HLTV decided to check whether the age in CS: GO matters and at what age the players reach their peak.
In traditional sport, the athlete’s efficiency passes with age. According to some opinions, esports are very similar due to physical factors such as reaction speed. However, there are some people who believe that age doesn’t really matter, and you play games until you feel burned out.
Serwis HLTV zdecydował się przebadać tę sprawę i opublikować rozległy artykuł na ten temat.
Everything you need to know about the study and its effects
The study was mainly based on the careers of players from the TOP 20 according to the HLTV ranking. In this way, the researchers wanted to reduce the sample size and make the study more credible, because usually there are pro gamers in this range who do not act as a leader or support. For some reason, the data of players from 2012-2014 and the majority of 2015 were also not used.
In the list of KPR (kills per round) of all TOP 20 players in the history of the ranking and TOP 20 teams, a decrease in effectiveness is clearly visible. At the top of the leaderboard are 20-year-olds with an average KPR of 0.74, while the worst performers are 29-year-olds with a sample greater than eight, with an average of 0.65 kills per round.
The overall period of peak performance of the players, HLTV has defined to land in between 20-24 years, as evidenced and at the same time exemplified by the careers of KennyS, GeT_RiGhT, and olofmeister. There are some exceptions, however, such as valde and huNter-, who peaked in their late 20s, and Kjaerbye, who was a star of Dignitas before the age of 19, then Astralis and won the Major.
It seems that the age does make a difference in this case, but it’s not that the players are losing their skills on their 25th birthday. This is a slow process that does not happen immediately.