You might have used your last English class as an excuse to take a power nap before lunch, but let's remember that Shakespeare once wrote: “Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player.”

And we’re pretty sure he was talking about esports.

Careers in pro gaming can be incredibly short, with some LCS players barely lasting a single split. Others play just two series before their own brief candle gets snuffed.

But it need not be so, says Immortals CEO Noah Whinston.

The 22-year-old CEO sat down with theScore esports Podcast on Monday to talk about Immortals as an organization, the trouble with team houses and what franchising would do for the LCS.

Whinston also broke down his thoughts on career spans in esports.

“I think the idea that a career has to be short is ludicrous,” he said. “It’s kind of bullshit when people reference the lifespan of esports pros in the current day.

“I think people kind of attributed the reason that pros dropped out of the scene earlier — you know LiNk retiring, some of the guys from Vulcun retiring, whatever the case is — I think people attributed that to, ‘Oh, you just can’t hang with the young guns for more than three or four years.’ And I think that’s completely wrong.”

He holds up Counter-Strike teams like Virtus.pro as examples of player careers that can span a decade or more.

“But even in League of Legends, your career is not going to be limited by how long you can keep playing. I think your career’s going to be limited by how long you want to keep playing,” he said.

“Look at some of the examples in LCS now. Xmithie is I think one of the older pros, he’s been playing forever. LemonNation, one of the older pros, been playing forever.”

So what’s changed since the early days of the LCS? It has more to do with the recent influx of money into the scene and the all-in lifestyle that comes with playing in the LCS than any supposed loss of skill that goes along with age, Whinston told theScore esports Podcast.

“I think what happened was people decided that sacrificing 14 hours a day and living in a team house wasn’t worth $25,000 a year,” he said. “And now they’re not getting paid $25,000 a year and miraculously even pros that aren’t performing that well aren’t retiring.

“It’s less an issue of people being forced into retirement and more an issue of people not wanting to live that lifestyle anymore.”



And when it comes to the overall longevity of players in the scene, Whinston said the conversation is changing.

“I think it’s kind of bullshit when people reference the lifespan of esports pros in the current day,” he said.

Colin McNeil is a supervising editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.