Asia has long been a leader when it comes to e-sports, or organised video game competitions that professional or amateur players take part in. According to the July 2020 Think With Google report, there are more than 1.5 billion gamers in the region — with South-east Asia being among the leading markets.

There have been several key developments in e-sports in Asia over the past few years — South Korea has recognised professionally licensed players since 2000, China garnered the highest e-sports revenue in the world last year and the 2019 Southeast Asian Games made history by becoming the first event sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee to feature e-sports as a medal event.

Campus Game Fest is an initiative by Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association that gathers Singapore’s gaming community under one roof. In 2019, the festival took place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. PHOTO: SINGAPORE CYBERSPORTS AND ONLINE GAMING ASSOCIATION

In Singapore, the industry is still considered nascent. “Our domestic market is obviously not very big but our Internet infrastructure is very strong. So in a sense, we’ve been quite a forerunner because we’ve been ahead of the curve in some way,” says Nicholas Aaron Khoo, co-founder of Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association (SCOGA).

A gamer himself, Khoo established SCOGA with his like-minded peers, with the aim of engaging gamers in Singapore through various local programmes and tournaments. This was back in 2007, when e-sports was still called cybergaming or cybersports.

Much like in other parts of the world, e-sports in Singapore evolved from a lone gamer playing a video game at home, then doing it with friends, until the activity reached the online space.

“It really started to take off when people started playing against one another on the Internet. In the last 10 years, as video became a lot more prevalent on the Internet, the whole viewership and spectatorship online grew,” Khoo explains.

He adds: “E-sports took off in the past five to 10 years because of platforms like Twitch, YouTube and Facebook. Now, it’s like a real sport where we have people play and work as a team, there’s prize money to be won and there are millions of people watching.”

SCOGA says there are close to 3 million gamers in Singapore at present, with about 500,000 interested in e-sports.

Putting the spotlight on home-grown talent

Currently, SCOGA is making a difference in the local e-sports industry by coming up with various initiatives to elevate and put the spotlight on potential talents in the community. It is also active in forming partnerships with organisations like Singapore Sports Hub that support the growth of e-sports.

The inaugural Campus Legends in 2019 was held in Singapore Indoor Stadium. Among the games was FIFA19. PHOTO: SINGAPORE CYBERSPORTS AND ONLINE GAMING ASSOCIATION

Among its partnerships is Campus Legends, an initiative now in its sophomore year that educates students from institutes of higher learning about the basics of organising e-sports competitions. SCOGA goes around the schools to teach not just gaming but also event management, multimedia journalism and shoutcasting, among others.

It culminates with an e-sports competition at Singapore Sports Hub, which has been hosting e-sports events such as Campus Game Fest (another SCOGA initiative), Hyperplay and ONE Esports Dota2 World Pro Invitational. Due to the Covid-19 situation, Campus Legends was held online from June to Aug this year.

The five-member team from Nanyang Polytechnic that won League Of Legends in Campus Legends 2020 say camaraderie is essential in securing their collective goal. They have been playing as a team since 2018.

Team leader Vincent Ho says: “Even if I can provide a sense of direction for the team, each one of us must be able to put in the work willingly.

“Playing e-sports is a team effort. The five of us must train together and use our skills to win.”

They consider playing e-sports “rewarding”, especially since they are given the chance to showcase their talents to a big crowd.

For Chai Mun Jun, who was part of the Institute of Technical Education College Central team that won Mobile Legends in Campus Legends 2020, playing video games competitively is something that he “really enjoys doing”.

He is considering pursuing it as a potential career, although he recognises the industry is new in Singapore and the profession may be perceived as unconventional by others. For now, he is hoping for home-grown talent to get more support from the industry and for Singapore to be a venue of big e-sports events so more people can watch.

Khoo says: “More can be done for our Singaporean talents, such as providing additional opportunities to participate in tournaments. I would say the most important step would be for our population as a whole to gain a better understanding of e-sports to create a sustainable ecosystem for the activity.”