Asphy is arguably Singapore’s most prolific Rainbow Six Siege player. Having waited to be of age to join a professional team, he tells us the pros and cons of going pro, living in a team house, and getting acclimatised to the team’s culture.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00That 2v5, after I died, 4v2, none of you took charge.
00:05None of you told each other to pause.
00:07None of you helped each other.
00:08That is not acceptable.
00:10Okay?
00:11We talked about it before the game.
00:12I thought you guys were ready.
00:13We were not.
00:25I am SV.
00:27I'm a professional Rainbow Six Siege player for Bleedy Sports.
00:30Rainbow Six Siege is a tactical 5v5 shooter that's similar to Counter-Strike
00:35and it involves over or nearly 100 unique characters
00:39with unique abilities that may counter each other
00:42or you can use to help your team win.
00:45The maps in this game are almost fully destructible
00:48which adds a lot of complexity to the gameplay.
00:51And basically the attackers are supposed to go in and defuse a bomb
00:55and the defenders are supposed to stop that.
00:57So as a pro player, I participate in tournaments
01:02and do a lot of stuff in the background to perform better in those tournaments.
01:09As a pro, you have to do a lot of theory work.
01:12You have to play the game a lot.
01:13You have to practice and keep your skills sharp.
01:16Being a pro player is really nice
01:18obviously because I get paid to play video games
01:21but on top of that, I live in a really nice house.
01:24You get an isolated environment for good practice
01:27and you're surrounded by a few of your friends.
01:29I also get to travel the world.
01:31I get to see things that I otherwise wouldn't have seen.
01:34We've been to Brazil and the US.
01:37So far we've ended first in every Asia League group stage
01:40and recently we qualified to the Manchester Major
01:43which I feel really good about
01:44because we put a lot of hard work in this last season
01:47so qualifying feels really good and it means a lot.
01:50Hi, I'm Jeremy.
01:51I'm an eSports General Manager of eSports
01:54and I mainly manage the R6 division.
01:57I got into eSports when I was in secondary school
02:00when I was around 13 or 14
02:02where I started watching competitive Counter-Strike
02:05and over the years as I sort of grew my passion for eSports
02:11I really wanted to compete
02:13but Counter-Strike was really difficult.
02:16When I turned 16 or 17
02:18a new game launched called Rainbow Siege
02:20so I started playing casually at the start
02:23and eventually there was an opportunity
02:27where I was able to compete with a small team at the time.
02:30It was an amateur team where we competed in community cups
02:34and slowly a few more years later
02:38I turned 18 and officially signed to an organisation.
02:42After so many years of competing
02:44and having good moments and bad moments
02:47I realised that I needed to make a change in my career.
02:51Being a manager was something that was on my mind
02:54when I was a player as well.
02:56In eSports, a team manager is basically a team nanny
02:59and you're basically handling all the administrative tasks of the team
03:02and it really depends from manager to manager
03:05like what kind of manager you are
03:06whether you're a general manager or just a team manager
03:08because usually team managers just follow the teams around
03:11and basically make sure all their needs are met.
03:13You can also be a manager who's very involved with a player's personal life.
03:17I think that's how I am as a team manager
03:19where I'm not only just making sure that they get their work done.
03:23So mainly when signing this roster I looked for three key things
03:27one was leadership, the other one was friendship
03:30and the third one would be skill or drive from the player.
03:34I realised that these three things are the important key metrics
03:38in what makes a good team.
03:40It also came from me looking at good examples overseas
03:44from teams that won, teams like OG, OG Dota.
03:56Hey, come on in.
03:58Let me give you a tour of the Bleed house.
04:00So over here on level one we have the play area
04:03as you can see this is the coach desk here
04:05and all the player setups right here.
04:08This is where we do all our practice, theory and tournaments.
04:12We just sit here and play.
04:17And over here is the kitchen.
04:23This is where we cook and eat all our meals together
04:26and maybe have a talk after the game.
04:29Just sit down right here and have a nice chat.
04:32So that's it for level one, let me show you to the basement.
04:36Alright, so welcome to the basement.
04:38And down here we got a gym with a multifunctional power rack
04:42that we like to use sometimes to get our exercise in.
04:48And that's all, so let me bring you up and show you to my bedroom.
04:55Alright, so welcome to the second floor.
04:57This is my bedroom and I sleep right here.
05:00As you can see there's a pretty nice view.
05:03And that's pretty much it for the team house.
05:05Hi mom.
05:11It's good, we beat Fury 2-1
05:14and now we're going to the Manchester Major.
05:21My mom was pretty shocked that I would be away for a month
05:24playing games at the boot camp
05:26because at the time I hadn't really been away from her
05:30for very long periods of time.
05:33I miss my mom a lot during these times away
05:36doing boot camp and overseas.
05:38But I do keep in touch with her
05:41and she actually watches our games sometimes
05:44so I'm pretty happy about that.
05:45Esports is a very high pressure environment
05:48and people have a lot of passion
05:50so you just kind of let your emotions run wild.
