Even as a six-year-old, Ho Kun Xian was playing videos games. But the 29-year-old professional e-gamer had never expected that this could be a career for him.
“Playing video games gave me a sense of accomplishment,” said Xian, who now plays competitive “Street Fighter”, a video game series where two opponents spar against each other using martial-arts-inspired moves. He has been playing professionally for the past 6 years.
“I started going to the gaming arcades to play the game every weekend when I was in primary school. Then, when I went to secondary school, I would also spend my weekdays there, to play for 2 to 3 hours after I finished my homework,” said Xian.
Starting in the arcade
Growing up, Xian was an average student, with little interest in studies. After his GCE O-Level, he had the choice of entering a polytechnic and studying nursing, but he couldn’t see that as a career for himself.
“At that point, I decided to retake [O-Level] and give myself time to figure out the path I wanted,” he said. But he didn’t do that and fell into a series of odd jobs, which left him unsatisfied and rudderless.
But he continued to play video games, honing his skills and even participating in competitions held in gaming arcades, where he won small prizes, such as watches.
But professional gaming was not yet within his sights. “Back then, in the early 2000s, there was no such thing as a pro-gaming career in Singapore. I was just doing what I liked to do,” he said.
Things took a turn during his National Service. After winning a local Street Fighter 4 gaming competition, the organisers sent him on an airfare-and hotel-expenses paid trip to Sweden to compete in a competition called DreamHack 2009. Xian emerged first runner-up, clinching 3,000 euros (S$ 4,800). “This was quite a large sum of prize money at that time, as fighting game competitions were niche,” said Xian.
The achievement convinced him to start competing regularly. He knew that if he were to turn his hobby into a full-time gig, he would need to make a name for himself in the local and international gaming scene and get financial backing.
Learning to go pro
Hope came in the form of Koh Yung Tek and Lenn Yang.
Yung Tek, a video game enthusiast, who was then organising tournaments at local gaming arcades, was impressed with Xian’s skills and passion.
“Yung Tek helped me to build my brand by teaching me to produce and edit videos on YouTube. We filmed and edited shows to gain publicity and build a fanbase – a critical component for a successful athlete. One of the shows was Cross Counter ASIA, which started in 2011,” said Xian.
This online talk show, which featured Xian and another player, Zhi, playing the Street Fighter games and talking about their gaming experience, received an average of 40,000 views per clip.
The talk show was part of a larger gaming show franchise, Cross Counter, which was based in the US. And because of this, Xian gained exposure to a wider international audience. This helped to raise his profile and level up his gamer cred.
Lenn, another gaming enthusiast, became his financial backer, flying Xian to competitions in the US and Europe.
“Lenn had seen some video clips of me playing overseas. I think he was fascinated that there was someone in Singapore who was competing among the top gamers in the world. He wanted someone to plant the Singapore flag on the world stage,” said Xian.
Yung Tek even opened a gaming café with Xian in 2012. “This was to give me a path out if my gaming career failed,” said Xian.
Xian was to look after the shop and organise gaming tournaments in the shop and continue to making gaming videos on Cross Counter Asia. (The shop closed down in 2015.)
Staying fighting fit
Xian seemed to have gotten off to a promising start, but he knew that this was still unlikely to be a long-term career path with just informal support from Lenn and Yung Tek.
Then towards the end of 2013, Xian’s talents caught the eye of Min Liang Tan, the founder of multi-billion dollar gaming hardware Razer. The company provided Xian with a corporate sponsorship. This meant a monthly salary and expenses to travel overseas to compete in tournaments.
Xian’s dream has come true but the hard work continues.
“Winning is very important if you want to get a sponsor,” he said. Then it’s about marketing yourself and building your personality through social media, promoting your sponsors by using their products in the competitions. This is on top of the regular live-streaming of games to maintain your profile.”
