GO and is proof that esports isn’t just for the young. Keep an eye on the Silver Snipers too - they could be next to dominate the leaderboards of the next Counter Strike league.
