When do LoL-Pros Retire? Mid-20s. An Analysis of S4 World's Players.

This video is based on a research from the institute of cognitive science and psychology, simon fraser university, which analyzed age-related declines in cognitive abilities, motor tasks and reaction speed of 3,500 SC2 players. [link] The test showed, that a decline in such cognitive abilities already starts at ~24 years of age, regardless if you are a bronze, platinum or masters player.

I then analyzed the age of players from top teams at LCS Worlds 2014. The mean was 20.38 years, with a STDEV of 2.01. Many of the most talented and promising players, were very young (Bjergsen, Rekkles, Deft 18, Uzi, Pawn 17). There were only four players aged 24 or older, three of them playing the support role (LemonNation, Nyph, Heart). This could be coincidence, but could also mean that maybe cognitive abilities, lightning-fast reflexes and faker-like players are not as important as support than in other positions, and could mean that support players can offset the loss in cognitive abilities with experience.

Saintvicious retired at age 26, his explanation was that he wanted to focus more on other things and didn't want to practice 12 hours a day anymore, and while this is certainly part of the reason, maybe another reason was that he already felt a decline in cognitive abilities and wasn't sure if he could keep up with younger junglers and still be a very valuable player to his team.

Riot Games established an initiative to coach players, helping them build their personal brand. Part of this is due to Riot wanting to teach players how to behave in the public, to avoid negative publicitiy by raging pro-players who are flaming teammates in solo-queue and illustrate other inappropriate behaviour. However, they really want to help players as well, if all pros would be job-less with no perspective in the future, it would hurt the image of the company as well. That's why they are trying to help players, and even recruit some of them as shoutcasters and game-designers.

/r/leagueoflegends Thread Link - youtube.com