Call of Duty legend Scump tells young players to pursue other games

Arguably the biggest name in Call of Duty, Seth ‘Scump’ Abner, has advised young aspiring pros to pick a different game to play, advising against pursuing COD as a career.

Scump has been a legend in COD for many years now, as one of the best players in the world back in 2011’s Modern Warfare 3 right through to current day where, despite having been retired for a couple of years, he could still put many pros in their place.

He has enjoyed a fruitful career in the first-person shooter franchise, but has actively advised against other young people attempting to follow the same career path – at least in COD.

OpTic stars recommend Fortnite over Call of Duty

Scump and his OpTic colleagues were speaking about the ‘path to pro’ in the Call of Duty League, and the world champion was honest in his assessment.

“If I was an 18-year-old right now, or 16-year-old, and I was trying to pursue becoming a professional in a video game, Call of Duty would not even be on my radar,” he explained. “Like, dude, look at all the other options.”

Former teammate Anthony ‘Methodz’ Zinni interjected, saying that he would be advising young aspiring pros to go look at a game like Fortnite.

He added that the 18 age limit – where you have to be at least 18 years old to compete in Activision-sanctioned events – needs to go, citing the fact that he was 14 when he went pro and that there are probably a lot of players around 14-18 that could make the step up.

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They spoke about possible solutions to allow younger players to compete, such as implementing a ‘paintball’ style setting where you get paint rather than blood and gore when you kill or get killed.

The 18+ rule has been in effect in Call of Duty esports for around a decade now, but many of the long-time veterans that we’ve enjoyed watching in recent years were able to compete prior to turning 18 – something that many will agree was great for their careers.

Whether Activision ever does change their mind on the 18+ rule is unclear, but given the M rating the game has, it seems unlikely to happen any time soon.