Midone Interview – English translation for non mandarin fans
INTRODUCTION by interviewer.
[Time 0.00] Hi everyone, I am Spark,
Now a days there are a lot of youngster or kid who love to play computer games, and in Malaysia, there are many Malaysian gamers are excel in it. But, if there is a day, the young gamer decided to had a sharing conversation with their parent with such example as “Daddy daddy, I really love to play computer games! My goal in life is to become a professional gamer in the future”. Think about it, what would the 1st replied from the Malaysian’s parent? You are actually finding yourself a suicide mission. Their replied would be: “What!? A professional computer gamer? Oh god please, there is no future on it alright?”
That is the reason I had successfully invited, a gamer from our home country Malaysia, who were once conquer the world as MMR number 1, MidOne. To share his bitter journey to became a professional gamer.
INTERVIEW START
[Time 0.30] Spark: TODAY we are blessed to invite, the one who once conquer the world as MMR number 1, a DOTA player, MidOne for interview. Today we would ask him about how to become a professional gamer, how to manage finance, because I knew he made a lot of money, let us welcome, MidOne! *clapping****
[Time 0.46] Spark: Say hi to everyone.
[Time 0.47] MidOne: Ei, hello, my full name is Yeik Nai Zheng. When I am in the Dota 2 community, I am known as MidOne, my profession is a Dota 2 gamer.
[Time 0.54] Spark: Once upon a time, before you became a professional gamer, what did you do in life?
[Time 0.57] MidOne: Student.
[Time 0.58] Spark: Oh? If that is such a case, please share with us, the whole process of how you transform yourself from a student to a professional gamer.
[Time 1.01] MidOne: When I was a kid, I watched my brother play the game, therefore, I started to play too, after sometimes, I am deeply addicted, and I really love the game, I felt that this game is really special, it was liked 10 years ago, if you were to compare WARCRAFT 3 with other existing games in that era, Warcraft 3 is advance and impressive. After sometimes, I started to join competition.
[Time 1.18] Spark: In what age, is your 1st time in your life to join a competition?
[Time 1.19] MidOne: Should be 12 years old.
[Time 1.20] Spark: Wow, you actually start to join competition at age 12?
[Time 1.22] MidOne: It’s my 1st time, yeah. From then onward, I continuously join any competition until I was 15, or 16, or 17, yeah. I won several state level competitions, and never really successfully reach to any extraordinary impressive stage though. Later there goes my 18, the age to enter into university life, on that moment, honestly speaking, I thought of quitting this gaming career.
[Time 1.38] Spark: Well, the career never exists in your life at in the 1st place, or you actually already felt that you are already in this career as gamer?
[Time 1.41] MidOne: Well you got the point, yeah I can’t say that I myself who are in this profession, let me rephrase, I mean, I joined competition before, on that moment, I had the dream of enter into professional gaming industry, it is because i think when I was about 17, there is the starting of TI 1, TI 1 is “THE INTERNATIONAL 1”. Whoever is the champion of the competition is going to grab USD 1mil as the prize reward. After I witness such event, I felt that it is really enticing, it felt so remarkable, when I was 18, I did continue to play the game, but I am a little bit of despair, because it is really hard, because I couldn’t even had chance to enter into that level. On the other hand, there are many gaming teams in Malaysia, most of them are actually pretty good, and I personally do not have a team, therefore I stop gaming, and I tried to focus on my studies. Later, there is a, I have no idea what was the competition again,
**(let’s credit to the event, it was “DEW CHALLENGE 2015”, Dota 2 tournament for amateur players in Malaysia, sponsor by Mountain Dew @ Malaysia, RM60k as 1st prize, this kid really forgot the 1 competition which carried him where he is today XD, never forget the event that changes your life)**
The organizer had ban most of the pro tier Malaysian team to participate on that event, it seems like it is a tournament with a very high possibility opportunity for me to win, without hesitation, I decided to form a team and participate the event, and winning is real, I won and I am the champion.
[Time 2.25] Spark: What was your age that time?
[Time 2.26] MidOne: Should be 18.
[Time 2.27] Spark: I am curious, what was your turning point on that moment? At best, at best I think most of the people who talk about you would be, just another kid who love to play DOTA game, just a kid, right or not? How did you transform from so called “another kid who love to play DOTA, to a professional gamer? What was the historical path look like?
[Time 2.37] MidOne: After I won that competition, there is a international professional team (Fnatic) which based in Malaysia, they asked me whether I am keen to join them onboard, I am really surprise because I believe there are many players would love to be part of them, because that team is the only tier international Malaysian team at that moment, well, definitely I decided to join onboard, and there you go, the starting of my professional gaming career as pro gamer.
[Time 2.53] Spark: Wow, 18 years old is your breakthrough to be a pro gamer.
[Time 2.55] MidOne: Yes for the first time.
[Time 2.56] Spark: So on that moment is there any conflict between your studies as a student and becoming a professional gamer?
