Against all odds, five local gamers have
become the first women's team from Singapore to qualify for the
grand finals of the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) in
March.
Known collectively as Asterisk, the women achieved the
feat by finishing second in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
(CS:GO) in the Asia Pacific (APAC) finals in Qingdao, China last
week, winning $4,000 .
They were also Singapore's first women gamers to make
the APAC finals, and will compete for a prize pot of $170,000 at
the world finals at Haikou on China's Hainan island from March 12
to 18.
WESG, touted as the world's highest paying e-sports
competition, is hosted by Alisports, the sports subsidiary of
Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba.
About 60,000 players from 120 countries and regions
competed for a prize pool of $5.5 million at the inaugural
tournament last year.
This year's finalists will compete in four games -
CS:GO, Dota 2, Hearthstone and StarCraft 2 - for $3.7 million.
From Singapore, one team participated at the WESG APAC
competition in Dota 2, one in Hearthstone, one in Starcraft 2, and
two in CS:GO, including Asterisk.
But only the two CS:GO teams will continue in the world
finals this March.
Asterisk's team captain Tasha Chew, 23, who has just
graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance, said:
"We couldn't believe it. It's our first time playing on such a big
scale and being able to come in second is amazing."
Miss Sabrina Ang, 20, an events planner at Ape Works
and the team's strategist, added: "The other teams were so
well-equipped and looked like pro-gamers. We were like little
villagers who knew nothing."
The other players are Miss Meryl Oh, 22, who is in the
biomed sector, Miss Dinah Marinah, 30, who works in the
construction industry, and graphic designer Nurlelawati Hussain,
26. Property agent Hanzel Chua, 31, is the team manager.
Despite facing tough competition in the grand finals,
Asterisk remains hopeful.
"We've had a taste of victory. Now everyone wants
more," said Miss Ang.
TNP