Today on SG Gamers, we have Show. Show is one of the most active members in the Overwatch Singapore Community. With his team, Show is planning on launching Overheard, a bi-weekly community driven podcast.
Through Overheard, Show and his team aim to spark continued interest in competitive Overwatch in South-East Asia as well as convert more casual players into parties interested in competitive Overwatch as well as act as a venue for players to converge and talk about matters relevant to the competitive Overwatch scene. Overheard will focus on featuring local topics, highlight news from local leagues and Pacific Contenders and a casual talk show segment. Overheard will be looking to launch its first episode on 27 December 2018 on Twitch.
1. Hi Show! You are one of the most active members in the Overwatch community. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi Show aka Sam here. My friend introduced me to Overwatch a year ago and I have been playing it ever since. 6 months into the game, I began to help organize custom games for the Singapore OW Community together with other admins. (Adel/Seed/Afiz) Subsequently, I went into competitive OW and started playing in Open Division. I created a competitive server to help SG/SEA teams find scrims/team mates so as to develop our local and SEA competitive scene.
2. What motivated you to start playing Overwatch competitively?
Hmm, since young I was pretty competitive in terms of sports and games. I enjoy winning, enjoy learning from losses. I love playing ranked games in various regions and when I got better, I decided to try for Open Division. Did well for regular season, with 9 wins and 1 loss, went past playoffs and trials and eventually qualified for Contenders.
3. If you were a gamer/player, what would you say would inspire/motivate you into playing competitively under “Team Singapore”
Recognition and future team opportunities. The OW World Cup stage is a huge platform to showcase your skills. It is a time to display what you have been practicing daily. It is also an avenue in which some players can receive offers from teams that are scouting for players.
4. Being one of the active members in the Overwatch community, how would you describe the current state of Singapore’s competitive scene?
Currently we have about 3 pretty strong teams in Singapore, competing in Season 4 Open division. For mid tier teams I would say we have about 8 teams, and for the newer beginner teams, we have 10. On the average per year we have around 5 OW events, where teams could gather and compete for prizes. We are trying to get support for such events as it will promote the game, spark off competitive interests in new players and retain our more seasoned players. These events allow the newer teams to learn from the seasoned ones. Over time, the quality of the competitive scene will improve significantly.
5. What do you think is the biggest reason behind what you have described as the current state of Singapore’s competitive scene?
I think that the reason we are able to grow a healthy community/competitive scene is because of the community leads, OW enthusiasts and volunteers, as well as our player base. All roles are interlinked and work together to help out in the events. I look forward to having more of such competitive events and we welcome any feedback which will help us improve.
6. As we mentioned earlier, you are planning on launching Overheard, an Overwatch Podcast targeted at SEA players to target the decline in player interest in going pro. What other ideas did you come up with when brainstorming a solution to solve the decline in player interest? Why did you eventually settle on having a podcast series over the other ideas?
There can be many reasons for the declining competitive players in the community, some of them switched to another game, some of them couldn’t find friends to play together with, some players find that the quality of ranked games are pretty bad and just got discouraged from playing. If these players cannot even enjoy good games in ranked, they wouldnt even consider going pro. Hence, we came up with this idea of a talk show in which players/coaches/community leads could gather and share their thoughts. Through this talk shows we hope that we could address the general problems most of the players face. We hope to retain as many players as we can through this program.
Another thing we did is, organising of PUGs. Shoutouts to both Caldoran and Yuris for organising high tier competitive pugs once per week to retain the higher tier players’ interest in the game. Some strong competitive teams were formed as a results of these games. Also, we would like to thank Daks (Philippines OW community lead) for casting the games and keeping the viewers entertained.
7. What are the future plans for Overheard, should the podcast series take off?
For now, we are looking to address the more immediate issues locally and in SEA. But our ultimate goal would be expanding to audience in other regions/globally.
8. You mentioned one of the ideas of Overheard would be to invite guests onto the show. Who would be your dream guest to invite on the podcast if you could invite anyone you wish?
Jayne from Dallas Fuel. I am currently in contact with him, hopefully we could work out a schedule and get him to come onboard as a guest.
9. As a regular Overwatch player, what could I do to help build up the Overwatch Singapore community?
For a start, in normal Quick play mode or in ranked, try your best to be positive in communications so as to promote healthy gaming. Toxicity in chat could really discourage newer players and make them lose interest in the game. Players could join our SG community discord server and party up with other players to help each other improve together.
10. Any words of encouragement for aspiring Singaporean gamers who wish to go pro?
Hard work coupled with lots of discipline. Have a set goal in mind and work towards it. Love the game, if you are enjoying the process you are likely to go further!
To end off, besides the upcoming talk show, I am also in talks with our local Esports program executive Alyson to conduct an Overwatch beginner course for our community. Do stay keep a lookout for further announcements!
Special thanks to:
Pioneer SG OW community: Adel, Seed, Afiz, Mohan/Lorec
Team OverHeard: Caldoran, Yuris, Mihryn, Aljy, Deejaymich, Sleepy (still recruiting staff)
Blizzard Staff: Ian, Eason, Adam
Current Team: GrandXur (S3 Contenders)
You can reach me at my twitch: ow_show