[Time 3.00] MidOne: Yes, there is.
[Time 3.00] Spark: So how did you choose?
[Time 3.01] MidOne: I choose gaming.
[Time 3.02] Spark: Therefore you drop out?
[Time 3.03] MidOne: I can’t say that I am completely 100% gave it up, I did put my effort into it, to ensure I am not going to fail, it is because since I was young until that, my parent were never agree or approve I and my siblings, we to play computer games, because in their perspective, there is no value to play computer game at all, If I failed my subject, I am sure that my parent will nonstop being a naysayer and continuously stressing me. It would definitely affect my games, that is why I choose to perform both in studies and gaming in the same time, I was still in the semester of foundation level @ university, because I just finished my high school. Continuously becoming a pro gamer and I successful made some money, and there are results in gaming, that is the reason that turn the perspective changes on my parent on gaming. What their perspective change is, oh? Really? Gaming actually made serious money? There goes the approval from them and, ok, let’s see, let him try it out.
[Time 3.37] Spark: What does the story try to tell us? In order for you to continue gaming, you need to earn that right through result. Only when you had the result to show to your parent, that is the only way to convince that gaming is your thing, am I right to said so?
[Time 3.44] MidOne: Yeah you are right.
[Time 3.45] Spark: So, it was because of that competition that you won that bring you the quantum leap from an amateur gamer to a professional gamer?
[Time 3.47] MidOne: Yes.
[Time 3.48] Spark: Well, the training of a professional gamer, to compare with amateur players, what is the difference in between?
[Time 3.51] MidOne: There is a huge difference in between, for the pro gamers, all the 5 players have a fixed require playing hours, maybe from 12pm or 10am, play till 8pm, only you are consider as finish your daily work.
[Time 4.02] Spark: I am curious, is there any post mortem session?
[Time 4.05] MidOne: Yes definitely have post mortem. We will rent a place for boot camp, if we continuously play from day 1 to day 5, we will have a post mortem session, like a conclusion. But in fact, most of it, we will have post mortem every day, we will discuss about what was our game play.
[Time 4.20] Spark: May I asked, how much money can be made in a year?
[Time 4.23] MidOne: According to last season, it’s around USD 500,000
.[Time 4.27] Spark: 500K USD? Do you guys have any fixed salary or any kind of fixed compensation of reward?
[Time 4.30] MidOne: My company that i am representing is a little bit different from the others, we are depending on how many sponsors do we have, salary is unfixed, but some of the other company, they do offer a fixed salary, based on what I heard, the highest pay of a player is USD 15,000 per month.
[Time 4.43] Spark: The player decided to jump over to the other organization or team, did it happen to you too? Like ok, why would you choose this particular team as your team and not the other? What is the reason behind?
[Time 4.49] MidOne: Well, at the end of the day, it all depend on your believe that the players in that team could possibly be with you together to win the competition.
[Time 4.54] Spark: Oh it is because of the teammate but not the organization as the choice for you to be in the team instead.
[Time 5.00] MidOne: Yes I am not choosing particular organization to be my team but there are certain players are choosing organization. Well, it was solely up to that player, and their own opinion.
[Time 5.10] Spark: So, last season his earning is about, USD 500,000. If were to convert into MYR, it’s about RM2mil, an amount that require many years of time for a young people to earn that. How did you manage it?
[Time 5.20] MidOne: I entrust it to my brother.
[Time 5.21] Spark: Oh, your brother is the one who manage your finance on behalf? Your brother is here right? MidOne’s brother would you like to join us on board?
[Time 5.25] Bro: NO?
[Time 5.27] Spark: Do you ever ask your brother how he manages your money on behalf?
[Time 5.29] MidOne: He did shared with me, and briefly explained to me.
[Time 5.32] Spark: So why not you choose to manage the earning by yourself? You know? It was a huge amount.
[Time 5.37] MidOne: I choose not to manage it is because currently my main focus, certainly is gaming. If I have to think of how am I going to do with the money, it is a distraction that will affect my personal game play, if I were to start learning about money and did not mainly focus on the game, because it turn out to be I had to learn and focus on 2 different things. That’s my personal opinion. After I retired from professional gaming in the future, it is not too late for me to pick up myself on managing money.
[Time 5.59] Spark: Understood, understood, so now what you mean is you are going to focus, and only focus on being the best in your gaming career, I am a pro gamer therefore I be a pro gamer, until the day I retired from pro gaming, only I start to learn about how to manage my own money, currently will focus on gaming only. Alright, let us welcome MidOne’s brother on board. Ok this is MidOne’s brother, Gary. So he is the backend support of MidOne, brother is the one who took manage MidOne’s 2mil last season, so may I asked you, how did you manage this amount of money?
