AUTOMATIC weapon fully loaded, Nur Suraya Mohd Yusoff is ready to fire.
She has landed in difficult terrain and is competing with hundreds of others in search for supplies. She has to kill to survive.
Of course, Suraya is not in any mortal danger. The battleground is on her smartphone and she is more likely to be sitting on her sofa at home or on the train going to work.
She is among only a few women who have taken to eSports in a big way.
The world of eSports, an activity that entails competing for points in a war scenario or adventure, and played on the smartphone, has seen a boom in the past few years, yet few women have shown an interest in it.
The fact that Suraya has sponsors sets her apart from other players, men included.
Her first introduction to this virtual world of mayhem came in 2016 with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile, a multi-player online game that pits players in a fight for survival.
She was pursuing a diploma at that time and had just secured an internship, and was placed in a team that managed the company’s social media account. That was when Suraya had her first introduction to eSports.
“I like the fact that I can play it on my smartphone, that means I can play it anywhere,” she told theSun.
After a few games with her colleagues, they asked her to be the sixth player in their team.
“Initially I was hesitant about being the only girl in a team of boys, but I decided to give it a try,” she said.
A peek into the life of her teammates revealed that they even had attire sponsored by gaming companies and they had been interviewed on Facebook.
“Our sponsors even hired a coach to train us for the big league,” she said.
Given that she was the only girl in the team, rivals thought she was already a professional player.
Just like a good war movie or crime flick, there was another “drama” away from the battlefield.
Suraya recalled that things became awkward when she left to join a new team. However, the antagonism is confined to the virtual world.
“Outside the game, we’re one big family,” she said.
Before playing a big league game, Suraya would put in about two months of training, clocking about six hours a day, trying out different strategies. She has even bagged as much as US$100 (RM418) in a weekend game.
A player makes the cut as a pro when they have entered a determined number of competitions.
Just like physical sport, virtual sport has its own set of rules. For instance, remote participation is not allowed in a big league competition.
“This is to ensure that no one cheats. There are marshalls to monitor the game, and each player must have his mobile phone on the table in front of him,” Suraya explained.
This made competition impossible when Covid-19 became a pandemic.
Suraya, 22, is not a pro yet, but is working on attaining that level. For now, she is taking a break from gaming to pursue a degree in interactive multimedia design.
“I believe more women should participate in eSports. There are not many of us now, and even if there is one, it’s more than likely an all-girl team,” she said.
She believes the perception that eSports is a man’s domain should be dispelled by now.
“If the guys can do it, so can the girls,” she added.
