The 10 Youngest Players In eSports History
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VOICE OVER: Riccardo Tucci
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
Sometimes the youngest people are the most talented. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we'll be counting down our picks for the top 10 youngest professional gamers.
For this list, we're looking at the pro-gamers out there who started out at incredibly young ages.
For this list, we're looking at the pro-gamers out there who started out at incredibly young ages.
Sometimes the youngest people are the most talented. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the top 10 youngest professional gamers.
For this list, we’re looking at the pro-gamers out there who started out at incredibly young ages.
His introduction to the e-sports scene in 2010, at age 15, wasn’t met with a lot of fanfare, and it took Yun Young Seo a year to start gaining notoriety for his skill. Despite being signed at 15, he didn’t actually appear publicly until 2016. He had a good career, but was shot into the stratosphere when he joined Team Liquid and started winning tournaments. When “Heart of the Swarm” came out, TaeJa switched to playing that and found more success, but had to briefly go on hiatus to complete his military service. In 2018 he made a triumphant return to Team Liquid, still a major player.
Though he briefly retired when he was 21, Liu Zhihao started out young, playing “League of Legends” professional from the age of 15. He made his name thanks to the versatility of his gameplay, using a variety of different champions as mid-laners that you wouldn’t necessarily see there normally, like Jayce. He’s also been celebrated for comforting his fellow teammates despite the highly competitive and stressful setting of a tournament. Now back on the scene, he’s played for a variety of prestigious e-sports organizations including Invictus Gaming and Royal Never Give Up.
Native Swede Ludwig Wåhlberg is one of the best “Dota 2” players in the world and has played consistently since winning DreamHoN at the young age of 14. While he started out playing “Heroes of Newerth,” he made the switch to “Dota” easily and quickly started making a name for himself. He’s been part of many decorated teams in the past, including SADBOYS and is successor Evil Geniuses, the former of which was undefeated at the ESP Shock Therapy Cup. He’s spent most of his career with Evil Geniuses but has also played for big groups like Team Secret and OpTic Gaming. He was so young at the time of signing that he had to take a break to finish high school.
He was 14 when he started playing “StarCraft II” professionally, but after just a few years in the game Life founded himself infamous for an entirely different reason: he got convicted for match-fixing in 2016. After becoming a prodigy, winning difficult tournaments as soon as he was eligible to compete, it was sad to see him go down this road. Life was just one of many players who were found to have been involved in the match-fixing scandal, but Life was still sentenced to eighteen months in prison, a hefty fine, and a lifetime ban from competing in “StarCraft.”
He made his first professional appearance at the age of 14, when he competed at GSL May in 2011. Though he got beaten frequently during these early matches, he slowly started to prove his mettle by defeating seasoned pros like Leenock. This earned him a reputation as one of Prime’s best players, able to secure difficult victories for them. He played for Prime for a few years, but since 2015 has been playing Protoss for Jin Air Green Wings. In his time on the scene, he’s won huge prize pots, coming first in huge tournaments like WCS 2012 in South Korea.
He was a little late to “Halo 2’s” competitive scene, only entering in 2007, three years after its release, but considering he was only 12 years old when it came out this is understandable. iGotUrPistola, or Justin Deese, quickly became one of the best “Halo” players in the world and has played most, if not all, of the franchise’s flagship titles competitively. He’s played for most of the biggest eSports teams during his career, including OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, Ambush, and as of mid-2018, Team Reciprocity. Deese is easily one of the most valued “Halo” players anywhere in the world and has been for over a decade.
One of the youngest professional “StarCraft II” players in history, Maru is easily one of the best players in the world now. Despite his young age, he was there since the beginning, competing in the very first Global StarCraft II League for Prime. Slowly but surely, he started competing in tournaments outside of South Korea, including going to Cologne to play at GamesCom in WCS, and has now made a name for himself as one of the best Terran players you can find. Still going strong after years in the business, Cho Sung Choo has more experience than most.
British teenager Benedict Ward stumbled across the new mobile game “Vainglory” while staying at a friend’s house in 2014 and started playing it immediately, aged 11. After it had only been out for two years he’d already become pro, getting signed to Team Queso. Ward has spoken about the effect this large age gap does – or doesn’t – have on his tournaments, and how “Vainglory” is a pretty relaxed thing to compete in since there’s only one live tournament every year. He’s said that initially he was intimidated by the many older players, but quickly proved himself to be just as good or even better than lots of them.
The biggest game in the world has a rich competitive scene and is enjoyed by people of all ages, so it’s no surprise that “Fortnite” boasts one of the youngest pros of all. British teen Kyle Jackson made history when he got signed to Team Secret at the age of thirteen. His teammates didn’t even initially realize he was so young when he started playing with them. Mongraal has only gotten better since then, and as of July 2019 is a member of FaZe Clan, but being so young means he still has a 9 o’clock curfew despite his talent.
The youngest pro-gamer of all time began playing video games extensively at the age of two, earlier than a lot of kids learn how to talk, and started competing at the age of four. When he was six he was signed to a gaming league and officially became pro. His game of choice was “Halo”, and his first big victory came in a tournament where he came second out of 550 other contestants, all much older than him. For three years in a row LiL Poison, or Victor de Leon III, was crowned the youngest professional gamer in the Guinness Book of World Records, Today in his 20’s and has since left the public spotlight.