[Time 6.18] Gary: After deductible taxation, it’s not as much as you mentioned, but the entire remaining surplus amount after paying tax, 1st part of it goes into real estate investment, on the other hand, another portion is stock market, another things is savings, regular savings, fixed deposit, it was meant to be an emergency easily liquidate fund, just in case he really need to utilize that money, last but not least, is insurance. And that’s it.
[Time 6.44] Spark: Good Good, I personally really admire this kind of method, you had hand this over to a professional to manage on behalf did you know that? I personally felt that you did a right thing, and I felt that your brother did a good job on it.
[Time 6.55] Gary: Thank you
[Time 6.56] Spark: Is there anything you would like to input additionally?
[Time 6.58] Gary: In my opinion, 1 of the best method I implement on his scenario is, MidOne is very young, he is around 22 years old only, what both of us thought of managing money is about risk, and he is financially well protected and taken care of by leveraging risk through insurance, which is at current stage of his life, he do not need to worry on bad scenario occur, such as what if he is critically sick, or any unforeseen accident happen on him which need a lots of money to be spent for recovery. It is because he is well insured in present, amount that manage to cover everything he earned, so whatever amount of money that he is making today, is the surplus amount that compound in his net worth for him to enjoy in the future.
[Time 7.40] Spark: Thank you
[Time 7.41] Gary: Thank you
[Time 7.42] Spark: In the most common scenario, what is the ultimate retirement age in a professional gaming lifespan?
[Time 7.44] MidOne: What I know in present is, usually, around age 30 is the time where the pro retire.
[Time 7.47] Spark: At age 30, the player is obsolete so to say?
[Time 7.49] MidOne: It depends, some people were gone at age 25, or age 28. But in my opinion, actually you can be a gamer until what age is also possible, as long as your skills are still solid and there, it is ok.
[Time 8.02] Spark: How long more do you want play as a pro gamer?
[Time 8.03] MidOne: At most, age 30.
[Time 8.05] Spark: For the audience of this video who love to be a professional gamer just like you, any suggestion for them?
[Time 8.08] MidOne: For you who would want to get into pro gamer league, you have to marketing yourself, I realized some of the players who are yet to be into pro gaming industry, their biggest weakness is they did not advertise themselves.
[Time 8.17] Spark: Give us example, how to marketing ourselves?
[Time 8.19] MidOne: Actually there are communities, like you can post yourself, or communicate with certain people, or try to get connection on some players.
[Time 8.28] Spark: PR is important is it?
[Time 8.29] MidOne: PR is important, instead of you exaggerate how good you are but only to yourself and you are fun within it. Point no 2 is, RESULT. You must have result of your skills is outstanding, without an outstanding result of your skills, it is impossible you are likely to be recruited by anyone, even though you highly marketing yourself, it is just a waste of time. If you are really passion into the game, you need to be committed and put in your effort in this game, find the way how to make yourself a better player in the game.
[Time 8.53] Spark: Is there any further add on?
[Time 8.54] MidOne: 3RD points, definitely is your parent.
[Time 8.57] Spark: You definitely get rejected and disapproved when the initially you aim to be a pro gamer, am I right? How did you handle your parent?
[Time 9.02] MidOne: Create and deliver what they expected and want from you, in excellent way.
[Time 9.05] Spark: I would like to emphasize what I mentioned earlier, to be convince, earn the right through result, as evidence to prove to that you are possible to your parent. This is the easiest way, therefore, in conclusion, in present day there are no reasons to stop you playing games, and either you make gaming as a leisure moment in your life, don’t you ever turn gaming into a tool that is affecting your actual life negatively, or else, please prove to the world that you are worthy with your outstanding result, that this is what you really want to do in your life and you deserve it. Lastly, I highly appreciate and thank you MidOne, you for willing to have accept an interview session with us. Thank you so much! Is there any word for the youngster out there? Come on, input some encouragement for the teen or the youth.
[Time 9.37] MidOne: If you have certain things that you are really passionate into it and wanted to do, I urge you to take the leap and action, instead of you waiting and procrastinating.
[Time 9.42] Spark: Follow your dream.
[Time 9.43] MidOne: YEAH
CONCLUSION BY INTERVIEWER
[Time 9.45] I am not here trying to encourage youngster gaming, what I would love to share is his spirit on pursuing his dream, think about it, if today you are to share with your parent, you want to be a professional badminton player, to be a musician, or want to invest stock market, they might disapprove you, more overly stopped you doing what you do, but who is the 1 who can overcome all the obstacle and live as the winner in life? Everyone would love to become a gold medallist, but who is willing to work and train hell like a gold medallist? The champion train themselves physically and mentally, definitely harder than the common people in the world, and succeed like they achieved today. So gaming itself is just a tool, whether it is good or bad, is up to myself. Thank you for watching this video, if you think this video can support and bring value to other people, please share this video, if you would like to view my future video, like my facebook and select see first, or subscribe my Youtube channel, furthermore if you would like to learn more on financial knowledge, logon to FinSpark.com to watch our video for free, thank you everyone.