Even if professional athletes live storied lives of playing games for a living and being paid huge sums of money to be in the kind of shape that leaves the rest of us green with envy, it's still sad to see their careers and lives derailed by serious injuries. Who knew that smashing bodies together had the potential to permanently injure one of them?
Apparently though the same can be said for Esports, where the constant strain of play puts a lot of pressure on the wrists and hands of the pro players and it's ending some of their careers much earlier than you'd think - especially considering reaction time drop offs usually signal the end of an Esports career by their mid-20s anyway.
Motherboard has an interview with a hand and arm surgeon based out of Los Angeles who specialised in sports based injuries. His most common patients are MMA fighters, for obvious reasons, but the second most common are Esports players, who come with all sorts of repetitive strain issues, carpal tunnel and their related injuries. There can be joint erosion, early onset arthritis and all sorts of other nasty wrist and hand related injuries that can happen if all you do all day is play games.
It's important to stay active and eat healthy people, even if you are a 'gamer4life'.
As Kotaku points out too, these sorts of injuries don't just result in going to a doctor to have them fix you up. With the likes of LoL pro player, Hai Lam, retiring early because of the problems their wrists are facing, it shows that taking care of yourself is incredibly important.
