To many people out there, playing games competitively sounds like the easiest thing in the world – waking up at noon, stumbling to the PC, booting up a game and the rest is history. While that may not be entirely untrue, the realities of being a gamer in the eSports world are probably more different than you think.
On this week’s featured gamer, we spoke to Dawei “Xero” Teng, a veteran gamer in Malaysia, to get an insight on what it means to be an eSports player in the region. Formerly a hardcore competitive player in Dota2, he now plays competitively in Heroes of the Storm and has racked up multiple achievements including commentating for Asean Games for E-Sports (AGES) in Dota2, Grandmaster rank in Heroes of the Storm in the region, and Distinguished Master Guardian in CS:GO. He is also co-founder of Dusk till Dawn TV, a project that features and promotes Malaysian streamers and shoutcasters. The project aims to solve the lack of local community support for local streamers and shoutcasters, even across different games.
Dawei started playing at a young age with console games like Daytona USA, before moving on to his first MMORPG – Ragnarok Online. However, since starting out competitively in Dota, his dream remains firmly on the ultimate glory – his name on the Warcraft 3 Dota loadscreen.
Despite his achievements, and the fact that many young Malaysian gamers harbor such dreams to be the best eSports players they can be, Malaysia still has a long way to go in terms of creating big names in the eSports industry.
“The mindset of the older generation plays an important role in encouraging and dissuading up-and-coming players in the scene, no matter what game. I’ve seen far too many talented friends quit playing because of pressure from their families,” he recounts, citing this as one of the biggest problems for gamers currently. The phrase “Games are a waste of time”, he added, is usually heard by many local talents trying to focus on eSports – a clear indication of the generation gap between the older generation and the current one. As an example, he relates it to the “Asian Parents Expectation Syndrome” where parents typically expect children to grow up to be lawyers, doctors or businessmen.
“The mindset of the older generation plays an important role in encouraging and dissuading up-and-coming players in the scene, no matter what game.”
“The older generation has either never fully understood the gaming industry, or has just some basic understanding of the earlier days of the industry,” Dawei explained. “The truth is, they merely adopted to the industry’s growth, whilst we were born in it, molded by it, grew with it and therefore understand it more.”
Given that our parents, friends and family exert such a significant influence on how well our gaming talents do, we asked Dawei what he thought might change this.
“The older generation will be more inclined to believe that there is a future in gaming if they see household brands supporting eSports as well,” he suggested. “These can be traditional companies, even in non-gaming related fields such as Coca Cola, Telekom Malaysia etc. Recently, OneCity Mall has supported a Dota 2 tournament – this is a step in the right direction.”
“The older generation will be more inclined to believe that there is a future in gaming if they see household brands supporting eSports as well.”
In addition, for average gamers who want to make a difference, Dawei suggests taking parents to eSports events. He believes that awareness campaigns or talks “will go a long way to solve the issue”, but notes wisely that “it cannot be rushed.”
Even so, Dawei thinks eSports in general does not need any more promotion in Malaysia. Instead, he notes, “The challenge is to get eSports out in the mainstream – on TV, on radio, in print. EGG from Astro is one of the first to do this, so hopefully radio stations can pick this up as well and start reporting eSports-related news.”
Indeed, with the recent proliferation of eSports reporting in BBC, Bloomberg, and elsewhere, it looks as if eSports may just very well be on the brink of a mainstream revolution.
Follow Dawei on social media here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xerodota/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Daweeeeeeei
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLmUfk6lavBCC3BByDRNlMw
Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/xero_plays
Fundeavour: https://fundeavour.com/xero
This feature was written as part of a partnership with Fundeavour, a site that helps out 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 20,000 readers? Check out more info here or sign up with Fundeavour.com!