Wonder what the younger generation are getting up to in our universities? Welcome to the first part of our three part series as we take a look at the various universities around Singapore and their gaming related societies. For the first part of this series, we interview Liu Yiming from the NUS E-gaming society to find out more about Singapore’s next generation of gamers.
What was the e-gaming community scene in NUS like prior to the creation of the community?
Hi, I would like to give a brief introduction of myself. My name is Liu Yiming. I am the 12th President of NUS E-gaming society (NUSEG). NUSEG is a student body that organises eSports events and promotes the growth of eSports community in NUS. The creation of NUSEG was in 2006, which is way before my time in NUS. As such, I don’t really know what it was like before the creation of NUSEG.
What was the original vision of the NUS E-gaming society when it was first established?
In our constitution, which was constructed in 2008, it was stated that NUSEG has 3 objectives.
- To promote sportsmanship and gaming ethics among gamers in NUS.
- To improve the cyber-gaming standard of NUS and to produce capable representative for NUS in external events.
- To improve student interaction, foster friendships and team spirit among NUS students through gaming events.
I think our vision has not changed since then and these are also what I aim to achieve in my terms.
How often do members of the NUS E-gaming society come together?
As much as possible, we try to conduct weekly sessions, be it online or offline, for our members. However, when it’s nearing the deadlines of projects and finals, we would stop organising such sessions.
What kind of games do the members of the NUS E-gaming society tend to play?
NUSEG is mainly focused on eSports games. Currently, our society is divided into 4 divisions, namely Dota 2, League of Legends, Hearthstone and Overwatch. Some of these games are more popular than others. As such, we have a lot more Dota 2 and LoL players as compared to the other 2 game titles.
How has the gaming scene in NUS grown with the help of the NUS E-gaming society?
As mentioned earlier, NUSEG has a relatively long history. However, due to poor record keeping, I have very little idea of what my predecessors did. What I do know is that we used to actively discuss eSports related topics on NUSEG forum. The link is http://www.nuseg.com/. It was created in 2007. Someone is still paying for the domain and maintaining it. Sadly, we have lost with the previous exco committees and we longer have ownership to it.
As of my own experience, I joined NUSEG in August 2016. It was a difficult period for NUSEG. NUSEG didn’t have many members then and was not very relevant in the college eSports scene. IVGF 2017 organising committee didn’t even invite us. After I was appointed as the vice-president in 2017, I made some effort to make ourselves known amongst the other universities. In NUS, we hold yearly Inter Faculty Games (IFG) and Dota 2 is one of the games played. After IFG, I called up the captain of every team and asked if anyone wishes to be part of the school Dota 2 team. I managed to find quite a few outstanding players and handpicked the school team. This team was then sent to the SIM Games On tournament and won the first place. It was such a landslide victory that we didn’t even lose any game throughout the whole tournament. I think it was when the name NUSEG was again made known to the other universities and subsequently we were invited to be part of the IVGF 2018 organising committee.
NUSEG is planning to organise another college level eSports tournament in September. The title is StarLeague. For the past years, IVGF had been the only inter-varsity eSports tournament in a year. With the addition of StarLeague, we hope to make the eSports scene in Singapore more vibrant and create more opportunities for gamers from different universities to interact and build friendship. There are some major differences between StarLeague and IVGF.
Other than meeting other like-minded gamers, what are some of the benefits to joining the NUS E-gaming society?
Beside the weekly sessions whereby gamers can interact with each other, we also organise free lan sessions and Christmas party. There was a lucky draw during the Christmas party. Recently, we established a partnership with SCOGA and were able to get free tickets to Asia Game Festival for some of our members.
What kind of events can gamers who join the NUS E-gaming society expect to have a chance to be a part of?
We sometimes do live stream on our FB page and invite members to join in. We also do patch analysis, thou not very professional. Our members also stand a chance to represent NUS in IVGF and upcoming StarLeague. We also step in to help competitive players participate in overseas competitions during school time.
Are there any difficulties in gathering the various gamers in NUS under one group?
Yes, I would say that one of the most challenging issues I faced was how to get gamers who don’t play the same game to interact with one another and become friends. In our lan sessions, we tried not to play the 4 popular eSports games and asked members to try out new games together.
What is the best memory you have had being a part of the NUS E-gaming society?
The best memory I had was when NUS Dota 2 team won the SIM Game On tournament. Although I wasn’t on the team, I felt really happy and proud when we won the champion. It shows that all my efforts wasn’t wasted.
Do you have a message that you wish to say to the community group?
NUSEG had a rough history and we still have a lot of problems on hand. But do be patient with us, the new exco committee will try our best to bring NUSEG back to its glorious days. Gamers can’t be killed, we always revive at the last checkpoint.
