Got attend any esports events in Singapore lately ar? It’s possible that the ones working behind the scenes might be Zenway Productions, a Singaporean events management and production company that specializes in gaming and esports. We’ve had an interview with Jian Ming, chief producer of Zenway Productions to find out what Zenway Production does and discuss about the state of esports in Singapore.
Photo Credits: Zenway Productions
You currently have a fulltime job with EA, how do you juggle your time between your job and Zenway ah?
I see that you’ve done some homework on this. On a day-to-day basis, I’m focused on my full-time job @ EA, due to the work commitments this job entails. However, I am blessed with the best co-founder Wayne, and great staff operating Zenway. On top of that, all free time that people generally enjoy during off-work hours or weekends, I’d generally put it into planning for Zenway and our upcoming events.
Do you think that running an esports and gaming events management company is a sustainable business idea?
I believe so. The demand for gaming events to be executed professionally is definitely there, especially with the current increased amount of interest into gaming and esports over the recent 1-2 years.
That being said, being a Singaporean company, the difficulty to sustain, especially for our market is more true for us, mainly due to the smaller amount of demand (vs the rest of SEA or the world) for such services locally, and the quantity of large events due to cost and ROI for having events here turn away most clients.
We pride ourselves in providing an excellent end-to-end service for our client, where we take the extra step in helping to consult and propose what we think will be the best route to attain the best ROI for their activity.
Photo Credits: Zenway Productions
How you manage to go from earning zero revenue to the current state Zenway is at sia?
We managed to get a stable amount of jobs from Blizzard to manage and produce their SEA-wide tournament for Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch in 2016-2017, and we thank them for placing their trust in a small start-up like ours to produce a good quality broadcast for their official regional tournaments.
On top of that, we’ve also managed to get interest from shopping malls to do esports/gaming related events to engage their mall-goers and drive people down to their malls after looking at the Jurong Point Gamifest that happened early 2017.
You think that Singaporean esports players got what it takes to compete at the top tier of esports competitions or not?
Yes, I believe so. We’ve got quite a few talented individuals locally, Daryl (IceIceIce), Xian, Joseph (Zarate) and Amran from Team Flash, the boys from dream[S]cape, all champions of their own field, recognised regionally and even globally for some of them.
There’re also quite a wave of new upcoming talent that has started to represent Singapore on the regional and global stage in various regional esports tournaments nowadays, and I believe this would slowly become a “perception-changer” to the older generation parents, and with younger parents being more receptive to gaming in general, I believe it would reach a stage where gamers are more generally acceptable by the public as something that you can practice enough and be able to compete in the top tiered tournaments globally, similar to sports currently.
Photo Credits: Zenway Productions
Got promising newcomers to the esports industry that you think are worthy to take notice of?
RSG and Team Flash are taking on the local scene by storm, dominating local and regional tournaments in the games they’re competing in. It’s great to see local esports teams starting to consolidate top players locally, managing and marketing them well.
Compared to other countries in the world, where would you rank Singapore’s esports scene in comparison? What is the worst things about the Singapore esports scene that is holding its growth back?
I would say we’re still pretty far off, there’re quite a lot of factors that made me feel that way, but I’ll just list a few of them.
- Small size of talent pool: Having a small population makes it hard to get a sizable amount of talent within the games that we compete in.
- Lack of local tournaments: Due to the cost of executing tournaments and to have viable prize pool for Singaporeans, the number of local tournaments are too few for people to get enough competitive experience to compete in higher level esports. With higher cost and lower ROI for tournament organizers locally, it’s normally harder to find consistent sponsors that would spend and focus on growing the local scene vs investing their dollars in the other regions where they can spend a lot lesser, and garner a lot more ROI based on viewership, participation, or increased brand awareness and market share.
- Scared to lose: There’re a lot of gamers in Singapore (in my opinion) that see the time put into practice for a competitive esports title as an “investment”, and a lot of them are afraid to lose, feels that it’s a waste of time if you “FRO”, and refrain from taking part in local tournaments unless it’s with good prizes/prize pool, therefore leading to a small turnout during events and tournaments.
- Not a viable career option (Now): Sort of linked to the lack of local tournaments, with Singapore’s GDP being the highest within the SEA region at least, players nowadays demand a much higher prize pool vs their other regions’ counterparts, to sustain being a full time esports player.
Photo Credits: Zenway Productions
Do you think National Service should be deferred for promising Singaporean esports talents? If you do, how long do you think the deferment should last until?
I would choose to say no for deferment, but instead, grant more flexibility from NS units to “extend-ORD” for esports talents who might be selected to compete overseas, and even allocate time-off if there’re bootcamping or training required to compete in regional/global tournaments of a certain scale.
Photo Credits: Zenway Productions
If you were the government, what would you do to boost the esports scene in Singapore?
I think what they’re currently doing is great, having hyperplay in Singapore and agencies to help showcase our local broadcasting and gaming talents. I think more of such annual initiatives by the government, with the opportunities for local companies like Zenway to help with execution local based grassroot to professional local tournaments will help grow the scene in Singapore.
How do you think local Singaporean companies can further help to grow the local esports scene in Singapore?
Showing more interest.
Got any advice for aspiring Singaporeans who wish to join the esports industry in Singapore?
The esports industry is just a tip of the iceberg vs gaming. I would advice looking into the gaming industry, as it is just like any other jobs in the world out there, with a diverse number of roles available, and slowly learning your way and working your way into esports. Or, you could find out what are the specific roles that are within esports, whether you can be a commentator, host, broadcast producer, tournament admin, community leader, gaming team manager, hone your skills and keep your eyes open for opportunities that arises from time to time.