To stay in tip-top fighting shape, Xian practises his moves for at least six hours a day. Every year, Xian participates in the Capcom Pro Tour, held in the US. The tour, which focusses on the Street Fighter games, is an opportunity for Xian to pit himself against the world’s best players.
“You can say it’s like a rating system for me. It helps to assure myself of my standing on the world stage and finetune my strategy,” he said. In 2015, Xian emerged first runner up in the Capcom Pro Tour, winning US$20,000 (S$28,000) – his highest single prize earning yet.
Keeping on top of the game
eSports is a fluid world now where things change very fast, said Xian. Unlike traditional sports, where the rules are fixed, new game releases often mean that gamers have to adapt to new playing styles. And with gamers sharing tips across the internet, a winning strategy can be easily and quickly dissected, copied, adapted and improved.
“In the past, when you discovered a creative approach, you could use it for a long time because the Internet was not so advanced. But today, if we want to study an opponents’ style, we can just look it up on videos on YouTube and Twitch (a game streaming platform) immediately.”
Besides studying his opponents’ style, he uses a programme called Tool Assist to extract minute details of the game mechanics — how fast a move is executed or what combination of moves work best.
Precise measurements can make all the difference in whether you can deliver a knock-out to their opponent. “You can use all these data to see where you have an advantage or disadvantage. It’s a bit of maths; you calculate the numbers and you build a strategy for the game,” he said.
Xian never thought he would apply the maths concepts he learnt in school to his career, but he said he enjoys the process more now.
“Maths was actually my best subject; I scored B3 for it during O levels. “It feels different and more enjoyable using maths now because it’s related to my passion,” he said.
Besides having the right strategy in place, it’s also important to develop mental and physical endurance. Unlike what people may think about gaming being an inactive sport, eSports gamers actually have to sweat it out physically to be mentally sharp and focused throughout the tournaments.
These tournaments usually last for three days, and for up to 8 to 10 hours per day, said Xian. Players have to sometimes wait between 2 to 4 hours for their matches to start. “It can be an extremely exhausting process. So we have to exercise every week, at least 2 to 3 times, to keep fit,” Xian said.
Mentoring
After seven years in the game, today, Xian now has five corporate sponsorships. He also mentors up and coming players. “This [game] is something I am very passionate about and I don’t wish for it to end with me. “So, I want to help more people fulfil their passion in eSports,” said Xian.
“The young players I am grooming are good, but they need the guidance to perform at the tournament level. So they need to know how to train properly,” he added.
So, is this a feasible long-term career? Xian thinks so. Unlike other competitive video games like first-person shooters, where reaction times are crucial to winning a match, fighting games rely more on strategy. So, although players’ reaction times decline as they grow older, those who have accumulated more experience and adopt the right strategy stand a better chance of besting their opponents.
And even when the time comes for Xian to retire from competitive gaming circuit as a competitive player, he will still seek to work in other roles in the industry.
“I can still live-stream my gameplays on Twitch or be a commentator for competitive matches and use my experience to share my insights,” said Xian.
Today, as COVID-19 puts a pause to gaming tournaments across the world, Xian is working on building up his profile on Twitch, where he regularly attracts over 100 viewers during the livestreams.
Xian hasn’t stopped learning either. He is actively scanning for more courses to further the development of his career. “Social media would be something I would be interested in as it will give me the know-how to market myself better.”
Looking to the future
With the eSports industry blossoming across the world and with increasing prize rewards, Xian sees a bright future for players of his ilk.
“A lot more people know about eSports now compared to the past. A lot of big companies like Singtel and Razer have gone into eSports [producing eSports content and streaming tournaments],” said Xian.
“I do see myself being in eSports for life, if I can. This is something that I have liked since young and that hasn’t changed at all. Even if I don’t get a lot of money out it, it will still bring me a lot of satisfaction, which I think is more important,” said Xian.
“I want to do more to grow the scene. It’s a tough industry for sure, and realistically, only very few make it. But for those who really have strong belief to go all the way to pursue this passion, I want to be able to help them,” he said.
