Retired at 24: The life of a pro 'Call of Duty' player

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Matthew "Burns" Potthoff retired when he was 24. He'd spent 11 years building a career as a professional Call of Duty player, and when he realized his time in front of the screen was up, he made a graceful transition into eSports management. Today, he's 26, and he works behind the scenes with eUnited, a North American eSports squad with teams across Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Gears of War, Smite and PUBG.

 

Potthoff's story sounds more suited to someone in their 50s or 60s -- traditionally, retirement is something that happens after decades of work in a chosen field. However, eSports is a new, rapidly evolving industry, largely staffed by young people with big dreams. Potthoff's career mirrors eSports' recent rise to mainstream fame, but it also serves as a cautionary tale for new players, many of whom are diving into the scene straight out of high school -- or even before.

 

Fan the flames

 

Potthoff's dad drove him to his first eSports tournament when he was 13. It was a small, local competition in Chicago in 2005, featuring matches for Halo and Call of Duty -- Potthoff competed in both and performed well enough to collect a prize at the end. However, he didn't receive the reward he expected.

"The prize was not what was projected on the website, so my dad got extremely mad and thought eSports was like a scam," Potthoff says.

 

In 2005, professional gaming was not an established fact of the Western video game world. While fans hosted tiny competitions across the US, it would be four more years before League of Legends, a driving force in modern eSports, would even exist. It would be six years before Dota 2, Valve's legendary eSports title, would break prize-money records with its first $1 million tournament. Twitch wouldn't be around for six more years, either -- in 2005, most folks were still baffled by the idea that watching people play video games could be entertaining.

 

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