Financial problem is a sensitive issue and in many instances, the lacking of it is a pertinacious problem that plagues various pockets of society with no quick solution in sight. The South East Asia eSports scene is one such victim. The repercussions of which are usually dear to the progress of the afflicted community and as Joseph ‘HDphoenixx’ Chan was seen positing in the earlier segment, “unless the industry is financially matured enough to support the competitive gaming livelihood, the level of play will continue to suffer.”

But even without the allure of big money prizes, one may still succeed if he or she has the resilience and flair for the game. Joseph ‘HDphoenixx’ believes the key to moving to a higher level lies in getting the basics right. In the gaming climate of South East Asia where the ladder is stricken with crummy, unimaginative play, one can gain an edge over his competitors by nailing the fundamentals such as build orders, effective unit counters and well calculated move times.

“Revenant is consistently very good at delivering good execution. His strategies are very normal; he either fast expands or plays very aggressively with speeding. Light is another player who is also very mechanical but even though they do the standard strategy, they do it much better than other people and that give them the wins.”

“In the same way, everybody knows OgsMC’s 3 gate expand but it’s just he does it so much better,” reiterates Joseph. Thus it is imperative that any player with ambitions of turning pro should be strong in the elementary mechanics. There are a few ways to go about this but the surest way is to enrol yourself under a good coach; be it through joining a team or buying in one of the professional coaching programmes helmed by an established pro.

“You will need a good coach that will sit down and tell you these are your bad habits and how you can change them,” advises the shoutcaster. “At Mothership Studios that is what we try to do actually. The aim of the studios is to do 3 things; to develop players, develop casters and we want to develop the community. If someone wants to become pro, we provide the role models for that.”

Conversely, a collaboration between the region’s top players such as Moonglade, Revenant and Nirvana, just to name a few, have reaped a comprehensive guide to pro which one may purchase for a small fee. For the curious, this programme also includes personal coaching from some of the masters themselves. Unfortunately, the truth is that at some point in time, money will be needed to turn the cogs.

However, with the basics firmly hardwired into your noggin, odds are that if you are a professional gamer in SEA, you will still need to venture away from the local scene to seek more competitive pastures. “At higher levels you need experience and exposure. Some people get experience though mass grinding sessions but if you grind against people who are not of good calibre you can only achieve so little,” Joseph explains, “another way would be to play custom games against good players. That would be the fastest way to gain experience but not the best with regard to exposure.”

Even so, keep faith little ones with the flaccid wallets and big ambitions because with a little patience and nurturing, there will soon be an establishment here to rival the GOM house in Korea and thy name is FXO. “The FXO house in Malaysia has a very good boss who loves SC2 and is willing to throw money into a venture which he knows he’s not going to make much money from. It’s like funding a charity for now but I’m very appreciative of that.”

Good exposure at the highest level is essential because top players will attempt to do that little extra to throw you off your game and it will be up to you to keep your cool and react appropriately. “There (top professional leagues) it’s not so much about your mechanical skills, it boils down to your decision making,” explains Joseph, “this is why some mechanically profound players such as Idra sometimes fall to relatively unknown players. His rigid thinking and his temper are a detriment to his game.”

“Likewise for Moonglade, his mechanics are damn strong, and that is why when he comes to SEA he crushes everybody, but one the pro level when he faces off with someone who does the little innovative things to throw him off his standard play, his rigidity doesn’t allow for him to go further. The same goes for Pig—very good tactically and analytically, but too boxed in his approach.”

So to sum it up, the region of South East Asia has some very good players and if you have the determination and panache to turn professional; there are ways to do so even in the impoverished state of the local e-gaming scene. As a mighty pleased Joseph adds that it’s only time that SEA rises to become a SC2 powerhouse. 

“The only way is up when you’ve hit rock bottom.”
- Robert Wyatt

While we aren’t necessarily scrapping the bottom of the barrel at the moment, there is certainly a lot of ways to improve and Joseph 'HDphoenixx' Chan has some suggestions to potentially boost the appeal of competitive StarCraft 2 in the region. “We should be more creative with tournaments—like the World of WarCraft arena tournaments in Korea, they sometimes play a combination of solo and team games; like a 1v1 then a 3v3 then a 1v1 and 3v3.”

“From a spectator’s point of view it’s way more interesting. Much like the GSL super league, there isn’t a big prize pool but it’s a lot of fun to follow.” The subsequent heightened viewership and attention to the sport could be the remedy to the financially lacklustre industry, apart from waiting on a magnanimous investor for the ‘FXO-effect’ which may or may not materialise. “It’s like WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), even though it’s scripted, it’s very entertaining to watch and that’s why the industry can fly.”

Having already spent an hour in the 'Mothership', the captain informs me that he has reconfigured the teleport and with that my departure from the spaceship was nigh. In thanking the gracious host, I drew breath for one last question for the evening, “Any local players we should look out for in the tournaments this year?” I asked. “Well apart from the usual, Moonglade, Pig or Light, maybe iaguz, he’s a very good Terran player. You’ll find more if there’s a $10,000 tournament to play for,” replies Joseph cordially.

For more information and videos by Joseph ‘HDphoenixx’, be sure to head on down to his channel.

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