For this list, we’re looking at the pro-gamers out there who started out at incredibly young ages.
#10: TaeJa
His introduction to the e-sports scene in 2010, at age 15, wasn’t met with a lot of fanfare, and it took Yun Young Seo a year to start gaining notoriety for his skill. Despite being signed at 15, he didn’t actually appear publicly until 2016. He had a good career, but was shot into the stratosphere when he joined Team Liquid and started winning tournaments. When “Heart of the Swarm” came out, TaeJa switched to playing that and found more success, but had to briefly go on hiatus to complete his military service. In 2018 he made a triumphant return to Team Liquid, still a major player.
#9: Zzitai
Though he briefly retired when he was 21, Liu Zhihao started out young, playing “League of Legends” professional from the age of 15. He made his name thanks to the versatility of his gameplay, using a variety of different champions as mid-laners that you wouldn’t necessarily see there normally, like Jayce. He’s also been celebrated for comforting his fellow teammates despite the highly competitive and stressful setting of a tournament. Now back on the scene, he’s played for a variety of prestigious e-sports organizations including Invictus Gaming and Royal Never Give Up.
#8: zai
Native Swede Ludwig Wåhlberg is one of the best “Dota 2” players in the world and has played consistently since winning DreamHoN at the young age of 14. While he started out playing “Heroes of Newerth,” he made the switch to “Dota” easily and quickly started making a name for himself. He’s been part of many decorated teams in the past, including SADBOYS and is successor Evil Geniuses, the former of which was undefeated at the ESP Shock Therapy Cup. He’s spent most of his career with Evil Geniuses but has also played for big groups like Team Secret and OpTic Gaming. He was so young at the time of signing that he had to take a break to finish high school.
#7: Life
He was 14 when he started playing “StarCraft II” professionally, but after just a few years in the game Life founded himself infamous for an entirely different reason: he got convicted for match-fixing in 2016. After becoming a prodigy, winning difficult tournaments as soon as he was eligible to compete, it was sad to see him go down this road. Life was just one of many players who were found to have been involved in the match-fixing scandal, but Life was still sentenced to eighteen months in prison, a hefty fine, and a lifetime ban from competing in “StarCraft.”
#6: Creator
He made his first professional appearance at the age of 14, when he competed at GSL May in 2011. Though he got beaten frequently during these early matches, he slowly started to prove his mettle by defeating seasoned pros like Leenock. This earned him a reputation as one of Prime’s best players, able to secure difficult victories for them. He played for Prime for a few years, but since 2015 has been playing Protoss for Jin Air Green Wings. In his time on the scene, he’s won huge prize pots, coming first in huge tournaments like WCS 2012 in South Korea.
#5: Pistola
He was a little late to “Halo 2’s” competitive scene, only entering in 2007, three years after its release, but considering he was only 12 years old when it came out this is understandable. iGotUrPistola, or Justin Deese, quickly became one of the best “Halo” players in the world and has played most, if not all, of the franchise’s flagship titles competitively. He’s played for most of the biggest eSports teams during his career, including OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, Ambush, and as of mid-2018, Team Reciprocity. Deese is easily one of the most valued “Halo” players anywhere in the world and has been for over a decade.
#4: Maru
One of the youngest professional “StarCraft II” players in history, Maru is easily one of the best players in the world now. Despite his young age, he was there since the beginning, competing in the very first Global StarCraft II League for Prime. Slowly but surely, he started competing in tournaments outside of South Korea, including going to Cologne to play at GamesCom in WCS, and has now made a name for himself as one of the best Terran players you can find. Still going strong after years in the business, Cho Sung Choo has more experience than most.
#3: MrKcool
British teenager Benedict Ward stumbled across the new mobile game “Vainglory” while staying at a friend’s house in 2014 and started playing it immediately, aged 11. After it had only been out for two years he’d already become pro, getting signed to Team Queso. Ward has spoken about the effect this large age gap does – or doesn’t – have on his tournaments, and how “Vainglory” is a pretty relaxed thing to compete in since there’s only one live tournament every year. He’s said that initially he was intimidated by the many older players, but quickly proved himself to be just as good or even better than lots of them.
#2: Mongraal
The biggest game in the world has a rich competitive scene and is enjoyed by people of all ages, so it’s no surprise that “Fortnite” boasts one of the youngest pros of all. British teen Kyle Jackson made history when he got signed to Team Secret at the age of thirteen. His teammates didn’t even initially realize he was so young when he started playing with them. Mongraal has only gotten better since then, and as of July 2019 is a member of FaZe Clan, but being so young means he still has a 9 o’clock curfew despite his talent.
#1: LiL Poison
The youngest pro-gamer of all time began playing video games extensively at the age of two, earlier than a lot of kids learn how to talk, and started competing at the age of four. When he was six he was signed to a gaming league and officially became pro. His game of choice was “Halo”, and his first big victory came in a tournament where he came second out of 550 other contestants, all much older than him. For three years in a row LiL Poison, or Victor de Leon III, was crowned the youngest professional gamer in the Guinness Book of World Records, Today in his 20’s and has since left the public spotlight.
