Sunday, August 21, 2011

eSports in Singapore

http://www.facebook.com/#!/notes/aeriel-phirkhan/dear-govt-we-just-need-1-chance-to-shine-gamers-do-read-/10150276363362441

Read that link for the background story.

We Singaporean gamers are crying for some support, any support.
Gamers nowadays are not the useless, sloppy, addicted bums that we've been depicted as.
Many of us hold degrees, are active in physical sports and we're driven, focussed, and are still carrying hopes that we'll be recognised one day.

It makes me so sad that our top performing teams have to empty out their own pockets just to pay for accomodation and air tickets to competitions that they have qualified for. Many of them are currently students and cannot afford all these costs, some have been under managers who ran off with the funds, and still more are suffering because sponsors do not make good on their committments.

Even if you don't want to pay for our tickets, letting us take leave from school, exams, national service would all help so much. so. very. much.
Our top players couldn't even attend The International dota2 competition because they were not excused from school. Those who attended and are serving national service, are also unable to take any more leave for future competitions this year.
What's the point of having fibre optics and the best PCs that money can currently buy, all the education which teaches you how to use the latest technology, when all our hardwork goes to waste when we aren't able to attend the competitions we have qualified for.
We are born and raised here. We carry the Singapore flag, but the country doesn't support us.

We gamers are eking out a future for ourselves. It has been such a long and difficult path, changing misconceptions, pushing for support, and all the while focussing on improving our game.
And we're not giving up, because we're making a difference on the world stage.

We want to have a future here in Singapore.
Government, will you hear us?

3 comments:

Donald said...

I ISH SUPPORT!!!

sohigh singapore said...

u want a future? study hard kids. and enroll into NSU

Anonymous said...

Not that easy. More has to be done in terms of getting the govt to recognize gaming in SG in order for the scenario u stated above to happen. School and NS are things that Singaporean (males for NS) have to go through in order to "contribute to society" in terms of, to put it nicely, GDP growth. Wasting resources (leave from NS, exemption from school exams) on competitions like WDC, SMM etc. in exchange of flying the SG flag at the competition value is a loss to the SG Govt.