Mark Cuban, the 58-year-old Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank star, has told Fusion that he is not currently interested in buying an eSports team. He already donated part of the $7 million funding for eSports gambling company Unikrn, but told Fusion that he hasn’t and “won’t invest in teams.”
“Right now it’s a gold rush to buy and sell and build teams. That’s creating a confused market. But more importantly, I’m worried about how quickly players burn out. It’s a grind to keep up and to become great. Particularly at LoL. I know teams are trying to do more, but the number of hours involved is a real concern for me. I’m not closing the door, but it’s not something I would pursue right now.”
Mark Cuban is partly correct in his statement due to most pro eSports athletes’ careers starting in their late teens and ending somewhere in their 20s. There are, of course, those who still play past their prime, like Virtus.pro’s current in-game leader Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas who is 30 years old.
A lot of the reasons for the burnout are of course the high bars of practicing set by foreign cultures, such as the Korean League of Legends teams who commit to around 12-13 hours of practice per day.
Rumor also has it that, should any player exceed two hours of free time per day, that player will be benched or expelled.
According to Cuban’s open-ended statement, however, he is still open to investing in a team in the future.
