Local e-sports player Chiu Hong Lok: we need a team to represent Macao

Local e-sports player Chiu Hong Lok entered the e-sports industry right after graduating from high school. During his five-year professional career, he had played in many e-sports competitions in Macao, mainland China and Hong Kong, claiming quite a few championships. Last year, he even participated in World Cyber Games, breaking into quarterfinal representing Macao. He is one of the best professional players Macao has offered. Despite his own achievements, Chiu believes that Macao’s e-sports industry is still in its early phase and doesn’t have a team of Macao that can truly represent the city.

Inspired by world champions

Chiu started playing games when he was little. But playing games for fun and playing games professionally are two different stories. Chiu was inspired by a legendary team from Taiwan when they claimed the world championship. That was the moment he decided to enter e-sports.

Chiu recalled that at that time e-sports just started to emerge in Asia. He felt empowered when he witnessed an e-sports team from Asia was able to break into world championship and eventually became world champion. From that moment he was inspired to become a professional player. Chiu’s e-sports journey hasn’t been smooth. First, he encountered opposition from his families. “At first they were against the idea. But I talked to them with patience. Eventually they decided to give me two years to try. If it doesn’t work out for me, I will go back to school,” Chiu said. “Now I am a full-time professional player with a monthly salary of MOP 12,000. I have eight to nine hours of training every day. I also need to train in professional venues and prepare for competitions. It’s not different from other normal jobs.”

E-sports is a money-making machine

Many people can’t differentiate between playing games professionally and casually because they haven’t started treating gaming as a competitive sport instead of leisure, said Chiu. In simple words, your mentality is different when you are playing professionally. “In fact, e-sports players can cash in through multiple channels, such as advertising and livestreaming,” Chiu said, explaining professional players’ income source and career potential. “In general, e-sports players sign contracts with an agent. It’s similar to Internet celebrities.”

A lot of people think that e-sports players enjoy a rather short professional career. The prime time for professional players is from 16 years old to 20 years old. After reaching 20 years old, professional players’ reflex will start to decline as their ability to have full control over their hands will fall. However, Chiu has a different opinion on this. “I believe this theory is only half right, because there are different types of e-sports competitions. We also have card games which do not require a high command of their hands. In that case, the older the players are, or let’s say, more experienced, the better they can be,” Chiu said.

Macao still lacks a professional team

A lot of e-sports players around the world enjoy a very decent income and lots of career potential, which definitely making e-sports player a dream job for many people. But what is the actual situation for the e-sports players in Macao? From Chiu’s perspective, Macao’s e-sports industry is still on the rise, which results in the fact that many interested talents who want to become a professional e-sports player can’t find jobs with stable income. At present, accomplished players are active in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. “Right now, the most difficult thing is that we don’t have a stable team that represents Macao. Macao’s e-sports is developing at a slow pace and therefore we don’t have mature infrastructure. Most of the times when we go to e-sports competitions in other regions we would need to cover the transportation and accommodation expenses by ourselves. And it is uncertain whether we can succeed or not. But most importantly, Macao needs a representing team. Or else it’s hard to attract young people to join,” Chiu said.

Many organisations in Macao have been active in hosting competitions in the city. But from Chiu’s opinion, there are both advantages and disadvantages to it because there are many international tournaments that can attract tourists while such tournaments do not really attract local players to participate. In other words, these tournaments are not encouraging local talents to enter into e-sports.

Nurturing local players is crucial to future development

Although it’s not easy for the e-sports industry to take off, Chiu still holds a positive attitude towards the industry’s development in the city because of the advantages Macao enjoys. “Macao’s strength lies in the abundant resources of venues and hotels, which are great for hosting major international events,” he said. The fact is that Macao has a lot of quality facilities for e-sports, but it takes more than that to make e-sports competitions an industry. “We are having a generation gap issue in Macao. We don’t have young players to follow in the steps of their predecessors,” Chiu said, believing that Macao can learn from Hong Kong and Taiwan and set up e-sports courses for nurturing future talents.

“It’s actually not that hard to follow your dream,” Chiu said, encouraging people interested in becoming a professional player. “You just need to take the first step. Then success is not far away.”