Dave Herzog, a 49-year-old entrepreneur from Sudbury, Canada is a strong proponent of the above stated school of thought.
Reports say he took his son, 16-year-old Jordan “Crimz” Herzog from school to make him develop a full-time career in video games because he has started making a lot of money from it already.
According to Odditycentral.com, Dave who himself has been into gaming for a long time claims that he put a gaming controller in his son’s hands when he was just three years old, and it didn’t take long for him to show that he had a true gift for gaming.
He added that by age 7, Jordan was already a skilled Halo player, and at age 10 he was already dominating local gamers that Dave himself had put him in contact with. But it was when Jordan won his first Halo tournament, which earned him $2,000 worth of gaming apparel, that Dave Herzog thought his son had been wasting time attending school all these while.
“A light-bulb went off. Once he started winning, it was easy to go all in.” Dave recently told The Boston Globe.
Jordan is already one of the world’s most successful Fortnite players, and having qualified for this year’s World Fortnite Championship along with 200 other players from around the world, he stands to win a share of the $30 million prize pool, reports.
Jordan spends between 8 to 10 hours every day playing Fortnite, eats in front of his computer so he can watch YouTube videos and talk with his teammates, and attends school classes online, so he doesn’t lose too much time away from the keyboard.
Dave took Jordan out of school last year despite his wife’s disagreement and accusations by other people that he is abusing Jordan.
He wrote to his son’s school to inform them about how much he stands to gain if he places first in this year’s main Fortnite tournament, all in a bid to make them understand that his decision is not stupid.
“I’m not an idiot. I know there’s 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.”
Interestingly, Jordan himself does not seem to have any problem with his father’s decision for him.
He has earned around $60,000 from gaming so far; which Dave has vowed to invest for him to ensure his future is secured.
Jordan told The Boston Globe: “Friends come and go and stuff, but this could be my career and my entire future.”
What do you think about Dave’s decision for Jordan? Is it child abuse as some people think, or it is rather in the interest of the teenager?