Silver Snipers, the elders who devastate video games



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The Silver Snipers are a group of video game players who participate in one of the most important festivals among fans of this activity.

Up to now, nothing extraordinary.

Now, if we add that her average age is 67 and half of them are women, her story begins to attract attention.

And to meet these "gamers" of the senior age the BBC's Trends program team traveled to the Swedish city of Jonkoping, located four hours south of Stockholm.

Jonkoping is the second largest lake in the Nordic country: the Vättern. But the city is more industrial and, more than the lake, what you see are car parks and warehouses.

And one of these spaces is the congress center where last month took place Dreamhacks the largest digital festival that has meetings between video game fans around the world.

It was a space with several scenes and large television screens, three or four times larger than those that can be found in a house.

And even though it was full of teens and 20-year-olds, they were not the attraction, because the stars of this video game encounter were clearly Silver Snipers .

Silver Elite Snipers

The money elite scorers are a group of five players with a very special feature: their average age is 67.

And despite the generational gap with most of his opponents, when they play thousands of people watch their live sessions via the Twich platform.

There are five comrades with different pseudonyms: Windy, (Oivind Toverud), Birdie (Abbe Drakborg), Trigger Finger (Inger Grotteblad), YoungGun (Arne Indefors) and Teen Slayer (Monica Indefors).

And they traveled several kilometers to play their specialty Counter Strike: Global Offensive One of the most popular video games, with millions of

The game takes place on a field virtual football where terrorists try to blow up a bomb and counter-terrorists try to save the place

And learning tactics is not an easy task. But the group has been training with one of the best: 10-time world champion, Tommy Ingemarsson

"It was a challenge, but they did me a lot. were surprised because they were very interested in learning new things, go ahead, showed me that they are pbadionate about the subject "says Tommy to Jonathan Griffin and Natalia Zuo of the BBC Trending program

Cool grandparents

Despite their age, Silver Snipers cause fury among young people

"I adore them, they are the best" , says Charlie, a 16-year-old young man who managed to get one of the group's promotional caps

and he's not the only one to fight.

This relationship with young people was also experienced by players of their own family

Inger told BBC Trending that he is now very close to his grandchildren. "We became friends, they are my personal trainers" he says

And one of the most exciting times of the day is precisely when Trigger Finger clashed in the (virtual) playground against one of his grandchildren. And he won by one point.

Industry

Events like Dreamhack are just the tip of the iceberg of a very lucrative industry.

A recent study points out that the world video game industry 19659027] or more than 100 US $ .000 million dollars in 2017, while eSports, the competitive online gaming platform, has accumulated revenues of more than 750 million US dollars.

And the presence of older adults like the Silver Snipers has increased over time. Even some scientific reports suggest that this can be beneficial for your physical and mental health.

"I think the message is clear, e l eSport is for everyone, regardless of age, gender, or nationality ," concludes Tommy Ingemarsson.


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