Parents all over the world are becoming increasingly worried about the time that their children are spending in front of the screens. However, a Canadian father is becoming a controversial topic because he is supporting the eSports career of his son. Why has that made him a controversial topic? As it happens, Dave Herzog has pulled his son out of the school so that he can dedicate more time to playing video games.
Dave Herzog is a 49 years old entrepreneur from Sudbury, Canada. He has been getting his son, Jordan, ready for an eSports career for more than ten years. Dave Herzog himself is a longtime gamer and says that he gave a gaming controller into the hands of his son when he was only three years old. Jordan displayed his skills soon enough; by the age of seven, he was a skilled Halo player, and within three years of that, he was dominating the local gamers. However, it was when Jordan won the first Halo tournament, bagging $2,000 worth gaming apparel, that Dave Herzog realized that his son could take up eSports as a career. He said, ‘A light-bulb went off. Once he started winning, it was easy to go all in.’
Jordan ‘Crimz’ Herzog is sixteen years old and is considered as one of the most successful Fortnite players. He has also qualified for the World Fortnite Championship along with 200 other players from all over the world. He has a chance of winning a share of the $30 million prize pool thanks to this championship. Despite his father’s claims that he has a talent for gaming; Jordan works hard for this skill. He spends around eight to ten hours on a daily basis playing Fortnite. He even eats in front of his computer, enabling him to watch YouTube videos and converse with his teammates. He is attending school classes online so that he doesn’t end up losing too much time away from the keyboard.
Dave Herzog had Jordan pulled out of school last year and became the target of a controversial debate. However, he says that it is a matter of perception. If Jordan was playing sports or piano, Dave says, people would have been perfectly fine with his decision of pulling him out of school. Dave says, ‘I’m not an idiot. I know there are social interactions that you, me, most people had that he’s going to miss out on, but he’s got a major moment right now, and we’ve got to take advantage of it.’ Jordan also feels lucky to have someone like his father in his corner and understands the sacrifices that he has to make. So far, Jordan Crimz Herzog has made $60,000 from gaming. Jordan says, ‘Friends come and go and stuff, but this could be my career and my entire future.’
