9 year old Conquers Video Game Circuit
By Shawn on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 9:29 AM PST In Gamer Life, Halo
If you’ve ever been interested in competing on the video game circuit, check out your competion. The New York Times has a write up on the player who is thought to be the world’s youngest professional gamer according to Guiness. His name is Victor M. De Leon III but his opponents know him better as Lil’ Poison. This five year veteran of the video game circuit has just celebrated his ninth birthday and has been playing since he was two.Victor has a publicist, a national corporate sponsor, his own website and a documentary film crew that’s been following him for months. He’s also been featured in “60 Minutes”. With all this he still maintains better than average marks in his third grade classes. Still, all the public exposure hasn’t gone to his head.
Asked what he thinks about the fuss over his virtual exploits, Victor shrugged with shy indifference. Pressed, he mumbled: “I don’t know. I didn’t think about it.â€Â
Victor will be competing for titles like the Titan on Halo 2 for Xbox in the three day Major League Gaming Pro Circuit Event at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
A couple of years ago, I had the dubious honour of attending a HaloCE LAN Party in Ottawa, Canada. Myself and a bunch of buddies from Montreal went to play with some semi-pro players. They destroyed us, and a few weeks later, one of them went to California for a tournament, as he won a local tourney here that qualified him, all expenses paid. His parents however had to pay their own way, which they did. Upon his arrival, he was promptly told that he wouldn’t be allowed to compete because he was under 18 (I think he was 14 or 15). They let him be a judge for the tourney though (how nice). How come this 9 year old is allowed to compete in a mature rated game ? I wasn’t allowed to enter drinking contests at the local bar when I was 15. I think the organisers of these things should at least TRY to apply the standards the industry has self-imposed. If good ol’ Jack T gets a hold of this, he’ll go off on another tangent. All that being said though, I sure wish I was this kid when I was 9.
Huh, featured in ‘60 Minutes’
Take THAT, Jack Thompson!
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Cool – i think it´s a great example for the destroying powers of videogames. This lil kid is killing virtual people all the time, when he is old enough he is bound to do harm in the real world. And boy will he be good at it. Just look at the photo, you can see the killer instinct right in his eyes.
I would’ve been impressed if he was good at something like counter-strike, but I guess halo can require some skill