Translations of the Nanyang Business Daily interview with Malaysia players Mushi, Ohaiyo & Mineski Malaysia CEO Kenchi. For the original article read up here: nanyang/node/658001?tid=493 Organizations to Ensure Players Welfare; China vs SEA Mushi talks about his life in China, and how the eSports environment in China is largely different from that of the local Malaysian scene. He notes that the Chinese scene is already complete with many sponsors and a central organization like the ACE, to ensure the welfare of players, not unlike any other competitive sports. Malaysia however does not have an organization like that, and he thinks it might have something to do with the fact that local players have yet to reach similar levels of worth and importance yet. In China, its completely normal to see all sorts of competitive eSports events attracting sponsors across different industries, not just limited to IT or gaming gears. Large Prize Pools, High Income Weve seen prize pools in Dota 2 tournaments reaching RM 3,270,000 in 2013, and RM35,700,000 in TI 2014. Mushi disclosed that his own income from 2013 till now is around RM800,000, and thats not including the pay from his product endorsements. Ohaiyo shares that the normal pay for local players would be around RM1k to 2k, but since they have international competitive experience they are able to negotiate salaries from RM4k onwards. However when compared to Chinese players who earn at least RM10k per month on average (because of the larger prize pools in tournaments there) this is not considered a lot after all. Training, Dedication & Teamwork So who wouldnt want to game for such a high income? Mushi says that for competitive players, stamina i.e. staying focused for long hours is the real test. The longest tournament hes joined was from 11am till around 1am the next day, almost 13 hours in total, and same schedule the following day. Some long tournaments wouldve easily spanned 3 months too, for instance. Most SEA online tournaments start at night, so our training time would be from 4pm in the afternoon till 12am midnight. Different places would have different training schedules too, for example Chinese teams would start from 2pm and end training at 10pm, while the US teams would start from 8am in the morning and end at 5pm. Long times of sitting in front of a computer would pose a health risk for the players too, so Mushi and his teammates also arrange some time for gym, badminton and other sports. He believes that just like other sports, they too require high amounts of training, just that theirs would be more for their brains - stamina & focus. Achievements & a Bright Future Ohaiyo & Mushi got to know each other around 3 years ago, and the duo with an average age of 22 have already achieved a considerable amount since they walked down this path despite discouragements from their families & friends a few years back. Back then, we only had RM400 per month and really unstable income from tournaments, recalled Ohaiyo. But now our families finally understood what we did and how much were achieving and they would attend our tournaments with pride. Ive walked this path for the longest time now. Let me tell you, Ive lost more than I won, but the most important thing is our mindset - you cant be afraid to lose, you should only be afraid that you havent done your best. If you lost after youve done your best, it would only mean that something is wrong with your strategy, so work on it and improve upon it. You should never be full of yourself or belittle your enemies, even and especially when youre at a higher position than the opponents. This is really important, said Mushi. Tournament Organizing in SEA Kenchi also talks about his life after retiring as a competitive eSports player - he went on to start a chain of cybercafes called Mineski, and nowadays he organizes a lot of Dota 2 tournaments in SEA. He also talks about the lack of buying power and the significantly smaller market in SEA that have caused it to lag behind other regions in terms of tournaments.However, he has faith in his decision and believes that eSports is an industry thats definitely worth investing in in this century. The last century was one for the traditional sports, but nowadays almost all the youngsters know computer games, and everyone of them would own some sort of digital platform for games. This is the trend for the new century, with an enormous market potential, said Kenchi. Honestly Im not earning a cent from all these tournaments, but you cant stop organizing them because its good for the scene, and also once you stop the sponsors would doubt your credibility, and stop supporting eSports. From an eSports player to a entrepreneur today with business chains across a few countries, Kenchi said there are a lot of things hes learnt by working in eSports that you cant learn in school. To those whove quitted school to play games, heres what Kenchi has to say, Thats an excuse - were all responsible gamers, so for a period of time we were doing business while participating in tournaments, to prove that tournaments, work and school are not mutually exclusive in any way. It all comes down to how you divide your time. Matchfixing Incidents: Arrow Gaming Recent investigations have seen fellow Malaysian team Arrow Gaming and some players from the Philippines involved in match-fixing incidents, and this has caused damage to the SEA Dota 2 scene. For this Mineski co-founder Kenchi says, In large-scale tournaments things like this are inevitable, but by doing this the players might get themselves banned for life from these tournaments, and they will find themselves in a tough spot in future eSports events - is that really worth it for those few hundred dollars? Valve was also notified of this series of incidents, and we were advised to start up an ACE organization in SEA in order to ensure a healthy competitive environment for players in the region. Mushi has also expressed his disappointment towards these incidents via his Facebook fan page. (https://facebook/mushichai/posts/756995207701782) As of now, there are around 20+ professional Dota 2 players in Malaysia. As one of the pioneers, Mushi plans to become a coach after retiring from the scene, so as to nurture new batches of players, and show them how to become a successful gamer, so that one day all Malaysians can finally appreciate the worth of eSports. Thanks Babyoling for translating this for us :) *admin posting
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:20:42 +0000
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