Matthew Hui, 23, a NTU communication sciences student waiting
for the results of his job interview. Marketing
executive Ng Soon Aik, 26 years old. Eugene Tan, a 21-year-old ITE graduate,
enlisting in the army on December 12.
What do all of them have in common? Their passion for video
gaming.
(Above: Participants listening to instructions shortly before the bi-weekly tournament begins.)
It’s not just any video game they’re passionate about. These
teenagers and adults are not hardcore players of games like Starcraft, Street
Fighter or Dota2. Rather, their passion lies with the ‘Pokémon’ video game
series.
(Above: A player carefully plans her Pokémon's next move.)
This supposed ‘kid’s game’ is more than just a hobby to them
– they break down the game’s mechanics, analyze and formulate strategies and
constantly hone their skills against one another, as well as players from all
over the world. Their community, Team Robo Video Games, runs bi-weekly meetups
and tournaments, currently held at the Singapore Management University’s School
of Economics canteen. They are still scouting for a more permanent location,
however.
(Above: Players battling it out during the Swiss rounds of the tournament.)
A small group of these players even flew to Vancouver,
Canada at their own expense, participating in the Pokémon World Championships held
earlier this year. In order to stand up to the top-notch players there, they
underwent four months of intensive training beforehand, almost as if they were
athletes taking part at the Olympics.
Locally, however, they are hardly recognizable – you could
pass them by on the street and not notice. The competitive Pokémon scene in
Singapore is growing bit by bit, especially since the release of Pokémon X and
Pokémon Y in October.
To find out more about this scene and this intriguing
community, I joined them after one of their tournaments for dinner at a nearby
fast food restaurant.
Here’s what I found.
