The eSports organization Team 33 has announced that they have signed 8-year-old player Joseph Deen as a professional for the online shooter Fortnite . Reportedly, they are paying him a $33,000 signing bonus. The news has raised eyebrows. It seems like a PR stunt or a fake, as the 8-year-old will not be able to play professional Fortnite for another 5 years.
Where does the news come from? Team 33 released the news themselves as a press release through an international service (via prnewswire).
It is said that two years ago, they discovered the 6-year-old Joseph “Gosu 33” Deen as a talent, trained with him almost daily, and have now signed him as a Fortnite professional.
At the contract signing, the now 8-year-old Deen:
- received a $33,000 signing bonus (about €27,120)
- got a gaming setup worth $5,000 – this setup is supposedly given to every player who signs with Team 33
The young pro says he is living a dream. Other teams did not take him seriously. But Team 33 gave him a chance. Now he is overjoyed.
Fortnite can only be played professionally from the age of 13
What makes the news so strange: It’s actually complete nonsense to make an 8-year-old a Fortnite pro, as he can only start playing Fortnite professionally in 5 years when he is 13 years old.
Before that, he is not allowed to participate in any tournaments. He is just too young.
There have been cases where young players signed a professional contract, but it had to be dissolved. This just happened to a 13-year-old in LoL recently.
The case of the 12-year-old “FaZe H1ghSky1” made headlines in Fortnite. He pretended to be older than he was. However, Twitch streamer Tfue exposed him as much too young. H1ghSky1’s Twitch channel was banned, and he was no longer allowed to participate in Fortnite tournaments.
A 9-year-old player from Brazil was even banned from Fortnite. He had already participated in the eSports mode, which Epic wanted to prevent.
Why they would pay an 8-year-old a juicy bonus of $33,000 seems completely strange.
Team in Hollywood with a Sound Studio Villa as Headquarters
What kind of team is it that signs an 8-year-old? That alone is strange. The founding of the eSports organization Team 33 was announced in November 2020, also through their own press release (via prnewswire).
Allegedly, Team 33 is a team based in Hollywood. The “headquarters” of the team is a sound studio in the Hollywood Hills called “House 33,” a luxurious villa.
This sound studio is now also supposed to serve as a “first-class training facility for gamers.”
The founder behind the company and CEO is Tyler Gallagher, who runs a company for “alternative currency,” such as Bitcoin or gold.
Apparently, they have identified eSports as an attractive investment field.
The team plans to announce its official lineup in 2021. At the moment, the team is still completely unknown in eSports and is viewed skeptically.
PR Gag or a Joke to Deceive the Media?
How credible is this? The whole situation seems dubious. The “Team 33” website looks still under construction. Links to Discord lead to nowhere. There is no imprint.
Overall, the whole eSports site seems as if large parts have been copied from the website of the sound studio.
However, there seems to be a genuine connection to this sound studio, “House 33.” A picture of Gosu 33 together with FaZe Banks, who is the head of a large eSports organization, was shared on the Instagram channel of the sound studio (via instagram).
Overall, the action seems dubious. Either it is a pure PR gag to generate attention, knowing how much the public will be outraged by the signing of an 8-year-old. Or it is even a hoax, a joke.
In any case, they have achieved the goal of making people talk about the team. The news is being discussed internationally:
- Many are surprised by this action. It cannot possibly be good and healthy for an 8-year-old.
- Others are upset that they were not paid as well for their immense talent in video games during their youth.
- Some doubt that this entire organization is real – it does not look real.
- Others dismiss this experience as just another madness attributed to 2020, the year when everything somehow went downhill.
We reported on MeinMMO in 2019 about 16-year-old Jordan Herzog. He has been trained by his father to become a professional gamer for over ten years. The father sees great potential in eSports and is developing his son into a star:
Fortnite instead of school: father raises son to become pro gamer since he was 3
