The path to becoming a professional eSports player – is it purely by luck?

Vietnam’s eSports is the best in the whole team at SEA Games 31

Grown from “spontaneous” matches

The members of Team Flash (Shoot Chien) or ViCoi (PUBG Mobile) are not unfamiliar names. Although they are still very young, these athletes have quite a lot of experience competing in domestic and foreign competitions. Before being called with the title of “athlete”, they could only participate in self-organized competitions on a very small scale.

Previously, when subjects like League of Legends PC, Wild Rift, and PUBG Mobile were not officially released by VNG in Vietnam, young people who loved this subject often gathered together and held competitions together. match or meet online. Of course, the path to a career as an athlete is still very far away because spontaneous tournaments will not meet the criteria for athletes to be certified – a mandatory condition when wanting to participate in international tournaments. While Korea, China, and Japan have training industries in e-sports because of the potential to generate billions of dollars per year, young players in Vietnam are still struggling to play international versions. support Vietnamese, and there isn’t a strong enough community connected across the country.

However, those shortages have not diminished the attraction of eSports for young people, as evidenced by the matches being livestreamed still attracting millions of views and comments. This is the motivation for many young people to step into the path of professional athletes and earn income with their own passion.

Pursue the path Professional eSports athlete

The official release of eSports in Vietnam is a big turning point. The game versions are constantly updated, fully Vietnameseized, supported regularly and especially an official community has been created to create great opportunities for local players to exchange, rub, and integrate. gain experience. In particular, the establishment of the Vietnam E-Sports and Entertainment Association VIRESA has shown that eSports is gradually being recognized by society. Domestic tournaments with full essential equipment such as machines, coaches, referees, etc. are held regularly, becoming a premise for athletes to compete in the region and around the world. world such as WCS SEA (Shoot War) or PMPL SEA (PUBG Mobile).

SEA Games 31 is the first time for many players when carrying the responsibility of representing Vietnam to compete at the Southeast Asian Games and not disappointing the fans, the Vietnamese eSports team ranked first in the entire team with a total 5 gold medals, 4 silver medals. At the end of the 31st SEA Games, the Prime Minister decided to award certificates of merit to Vietnamese esports athletes who won gold medals.

In fact, in order to get such good results, Vietnam’s e-sports have gone through a lot of difficulties. For athletes in some subjects such as Mobile Legends Bang Bang, they can only meet for a few days before officially competing, both developing personal skills and practicing for team competition. The gamers participating in the eSport competition are good players, have professional techniques, not only knowledgeable about the game but also have team playing skills and understand each other well to support each other in all situations. Competing eSports is not simply an ordinary game, but it also requires tactical thinking, clear planning, the ability to coordinate well… While in many countries, e-sports has been included. In a well-trained school, in Vietnam, athletes still mainly practice, observe and learn through tournaments. For the organizers, publishers and supporting units, cost is not a small issue because e-sports is a sport organized with fully socialized funding.

Competition in Wild Rift at SEA Games 31

The pursuit of a professional eSports athlete career needs a lot of perseverance and determination of young players in the context of society still having many prejudices. However, the serious investment in the preparation process has yielded very worthy results, eSports at SEA Games 31 is not inferior to any professional tournament on a regional scale with a very high rating. from foreign partners and press. “This is a great achievement of Vietnam’s e-sports industry, towards the possibility of hosting other regional and world-level tournaments in the future. Here, we will push it further. We believe that the popularization of the concept of e-sports will be an essential development that brings many positive values ​​from social resources.” – Mr. La Xuan Thang – Product Manager, VNG Publisher emphasized.