What if you love a game so much you ended up working for that game’s company? That is what happened with our gamer of the week, Ameerah “NeverOne” Idros. Her passion for League Of Legends (LoL) has now landed her a gig as a Games Operations Associate for Garena Malaysia as well as a GM for LoL. However, she’s not doing it just for work purposes- she also games and streams a lot over on her Facebook page, labelling herself as an entertainer in this regard.
Otherwise known as Meerah Drs in the LoL community, Ameerah claims gaming has significantly change her lifestyle. “I would say I am just another girl in the block before I got to know about gaming,” she explained. “The standard typical person who would run things on the usual same boring daily life.”
Gaming History
While most of our featured gamers started at a pretty young age, Ameerah only discovered the joys of gaming at the age of 16. “Growing up in a family that doesn’t really do gaming and almost forbids it, does not give me much exposure on the whole thing,” she said. During that time she was mostly playing social games including Highstreet 5, STEPS, SDO-X and MStar.
But all of that changes when she first discovered LoL in 2013.
“This is only because the partner that was playing Mstar with me was spending most of his time on League with his friends,” Ameeah explained. “So it got me curious to know more about League of Legends.” And all it took was the character Spirit Guard Udyr to win her attention- the character animations and the theme song was enough for Ameerah to start falling in love with the game. “It truly amazed me on how much effort is put in to make all of the animation and music just for a game.”
The Gamechanger
Ameerah credited gaming being a big game changer in her life. It’s common for Malaysians to prefer following the flow of life and get a secured job in a known industry, and Ameerah was sticking right in the same path as the rest of society.
As she started gaming, that changed her course of life.
“Gaming has open my eyes a lot to many new possibilities, ” she said. “Back then I was this very simple person who only stuck herself with rules and regulations that needs to be abide and follow.”
“Not that I am saying that following the rules and regulations are bad, but in my own terms, it made me a very rigid person and would only stick to it and not open myself to possibilities. Meeting lots of new people with different background shows me that the world is much a bigger place than my own little mind.”
With games, it’s easy for one to be in another’s shoes and look at the world in a different way. Learning how the big the world is from the perspectives offered from games certainly benefited Ameerah. “Gaming had put me on my feet to know more what is out there that can be achieve, create and explore.”
Eventually she made use of her degree in Communication and Media studies (majoring in Public relations) to work with Garena Malaysia, the operators of League Of Legends here. It also helps that her bubbly personality that loves to talk to people help her stand out within the community.
All About Exposure
When it comes to issues regarding gaming, Ameerah pointed out the lack of exposure of gaming in general to be one. Esports or gaming events of the local variety do not have much spotlight despite its emerging growth nowadays. “Gaming or shall we say eSports is a relatively a very new industry, ” Ameerah explained. ” Not many people or company are willing to spend an amount of money into it to help it grow because they are uncertain of the outcome for this industry.”
Lately we do see more efforts on putting gaming and esports in Malaysia. From strong communities like the Malaysian Fighting Game Community’s countless tournaments to gathering events like twtupgamersmy, we are getting more events that can help expose the gaming community to a bigger spotlight which Ameerah thinks is one solution to this problem.
On that note, both Garena and Riot Games are currently helping out build the esports community in the collegiate side as well. The Garena Student Alliance aims to provide support to all esports clubs in universities and colleges throughout Malaysia while Riot’s Student Ambassador program is to groom individuals that can be the bonafide gamer-student model for others to aspire to become.
Ameerah also mentioned the efforts Fundeavour has made to getting exposure. “I admire how Fundeavour has tackle this situation. I’ve seen Lylia (a.k.a. Michelle Tan, Fundeavour’s CEO) going out to medias such as Lite FM, giving out talks during Malaysia Gamers Gathering and as well SmartGen where she gave out a talk to parents and youth about gaming and esports. Efforts like these are the ones that we need to bring forward for gaming and esports to grow.”
And to support exposure efforts, brands come into play. Bigger brands associating with esports or gaming can help bring more acceptance from the general public. “I really hope in the future, there will be more company that is willing to work together to grow esports scene in Malaysia and make it big as it is in South Korea.”
The Dream- It’s All About Family
Since Ameerah is a prominent community member in the local LoL scene, her dream is simply making the community a better place. And if you recently watched the latest Fast And Furious movie, you probably see this coming.
“My dream from the very start that got to know about League of Legends, is to have a healthy and great community to be in. A Family.”
While the notion that LoL players (or rather, MOBA players in general) are in some way toxic, if you find the right people in the community it should not be a problem. Though Ameerah’s task to make the community a family is a huge undertaking, we respect that she’s on the case.
Aside from that, Ameerah hopes to be a good influencer to her followers. ” [I] hope that someday that they too can achieve their dreams not just in gaming but in their life as well.” We at least know that one of our previous featured gamer of the week has cited Ameerah as her role model, so she is doing well so far to reach that goal.
We wish Ameerah all the best on her future endeavours. You can find her on Facebook here.
This feature was written as part of a partnership with Fundeavour, a site that helps aspiring gamers around the world to get a head start on beginning their journey as content creators, streamers and esports players. Want to be featured and share your stories with over 50,000 readers? Check out more info here or sign up with Fundeavour.com!