There’s fans, there’s competition, there’s a final. E-sports invaded the Brazilian University Games (JUBs) 2025. In fact, they conquered a monstrous space across the country. As in other sports, the dream of becoming a professional comes from a young age. It may seem easy to work with your leisure time, but the routine of a professional player is not so simple.
“I wake up at eight in the morning, from 10 am we have preparation. Then comes the lunch break. After one in the afternoon until eight at night it’s training. You play the game, rewatch it, talk about good and bad possibilities.”
The routine is by David Luiz, called Rosa. He is studying the third period of Information Systems at the Federal Technological University of Paraná (UTFPR), League of Legends champion at JUBs 2025. In addition to being a university athlete, Rosa is a professional e-sports athlete. And he knows he is at a decisive moment in his life.
“It’s a career that, like it or not, doesn’t have much longevity, professional players end up losing performance around the age of 24”, points out David Luiz, third-year Information Systems student at UTFPR – Celio Júnior/CBDU/Rights Reserved
“As a professional player, sometimes you can make great money, take advantage of great opportunities. It’s a career that, whether you like it or not, doesn’t have much longevity, professional players end up losing performance around the age of 24. But you can make a lot of money, there are players in our scene who earn around 100 thousand reais a month, the most famous. However, if I risk reaching that level, I could lose time that I would be doing an internship, I would be specializing. It’s that scale that weighs both sides. At some point you have to decide, but it’s an arduous decision”, ponders David Luiz.
At JUBs, athletes play for the title, in a light way. The focus is on not leaving aside your studies and your sport. But in a professional environment this is not always the case.
“From the moment you are no longer standing out, if your contract ends, you will run. It’s a scenario that you have to reinvent yourself, improve, perfect, for you to have this potential to stand out, to play for big teams. You have to be willing to live this dream, because there are a lot of demands. Not just from your team, the teams have a lot of fans. For example, the team I played for had more than 3 thousand followers, and they charge.”
Washington Wu was once an e-sports professional, received an invitation to play abroad, but chose to pursue the academic field – Célio Júnior/CBDU/Reserved Rights
Washington Wu, Washin, is from Luiz’s JUBs team, the UTFPR Azure Bears. He went the other way. He was once a professional and received invitations to play in one of the biggest centers in the world, South Korea. But he preferred another path.
“With this journey of 16, 17 hours of gaming a day, it got really tiring. I couldn’t keep up much, I fell behind and decided to stop. I’m going to continue in this academic and professional field, look for work, become a CLT”, says Washin.
Turning professional so early, training a lot and suffering pressure from the fans. For the e-sports coordinator of the Brazilian Confederation of University Sports (CBDU), Sergio Medeiros, e-sports need to be monitored and always updated.
“E-sports are very mentally exhausting. So there is the wear and tear of the game itself and there is a lack of mental preparation, in a certain way, to deal with the pressure environment.”
The activity is constantly updated: there is pressure, financial return, competitiveness. Which path to choose? When in doubt, Washingtin Wu has a tip.
“Don’t let yourselves be affected by this pressure process. Enjoy life and there will always be a path to success.”
* Maurício Costa traveled to Natal at the invitation of CBDU.
