We have all probably dreamed of sitting across a PC 50 years later playing our favourite games and spending the last few years of our lives in pure bliss. There is a team who is doing exactly that, and they call themselves the “Silver Snipers.“
With the youngest member aged 62, the oldest player on the roster is 81 years young and the best part was that no one in the team had any previous experience of the game at the squad’s inception. The team from Sweden had been formed after an ad that called for senior citizens to join an esport team for a CS tournament at the Dreamhack digital festival in Sweden.
Coached by former CS pro Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson, the snipers underwent 3 weeks of intensive training for the tournament. Do note, that they did not have ANY experience of playing video games, let alone that of a FPS shooter like Counter Strike, where it takes weeks just to get accustomed to the basic controls.
The training started with the basics of CS, the controls, settings and what actually was the aim of the game. The group took these sessions very seriously and even got printouts of the keyboard layout for them to memorize it faster. They were very serious about it, and even asked a range of questions to improve their game sense and their aiming.
The reason why they chose CS was because it was the easiest game to pick up among the ones with a steep learning curve like Overwatch or DOTA. They did not have a good showing at their first tournament, winning a single round in 2 matches against more experienced opponents, but that has not dampened their spirits. “It’s all fun to play for me and my teammates; winning is a bonus,” said Olivind “Windy” Toverund.
I would just say, GO FOR IT! You have nothing to be afraid of—the gaming community is not an excluding community.
Their hardwork did pay off in summer this year after they won the Seniors World Cup against Finland, USA and Germany at DreamHack Summer 2019, beating Grey Gunners in the finals. Windy has some encouraging words for the older gamers as well.