05:55So I think my IGL and captain Mentalist
05:59was pretty hard on us.
06:00And at the start it was kind of a shock
06:03to be put in such a strict and serious environment
06:07yet disciplined a lot.
06:09So it was really a massive change
06:12than to what I was used to.
06:14When I played on various underage teams
06:16and tier 2 teams
06:18I never really faced the kind of environment
06:21that I was suddenly put in when I joined Bleed.
06:23I think now it's kind of a mutual understanding
06:26that this is something that we have to experience
06:29something you have to deal with as a professional
06:32to stay disciplined
06:33and never let yourself be off guard
06:35in such a high stakes environment.
06:38What came from that basically was just
06:40pressure creates diamonds.
06:42I don't like the way we played.
06:43Okay?
06:44I said before the game that
06:45if we're going to lose
06:46I want to lose to a better team.
06:48I don't want to lose to ourselves.
06:50But I think we lost to ourselves.
06:52In esports you get a lot of pressure
06:54from your coach, your teammates and even fans
06:57to perform at your best
06:59like within a tournament
07:00or even to a single game
07:02or single round.
07:03And the moment there's a hint of underperformance
07:06you take it really hard on yourself
07:09but your coach and your teammates as well
07:12they look towards your performance
07:14to judge how you are as a player.
07:16Things change really quickly
07:17and you can get cut within 3 months, 6 months
07:21or the quickest was even like a day.
07:24I think there is a lot of uncertainty.
07:26There's a lot of things out of your control in esports.
07:30This industry is basically afloat on sponsors
07:33and people's own investments.
07:35Success is usually celebrated a lot
07:38and you see success all over Twitter and social media.
07:42But there are actually a lot of failures that happen
07:45that you don't see
07:46because many of them take risks
07:49and sometimes it just doesn't work out.
07:54Jeremy is really straightforward
07:55and I think he's handled his responsibilities as a manager well.
07:58He has a lot of prior experience
08:00as a pro himself in Rainbow Six Siege.
08:11He's given me a lot of insights
08:12about how to stay disciplined during training
08:15and a lot of good things about the mental
08:18and physical parts about being a pro.
08:21I think it's really good that Jeremy has a lot of experience
08:24because it allows us to relate to each other a lot more.
08:29So he understands the struggles that come with being a pro player
08:32which is a lot more comforting.
08:35I think the biggest moments were before a game.
08:38He just messages me something to kind of hype me up.
08:41I feel like he just knows my potential
08:43even though sometimes I'm pretty inconsistent.
08:45I think Jeremy has sort of believed in me the whole way
08:48so it just gives me a lot of confidence
08:50when I see something like that.
08:52It helped me grow in the sense that
08:54I'm able to pass down the same advice
08:56to other people who need it from me in the future.
08:58SV is a really funny guy.
09:01He likes to joke around a lot
09:02but when he competes he's very focused
09:06and you can see it in the cameras in competition
09:09where his face is just full-on serious mode.
09:12So I see a lot of myself in SV as well.
09:15I was once in his position
09:17being very young and driven to compete
09:20and I believe that I'm put in this position
09:24as a manager for a reason
09:25so that I could kind of speed up his process in learning
09:29because it took me many years to learn different things
09:32because people didn't really teach me back then.
09:35As SV is under Bleed, he is able to get full coaching support
09:39and support from his staff as well
09:41who all have different experiences in esports
09:44and the ability for us as management
09:48to give advice to these young players
09:50I think it would definitely speed up his learning processes
09:53and be far quicker than his peers who are also competing.
09:57I really hope to see more recognition
09:59in the future for esports.
10:01Esports is a very rare talent.
10:04I think they should be given the leeway
10:05to represent their country in different ways as well.
10:09I think in Singapore
10:11it is important to cultivate these talents as well
10:14to start from the grassroots and create small competitions.
10:17I'm not really afraid of NS.
10:21I think it's just another chapter in my life
10:23that I have to go through.
10:24I might be even a little bit excited to do something new.
10:29Moving forward in the future
10:30I just wish R6 would have more tournaments
10:33particularly in Asia.
10:34We don't really have any tier 2 tournaments
10:36like they do in Europe or North America.
10:39It definitely feels fulfilling to mentor these players
10:42and kind of guide them in the right path.
10:45But at the same time it's stressful as well
10:48because they are kind of entrusting you
10:50with their careers in a way
10:52even though they're not really.
10:54They kind of have their own careers in their own hands.
10:57But at the same time I don't really want them
10:59to waste time on things that they will regret eventually.
11:03So the main thing I always preach to them
11:06is to take practice seriously.
11:07Don't leave room for regrets
11:09and just go all out since you're already here.
11:12There should be a lot more integration with society.
11:15The same way that regular sports is looked upon in society
11:19I think they should do the same for esports.
11:22Nowadays people are more and more involved in the gaming world
11:26so I hope to see them more assimilated with life.